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 …

The Ubuntu phone has a speed problem, and I'm not talking about lag  —  If your hardware roadmap is measured in years rather than months, you may have a problem  —  As software launches go, yesterday's announcement of Ubuntu for phones was quite the success for parent company Canonical.

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.

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.

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.

Apple Killed the Netbook  —  And we're all better off for the demise of the $400 future of computing.  —  Netbooks are dead.  Good riddance!  Just a few years ago, these small, underpowered, ultracheap laptops were considered the future of the computer industry.

Qualcomm CEO: Apple rejected our radio for the Newton, so we struck a deal with Palm  —  Here's a bit of pre-smartphone era history for you: Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs told Charlie Rose tonight that he tried to convince Apple to put a Qualcomm radio in the Newton PDA during the 90s, but was shot down.

Buzzfeed Raises $19.3 Million to Make LOL Content for the Social Web  —  Building a Giant War Chest That Signals Greater Ambitions  —  Buzzfeed set out to re-invent the notion of content for the social web by allowing pictures of cute animals to co-exist with serious political coverage.

Barnes & Noble's bad holiday: Nook, store and BN.com sales down  —  As it had warned investors last week, Barnes & Noble announced disappointing holiday sales Thursday.  For the nine-week period ending December 29, 2012, Nook device sales, in-store sales and BN.com sales were all down from the same period last year.

A Little Sleuthing Leads Nexus 4 Enthusiasts To Estimate About 400K In Sales Of The Device  —  Google and LG's Nexus 4 has been such a coveted item this past holiday season, that it's been in and out of stock since its release in mid-November.  Because Google doesn't publicly comment on device sales …

FTC Chairman Pushing for a Google Antitrust Decision This Week  —  It's likely that the Federal Trade Commission will rule on its antitrust investigation of Google this week, with a similar settlement to the one discussed before the December holidays, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Chitika says Kindle Fire web share jumped to 7.5% and iPad fell 7.1% over holidays in North America  —  The Apple iPad may be doing too well for its own good, at least when it comes to measuring percentage changes in Web traffic.  This holiday season, the tablet's Web usage share in the US …

Skype updates Windows Phone app, temporarily nixes People Hub integration  —  Microsoft's Skype Division is temporarily removing integration with Windows Phone's People Hub in the latest update to its app for Microsoft's mobile platform, citing problems with “device stability.”

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.

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 …

Another blow for handset subsidies as UK regulator mulls price hike controls  —  The mobile phone subsidy model is already in trouble, what with devices such as the Nexus 4 threatening to bring smartphone pricing into the no-brainer pre-pay zone.  But now carriers in the UK may have a new incentive …

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.

Huawei, Samsung, ZTE Named in New InterDigital Complaint  —  Huawei Technologies Co., ZTE Corp. (000063) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) were named in a new patent- infringement complaint filed by InterDigital Inc. (IDCC) over technology related to the latest mobile-phone standards.

The future according to Google's Larry Page  —  Google CEO Larry Page envisions a future in which computers plan your vacations, drive your cars, and anticipate your whims.  Audacious?  Maybe.  But Page's dreams have a way of coming true.  —  FORTUNE — When Sir Martin Sorrell …

All T-Mobile Stores To Carry The Nexus 4 Beginning This Month  —  If you're still on the hunt for a Nexus 4 and we imagine you are since they are next to impossible to find then we've got some good news.  T-Mobile stores are hoping to resolve the Nexus 4 inventory black hole …