Digital Travel Assistant TripIt Flies Into Windows. A popular travel app made by Concur, TripIt, is now available for Windows mobile devices. The company introduced their Windows app shortly after Google jumped heavily into the travel space with the purchase of Zagat and the debut of a flight search feature, and amid buzz about the new Windows 8 mobile operating system due from Microsoft.
New York Times More Or Less Confirms iPhone 5. The New York Times more or less officially confirms that the new iPhone 5 is due in early October, and that it’ll arrive alongside a redesigned new phone that’s an evolution of the iPhone 4 and due to cost less for the pre-pay market. Other sources are now confident that the iPhone 5 really is a radically overhauled design, thinner and with a camera that’s so good it can rival point-and-shoot units. Some sources suggest supplies may be tight at first. –KE
–Updated 10:15 a.m. EST
U.K. Cloud Company Challenges Amazon On Security. Amazon is facing new competition for its cloud storage facilities from U.K. startup Memset. The firm’s Memstore system uses Rackspace’s and NASA’s joint software product OpenStack to drive it, and has scalable offerings to suit different-sized businesses. Touting its high security, Memstore also hopes to attract non-U.S. businesses that don’t want their data exposed to U.S. authorities–which have been threatening that the Patriot Act lets them see data held by U.S. cloud store companies, even if it’s a non-U.S. firm and is housed overseas. –KE
RIM’s Second Quarter Results Disappoint, Stocks Drop. RIM fell short of investor’s predictions for sales this quarter. According to RIM’s second quarter results, it shipped 200,000 PlayBooks (compared to Apple’s 9.25 million iPads) and 10.6 million BlackBerrys. At close of trading yesterday, RIM’s stock dropped 49 percent this year, Bloomberg reports. —NS
Facebook, Twitter, RIM Reps Grilled Over London Riots. A U.K. home affairs committee posed questions to representatives from Twitter, Facebook and Research In Motion, regarding the possible suspension of communication on social media during times of unrest. RIM’s U.K. managing director Stephen Bates, said the company would cooperate with the law if such a suspension was in place. Alexander Macgillivray, general counsel for public policy, Twitter, said Twitter had not encountered any case where shutting down communication has been a good idea, and added, “It’s clear from any communications device ever invented that some people will use it to break the law.” —NS
NASA Spots Star Wars Planet. Observations from the Kepler space telescope have led astronomers to a gaseous planet 200 light years away which orbits not one, but two stars as part of a far away binary solar system. Sunsets on that planet would be even more brilliant than those George Lucas’ team conjured up for their Tatooine, New Scientist reports. The two stars near the newly discovered planet are not the same size, and the larger orange star would be 100 times as bright as the dimmer red star. Also, the stars orbit each other, and to a viewer on the planet, the distance between the them would appear to be constantly changing. —NS
Updated 6:50 a.m. EST
[Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle]
Yesterday’s Fast Feed:
Square’s Data Viz Tool, Google Plus API Arrives, Rhapsody Goes Social, New Languages on Twitter, and more…
