Mashable reported on the sad, expensive failure of Google+.

Google’s effort to build a social network to rival Facebook began with a bold, company-wide yell. Now Google appears to be winding down Google+ with barely a whimper.

This week, four years and one month after launching Google+ with the stated mission to “fix” online sharing, Google announced it would eliminate a much-criticized requirement to use a Google+ account when signing on to other Google services like YouTube. The move is the clearest indication yet that Google is ditching its playbook of trying to push everyone in the world use its social network.

I have moved away from Google+ for quite some time, pushing articles to it to share to followers but nothing more than that.

Reuters reported on Samsung’s fight to save mobile market share.

Behind Samsung’s reality-check is the fact it is stuck with the same Android operating system used by its low-cost competitors, who are producing increasingly-capable phones of their own.

“The writing has long been on the wall for any premium Android maker: as soon as low end hardware became ‘good enough,’ there would be no reason to buy a premium brand,” said Ben Thompson, an analyst at Stratechery.com in Taipei.

It’s a race to the bottom for Android makers. It is not something surprising. We just need to look at the PC market to expect what the trend would be like.

The New York Times reported on hackers exploiting Flash vulnerability in Yahoo ads.

For seven days, hackers used Yahoo’s ad network to send malicious bits of code to computers that visit Yahoo’s collection of heavily trafficked websites, the company said on Monday.

The attack, which started on July 28, was the latest in a string that have exploited Internet advertising networks, which are designed to reach millions of people online. It also highlighted growing anxiety over a much-used graphics program called Adobe Flash, which has a history of security issues that have irked developers at Silicon Valley companies.

“Right now, the bad guys are really enjoying this,” said Jérôme Segura, a security researcher at Malwarebytes, the security company that uncovered the attack. “Flash for them was a godsend.”

Firefox users got lucky.

Jim Dalrymple reported on The Loop reported about Apple’s record third quarter results.

Apple on Tuesday reported a third quarter profit of $10.7 billion on revenue of$49.6 billion. This compares to revenue of $37.4 billion and net profit of$7.7 billion in the year ago quarter.

$10.7 billion but people think Apple is losing it.

Reuters reported on Microsoft’s record loss as it writes down Nokia.

Microsoft Corp reported a $3.2 billion quarterly net loss, its biggest ever, as the company wrote down its Nokia phone business and demand fell for its Windows operating system.

No big deal. It’s just $3.2 billion loss. I mean, look at Apple, they are in trouble with [a record$7.7 billion profit](http://wordpress-286742-3010277.cloudwaysapps.com/2015/08/apple-third-quarter/).

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai wrote on Motherboard about switching from Andoird.

As security expert Cem Paya put it, that was a conscious decision Google made when it created Android. Paya called it a Faustian deal: “cede control over Android, get market-share against iPhone.” Basically, Google was happy to let carriers put their bloatware on their Android phones in exchange to having a chance to fight Apple for in the mobile market. The tradeoff was giving carriers and manufacturers control over their Android releases, leaving Google unable to centrally push out operating system updates.

Some carriers and manufacturers are better than others, it’s true, but they all pretty much suck when it comes to pushing updates. There really isn’t a better way to put it.

As security researcher Nicholas Weaver put it in a (now deleted) tweet, ”Imagine if Windows patches had to pass through Dell and your ISP before they came to you? And neither cared? That is called Android.”