The FTC and Google: A Missed Opportunity  —  Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft  —  The FTC took steps today to address some of Google's improper business practices.  We find it troubling that the agency did not adhere to its own standard procedures that call for the agency …

Spotify suspends music download service in the UK  —  EXCLUSIVE: No longer supporting purchases  —  Spotify is no longer allowing users to buy music through its streaming service, Pocket-lint has discovered.  —  When trying to buy tracks, even Premium subscribers are met with a notice that states …

Samsung expected to widen smartphone lead over Apple this year  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to widen its lead over Apple Inc in global smartphone sales this year with 35 percent growth, helped by a broad product lineup, market researcher Strategy Analytics told Reuters on Friday.

How Almost Anyone Can Take You Off Facebook (And Lock You Out)  —  Getting your buddy's Facebook account turned into a “Memorial” state is surprisingly easy — and locks them out of Facebook .  Warning: this will seriously mess up someone's account.  —  Source: brotographs.com

Surface Pro release date set for late January  —  Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet is set to go on sale in late January.  After unveiling the pricing for its Windows 8 tablet late last year, Microsoft has remained relatively quiet about the exact timing of release outside of a promised January timeframe.

HTC Vows to Step Up Innovation  —  TAIPEI—The head of HTC Corp. said the beleaguered Taiwanese smartphone maker didn't market their products aggressively enough last year, but vowed to win consumers back by developing more innovative products.  —  HTC had one of its worst years in 2012 …

Amazon Prime Instant Video adds A&E, History, and Lifetime after Netflix's deal falls through  —  Months after Netflix users lose access, Amazon strikes a deal with A&E  —  Amazon's Prime Instant Video streaming service is continuing to fill out its selection with today's announcement …

Best Buy Complains About Walmart's iPhone 5 Holiday Sale, Claims $65,000 Profit Loss in One Day  —  The Wall Street Journal notes that several retailers including Best Buy and Toys “R” Us have complained to attorneys general in a handful of states about advertising practices of Walmart.

Google Quietly Removes Censorship Warning Feature For Search Users In China (Updated)  —  Google has quietly disabled a feature that notified users of its search service in China when a keyword had been censored by the Chinese government's internet controls, according to censorship monitoring blog GreatFire.org.

Apple did offer to buy Waze, but Waze politely declined  —  Rumors of the potential Apple acquisition of Waze lit up the blogosphere this week, only to be extinguished the very next day.  However, a deal was very much on the cards, but the Israeli startup politely declined Apple's offer.

Forrester Report Says Apple Will Sell $39 Billion In Macs and iPads To Businesses Over Next 2 Years  —  Forrester Research is reporting that Apple will sell $39 billion in Macs and iPads through 2014.  —  According to the firm's latest report, Apple will sell $7 billion worth of Macs …

Keeping Safari a secret  —  For much of the time we spent developing Safari — long before it was called by that name — it pretended to be Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Specifically, Internet Explorer for Mac, which Apple had provided with the OS since 1998.

Zipcar Adds A New No-Fee Membership Option In Canada, But Limits Driving To Weekdays  —  Hot on the heels of an acquisition by Avis announced earlier this week, Zipcar will be piloting a no-fee membership option beginning today in Toronto and Vancouver.  The new ‘Access Plan’ pilot project carries …

Now 2.5M Users Strong, Crowdsourced Learning Platform StudyBlue Grabs $9M To Help Students Study On The Go  —  Founded in 2009, Wisconsin-based startup StudyBlue set out with a simple and straightforward mission: Leverage technology to help students improve their academic performance.

Write Gambling Software, Go to Prison  —  In a criminal case sure to make programmers nervous, a software maker who licenses a program used by online casinos and bookmakers overseas is being charged with promoting gambling in New York because authorities say his software was used by others for illegal betting in that state.

The E-Reader Revolution: Over Just as It Has Begun?  —  The e-reader era just arrived, but now it may be ending.  —  Dedicated devices for reading e-books have been a hot category for the past half-dozen years, but the shrinking sizes and falling prices of full-featured tablet computers …

Kim Dotcom: US “planted” evidence to obtain illegal search warrants  —  Kim Dotcom living large in happier times.  —  Handout  —  Megaupload has accused US investigators of “planting” evidence the government used to prove that Megaupload knowingly kept copyrighted files on its servers and ultimately shut the file-sharing site down.