Apple Fires Back at the Feds, Amazon  —  Nearly two days after the Department of Justice filed antitrust charges against Apple and major book publishers, Apple is responding.  Here's comment from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr: … Apple's response is similar to ones made by Penguin Group and MacMillan …

Exclusive: Former RIM boss sought strategy shift before he quit  —  (Reuters) - Former Research In Motion co-chief executive Jim Balsillie sought to reinvent the BlackBerry smartphone maker with a radical shift in strategy before he stepped down, two sources with knowledge of his plans said.

Intel's Windows 8 tablet: Checklist goes public  —  Intel ‘Clover Trail’ Atom Z2760-based Windows 8 tablet.  —  (Credit: Brooke Crothers)  —  Intel is offering more specifics on the features of future Windows 8 tablet at a conference in Beijing.  It's a laudable goal, but can Intel make it happen this year?

Facebook Offers rollout begins, delivers local deals direct to your news feed  —  Facebook has announced that its offers system has begun to roll out, having first been revealed at its marketing conference at the beginning of March.  The system allows local businesses to use their Facebook pages …

Facebook Ups The Mobile Ante Again; Buys Mobile Loyalty, Rewards Startup TagTile  —  This just in: Facebook has made another acquisition, and as with Instagram it's in mobile again.  They have bought TagTile, a mobile-based customer loyalty, management startup, for an undisclosed sum.

Google Drive integration leaked by Lucidchart  —  Google's widely rumored cloud storage service might be closer than we thought, with online diagramming tool Lucidchart adding (and then swiftly removing) a link to a Google Drive integration page to its user control panel.

Facebook One-Ups Google With A Kind Of ‘Facebook+’: Your FB Email, Timeline Names Are Now Linked Up  —  Facebook today announced a change for how people can find you on its network — a move for more consistency, but also another route to getting people to use more email in Facebook, and secure its place as the center of your web life.

Oracle thinks you can copyright a programming language, Google disagrees  —  Oracle's case against Google has evolved primarily into a copyright infringement suit over the past several months, and with the full trial scheduled to begin this coming Monday, the court is making an effort to get down to the nuts and bolts of copyright law.

French Designer Philippe Starck says he's working on a ‘revolutionary’ project with Apple due in 8 months  —  Le Figaro reports that renowned designer Philippe Starck (pictured, right) is working with Apple on a “revolutionary” product due in eight months.

Despite $889M In Revenue This Year, No IPO In Spotify's Cards, But Ek Wouldn't Say No To More Funding  —  Spotify's storming of the U.S. market last year has seen the company rack up a total of 13 million active users of its music streaming services — three million of them paying.

Google CEO: Android ecosystem is about more than just tablets  —  Summary: Google's top executives recognize the potential and success of lower-end Android tablets, but the bigger picture here is unifying the Android experience across multiple devices.  —  While we continue to wait for word …

Plot thickens in Apple “bait apps” case  —  Apple came under fire last year from parents whose children had racked up credit card charges on apps that were supposed to be “free.”  Apple tried to throw out a law suit over the apps but has come up short after a judge found the parents suffered sufficient harm to pursue the case.

Amazon Massively Inflates Its Streaming Library Size  —  Amazon counts individual episodes, not whole series, as “TV shows,” which makes its Prime streaming catalog seem 10 times bigger than it actually is.  —  Amazon boasts that it has “more than 17,000 movies and television shows” …

Apple looking to build ‘unibody’ earbuds through ultrasonic bonding  —  By using a process known as ultrasonic bonding, Apple could create new iPhone and iPod earbuds that would have a seamless, more aesthetically pleasing “unibody” appearance.  —  Headsets and earbuds include a number …

German Court Upholds Ban On Push Email In Apple's iCloud, MobileMe  —  FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)—A German regional court Friday backed a ban on push emails in Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iCloud and MobileMe services in Germany, granting Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) a victory in a global patent war among several technology companies.

Marc Samwer out as Groupon's international boss  —  After enduring a torrid few months, Groupon has confirmed a shakeup of its international business, bringing in a new chief to oversee operations outside America.  —  Out goes Marc Samwer, the oldest of the three notorious Samwer brothers …

Spotify Launches Brand Apps  —  Apps Coming Soon From AT&T, McDonald's, Intel and Reebok  —  Mega-brands will soon be able to recommend your next Spotify playlist.  —  The music-streaming service will add apps from the likes of AT&T, McDonald's, Intel and Reebok over the coming months …

Now everyone can make money from their videos, as YouTube opens its Partner Program to all  —  You may or may not already know this, but YouTube's Partner Program is an initiative by the Google-owned video-streaming platform to help creators develop skills, build audiences and - crucially - earn some bucks.

China's mysterious Internet outage; speculation over a ‘kill switch’  —  At approximately 11am local time yesterday, Internet users around China reported significant Internet blackouts.  Not only were they unable to access some Chinese sites, but also many foreign Web sites that had not previously been blocked.

Judge wants MegaUpload user data preserved for time being  —  The U.S. Courthouse for the Eastern District of Virginia.  —  (Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va.,—MegaUpload's lawyers got much of what they asked for today from a federal district court regarding what should be done …