AP - Lenovo Group, the world's fourth-largest personal computer maker, reported a $16 million quarterly loss Thursday and said it faces pressure from weak global demand and intense competition.

AFP - The death of a teenage Internet addict allegedly beaten to death at a rehab camp in south China has triggered calls from medical experts for regulation on treatments for the problem.

Reuters - British cable operator Virgin Media pushed its customers to spend record amounts on its combined broadband, TV and phone offers in the second quarter and said on Thursday growth prospects remained strong.

PC World - Kinpo Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics maker, debuted a new netbook on Thursday with a Via Nano microprocessor and integrated 3G/WiMax chipset to make sure users are always connected to the Internet.

Reuters - British cable operator Virgin Media lost twice as many customers as expected in the second quarter but pushed their average spend to a record high, keeping revenues flat and in line with market expectations.

AFP - ITV on Thursday said it had agreed to sell social networking website Friends Reunited after Britain's biggest commercial television broadcaster posted a first-half pretax loss of 105 million pounds.

Reuters - Imagine waving your cell phone and being admitted through the turnstile of a subway station, or ordering and paying for a gift without once having to open your wallet or enter a credit-card number.

AP - DirectTV Group Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter profit fell 11 percent, but its revenue climbed as the digital and satellite TV provider signed up new subscribers in the U.S. and Latin America.

Reuters - Will Wright, the creator behind top-selling videogame 'The Sims,' is eyeing life outside the virtual world.

AP - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter profit fell 31 percent amid losses tied to foreign currency translation and a charge from selling its stake in Orc Software.

PC World - Integrated Device Technology (IDT) agreed on Thursday to outsource chip manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), a move that means its Oregon chip factory will be sold or shut within the next two years.

AP - Sprint and Samsung are going to start selling a $50 'eco-conscious' phone with a casing of biodegradable plastic.

AP - T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the country, says it added a net 325,000 subscribers in the second quarter, with most of them choosing to prepay rather than sign two-year contracts.

Macworld.com - Native Instruments has introduced Kontakt Player, a free software instrument based on its Kontakt 3 sampler. It offers universal playback for available Kontakt libraries and forms the basis of a new category of 'Kontakt-powered' instruments.

AFP - ITV, Britain's loss-making TV broadcaster, said Thursday it had agreed to sell website Friends Reunited for 25 million pounds, a fraction of what it paid for the pioneering social networking site.

NewsFactor - While the Mac-using world awaits the fall arrival of Snow Leopard, Apple is doing some cleanup work on the current version of its Macintosh operating system. On Wednesday, Apple patched 18 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X.

Macworld.com - After much consideration, I finally dove into the do-it-yourself Mac netbook pool. With rumors of an impending Apple tablet spreading like wildfire—including analyses, mock-ups, and even commentary on why a non-existent product is destined to fail—this may seem like an odd time to do such a thing. “Why not just wait and see what Apple’s doing?,” you may be thinking.

PC World - We still don't know exactly when the TomTom for iPhone GPS application will be available. But, we may know how much it will cost: a UK online electronics store has apparently leaked the price of the upcoming app via a pre-order listing.

AFP - Malaysia is considering imposing an Internet filter to block 'undesirable' websites, on the grounds of maintaining racial harmony in the multicultural nation, a senior official said Thursday.

Macworld.com - Barcode Producer, an application aimed at graphic designers and other visual creatives who need to incorporate bar codes into designs, such as for coupons or product labels, has been updated to Version 5.5.

PC Magazine - TiVo on Wednesday added the ability for video podcast providers to publish their shows directly to certain TiVo machines. The DVR service provider also added hundreds of new, free Web videos to its library.

AP - Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says only 'a low single-digit percentage' of new prepaid customers are coming over from Sprint's more lucrative contract-based plans.

AFP - Hackers knocked wildly popular micro-blogging site Twitter offline for several hours Thursday and caused performance stumbles at hot social-networking service Facebook.

AP - DirectTV Group Inc., the nation's largest satellite TV operator, on Thursday reported an 11 percent drop in second-quarter profit as higher customer-acquisition costs offset revenue growth.

AP - A lawsuit over the release of a video game starring Jack Black has apparently been settled.

PC World - It was 12 years ago today, at MacWorld Boston, that Microsoft announced it was saving Apple from almost certain doom. That was a different industry and certainly a different Apple, but without Bill Gates today's Apple probably wouldn't exist.

PC Magazine - The PCMag.com reader consensus is that free products rule, while for-pay security software stinks. But how can good software be developed for free? The developer of the free A/V program Avast explains.

PC World - Sprint dove into the green cell phone market Thursday with the introduction of the Samsung Reclaim, an eco-friendly smartphone built in part from corn-based bio-plastics. The unit will be available Aug. 16 for $49.99 (after rebate with a two-year service agreement) from Sprint, Best Buy and Radio Shack.

Macworld.com - When you get right down to it, small businesses face the same everyday essentials as any working stuff—get paid and pay bills.

AFP - Cyber attacks forced wildly popular micro-blogging site Twitter offline on Thursday and caused performance problems for hot social-networking service Facebook.

AP - Dish Network has filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit accusing ESPN of offering better terms to the satellite TV provider's competitors than to Dish.

Macworld.com - Last weekend a friend stopped by for lunch and to show off his newest purchase—a shiny new SLR camera. Almost as soon as we sat down the questions started. What was the difference between the P and the green square, he asked, pointing to the mode dial. And was using the Portrait mode better than fiddling with the settings himself?

Macworld.com - We’ve become accustomed to the deafening sound of silence in response to criticism of the App Store, so it’s surprisingly gratifying that not only has Apple responded to the recent controversy over the Ninjawords dictionary app, but said response came from no less than Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

Macworld.com - Microsoft on Thursday posted Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 update, an update to its office productivity software suite for the Macintosh. The new update is available for download from Microsoft's Web site. Office also features an auto update mechanism that did not recognize this update as available as Macworld posted this article.

AP - Some details about denial-of-service attacks, like the one Thursday against Twitter.

AP - Visitors to the Web sites of newspapers owned by News Corp. will have to start paying fees to read the news within the next year, Chairman Rupert Murdoch said.

Macworld.com - Is this week’s title in reference to silly technology pundits and their penchant for hyperbole when it come to Apple, the Windows 7 upgrade matrix, the App Store approval process, or the iconic ’60s song by the Temptations?

PC World - Popular social-networking site Facebook was hit with a DoS (denial-of-service) attack Thursday, but the attack did not appear to be as severe as one that crippled Twitter the same day.

PC World - The criminals knew what they were doing when they hit the Western Beaver County School District.

Investor's Business Daily - The nation's two biggest pay-TV companies strutted out mixed second-quarter results on Thursday as they grapple with the weak economy and intensifying competition.

PC World - Microsoft is trying to improve the visuals in Windows 7 by working with hardware makers on a software interface that maximizes the use of graphics cards.

Macworld.com - NewerTech has announced the $150 Intelligent Battery Charging Station, a device designed to charge and condition the batteries used by 13-inch and 15-inch “unibody” MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

AFP - Cyber attacks hammered Twitter, Facebook, and Google, disrupting the hip micro-blogging service and causing stumbles at the hot social-networking site while Google fended off assaults.