Google Maps is now available for iPhone  —  People around the world have been asking for Google Maps on iPhone.  Starting today, we're pleased to announce that Google Maps is here—rolling out across the world in the Apple App Store.  It's designed from the ground up to combine the comprehensiveness …

Dell Quits Smartphone Business Globally, Drops Android  —  Jeff Clarke, Dell's vice chairman and president, Global Operations and End User Computing Solutions at Dell World (day 1)  —  Dell is definitely pulling the plug on the smartphone business, globally.

Sprint Seeks to Buy Rest of Clearwire for About $2.1 Billion  —  Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) proposed to acquire shares in wireless partner Clearwire Corp. it doesn't already own in a deal that the third-largest U.S. carrier says would cost about $2.1 billion.  —  Sprint, which owns …

Mr. Zuckerberg, Tear Down This Wall  —  The web was created to knock down walls.  You could create a page on a Unix workstation in Switzerland that could be viewed perfectly on a Windows laptop in California, all thanks to the miracle of common formats and open standards.

Google Chairman Says Android Winning Mobile War With Apple: Tech  —  Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android is extending its lead over Apple Inc. (AAPL) in the mobile-software market at a rate that compares with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s expansion in desktop software in the 1990s, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said.

Microsoft says Windows Phone 8 increased app submissions by 40%, to keep full staff on for holidays  —  Microsoft on Wednesday announced a rather interesting statistic for Windows Phone 8: the launch of the platform in late October has resulted in a sustained 40% increase in Windows Phone app submissions.

Google Play Magazines arrives in UK for light reading ‘on the couch or on the go’  —  If you're across the pond and have been warming up a spot on your Android tablet or smartphone for Google Play Magazines, there's good news — it's now in the UK Play Store.

U.K.'s First 4G Network To Expand To 17 More Towns By March 2013; Carrier EE Also Upgrading 3G To Fastest Variant: DC-HSPA  —  EE, the carrier behind the U.K.'s first 4G network has announced its rollout will expand to 17 more towns by March 2013.  It will also increase the network density …

Dish Networks Wins a $9 Billion Spectrum Prize  —  For more than a decade, telecom moguls and hedge fund titans have wrangled with regulators in a bid to wring billions of dollars out of thin air.  This week, the government crowned a winner.  —  The Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday …

Google rules out Gmail and Drive apps for Windows 8  —  Google has revealed that it has no plans to develop dedicated apps for Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 for its business app products such as Gmail or Drive.  —  Speaking to V3, the firm's product management director at Google Apps …

The Google Homepage Is Now Built into Chrome - Screenshots  —  Google is making it official, search engines are coming to the new tab page.  The only surprise is that it's not just Google, the team devised a new API which should enable any search engine to integrate with the Chrome new tab page to any degree it wants.

Announcing City Notes, A New Mobile Travel Startup By... Me!  —  Short version: I just launched a new company, City Notes, which I've been working on for several months.  We are making what we hope will be the best and most interesting travel guides for iPhones and iPads.

Khosla Ventures Retains Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates As Advisors To Help Portfolio Companies Navigate International Issues  —  Khosla Ventures is announcing a strategic relationship with RiceHadleyGates LLC, a consulting firm started by Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Apple Campus Helps Hometown Shine  —  Commercial Rents and Building Activity Have Popped in Cupertino Since the Tech Giant Unveiled Plans for Futuristic Building  —  First the personal-computer industry, then the smartphone and then the tablet.  The latest area touched by Apple Inc.'s innovation: its hometown of Cupertino.

U.S. Senator Promising Legislative Action Allowing In-Air Use of Electronic Devices if FAA Doesn't Act  —  U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has sent a letter to the head of the Federal Aviation Administration saying the flying public is “growing increasingly skeptical” …

London buses now accept NFC contactless payments, if you have the magic logo  —  Transport for London has emailed customers to announce the activation of NFC contactless payments on the city's fleet of 8,500 buses, despite any hiccups on the tube.  From today, anyone who swipes a debit …

This Year, NORAD Tracks Santa With Microsoft & Bing, Not Google  —  Google has been helping the popular NORAD Tracks Santa site locate Santa Claus on Christmas Eve since 2007.  But this year, Jolly St. Nick will be tracked on Bing Maps, not Google.  NORAD is also pushing an official Windows 8 app.

In conversation with Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital [Video]  —  Bill Gurley is one of the best kept secrets of Sand Hill Road.  With a dozen years of venture investing under his belt, Gurley has seen it all.  A big boom, a bubble, a bust, personal trials and tribulations and success.

Soundtracking's New Twitter Cards Music Integration Lets You Hear Photos Within Tweets  —  While Instagram has pulled its photos out of the Twitter stream, tweets from Soundtracking now stream music in-line.  The music moment-sharing app joins a small club including YouTube, Rdio, Official.fm …

Social Networking Popular Across Globe  —  SURVEY REPORT  —  Social networking has spread around the world with remarkable speed.  In countries such as Britain, the United States, Russia, the Czech Republic and Spain, about half of all adults now use Facebook and similar websites.

Exclusive: ITU ‘failed,’ says former policy chief  —  A former telecommunications policy maker at the international organization, which is holding talks in Dubai to expand regulation of the Internet, warns that the group's conference is “absolutely absurd.”  —  The International Telecommunications …

All the beautifully redesigned 1Password 4 for iOS wants to do is help you forget your passwords  —  “They're still holding on to this idea that they must know their passwords,” says David Teare, founder of AgileBits.  He's talking to me about the common types of password users in advance …

U.S. federal agency to test RIM's BlackBerry 10  —  (Reuters) - Research In Motion said a U.S. federal agency, which recently outlined plans to move away from BlackBerry in favor of Apple Inc's iPhone, is now set to begin testing RIM's new BlackBerry 10 platform and devices.

Anti-virus software founder John McAfee arrives in US after being deported from Guatemala  —  MIAMI — Anti-virus software founder John McAfee arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday night after being deported from Guatemala, where he had sought to evade police questioning in the killing of a man in neighboring Belize.