Nokia and RIM enter into new patent license agreement  —  RIM payments to Nokia settle all legal actions between the companies  —  Espoo, Finland - Nokia has entered into a new patent license agreement with Research In Motion.  The agreement will result in settlement of all existing patent …

Updated Terms of Service Based on Your Feedback  —  Earlier this week, we introduced a set of updates to our privacy policy and terms of service to help our users better understand our service.  In the days since, it became clear that we failed to fulfill what I consider …

HTC Said to Plan Windows Tablets to Challenge Apple-Led Market  —  HTC Corp. (2498) plans to make tablets based on the Windows operating system, giving Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) another ally in its challenge to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $63.2 billion market, people familiar with the matter said.

Apple Reaches Highest-Ever U.S. Smartphone Sales Share At 53.3%; Android Consolidates In Europe  —  Apple's shares, as you may have seen, have been sliding in the market on the back of strong competition from Android device makers.  Today, some new figures on recent smartphone sales …

Apple cleared in Italian Applecare investigation, but not before receiving a $264,000 fine  —  Already required to pay a $1.2 million (€900,000) in damages, Apple has been fined another $264,000 (€200,000) by Italy's ‘antitrust authority’ Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato …

Apple's Passbook Is a Surprise Success for Developers  —  Apple's Passbook feature of iOS 6 has become a surprise hit for developers.  —  Passbook is virtual file folder for all those bits of paper you accumulate in your wallet: tickets, boarding passes, coupons and so forth.

Steve Jobs superyacht impounded over unpaid Starck designer bill  —  (Reuters) - A superyacht built for Apple Inc's late co-founder Steve Jobs has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute over an unpaid bill to designer Philippe Starck, a lawyer said on Friday.

Google executives acquitted in Milan autism video case  —  (Reuters) - An Italy appeals court acquitted three Google executives of charges of having violated the privacy of an Italian boy with autism by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006.

Spotify Rival Deezer Eyes U.S.  —  Online music streaming company Deezer stepped up pressure on its peers on Thursday with the launch of a free streaming service in more than 150 countries and said it is looking for a partner to enter the U.S. market.  —  The Paris-based company …

EU charges Samsung with abusing vital telecoms patent  —  (Reuters) - The European Commission charged Samsung Electronics on Friday with abusing its dominant position in seeking to bar rival Apple from using a patent deemed essential to mobile phone use.  —  The Commission sent a …

iOS 6.0.2 suspected of draining batteries  —  The iOS 6.0.2 update released earlier this week may have cured some people's Wi-Fi woes, but others now claim it's reducing their battery life too.  First reported by TidBITS' Adam Engst and supported by a number of posters in Apple's Support Communities …

Nielsen Tops of 2012: Digital  —  Smartphone owners became the majority of mobile phone users for the first time this year, growing from 49 percent of mobile subscribers in Q1 2012, to 56 percent by Q3 2012.  Mobile app usage also continued to grow.  Among the top 10 mobile apps …

Apple shifts iTunes to HTTPS, sidesteps China's censors  —  Great Firewall foiled ... for now  —  Apple has adopted HTTPS for searches and downloads on the version of iTunes used in China.  The move comes at a time when China's government prepares to step up regulation of online app stores and continues its crackdown on VPNs.

Behind closed doors at the UN's attempted “takeover of the Internet”  —  Eli Dourado is a research fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a co-founder of WCITLeaks, and a member of the US delegation to the WCIT.  The views expressed here are his own.

As Tablets Surge, Ereaders Struggle  —  Despite strong demand for smart connected devices, consumers may be passing over ereaders  —  The connected device market continues to see substantial growth worldwide.  The International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that in Q3 …

TV Everywhere, for Real, for Now: NimbleTV Starts a New York Trial Run  —  “TV Everywhere” is supposed to let you watch whatever you want, wherever you want to watch it, on any device you want - as long as you pay for TV.  —  But the cable guys have been working at this for more than 3 years, and they still can't really deliver.

Google Launches New Experimental Search Features For Tracking Your Online Purchases, Reservations & Events From Gmail  —  Google has long been running a number of experimental Search and Gmail field trials anybody can sign up for and today it's launching a few nifty new search features …

Hulu's Fork in the Road  —  As Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. battle it out for dominance in online video, owners of the much smaller Hulu LLC, Hollywood's own online video service, are under pressure to decide which direction to go.  —  Jason Kilar, chief executive of Hulu …

How much did Adobe pay for Behance?  —  Earlier this morning, Adobe Systems, the San Jose-based creative software giant that is currently undergoing a makeover for the cloud-era announced that it was buying New York City-based design-oriented community, Behance.  Since then, many have been wondering how much did Adobe shell out?

Dropbox Poaches Top Sales Execs From Salesforce, Apple and Google  —  Dropbox has been aggressively staffing up as the year comes to a close, with talent acquisitions of Audiogalaxy and Snapjoy, and hires of the creator of the programming language Python and the designer of the Facebook “Like” button.

Instagram for iOS gets new Mayfair filter and returns ability to share photos from any album  —  Instagram may have been under a lot of pressure of late but the Facebook-owned photo service has updated its iOS app with a new filter — Mayfair — and the return of the option to share photos from any album …