Apple-Google Maps Talks Crashed Over Voice-Guided Directions  —  Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says Apple should have continued to use Google's mapping application in iOS 6 instead of swapping it out for its poorly received home-brewed replacement, and given the sour reception Apple's Maps app has been given, he may have been right.

Tracking growth: the iTunes app store vs Google Play  —  There are now more than 675,000 apps available in Google Play, a noteworthy figure not for the number of apps, but because it means Android is now within striking distance of overtaking iOS as the mobile operating system with the most apps.

Google to remove exporting of old Microsoft Office formats from Google Apps on October 1  —  Google today announced a huge change for Google Apps, including its Business, Education, and Government editions.  As of October 1, users will no longer have the ability to download documents …

Google's President of Brazil Operations arrested for failing to remove YouTube videos  —  Google's President of Brazil Operations Fabio Coelho was arrested today in São Paulo, the Brazilian website G1 reports, quoting a press release from the country's Federal Police.

Your YouTube original videos now available in Google Takeout  —  Your Takeout menu is growing.  Today's entrée: YouTube videos.  —  Previously, you've been able to download individual transcoded videos from your YouTube Video Manager.  But starting today, you also have a more efficient …

Survey: iOS 6 Leads To Decrease In Device Satisfaction Among iPhone Users  —  Apple's iOS 6 doesn't appear to be doing the company any favors when it comes to user satisfaction, according to a new poll conducted by mobile customer research firm On Device.  The survey of just under 16,000 iPhone owners …

To Unlock A Full Price AT&T iPhone 5, Just Restore It In iTunes  —  If you have bought an AT&T iPhone 5 without a contract over the past few days, chances are that you want to unlock it to use it on another carrier.  The traditional process involves filling out an online form on AT&T's website …

Amazon seeks to throw out Apple “app store” advertising claim  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has asked a federal judge to throw out Apple Inc's false advertising claim in a lawsuit challenging the online retailer's use of the “app store” name.  —  The claim is part of a March 2011 trademark lawsuit …

US calls Assange ‘enemy of state’  —  THE US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States - the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency.  —  Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents …

Getting in tune; Samsung to shop for software  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics, which has vaulted the value chain on the strength of its hardware, will go out and buy mobile content providers, a senior executive told Reuters, to compete with Apple, Google and Amazon.com in a global digital music market worth nearly $9 billion.

Amazon Starts a Shopping Site for the Environmental Crowd  —  Amazon.com is going after the environmental crowd with a new site called vine.com for buying green products.  —  Vine is part of Quidsi, the company that Amazon bought in 2010 that also runs sites like Diapers.com (baby stuff), Wag.com (pets) and YoYo.com (toys).

Netflix iOS and Android apps have a remote control easter egg for PS3 owners  —  Now that the revamped Netflix interface has hit phones and tablets for both Apple and Android powered hardware, the service has quietly enabled something else: second screen remote control.

Samsung Sees Stronger Start for Note 2, Unfazed by iPhone  —  Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) expects sales of its new Galaxy Note 2 smartphone to get off to a stronger start than its predecessor even after Apple Inc. (AAPL) sold a record number of the latest iPhone in its debut weekend.

Not All Traffic Is Created Equal  —  To build the online media giants of tomorrow, companies need models where the costs of both content and distribution are near zero.  Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and countless others employ this model.  These models allow scale to emerge at very low-cost.

Xbox Music pricing and features revealed through Windows 8 and leaked Xbox interface  —  Microsoft cherry-picks the best cloud music features for Xbox Music  —  Microsoft has revealed its Xbox Music service pricing through the Windows 8 Music app, at the same time as pushing …

Operation Unlike Is A Go: Page Fan Counts Are Dropping Because Facebook Is Deleting Fake Accounts  —  Some Facebook business Pages lost tens of thousands of fans today, but they shouldn't fret.  Facebook has confirmed with me that it's currently purging fake accounts and Page Likes …

Airbnb Is Raising A Big Third Round, Aiming For A Valuation North Of $2B  —  It's the darling of “sharing economy” startups, Y Combinator and a good portion of Silicon Valley's top investors, and a symbol of consumer web startups moving beyond entertainment to solve real life problems.

Netflix CEO Keeps Focus on Expansion, Price  —  Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings is trying to prove that his streaming-video company isn't in a state of arrested development.  —  Last year, Netflix lost subscribers and investor confidence with a debacle over a sharp subscription …

.xxx to launch porn search engine  —  Search.xxx is intended to give porn fans a streamlined, private search experience  —  h(f)){c=a.createElement('script'); c.type='text/javascript';c.src='http:// ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/'+ g+'/jquery.min.js';c.onload=c.onreadyst atechange= function(){if(!b&&(!(d=this.readySt ate)||

Twitter CEO Costolo Talks Ads, Facebook, and IPO  —  Twitter is at a turning point, trying to roll out advertising while also maintaining the user experience.  I sat down with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo at the company's new San Francisco headquarters to talk about his plans to grow the social media giant.

Nest Takes Honeywell Patents Back to the Drawing Board  —  While the Apple versus Samsung patent trial got most of our attention this summer, another intellectual property suit stirred silently in the background: Nest versus Honeywell International, the designer thermostat outfit against the aerospace/consumer tech giant.

Facebook Groups get more useful for business with Dropbox file sharing  —  Here's a hot bit of news for you.  Starting today, Dropbox is rolling out a feature in conjunction with Facebook that will allow you to share your Dropbox files directly to Facebook Groups.

Andreessen Horowitz Hires Former D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty To Be Its Newest Special Advisor  —  Andreessen Horowitz is announcing this afternoon that Adrian Fenty, the 41-year-old political star best for his work as the Mayor of Washington, D.C. from 2007 to 2011, will be joining the venture capital firm in the role of “special advisor.”

American Banks Undamaged by Cyberattacks  —  Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, U.S. Bancorp and PNC have been hit by a wave of cyberattacks that have caused Internet outages and delays to online banking sites.  —  The banks have been targeted with distributed denial of service …

O2 and HTC to sell phone without a charger, in deliberate ploy to be more green  —  O2 and HTC will begin selling a new, as yet unannounced, phone before the end of the year without a charger in the box as part of a pilot scheme to reduce the number of “wasted” chargers in circulation.