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8:50 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: Ars Technica and Gizmodo, Thanks:wjrothman
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
RIM attempts to create Apple-like buzz with BlackBerry Torch event  —  In an uncharacteristic move, Research in Motion held a media event Tuesday in New York City to generate buzz for its new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone, an AT&T handset with a multi-touch screen and slide-out keyboard.
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 …
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Apple's plan for Lala cloudier than ever  —  SAN FRANCISCO—A speedy launch of an iTunes cloud-music service hasn't materialized the way many at the large record companies expected.  —  The thinking among some music insiders was that once Apple acquired the proper music licenses …
RELATED:
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:   Cloud-based iTunes could be about the video, not the music
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”.
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.
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 …
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 …
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
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 …
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
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: Gadget Lab and Electronista
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
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.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables  —  If you count tablets as notebook PCs, Apple just passed Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell  —  Click to enlarge.  Source: Deutsche Bank  —  Apple is usually considered an also-ran in the global PC market.  —  But the chart at right …
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft's LightSwitch: Building business apps for Web, PCs and cloud  —  Microsoft's “KittyHawk” — a rapid-application-development tool targeted at fledgling coders who are interested in building business applications — now has an official name: Visual Studio LightSwitch.
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.
Thanks:atul
Economist:
The end of Wintel  —  As Microsoft and Intel move apart, computing becomes multipolar  —  THEY were the Macbeths of information technology (IT): a wicked couple who seized power and abused it in bloody and avaricious ways.  Or so critics of Microsoft and Intel used to say …
Discussion: Cult of Mac and broadstuff
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 …
Robert McMillan / Computerworld:
Google fixes flaw in Audio CAPTCHA  —  IDG News Service - Google has fixed a flaw in its Audio CAPTCHA software that could have given scammers a way to automatically set up phony accounts with the company's services.  —  The flaw was described in a post to the Full Disclosure mailing list Monday.
Audrey Watters / ReadWriteWeb:
Scholars Build Blog-to-eBook Tool in One Week  —  Twelve digital humanities scholars walk into a barn-raising... It's not the opening line of a witty joke you try to deliver at your next tenure-track job interview.  —  This past week, a dozen scholars participated in the One Week One Tool workshop …
David K / Mobility Digest:
Microsoft Continues To Screw Up HTML Email In WP7  —  Raise your hand if you've used Windows Mobile and thought that it's ridiculous that every time you get an html email with embedded images that you need to press somewhere to get the content.  And of course if you're offline that means no soup for you.
 
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 More Items: 
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Foxit eSlick E-Reader Nears its End
Discussion: SlashGear, The Next Web and OhGizmo!
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
fflick's Sentiment Engine Turns Twitter Into A Crowdsourced Movie Critic
Steve Cheney / TechCrunch:
Why Checking Into Foursquare With Your Phone in Your Pocket Won't Always Work
Discussion: TUAW and Telegraph
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Mobile Video Revenues Estimated At $548 Million In 2010
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
UPDATED: EMusic Gets a New CEO, Promises Cloud-Based Locker Service For 2011
Discussion: VentureBeat and paidContent
 Earlier Items: 
Marina Zhunich / European Public Policy Blog:
Worrying restrictions on Internet access in Russia
Audrey Watters / ReadWriteWeb:
Venture Capital Human Capital Report Examines Who Gets Funded
Discussion: CB Insights, Xconomy and Black Web 2.0
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Financial Times:
A Venezuelan rights group says the country has cancelled 40+ passports, mostly of journalists and activists, since Nicolás Maduro claimed a re-election victory

Joseph Bernstein / New York Times:
A look at Pod Save America, which gets 20M monthly downloads, and its parent company Crooked Media, as both have grown into institutions in liberal politics

Christopher Cruz / Rolling Stone:
An interview with Puerto Rican Vtuber Ironmouse on recently breaking the Twitch subscriber record with over 326K subs, misconceptions about Vtubing, and more

 
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