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8:25 PM ET, August 4, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Responds To Google's Response To Microsoft's Response  —  If you thought that Microsoft and Google, two massive public companies, would quickly and quietly retire behind the scenes to continue their fight after their very public back-and-forth over the past couple of days, you'd be wrong.
Discussion: 9to5Google and Daring Fireball
RELATED:
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 …
Jay Yarow / The Business Insider:
Google Fires Back At Microsoft, Both Companies Are Looking Lame Right Now  —  Google has fired back in its war of words with Microsoft.  —  If you missed it yesterday, Google accused Microsoft of participating in a hostile campaign against Android using bogus patents.
Mary Branscombe / TechRadar.com:
How Microsoft makes money from Android
Discussion: Electronista
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Google: Patently Absurd
Maciek Nowakowski / Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Preview Pane  —  When I check my email, I often rely on the message snippets to figure out which messages to open first.  Sometimes, though, I want to see more than snippets, which is why I'm happy to announce that you can now preview messages in your inbox using a new feature in Gmail Labs called Preview Pane.
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:
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):
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 …
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.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple takes aim at copycat fake retail stores with new lawsuit  —  After a number of fake Apple retail stores in China gained publicity online, Apple appears to have taken legal action, undoubtedly looking to shut down the counterfeit locations designed to look like its own operations.
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 …
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: AllThingsD and TechCrunch
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.
Discussion: BGR and Inquirer
RELATED:
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Researcher Announces N00ter, A Tool For Catching Net Neutrality Cheats
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:jasonsknife
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Kay Kremerskothen / Flickr Blog:
6,000,000,000  —  The beautiful Montbretia flower photo shown here is our 6 billionth photo!  It was uploaded Monday by eon60.  —  Over the last 5 years uploads have been increasing 20% year-over-year and we love hitting a milestone like this.  It's the ability to wander through the titles …
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 …
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 …
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Will Apple discontinue the Magic Mouse in favor of the Magic Trackpad?  —  Cult of Mac claims that a previously reliable source told them that Magic Mouse inventory is not being replenished at Apple Stores.  From this, they say that the Magic Mouse will soon be discontinued.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
New iPhone App Provides a Glimpse of the Moments Before a Photo is Taken  —  Though there are plenty of apps for sharing still pictures taken on an iPhone, a three-person start-up is hoping to carve a niche with a program that captures not only a still picture but the several seconds of video that preceded the picture's taking.
Discussion: Mashable!, TechCrunch and MacRumors
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 …
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.”
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.
 
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 More Items: 
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Twitter to open source Hadoop-like tool
Discussion: Twitter Engineering
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
comScore: Android Keeps Gobbling Up Smartphone Share, Now 40 Percent
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Pirate Pays Up: Warner Music Cashes $12 Million LimeWire Check
Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
Augme Technologies To Acquire Mobile Ad Firm Hipcricket For $44.5 Million
Alex Sirota / Yahoo! Developer Network:
Introducing Yahoo! WebPlayer
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Do Not Panic PlayBook owners... Android App Player still looking to be on schedule
Discussion: Electronista
 Earlier Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Meltwater Acquires Mark Cuban-Backed Realtime Search Engine IceRocket
Eliot Van Buskirk / Evolver.fm:
Former Google Engineer Builds Turntable.fm Clone: Rolling.fm
Discussion: Techdirt, Geek.com and Pulse2
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
FYI Google, Facebook's Former CTO Says It Would Take Two Years For ~250 People To Build A Clone
John Cook / GeekWire:
Why Zillow insiders want to keep the stock above $25 per share
Thanks:toddbishop
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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