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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Microsoft Store swapping rival smartphones for Windows Phones in latest ‘Smoked’ challenge  —  Microsoft is turning its $100 “Smoked by Windows Phone” campaign into a $1,000 challenge at its retail stores across the US this weekend.  Visitors can walk into a Microsoft Store between noon …

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 …

Box.Net became a .Com for just shy of a million bucks  —  CEO Aaron Levie got lucky: The company that owned the .com of his company name wanted a lot, but not as much as they could have got.  —  Just Box.  —  I just had a nice talk with Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box.net.  I mean, Box.

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.

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.

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 …

Pinterest revises terms of service, gives up right to sell your content  —  The providers of an inspiration service turned inward for some much-needed inspiration of their own, and have updated their terms of service following feedback from community members.

To Tweet From 30,000 Feet: Picking Planes Wired for Wi-Fi  —  More passengers are downloading books, sending Tweets and updating their Facebook pages in the middle of a flight—even as they complain about steep prices.  —  Currently, about 1,700 planes in the U.S. have Internet access …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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” …