Apple CEO Tim Cook announces plans to manufacture Mac computers in USA  —  In an exclusive interview with Brian Williams airing tonight at 10pm/9c on NBC's “Rock Center,” Apple CEO Tim Cook announced one of the existing Mac lines will be manufactured exclusively in the United States next year.

T-Mobile and Apple sign agreement to launch products in 2013  —  T-Mobile and Apple have entered an agreement and will be launching products beginning next year.  The announcement was posted —nearly as an afterthought, oddly enough — as part of a press release in which Deutsche Telekom spelled out its financial plans through 2015.

Spotify debuts new Discovery engine, Collection, and Follow, which lets users follow friends and celebrities  —  At an event in New York City today, Spotify announced a new Discover section to help users find new music on the service.  Ek admitted that users say Spotify is great …

Apple, Samsung Back in Court  —  Companies Battle Over $1.05 Billion Damages From Patent Trial's August Verdict  —  Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. return to a Silicon Valley courtroom Thursday, as Samsung fights to get a federal judge to throw out or soften a $1.05 billion patent judgment against the Korean company.

Apple Hires Hacker Who Helped Save Windows From Security Hell  —  Apple has hired a noted computer security researcher who helped Microsoft lock down its Windows operating system.  —  Kristin Paget — formerly known as Chris Paget — now works on Apple's security team.

Facebook And Microsoft Are Working On A Deal, And It Could Change Everything About Advertising  —  Facebook and Microsoft are working on a deal that, if completed, would put Facebook one huge step closer to launching an ad network that could rival Google's in size, and change the way advertising is done online forever.

No more blind refreshes: Techmeme now alerts you to new headlines  —  Are you the kind of Techmeme reader who reloads all day to check for new headlines?  Well, we have good news: you can stop refreshing blindly, because Techmeme now automatically reports when there are new headlines …

They Screwed Us.  Right Before They Screwed Us Again. #poohead  —  We just got screwed.  More on this below.  —  Nobody says “Web 2.0” anymore.  The term just didn't stand the test of time, long ago it became cliched.  —  But a handful of years ago it had real meaning to a lot of us.

Exclusive: Cloudera Closes Massive $65 Million Funding Round at $700 Million Valuation  —  Whenever you hear the phrase “big data” these days, and depending on whom you're talking to, the word Hadoop usually isn't far behind.  When companies and large organizations seek to tackle the biggest …

Meet Google+ Communities: Google's answer to Facebook Groups aimed at helping you meet new people  —  Google has launched a new feature to its social network, Google+, that will aid in meeting new people.  It's called Google+ Communities and it's Google's attempt of competing against Facebook Groups.

Deep Dive With Google's Snapseed Team: Android App Launches, iOS Is Free And Instagram Should Watch Out  —  One of the things that we hear the most from pundits when Google acquires a company, much like it did Nik Software, makers of the gorgeous and dead-simple to use app Snapseed, is “What will they end up doing with them?”

Gmail graduates 3 Labs features: Send and archive, Default reply to all, and Quote selected text  —  On Thursday, Google announced three new features that have graduated from Gmail Labs: “Send and archive,” “Quote selected text,” and “Default reply to all.”  This is not a gradual rollout …

Amazon's Appstore is on fire: 500% more downloads this year  —  Even without a platform of its own, Amazon is doing just fine when it comes to mobile apps.  The company announced on Thursday that “[a]pp downloads in the Appstore have grown more than 500 percent over the previous year.”

Facebook hires its first head of travel, Lee McCabe  —  Wondering if your travel business is using Facebook effectively or if you are trying to run before you can walk?  Facebook recently hired Lee McCabe, its first head of travel, and he may be the go-to-guy for this kind of advice.

How Families Interact on Facebook  —  Every day, people use Facebook to connect with a variety of people in their lives—close friends, colleagues and acquaintances.  Nowhere are these connections more important than among family members.  —  With the holidays approaching …