Sorry Apple gets respect in China after tabloid trial  —  (Reuters) - With its rare apology, Apple Inc went from pariah to praiseworthy in the eyes of China's state-controlled media, a lesson for other foreign firms not to underestimate the speed and power of the government press.

Microsoft's Windows Blue looks to be named Windows 8.1  —  Summary: The Windows Blue operating system update is likely to be named “Windows 8.1” when it hits later this summer, according to sources.  —  Microsoft officials supposedly have decided on the final name for Windows Blue.

Google Faces Action in EU After Failing to Fix Privacy Policy  —  Google Inc. (GOOG) faces possible fines after six European Union data protection regulators started “coordinated” enforcement measures over the company's failure to fix flaws in a new privacy policy.

Facebook's Sandberg May Be Deposed in Antitrust Case  —  Facebook Inc. (FB) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is scheduled to be questioned in a lawsuit alleging that seven technology companies broke antitrust laws by agreeing to not recruit from each other.

Verizon, AT&T could partner to take over Vodafone — report  —  The deal would see Verizon buy back the value Vodafone owns in its company, while AT&T would acquire all non-U.S. assets.  —  Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead  —  Verizon and AT&T could be teaming up to make a huge bid …

OMGPOP Founder Dan Porter Departs Zynga; Will Be Replaced by VP of Mobile Sean Kelly  —  Mr. Porter was at Zynga for just over a year.  —  Dan Porter, the founder of New York-based gaming company OMGPOP which was purchased by Zynga in March of last year, has left the company, according to a release obtained by Betabeat.

Funny or Die Releases Teaser Trailer for ‘iSteve’  —  Last month, comedy site Funny or Die announced that it will be releasing iSteve, a 60-75 minute movie based on the life of Steve Jobs, on April 15.  The film stars Justin Long, who gained fame among Apple fans for playing the role of …

Game of Thrones Pirates Break BitTorrent Swarm Record  —  As expected, the new season premiere of Game of Thrones has generated quite a bit of activity on various BitTorrent sites.  —  Hundreds and thousands of downloaders went out to grab a copy of the show, breaking the record for the largest BitTorrent swarm ever in the process.

Yahoo Mail adds support for Dropbox attachments to web client  —  Yahoo just announced a new partnership with Dropbox that lets you attach files stored with the popular cloud service to outbound emails.  The company is touting the integration as yet another way it's making the email experience simpler for customers.

Sign o' the Times: Twitter gets a Vine copyright complaint from Prince's record label  —  Twitter has been served a DMCA copyright complaint for content that was published using the Vine video platform it acquired and launched earlier this year.  —  Twitter openly shares how many DMCA takedown notices …

Smartisan OS unveiled in China, takes a fresh approach to Android UI design  —  Following the likes of Meizu and Xiaomi, another star is born in the Chinese smartphone market.  In fact, some may already know the man behind this new Android-based Smartisan OS: Luo Yonghao, a self-taught ex-English teacher …

San Francisco DA met with Apple over phone thefts, hints next two iPhones designed under Jobs  —  The San Francisco Examiner reports on meetings between San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and mobile device makers regarding phone thefts.  Because Apple's iPhone was reportedly involved …

Rosetta Stone acquires Livemocha for $8.5m to move its language learning platform into the cloud  —  Computer-assisted language teaching software Rosetta Stone announced today that it has acquired Livemocha, an online service for language-learning communities, for $8.5 million.

USPTO reaffirms invalidation of Apple patent in Samsung suit  —  Patent office issues a Final Office Action on Apple's “bounce-back” patent, a key patent to Apple's case.  —  The damages Samsung owes Apple in their landmark patent lawsuit could be reduced even further after a recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision.

HD Voice Will Start Coming to AT&T Later This Year  —  Among the announcements that T-Mobile made last month was its plan to deploy improved voice calling, starting with the arrival of its iPhone 5 later this month.  —  The technology, known as HD Voice, requires support from both the network and the devices on each end of the call.

Startup Nebula Launches a Plug-and-Play Cloud Computer  —  Here's a name I haven't heard in a while: Anso Labs.  —  This was the cloud computing startup that originated at NASA, where the original ideas for OpenStack, the open source cloud computing platform was born.

HTC One coming to AT&T and Sprint on April 19th for $199.99, will beat the Galaxy S4 to the market  —  The HTC One, the company's new flagship phone and would-be savior, will be available on AT&T starting on April 19th for $199.99.  That's a good $50 less than was rumored yesterday …

ANALYST: All Of My Clients Think There's A Bitcoin Bubble, But A ‘Perfect Storm’ Is Causing Prices To Surge  —  It's probably fair to say that the big rise in Bitcoin this year has caught many by surprise.  —  Today, the value of one Bitcoin hit $100.  In early March, they were trading below $35.

Microsoft co-founder to open investment office in Silicon Valley  —  (Reuters) - Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp, is opening an office in Silicon Valley to make new investments in emerging technology and internet companies.  —  The Palo Alto office …

Twitter Relaunches Its Twitter For Business Site With More Content, New Video  —  Twitter has relaunched its Twitter For Business website with a new look, plus additional content that Twitter hopes will help businesses learn how to build a successful presence there.

E-bleeder: is Nook on its deathbed?  —  Barnes & Noble's once-promising digital business needs to turn a page to compete with Amazon and Apple  —  The ending has yet to be written for Barnes & Noble's Nook story, which began with the surprise debut of the original Nook e-reader back in late 2009.

Microsoft Launches Windows QuickStart Kit For Mac Developers, A $25 USB Stick With Windows 8 Pro And Parallels For Mac  —  Earlier this year, Microsoft launched modern.IE to help developers ensure that their sites work well with old and new versions of Internet Explorer.

Google Adds Twilio For The First Voice And Messaging APIs Available Through The Google Cloud Platform And App Engine  —  Twilio today is taking one more step in its bid to become the most ubiquitous voice and messaging API available to developers: it is announcing a partnership with Google's Cloud Platform.