Top Items:
Andrew Clark / Guardian:
Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer — Times and Sun readers to pay as loss-making Murdoch declares end to free-for-all — The billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch suffered the indignity of seeing his global empire make a huge financial loss yesterday and promptly pledged …
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Erica Alini / Wall Street Journal:
Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptops — They Sit for Hours and Don't Spend Much; Getting the Bum's Rush in the Big Apple — A sign at Naidre's, a small neighborhood coffee shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., begins warmly: “Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us so much that you want to spend the day...”
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Bing Has Succeeded... In Finding The Worst Jingle Ever — A few weeks ago, we wrote about the contest Microsoft's new search engine Bing was holding to find a catchy jingle for the product. Today, they have announced the winner. “Catchy” is one word for it. Another is “awful.”
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Bing / Search Blog:
The Bing Jingle Winner is... We want to thank everyone who submitted their Bing jingles to our Bing YouTube site. We were amazed at the creativity and variety of all the entrants. After much anticipation, a multitude of voting and discussion, we are very pleased to announce that the winner …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, LiveSide and the Econsultancy blog
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Sony's Party-shot dock snaps incriminating Facebook photos while you drink — As if your Facebook profile doesn't have enough hard evidence that you're completely unfit for any job you might strike up the courage to apply for, here's a thoughtful accessory for producing even more regret-inducing snapshots.
Discussion:
Sony, Imaging Insider, Geeky-Gadgets, Digits, Gizmodo, SlashGear, Electronista, TFTS and PC World
Twitter Status:
Site is down — We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly. — Update: we are defending against a denial-of-service attack.
Discussion:
Twitter Blog, The Register, VentureBeat, TechFlash, Digits, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, AppScout, bub.blicio.us, techblog.dallasnews.com, Network World, Twittercism, Epicenter, GigaOM, Mashable!, Kotaku, p2pnet, TG Daily, ThreatChaos, CNN, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and TechCrunch
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Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Twitter Attack Brings a Day Without Social Media — Noooo: Both Twitter and Facebook are flailing this morning. How will people plan their evening drinking sessions? And are they expected to actually put in an honest day's work in the meantime? It's a Thursday in August, for God's sake.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
What's The Google Brand Worth These Days? $100 Billion. Probably Less. — WPP subsidiary Millward Brown Optimor released its highly regarded annual brand ranking BrandZ Top 100 (PDF) back in April. It identifies the world's most valuable global brands as measured by their dollar value.
Discussion:
UMBC ebiquity
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Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:Guess Who Is The Top Global Brand Again? You Got It! Google
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
London is the capital of Twitter, says founder @ev — Twitter was featured on the BBC's Newsnight programme last night. There weren't any great revelations about the service, however the confirmation from the CEO that London remains the top Twitter-using city in the world is pretty interesting.
Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:
Software Pricing: Are We Doing It Wrong? — One of the side effects of using the iPhone App store so much is that it's started to fundamentally alter my perception of software pricing. So many excellent iPhone applications are either free, or no more than a few bucks at most.
Sascha Segan / AppScout:
Opera Mobile for Android in the Works — Opera Mobile 9.7 is a great alternative browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian, but so far it hasn't been available on other smart phone platforms. In an interview with PCMag.com today, Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner said the browser might come …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Putting lipstick on Microsoft's pigs — Windows Mobile. Logo: Microsoft — At the end of a long report on the Apple Stores — and the corner he believes they have turned — Needham analyst Charles Wolf turned his attention this week to Microsoft (MSFT) and its plans to launch a fleet …
Discussion:
MacDailyNews
John C. Dvorak / PC Magazine:
What is Happening to Windows 7? — Blame the tricky upgrade process—and, by extension, the Registry—for the backlash against Windows 7. — Why has Windows 7 suddenly fallen off the track with negative publicity? What happened? What changed? — This is one of the strangest developments …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
ShoeMoney Reaches Settlement With Google Employee Over AdWords Violations — Over the last few months we've been tracking a lawsuit between online marketing guru Jeremy Schoemaker and a Google employee named Keyen Farrell. This week comes news that Schoemaker has settled the case with Farrell, though details are scant.
Discussion:
Softpedia News
Comcast:
Comcast Reports Second Quarter 2009 Results — Consolidated Revenue Increased 4.5% Consolidated Operating Cash Flow Increased 5.5% Consolidated Operating Income Increased 7.1% Earnings per Share of $0.33 Increased 57.1% — Generated Free Cash Flow of $1.2 Billion Repurchased 15.5 Million Common Shares for $215 Million
Dan Goodin / The Register:
XML flaws threaten ‘enormous’ array of apps — Java, Python, and Apache - for starters — Free whitepaper - Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance — Security researchers have uncovered critical flaws in open-source software that implements the Extensible Markup Language …
Sysomos:
Inside Twitter — An In-Depth Look at the 5% of Most Active Users — When Sysomos published its initial “Inside Twitter” report last month that looked at the people on Twitter and how it was being used, we discovered that 5% of users accounted for 75% of all activity.
Discussion:
Softpedia News, Mashable!, WebProNews, ReadWriteWeb, Twitterrati and Mark Evans, Thanks:atul
Richard Wray / Guardian:
T-Mobile to unveil turnaround plan — Richard Moat, the new boss of T-Mobile UK, will unveil his plan to reverse the fortunes of Britain's struggling fourth-placed mobile phone network in the next few weeks. — News that Moat, who joined only in June, is poised to reveal his turnaround plan came …
Discussion:
Pocket-lint.com
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Comcast adopts DNS hijacking, imposes irritating opt-out — Despite knowing the ways in which DNS hijacking can cause problems for non-Web clients, Comcast has rolled it out in an attempt to make money off misspelled URLs. To make matters worse, opting out is a hassle.
W. David Gardner / InformationWeek:
WiMax Versus WiMax In Texas Towns — The battle is likely a harbinger of the wireless future in which different high speed wireless technologies will compete against each other on a wide scale. — Mobile WiMax is still in its deployment infancy, but two providers are already competing …
James Carswell / Periscopix:
Google Testing New PPC Ad Layout in SERPs — With increasing numbers of people throwing out their bulky old CRT monitors and switching to large flat screen monitors with their increased resolutions, this is a very welcome change to the search engine results page (SERP) layout on Google.
Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
Computer ‘agents’ take to the web — Artificial intelligence technology could soon make the internet an even bigger haven for bargain-hunters. — Software “agents” that automatically negotiate on behalf of shoppers and sellers are about to be set free on the web for the first time.
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Marissa Mayer On iGoogle's New “Social Gadgets” — This morning Google is rolling out a program in Australia enabling developers to create “social gadgets” that permit sharing, collaboration and groups on the iGoogle homepage. The social gadgets will come to the US and other markets in the future, but the timing is undetermined.
Apple:
About the Mac OS X v10.5.8 Update — The Mac OS X v10.5.8 Update is recommended for Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard users and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac. For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit this website.
Discussion:
eWeek, Macworld, Softpedia News, InformationWeek, Electricpig, Ars Technica, Support, AppScout, ChannelWeb, AppleInsider, TheAppleBlog, TidBITS, Edible Apple, Security Watch, TechCrunch, Boy Genius Report, CrunchGear, Redmond Pie, The iPhone Blog, 9 to 5 Mac, blogs.chron.com, MacFixIt, Digital Daily, TUAW, The Mac Observer, Lifehacker, Neowin.net, Engadget, Pocket-lint.com, Gizmodo, EverythingiCafe and digg.com
Rory Maher / Silicon Alley Insider:
Sirius Lives! — Sirius XM (SIRI) reported Q2 ‘09 earnings essentially in-line with consensus estimates, with a subscriber loss that was not as bad as many expected, though still down from last year. — Sirius’ increase in full-year guidance and less-than-expected sub loss may have accounted …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Arrington's CrunchPad Will Be ‘A Real Hit’, Says Best Buy Marketing Boss — Best Buy (BBY) chief marketing officer Barry Judge just met with the “chief blogger” at TechCrunch. Presumably, that's Michael Arrington. — Judge also took a peek at the CrunchPad, Arrington's Web-only tablet PC project.
Discussion:
GottaBeMobile.com
Peter Svensson / Associated Press:
Iowa 911 call center becomes first to accept texts — An emergency call center in the basement of the county jail in Waterloo, Iowa, became the first in the country to accept text messages sent to “911,” starting Wednesday. — Call centers around the country are looking at following in its footsteps …
Discussion:
Gearlog
