iOS 6: Apple drops Google Maps, debuts in-house ‘Maps’ with incredible 3D mode  —  Rough mockup showing the user-enabled 3D mode (on the right)  —  According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application.

Facebook Fleshes Out Privacy Policy To Comply With Data Protection Audits  —  Today Facebook will start sending the first of three billion notices to users about proposed changes to its privacy policy, which were made to comply with a Spring deadline for implementing recommendations from an audit …

Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO  —  Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.

Apple accuses Samsung of purposefully destroying evidence  —  On May 1, Apple filed a motion in the Northern District of California alleging that Samsung intentionally destroyed documents it was obligated to hand over as part of the discovery process, an act referred to as “spoilation of evidence” in the legal parlance.

iCloud beta website reveals plans for Notes and Reminders web apps, affirms iOS 6 beta coming soon  —  We know that Apple has been busy tweaking their iCloud.com website and testing new features like iOS 5-like notification banners, and now it appears that Apple is expanding the website's web-application library.

LinkedIn, others weigh Monster deal-sources  —  LinkedIn Corp and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners are among a number of parties that have expressed interest in a potential deal for Monster Worldwide Inc, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet jobs-search company is preparing data for potential buyers.

Apple's Siri: the ‘best smartphone ever’ is the Nokia Lumia 900.  Wait, what?  —  When you break out your iPhone 4S and ask Siri what the ‘best smartphone ever’ is, your humble virtual assistant will recommend you to buy Nokia's Lumia 900.  —  Which is, of course, a decent phone indeed.

USPS To Stop Delivering iPads And Kindles To Troops And Overseas Consumers On May 16  —  The United States Postal Service has banned all international shipments of electronics with lithium batteries effective May 16.  The cost for families to send gadgets via private parcel service …

Microsoft's Windows 8 upgrade offer: What's coming when  —  It's just about time for Microsoft to launch its expected Windows 8 upgrade program.  —  For the past several years, in order to keep PC sales from falling off a cliff in the months shortly before Microsoft and partners are poised …

Three-quarters of smartphone owners use location-based services  —  A new report finds that 74% of smartphone owners use their phone to get real-time location-based information, and 18% use a geosocial service to “check in” to certain locations or share their location with friends.

On Diaspora's Social Network, You Own Your Data  —  Sitting along Yankee Stadium's third base line during New York University's rainy graduation two years ago, Max Salzberg couldn't focus.  The phone in his pocket wouldn't stop buzzing.  With each notification, the NYU senior wiped water off …

Samsung: PenTile AMOLED displays last longer, that's why we use them  —  Samsung announced its new Galaxy S III smartphone to great fanfare last week, though some observers weren't terribly happy with one particular feature: the 4.8-inch 720p Super AMOLED display uses a PenTile(INFO) …

Dropbox fixes app rejection issue, complies with Apple's rules  —  Applications using the Dropbox development kit for iOS are no longer being rejected from the App Store by Apple after links to an external purchase option were removed.  —  Filip Radelic, developer of the Cambox application for iPhone …

Pay To “Highlight” Your Facebook Status Updates To More Friends - A Reckless New Ads Test  —  Only 12% of your friends see your average status update, but Facebook is testing an option called “Highlight” that lets you pay a few dollars to have one of your posts appear to more friends.

Sony, Panasonic Fall to 30-Year Lows  —  Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. (6752), Japan's biggest consumer-electronics makers, fell to the lowest level in three decades after forecasting earnings that missed estimates because of a failure to end losses from TVs.

AT&T, Leap talked merger in recent months: sources  —  (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) has held talks to buy smaller rival Leap Wireless International (LEAP.O) in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest sign U.S. carriers are looking at acquisitions as a way to grow in a mature market.

Apple, the Other Cult in Hollywood  —  For most of Gossip Girl's first four seasons, none of the hit show's glamorous teens carried the most talked-about smartphone of the last five years: Apple's (AAPL) iPhone.  Because of a product placement deal, they could only be seen with phones chosen by Verizon Wireless.

Playlist-based radio, post to Tumblr and embeddable Play Buttons come to Spotify for Windows and Mac OS  —  We've added some new features to our Windows and Mac OS apps that we wanted to let everyone know about.  Spotify Version 0.8.3 which starts rolling out today includes the following updates:

Verizon Refuses to Identify Alleged BitTorrent Pirates  —  Last fall, John Wiley and Sons became the first book publisher to go after BitTorrent users in the US.  —  By filing a mass-BitTorrent lawsuit the company became one of the many copyright holders who together have sued a quarter million people in the country since early 2010.

Video-sharing sensation Viddy rockets toward 30M users, banks $30M  —  Smoking-hot mobile video-sharing startup Viddy has closed a $30 million financing round and is fast-approaching 30 million registered users.  —  If you've taken a two-month hiatus from the Internet, then you've most certainly missed Viddy's overnight comeuppance.