Samsung Sought To Beat IPhone With Galaxy Nexus, Apple Says  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) said its largest smartphone competitor, Samsung Electronics Co., set out to steal market share by selling a Galaxy Nexus phone that copies its features, including one that makes the iPhone's Siri virtual personal assistant so compelling.

Groupon is not a tech company.  Why was it valued like one?  —  The summer of discontent — well, that's what it seems to be from the perspective of the not-so-new web darlings — might be coming to an end, but months (perhaps years) of misery awaits these erstwhile rocket ships.

Apple Is Not The Most Valuable Company In The History Of The World — IBM Won The Prize In 1967 With A Value of $1.3 Trillion  —  Apple is not the most valuable company in the history of the world.  It's not even Microsoft, which was reported to have been toppled by Apple today.  —  It's IBM by a long shot.

Early Facebook Investor and Board Member Peter Thiel Sells Nearly All Of His Company Shares  —  Billionaire Peter Thiel sold nearly all of his remaining Facebook shares last week according to a financial document filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger  —  In late 2010, Sean Brooks received three e-mails over a span of 30 hours warning that his accounts on LinkedIn, Battle.net, and other popular websites were at risk.  He was tempted to dismiss them as hoaxes …

The Rise Of Third Party Services And Fall Of Google In iOS  —  When Apple introduced iOS 6 to the world at this year's WWDC, one of the most talked about moves was Apple's decision to step away from their partnership with Google Maps and create their own maps app.

AT&T's FaceTime Restrictions Could Be Violating F.C.C. Rules  —  When Apple releases its next version of its mobile operating system iOS this fall, iPhone customers will have the option to place FaceTime video calls over the cellular network, whereas before they could do so only on Wi-Fi.

7 Is The New 10?  Google Showing Fewer Results & More From Same Domain  —  It looks as if Google is testing a move away from showing the traditional 10 listings to only displaying seven, and it also appears that it's even easier than ever for one site to dominates all those results.  —  7 Blue Links

Ofcom approves Everything Everywhere's early UK rollout of 4G services starting September 11  —  We discussed there could be a possibility of 4G services launching in the UK before the end of the year, and now the UK's communications regulator Ofcom has announced it will allow that to happen …

RadioShack No Contract Wireless may be getting ready to launch September 5th  —  Evidence of a RadioShack-branded wireless carrier popped up just a few days ago, and now we have word from another tipster that reveals when it may launch.  As seen above, the screen reveals a planned launch date …

Maxthon mobile Web browser surfs to the iPhone  —  A free iOS app, Maxthon is now available on the iPhone as well as the iPad.  —  iPhone users now have yet another choice for a mobile browser.  —  Maxthon has finally made its debut for Apple's iPhone.  As of today, the new version …

END OF AN ERA: Once-Dominant VC Firm Kleiner Perkins Gets Blown Up In Groupon, Zynga, And Facebook  —  One of the big developments in Silicon Valley in recent years has been a quiet passing of a torch from the venture capital firms that dominated the tech-investing world in the 1990s to a new group that is eating the old group's lunch.

Google: Time to ditch our current software patent system?  —  Google's public policy director says at an Aspen conference that “these patent wars are not helpful to consumers.”  —  ASPEN, Colo. — Google suggested today that it might be time for the U.S. to ditch software patents.

App Developers: Stop Abusing Push!  —  Mobile app developers are abusing push notifications and it has to stop.  Although it's widely understood that it's not an effective strategy to continually ping users with non-critical updates, app developers can't seem to help themselves to the free marketing channel that is the opt-in push.

James Franco and the Galaxy Note 10.1: jacks of all trades, masters of none  —  James Franco — who you probably know best as either Daniel Desario from the short-lived Freaks and Geeks or the son of the Green Goblin in the previous generation of Spider-Man films — has signed …

Apple to Ramp Up 7.85" iPad Mini Production in September?  —  Digitimes reports that the long-rumored 7.85" iPad will begin volume production in September with a target of 4 million units per month. … The goal is said to launch the new device before the 2012 holiday season.  —  iPad Mini mockup (left) by iMore

E-books and the Personal Library  —  As I write this, my personal library is somewhere between the Bay Area and New York, heading east.  I don't know if the truckers have read Kerouac, but the books themselves may be experiencing a sense of adventure.  Some of them have made this American road trip …

Anonymous takes down UK government websites in Assange attack  —  He's not the messiah; he's a very naughty boy  —  Anonymous is claiming to have begun shutting down UK government websites in protest of the treatment of Julian Assange.  —  At around 8pm UT, the UK Justice Department website went …

Next-Generation iPhone Dock/Headphone Jack Assembly Paired with Rear Shell  —  Following up on last week's photos of iPad mini and next-generation iPhone parts including Apple's new, smaller dock connector and the bottom-mounted headphone jack, parts and repair firm iResQ has taken the iPhone part …

Insight: Experts hope to shield cars from computer viruses  —  (Reuters) - A team of top hackers working for Intel Corp's security division toil away in a West Coast garage searching for electronic bugs that could make automobiles vulnerable to lethal computer viruses.