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11:35 PM ET, August 3, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Alex Wagner / PhoneDog.com:
BlackBerry Torch for AT&T: available August 12 for $199.99 … It may have been outed early a couple of times this morning, but now the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is officially official, complete with pricing and availability.  The Torch will be available on AT&T beginning August 12th for $199.99 with a two-year contract.
RELATED:
Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry Torch 9800 hands on  —  We wrapped up the RIM and AT&T event with some hands on time with the just-announced though hardly-a-secret BlackBerry Torch 9800.  Here are some first impressions:  — The hardware (casing, build quality, feel) is typical RIM — it's great.
Wilson Rothman / msnbc.com:
Underwhelming BlackBerry spells doom for RIM  —  Looks like the smart phone industry's 800-pound gorilla is losing weight  —  On Tuesday, Research In Motion needed a miracle.  It needed a fresh-faced BlackBerry and an operating system that made people say “whoa.”
Discussion: Gizmodo and LAPTOP Mag, Thanks:wjrothman
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
RIM attempts to create Apple-like buzz with BlackBerry Torch event
Google Mobile Blog:
Introducing the new Search History link on Google  —  Have you ever tried to remember how to get back to a website that you found from a recent search?  Today in the US, we're launching a new search history feature which helps you quickly get back to sites you've been to and see items …
Financial Times:
Motorola and Verizon team up for TV tablet  —  Motorola is developing a digital tablet device that will allow users to watch television on it, as the US mobile phone group attempts to chip away at a market established by Apple's popular iPad.  —  The device, which will have a 10-inch screen …
Chris Pendleton / Bing Maps Blog:
Bing's Bringing Sexy Maps  —  Over the last few weeks a few of you lucky ducks got to experience a new map type we were flighting.  Around 10% of users were seeing our new maps in all its aesthetic glory.  Today, we're releasing it to everyone.  The new map type has two experiences …
RELATED:
Dan Nosowitz / Fast Company:
Bing Maps Re-Routed to Look Smarter and Calculate Your Cab Fare
Discussion: Gizmodo and Ars Technica
Mike Schackwitz / The Windows Blog:
The new Hotmail is now available to everyone!  —  Here at Hotmail, we've had quite a busy week!  All of our customers are now upgraded.  The majority of you got the new Hotmail just this past week, as we completed the rollout to over 350 million people in more than 220 countries around the world.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Once The Most Powerful Person In Search, Srinija Srinivasan Leaves Yahoo  —  Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, the most powerful person in search was arguably Yahoo's Srinija Srinivasan.  If Yahoo's was the “gateway” to the web in the way some think Google is today, Srinivasan was the chief gatekeeper.
Discussion: Yodel Anecdotal and ResourceShelf, Thanks:atul
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Microsoft teases something ‘flat’ and ‘touchy’  —  Microsoft Hardware was a bit of a late-comer to Twitter, but it sure is making up for lost time — it's just posted a pair of intriguing tweets teasing as yet unannounced product.  The first is simply the phrase “Don't be so touchy …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Barnes & Noble on the block: Will a sale help it versus Amazon?  —  Barnes & Noble has been under attack from Amazon for years whether it be the physical bookstore retail model, e-commerce or e-books and e-readers.  Now the company is evaluating “strategic alternatives” including a possible sale.
RELATED:
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Foxit eSlick E-Reader Nears its End
Discussion: SlashGear, OhGizmo! and The Next Web
Josh Nguyen / Flickr Blog:
Welcome to your new photo page  —  After a few weeks in public preview, we're rolling out the new Flickr photo page to 100% of the Flickrverse.  Our effort in this release focuses on two areas that will continue to make Flickr the very best place for your photos.
Discussion: Mashable! and Daring Fireball, Thanks:rawmeet
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Apple Security Breach Gives Complete Access to Your iPhone  —  Right now, if you visit a web page and load a simple PDF file, you may give total control of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to a hacker.  The security bug affects all iOS 4 devices and the iPad.  —  The vulnerability is easily exploitable.
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Multiple Sign-in, Now Available  —  Google is rolling out a feature I mentioned in a previous post: signing in to multiple Google accounts simultaneously from the same browser.  When you go to the Google accounts page, you might see a new option: “multiple sign-in”.
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Google Earth Used To Fine People With Pools, Again  —  “Under the table” pools may be the catalyst of the next technology revolution in government.  During last February's economic collapse in Greece, the normally technophobic Greek government used Google Maps and Google Earth to find people …
John Schwartz / New York Times:
F.B.I., Challenging Use of Seal, Gets Back a Primer on the Law  —  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken on everyone from Al Capone to John Dillinger to the Unabomber.  Its latest adversary: Wikipedia.  —  The bureau wrote a letter in July to the Wikimedia Foundation …
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Is Verizon lying about the Droid's capabilities?  —  Yesterday, Verizon made it clear that while the original Droid would be getting Android 2.2, it would not be getting one of Android 2.2′s most coveted features: WiFi HotSpot.  In other words, you wouldn't be able to flip a switch …
Discussion: eWeek, Gadget Lab and Electronista
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
FOIA Denial All But Confirms FTC Probe of Apple's Anti-Adobe Rules  —  The Federal Trade Commission has nearly 200 pages of records related to a purported complaint by Adobe against Apple for banning iPhone developers from using its authoring tools to make iPhone apps.
Discussion: TeleRead and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:atul
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Skyhook Will Take the Location Battle to Court  —  Skyhook Wireless took a beating recently as news surfaced that one of its flagship customers is now using its own location data rather than the database provided by the Boston-based startup.  Skyhook, which maintains a collection …
Discussion: Internet2Go
Jon Swartz / USA Today:
‘Start-up King’ Mike Cassidy strikes Silicon Valley gold  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Entrepreneurs rarely succeed in Silicon Valley— much less repeat success.  —  Twice was the charm for Steve Jobs (Apple and Pixar) and Marc Andreessen (Netscape and Loudcloud).  Jim Clark achieved a trifecta (Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Healtheon).
Discussion: DealBook
Joseph Radford / Reuters:
Sharp plans to launch 3D smartphone this year  —  (Reuters) - Sharp Corp plans to take on Apple's iPhone by the end of the year, with the international launch of a smartphone featuring a 3D panel that can be viewed without special glasses, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
BBC:
Web attack knows where you live  —  The attack exploits the way routers handle requests for ID information  —  One visit to a booby-trapped website could direct attackers to a person's home, a security expert has shown.  —  The attack, thought up by hacker Samy Kamkar …
Antonio Garcia-Martinez / AdGrok:
New York will always be a tech backwater, I don't care what Chris Dixon or Ron Conway or Paul Graham say  —  Last Tuesday, legendary tech investor Ron Conway addressed the glop-eating masses at Y Combinator during our usual Tuesday illustrious-speaker dinner.
Discussion: Stowe Boyd
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
How Apple's App Store Censoring Process Works  —  Minutes after telling you about Funny Shoppers—an iPhone application that showcases the trashiest of Walmart's clientele—Apple deleted it from their store.  It wasn't a surprise.  What happened before and after shows how arbitrary their app censoring process is.
 
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 More Items: 
Robert McMillan / Computerworld:
Google fixes flaw in Audio CAPTCHA
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
fflick's Sentiment Engine Turns Twitter Into A Crowdsourced Movie Critic
Audrey Watters / ReadWriteWeb:
Scholars Build Blog-to-eBook Tool in One Week
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Cloud-based iTunes could be about the video, not the music
Steve Cheney / TechCrunch:
Why Checking Into Foursquare With Your Phone in Your Pocket Won't Always Work
Discussion: App Advice and Telegraph
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft's LightSwitch: Building business apps for Web, PCs and cloud
 Earlier Items: 
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
UPDATED: EMusic Gets a New CEO, Promises Cloud-Based Locker Service For 2011
Discussion: VentureBeat and paidContent
Economist:
The end of Wintel  —  As Microsoft and Intel move apart, computing becomes multipolar
Discussion: Cult of Mac and broadstuff
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables