Saturday, August 14, 2010

Apple manager arrested in kickback scheme (Pete Carey/Mercury News)

Pete Carey / Mercury News:
Apple manager arrested in kickback scheme  —  A midlevel Apple manager was arrested and accused of accepting more than $1 million in kickbacks from half a dozen Asian suppliers of iPhone and iPod accessories, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday and a separate civil suit.

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Google Briefly Punishes Oracle by Removal from Google Search (Gene Quinn/IPWatchdog.com)

Gene Quinn / IPWatchdog.com:
Google Briefly Punishes Oracle by Removal from Google Search  —  Late yesterday Oracle announced in an exceptionally brief and direct press release that it had filed a lawsuit against Google.  The statement issued by Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman simply said: “In developing Android …

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Google never removed Oracle from its index (Giorgio/Invisible to the eye)

Giorgio / Invisible to the eye:
Google never removed Oracle from its index  —  Some folks have been reporting a strange behavior assumed by Google after the lawsuit filed by Oracle against Android and Google: it supposedly removed oracle.com pages, and all the pages that talk about Oracle, from its search index.

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The Oracle-Google Mess: A Question ... (Groklaw)

Groklaw:
The Oracle-Google Mess: A Question - Are Any of the Patents Tied to a Specific Machine?  - Updated 3Xs: Google Speaks  —  On the Oracle v. Google litigation announcement, here's something that I don't see anyone else mentioning yet.  —  On the Oracle patents, in a post-Bilski world, the right question would seem to be:

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How I Made Money Spamming Twitter with Contextual Book Suggestions (Charles Hooper)

Charles Hooper:
How I Made Money Spamming Twitter with Contextual Book Suggestions  —  Two winters ago I left a position as a system administrator that was paying pretty well and moved cross-country to a region with less jobs than where I moved from.  Three months later, I was still unemployed, broke, and bored.

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Google and the Search for the Future (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr/Wall Street Journal)

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr / Wall Street Journal:
Google and the Search for the Future  —  The Web icon's CEO on the mobile computing revolution, the future of newspapers, and privacy in the digital age.  —  To some, Google has been looking a bit sallow lately.  The stock is down.  Where once everything seemed to go the company's way …

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Protesters at Google HQ Demand End to Verizon Net Neutrality Proposal (Dawn Kawamoto/DailyFinance)

Dawn Kawamoto / DailyFinance:
Protesters at Google HQ Demand End to Verizon Net Neutrality Proposal  —  Mr. Schmidt, where are you?  —  Protesters outside Google's (GOOG) headquarters in Silicon Valley called out to CEO Eric Schmidt today, demanding that he come out and meet with them to receive their gift …

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Friday, August 13, 2010

Probe of Bribery at H-P Heats Up (David Crawford/Wall Street Journal)

David Crawford / Wall Street Journal:
Probe of Bribery at H-P Heats Up  —  The U.S. Department of Justice has asked Hewlett-Packard Co. to provide a trove of internal records as part of an international investigation into allegations that H-P executives paid bribes in Russia, according to people familiar with the investigations.

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Zynga Hires Former Facebook, MySpace Exec Owen Van Natta (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch)

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Zynga Hires Former Facebook, MySpace Exec Owen Van Natta  —  Zynga has hired former Facebook Chief Revenue Officer and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta as EVP Business, reporting to CEO Mark Pincus.  Van Natta was most recently in the news in February, when he stepped down as CEO of MySpace after just less than a year on the job.

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Initial Thoughts on Oracle vs Google Patent Lawsuit (Miguel de Icaza)

Miguel de Icaza:
Initial Thoughts on Oracle vs Google Patent Lawsuit  —  Today Oracle sued Google over Java patents and copyrights that they claim Google's Android OS infringes.  The lawsuit claims that Google knowingly infringed on those patents, and that the continued distribution of Google's Android is harming Oracle's Java Business.

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PayPal Talking With Google About Handling Android Payments (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
PayPal Talking With Google About Handling Android Payments  —  EBay Inc.'s PayPal business is in talks to add its payment service to Google Inc.'s Android smartphone software, making it easier for users to pay for applications, three people familiar with the matter said.

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The $99 Kindle - Why e-readers will soon cost less than $100. (Farhad Manjoo/Slate)

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
The $99 Kindle - Why e-readers will soon cost less than $100.  —  Late last month, Amazon unveiled a new version of its Kindle e-book reader that, like every new Kindle, is thinner, lighter, and smaller than the previous one.  It's also the cheapest Kindle ever—the new Wi-Fi version sells for just $139.

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The problem with Google Voice Actions for Android (Garett Rogers/Googling Google Blog)

Garett Rogers / Googling Google Blog:
The problem with Google Voice Actions for Android  —  Google Voice actions is a “cool” new feature for Android (Froyo 2.2).  With this new feature you are able to tell your phone what to do, with just your voice.  How about some of these examples:  —  1) “send text to bob hey are you coming for lunch or what?”

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Notion Ink Adam: Pricing and more (Chris Davies/SlashGear)

Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Notion Ink Adam: Pricing and more  —  In part one of our Notion Ink feature, we looked at the reasons for the delay in production of the Adam slate.  Happily the company didn't rest on their laurels while investor and ODM issues were ironed out.  After the cut, details of hardware and software changes …

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Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android (Google Mobile Blog)

Google Mobile Blog:
Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android  —  (cross-posted with the Official Google Blog)  —  Our mobile phones have become modern-day Swiss Army knives.  An Android phone is a handheld computer, a music player, a notepad, a GPS navigation unit and more, all rolled into one sleek device that fits in your pocket.

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Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal (Richard Whitt/Google Public Policy Blog)

Richard Whitt / Google Public Policy Blog:
Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal  —  Over the past few days there's been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon.  On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become …

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Instantly zap links, maps and phone numbers to your Android phone ... (Dave Burke/Google Mobile Blog)

Dave Burke / Google Mobile Blog:
Instantly zap links, maps and phone numbers to your Android phone with Chrome to Phone!  —  (Cross-posted from the Google Chrome blog.)  —  Ever wanted a way to quickly and easily send links and other information from your desktop or laptop to your phone to view on the go?

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Attack reads smudges to retrieve Android password patterns (Dan Goodin/The Register)

Dan Goodin / The Register:
Attack reads smudges to retrieve Android password patterns  —  Oily residue ‘surprisingly persistent’  —  Smudges left on Android touch screens leave tell-tale signs that can often be used to recover password pattens used to lock the phones, according to research presented earlier this week.

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A body caught on Google Street View? ... (Andy Dolan/Daily Mail)

Andy Dolan / Daily Mail:
A body caught on Google Street View?  Don't worry it's just me playing dead, says girl, ten  —  It is a suburban scene much like millions of others on Google's Street View site... apart from one chilling addition.  —  Lying face down on the pavement with her shoe inches away from the gutter appears to be the body of a young girl.

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HP board sued over Hurd ousting (Erica Ogg/CNET News)

Erica Ogg / CNET News:
HP board sued over Hurd ousting  —  The first lawsuit on behalf of a shareholder has been filed against Hewlett-Packard in connection to the resignation of former CEO Mark Hurd.  —  The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday that a Connecticut law firm is representing HP shareholder …

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Oracle Sues Google For Patent And Copyright Infringement (Dan Frommer/Silicon Alley Insider)

Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Oracle Sues Google For Patent And Copyright Infringement  —  Software giant Oracle is suing Google for patent and copyright infringement based on Android's use of Java.  (Oracle acquired Java-maker Sun last year.)  —  No details in the release, via Marketwatch, but we assume Google was given …

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Oracle sues Google over Android and Java (Tom Krazit/CNET News)

Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Oracle sues Google over Android and Java  —  Two Silicon Valley heavyweights are about to reenact the Java wars: this time, in a court room.  —  Oracle issued a press release late Thursday saying it has filed suit against Google for infringing on copyrights and patents related to Java …

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India gives RIM until Aug 31 to yield on BlackBerry ( /Reuters)

/ Reuters:
India gives RIM until Aug 31 to yield on BlackBerry  —  (Reuters) - India may temporarily shut down BlackBerry services if security concerns are not addressed in a Thursday meeting of telecom officials and operators, the latest global headache for smartphone maker Research in Motion.

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Hollywood Groups Weigh In on FCC Internet Reclassification (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Hollywood Groups Weigh In on FCC Internet Reclassification  —  An alphabet soup of entertainment-industry groups submitted briefs to the Federal Communications Commission today as part of its request for comment on a framework for broadband services.  —  Specifically, whether or not to reclassify …

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Google accuses California of rigging bidding process for e-mail contract (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Times:
Google accuses California of rigging bidding process for e-mail contract  —  Google tried to compete for the pact but never formally joined the race because state officials drew up a lengthy list of requirements the company said was impossible for it to meet.

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Motorola Droid 2 Teardown (iFixit)

iFixit:
Motorola Droid 2 Teardown  —  Is this the Droid we're looking for?  Why yes!  Yes it is!  We've acquired the latest smartphone on the market, the Motorola Droid 2.  Join us as we break down this Droid into its most basic components.

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Judge orders identities of commenters be revealed (Mary Niederberger/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Judge orders identities of commenters be revealed  —  Anonymous bloggers beware.  You may not be as anonymous as you think.  —  Forward Township Supervisor Thomas DeRosa has won a court victory in the action that he filed in November to uncover the identities of people who posted comments …

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Axon Logic Hackintosh Tablet May Just Out-iPad The iPad (Devin Coldewey/CrunchGear)

Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
Axon Logic Hackintosh Tablet May Just Out-iPad The iPad  —  Back in April we heard word of an affordable hackintosh tablet called the Axon Haptic.  We were skeptical, since all we had was an anonymous tip and a render — something any 3D concept artist could have cooked up in an hour or two.

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Facebook Launching Official Live Streaming Channel: Facebook Live (Sarah Perez/ReadWriteWeb)

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Facebook Launching Official Live Streaming Channel: Facebook Live  —  Today at 3 PM PST (6 EST), Facebook will unveil its new official live video streaming channel, Facebook Live.  To kick off the launch, actress America Ferrera will stop by Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto …

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PayPal hopes to make micropayments easier online (Rachel Metz/Associated Press)

Rachel Metz / Associated Press:
PayPal hopes to make micropayments easier online  —  SAN FRANCISCO — PayPal wants to make it easier to buy low-cost digital goods online, whether it's a single article on a news website or virtual items in a video game.  —  Scott Thompson, the online payment service's president …

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How a 16-yo Kid Made His First Million Dollars Following His Hero, Steve Jobs (Jesus Diaz/Gizmodo)

Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
How a 16-yo Kid Made His First Million Dollars Following His Hero, Steve Jobs  —  His name: Christian Owens.  His age: 16.  He made his first million dollars in two years, “inspired by Apple's CEO Steve Jobs”.  This is how he did it.  —  The British teen—who lives in Corby, Northamptonshire—got his first computer age seven.

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The top countries on Facebook (chart) (Royal Pingdom)

Royal Pingdom:
The top countries on Facebook (chart)  —  Facebook recently passed an incredible milestone, 500 million active users.  And it keeps growing.  —  Although Facebook initially focused on the United States, it soon turned its eyes towards the horizon and the rest of the world.

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Google, Just Cut The BS And Give The Gordon Gekko Speech Already (MG Siegler/TechCrunch)

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google, Just Cut The BS And Give The Gordon Gekko Speech Already  —  The past few days I've been bookmarking posts about Google, Verizon, and net neutrality to read later.  For the past few hours I've been doing that — and I've barely made a dent.  It seems that everyone who has ever written …

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Google Is Having a Pretty Crappy Friday the 13th (New York Magazine)

New York Magazine:
Google Is Having a Pretty Crappy Friday the 13th  —  Ah, the life of a company with a market capitalization of $156.8 billion — it isn't always that easy.  Google's been hung in effigy in the press all week for selling out on net neutrality (in particular the idea that it wants to create a tiered …

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Apple Rumor: iTV Hitting in the Fall, $99? (Adrianne Jeffries/ReadWriteWeb)

Adrianne Jeffries / ReadWriteWeb:
Apple Rumor: iTV Hitting in the Fall, $99?  —  Rumors about the next iteration of Apple TV have coalesced around a few key facts - the device is expected to be named iTV, in the style of the company's more successful offerings, run customers an easy $99 and hit sometime in the fall.

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Deconstructing the Google-Verizon Framework (Larry Downes/Technology Liberation Front)

Larry Downes / Technology Liberation Front:
Deconstructing the Google-Verizon Framework  —  I've just published a long analysis for CNET of the proposed legislative framework presented yesterday by Google and Verizon.  —  The proposal has generated howls of anguish from the usual suspects (see quotes appearing in Cecilia Kang …

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Flipping for Gesture Search (Yang Li/Google Mobile Blog)

Yang Li / Google Mobile Blog:
Flipping for Gesture Search  —  You may already be familiar with Gesture Search, our Android app from Google Labs that lets you search by writing out characters on the touchscreen of your device.  Today we're happy to announce a new version, Gesture Search 1.2, which includes a new motion gesture.

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Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype rumbles into the wild (video) (Vlad Savov/Engadget)

Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype rumbles into the wild (video)  —  Did it get hot in here all of a sudden or is it just this extremely sexy prototype we're looking at?  Yes, the Dell Thunder that boomed onto your internet screens back in April is back, and this time we've got video of it too.

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Hackers Hijack Gmail in China (Austin Carr/Fast Company)

Austin Carr / Fast Company:
Hackers Hijack Gmail in China  —  Here in the U.S., we've been complaining about Gmail for its new design (Why do we need a “Mail” button and “Inbox” button only an inch apart!?!).  In China, they're complaining about Gmail too, but for a very different reason.

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Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Device Sales Grew 13.8 Percent ... (Gartner)

Gartner:
Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Device Sales Grew 13.8 Percent in Second Quarter of 2010, But Competition Drove Prices Down  —  Android Became the World's Third Most Popular Smartphone Operating System and Claimed Top Spot in the U.S  —  Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 325.6 million units …

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Sprint Epic 4G Android Slider Phone Engages on August 31 for $250 (Jason Chen/Gizmodo)

Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Sprint Epic 4G Android Slider Phone Engages on August 31 for $250  —  Sprint's second 4G Android phone, the Samsung Epic 4G, is going to be available August 31 with a $100 rebate to make it $250. … The phone is based off the same core as the other Samsung Galaxy S devices …

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Pushing Our (Tweet) Button (Cpen/Twitter Blog)

Cpen / Twitter Blog:
Pushing Our (Tweet) Button  —  Twitter is great for sharing interesting things you find on the web.  In fact, close to a quarter of all Tweets include a link in them.  Despite the high volume of sharing, there is plenty of room to make it easier.  Copying and pasting, link shortening …

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Twitter Tweet Button (Nick Halstead/TweetMeme Blog)

Nick Halstead / TweetMeme Blog:
Twitter Tweet Button  —  Back at the beginning of 2009 we produced a little green web button that counted how many times users shared a link on Twitter.  We started out with a simple idea ‘How can we get more people to share content on Twitter’ - and today we return to that simple thought.

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Quick Change in Strategy for a Bookseller (Julie Bosman/New York Times)

Julie Bosman / New York Times:
Quick Change in Strategy for a Bookseller  —  In the movie “You've Got Mail,” Tom Hanks played the aggressive big-box retailer Joe Fox driving the little bookshop owner played by Meg Ryan out of business.  —  Twelve years later, it may be Joe Fox's turn to worry.

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Can Google Get Social Networking Right? (Erica Naone/Technology Review)

Erica Naone / Technology Review:
Can Google Get Social Networking Right?  —  The company has many social projects, but may struggle to improve on Facebook.  —  Rumors that Google is building a new social network have persisted since late June, when Kevin Rose, CEO of Digg.com, posted on Twitter that the Web giant was working on a challenger to Facebook.

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Exclusive: Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3. gaming platform ... (Joshua Topolsky/Engadget)

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Exclusive: Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform and PSP Go-like smartphone  —  There's no question that gaming on the Android platform has heretofore been relatively underwhelming, but that looks like it's all about to change.  It seems that Sony Ericsson …

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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Confirmed: HOPA Dry Erase Girl Is A Hoax, Identity Revealed (Alexia Tsotsis/TechCrunch)

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: HOPA Dry Erase Girl Is A Hoax, Identity Revealed  —  “Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)” is indeed a hoax, say its creators John and Leo Resig.  —  I'd love to pull out some well-worn meta-media analysis about how memes are increasingly …

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Updates to Contacts and a (slightly) new look for Gmail (Benjamin Grol/Gmail Blog)

Benjamin Grol / Gmail Blog:
Updates to Contacts and a (slightly) new look for Gmail  —  We're constantly reviewing user feedback about Gmail, and for a while now the number one request has been for a better contacts experience.  You've asked us to generally make Contacts easier to use, as well as for specific improvements …

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Why Google Became A Carrier-Humping, Net Neutrality Surrender Monkey (UPDATED) (Ryan Singel/Epicenter)

Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
Why Google Became A Carrier-Humping, Net Neutrality Surrender Monkey (UPDATED)  —  ANALYSIS — In 2007, when the Android OS was still vaporware, Google made a gutsy $4.6 billion bet on mobile net neutrality.  While they never had to pay out the money, that all-in move forced the FCC …

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What New Features Will Google Reveal at Mobile Event Thursday? (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
What New Features Will Google Reveal at Mobile Event Thursday?  Some Think It Should Be Integrated Video Calling.  —  Today, Google sent out a notice that it would be holding a press event Thursday morning at its San Francisco offices, where the search giant would be “unveiling a couple of cool new mobile features.”

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