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Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Amazon Buys Zappos; The Price is $920m., not $847m. — News has just broken that Amazon.com has purchased hot ecommerce up-and-comer Zappos for 10 million Amazon shares or $880 million. (The Amazon release said it was $807 million, but that was based on a trailing 45-day estimate of its share price.
Discussion:
BetaNews, internetnews.com, CloudAve, Gawker, TheNextWeb.com and Mashable!, Thanks:gsharma
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Amazon.com:
Amazon.com to Acquire Zappos.com — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Zappos.com, Inc. a leader in online apparel and footwear sales that strives to provide shoppers with the best possible service and selection.
Tony Hsieh / Zappos.com:
CEO Letter — Please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. (My apologies for the occasional use of formal-sounding language, as parts of it are written in a particular way for legal reasons.) — Today is a big day in Zappos history. — This morning …
Discussion:
New York Times, Financial Times, Techdirt, CNET News, TechFlash, ClickZ, Mashable!, SOMEWHAT FRANK, Gear Live, AgencySpy, Doc Searls Weblog, Adrants, AppScout, Webbyist, CenterNetworks and Inc.com, Thanks:gsharma
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Guess Who Lost Big on the Zappos Deal? — The Zappos deal is widely viewed as a win-win-win. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh gets to stay in charge with deeper pockets to keep building the company for the long term. Amazon expands its ecommerce dominance by snapping up the one company online shoppers may love more than Amazon itself.
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing — I am pleased to announce that Windows 7 has RTM'd! — As I mentioned previously, RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM.
Discussion:
blogs.ft.com, Technologizer, Windows Server Division WebLog, TechCrunch, The Microsoft Blog, PC World, TechFlash, Download Squad, blogs.chron.com, Microsoft News Tracker, Softpedia News, Neowin.net, All about Microsoft, DailyTech, Windows Live Community, ChannelWeb, Pocket-lint.com, Maximum PC all, Redmond Pie, The Tech Report, TechSpot, Engadget, virtualization.info, Gear Diary, Guardian and ithinkdifferent
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Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
They're soup: Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 released to manufacturing — Windows 7 has been a tightly controlled product from its first days on the drawing board. The last milestone is proving to be no exception: On July 22, at precisely 4:40 p.m. ET, Microsoft announced it had released …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo to Acquire Xoopit for About $20 Million — Yahoo plans on announcing Thursday that it has bought Xoopit for a price in the $20 million range, according to several sources, one of its first acquisitions in a long while. — Reached late this afternoon by BoomTown, a Yahoo (YHOO) …
Discussion:
MYBLOG by Ouriel, VentureBeat, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Dealscape, GigaOM, CNET News and I4U News
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Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
eBay's Q2: PayPal, Skype growth offset by declines at marketplace sites — eBay today reported solid second quarter financial results that were slightly better than Wall Street's expectations but revenue growth of PayPal and Skype was offset, in part, by declines in the Marketplaces business.
Discussion:
eWeek, The Register, CNET News, paidContent, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, internetnews.com, Digital Daily, Tech Trader Daily and alarm:clock
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Adam Pash / Lifehacker:
Gmail Offers to Automatically Unsubscribe You from Mailing Lists — Ever get an email from a legit mailing list but went ahead and marked it as spam anyway because you just don't want it? Gmail has smartened up to this common behavior, offering to automatically unsubscribe you from certain messages.
Gillian Reagan / New York Observer:
How The Times' Home Page Gets Made — By most counts, New York Times deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman still considers the front page of the printed newspaper a sacred space, a place where editors and reporters display their best work and uphold the tradition of The Times' quality reporting.
Amy Clancy / KIRO-TV:
Apple Downplays Fiery iPod Incidents — An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals an alarming number of Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property. — It's an investigation that Apple has apparently been trying to keep out of the public eye.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, PC World, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, OSNews, Gadget Lab, Hardware 2.0, Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider and blogs.ft.com
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Docs, Slowly Morphing into Google Drive — The new interface of Google Docs, which is slowly rolled out to all users, brings the service one step closer to an online storage service. The “items by type” menu replaced “PDFs” with “Files”, suggesting that Google Docs will allow users to upload any type of files.
Meg Kinnard / Associated Press:
AG in SC asks judge to drop Craigslist lawsuit — COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina attorney general who has threatened to prosecute Craigslist for prostitution-related ads wants a federal judge to dismiss the company's complaint against him, according to court papers filed this week.
Discussion:
The Register
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Exclusive: MySpace Mail Slated To Launch This Week — This Thursday, MySpace plans to roll out its own webmail, paidContent has learned from sources familiar with the plans. The News Corp (NYSE: NWS). social network, like competitor Facebook, allows messaging—a much-used service …
Discussion:
CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, Neowin.net, Telegraph, TECH.BLORGE.com, Gadgetell, Techgeist and Pocket-lint.com
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Adobe confirms Flash zero-day bug in PDF docs — Hackers exploiting flaw already in the wild, says iDefense — Computerworld - Adobe is investigating a critical vulnerability in its Flash format that is currently being exploited by hackers using malicious PDF documents …
Discussion:
Zero Day, CNET News, Symantec, PC World, threatpost, PSIRT, Security Fix and Security Watch
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
What the Heck Is Going on With Apple TV? — Apple, during its quarterly earnings call yesterday, didn't bring up its stepchild set-top box, the Apple TV. For those who follow the video industry, this is more of a predictable disappointment than a shocker.
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Technologizer
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Video First Look: BlackBerry Storm 9550 in Action! — ** Video Removed as per the Request of the Hockey Lovers in Waterloo. Give Jim a Team Already and Make it Seven! — * update: wow, apologies in the video for flipping around the device so much in my hands. must have had too much green tea this afternoon.
Discussion:
Fone Arena, Unwired View, The iPhone Blog, Gadgets on the Go, BlackBerry Rocks!, GMSV, Gizmodo and Pocket-lint.com
Sameer Moidu / Facebook Blog:
Share Photos and Videos Anywhere You Have Email — After you snap a great photo of friends or shoot a fun video on vacation, you want to be able to share it immediately. We've been working on providing more ways to publish those photos and videos whether you're on Facebook.com or not.
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Updated: Bankrate Being Acquired By Apax For $571 Million in Cash; Horrendous Q209 Prelim Numbers — Updated below with more deal details: Consumer financial information and lead gen service Bankrate (NSDQ: RATE) is being acquired by PE firm Apax Partners, in a deal just announced.
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Pulse2
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Synaptics moves to cell phones with 10-finger touch screens — The Apple iPhone popularized the multitouch screens that you can swipe with your hands, but the underlying technology came from Synaptics, which supplied the touch-based components that made it possible to control a phone's features …
Discussion:
Synaptics, BetaNews, SlashGear, Engadget, Crave, jkOnTheRun, Gizmodo, Liliputing, GigaOM, Electronista, GottaBeMobile.com and Technologizer
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC to offer Qualcomm BMP-based handsets, hike adoption of Android — Taiwan-based High Computer Tech (HTC) will launch a high-profile 3G handset based on Qualcomm's Brew Mobile Platform (BMP) in September or October targeting the consumer segment, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
Discussion:
mocoNews, Boy Genius Report, The Register, last100, MobileCrunch, AndroidGuys, InformationWeek, IntoMobile, Phone Arena, I4U News and Android Phone Fans
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
The Google-Cash-Swapping-Orgy Blimp — Google hasn't been shy about sharing its riches with select friends outside the company. And the number one rule of this tightly-knit group seems to be: spread the love. Which brings us to 23AndMe's new, very incestuous blimp.
Biz / Twitter Blog:
Letterman Discovers Twitter via Spacey — David Letterman was introduced to Twitter via Kevin Spacey on last night's Late Show. Once Dave got past the concept of typing with his thumbs he was able to characterize Twitter as “a waste of time.” That's generally how Twitter was characterized …
Ina Fried / CNET News:
Disney's Iger: Content need not be free — PASADENA, Calif.—Disney CEO Robert Iger said he appreciates the fact that his company helped pioneer user-generated video with “America's Funniest Home Videos,” but acknowledges he missed a big opportunity. — “Unfortunately, I didn't come up with youtube …
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
IBM and The Internet of Things — In the Web world, you know that a trend has major traction when IBM is all over it. Like any large Internet company, Big Blue is careful about which trends it latches onto. It was a good couple of years before they were spotted at the Web 2.0 conference, for example.
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Friendster founder on social networking: I invented this stuff [UPDATED] — Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams poses in front of the logo for his start-up company, Socializr, at a Lunch 2.0 event in 2007. Credit: Terry Chay … The millions of high school and college kids on Facebook probably …
Thanks:electricwaffles
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
iLike Negotiating A Reorganization; TicketMaster May Be Flushed Out — We've confirmed from multiple sources that San Francisco/Seattle based music service iLike, which has been profitable since 2008, is raising new capital in an unusual transaction designed to push out Ticketmaster, an investor since 2006.
