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11:05 PM ET, August 12, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
S.F. subway muzzles cell service during protest  —  The operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system asked wireless providers to suspend service last night in four downtown San Francisco stations to interfere with a protest over a shooting by a BART Police officer, a spokesman for the system said today.
RELATED:
Eve Batey / SF Appeal:
BART Defends Decision To Cut Off Cell Service After Civil Rights, FCC Concerns Raised  —  After rumors of a possible protest intended to disrupt service reached BART officials yesterday, they pursued a number of strategies to ensure that didn't happen.  One of those strategies …
Eva Galperin / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
BART Pulls a Mubarak in San Francisco  —  This week, EFF has seen censorship stories move closer and closer to home — first Iran, then the UK, and now San Francisco, an early locus of the modern free speech movement.  Operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) …
Sagar Kamdar / Inside Search:
The latest update to Google Social Search: Public Google+ Posts  —  Back in 2009, we launched Google Social Search, and we've made several improvements since then.  And earlier this year we made an update which let you get more information from people you're connected to on other publicly available sites.
Sam Odio / Sam Odio's blog:
How to use Jonathan's card to buy yourself an iPad  —  Jonathan Stark recently released his Starbucks card to the public as a social experiment.  It was quickly picked up by CNN, Time, and many others.  For those of you who are living under a rock, here's what is going on …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Jeff Bezos wants to put an airbag in your smartphone  —  Many of us have experienced the problem: We get careless with our mobile phones, they slip out of our hands, and all of a sudden we're back at the store replacing a shattered device.  —  Well, none other than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos …
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple will not hold iPhone 5 event on Sept. 7  —  Reports began to surface yesterday that Apple would hold a special event on September 7 to launch the new iPhone, but that's not happening.  —  According to my sources, Apple will not have an event or launch the next iPhone on September 7.
comScore, Inc.:
14 Million Americans Scanned QR or Bar Codes on their Mobile Phones in June 2011  —  Newspapers/Magazines and Product Packaging Most Likely Source of QR Code  —  QR Code Users Most Likely to Scan Code while at Home or Store  —  comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Netflix tests new web UI for kids.  First look  —  Netflix has started to test a separate section for children's content on its website with a UI that is optimized to be used by kids themselves.  Select Netflix members have been getting a new tab labeled “Just For Kids” …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Firefox 8 to block unapproved add-ons  —  Puts an end to sneaky add-ons installed by other software  —  Computerworld - Starting with Firefox 8, Mozilla will automatically block browser add-ons installed by other software until users approve them, a company product manager announced yesterday.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Study: Google+ winning over suburban parents, losing college kids and cafe dwellers  —  New data released by Experian Hitwise today gives a snapshot of the types of people who are adopting Google+, and also those abandoning it after giving it a try, based on the research firm's sample of users.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Facebook Quietly Updates Platform Policies - Developers, No Linking To Competitors!  —  Facebook made some noteworthy changes to its Platform policies on the 27th of July 2011, adding a couple of new terms developers need to take into account when building apps for the Facebook Platform.
Zach Epstein / maramine blog:
The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was... Disclaimer: The Devil Doesn't Pull Tricks  —  It looks like Facebook is finally winning a PR battle.  Good for them.  —  Earlier this week, it was brought to light (again) that Facebook uses several of its smartphone apps to take all of your contacts and store them on its server.
BERNAMA:
South Korean Government Pushes To Phase Out Online Real-Name Policy  —  In the wake of the country's worst online security breach that compromised the personal information of over two-thirds of the population, the home affairs ministry said Thursday it will push to repeal in phases the online real-name verification rules.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Videos Brings Movie Rentals to Android Phones  —  Google's Videos app, the official video player for Android Market movie rentals, has been updated to work on Android smartphones.  Previously, the app was only supported on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the Android tablet operating system.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Clever Girl: Facebook Lets You Export Friends' Email Addresses, But Makes It Opt-In  —  It's now possible to export your Facebook social graph.  Your real social graph, complete with your friends' emails, which means you can leave Facebook and import your social network into a rival site.
Electronista:
AT&T filing hints only $3.8b, not T-Mobile, needed for goals  —  ATT filing hints T-Mobile merger claims inflated  —  AT&T on Thursday accidentally posted a filing (since pulled, available below) that called into doubt one of the core arguments for its buyout of T-Mobile.
Discussion: Android Phone Fans
RELATED:
Adam Zeis / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Sprint cancels plans to sell 4G BlackBerry PlayBook  —  *Update: RIM has issued a statement following this announcement by Sprint. … So don't give up yet if you were waiting for the 4G version of the PlayBook.  It's still coming, we just don't know when or which carriers will end up with it.
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
New Patents Surface for an iPhone Antenna Clip, Solar Energy and a new Oil Resistant Coating for iOS Devices  —  A number of interesting Apple patent applications surfaced at the US Patent & Trademark Office yesterday.  This report will cover three of them.
David Streitfeld / Bits:
Amazon Cracks Down on Some E-Book ‘Publishers’  —  Amazon makes it extremely easy to take a bunch of words and publish them as a book for the Kindle e-reader.  And longtime professional writers like Edward Jay Epstein, the author of books on Hollywood, diamonds and the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr. …
Discussion: mocoNews, TeleRead and Ubergizmo
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Chill, Yes THAT Chill, Is A Turntable.fm For Videos  —  Imagine innocently launching your Facebook app one night and waking up to a bevy of emails saying that Mark Zuckerberg thinks the thing that you built is spamming up HIS precious platform.  And let's say that your app is like a DJ interface for videos …
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
Björk's “App Album” Shows The Way For Musicians  —  Icelandic musician Björk recently released what she claims to be the world's “first app album.”  It's an iPad and iPhone app featuring 10 songs, each song accompanied by an interactive app.  The “mother” app is called Biophilia, which is the name of the album.
Discussion: TUAW and ringtonia.com
Staska / Unwired View:
Compal to start delivery of Windows Phones to Nokia in September. 2 million units ordered for Q4 2011  —  We already told you that first Nokia Windows Phones will be made by Taiwanese Compal.  Today we have some more info about them.  —  This has still to percolate to the English speaking part of the net …
RELATED:
Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Microsoft claims Windows Phone 7.5 launch on September 1 is “just a rumor”
 
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 More Items: 
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Patent Holders Trying To Drag 3rd Parties Into Patent Disputes
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Demand Media's RSS Graffiti Buy Is Good News for a Demand Media Executive
Discussion: @pkafka and The Domains
Kelly Hodgkins / TUAW:
Report: Apple A6 production has begun
Scott Hanselman:
Welcome to the Cloud - “Your Apple ID has been disabled.”
Discussion: parislemon and Daring Fireball, Thanks:tomwarren
Reuters:
German court sets Samsung, Apple hearing for Aug 25
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
U.S. Judge Slaps Around Brazilian Court In Zynga v. Vostu
 Earlier Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Millennial: Android Grabs 53 Percent Of Ad Impressions In Q2; iOS Takes 27 Percent Share
Discussion: GigaOM, AllThingsD, TUAW and Fortune
Stephen Hutcheon / Sydney Morning Herald:
Aussie startup recruits Google Maps inventor
Faith Merino / VatorNews:
Opinionaided secures $4.3M for real-time mobile Q&A
Discussion: MediaPost, VentureBeat and TechCrunch
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
What If Tim Berners-Lee Had Patented The Web?
Discussion: Against Monopoly and Slashdot
Tim Carmody / Epicenter:
When Startups Fail, Investors Recoup by Selling Patents
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Ryan Grim / Drop Site News:
An investigation finds that OCCRP, which works with major newspapers on scoops like the Panama Papers, is primarily bankrolled by the US and its Western allies

Kat Tenbarge / NBC News:
Some reporters say they are finding more readers and less hate on Bluesky, as Elon Musk turns X into an increasingly difficult place for journalists

John Jurgensen / Wall Street Journal:
Paramount co-CEO Chris McCarthy aims to revitalize Showtime by using successful formulas like Yellowstone from Paramount+ and investing in high-profile projects

 
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