iPhone 5 Now on Sale in the U.S.  —  The iPhone 5 just launched in the U.S. along the east coast.  Fortune's Philip Elmer-Dewitt is at the 5th Avenue Store and notes that the line is longer than last year's iPhone 4S line: … The first day pre-orders for the iPhone 5 doubled last year's iPhone 4S launch.

Black iPhone 5 Anodized Aluminum Susceptible to Scratching?  —  After the original announcement of the iPhone 5, one early concern amongst readers was how well the anodized aluminum back and edges of the black iPhone 5 would hold up over time.  —  One lengthy thread on our forums …

iPhone 5 review  —  Apple's latest smartphone gets a bigger screen, LTE, and more power — but does it keep the crown?  —  Ah, to review the iPhone 5 — what a blessing, and what a curse.  It's actually funny to think that there was a time not that long ago that the iPhone wasn't even a thing, let alone an iconic part of pop culture.

Verizon finally rolling out Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean for the Galaxy Nexus  —  Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean back in June and released it for the unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus a few weeks later, but Verizon's version has remained stuck on Ice Cream Sandwich.

Facebook Turns Off Facial Recognition In The EU, Gets The All-Clear On Several Points From Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner On Its Review  —  The ongoing investigation into Facebook's transparency on user data and privacy by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner has come to a positive conclusion for the social network.

OpenStreetMap Gets First Major Funding From Knight News Challenge  —  OpenStreetMap, the increasingly popular Wikipedia-like project to create a map of the world — it's now used by Apple, Foursquare and others — has gotten its first major funding grant.  —  Knight News Challenge …

Good Karma!  Facebook to launch social gifting app in the US in a matter of weeks  —  Around the same time it started listing its shares on NASDAQ, Facebook announced that it had acquired social gifting app maker Karma for a reported $80 million+, making it one of the company's largest purchases to date.

Apple Loses German Court Ruling Against Samsung in Patent Suit  —  The 4G Price War Brewing Over the IPhone 5  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost a court ruling against Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) in Germany regarding claims the South Korean company's Galaxy devices infringed patents on the iPhone maker's touch-screen technology.

Google Welcomes Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's “The Internship” on Campus  —  You wouldn't know that relations between Google and Hollywood are testy by the week they've had together.  —  Google has taken in movie stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn with open arms, lending its campus as the set for their upcoming film “The Internship.”

Asus to unveil the Padfone 2 in October  —  The Asus Padfone hasn't exactly taken the world by storm since Asus first introduced the smartphone that can transform into a tablet, notebook, or desktop with liberal use of docking stations.  In fact, the Padfone has yet to officially go on sale in the US.

China's Alibaba to spin off team developing mobile operating system  —  (Reuters) - Alibaba Group, China's biggest e-commerce firm, will spin off the team developing its Aliyun mobile operating system, which Google Inc claims uses aspects of its own mobile operating system Android.

Facebook Pulling Back On Frictionless Sharing Apps  —  On Thursday, Facebook's Manager of Media Partnerships, Andy Mitchell, told a panel of journalists and fellow Facebookers that the site was moving away from “passive sharing,” referring to apps released by the Washington Post …

The Verizon iPhone 5 is GSM unlocked, tested with AT&T  —  I can confirm that the Verizon iPhone 5 is indeed GSM unlocked.  Even though I bought an iPhone 5 from Verizon under contract, I was able to cut down my AT&T Micro SIM, and use it in my Verizon iPhone 5 to pick up an AT&T signal.

Google News at 10: How the Algorithm Won Over the News Industry  —  Google's “billions of clicks” are only half of the story.  —  In April of 2010, Eric Schmidt delivered the keynote address at the conference of the American Society of News Editors in Washington, D.C. During the talk …

YouTube Testing Feature To Quiz You While You're Watching A Video  —  YouTube videos may soon be getting a little more interactive.  There's now a page on the YouTube website describing a feature called “Video Questions Editor Beta,” which was spotted by the Dutch tech site WebSonic.nl.

Apple's Maps satellite and hybrid views only show China and Taiwan while in China  —  So we were just checking out Apple's new widely dissed Maps app, and found something extremely interesting: if you are in China on a domestic network (i.e. not on a VPN) and you look at the satellite or hybrid view, you only see China.

Rumor of Google Maps for iOS 6 submission likely false  —  A rumor that Google had submitted an iOS 6-compatible maps app to Apple after the built-in version was removed with the new mobile OS is false, says the well-connected Jim Dalrymple.  —  In a trademark terse post to his website The Loop …

RIM restores service after struggling with BlackBerry outages on 3 continents  —  Research In Motion Ltd. struggled with a service outage that affected BlackBerry users on three continents on Friday.  —  RIM's U.K. branch acknowledged the problem in a short message on Twitter early Friday morning.