Apple's called a press event for a select group of reporters on Friday July 16th. The corporate line is simply that it's about iPhone 4. But in all likelihood it's related to the furor over the new phone's antenna problems.

Facebook is partnering with MOL Global to deliver a new way to buy Facebook credits--in person at a MOL-connected store. It's a strange real world/virtual world crossover, and definitely a sign of the way future digital finances will work. MOL is a hot-topic Internet financial company, though if you haven't heard about it it's not surprising--while it operates in 75 countries, mainly its operations are centered in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Apple isn't doing as well as it could in China. Why? The chairman of China's tech giant Lenovo thinks it's largely down to Steve Jobs himself, as the killer quote in the Financial Times article which is the source of this discussion reveals: "We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble."

The worker's environment in Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has been a sticky issue for Apple's PR department, but it's also highlighted one big fact: If Western firms stick with Chinese sources, gadgets will get more expensive. This is the thrust of a piece at the New York Times, which starts by looking at the reports about the new tear-down revelations concerning Apple's newest iPhone version: The smallest part of the cost of putting the thing together seems to be the manufacturing/assembly element, in China.

Never mind all of those quick fixes and videos about iPhone 4 reception dropping out when you hold the new phone a certain way. Never mind the fake Steve Jobs letters telling a customer to relax (or not). In a newly released letter to customers, Apple -- the real Apple -- says it's figured out why some iPhone 4 users are experiencing lower bars in their reception when the phone is held a certain way....

Even as competitors are busy bricking paywalls around their newspaper Web sites, desperately trying to keep the old business models running, the U.K.'s Guardian is taking a wholly different path. The paper has just introduced a free story syndication tool. The tool is part of the paper's "Open Platform" initiative, and what it does is pretty amazing: If you're a publisher of a blog that uses Wordpress, you can now re-post Guardian articles directly on your blog. The Guardian is essentially giving away its online news content. For free!

Pakistan's just made a move that's not going to qualify it for any "friendly world citizen" awards: Its government's said it'll be filtering scores more Web sites for anti-Islamic content. Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia were just the start.

In another indication of the increasing importance of the new commercial space industry's importance, NASA's just selected Orbital Sciences to launch its first satellite dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Bing just upped its effort in the search engine war against Google with an updated iPhone app. Just in time for iOS4's firmware update, the app has a bunch of tweaks, but one, real Google-beater: Barcode scanning for quick product IDs.

If, like me, you're a fan of all things space-related, then this year's grounding of the Space Shuttle fleet is a tricky thing--sensible, and yet a poignant tragedy. Now the biggest voice yet has joined the pro-Shuttle debate: John Glenn.