Apple's New Front in Battle for TV  —  Apple Inc. is in talks with some of the biggest U.S. cable operators about letting consumers use an Apple device as a set-top box for live television and other content, according to people familiar with the matter.  —  The talks represent Apple's …

[Updated: Screenshots] Google Is Gearing Up To Finally Introduce Play Store Gift Cards And A Wishlist [APK Teardown]  —  A new Google Play Store v3.8.15 apk started rolling out to Android devices today, but upon running through its UI, I was unable to uncover anything different from the versions before that.

Why Apple really bought AuthenTec: It wanted “new technology” for upcoming products, and quickly  —  On July 27, seemingly out of nowhere, security company AuthenTec announced in a regulatory filing that it had agreed to a $356 million acquisition offer from Apple, making it one of the Apple's biggest mergers in its 36 year history.

Lenovo dings Microsoft Surface: We'll provide better hardware  —  Lenovo executives believe it can beat Microsoft on hardware and claims not to be worried about Microsoft's Surface tablet.  —  During Lenovo's first fiscal quarter 2013 earnings call, executives didn't mince words in attacking Microsoft's Surface strategy.

Instagram 3.0 bets on location with Photo Map, adds infinite scrolling  —  Looking forward, Systrom envisions an Instagram that instantly pipes photos into one location-tagged stream for concertgoers, or one stream of photos tagged in front of the Eiffel Tower.  “All sorts of cool things hapen once people use geodata,” he said.

Three years later, deleting your photos on Facebook now actually works  —  It has been more than three years since Ars first started covering Facebook's inability to remove “deleted” photos from its servers, but this particular saga appears to be coming to an end.

Apple bashes Amazon and proposed ebook settlement  —  In a memo filed with the Southern District of New York this afternoon (PDF; embedded below), Apple argues that the Department of Justice's proposed settlement with three book publishers forces Apple to tear up existing contracts.

Dish Network Said To Plan Nationwide Satellite Broadband  —  Dish Network Corp. is preparing to introduce a nationwide broadband-Internet service using a satellite from sister company EchoStar Corp. (SATS), according to three people familiar with the situation.

Nokia sales chief warns Samsung to ‘take note’ of next generation Lumia  —  Now that Nokia has revealed when its big Windows Phone 8 launch event will be, it's time for the company to start building up the hype and it's doing it by taking aim at its biggest competitor: Samsung.

‘Friends’ can share your Facebook profile with the government, court rules  —  A federal judge has ruled that investigators can go through your Facebook profile if one of your friends gives them permission to do so.  The decision, which is part of a New York City racketeering trial …

Zynga Puts Real Money Into Gambling Lobby  —  Zynga Inc. has begun investing in state and federal lobbying efforts around gambling with real money, even as the social gaming firm predicts the U.S. won't be an initial market for the potentially lucrative new line of business.

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange granted asylum in Ecuador  —  Julian Assange has been granted political asylum by the Ecuadorian government after taking refuge in its London embassy in June.  —  LONDON — Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted political asylum by the Ecuadorian government …

Facebook stock slumps 5% as insiders get first chance to sell  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Facebook's life as a public company has been a nightmare from day one, and the pain continued on Thursday as some company insiders got their first chance to dump shares.

Diaspora's Next Act: Social Remixing Site Makr.io  —  If you were to come across a group of people sitting in a room together, all with their own laptops out, sending each other jokes online, you might think that was a little weird, right?  —  “Antisocial” is one word that comes to mind.

The Google+ app for iOS opens web URLs in Chrome if installed, how soon until all Google apps do that?  —  Earlier today, Google released an update to its Google+ app for iOS, expanding support for Hangouts.  But tucked in there is a one-line update not which could have some interesting implications …

Apple says Retail Stores still hiring, recent staffing changes were a ‘mistake’, are being reversed  —  Apple says that recent reports about Retail Store employee hours being cut, hiring events being halted and that they were misleading.  Still, it says that some staffing changes were made …

Google Doubles Down On Rewards For Bug Reports With $2 Million In Hacking Prizes  —  If Google hadn't made the message clear enough already: It really, really wants you to hack its software.  —  On Wednesday the company announced that it's holding another competition for hackers to target …

E-commerce startups  —  Very few successful e-commerce companies were started in the 2000s.  Since then, e-commerce startups have enjoyed a revival.  Dozens of companies have gotten traction and venture dollars have followed.  Phrases like flash sales, social commerce, and subscription commerce have entered the startup lexicon.

Photobucket's first major redesign focuses on ‘telling stories’ and backing up photos  —  The slightly retro but still massively popular video and photo sharing service Photobucket will begin gradually rolling out the first major redesign in its nearly ten-year history today.

New Zealand High Court: FBI Must Release Its Evidence Against Kim Dotcom  —  The US's case against Kim Dotcom and Megaupload continues to run into significant problems.  While the US Justice Department (with an assist from New Zealand law enforcement) has continued to insist …

Verizon, Comcast Airwaves Accord Wins Antitrust Approval  —  The U.S. Justice Department allowed Verizon Wireless's purchase of unused airwaves from Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and other cable companies to go forward on conditions that limit the companies' agreements to sell each other's services.