Judge rules Apple conspired to raise prices on e-books  —  (Reuters) - In a sweeping rejection of Apple Inc's strategy for selling electronic books on the Internet, a federal judge ruled that the company conspired with five major publishers to raise e-book prices.

A new Google Maps app for smartphone and tablets  —  Today we're introducing a new Google Maps app for Android smartphones and tablets, also coming soon to iPhone and iPad.  It's a new mapping experience that makes exploring the world and getting to the places that matter to you a lot faster and easier.

Interview: T-Mobile's John Legere on iPhone Sales, the Carrier's Bold Upgrade Program, and Continuing to Shake Things Up  —  T-Mobile's biggest news on Wednesday is the introduction of a new program that will let customers upgrade their phones as often as twice a year.

PC Shipments Drop 11% in Q2, Say Gartner, IDC; Longest-Ever Period of Decline  —  Gartner this afternoon reports that worldwide personal computer shipments totaled 76 million in Q2, according to its preliminary estimate, an 11% drop from 85.32 million in the year-earlier period …

Exclusive: Yahoo seeks to reveal its fight against NSA Prism requests  —  SUNNYVALE — In a rare legal move, Yahoo (YHOO) is asking a secretive U.S. surveillance court to let the public see its arguments in a 2008 case that played an important role in persuading tech companies to cooperate …

New hints on what's coming next for Microsoft Surface, Skype, Windows Phone  —  Summary: Microsoft is calling its fiscal 2014 it's biggest year of innovation ever.  Here's the slide that shows why.  —  Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner shared some new hints about what's coming during …

Google Chromebook Under $300 Defies PC Market With Growth  —  Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Chromebook was dismissed as a bare-bones laptop with limited appeal when it debuted two years ago.  Now it's defying skeptics and gaining share as the rest of the personal-computer market shrinks.

Google Puts Marketing Muscle Behind ‘Moto X’  —  All Four Major US Wireless Carriers Expected to Sell Device This Fall  —  As Motorola Mobility prepares to unveil its first flagship smartphone since being acquired by Google Inc. last year, new details are emerging about the device's design and Google's substantial support for it.

Mobile traction is getting harder, not easier.  Here's why.  —  The “classic” growth formula for mobile is broken  —  Once upon a time, the formula for getting mobile traction was something like this:  — Build something insanely great  — Get Apple/Google to feature you, alongside a big PR launch!

SEC Lifts Ban On General Solicitation, Allowing Startups To Advertise That They're Fundraising  —  The SEC has just voted 4 to 1 in favor of implementing section 201(a) of the JOBS Act, which lifts the ban on general solicitation and permits startups, venture capitalists …

BlackBerry's 2013 Smartphone Roadmap: BlackBerry A10 (Aristo) and BlackBerry 9720  —  It's been a while since we heard about exactly what BlackBerry has in store for the rest of 2013.  Thanks to multiple trusted sources, however, we not only know but we also have some exclusive photos.

Pandora's PR problem: how the web radio titan became music's big villain  —  The company has made few friends with its pitch for higher royalties  —  When Tim Westergren says something about music, it's easy to believe him.  He not only possesses rock-star good looks and a background as a pianist …

Instagram enables photo and video embedding to spread its content across the web  —  Instagram has just announced that all public photos and videos posted by its users are now embeddable anywhere on the web where HTML is supported, a move that should make Instagram content far more visible across the internet.