Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
2:45 PM ET, August 6, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Dean Goodman / Reuters:
Beatles, iTunes deal still at impasse — Yoko Ono  —  * Widow unveils John Lennon commemorative projects  —  Don't hold your breath waiting for Beatles songs to go on sale at iTunes or other online retailers, Yoko Ono said on Thursday.  —  The Fab Four have long resisted the allure of digital downloads …
David Glazer / The Official Google Blog:
Google and Slide: building a more social web  —  We're excited to announce we've acquired Slide, a social technology company with an extensive history of building new ways for people to connect with others across numerous platforms online.  —  For Google, the web is about people …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Not a Joke: An Apple App Patent (Pic) That Looks Like an Actual App Selling on the App Store  —  Updated at 8.15::  Apple apparently has started filing patents for certain applications.  And one of them looks exactly like an actual app — Where To — that has been available on the iTunes app store for a long time.
RELATED:
Brandon Miniman / pocketnow.com:
New ASUS Windows Phone 7 Device Appears in Pakistan  —  We don't have much information on this (yet) but it looks like an ASUS device running on Windows Phone 7 has been spotted in Pakistan.  Unlike the LG Panther and Samsung Taylor devices that are only intended to be development devices …
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple opens “Try Before You Buy” section in App Store, Step to fight app piracy  —  Apple seems to be adding to and changing up their App Store's featured sections quite frequently.  Today Apple added a new section dedicated to promoting free applications on the App Store.
RELATED:
Gizmodo:
Apple Should Enable 24-Hour Trials for All Paid Apps
Discussion: MobileWhack.com and TUAW
Oleoleolson / AlterNet Blogs:
Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered  —  A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives.
RELATED:
Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Digg investigates claims of conservative ‘censorship’
Discussion: The Huffington Post
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Teardown Photos and Video of Slider Mechanism in Action!  —  Tear down posts of a new smartphone don't normally happen until the new device is available for commercial purchase and somebody is crazy enough to sacrifice it to the tech gods.
Kelvin Soh / Reuters:
Apple in talks to buy China's Handseeing  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc is in takeover talks with Chinese software maker Handseeing, an executive of the Chinese company said on Friday.  —  The deal would be the iPhone maker's first major acquisition in the country.
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Introduces us to the Smart Bike  —  On August 5, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced Smart Bicycle System in development.  The premise is rather like Apple's Nike + iPod system for runners except for cyclists.
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Kinect patent detailed; American Sign Language supported  —  The patent for Microsoft's Kinect console has been unearthed, describing the “gesture keyboarding” system that's tracked by the special PrimeSense-developed depth camera.  Kinect builds a dynamic wireframe representation - or …
Discussion: Edge Magazine and Gizmodo
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Google Loses Discrimination Ruling  —  The California Supreme Court ruled that an age-discrimination lawsuit filed against Google Inc. should proceed to trial, potentially paving the way for more lawsuits that previously were blocked under a theory that crude and possibly discriminatory workplace comments were merely “stray remarks.”
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Private browsing modes in four biggest browsers often fail  —  You've been warned  —  Features in the four major browsers designed to cloak users' browser history often don't work as billed, according to a research paper that warns that users may get a false sense of security when using the built-in privacy settings.
Rebecca / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Court Rejects Warrantless GPS Tracking  —  Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today firmly rejected government claims that federal agents have an unfettered right to install Global Positioning System (GPS) location-tracking devices on anyone's car without a search warrant.
Discussion: Boing Boing, Thanks:atul
Bangkokpost.com:
Saudis block BlackBerry messaging  —  Saudi Arabia suspended BlackBerry messaging services on Friday, users said as concerns spread across the Middle East and parts of Asia over security issues with the popular smartphones.  —  BlackBerry subscribers in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom …
RELATED:
Computerworld:
RIM holds talks with UAE and Saudi Arabia
Discussion: PC World
John Siracusa / Ars Technica:
Can you buy me now?  Apple and the war for the mobile market  —  The short history of the computer industry is dominated by two well-known stories of business triumph and defeat.  The first is the story of how mainframe makers failed to take the personal computer seriously until it was too late.
Discussion: Daring Fireball and MacDailyNews
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
Rdio Gaga: How Spotify's Inferior Rival Is Playing America Like A Violin  —  Poor old Spotify.  Less than a week after Billboard magazine reported that the music-on-demand service had “rebooted” its negotiations with US labels, rival service Rdio has just opened its doors in both the US and Canada …
Discussion: Newsome.Org
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide.net:
Yahoo! organic search results powered by Bing “as early as late August”  —  The Microsoft-Yahoo! Search Alliance continues to progress, and in a post on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog, it looks like the organic (non-paid) phase of the transition is just about complete.  From the blog post:
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 2:45 PM ET, August 6, 2010.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Cultivating creativity and innovation in the modern workspace  —  In the realm of modern business, success depends on more than just delivering products or services—it requires an environment where creativity thrives and new ideas are welcomed.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Andrew Webster / Ars Technica:
Machinarium suffers 90% piracy rate, offers $5 amnesty sale
Discussion: Blue's News
Janko Roettgers / NewTeeVee:
Hadopi Gone Wild: France Plans Spyware for Three Strikes
Discussion: ZeroPaid.com
Adam DuVander / ProgrammableWeb:
Gowalla Officially Released Write API, the Right Way
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
PayPal on Android Lets You Bump Phones to Send Money
Discussion: Teens in Tech
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft begins adding single-sign on support to its Azure cloud
Discussion: MSDN Blogs and Softpedia News, Thanks:rawmeet
Jonathan Zittrain / Technology Review:
Technology Lessons from the Wikileaks Saga
Thanks:atul
 Earlier Items: 
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Zynga Confirms Unoh Acquisition
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Let's Celebrate Google's Biggest Failures!
Arn / MacRumors:
New Images of 4th Generation iPod Touch LCD with FaceTime Camera
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, potentially complicating hiring in Hollywood as firms try to protect trade secrets and other info

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who defends NPR and accuses critics of “bad faith distortion” of her past comments about the First Amendment

Will Sommer / Washington Post:
The founder of The Gateway Pundit says its parent company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as it faces lawsuits claiming it promoted bogus election claims

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page