Tech News

Reuters - Google Inc said on Friday it was the target of an investigation by the Texas Attorney General's office into the fairness of its search engine rankings.

Macworld.com - It’s a long weekend for many of us and, as you probably know, the term “long weekend” was in fact named after actor Justin Long, who played the part of Mac in the long running Get a Mac ads that concluded earlier this year.

Reuters - Google Inc said on Friday it was the target of an investigation by the Texas Attorney General's office into the fairness of its search engine rankings.

Investor's Business Daily - The search giant is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would let its mobile phone users play songs wherever they are. Google (NMS:GOOG) hopes to launch the service by Christmas, according to sources. Google is trying to compete with Apple, which dominates via its iTunes Music Stores, accounting for 70% of all U.S. digital music sales. It rose 1.5% to 470.30.

AP - A German court ruled Friday that Google Inc.'s subsidiary YouTube LLC must pay compensation after users uploaded several videos of performances by singer Sarah Brightman in violation of copyright laws.

AFP - Google has agreed to pay 8.5 million dollars (US) to settle a privacy lawsuit over a Buzz social networking tool added to free email service Gmail in February, according to court documents.

PC World - Some of the first fruits of a European Union-funded project led by IBM are making their way into the field of cloud computing, in the form of a virtual machine migration technology.

PC World - More people browsed the Internet last month with a device running Apple's mobile operating system, iOS, than used Linux to do so. That's a first for Apple, according to NetMarketShare, a firm that produces metrics on the market share of browsers, operating systems and search engines.

NewsFactor - Samsung Electronics is predicting it will sell 20 million to 25 million smartphones this year. The company also aims to ship 50 million smartphones in 2011, J.K. Shin, the president of Samsung's mobile communications division, told South Korean media outlet EDaily on Friday.

AP - Google says Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is investigating whether its Web search rankings are fair.

NewsFactor - In what could be the first phase of a transformation in the way its smartphone users pay for Internet use, the nation's biggest carrier, Verizon Wireless, has introduced prepaid data plans. The no-contract plans, which go into effect Sept. 28, offer unlimited 3G access on select handsets for $30 per month, or $10 per month for 25 megabytes, with a 20-cent charge for each additional megabyte.

NewsFactor - Google's Chrome browser is now two years old, and the youngster -- and its proud parent -- are celebrating its steady rise in popularity. According to Net Applications, Chrome had 7.5 percent of the browser market in August -- putting it in third place behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, and above Apple's Safari.

Mashable - In less than two days, Apple's Ping music social network has surpassed the 1 million user milestone.

PC World - Apple's internally developed A4 chip could be implemented in new devices such as low-power servers, TVs or even communications or entertainment boxes, if the company tries to expand the chip's footprint, analysts said.

Macworld.com - As you all know, it’s never a proper aftermath of an iPod event without some new cases, and we here at Macworld are more than happy to present some of the first options available for that iPod Touch or Nano in your pre-order basket. From protective covers to eighties-inspired wrist straps, we’ve got a little something for every kind of case lover—except maybe a wrist-watch adapter for the Nano (and if someone wants to get on that before Halloween, I would be much obliged).

PC World - Now that I’ve been using the GM release for the past 24 hours, I can safely say- iOS 4.1 on iPhone (including the 3G) is the most solid, responsive iOS release to date. With some cool new features to boot.

AFP - More American adults are texting but they are not tapping out nearly as many messages per day on their cellphones as teenagers, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.

PC World - A clever spammer found a glitch in Facebook's photo upload system and used it to post thousands of unwanted Wall messages this week.

PC World - A school district in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is hoping a specialized software application will help stop tragedies like the one that befell Phoebe Prince, an Irish-born teen who committed suicide in January after an alleged bullying campaign by fellow students.

PC World - Twitter now has more than 145 million registered users, and sadly, most people still visit the social network through Twitter's default Web site.