Vehicle rental giant Avis acquires car sharing company Zipcar for $500 million  —  Happy New Year, and welcome to the ongoing rise of the sharing economy.  —  Vehicle rental services company Avis Budget Group (Avis) today announced that it has agreed to acquire car sharing network Zipcar …

Apple is partnering with Broadcom to bring super-fast 802.11ac networking to upcoming Macs  —  While it's believed that Apple's 2013 Mac lineup will feature the same designs as their late-2012 counterparts, they are set to include a range of updated internal features and hardware.

Samsung Loses Bid to Seal Sales Data in Apple Dispute  —  Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) lost a bid to keep sales data of some of its products sealed in a U.S. patent dispute with Apple Inc.  —  U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose yesterday denied Samsung's request to keep …

Intel's Push Into Web TV Hits Delays  —  Intel Corp.'s effort to develop an Internet-based TV service and associated hardware is taking longer than expected, people familiar with the company's plans say, in part due to delays in reaching content agreements with media companies.

Developers begin seeing new Apple iPhone hardware and iOS 7 in usage logs  —  Currently under development, traces of Apple's new iPhone and iOS software have begun surfacing in app usage logs.  Developers have contacted The Next Web to share references to a new iPhone identifier …

Walt Mossberg Look Ahead to 2013 - Talk Gets Cheaper, TV Gets Smarter  —  Personal technology never stops changing.  Some new products and services are game changers, like Apple's iPhone and iPad.  Others are clever twists or refinements, like each successive version of Google's Android platform, which gets better and better.

Tumblr: David Karp's $800 Million Art Project  —  David Karp is in the midst of a rite of passage that seems universal for the young tycoons of the Internet's social era: He's buying himself a proper swank pad.  And like Mark Zuckerberg's luxe but dowdy $6 million manse in Palo Alto …

Windows gains market share after six months of decline: Windows 8 grabs 1.64%, Windows 7 passes 45%  —  Last month, we reported how Windows XP had finally fallen below 40 percent market share.  At the time, Windows 8 managed to grab 1 percent of the pie, and in December Microsoft's newest OS progressed but did not double up.

Google partners with Hyundai and Kia Motors to integrate Google Maps and Places into new car models  —  Following a similar path to Nokia and Apple, Google is looking to expand its services into the automobile industry, today announcing a partnership with Korean car manufacturer Kia Motors …

Facebook Analysts Stick to Script  —  Facebook Inc. has gotten a thumbs-down from investors since its initial public offering.  But securities analysts who work at the investment banks that did the deal have never wavered in their enthusiasm.  —  Since the social-networking company went public in May …

Putting 2012 To Bed  —  I'm typing this on my phone as our plane is starting to descend into the NY metro area.  We will land at JFK within the hour.  —  I've wanted to write a year end post for days.  I actually wrote one and stored it as a draft.  But it comes across as a whiny complaint about the s**tty year that 2012 was.