Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL-Yahoo Merger Details Emerge; Deal Could Happen This Month  —  Yahoo is continuing its marathon merger discussions with AOL, sources close to the negotiations have whispered to us, and a deal could happen as early as this month.  Is this just a rehash of the reported discussions in February and then […]

Nicholas Ciarelli / The Daily Beast:
Not So Secret Apple  —  Welcome to The Daily Beast: A Q&A with Tina Brown  —  The company’s former (13-year-old) nemesis explains how Steve Jobs has suddenly gone soft.  —  I’ve had the dubious privilege of being on the frontlines of Apple’s war against web leaks.

Paula Rooney / Open Source:
October promises to be hot month for Drupal, Mono, OpenOffice, Ubuntu  —  October is promising to be a big month for open source releases.  —  As the page on the calendar turned, Acquia launched of its commercially supported version of the popular Drupal open source social publishing system.

Om Malik / GigaOM:
We Have Completed $4.5 Million in New Funding  —  From time to time, I have shared with you the steps we’re taking to build Giga Omni Media, the 27-month-old company behind this and the other publications that make up the GigaOM network.  Today, I am thrilled to announce the start of […]

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple iPhone 3Gs: 9,190,680 and counting  —  Here’s bit of upbeat economic news to brighten a gloomy Monday.  —  On Aug. 1, a London-based investor who calls himself “Tommo_UK” posted a message on The Mac Observer’s Apple Finance Board asking anyone who had bought an iPhone 3G to provide three […]

Andy M. Zaky / Bullish Cross:
iPhone Sales Drastically Surpass Q4 Consensus, Apple Reaches 10 million iPhone Goal  —  By ANDY M. ZAKY & TURLEY MULLER (Dual Authorship)  —  Based on the tremendous efforts by members at Mac Observer’s AFB to track IMEI iPhone numbers, we have determined that Apple has drastically surpassed …

Arn / MacRumors:
iPhone 2.2 Hidden Features: Google Street View, Emoji, Auto-Correction Off  —  It seems that Apple is taking further care in hiding new iPhone features in their beta releases.  The most recent firmware beta seeded to developers listed “compatibility testing” in its release notes as the only change.

Fred / A VC:
Free Vs Paid  —  My friend Howard was visiting me a few weeks ago and he said to me “free is over, I am only investing in services that customers pay for”.  He said “freemium is dead”.  I reminded him that freemium is a paid model, but he wasn’t buying it.

PR Newswire:
Netflix Updates Third- and Fourth-Quarter Guidance  —  Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX - News) today announced updated guidance for the third and fourth quarters of 2008.  —  Third-Quarter 2008  —  The company said it expects net income and EPS will be comfortably within its previous guidance …

Business Wire:
eBay Inc. Buys Leading Payments and Classifieds Businesses, Streamlines Existing Organization To Improve Growth  —  SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY - News) today announced two acquisitions that significantly extend the company’s leadership position in online payments and classifieds.