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8:35 PM ET, July 30, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Researchers attack my iPhone via SMS  —  LAS VEGAS—Researchers have discovered a way to take complete control over an iPhone merely by sending special SMS messages and demonstrated it on my iPhone at the Black Hat security conference on Wednesday.  —  Although an attacker could exploit …
RELATED:
Dwight / blogs.chron.com:
Calm down: It's not doomsday for your iPhone  —  When the word came down Wednesday that researchers were planning to demonstrate how an iPhone could be remotely controlled by sending it a series of text messages, you'd think the world had ended.  —  The story, which [broke] …
Andrew Brandt / Technologizer:
Your GSM Phone is (Probably) Vulnerable to Malicious Text Messages  —  Virtually all GSM phones (such as Apple's iPhone) and GSM wireless operators (such as AT&T and T-Mobile) on the planet appear to be vulnerable to attacks using specially crafted SMS text messages discovered by security researchers Zane Lackey and Luis Miras.
The Official Google Blog:
I now pronounce you monetized: a YouTube video case study  —  (Cross-posted from the YouTube Biz Blog)  —  Last week the world watched in wonder as Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's wedding party transformed a familiar and predictable tradition into something spontaneous and just flat-out fun.
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
‘Take Back the Beep’ Campaign  —  Over the past week, in The Times and on my blog, I've been ranting about one particularly blatant money-grab by U.S. cellphone carriers: the mandatory 15-second voicemail instructions.  —  Suppose you call my cell to leave me a message.
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Showing Our Thanks to Windows 7 Beta Testers....  Last week, I blogged that members of the Windows Technical Beta Program would not be receiving a complimentary copy of Windows 7.  Normally I hate to be wrong but in this case, I'm stoked that I am.  —  To show our appreciation …
RELATED:
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft does a 180: Tech testers to get a copy of Windows 7 for free
Discussion: PC World
Ryan Block / Engadget:
WSJ: Apple going to CES 2010.  Reality: Nope.  —  This week Gary Shapiro, chief exec of of the CEA (the trade group which puts on CES, and, full disclosure, for which I sometimes consult) held a private dinner with journalists in San Francisco.  According to Dow Jones / WSJ reporter Ben Charny …
RELATED:
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
What the CEA really said about Steve Jobs  —  The Applesphere has been abuzz this morning about the possibility of Steve Jobs giving a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.  —  This emanates from a Wall Street Journal report of a dinner hosted by Gary Shapiro …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
The Pirate Bay Ordered To Close In The Netherlands  —  In an Amsterdam court last week, BREIN's lawyer argued that The Pirate Bay is responsible for millions of copyright infringements every day, and that the site should therefore be blocked to visitors from The Netherlands.
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Dutch Court Sides With Anti-Piracy Group; Says Pirate Bay Must …
Discussion: TorrentFreak
Jon Fortt / Brainstorm Tech:
Bartz and Ballmer on the Yahoo/Microsoft search pact  —  Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pose for the cameras after doing a search deal.  Image: Yahoo  —  Soon after Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) announced their search deal on July 29, I spoke with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz …
Joseph L. Flatley / Engadget:
Motorola Sholes Android phone headed for Verizon?  —  On the lookout for the Motorola / Android / Verizon trifecta, we dug up some handset renders over at motofan.ru that seem to fit the bill quite well, thank you.  According to the site, “Sholes” is a 3.7-inch (480 x 854) …
Nick Wingfield / Digits:
Microsoft Needs Smarter Phones  —  Now that Microsoft has finally cleaned up its act in Internet search and Windows, there's one critical consumer market where the company is still visibly stumbling: mobile phones.  —  Microsoft  —  Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Digits:
Lawsuit: Amazon Ate My Homework  —  An Orwellian gaffe involving the Kindle e-book reader just won't go down the memory hole for Amazon.com.  —  On Thursday, a Chicago-based law firm filed a suit in federal court in Seattle against Amazon on behalf of Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old Michigan high school senior.
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Newsgator Shuts Down Its Online Feed Reader  —  NewsGator, the company behind the popular FeedDemon and NetNewsWire feed readers, just announced that it will shut down the NewsGator Online Reader on August 31, 2009.  The company will provide users with instructions on how to migrate to Google Reader.
John Letzing / MarketWatch:
What's to become of Microsoft's answer to the iPod?  —  The Zune faces steep sales declines, low market share ahead of update  —  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Microsoft Corp.'s quarterly earnings report last week featured a number of grim statistics, including a relatively overlooked …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Firefox Approaches 1 Billion Downloads, Could Hit It Tomorrow  —  Mozilla's Firefox browser is about to hit a major milestone: 1 billion total downloads.  As you can see on this Twitter account set up to monitor the download numbers, it just crossed the 999,000,000 threshold earlier today.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Finally Discontinues Shake?  [Updated]  —  Alongside today's introduction of updated Time Capsule models, Apple appears to have finally discontinued Shake, its long-standing high-end digital compositing and visual effects software package.  While Shake's product pages remain available on Apple's site …
Robert McMillan / PC World:
Meter Hackers Find Free Parking in San Francisco  —  San Francisco's ambitious plans to roll out computerized smart parking meters have hit a snag: They can be hacked for free parking.  —  Security researchers say that it is easy for a technically savvy hacker to make a fake payment card that gives them unlimited free parking.
Ty McMahan / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Film Company Blowtorch Burned By Hedge Fund Flame-Out  —  (The following was originally published in VentureWire, a daily publication covering start-ups and venture capital that, like this blog, is owned by Dow Jones & Co.)  —  Blowtorch Entertainment Corp., the start-up that gathered $50 million …
Discussion: TechFlash and paidContent
The Latest From www.gamezine.co.uk:
TellTale: iPhone more powerful than Wii  —  According to TellTale Games, a mobile phone is more powerful than the Nintendo Wii.  —  That's not something you hear every day, but with the iPhone it doesn't seem too surprising: the thing is a trojan gaming beast, with over 13,000 games.
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
AT&T sees big increase in Wi-Fi connections following iPhone 3.0  —  AT&T saw nearly 15 million users connect to its Wi-Fi network last quarter — a 41 percent increase over the previous quarter — thanks, in part, to the release of iPhone 3.0, which allowed auto-authentication on the wireless carrier's 20,000 hotspots.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The New MySpace Mail Quietly Emerges As A Big-Time Email Competitor  —  We've been covering the new web email project MySpace has been working on in stealth mode for the past several month.  Now it's ready to begin a quiet rollout today, in beta, for users around the globe.
Discussion: paidContent
Joseph Galante / Bloomberg:
EBay Building Software to Replace Skype Technology  —  EBay Inc. is building new software to run its Skype Internet-calling service, a bid to sidestep a licensing dispute with Skype's founders, who have threatened to take back the underlying technology.  —  The new software will be expensive …
Nick Farrell / Inquirer:
Security experts mock Mac security  —  You can't protect your computer with spin  —  FOR AGES Apple has been peddling its Macs as being more secure than PCs simply because hackers could not be bothered targeting them.  —  However according to MSNBC the recent Black Hat security conference …
Discussion: Reuters and Techgeist
Victor Keegan / Guardian:
Virtual worlds are getting a second life  —  We haven't heard much recently about so-called virtual worlds such as Second Life, in which you move around with your own avatar.  Critics must be hoping they have disappeared up their own ether.  Actually, they are booming.
Hiawatha Bray / Boston Globe:
Android system extends grip on smartphone market  —  In the movies, androids are always taking over the world.  In real life, not so much.  —  The invasion began last October, when T-Mobile USA launched its G1 cellphone.  It was the first to feature Android, Google Inc.'s operating system …
Discussion: Computerworld
Mconnor / Mozilla Labs:
Weave 0.5 Released  —  Weave Sync is a prototype that encrypts and securely synchronizes the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, so that your desktop, laptop and mobile phone can all work together.  It is part of the Weave project, which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser.
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:
Developers beware: Apple undermines my6sense app launch  —  Developing apps for the iPhone can be a profitable business, but Apple's review and approval process is still a black box.  Apple's intractable system can foil an app's launch, as happened today for Israeli company my6sense.
Dan Primack / PE Hub Blog:
Andreessen Horowitz Adds Ex-Opsware Execs  —  Newbie venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is a bit of an enigma, when it comes to its public profile.  —  On the one hand, it's impossible to say the firm is in stealth mode, given that Andreessen has done more interviews in the past month than Barack Obama.
 
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 More Items: 
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Joel Tenenbaum admits in court he shared music files
Discussion: Threat Level and p2pnet
Robert Vamosi / PC World:
Former Google VP Suggests User-Based Security at Black Hat
Jay Hathaway / Download Squad:
3jam: Google Voice may have some competition
Discussion: TechCrunch, TUAW and Boy Genius Report
Mike / Best netbook reviews and comparisons …:
Asus UX30 review - portability with style
Discussion: Softpedia News and SlashGear
Steve Ragan / The Tech Herald Technology News:
Breaking: McAfee will acquire MX Logic for $140 million
Discussion: internetnews.com and eWeek
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Measuring reader engagement by how often they copy and paste
Discussion: Snarkmarket
 Earlier Items: 
BBC:
Cable fault cuts off West Africa
NEWS.com.au:
How big is the internet?  —  THE internet has permeated everything …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft spends $925 million to acquire nine companies in '09
Thanks:johnhcook
Neil McAllister / Neil McAllister's blog:
How Wolfram Alpha could change software
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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