Apple TEMPORARILY removed products from German online store due to Motorola injunction based on FRAND patent  —  There are two big Apple-Motorola news items from Germany today:  — As I reported earlier, Motorola Mobility today won a permanent injunction against the push email feature …

Advertisers' Free Ride May End On Facebook  —  For advertisers on Facebook Inc., the free ride may be coming to an end.  —  When the social network filed for its initial public offering on Wednesday, the spotlight shifted from the site's exponential user growth to a metric that may have more bearing on its market value: ad sales.

EU regulators want Google to halt new privacy policy  —  A group of European regulators has written to Google Inc calling on it to halt the introduction of its new privacy policy, saying it needs to investigate whether the proposals sufficiently protect users' personal data.

The Dirty Little Secret Of Silicon Valley's Startup Boom...  In San Francisco cafes and bars, even on the street, I overhear people talking about their startup ideas, business plans, and goals.  And there are tons of incubators, Angels, wannabe Angels, VC firms, making investments in startups.

Why most Facebook users get more than they give  —  Half the adults and three-quarters of the teenagers in America use social networking sites (SNS) and Facebook by far is the most popular of these sites.  The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project fielded …

Windows Phone 8 Preview  —  Thanks to a recent leak which has revealed some interesting information about the next major Windows Phone version, I can now publicly discuss Windows Phone 8 for the first time.  —  Windows Phone 8, codenamed Apollo, will be based on the Windows 8 kernel and not on Windows CE as are current versions.

I switched to Bing on my iPhone and I kind of liked it  —  By the time that Microsoft announced its Bing search engine in 2009, Google had long since become a verb and several failed attempts at the search game were under the bridge.  But Bing was something different, a visually appealing …

Anonymous spies on FBI / UK Police hacking investigation conference call  —  A recording of a confidential conference call between the FBI and UK law enforcement officers at the Metropolitan Police has been released by Anonymous on the internet.  —  And if you think that's bad enough news …

Skype rolls out update for Windows with full HD video calling, group screen sharing  —  Skype rolled out its version 5.8 software update for Windows users today, and it brings with it a couple of fairly notable features.  That includes full HD video calling (provided you have a suitable webcam …

Do iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps?  A Data Dive  —  Ever wonder why certain mobile apps you use crash so much?  It turns out there are many possible reasons.  And it can vary particularly depending on whether you are using an Apple iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, or an Android device.

Motorola wins German injunction against Apple's iCloud (and MobileMe) push email service and client devices  —  This morning, Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court pronounced a decision on a German Motorola Mobility lawsuit against Apple Sales International, Apple's Ireland-based European sales organization.

RIM Offering Free PlayBook Tablets to Woo Android Developers  —  Research In Motion plans to give away tablets to Android developers who quickly port their apps to run on the PlayBook device.  —  RIM developer executive Alec Saunders mentioned the program in a Twitter message on Thursday …

Apple hits Samsung with 278 patent claims in revised Australian lawsuit  —  Apple has expanded the scope of its patent lawsuit against Korean electronics giant Samsung in Australia, widening its complaint to include 278 claims, across 22 patents that cover 10 new products.

Megaupload Founder Accuses Police of Assault, Denied Bail Again  —  Today, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom appeared at New Zealand's High Court to continue his fight against extradition to the United States on copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering charges.

Why Piracy Is Indispensable For The Survival Of Our Culture  —  Last Year Techdirt wrote about the case of the huge collection of historic jazz recordings that had been acquired by the US National Jazz Museum.  The central problem is that even if the recordings can be digitized before they deteriorate …

Panasonic headed for record $10 billion annual loss  —  (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp warned of a record annual $10.2 billion net loss, joining beleaguered rivals Sony and Sharp in a sea of red ink as they struggle to fix their broken TV businesses and show they have not lost their way.

Judge complains of too many patents in Apple case against Motorola  —  Circuit Judge Posner has expressed dissatisfaction with the number of patents Apple is arguing against Motorola, asking the company to “winnow” its claims.  —  Apple originally brought 15 patent claims against Motorola …

Nokia Lumia 900 now available for pre-order at Microsoft's retail stores with $25 downpayment  —  We're still not sure when we'll see Nokia's Lumia 900 (signs currently point to March), but if you want to ensure you'll be among the first to have it, you can pre-order the handset now at Microsoft's retail stores.

Corning and Samsung to marry Lotus Glass with OLED displays in new joint venture  —  We've been waiting to find out which manufacturers Corning would woo with its new Lotus Glass, and it's just announced that the first will be Samsung.  Corning and Samsung have signed up for a new joint venture …

Yammer Time: In 2011 “Pretty Much Everything Tripled”  —  Yammer grew like crazy last year.  How crazy?  Product VP Jim Patterson just tweeted out the Yammer 2011 Year in Review infographic below with the comment: “Pretty much everything tripled.”  —  Paid seats went from 300,000 to 800,000 …

Poland halts copyright law after mass protests  —  Poland halts ratification of international Internet copyright law under mass protests  —  WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's prime minister says he is suspending the ratification process for an international copyright treaty after widespread protests and attacks on government websites.

Apple researching social fitness tech sporting real-time sharing of performance data for competitive workouts  —  In the future, hitting the gym along with your iPhone-toting pals could spur competitiveness in ways unlike ever before.  Apple's mobile devices run a variety of fitness apps …