Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world today. We’re keeping our eyes on four particular stories of interest today.
YouTube banned in Russia over Racist Video
A Russian court has demanded that a Russian ISP block access to YouTube, as well as the Internet Archive and three online libraries, for hosting extremist videos and writings by Adolf Hitler, respectively.
Russia joins a growing list of governments who have blocked access to the video hosting site, including China, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. YouTube material has also been censored in the U.S. and U.K.
Amazon Releases New Kindle
Amazon has released the Kindle 3, the latest in its e-reader line. The new version is both smaller and lighter, contrast has been improved by 50%, pages turn 20% faster, storage has doubled, and text-to-speech functionality has also improved. Perhaps most impressively, its battery life now lasts up to one month. The device will support a beta WebKit-based browser as well.
The price has also been lowered; the Wi-Fi-only version will cost $139 — $10 less than Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader. The 3G version will retail for $189. The new devices will ship to customers in more than 140 countries and 30 territories beginning August 27.
More Than One Million Android Users’ Info Compromised
At the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas yesterday, attendees learned that the phone, voicemail and subscriber identifier numbers of between 1.1 and 4.6 million Android users were compromised by an app called “Jackeey Wallpaper.” The details were sent to Chinese website imnet.us. [via Gizmodo]
Motorola Earnings Beat Expectations
Motorola has released its second-quarter financial earnings report. Earnings were up $26 million year-over-year at $162 million; overall sales were $5.4 billion. On the less cheerful side, mobile device sales dropped six percent to $1.7 billion, and overall revenue declined 1.5% to $5.4 billion which, although a decline, still beat analysts’ expectations by approximately $200 million.
Further News
Recorded Future, a company that monitors the real-time web in order to “predict the future,” is now being backed by both Google and the CIA [via Wired]; Opera Mini is now serving one billion page views per day; Facebook launched Facebook Questions, which we think needs some serious improvement; Cisco apes the Old Spice YouTube campaign, but no one notices.
Disclosure: Motorola is a past sponsor of Mashable.
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Reviews: Android, Facebook, Google, Mashable, Opera Mini, YouTube
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