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According to former Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis, AOL considered buying Apple in the 90s, as the computer maker floundered.

In 1996, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and AOL was growing at exponential rates and had reached 10 million dial-up customers.

Says Leonsis (via BizJ):

Ironically, at one point at AOL, we looked at acquiring Apple and saving it. We were all concerned that it wasn’t going to do well. Little did we know.

The company would have bundled AOL software onto Macs, as it was widely expected that Microsoft would build something similar into Windows.

Today, Apple is the most valuable company in the tech world, while AOL has lost 98 percent of its value since 2000.

In August 2010, Google confirmed that they acquired Slide, the social networking gaming site created in 2005 by Max Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal.

The company's two most popular apps were SuperPoke and SPP Ranch. The first allowed you to adopt a virtual pet, and exchange money for virtual goods. Google purchased the company for around $200 million.

Today, Google has announced the shut down of the company and its apps.

Says Slide:

We created products with the goal of providing a fun way for people to connect, communicate and share. While we are incredibly grateful to our users and for all of the wonderful feedback over the years, many of these products are no longer as active or haven't caught on as we originally hoped.

iOS hacking star Nicholas Allegra (aka Comex) has taken an internship at Apple.

The hacker/developer is known for creating JailbreakMe 2 and 3, hacks that allow iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users to run homebrew apps on their devices.

Says Allegra:

It’s been really, really fun, but it’s also been a while and I’ve been getting bored.So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple.

Allegra says he will likely be helping Apple tighten security now, which he called "kind of refreshing."

Last week we introduced you to a number of new guides and videos from AfterDawn. This week we are going to shine the spotlight a little closer on one of them.

If you are used to extracting and converting titles from DVDs, it can be quite a shock to move up to the world of Blu-ray.

Thanks to features like Picture-In-Picture, BD-Java, and multiple video formats and resolutions, just figuring out what files you need can be a daunting task if you have never done it before.

Making things even more complicated, there is no single, all-purpose tool like DVD Shrink for Blu-ray discs.

In our guide for Extracting Content From A Blu-ray Disc we break the process down into two steps.

In the first part, Analysis, we cover using BDInfo to analyze various aspects of the playlists (MPLS files) on a Blu-ray disc. Then we explain how to use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema to preview titles to help you decide which ones you want to keep.

According to 'sources' inside T-mobile, the U.S.' fourth largest carrier will be getting the iPhone 5 in October.

Verizon and AT&T will for sure be getting the upcoming device (whenever it launches), but strong rumors have surfaced the past few days that Sprint will also be getting the popular smartphone.

Says one report:

The informant, who requested to remain anonymous, went on to claim that the iPhone 5 would also operate at 3G speeds on T-Mobile US network. Current unlocked iPhone 4 units can only operate at 2G 'edge' speeds on T-Mobile's network, and lack certain network-dependent features, such as Visual Voicemail.

There is also speculation that an unlocked world phone version of the iPhone 5 will be launched in October, good for any carrier in the world.

PROTECT IP is the name of a bill which is working its way through the US Senate with a version also expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives next month. It would require the Attorney General's office to compile of list of domain names which DNS operators (in the US) will be required to block.

According to some critics, it threatens to undo more than a decade of Internet security development in a single stroke.

To understand exactly what that means, I talked to one of those critics - Paul Vixie of the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC). You may not be familiar with ISC, but you almost certainly make use of their software every day.

ISC is a non-profit corporation which develops BIND, the most widely used DNS server software on the planet. When you type a domain name like AfterDawn.com into your web browser, your computer relies on a worldwide network of DNS servers to translate it into an IP address.

As part of BIND development, ISC has put significant resources into making DNS more secure through the use of an extension called DNSSEC. DNSSEC adds an encrypted signature to DNS records, making it possible to ensure the IP address you get from a DNS server is authentic.

Joystiq posted a picture earlier in which Wal-Mart had discounted the price of the 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle.

The picture led to speculation that Microsoft would do an across-the-board price cut on their consoles following Sony's recent price cut on the PlayStation 3.

For the week beginning August 28th, Wal-Mart is slashing the price $50 to $249, in-line with the PS3 (non-bundled).

Microsoft has responded to the price cut, saying:

Walmart made an independent decision to implement this temporary price cut. We've made no announcements about price drops, and do not discuss our pricing plans in advance. Xbox is the number-one selling console in the U.S. for 13 of the past 14 months, and is showing record growth. With an incredible line-up of games and entertainment, we're expecting the biggest year in Xbox history as the best-selling console worldwide.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (of the NFL) coach Raheem Morris has confirmed today that his entire team has been issued iPad 2 tablets, moving away from paper playbooks.

The 90 players on the team have been informed to bring their new iPads to all practices and games instead of their older 500 page paper playbooks.

Each player can also use the tablets at home to review practice, situational and game footage.

Says safety Cody Grimm:

It’s crazy how much technology has changed the game. Back in the day, I think probably the whole team had to sit down with a projector and a reel, and watch the film together. They’d have the whole offense in the same meeting room. Now we all have our own iPad.

Additionally, the team says from a security standpoint, the tablets are more secure as they can be remotely wiped. Players in the past have lost their paper playbooks, forcing the team to remake plays and strategies.

Last week, Nintendo announced the launch of a new slimmed down Wii console, part of the "Family Edition" bundle, which removes GameCube support completely.

The console is 30 percent smaller than the original Wii, comes with a Wii Remote Plus + Nunchuk, Wii Party and Wii Sports and has an MSRP of £99.

This week, it has become clear that UK retailers are already expected to drop the price at launch, down to £79.99 or even lower.

A number of retailers have confirmed to MCV that the sale will last through the holiday period.

Ubisoft's highly anticipated "From Dust" has been met with massive criticism since launch.

The game, like all new Ubisoft titles, comes with the draconian "always-on" Internet connection DRM.

If you ever have a connection hiccup, or just plain lose service, you are returned to the main menu. With the DRM, you cannot play games offline, even in "single player" modes. This has happened multiple times where an Ubisoft authorization server has gone down, leaving legitimate players standing idle while those with pirated copies play happily.

Additionally, From Dust is currently missing graphics options, is extremely buggy, and is capped at 30fps, no matter what GPU you are running.

As of writing, Ubisoft has listened to the significant outcry about the game and will be sending out a patch in the next two weeks to remove the always-on DRM. Furthermore, they are offering a full refund to Steam users who purchased the game and "are dissatisfied."

Research In Motion (RIM) has just begun a closed beta for their BlackBerry Messenger based subscription music service, BBM Music. Beta testing is being conducted exclusively in Canada, the US and the UK.

The full service is expected to launch in Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the US, and the UK later this year.

As we reported earlier this week, BBM Music will cost $4.99 USD. Prices may vary by country.

Mike Lazaridis, RIM President and Co-CEO, said:

We have partnered with leading music companies to provide a ‘full track’ music sharing and discovery experience that will provide users with quality music on demand and allow them to connect with friends on a whole new level.

BBM Music's features are basically what we already reported, although we have a few more details.

• Music from all four major labels is available
• You can select up to 50 songs
• No more than 25 song selections may be swapped out per month
• Songs may be downloaded to the subscriber's BlackBerry or streamed across an internet connection
• You can setup a personal "community" to share BBM Music tracks. Other people's tracks don't count against your 50 song limit
• You can create playlists which include both your own and your friends' music

Earlier this week a federal judge presiding over EMI's copyright infringement lawsuit against MP3tunes dismissed the label's claim that the file locker service does not qualify for DMCA safe harbor protection.

Safe harbors are intended to shield service providers from third party liability for copyright infringement. In other words, if someone infringes using your service, there is no legal claim against the service.

To qualify for safe harbor protection, a service provider must comply with various other provisions of the DMCA. Among them is a requirement the provider, "does not have actual knowledge that the material or an activity using the material on the system or network is infringing" and "is not aware of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent."

MP3tunes operates a music file locker service which allows subscribers to store copies of free music they find on the Internet. They call this sideloading.

MP3tunes also operates a partner website called Sideload, which keeps an index of links to songs which have been sideloaded to subscribers' lockers.

Samsung has stated in no uncertain terms they won't be buying Hewlett-Packard's PC business.

A statement on the South Korean electronics giant's official blog states, "The recent rumors that Samsung Electronics will be taking over Hewlett-Packard Co.'s personal computer business are not true."

Samsung chief executive Choi Gee-sung also issued a separate statement with additional details:

Hewlett-Packard is the global leader in the PC business, while Samsung is an emerging player in the category. Based on the significant disparity in scale with Samsung's own PC business and lack of synergies, Samsung is not interested in the acquisition.

Rumors about an acquisition came on the heels of HP's decision to spin off their PC business (Personal Systems Group) into a separate unit, with an eye towards selling it. HP is currently the market leader in PC sales.

There are several reasons it probably doesn't make sense for Samsung to buy HP's PC division, starting with the uncertain future of the PC market as a whole.

Apple’s Board of Directors have announced that CEO Steve Jobs has resigned his position, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO.

Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

"I hereby resign as CEO of Apple . I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee," said Jobs.

Apple has had Cook as the next in line for a few years now as Steve Job's health has been in flux.

"Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company," added Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, and Apple Board member. "Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."

"The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO," added Levinson. "Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does."

A Fox Network executive responded to TorrentFreak's report of an increase in piracy caused by the network's change in online video policy with a statement that completely dodges the issue.

Earlier this week TorrentFreak pointed out how Fox's decision to delay the availability of their shows for free online viewing had already resulted in more piracy.

As of last week, the free streams for Fox shows aren't available on Hulu until 8 days after they air. Instead, they are only available to Hulu Plus or Dish Network subscribers.

Fox is also working on other pay TV providers. Fox Television senior vice president Scott Grogin told The Hollywood Reporter:

We are actively in negotiations with all cable/satellite/telco providers regarding authentication of their customers. We hope to announce several more agreements before the start of the new television season in mid-September.

He also claims the network is, "pursuing a strategy where the 90+ million households who pay to watch our programming via cable/satellite/telco will ultimately receive maximum benefit."