Techmeme: Mozilla Launches Open Badges Project (Mark Surman/The Mozilla Blog)

6:15 AM ET, September 16, 2011

Top Items:

Todd Haselton / BGR:

iPhone 5 to have radical new design according to Case-Mate images — The iPhone 5 hasn't been announced yet, but that has not stopped accessory makers from posting upcoming cases for the highly anticipated handset. Case-Mate has published a page on its website with six different case designs …

Nick Bilton / Bits:

Plenty of Chatter About a New iPhone — We're just weeks away from the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 5, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly for the company. — As the excitement for Apple's latest product revs up …

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Softpedia News, AppleInsider, Apple Bitch, MacStories, Pocket-lint, iClarified, SlashGear, Digital Trends, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com, T3.com News, App Advice, The Next Web, Electronista and TiPb

Arnold Kim / MacRumors:
iPhone 5 Screen Protectors Show Elongated Home Button Area

Discussion: Computerworld, Ars Technica, iDownloadBlog.com, Digital Trends, Redmond Pie, WebProNews, BGR, Cult of Mac, I4U News, Macgasm, Techland, Electronista, Handtec Blog, PhoneArena, TiPb and Softpedia News

Tom Warren / WinRumors:

iPad iOS 5 vs Windows 8 Slate [video] — Microsoft unveiled its Windows 8 developer preview earlier this week, but how does it compare to iOS? — Microsoft has done some impressive work with Windows 8 to make it truly slate friendly. Hardware specifications and specifics are still …

Discussion: netbooknews.com, BGR, App Advice, Redmond Pie, GottaBeMobile, SlashGear, Cult of Mac, PhoneArena, 9to5Mac and Lifehacker, Thanks:marylin_ad

Chris Brandrick / PC World:

Windows 8 Gets Sad New Blue Screen of Death — Microsoft's next release of their flagship operating system, Windows 8, will sport an updated error screen, most commonly referred to as the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ (BSoD). For those fortunate enough to not run into the infamous error message over the years …

Discussion: rand($thoughts); and SFGate

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:

If You Already Hate Windows 8 Then You Hate Technology — I hate the term fanboy. It's a pejorative meant to denigrate someone's opinion. A conversation-ender. After applying it to someone, really there's nothing left to say. But seeing the reaction to Windows 8, I get why people use it.

Thanks:joemfbrown

Steven Sinofsky / MSDN Blogs:
Metro style browsing and plug-in free HTML5

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
First Look: Xbox Live on Windows 8 (Video)

Discussion: WinRumors, Engadget, The Windows Blog, This is my next, The Next Web, The Microsoft Blog, All about Microsoft Blog and Redmond Pie

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

It's Called Google Propeller and It's Aimed at Flipboard (and Facebook Too, Natch) — Please see this disclosure related to me and Google. — Earlier today, well-known digerati dude Robert Scoble posted on his social feed on Google+ that the search giant was working on a social and news reader.

Discussion: Digital Trends, Softpedia News, CNET News, VentureBeat, SlashGear, Robert Scoble, Gizmodo, The Next Web, Mashable! and Electronista, more at Mediagazer »

Jay Yarow / Business Insider: Google Working On A “Mind-Blowing” Flipboard Copycat

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Research In Motion Earnings At Low End of Forecast as Cash Drops by Half — BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion said on Thursday reported sales and earnings at the low end of its forecast and below what many analysts had been expecting. — The smartphone and tablet maker said that revenue …

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
OUCH! RIM Shipped Just 200,000 PlayBooks Last Quarter

Discussion: paidContent, Liliputing, CrackBerry.com blogs, @johnprice167, SplatF, The Loop and Reuters

Farhad Manjoo / Slate Magazine:

Great Social Networks Steal — In praise of Facebook's thievery. — Last fall, I spoke to Mark Zuckerberg about a common Facebook dilemma: We're not equally friendly with all our online “friends.” Some of your Facebook pals are very dear to you, while others are merely acquaintances …

Discussion: Datamation.com

Arnold Kim / MacRumors:

Apple Working on Allowing the Merging of Multiple Apple IDs — MacRumors has learned that Apple is working on a process to merge multiple Apple IDs into a single login. The issue of juggling multiple Apple ID logins has been a minor inconvenience in the past, but with the early developer testing …

Discussion: MacNN, Startup Meme and The Next Web

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Digits:

Arrington Talks New Blog (and How He ALMOST Stayed at AOL) — Michael Arrington is returning to the blogosphere. — The blogger, who is leaving AOL and TechCrunch over a fight over his new venture capital fund, said in an interview that he plans to start a personal blog in the coming days.

Discussion: Business Insider

Mark Surman / The Mozilla Blog:

Mozilla Launches Open Badges Project — Today we announced Mozilla's Open Badge Infrastructure project, an effort to make it easy to issue and share digital learning badges across the web. — More and more people are looking at badges to show skills and achievements online.

Discussion: Hack Education and Softpedia News, Thanks:arpitnext

Felix Salmon:

Can Netflix still win when cable TV loses? — Ryan Lawler makes a very important point: even as the number of people living in poverty continues to rise, and median incomes have gone nowhere since 1996, the price of cable TV just goes inevitably and inexorably upwards.

Discussion: Gawker

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

AT&T to launch LTE Sunday, Sept. 18 — AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) will launch its first five LTE markets this Sunday Sept. 18, AT&T CFO John Stephens said during an appearance at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Entertainment & Communications conference.

Bertrand Damiba / Google Mobile Blog:

Introducing Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain — Last year in the US, we introduced Voice Actions, a series of spoken commands that let you control your Android phone or tablet with your voice. You can call businesses and contacts, send texts …

Discussion: Engadget, SlashGear and Android Community

Edwin Chan / Reuters:

HP execs misled investors before August stock crash: lawsuit — (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co and top executives misled investors for months before unveiling a series of major decisions, such as the demise of the TouchPad, that hammered its shares, a shareholder alleged in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed this week.

Discussion: TechEye and The Next Web

Josh Ong / AppleInsider:

Apple said to sign foundry agreement with TSMC for A6, A7 processors — Apple is said to have finalized an agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. that could see the foundry produce Apple's next two generations of processors. — Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes reported …

Discussion: SlashGear, DigiTimes, PhoneArena, I4U News, The Next Web, MacRumors, MacNN and 9to5Mac

Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:

Cloud storage provider Box.net spurns $500M offer (exclusive) — Cloud storage provider Box.net was a presenter at Dreamforce this year. — Cloud storage provider Box.net rejected a $500 million offer to purchase the company, multiple sources have confirmed to VentureBeat.

Discussion: PE Hub Blog, bizjournals and FT Tech Hub, Thanks:jolieodell

Bloomberg:

IBM Hired by Huawei for Brand Advice on Tablet — International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) was hired to advise Huawei Technologies Co. on branding strategy as the Chinese telecommunications gear supplier expands into tablet computers, smartphones and cloud computing.

Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:

When Kickstarter Goes Wrong: Were 419 Backers Almost Taken for a $27,637 Ride? — About a month ago, there was a $2,000 Kickstarter project called the Tech Sync Power System, a system for controlling home lights from mobile devices over a wifi connection. The project creator …

Krishna Panicker / The Big Blog:

New Facebook Integration with Skype 5.4 for Mac OS X Beta — You may have noticed that we now release updates for Skype for Mac quicker than ever before. We've released a number of updates in 2011 which included, amongst other features, a brand new interface, video call control bar and HD-quality video calling.

Discussion: Neowin.net, 9to5Mac, ReadWriteWeb, PC Magazine, Mashable!, VentureBeat, Macgasm, TUAW, Electronista, Front Side Bus, Engadget and CNET News

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Apple, Starbucks Expanding iTunes Giveaways to Include Apps, Books and TV Shows — For some time now, Starbucks customers have been able to download a free song in addition to buying their lattes, mochas and Frappa-whatevers. — Lately, though, the company's “pick of the week” program has expanded.

Discussion: GottaBeMobile

Orin S. Kerr / Wall Street Journal:

Should Faking a Name on Facebook Be a Felony? — Congress contemplates draconian punishment for Internet lies. — Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet. So you could be jailed for lying about your age or weight on an Internet dating site.

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Sequoia Leads $30M Round In Mobile Business Data Visualization App Roambi — MeLLmo, the developer of business data visualization platform Roambi, has raised $30 million through its first round of institutional funding led by Sequoia Capital. This brings MeLLmo's total funding to $50 million.

Discussion: Business Wire, Xconomy, FinSMEs, VatorNews, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal and socalTECH.com

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