BlackBerry 10 Launch Event to be held on January 30th, 2013  —  One of my favorite things about working as a community and blog manager for BlackBerry ® is getting to talk to you and provide updates on our products.  Each day on our social channels fans, followers and readers ask, when will BlackBerry ® 10 launch?

Minding The (Apple)Store  —  As I've written many times in the past, I'm part of the vast chorus that praises the Apple Store.  And not just for the uncluttered product displays, the no-pressure sales people (who aren't on commission), or the Genius Bar that provides expert help, but for the impressive architecture.

YouTube Preps Big New Round of Content Investments  —  Some Partners Will Get Another Check; Others May Quietly Go Away  —  Nearly a year after YouTube sprinkled $100 million across the online video ecosystem to create more than a hundred new “channels,” it's doubling down.

Samsung reportedly raising iPhone and iPad processor prices by a fifth  —  Samsung has made no secret of the fact that it provides a number of the key components inside Apple's flagship iPhone and iPad devices, even while actively competing against them with its own Galaxy line of Android competitors.

HTC to Pay Licensing Fees to Apple  —  TAIPEI—HTC Corp. will have to pay licensing fees to Apple Inc. as part of its settlement agreement with the California-based company, a person familiar with the situation said Monday.  —  Although it is unclear how much the Taiwanese smartphone maker …

With Kim Dotcom's Me.ga plans scuppered, soon-to-relaunch Mega goes online at Mega.co.nz  —  After his dreams of a Me.ga domain were shot down by Gabon's government, Kim Dotcom's soon-to-relaunch Mega service has finally found its place online after the German confirmed that the Mega holding site …

Skype Preview for Windows Phone 8 is now available!  Hands on video.  —  Oh what a weekend it has been.  With the launch of Windows Phone 8 on AT&T and Verizon and T-Mobile expected in the next week, it has been quite exciting but now it is coming to full steam with the release of Skype for Windows Phone 8.

Steve Ballmer: first Surface sales are “modest”; hypes Windows 8 Pro version  —  When Microsoft started taking pre-orders of its new Windows RT-based Surface tablet in late October, it appeared that sales of the device were pretty high, thanks to high back order numbers.

Verizon confirms Droid DNA on its Droid Does portal, promises ‘unboxing’ on November 19th  —  Last we checked, there are about six days between Verizon / HTC's press event in New York City and November 19th.  Which, by most counts, should be just enough time for the two companies …

Apple Stomps On Tapjoy's App Download Circle Jerk (Again)  —  Memories of Scamville have faded, and we don't see the brazen customer ripoff schemes from the big gaming companies these days.  —  But the main company behind Scamville, Offerpal (the company renamed as Tapjoy after the Scamville disaster) …

j2 Global buys tech media company Ziff Davis for $167 million in cash  —  Well, well, well.  It turns out Ziff Davis will live on to die another day.  The technology media company has been acquired by j2 Global, a business cloud services provider, for roughly $167 million in cash on hand.

Demonoid Is Back, BitTorrent Tracker is Now Online  —  When Demonoid went down at the end of July the site's admin blamed a DDoS attack.  This initial attack resulted in a series of problems that were not easy to fix.  —  However, at the time the tech admin of the site was determined to get the site back online.

Microsoft, Motorola set to square off in court over patent payments  —  Microsoft and Motorola will be battling it out in a federal courtroom in Seattle starting Tuesday.  The trial is being closely watched for its ramifications on the larger patent — and market — battles being fought between huge tech companies.

Cray's Titan system takes supercomputer crown  —  Summary: Titan is a Cray XK7 system that hit 17.59 Petaflop/s on the Linpack benchmark.  Titan features 560,640 processors, including 261,632 Nvidia K20x accelerator cores.  —  Larry Dignan  —  The Oak Ridge National Laboratory …

Starbucks, Amazon and Google to face UK lawmakers over tax  —  (Reuters) - UK lawmakers will quiz executives of Starbucks (SBUX.O), Google (GOOG.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O) on Monday about how they have managed to pay only small amounts of tax in Britain while racking up billions of dollars worth of sales here.

Ofcom sets UK 4G auction plans: Submissions by December 11, bidding in January and rollout in May/June 2013  —  UK communications regulator Ofcom today announced the final plans for the roll out of 4G networks and services in the UK, setting the processes which operators will need to follow during the auction.

Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 preview coming tomorrow  —  Last month, Microsoft finally broke silence and announced that a preview version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 will be coming in mid-November.  It appears that tomorrow will be the day when Microsoft releases the latest IE10 browser for Windows 7 users.