Protecting Your Passwords and Your Privacy  —  In recent months, we've seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people's Facebook profiles or private information.  This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends.

Bats Global IPO Turns Ugly After Bad Apple Trade, Quote Error  —  Bats Global Markets Inc.'s debut as a public company didn't go as planned, as a system glitch just as its own stock was to begin trading caused erroneous price quotes and Apple Inc. (AAPL) was halted due to a trade on its platform.

FCC Fires Back at AT&T Over T-Mobile Job Cuts  —  The Federal Communications Commission rejected the idea, put forth by AT&T earlier on Friday, that job cuts at T-Mobile are a sign that regulators should have allowed its megadeal to proceed.  —  “In a short period of time …

Report: Nokia paying AT&T for exclusive employee use of the Lumia 900  —  We've heard numerous times that the Nokia Lumia 900 will be a “hero” device for AT&T, a term that is unfamiliar for many who are not in the business of smartphones.  Here, the usage refers to AT&T promoting the Lumia 900 …

Rovio working on Angry Birds Space for WP -CEO  —  (Reuters) - Finnish gaming firm Rovio is working on getting its new Angry Birds Space game to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform (WP7), its chief executive said on Friday, dismissing earlier media reports which said the top gaming firm was dumping the platform.

RIM to Give Developers Prototypes of New BlackBerry in May  —  Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) plans to give software developers prototypes of a new BlackBerry in early May, signaling RIM is a step closer to the debut of a handset it's betting on to revive slumping sales.

Best Buy Is Selling Nearly as Many iPhones as Apple Itself  —  Apple's move to make Best Buy an outlet for the iPhone back in 2008 is proving a wise one — lucrative, too.  —  Over the past few years, the retail chain has become an increasingly important outlet for Apple, extending its reach and distribution via its 1,100 stores.

Facebook Sets High Asking Price for Log-Out Ads: $700K a Day  —  Seeks to Tap Big Display Dollars on Eve of IPO  —  Facebook's new log-out ads are big, splashy and the closest thing to a traditional banner ad the social network has ever produced.  They're also pricey …

AOL Said to Hire Evercore to Find Buyer for 800-Patent Portfolio  —  AOL Inc. (AOL) hired Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) to find a buyer for its more than 800 patents and explore other strategic options, three people with knowledge of the matter said.  —  Private-equity firms …

New iPhone (iPhone 5,1) coming fall 2012 with LTE, similar sized screen  —  While Apple has only just released the new iPad, iMore has already started to hear more about the next generation iPhone (iPhone 5,1).  We previously reported that Apple was working to reduce the size …

What Google Hasn't Done: Explained Why We as Users Would Want a Unified Online Identity  —  After years of providing us with many very good products — search, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome — Google is now on a mission to turn itself into one big product that understands each of us as one unified person.

Signs in Mountain Lion point to “retina” display MacBooks sooner than later  —  A new clue found within in the latest developer release of OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) suggests that 2012 may bring us the “summer of retina display Macs.”  A source with access to the latest Mountain Lion preview alerted Ars …

Groupon Acquires FeeFighters, The BillShrink For Business Services  —  FeeFighters, a three-year old comparison shopping site for credit card processors , is announcing today it has been acquired by Groupon.  The Chicago-based startup, which provides businesses with a way to find …

Say what?  How much did MOG sell for?  What is Spotify valued at now?  —  Updated: For the past week or so, there have been rumors that MOG, the digital music subscription story has been been sold to HTC Corp., the Taiwanese mobile phone maker.  Business Insider first reported the rumor …

Meet Svbtle, the beautiful blogging platform you're not invited to, and Obtvse, its open-source clone  —  A couple of months ago well-known writer and UX designer Dustin Curtis, tired of the “uninspiring nature” of the blogging platforms, built his personal blog from the ground up.

Spotify Is Raising At A Stunning $3.5 Billion Valuation, Multiple VCs Say  —  All-you-can eat music service Spotify is raising another big round of funding, and it is asking investors to value the company somewhere around $3.5 billion, multiple Silicon Valley investors tell us.

Thanks to Google Voice, you can now make phone calls from within Google+ Hangouts  —  The Google+ team continues to graduate features from its sandbox into prime time for its Hangouts product.  Last week, the company announced the addition of Google Docs into Hangouts, and today the service …

Intel's 22nm Valley View Atom SoC leaks out, may have Ivy Bridge graphics for 4x performance  —  Now that tablets and ultrabooks have effectively displaced the netbook class of computer, the Intel Atom chips that powered them don't seem quite so interesting anymore... but what if we told …

Facebook asserts trademark on word “book” in new user agreement  —  Facebook has trademarks on its name and many variations of it—including the letter “F”.  The company is expanding its claim over the word “book”.  —  Facebook is trying to expand its trademark rights over the word “book” …

Nokia releases Play To beta, updates Music app for Windows Phone  —  To follow its announcement of updated Nokia Drive, Maps and Transport apps (and not to forget Creative Studio), the firm in Finland now has two more servings of software to crow about for its Lumia lineup — okay, no more alliterations.