The FTC and Google: A Missed Opportunity  —  Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft  —  The FTC took steps today to address some of Google's improper business practices.  We find it troubling that the agency did not adhere to its own standard procedures that call for the agency …

Spotify suspends music download service in the UK  —  EXCLUSIVE: No longer supporting purchases  —  Spotify is no longer allowing users to buy music through its streaming service, Pocket-lint has discovered.  —  When trying to buy tracks, even Premium subscribers are met with a notice that states …

Samsung to widen smartphone gap with Apple this year: Strategy Analytics  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to widen its lead over Apple Inc in global smartphone sales this year with 35 percent growth, helped by a broad product lineup, market researcher Strategy Analytics told Reuters on Friday.

The E-Reader Revolution: Over Just as It Has Begun?  —  The e-reader era just arrived, but now it may be ending.  —  Dedicated devices for reading e-books have been a hot category for the past half-dozen years, but the shrinking sizes and falling prices of full-featured tablet computers …

Keeping Safari a secret  —  For much of the time we spent developing Safari — long before it was called by that name — it pretended to be Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Specifically, Internet Explorer for Mac, which Apple had provided with the OS since 1998.

Ex-Windows boss Steven Sinofsky launches new blog focused on ‘technology product development’  —  Steven Sinofsky may no longer hold the Windows reins at Microsoft, but that certainly doesn't mean that he intends on stepping back from the public sphere.  Made famous for his work on Windows 7 …

Sony in talks for virtual MSO service  —  Conglom could roll out over-the-top channels later this year  —  Sony Corp. will show off a wide range of new products at next week's Consumer Electronics Show, but one that will stay under wraps could be its riskiest: a multichannel TV service to rival cable.

CinemaNow or never: Rovi puts its digital movie store up for sale  —  After having spent $720 million on it two years ago, Rovi announced Thursday that it intends to sell its Rovi Entertainment Store digital video platform, which was formerly known as CinemaNow.

US frowns on Eric Schmidt's North Korea trip  —  The U.S. Department of State has described the timing of a proposed visit by Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt and others to North Korea as not “particularly helpful” in view of the Asian country's recent launch of a long-range rocket.

Forrester Report Says Apple Will Sell $39 Billion In Macs and iPads To Businesses Over Next 2 Years  —  Forrester Research is reporting that Apple will sell $39 billion in Macs and iPads through 2014.  —  According to the firm's latest report, Apple will sell $7 billion worth of Macs …

Kim Dotcom: US “planted” evidence to obtain illegal search warrants  —  Kim Dotcom living large in happier times.  —  Handout  —  Megaupload has accused US investigators of “planting” evidence the government used to prove that Megaupload knowingly kept copyrighted files on its servers and ultimately shut the file-sharing site down.

New York Comptroller Sues Qualcomm for Data on Political Giving  —  The New York State comptroller, attempting to force greater public disclosure of corporate political spending, sued Qualcomm on Wednesday, demanding to view internal records of political expenditures by the company …

Write Gambling Software, Go to Prison  —  In a criminal case sure to make programmers nervous, a software maker who licenses a program used by online casinos and bookmakers overseas is being charged with promoting gambling in New York because authorities say his software was used by others for illegal betting in that state.

Toyota, Audi Prep Self-Driving Cars  —  Toyota Motor Corp. and Audi AG are throwing their hats into the ring of potential suppliers of self-driving vehicles.  —  Both auto makers confirmed on Thursday that they will be demonstrating autonomous-driving features at the Consumer Electronics Show …

Surface Pro release date set for late January  —  Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet is set to go on sale in late January.  After unveiling the pricing for its Windows 8 tablet late last year, Microsoft has remained relatively quiet about the exact timing of release outside of a promised January timeframe.

China's ‘weibo’ accounts shuttered as part of Internet crackdown  —  BEIJING - Several influential Chinese bloggers, activists and even a popular cartoonist have had their online microblogging accounts shut down in recent days, belying the hopes of many here that the country's …

Samsung rolling out Exynos security patch to UK Galaxy S III owners  —  A few weeks back a security exploit was discovered that left owners of select Exynos-powered Samsung devices feeling uneasy.  While an independent developer quickly cooked up a fix, Samsung soon acknowledged the issue …

Library of Congress has archive of tweets, but no plan for its public display  —  In the few minutes it will take you to read this story, some 3 million new tweets will have flitted across the publishing platform Twitter and ricocheted across the Internet.  The Library of Congress is busy archiving …