What Has Changed  —  As I read this post in the WSJ about the changing nature of VC funding of consumer web companies, I thought that we may be looking at the symptoms and not the disease.  As the WSJ notes, VC funding of consumer web and mobile companies is down 42% in this first nine months of 2012 (vs the first nine months of 2011).

Samsung's Galaxy Note II hits 5 million channel sales, adding 2 million over the last 24 days  —  Samsung has announced [translation] that the Galaxy Note II, its flagship phone-meets-tablet ('phablet'), has passed 5 million in channel sales, chalking up a further 2 million shipments since November 2.

Nintendo Confronts a Changed Video Game World  —  TUCKED in the woods here, west of State Route 520, is a little piece of the Mario Kingdom.  —  Behind the unassuming doors is the business built by Mario, the pudgy plumber, and Luigi, his lanky brother, as well as characters like Link …

Apple Acquired “Lightning” Trademark from Harley-Davidson  —  The EU Patent & Trademark Office officially published two Apple trademark applications for “Lightning” under numbers 011399821/862.  What's interesting about this filing is that it clearly illustrates that Apple had acquired …

Google shuts down dedicated Motorola Mobility sites for Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Africa  —  Soon after purchasing Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, Google announced it would make deep cuts into the company's staff, reducing headcount by some 4,000.  As part of that effort …

Microsoft commits to Surface with Windows RT for at least four years  —  Summary: Nearly a month after its initial release, Windows RT still has no official support policy.  But Microsoft has declared its support lifecycle for the Surface hardware powered by Windows RT.

Japan's Masayoshi Son Picks a Fight With U.S. Phone Giants  —  In Japan, Masayoshi Son is known as the eccentric Internet billionaire who upended the country's telecom industry.  In the U.S., he is about to become the cash-strapped underdog who picked a fight with two corporate giants—AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

Bios embedded Windows 8 product keys  —  If you have purchased a laptop running Windows 8 recently you may have noticed that it may not contain a small label on the back side or battery compartment listing the operating system's product key.  The question that should come up at this point …

E-Commerce Spending On Black Friday Tops $1B For The First Time; Amazon Is The Most Visited Retailer  —  We've seen the reports that Black Friday online sales increased this year, but the numbers are finally in. comScore is reporting that U.S. retail e-commerce spending was $1.042 billion, an increase of 26 percent from last year.

The Release Windows Archaism  —  Television and media industry are stuck in a wasteful rear-guard fight for the preservation of an analog era relic: the Release Windows system.  Designed to avoid destructive competition among media, it ends up boosting piracy while frustrating honest viewers willing to pay.