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Google has begun opening up access to a new Application Programming Interface (API) called the Places API . Developers building apps that include a “check in at this place” feature can use the Places API to search across all the places users might check in for basic information like business name, address, phone number and other descriptive information. That information will be editable by the businesses listed and no caching of data is allowed, so apps will have to ping Places regularly for real-time data. Making this data as free and easy to use as Google Maps is today could create a foundation for new location-savvy apps to bloom throughout the mobile web, with far less overhead than such apps have to wrestle with today in order to provide a rich user experience

Throughout the spring, we covered the financial reform legislation as it wound its way through committee and Congress. The final version – Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act – was signed into effect by President Obama on July 21. And while some of the provisions that were most troubling in earlier versions were axed before the final bill was passed, there is still a sense that the repercussions from the legislation might dampen investment, particularly at the early stage and particularly from angel investors

With the debut of Groupon personalization , I have little doubt that the daily deal site will double the number of deals (and double its revenue run rate) in just a few months. According to CEO Andrew Mason , the service is churning out 75,000 transactions per day. Through personalization, Groupon will be able to offer 20, 30 or more deals per city per day.

Despite their clear commitment to the hardware version of the Kindle, Amazon continues to make the Kindle apps that run on the iPad and iPhone better. Today, version 2.2 of the app brings a full dictionary with it. This matches the functionality of Apple’s own iBooks app, but the Kindle implementation is even a little better

We’ve just received official word from Google confirming that they are not currently blocked in China and that a server issue was most likely the cause of their dashboard misread . One month ago, Google put up their watered-down engine to avoid being shut down completely in Mainland China.

We’ve shown you how to play video games on your iDevice with a Wiimote, and you can do the same on Android, too . Some clever DIY hackers have made this experience even better by creating Wiimote attachments for their phones.

Death threats aimed at Iranian atheist blogger, Fariboz Shamshiri . “One electronic threat was that someone would ‘cut his throat.’ In another message they wrote ‘the death is coming to you soon soon.’ He says he still doesn’t know who send these messages (they’re all anonymous), but he suspects — based on past experience — range from Basij militia, Revolutionary Guards Corps Cyber Affairs Division and/or some mullahs or students of seminary schools.” His main blog is Rotten Gods and he is the editor of Stop Torturing Us . Iran’s lucky to have him.