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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 …
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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”.
Discussion:
SuperSite for Windows, BetaNews, PadGadget, @brandonwatson, MacDailyNews and iClarified

We've just updated yesterday's post, “When patents attack Android”: http://t.co/kGTfDhU
Discussion:
@dannysullivan and GMSV

When patents attack Android
Discussion:
TechCrunch, 9to5Google, AllThingsD, mocoNews, Engadget, Bits, Electronista, The Register, Digital Trends, BetaNews, Search Engine Land, Computerworld, Fireballed.org, parislemon, CircleID, eWeek, BGR, Droid Life, Disruptive Economics, The Next Web, Microsoft Watch, Fortune, InfoWorld, Ars Technica, Appolicious Advisor, Know Your Cell, Wired, Daring Fireball, FierceMobileContent, The Microsoft Blog, Techdirt, Techland, USA Today, Marketing Pilgrim, iThinkDifferent and AppleInsider


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):
Discussion:
VentureBeat, BGR, Ars Technica, The Business Insider, TechCrunch, iPhone, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, PhoneNews.com, GottaBeMobile, everythingiCafe and MacNN


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.
Discussion:
MacRumors, AppleInsider, GottaBeMobile, O'Grady's PowerPage, iPhone, App Advice, 9to5Mac, iPhone Buzz, SlashGear, Engadget, Techland and The Business Insider, Thanks:srikardhanakoti


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 …
Discussion:
eWeek, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, Inquirer, TechnoBuffalo, L.A. Times Tech Blog, PC World, This is my next, Engadget, mocoNews, msnbc.com, MobileSyrup.com, Android and Me, Droid Life, Pocket-lint, Smartphones …, 9to5Google, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Android and Me, Startup Meme, Softpedia News, CNET News, IntoMobile, TechCrunch, Android Phone Fans, The Next Web, GottaBeMobile, PhoneArena, WebProNews, ITProPortal, LaptopMemo and Benedict Evans


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 …
Discussion:
paidContent, Tech Trader Daily, The Business Insider, Reuters, @linkedin, Social Markets and GMSV
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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 …
Discussion:
LiveSide.net, ReadWriteWeb, SiliconFilter, WinRumors and MarketingVox News & Trends


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 …
Discussion:
Engadget, MacRumors, Redmond Pie, OS X Daily, Cult of Mac and Lifehacker

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


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 …
Discussion:
CNET News, 9to5Mac, gizchina.com, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, Softpedia News, MacDailyNews, PC Magazine, SlashGear, everythingiCafe, IntoMobile, Edible Apple, TiPb, Apple Bitch, iPhone, FierceWireless and MacRumors


Google To Revive Realtime Search, Thanks to Google+ — Google Realtime Search is coming back soon, and it will include data from Google+ and other social sources. — Realtime Search was, until last month, the search giant's method of delivering relevant data from Twitter, Facebook and other social media services in real time.
Discussion:
Marketing Pilgrim, Geek.com, 9to5Google, WebProNews, memeburn, Softpedia News and The Next Web


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 …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Consumer Reports News, SlashGear, Mashable! and DSLreports, more at Mediagazer »


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 …
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, Money, SiliconANGLE, AllThingsD, PC Magazine, Reuters, CNET News, BetaNews, Techland, The Toybox Blog, Pocket-lint, VG247, X-bit labs, Engadget, Games blog, BGR, I4U News, Eurogamer, Electronista, TechCrunch, Geeky-Gadgets, Mashable!, TechSpot, SlashGear, Joystiq, Geek.com and WebProNews


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 …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land and The Next Web, Thanks:jdalrymple


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 …
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog, Technology Review, Android and Me, My Nokia Blog, SlashGear and Gizmodo


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.
Discussion:
ITProPortal and Inquirer


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?”
Discussion:
Friending Facebook Blog, Quora and All Facebook


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.


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.
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog, WebProNews, Electronista and @jason


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

“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.
Discussion:
Guardian and ReadWriteWeb


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 …
Discussion:
paidContent:UK, more at Mediagazer »


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 a declaration: “This page was generated entirely by computer algorithms without human editors. No humans were harmed or even used in the creation of this page.”
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog


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.
Discussion:
Engadget, Digital Trends, I4U News, AndroidGuys, PhoneArena, Softpedia News and Android Phone Fans