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 …

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?

Google's evil stock split  —  Count me in with Robert Cyran: there's something a little evil about the way that Google is splitting its stock, and in so doing creating a whole new class of non-voting shares.  —  There's a long history of such things: they were outlawed in the 1920s …

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 …

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.

A Message About CISPA  —  More than 845 million people trust Facebook with their information, and maintaining that trust is at the core of everything we do.  Keeping the site secure to protect our users and their information requires a combination of technological innovations …

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 …

Apple Says It's Not Working on Anything With Philippe Starck  —  What is French designer Philippe Starck working on for Apple?  An obvious guess for Apple's new product would be the much-anticipated Apple television.  Here's another: Nothing.  Reached for comment, an Apple spokeswoman …

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.

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 …

Silicon Valley's Secret, Vicious Lust for Hollywood Fame  —  Motivations are supposed to be pure in Silicon Valley.  Facebook, for example, was developed to make the world a better place; its billions of dollars in revenue are just a happy accident.  And when a Facebook scion eagerly promoted …

Amazon-owned Audible: Hey authors, want $20 million?  —  The Amazon-owned digital audiobooks site Audible.com is launching a new program, “Audible Author Services,” that pays audiobook authors $1 per sale through Audible.com, Audible.co.uk, and iTunes, out of a $20 million fund.

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.

Google Will Be The Official Social Platform & Livestream Provider For The 2012 Republican Convention  —  The presidential election season in the U.S. is now in full swing and both the Democratic and Republican conventions are just a few months away.  Google just announced that it will be the …

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

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 …

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.

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.