U.S. Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple, Hachette  —  The U.S. filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Corp., Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York district court, claiming collusion over eBook pricing.  Apple and Macmillan …

Google+ Gets A Big Refresh With New Navigation, A Redesigned Stream, A Dedicated Hangouts Page & More  —  Google this morning is announcing a new look for its social network, Google+, which introduces a revamped navigation, with drag-and-drop elements and actions that appear when you hover over each item …

Google's $12 Billion Toy  —  Here's a business riddle: Divine Google Inc.'s intentions for its largest-ever acquisition, the $12.5 billion purchase of the once-great, now-faltering Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.  —  Motorola represents one of the thorniest strategic and operational challenges in Google's 14-year history.

Evernote and Pinterest just had a baby: Enter the new Springpad  —  Springpad has long been compared to Internet note-taking sensation Evernote, but starting today Springpad will likely be compared to another darling of the startup world, visually oriented social network Pinterest.

Silicon Valley, London, NYC: Startup Genome Data Reveals How The World's Top Tech Hubs Stack Up  —  Last year, we covered an ambitious collaborative R&D project called “Startup Genome,” created by three young entrepreneurs, Bjoern Herrmann, Max Marmer, and Ertan Dogrultan.

Amazon Now Lets You Trade In Your Old CDs In Exchange For Gift Cards  —  Online retailer Amazon is extending its Trade-In Program today to also cover CDs - you know, those round, shiny things collecting dust in the back of your closet?  Starting now, customers can send in their old CDs …

Nokia says smartphone financials will disappoint even as it sells two million Lumia phones in Q1  —  Ahead of its Q1 2012 earnings results, Nokia has lowered its first quarter 2012 financial outlook — the company expects its operating margin will be approximately negative three percent …

Spotify Moves Beyond Facebook With a “Play Button” For the Rest of the Web  —  If you're on Facebook, then you've almost certainly seen Spotify, which is why the music service has been able to pick up some 3 million users since it launched in the U.S. last summer.

Facebook Allows File Sharing With Rollout Of .Edu-Exclusive “Groups For Schools”  —  With today's rollout of college collaboration tool “Groups For Schools”, Facebook gets nostalgic for Zuck's Wirehog and lets students share un-copyrighted files up to 25mb.  Soon all U.S. colleges …

Conde Nast Goes Shopping, Spends $14 Million on ZipList  —  Conde Nast hasn't gone shopping for digital assets for several years.  But that's changing now: The magazine publisher has just picked up ZipList, a shopping list/recipe planner.  —  Conde wouldn't disclose a purchase price …

Google Currents goes international  —  In December we launched Google Currents, an app for Android and iOS devices that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger.  We're thrilled by how many readers and publishers are using the app in the U.S. …

Intel chip tests surface ahead of Apple, Windows laptops  —  HP Envy 17 uses Intel quad-core mobile processors.  —  (Credit: Hewlett-Packard)  —  New benchmarks point to decent performance jumps for upcoming Intel Ivy Bridge mobile processors.  That should translate pretty directly to faster Apple and Windows laptops.

MPAA: you can infringe copyright just by embedding a video  —  The Motion Picture Association of America is squaring off against a coalition of Internet giants and public interest groups over the key question of whether it's possible to directly infringe copyright by embedding an image or video hosted by a third party.

New Nook Simple Touch with ‘GlowLight’ front-lit screen revealed by store signage  —  We heard a few days ago that Amazon was readying a Kindle with a front-lit, E ink screen — now it appears that Barnes & Noble is ready to do the same thing with the Nook.  The Digital Reader has just posted …

Verizon to intro $30 upgrade fee on April 22nd  —  Verizon Wireless on Wednesday confirmed that it will soon begin charging subscribers a $30 upgrade fee when they purchase new wireless equipment on contract.  Verizon is currently the only major carrier that does not charge customers a fee …