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Matt's Favorites: Links, Gold iPhone, Shark Irony, And Much More

So what's the latest and coolest in the ever-expanding world of high technology? Well, pull up a few electrons and get comfortable...

* First of all, here's a link to today's event notices, today's awards and certifications, and Page Two of the tech report, with a bunch of cool stories beyond just the 10 in your newsletter.

* And thanks to the Web site Michipreneur for naming this here report as one of 10 essential Michigan blogs on tech and entrepreneurship.

* Apple is widely expected to announce its next iPhone in September, and the rumors surrounding the flagship smartphone are at fever pitch. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has asked its supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry (commonly referred to as Foxconn) to start shipping both low-end and high-end iPhones in September. Also, citing "sources in a position to know," AllThingsD reports that Apple will add a new color to its lineup that is being described as "champagne, not ingot."TechCrunch reports that several of its sources have also suggested that Apple is planning on a gold phone.

* Everyone knows the story: The little fish gets eaten by a big fish, and the big fish gets eaten by an even bigger fish, and so on. But it isn't often that the big fish is a shark -- in this case, a dogfish -- that then gets swallowed whole by a much larger sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus), one of the nastiest-looking top predators in the ocean. This bizarre "turducken of the sea" photo was captured by researchers at the University of Delaware's Ocean Exploration, Remote Sensing, Biogeography Lab.

* Here's the best of CNet's Road Trip 2013, a 5,200-mile sojourn checking out tech in the midwest -- a Roush Tech Tour on steroids.

* Photographers Michael Nichols and Nathan Williamson spent almost a year living with the lions on the Serengeti and used a new technology to get up close and personal with big cats. Nichols and Williamson discuss their unique experience on "CBS This Morning."

* When a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February, pieces of the bus-sized space rock hit the ground while its detonation shattered windows, set off car alarms and injured more than 1,000 people. Masked in the chaos, however, was an enormous plume of dust that the Russian meteor left behind in Earth's atmosphere.

* A new feature of training software called FocusAssist pauses an online training course when the viewer looks away, ostensibly to "ensure complete end-user engagement." Will this improve employee training, or is it too invasive?

* Scientists continue to search for answers surrounding the dolphin die-off occurring along the East Coast. As of Aug. 12, 228 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have turned up dead along mid-Atlantic beaches, with the highest concentrations in New Jersey and Virginia. The largest die-off in nearly 25 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) classified it as "unusual mortality event."

* Smartphones are getting bigger as people use them more to watch movies and play games. A new one from Samsung is beyond big.  With a screen measuring 6.3 inches diagonally, the Galaxy Mega is almost as big as a 7-inch tablet computer. The difference: it makes phone calls.

* Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is the most exciting display technology since plasma, but according to CNet, there are a few things it needs to overcome before hitting the mainstream.

* Amazon.com was down for a few hours on Monday, in case you didn't know.

* The gist of Microsoft's new back to school ad: Buy an iPad, flunk out, be unemployed.

* Microsoft has integrated its two biggest communications services: Skype and Outlook. The tech giant announced Monday that Skype is now available for all Outlook customers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada, and Brazil. What this means is that people can use the video calling and messaging service directly from their e-mail.

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