Micron CEO Steve Appleton dies in airplane crash  —  Airport officials say the plane is described as an experimental fixed wing single engine Lancair.  The plane went down at about 8:58 a.m. Here's the full news release issued by the Micron Board of Directors: “We are deeply saddened to announce …

Windows Phone developer lead leaves for Amazon's Kindle team  —  Summary: Brandon Watson, head of developer experiences for Windows Phone, is the latest exec to leave the Microsoft's phone unit.  —  Brandon Watson, known to many Windows Phone developers as head of the WP Developer Experience, is leaving Microsoft for Amazon.

What is the mystery “entertainment device” Google is testing?  —  Google is asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to test a mysterious Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled “entertainment device,” in employees homes in four U.S. cities.  So inquiring minds want to know, what exactly is it?

First: Apple's rank in mobile phone profitability and revenues  —  Apple retained its top rank in profitability and regained the top spot in mobile phone revenues.  —  The relative shares of revenues and profits are shown below:  —  Individually, Apple's share of units, revenues and profits is chronicled below:

Apple: All iPad and iPhone Models Will be Back on Sale Online in Germany Shortly  —  That was fast.  —  Apple, which has spent the past day pulling older model iPhone and iPad inventory from the shelves of its online store in Germany, is now scrambling to restore it.

iBooks Author 1.01 out with updated EULA  —  An incremental release for iBooks Author has been released with changes to the program's EULA.  The update is 143.50 MB, which seems pretty hefty for a EULA change.  —  The change is an important one though, clarifying that Apple has rights over the format a book is in, not the content.

Apple Kicks Chart Topping Fakes Out Of App Store  —  Temple Jump, Tiny Birds, Numbers With Friends.  These are not the apps you love.  They're fakes designed to scam you out of $1.99 when you go to buy Temple Run, Tiny Wings, or Words With Friends.  Today Apple took a stand against plagiarism …

Dropbox offers up to 5GB of free space to anyone willing to go beta  —  Here's some good news for all you Dropboxers out there: the company is offering a bundle of free storage space to anyone who tries the beta version of its new Experimental software.  It's really quite simple …

U.S. government, military to get secure Android phones  —  A U.S soldier checks his cell phone while on patrol in Iraq in December.  Smartphones are first being deployed to soldiers.  —  (CNN) — Some U.S. officials this year are expected to get smartphones capable of handling classified …

Bing — Which Has Deals With Facebook and Twitter — Finally Speaks on Social Search Controversy  —  While Google has endured criticism for biasing Google+ content in its new “Search Plus Your World” features, Bing has been surprisingly shy about pressing its social search advantage.

Smart phones overtake client PCs in 2011  —  Canalys today released its full, detailed Q4 2011 country-level smart phone shipment estimates to clients, so completing the picture for the year.  One notable result was that total annual global shipments of smart phones exceeded those of client PCs (including pads) for the first time.

Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley launches mobile-game startup with Atari arcade veterans  —  Seamus Blackley, the co-creator of the Xbox, passionately believes that gameplay will triumph in the game business.  That is why he and his new startup are relying on a team of famous designers …

Google Issues Statement Regarding CDMA Nexus Devices  —  We reached out to Google to see if we could get some clarification or reasoning as to why CDMA devices would no longer be “supported” as developer devices and they responded.  Dan Morril, an Android engineer who you may be familiar with …

Apple ads Genius movie, TV recommendations to Apple TV  —  Apple has added its Genius recommendation system from iTunes to Apple TV, offering to suggest titles related to previous purchases.  —  The suggestions are available from new Genius menu options under both Movies and TV, opening listings of related content.

Path Now Has 2M Users, Having Doubled Since It Relaunched Two Months Ago  —  Path got the second version of its product a lot more right than the first.  The well-designed mobile journal app is now one of the most promising attempts to build a more personal and intimate social graph.

Anonymous spies on FBI / UK Police hacking investigation conference call  —  A recording of a confidential conference call between the FBI and UK law enforcement officers at the Metropolitan Police has been released by Anonymous on the internet.  —  And if you think that's bad enough news …

Why most Facebook users get more than they give  —  Half the adults and three-quarters of the teenagers in America use social networking sites (SNS) and Facebook by far is the most popular of these sites.  The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project fielded …

EU regulators want Google to halt new privacy policy  —  A group of European regulators has written to Google Inc calling on it to halt the introduction of its new privacy policy, saying it needs to investigate whether the proposals sufficiently protect users' personal data.

Facebook Hires Former Levi's, Apple Exec Rebecca Van Dyck to Lead Marketing  —  As we saw in its IPO filing, Facebook does very little consumer marketing in a traditional sense.  But that may change: It's bringing on former Levi's and Apple exec Rebecca Van Dyck to head global marketing, according to people familiar with the matter.