Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Sources: Apple planning biggest back-to-school promo yet  —  Apple as early as Monday is expected to announce its 2008 back-to-school promotion, which will encourage students to purchase a new Mac through some of the biggest incentives in the company’s history, AppleInsider has learned.

MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Twitter: Don’t blame Ruby, blame Scoble  —  Micro-messaging site Twitter has gone from zero to transparent in a hurry.  That is to say, it has gone from keeping users in the dark during its downtime to explaining the problems it is having in detail.  Tonight, developer Alex Payne wrote a Q […]

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft’s grand plan to eliminate phone numbers  —  I’ve been puzzling over transcripts of a couple of recent speeches by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates where he discussed his vision for the end of phone numbers.  But it wasn’t until today, when I learned more about Microsoft’s “Echoes” … […]

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Naveen Jain’s Latest Scam: Intelius  —  When serial entrepreneur Naveen Jain left the company he founded, InfoSpace, in disgrace in late 2002, a lot of people thought he would never be trusted by the financial markets again (see this three part series from the Seattle Times that talks extensively …

Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:
Did China’s Hackers Shut Off the Lights?  (Updated)  —  Hackers working on behalf of China’s People’s Liberation Army have penetrated networks controlling electric power grids in the United States, computer security experts believe.  And that may have precipitated a massive blackout …

Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:
Did China’s Hackers Shut Off the Lights?  —  Hackers working on behalf of China’s People’s Liberation Army have penetrated networks controlling electric power grids in the United States, computer security experts believe.  And that may have precipitated a massive blackout on the east coast in 2003 …

Twitter Technology Blog:
You’ve Got Q’s, We’ve Got A’s  —  We had a lot of feedback on our architecture update.  In the spirit of continued openness and transparency, I’d like to address a number of the questions that came up in the comments on that post.  —  Donnie asks if we’re making a slow exodus […]