Is Apple Plotting A Route To A Waze Acquisition?  Rumours On The Road Point To Yes  —  There can be no doubt that one of the hottest startups of the last couple of years has been social sat-nav smartphone app Waze.  Not surprising in an era when - largely due to Apple initially dumping Google Maps …

Google Requires People to Use the Google+ Social Network, Gains Ground Against Facebook  —  Google Inc. is gaining ground against Facebook Inc. thanks to a controversial tactic: requiring people to use the Google+ social network.  —  Google over the past year has boosted the Google+ operation …

Google Said Set to Resolve FTC Antitrust Probe Tomorrow  —  Google Inc. (GOOG) will resolve a 20-month antitrust probe by U.S. regulators tomorrow with a voluntary agreement and a consent decree on the company's alleged misuse of patents, three people familiar with the matter said.

Ubuntu phone OS announced, first devices shipping in early 2014  —  As already teased and promised, today Canonical is taking the wraps off the mobile version of Ubuntu, which is built around the existing Android kernel and drivers, but doesn't use a Java Virtual Machine and promises to use “the full power of the phone.”

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.

Life After The iPhone: How AT&T's Bet On Apple Mobilized The Company  —  AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who took over just as the iPhone was launched, talks about the fame, pain and change that's taken place under his leadership.  (Photo credit: Matthew Hawthorne)  —  Steve Jobs needed some advice.

Oh, The Places Tumblr Can Go  —  Nothing says Internet opportunity like a social media juggernaut.  Tumblr, the meme-olicious, gif-tastic, photo-fabulous, (but also occasionally) thoughtful blogging platform that attracted 167 million visitors and nearly 18 billion pageviews in December, is certainly no exception.

Judge can't order Yelp user to edit negative review  —  Jane Perez accused Christopher Dietz of improperly completing construction work on her property—then she gave him a negative Yelp review.  —  Jane Perez  —  The Virginia Supreme Court has overturned a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit …

Microsoft: Google Is (Still) Blocking Us From Building YouTube for Windows Phone  —  Microsoft today said that Google executives have blocked a full-featured YouTube app for Windows Phone, via a blog post from one of its chief lawyers.  —  The company is trying to put a little public antitrust pressure …

Andrew Sullivan's Ad-Free Publishing Experiment Sees Six-Figure Revenue In First Six Hours  —  When political blogger Andrew Sullivan announced this morning that he's leaving The Daily Beast and launching an independent company called Dish Publishing, the most provocative bit of news was his intended business model.

WhatsApp processed a whopping (record) 18 billion messages on the last day of 2012  —  Mobile messaging app WhatsApp has had a pretty remarkable 2012.  It just announced that it had set a new single day record for the most messages published on December 31.

Sprint Will Begin Pay As You Go Service On January 25th, But Standard Sprint Phones Aren't Invited To The Party  —  If you want to use Sprint's network without signing a contract, there are a lot of options out there, including its subsidiary Boost Mobile, the American MVNO Virgin, and hybrid provider Republic Wireless, among others.

Patent trolls want $1,000—for using scanners  —  When Steven Vicinanza got a letter in the mail earlier this year informing him that he needed to pay $1,000 per employee for a license to some “distributed computer architecture” patents, he didn't quite believe it at first.

Apple says Do Not Disturb scheduling bug will correct itself automatically after January 7, 2013  —  In a support article on its website, Apple has acknowledged that a bug is keeping iOS devices' Do Not Disturb feature active past its scheduled time.  It says that the bug will automatically correct itself after January 7, 2013.

Microsoft reportedly acquires home automation startup R2 Studios for Xbox team  —  We knew that R2 studios, a startup from the creators of the Slingbox that was focused on home automation solutions, had been courting acquisition offers from the likes of Apple and Google …

Samsung announces new Series 7 15″ touchscreen laptop and 13″ ultrabook  —  Samsung has been staggering its CES announcements to arrive early, and it has just announced two Windows 8-based additions to its Series 7 laptop lineup - the Chronos and the Ultra.

Avis's smart Zipcar buy  —  What's the opposite of the winner's curse?  It seems that the biggest winner of the Hertz deal to buy Dollar Thrifty for $2.6 billion was actually Hertz's mortal enemy, Avis Budget.  —  Let's count the ways that the Hertz deal helped Avis: for one thing …