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5:40 PM ET, August 4, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Threw A Punch, Microsoft Fires Back With A Missile  —  Earlier today, Google came out swinging.  Seemingly sick of being continuously slapped in the face by the patent issue, Google's SVP and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote a blog post calling out several of Google's rivals …
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Google: Patently Absurd  —  David Drummond, Google senior vice president and chief legal officer, “When Patents Attack Android”: … So if Google had acquired the rights to these patents, that would have been OK.  But when others acquired them, it's a “hostile, organized campaign”.
Mary Branscombe / TechRadar.com:
How Microsoft makes money from Android
Discussion: Electronista
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Jailbreak hotspot-ers: AT&T is moving you to a tiered data plan involuntarily  —  We've gotten word from some readers that AT&T is moving forward and removing unlimited plans for users who jailbreak iPhones to tether or hotspot off of AT&T's unlimited data plans (for those grandfathered):
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn Beats The Street In First Quarter As A Public Company; Revenue Up 120 Percent To $121M  —  For the first time as a public company, professional social network LinkedIn is reporting its first quarter results today.  LinkedIn's revenue for the quarter came in at $121 million …
RELATED:
Steve Sordello / The LinkedIn Blog:   LinkedIn's First Earnings Announcement, Q2 2011
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple's Inductive Charging Patent Finally Surfaces  —  On August 4, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals two specific concepts of an “Inductive Charging System” for use with iOS devices.  The first concept involves an oddly designed charging tower.
Mark Douglas / The Big Blog:
Skype 2.1 for Android enables video on majority of Android devices  —  We promised to add support for additional handsets when we launched our new Skype for Android app with video a couple of weeks ago.  Today we are pleased to announce that with the release of Skype 2.1 for Android …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Lion USB sticks now available for $69 through AppleCare, free to some  —  Our good friends in Applecare alerted us to the fact that Lion USB keys were now available and in stock at Apple.  While officially they will cost a lofty $69, it appears, at least from the wording above …
Julie M / Groublogpon:
We call it Grouptiva (Groupon Acquires Obtiva)  —  Today, Groupon is announcing that it is acquiring Obtiva (www.obtiva.com) the largest Ruby on Rails software development firm in Chicago.  —  We've been working side-by-side with our Obtiva colleagues since way back in 2009, when Groupon had a handful of engineers.
Discussion: TechCrunch and Social Markets
Bing:
Mall Maps and Map Search come to Bing for Mobile  —  Today, we're happy to announce that we have added mall maps and map search to Bing for Mobile Browse.  You may recall that we initially announced mall maps for the desktop last December.  Since then we've been listening to your feedback …
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
iPhone 5, “Simplified iPhone 4” Headed to China Telecom in October?  —  If Apple hasn't yet signed an agreement to bring the iPhone to China Telecom, it must be very close to doing so.  In July, Reuters reported that long-running discussions between the two companies were moving toward a deal …
Bloomberg:
Sony's Debut of PlayStation Vita Player in U.S., Europe to Miss Christmas  —  Sony Corp. (6758) plans to begin sales of the PlayStation Vita portable player in the U.S. and Europe next year, missing the key Christmas-holiday shopping season.  —  The product will initially launch in Japan …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Warner Bros. Pulls Back the Curtain on Flixster Collections, Its Ambitious Digital Video Bet  —  Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes spent a lot of yesterday's earnings call discussing the company's future in digital video.  Here's one of his focal points: Flixster Collections …
Zephoria / danah boyd:
“Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power  —  Everyone's abuzz with the “nymwars,” mostly in response to Google Plus' decision to enforce its “real names” policy.  At first, Google Plus went on a deleting spree, killing off accounts that violated its policy.
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple No. 1 in worldwide smartphone shipments  —  Market research firm IDC on Thursday released its worldwide smartphone market numbers for the second quarter of 2011 and Apple is in the lead.  —  “The smartphone market crowned a new leader in 2Q11, and its name is Apple,” said Ramon Llamas …
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Study: Android is least open of open source mobile platforms  —  Market research firm VisionMobile has published a report that evaluates the openness of eight major open source software projects.  The study—which was partly funded by the European Union—focuses largely on open governance …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Security researchers hack Google's Chrome OS  —  When Google first started talking about its Google Chrome OS software a few years ago, one of the selling points was the promise that it would come with much better built-in security than other operating systems.
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia is Losing Contributors  —  Few websites have changed the way we access knowledge as much as Wikipedia.  Now, however, it looks like the online encyclopedia is hitting some snags, as the number of volunteers who write and edit its articles is getting smaller.
Alex Sirota / Yahoo! Developer Network:
Introducing Yahoo! WebPlayer  —  Today we're announcing the first beta version of Yahoo! WebPlayer.  At its core, Yahoo! WebPlayer is a powerful Web based media player written in HTML and JavaScript.  It supports a variety of video and audio media formats and services, for example Yahoo! Video, YouTube, MP3 or WMA.
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Researcher Announces N00ter, A Tool For Catching Net Neutrality Cheats  —  Researcher Dan Kaminsky at Black Hat.  —  Internet service providers who quietly play favorites, beware.  If Dan Kaminsky has his way, your days of sneaky filtering are numbered.  —  At the Black Hat security conference …
Discussion: DSLreports and TechCrunch, Thanks:jasonsknife
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
FYI Google, Facebook's Former CTO Says It Would Take Two Years For ~250 People To Build A Clone  —  As the fruits of Google's rush to build a social network are now achingly public, someone has asked a pretty apropos question on Quora, “How long would it take to build Facebook as of July 2011?”
Ben / Carrypad:
Exclusive: Eight Leaked Sony S1 and S2 Screenshots Reveal Honeycomb 3.2, Chumby App, Proprietary Adapter and More  —  Today I went snooping around Sony's support site where I was able to uncover some support documents for their upcoming S1 and S2 tablets that have gone public before they were supposed to.
Bloomberg:
Hacker ‘Armageddon’ Forces Symantec, McAfee to Seek Fixes  —  A surge in high-profile hacker attacks this year is demonstrating the limits of an older generation of security software from Symantec Corp. (SYMC) and McAfee Inc., putting pressure on them to revamp their product lines.
Joseph Volpe / Engadget:
Nokia N9 countdown page goes live, 49 days to launch?  —  Google's powers of awkward PR translation may have been right on the MeeGo-money, judging by this coutdown page for the N9.  The Swedish site, which just went live today, has begun its 49 days and counting creep to the Gorrila Glass-clad handset's eventual overseas debut.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Meltwater Acquires Mark Cuban-Backed Realtime Search Engine IceRocket  —  Social media monitoring company Meltwater Group has acquired IceRocket, a realtime social search engine.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  —  IceRocket is a real-time search engine that crawls over 200 million blogs …
Justin Rubio / IGN:
Leaked Verizon Document Reveals New Galaxy Tab, 4G Curve, and More  —  Provider's 2011 smartphone and tablet roadmap revealed.  —  This year's holiday season is just a couple of months away and it looks like Verizon has quite a lineup prepared for your shopping needs.
Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Google News gets a new human touch, launching publisher-curated Editors' Picks as a standing section  —  When Google News launched in 2002, it did so with some declarations: “This page was generated entirely by computer algorithms without human editors.”  And: “No humans were harmed or even used in the creation of this page.”
Killian Bell / Cult of Mac:
Apple Already Approving App Updates for iOS 5 — Launch Next Month?  —  Although its public release isn't scheduled until this fall, Apple has already begun approving apps for its upcoming iOS 5 software for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch — suggesting the firmware could launch as early as next month alongside the iPhone 5.
 
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 More Items: 
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
comScore: Android Keeps Gobbling Up Smartphone Share, Now 40 Percent
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple takes aim at copycat fake retail stores with new lawsuit
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
French online deal firm wants EU probe into Google
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Pirate Pays Up: Warner Music Cashes $12 Million LimeWire Check
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Do Not Panic PlayBook owners... Android App Player still looking to be on schedule
Discussion: Electronista
 Earlier Items: 
Eliot Van Buskirk / Evolver.fm:
Former Google Engineer Builds Turntable.fm Clone: Rolling.fm
Discussion: Geek.com, Techdirt and Pulse2
Amar Toor / Engadget:
T-Mobile loses 50,000 customers in Q2 2011, revenue dips slightly
Jack Kim / Reuters:
North Korean hackers hired to attack South Korea game network
Discussion: Guardian
Joseph Volpe / Engadget:
Microsoft Research's .NET Gadgeteer steps out into the light, shoots daggers at Arduino (video)
Discussion: PC World, SlashGear and Techie Buzz
John Cook / GeekWire:
Why Zillow insiders want to keep the stock above $25 per share
Thanks:toddbishop
Doug Gross / CNN:
Facebook lets expectant parents list unborn child as family
Discussion: TechCrunch
Bill Pardi / Windows Phone Blog:
Look who's talking: Speech in Mango
Discussion: Inquirer and The Nokia Blog