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10:45 AM ET, August 18, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Brad Molen / Engadget:
AT&T streamlining individual messaging plans August 21st, leaving unlimited as the sole survivor  —  Do not adjust your computer screen, because the screenshot you're seeing above is real.  Confirmed by multiple sources, we've exclusively learned that AT&T — the protagonist of choice …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
IBM produces first working chips modeled on the human brain  —  IBM has been shipping computers for more than 65 years, and it is finally on the verge of creating a true electronic brain.  —  Big Blue is announcing today that it, along with four universities and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency …
Derek Kessler / PreCentral.net:
HP France outs white 64GB TouchPad with 1.5GHz processor [Update: shipping in 1-2 weeks, official statement from HP]  —  The 64GB HP TouchPad has been a bit of a unicorn as of late, but true to HP form, they've up an unceremoniously revealed it in Europe.  A small footnote of a button …
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Most Android apps sit idle, top-50 apps make up 61% of all usage, Nielsen finds  —  Nielsen on Thursday ushered in a new era of mobile device usage reporting brought about by customer metering software installed on thousands of iOS and Android devices around the U.S. Rather than relying …
Matt Rosoff / The Business Insider:
Android Boss Andy Rubin Split His First Huge Bonus Check With His Employees  —  When the first Android phone shipped in 2008, Andy Rubin received a multimillion dollar check from his bosses at Google.  —  He turned around and gave some of the money away to the 100 or so employees on the Android team.
RELATED:
Andrew Harris / Bloomberg:
Motorola Mobility Faces Suit Over $12.5 Billion Google Sale  —  Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) — Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and its chief executive officer, Sanjay Jha, were sued by a shareholder claiming they failed to get the best price when they agreed to sell the company for $12.5 billion to Google Inc.
Reuters:
Apple, Qualcomm, others eye InterDigital  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc, Nokia and Qualcomm Inc are among several technology companies pondering bids for InterDigital Inc, sources familiar with the situation said.  —  The auction of the wireless telecommunications specialist …
RELATED:
Eric Savitz / The Tech Trade:
Kodak: Patents For Sale
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Welcome to the patent valuation bubble
Help Net Security:
Researchers identify first flaws in the Advanced Encryption Standard  —  Researchers have found a weakness in the AES algorithm.  They managed to come up with a clever new attack that can recover the secret key four times easier than anticipated by experts.
Henry Blodget / The Business Insider:
Don't Mean To Be Alarmist, But Groupon Is Running Low On Cash  —  One of the fastest-growing companies in history, Groupon, is running low on cash.  —  The company is not broke.  It can also presumably raise additional capital in the private markets if its IPO gets further delayed.
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Miami court deals huge setback to Motorola Mobility's defense against Microsoft  —  Motorola Mobility's defense strategy against Microsoft's patent infringement lawsuit just suffered a major setback.  The best defense in patent disputes is a good offense, but after an order issued today …
RELATED:
Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Apple, It's Time To Block iOS 5 Beta Users From Reviewing Apps  —  “Yeah, each new iOS announcement is very... bittersweet.  We love it because it means new APIs for us to build on, bug fixes for things we've had to work around, and, ideally, more people buying the platform we build for.
Electronista:
Apple only major PC builder in Western Europe still growing  —  Mac grows in Europe in Q2 2011 while Windows falls  —  Apple was the only major computer manufacturer in Western Europe to keep growing this past spring, Gartner uncovered in a continent-wide breakdown on Wednesday.
ConsortiumInfo.org The Standards Blog:
W3C Launches New “Agile” Standards Development Platform  —  By anyone's measure, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been one of the most important and influential standards development organizations of the information technology age.  Without its efforts, the Web would literally not exist as we know it.
Jeremy Keeshin / thekeesh.com:
Who Does Facebook Think You Are Searching For?  —  Have you ever wondered how Facebook orders your search results?  Clearly they have some ordering about who they think you are looking for, and they seem to guess pretty well.  I can only guess, but it seems like they order it based on who you interact with …
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Why your next smartphone may have a larger HD screen  —  Samsung is reportedly shrinking down the size of full high-definition screens and will create them for large smartphones and small tablets.  The company's Super AMOLED Plus technology, which arrived earlier this year …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Windows Phone games: Details on Microsoft's ‘Fast Async’ service  —  As part of an update about upcoming Windows Phone gaming features, Microsoft this week offered a teaser about a new service called “Fast Async” — promising that it will improve gameplay for turn-by-turn (a.k.a. asynchronous") Xbox Live games on the phones.
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Ashton Kutcher Is a Massive Whore  —  Not only did Ashton Kutcher pose for the cover of Details' September issue, he also edited a special “online only” version, out today.  Turns out Hollywood's prettiest boytoy is one compromised whore of a magazine editor, directing most of his recommendations …
Discussion: @dondodge and Details
Matt Rosoff / The Business Insider:
Windows 8 Will Have An App Store And A “Human Interaction Platform”  —  Microsoft's Windows chief Steve Sinofsky said he was ready to start talking about Windows 8 on Monday, and today he followed up on his promise by listing the feature teams who are working on the next version of Microsoft's flagship product.
Ian Hardy / MobileSyrup.com:
TELUS Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules surfaces again!  —  Here it is Canada!  You can consider this confirmation that the Samsung Galaxy S II Hercules is coming to TELUS.  We first saw a pic a few weeks ago, but now a couple more images have surfaced.  Look at this gem of an Android!
Bloomberg:
AOL Discounted Gets Last, Best Hope  —  For a private equity firm that's looking for the cheapest way to get online, AOL Inc. (AOL) is trading for 57 cents on the dollar.  —  The Internet pioneer spun off from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) in 2009 plunged to a record low last week after cutting …
Discussion: The Business Insider
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Skype WiFi Comes to iOS: Get Online for $0.06 Per Minute  —  If you're a frequent traveller, you know how much of a hassle paid WiFi networks can be.  For a while now, recent Microsoft acquisition Skype has been trying to make things a bit easier by giving its users the ability to pay …
RELATED:
Shadi Mahassel / The Big Blog:
Skype WiFi - now available on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch
 
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 More Items: 
Scott Merrill / TechCrunch:
Red Hat CEO At LinuxCon: I Have No Idea What's Next
Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
Facebook Says ‘Authentic Contract’ E-Mailed by Ceglia to Lawyer
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Fanbois treat criticism of favorite brands as threat to self-image
Discussion: Wired Science and PetaPixel
John Hiesler / Edible Apple:
Delta deploying iPads to pilots as electronic flight bag replacements
Discussion: TechCrunch, O'Grady's PowerPage and TUAW, Thanks:edibleapple
Christian Zibreg / 9to5Mac:
Prodigy visual interface designer leaves Apple for Square
 Earlier Items: 
Bloomberg:
Jive Software Said to Hire Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs for IPO
Discussion: AllThingsD and Bloomberg
@anonyops:
The leak today of BART officer data could be the work sanctioned by those who truly support anonymous, or agent provocateurs. Stay skeptical
Brad Sams / Neowin.net:
Microsoft issues statement on cloud downtime
Discussion: Neowin.net
Wolfgang Gruener / ConceivablyTech:
Beyond Windows 8: Patent Hints To A Future Streaming OS
Discussion: Ubergizmo, Electronista and WinRumors
Terry Baynes / Reuters:
AT&T sues customers seeking to block T-Mobile deal
Discussion: SlashGear, Gizmodo and CNET News
 

 
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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