Tech News

Samsung has passed Apple in the U.S. smartphone market, according to an analyst report.

In a survey of U.S. wireless carrier retail stores conducted by Wall Street research firm Canaccord Genuity, Samsung smartphones outsold Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhones and every other brand of smart devices in May.

Samsung's strength was buoyed by the new Galaxy S4 flagship phone, which began outselling the iPhone 5 last month at every carrier except AT&T (T, Fortune 500), where the iPhone 5 still ranks No. 1. Strong Galaxy S III and Note II sales also helped vault Samsung to the top.

Though the report should certainly please Samsung, it shouldn't be cause for concern at Apple -- at least not yet. Canaccord's report does not factor in non-wireless stores, including the Apple store. And an April report from data tracker comScore (SCOR) still suggests that Apple holds a significant advantage over Samsung in the United States -- 39% to 22%.

Related story: Google reclaims control of Android with the 'Nexus Experience'

Also, month-by-month success rates aren't always the best measure: The iPhone 5 was unveiled in September, and the Galaxy S4 has been on store shelves for just over a month.

Either way, it's clear there's a big shift in the smartphone space. Though Android devices overtook market share from iOS devices years ago, Apple's iPhones had been the best selling individual smartphone -- by far -- until recently.

The Samsung Galaxy S III was the first phone that really came close to dethroning the iPhone. Now that Canaccord's report shows the Galaxy S4 might actually be doing that, it raises the question of how Apple might react.

Ironically, most of the best Android phones do not run the best version of Android.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) is quietly starting to change that. The two best Android phones of 2013 -- the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One -- will soon be available, unlocked and direct from Google, without their respective custom user interfaces. Instead, they'll come with an unaltered version of Android that operates the way Google intended Android to perform.

At the Google I/O developers' conference last month, Google began referring to the stock version of Android as the "Nexus Experience." Though Nexus Experience phones will be exclusively available on the Google Play store, they won't be the same as other "Nexus" devices offered by Google. Google designs those phones' hardware in addition to the software.

Convincing manufacturers to release Nexus Experience devices is an important step for Google in reclaiming its open-source Android mobile operating system. Over the past few years, the search giant had in many ways lost control.

When Google first released Android in 2008, it did so with the promise that anyone could do anything they wanted to the publicly released code for free. That was initially a good idea. There were plenty of big name companies, including HTC, looking to compete with Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) without having to develop an entire operating system from scratch (or license the pathetic Windows Mobile 6 from Microsoft (MSFT,
Fortune 500).)

The early iterations of Android were deeply flawed, and phone manufacturers' "OS skins," such as HTC's "Sense" user interface, added some semblance of coherence to the operating system. Realizing that there wasn't much to immediately differentiate one Android device from another, smartphone makers quickly began churning out skins of their own.

Along the way, though, Google made significant improvements to Android. In 2010, it earnestly began integrating its core services and technologies into the system's fabric. To overhaul Android's design, Google brought in Mattias Duarte, who played a key role in building Palm's critically acclaimed webOS.

It was too late. By the time Google figured out what it wanted Android to look and feel like, the vast majority of devices were running a custom skin. The only significant devices running stock Android were Google's own Nexus phones. Google does not reveal sales figures for its Nexus devices, but aside from the Nexus 7 tablet, current usage statistics seem to indicate that they are far from the most popular Android handsets.

That posed a major problem for Google: Every time the company pushed out an Android update, those
improvements weren't reaching all those phones with custom UIs. That's a big difference from its rivals. For the most part, when Apple and Microsoft push out an improvement, all iPhone and Windows Phone users get it at the same time.

In an increasingly cutthroat market, it doesn't make sense for manufacturers to devote the time and resources necessary to customize updates after they already sold the phone -- much to the annoyance of customers.
If manufacturers actually decided to update their devices, they were (and still are, if these usage figures are any indication) frequently a year or two behind the latest version of Android.

Today, stock Android is hands-down better than any version of Android with a custom skin. Save for some deficiencies with its camera app, it looks better and performs better. But with the smartphone hardware race dying down and most similarly priced devices essentially indistinguishable from the next, manufacturers are scared to veer away from their lone remaining differentiation point -- the custom user interface -- even if

Google's free-to-use experience is superior.

That's why the Nexus Experience concept is so crucial for Google. By getting its idealized vision of Android on the most popular devices, Google will be able to push updates to phones at its convenience, complete with its most innovative and competitive features.

But it will need to go one step further than its current offering. To make a real impact, Google will need to figure out how to make the Nexus experience available as an update to existing owners of these devices, even if they bought them through a carrier.

That's a pie-in-the-sky aspiration. Hardware partners will surely bristle at the idea, since they would largely become an invisible shell for Google's operating system.

If Google can accomplish that, however -- even to a degree -- it will be in a much better position to throw down the gauntlet in the smartphone space it is already beginning to run away with.

That $1.29 iTunes song or $9.99 e-book may be more expensive than you think.

If you live in one of the nearly 25 states that charge sales tax on digital goods or services you likely pay more for everything from downloaded music, e-books and ringtones to streaming TV shows and video.
And a growing number of states are finding ways to tax our digital diversions. While some states rely on existing sales tax laws, more than a dozen have enacted sales tax laws specifically targeting digital goods.
In July, Minnesota's residents will be the latest consumers to pay tax on digital products, under a provision of the state's tax bill passed in May.

As consumers switch to digital music, books and movies, many states discovered that they were losing out on valuable sales tax revenue and decided to do something about it, said Michael Mazerov, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit think tank.

E-book sales, for example, rose 44% to $3.04 billion in 2012, according to the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group. Meanwhile, digital music sales, were up 9.1%, with digital transactions making up a record 37% of all album purchases, according to Nielsen.

Related: Online retailers call Internet sales tax a 'nightmare'

What exactly is taxed varies widely by state. Washington state, for example, taxes digital content regardless of how it is delivered; while other states tax music and videos that are downloaded, but not when streamed through a service like Netflix or Spotify.
Here's what some residents currently pay:

• iTunes: Downloaded music is one of the most commonly taxed digital goods. For example, a $12.99 album downloaded from iTunes carries a state sales tax of 52 cents in Wyoming, 78 cents in Vermont and 91 cents in Mississippi.
• E-books: States that tax iTunes also tax downloaded e-books. Take New Jersey, which levies a 70-cent tax on a $9.99 purchase, or Utah which imposes a tax of 47 cents.
• Mobile phone apps: Apps are a unique case. Some states that don't tax "digital goods" still tax apps, the same way they tax software downloaded to a computer. For example in New York, a $2.99 Angry Birds download from the iTunes store will carry a 12-cent tax. But if a New Yorker downloads music or a movie from iTunes they won't get taxed because the state doesn't tax digital goods.
• Netflix streaming video: Taxes on streaming content are less common. Washington state, for instance, levies 52 cents in sales tax on a $7.99 monthly Netflix streaming subscription. Florida meanwhile, which does not have a sales tax on digital goods, imposes a roughly 54-cent state tax on the same Netflix subscription under its communications services tax.

The rush among the states to tax digital content comes as federal lawmakers consider the "Marketplace Fairness Act," which would allow the 45 states (and the District of Columbia) that currently charge sales tax to require online retailers to collect taxes on purchases made by their residents.

Related: What an Internet sales tax will cost you

Currently, online sellers are only required to collect taxes in states where they have a physical presence, such as a store or a warehouse. Under the proposed law, online sellers that have sales of at least $1 million outside of states where they have physical operations could also be required to collect sales tax.

The legislation wouldn't create any new taxes on digital goods, but it would let states enforce the laws that are already in place.

Most states tax a purchaser based on where their billing address is located, but there are no firm national guidelines, said Stephen Kranz, a partner at Washington D.C.-based law firm McDermott Will & Emery who specializes in tax policy.

Tax critics, like Americans for Tax Reform, are concerned that different states will try to tax the same digital purchase. So a resident of Washington state that buys digital music while traveling in Utah could end up paying sales tax twice.

The Download Fairness Coalition, which includes tax reform groups and members of the digital industry, are pushing for additional legislation that would create national guidelines and prohibit that from happening.
Critics also argue that digital goods shouldn't be taxed the same way as physical goods since users are often paying only for a license, not "tangible physical property."

Related: Most outrageous tax cheats

"You can gift your records in your will," said Katie McAuliffe, executive director for digital liberty at Americans for Tax Reform. "You can't do that with your iTunes library."

To find out what items are taxed in your state and at what rate, contact your state's tax and revenue agency. A map with links to the 50 state tax websites can be found here.

(CNN) -- What is your dog doing right now? Is he taking a nap? Furiously digging a hole in your garden? Watching "Ellen" and nibbling on a throw pillow?

After years of declines, spam email is roaring back, and the culprit appears to be the booming stock market.

McAfee, Intel's (INTC, Fortune 500) security unit, reported this week that it counted 1.9 trillion global spam messages in March. While the number is not record-breaking, it is twice the volume counted in December.
That's a stunning turnaround for spam, which has remained stagnant or on the decline for the past three years.

A major factor in spam's giant comeback is a significant increase in so-called "pump-and-dump" scams. In those fraudulent campaigns, scam artists tout a company as a hot stock to drive up the price. Investors lose money when the crooks cash out, sending share prices plummeting.

McAfee could not calculate the percentage of pump-and-dump type emails, but Worldwide Chief Technology Officer Mike Fey said it is "significant."

Related story: Gmail's new killer feature is spam blocking

The increase in investment-related spam comes at a time when the stock market has reached an all-time high. The bull market could add the appearance of legitimacy to the schemes, according to Heath Abshure, board president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

McAfee analyzes abnormal bursts in traffic, determining what they are, where they are being sent, and where the links could take the user.

In the recent spam spike, naïve investors have frequently been the target. One telling factor: Pump-and-dump schemes typically involve little-known stocks that are not listed on mainstream stock exchanges.

Abshure says he worries that once the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act gets a final stamp of approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission, it is expected to allow companies to advertise unregistered securities, worsening the spam problem.

FORTUNE -- It's a Pandora-killer; it's going to take on Spotify; it will be streaming and almost certainly free.

1. Apple upended the music industry once, can it do it again?

Probably not. The company is late to the streaming game and, besides, music -- once the core of iTunes (just look at the name!) and Apple's e-commerce business are lagging and not nearly as lucrative as Apps, which are going gangbusters. Horace Dediu, who has done more than any outsider to dissect the iTunes economy, told me that once Apple (AAPL) moved into this space it would be purely reactionary and "pragmatic. They feel the economics are suddenly favorable, the infrastructure is paid for [more on this in a moment], the bandwidth is cheaper. But I don't really see this as an exciting thing. It's just flipping a switch." That's exactly right. Millions of people already listen to streaming music on their phones. Remember this, next week, during all the hoopla: Apple isn't reinventing the wheel here, because it doesn't have to. Which brings us to question two ...

2. Will it exist apart from iTunes?

That is: Will iRadio be a standalone app? Let's hope so. iTunes is already trying to be far too many things -- media player, store, library ... It is a bulky mess, albeit a lucrative one. Dediu estimates the iTunes ecosystem is a $17 billion a year business that costs $5 billion to run. Apple won't be abandoning this not-insignificant piece of company infrastructure anytime soon, but the margins are far better on apps, and video sales are growing far faster than music. iRadio may be a good way to bump music sales, though seeing as ...

MORE: The next big upset in online music

3. If iRadio is its own app, how will it be integrated with iTunes?

Because you know it will be. The oft-repeated Steve Jobs adage that "people want to own their music" is still mostly true (most of those people are oldish and getting older, that is.) And, again, iTunes costs too much to run, makes too much money, is too big a thing to ignore. What iTunes doesn't do well at all -- and the reason Pandora (P) and Spotify and YouTube are eating Apple's lunch a bit -- is music discovery. And this is what all the kids are up to these days. Teens use YouTube more than any other music service -- it's their MTV (because MTV isn't playing music). Consumer habits tend to get locked in around 30, and Apple needs a better music discovery service if iTunes is to have any longevity. So it will send people to its store to buy songs, but how will that function? And will it function well? When Apple has flirted with music discovery in the past, it has not been very elegant. Also, remember, iTunes and everything around it, including iRadio, is building an ecosystem to sell more devices, which always have been and always will be the main event at Apple.

4. It's likely free, but will there be a paid version?

And what will the pricing of that be? This may not seem crucial, but think back to how 99 cents for a song became the industry standard. If iRadio's streaming service is, say, $7 a month instead of $10, that might just pull Spotify and Google (GOOG) and Rdio and others into line. It wouldn't be too difficult to undercut the competition in this way, seeing as Apple already spends so much on streaming much bigger bandwidth items (movies, TV shows) on iTunes all the time.

MORE: Google takes aim at Spotify and Pandora

5. The free version is advertising sponsored, but how lucrative will this be for Apple?
Ignoring any of the associated costs with a paid version, or the money Apple makes from users going from iRadio to iTunes to buy a song, the ad dollars the company brings in will be very telling indeed. Sure, in the grand scheme of Apple the numbers won't be high, but consider how advertising has so dogged the mobile market. Traditional internet ads (popups, banners, and the like) work terribly on a small smartphone screen, and the money there has been minuscule  But audio ads work the same way as ads you hear on the radio -- only better. Ads can be placed according to specific users' musical tastes (fans of Nickleback, not surprisingly, have different tastes than fans of Kendrik Lamaar). They're more valuable, because they are more targeted. At least, that's the theory (and what Pandora has been saying for awhile now). Now, with a mega-player like Apple in the mix, we might see if that really is the case.

Embattled computer manufacturers are making new machines they hope can keep pace with phones and tablets.

"The PC industry is like that scene out of Jurassic Park, where the little kid asks the professor, 'What happened to all the dinosaurs?' and he responds, 'We see them everyday: They're birds,'" explains J.P. Gownder, Vice President for Forrester Research (FORR).

Indeed, it's no secret the PC industry is fast evolving, and not entirely by choice. Shipments of PCs dropped 14% worldwide last quarter, according to the global market intelligence firm IDC, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline. And PC shipments are expected to fall further, as much as 8% through 2013.

MORE: 51 coolest gadgets of 2012

Much of that has to do with the popularity of mobile devices like tablets. IDC projects global shipments of tablets will pass PCs by 2015, with 332.4 million vs. 322.7 million PCs. For more casual computer users, and even some business professionals, the upside to having a tablet is obvious: Why lug around a laptop, when they can tote something lighter, thinner, and often cheaper around with many of the same features?

Netflix let its Viacom streaming deal expire last month, and Amazon took advantage immediately. The Kindle-maker's Prime service now has exclusive rights to kids' titles like "Dora the Explorer," plus adult fare from MTV and Comedy Central.

Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) played up the kids' content in its announcement Tuesday, noting that the multi-year deal includes several titles from Viacom's (VIA) Nickelodeon and Nick Jr.: "Dora the Explorer," "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Blue's Clues" and "Fairly OddParents." The adult shows include MTV's "Awkward" and Comedy Central's "Tosh.0."

Amazon said children's shows are "one of the most watched TV genres" on its Prime Instant Video service, which costs $79 per year with included two-day shipping on certain retail products. Some of the Nick titles will also be available on Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, a $2.99-per-month service focused on kids' content.
Loss of that children's catalog is particularly painful for Netflix (NFLX), which warned in its last earnings report that the Viacom contract would lapse at the end of May.

Related story: Netflix slumps after 'Arrested Development' release

"As we continue to focus on exclusive and curated content, our willingness to pay for non-exclusive, bulk content deals declines," Netflix said in that April report. The company said it was "in discussions with [Viacom] about licensing particular shows, but have yet to conclude a deal."

Exclusivity has been a focus for Netflix -- and all streaming services -- as such deals are an easy way to stand out in a field choked with rivals such as Amazon, Redbox, which is owned by Coinstar (CSTR), and Hulu. But those deals are much more expensive than non-exclusive contracts, and Netflix in particular hasn't been able to cut favorable agreements with everyone.

Netflix's catalog took a massive hit last year after negotiations with Starz failed. And just last month, Netflix lost nearly 1,800 titles after contracts with MGM, Comcast's (CMCSA) Universal and Warner Bros. -- owned by CNNMoney parent company Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) -- expired.

Such moves create a game of musical chairs in the streaming video industry, with content bouncing from one service to another. Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) stole "Saturday Night Live" content from Hulu with an exclusive deal inked in April, and Netflix exclusively added two Disney shows to its catalog in May.

Much to the joy of cable providers, the ebb and flow of any given service's offerings makes it tough for consumers to cut the cord and rely exclusively on streaming subscriptions.

FORTUNE -- With the Electronic Entertainment Expo just around the corner, the gaming world will soon be focusing on the next generation of gaming from Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One consoles. Both of those holiday releases are guaranteed to be in short supply this fall. But as exciting as the promise of next-gen gaming is to the hardcore, one of the key growth drivers for the game industry are free-to-play games, or F2P for short. Available across mobile devices, PCs, consoles, and even coming to next-gen, F2P has helped broaden the demographics of the industry. A recent wave of games shows an evolution of F2P, which is now offering "AAA" console-quality gaming experiences minus the $60 price points of disc-based games.

F2P is a model that was born out of necessity in China because of piracy. Somewhat unintentionally, the game publishers who tried it -- Nexon, NCsoft and Tencent -- found it was overwhelmingly successful. They realized they couldn't get expensive monthly subscriptions in China, but they could sell virtual items. The few devoted gamers could support the many. It proved out that non-traditional gamers embraced this model. Although only 10% of players actually invest money in these games, they can easily spend over $60 a year. Given that some of the most popular games attract over 35 million players, the huge audience opens up a nice revenue stream for developers while bypassing the expenses and hassles of the retail model.

This business model has migrated west with successes like Riot Games' League of Legends multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, Wargaming's World of Tanks massively multiplayer online (MMO) WWII game, Meteor Entertainment's HAWKEN Mech shooter game and Crytek's Warface first-person shooter. While these games are growing their audiences, the days of the traditional paid MMO games could be numbered. Blizzard Entertainment (ATVI) has seen its World of Warcraft game subscribers shrink from 9.6 million to 8.1 million from February to March of this year. Many games that launched as subscription-based titles like Sony Online Entertainment's (SNE) DC Universe Online, Electronic Arts' (EA) Star Wars: The Old Republic and Trion Worlds' Rift have switched to the F2P model. Others simply launched their games as F2P like Sony Online Entertainment's Planetside 2 and Cryptic Studios' Neverwinter.

MORE: The Xbox One has one major problem

Back in 2006, Riot Games founders Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck made a bet that their new hardcore MOBA experience, League of Legends, would work as a free title with optional upgrades. Five gamers join a team and battle it out in online arenas with heroes that can be purchased through micro-transactions. "This bet was based on the hunch that removing the big, up-front pay wall would result in more gamers willing and able to try the game," said Beck. "It worked pretty well. More players were able to try League of Legends.

Lots of them liked it, and as a result, many players have been playing the game for years now."

Over 35 million players are active today with this game, which has also ridden the success of competitive eSports (electronic sports) with a global gaming audience. Riot was purchased in 2011 for a reported $400 million by Chinese technology company Tencent. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the publisher makes as much as $250 million a year with League of Legends globally.

The same investors who bankrolled Riot Games, FirstMark Capital and Benchmark Capital, are now hedging their bets on Meteor Entertainment. The startup publisher was able to outmaneuver traditional game publishers like Electronic Arts to secure Adhesive Games and its F2P sci-fi universe, HAWKEN. Mark Long, CEO of Meteor Entertainment, spent years working on traditional console games for a variety of publishers as the co-founder of Zombie Studios. He said the traditional publishing model, which requires game companies to invest tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars into the development of a game, is risky.

"We decided to give HAWKEN the same production value you'd get from a 'AAA' game but offer it across multiple platforms as a F2P title," said Long. "We're bypassing retailers and going direct to consumers globally on day one. This model is a very ambitious leap forward for developers and publishers."

MORE: 6 things you don't know about the Xbox One

Rather than relying on traditional marketing, publishers like Meteor used a free beta to let early gamers play the game while the developer fine-tunes the experience. The success of games like League of Legends has come from positive word of mouth, which is something that a TV commercial or banner ad isn't going to match. In fact, Long is taking his marketing for HAWKEN into a new transmedia realm. The company is developing a comic book, a live action Web series, and a feature film that will further expand the HAWKEN universe, and ultimately allow gamers to enter this world from multiple paths with zero friction.

The advent of powerful tablets and smartphones powered by NVIDIA (NVDA) Tegra technology has opened new devices for HAKWEN to be played on. New smart TVs and streaming cloud services like Sony's Gaikai will also play a role in how F2P games evolve and reach an even larger mainstream audience over time.

Russian game publisher Wargaming spent 12 years making retail PC games before deciding to go F2P with the WWII MMO World of Tanks. Pachter believes that game, which has over 55 million subscribers, pulls in over $150 million a year. At E3, Wargaming will be showcasing two new F2P WWII MMOs, World of
Warplanes and World of Warships. The company will allow players to access all of these games, once launched, through a unified account system on Wargaming.net.

"There will be forums, leaderboards, and statistics for players to check out, as well as tournaments and other types of social events across all three games," said Victor Kisly, CEO of Wargaming. "I can see people jumping from tanks, to battleships, to warplanes, from time to time, just to get a different experience.

Warplanes are faster and more adrenaline-fueled with 3-D space maneuvering, while Warships is more of a strategic kind of battling because they're slower and have big guns. Tanks is the classical middle in terms of strategy."

MORE: Why game makers love Sony's PlayStation 4

Crytek, the German developer that originated game franchises like Far Cry and Crysis, is embracing F2P with console-quality games like the modern military shooter, Warface. Cevat Yerli, CEO and president of Crytek, believes within three years F2P will rival the console games space from a quality level. Crytek will launch Warface on G-Face, a new platform that will support many new games, including from other developers.

"Over the next five years the core games are going to be social, and most of them will be F2P," said Yerli. "All of our IPs moving forward are being developed as social core games, and we're going to open the G-Face platform to other developers who want to launch F2P games."

Sony has already supported F2P games like CCP Games' space shooter DUST 514 and SOE's DC Universe Online and Free Realms on PS3. The game maker is supporting independent developers like Zombie Studios on PlayStation 4 with Blacklight: Retribution, a next-gen F2P shooter. At E3, additional next-gen games are expected to be announced by both Sony and Microsoft (MSFT).

While Pachter said traditional console games aren't going away, there's definitely a pendulum shift towards F2P as more game makers develop deeper, quality titles for this emerging space. Once gamers are given a choice of playing for free or paying $60 for a similar experience in their favorite genres, the impact of this shift could change the game for everyone.

(CNN) -- Microsoft's new video game console, the Xbox One, made its long-awaited debut last month. The real story here isn't about video games, though.

(CNN) -- Oh, Rickrolling. Even on Vine, Twitter's app that lets users shoot and share six-second videos, the Web is never gonna give you up.

Apple won the biggest battle in its endless patent war with Samsung, but now it's Samsung's turn to be victor. A trade agency ruled Tuesday that several older Apple products violate a Samsung patent and can't be sold within the United States.

The International Trade Commission's long-awaited ruling bans Apple from importing or selling the AT&T (T, Fortune 500)-compatible models of the iPhone 4, 3GS and 3, as well as the AT&T 3G-connected versions of the iPad and iPad 2.

Those products -- which are, like most tech products, assembled overseas and must be imported -- infringe on a Samsung patent for encoding mobile communications, the ITC ruled.

The ban does not affect the newest generation of Apple's products, the iPhone 5 and the fourth-generation iPad, which use different technology than the earlier devices.

The commission did not find that Apple violated any of the three other patents Samsung named in its case. But the rest of the ruling is a big blow to Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) -- and it comes as a surprise, given that a previous preliminary ruling from an ITC judge exonerated Apple completely.

This time, the "determination is final, and the investigation is terminated," the ITC wrote in its decision. Apple can file an appeal with the Federal Circuit, however, and spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said the company plans to do just that.

Apple can also hope for a veto from President Obama. The ITC is required by law to send its "exclusion orders" to the president for a 60-day review. Unless President Obama actively strikes down the order, it becomes final.

Because Apple plans to appeal, Tuesday's decision "has no impact on the availability of Apple products in the United States," Huguet said.

She slammed Samsung for "using a strategy which has been rejected by courts and regulators around the world" in other cases. She also accused Samsung of trying "to block the sale of Apple products by using patents they agreed to license to anyone for a reasonable fee."

Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for AT&T declined to talk.

Last year, a California jury found that several Samsung products infringed on Apple patents for software features like double-tap zooming and scrolling. The jury initially recommended that Apple be awarded more than $1 billion in damages. A final ruling in that separate case isn't expected until later this year.

Zynga on Monday announced it will lay off 520 employees, or 18% of its workforce, as part of an effort to stabilize finances at the struggling video game company.

The job cuts will be issued across all parts of the company, and Zynga will close down a few office locations. The "Farmville" maker didn't say which offices will be shuttered, but the tech blog AllThingsD reported that New York, Los Angeles and Dallas are on the chopping block.

Zynga said the "substantial" cost reductions from the layoffs will save the company $70 million to $80 million a year. Shares of Zynga (ZNGA) tumbled 10% on the news.

"None of us ever expected to face a day like today, especially when so much of our culture has been about growth," Zynga CEO Mark Pincus wrote in a blog post. "But I think we all know this is necessary to move forward."

Social gaming has become so popular that it's been difficult to maintain a leadership position, Pincus added.
The company reaffirmed its revenue and earnings per share guidance for both the current quarter and the full year. But Zynga now expects a net loss of between $28.5 million and $39 million during the current quarter, worse than the $27.6 million loss analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been expecting.

It's been clear for months that the social gaming company is in trouble. The December 2011 IPO was disappointing, Zynga's purchase of "Draw Something" maker OMGPOP was disastrous, and many of the company's games have been underperforming.

In October 2012, Zynga cut 5% of its employees, closed its Boston offices and proposed closures of its Japan and U.K. offices. Worse, Zynga also announced it would be shuttering about a dozen games -- and about five more have been shut down since then.

Both CFO Dave Wehner and chief game designer Brian Reynolds have left the company in the past few months.

As a result of these problems, Zynga's stock is languishing below $3.50. Yet shares are up nearly 30% this year on hopes that Zynga's steps into legal gambling could pay off. In December, Zynga filed an application for a gaming license in Nevada. Zynga had previously announced a partnership with bwin.party, a British gaming company that specializes in online sports betting, poker and bingo.

Embattled computer manufacturers are making new machines they hope can keep pace with phones and tablets.

"The PC industry is like that scene out of Jurassic Park, where the little kid asks the professor, 'What happened to all the dinosaurs?' and he responds, 'We see them everyday: They're birds,'" explains J.P. Gownder, Vice President for Forrester Research (FORR).

Indeed, it's no secret the PC industry is fast evolving, and not entirely by choice. Shipments of PCs dropped 14% worldwide last quarter, according to the global market intelligence firm IDC, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline. And PC shipments are expected to fall further, as much as 8% through 2013.

MORE: 51 coolest gadgets of 2012

Much of that has to do with the popularity of mobile devices like tablets. IDC projects global shipments of tablets will pass PCs by 2015, with 332.4 million vs. 322.7 million PCs. For more casual computer users, and even some business professionals, the upside to having a tablet is obvious: Why lug around a laptop, when they can tote something lighter, thinner, and often cheaper around with many of the same features?

It may finally be time for Microsoft to break up, according to one prominent Wall Street analyst.

Rick Sherlund, analyst at Nomura Securities, is calling for Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) to sell off its Bing and Xbox businesses. He also wants the company to focus more on getting Office software on Apple and Android devices, lay off workers and double its dividend.

You're not alone if you're suddenly getting a case of déjà vu. Microsoft survived multiple attempts by the U.S. Department of Justice more than a decade ago to break the company up into several "Baby Bills" -- a Bill Gates-inspired pun on the "Baby Bells" breakup of AT&T (T, Fortune 500).
In the years since then, some analysts and shareholders have pleaded with Microsoft to split up.

Related story: Microsoft gives Ballmer a reason to dance again

Experts have typically suggested that Microsoft break up into two, separate companies: a consumer tech firm that includes Windows, Office and Xbox, and a business-centric company that sells tools like Windows Server, Sharepoint, Azure and Dynamics software. A number of analysts have also called the company "bloated" in the past, urging Microsoft to focus more on a smaller number of products.

But Microsoft has long fended off such notions, arguing that its corporate customers are consumer customers too. The company wants to build one giant ecosystem of software, services and devices that will allow people to engage, connect, work and play throughout the day. The company declined comment for this story.
So what's different now?

"We think there is likely to be a more substantive catalyst for change than we have seen previously in the history of the company," said Sherlund in a note sent to clients last week. "There may be a more receptive group of frustrated shareholders to leverage in an effort to drive greater realization of shareholder value at Microsoft."

Sherlund is referring to hedge fund ValueAct, which bought a $2 billion stake in Microsoft in April. Sherlund expects ValueAct to rally other shareholders to demand change and gain some control of the board of directors. Though ValueAct has historically has taken a far-less combative approach than other activist shareholders, Sherlund also notes that Microsoft likely doesn't want to risk a public battle.

Related story: Microsoft unveils new Xbox One game console

To increase shareholder value, Sherlund believes Microsoft should get out of businesses that aren't central to its operations, namely the Bing search engine and Xbox game system. It should also switch focus to become "the Office ... company and not the Windows company," he argues.

Microsoft has never turned a profit in search. Though it has gained share in the market, it has done so exclusively at the expense of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) -- its search partner -- and not market leader Google (GOOG, Fortune 500).

After a rough start, Xbox recently became a market leader in console sales. But profit margins remain slim and it provides few benefits to the rest of Microsoft (other than the "cool" factor, which is important but hard to quantify).

Sherlund believes the cash and cost savings gained from selling those units, streamlining other businesses and reducing headcount could in part help Microsoft double its dividend to yield about 6% -- substantially higher than what Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) and its other peers offer.
Still, the timing of this particular break-up call is curious. Microsoft shares are currently trading at their highest point since late 2007, and they are up more than 30% in so far this year.

But longer-term investors know Microsoft's stock has been in a virtual standstill since 2001, performing the world's most boring roller coaster ride between $20 and $40 for the past 13 years. During the same time frame, the Nasdaq has gone up 59% compared to a 33% gain for Microsoft.

For sure, some think Microsoft should be left alone.

"I don't think breaking them up makes any sense at this point and I am not sure if it ever did," said Al Hilwa, program director at IDC. "They are probably on the only path available to them."

Perhaps in an attempt to smooth things over before more analysts (or shareholders) complain, AllThingsD
reported on Monday that Microsoft is mulling a "major restructuring."

The electronics manufacturer is abandoning suburban Secaucus for a brand new, environmentally friendly building in downtown Newark.

FORTUNE -- Panasonic is joining the growing list of companies, such as United Airlines and Sara Lee, that are leaving their suburban office parks and moving to the city.

The Japanese electronics giant is relocating its North American headquarters from Secaucus, N.J. to downtown Newark, N.J. It plans to move approximately 1,000 employees to the new $200 million office tower in the middle of July. The 12-story, 410,000 square-feet building is located a block away from Newark's Penn Station, which allows Panasonic to take advantage of a lucrative tax incentive package for companies that locate near mass transit.

Panasonic will receive up to $102.4 million in tax breaks from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's Urban Transit Hub tax credit program, which requires it to not only be situated near a transit hub but also bring 250 jobs to Newark by 2016 and an additional 200 jobs within 10 years.

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Panasonic's North American CEO Joe Taylor says the search for a new headquarters began in 2010, three years before the lease in Secaucus was set to expire. Management shortlisted approximately 40 sites across the country, including existing Panasonic facilities in the suburbs near Atlanta, Chicago, and San Diego.
Building an environmentally friendly headquarters was a top priority for Taylor, hence the need for a city like Newark, which had access to mass transit. "We wanted to be the No. 1 green electronics company in the world by our 100th anniversary in 2018," says Taylor. "If you're serious about being green, you can't have 1,000 of your employees driving in cars to work every day."

At the time, Panasonic was struggling financially, so moving to an existing facility to keep costs down made more sense. However, Taylor says he was aware that many current employees would be displaced if the company moved too far away. In the end, Taylor says it was easier to build a green building from the ground up. The new tower will be LEED certified and outfitted with Panasonic's own green technology such as solar powered devices and energy-efficient lighting.

Getting Panasonic to move to Newark is a major coup for mayor Cory Booker who along with New Jersey governor Chris Christie was instrumental in convincing the company to stay within the state. "We have a very assertive governor and visionary mayor in Booker," says Taylor. "Those two guys did a terrific sales job on me."

At a press conference announcing the move, Booker said, "Panasonic's arrival demonstrates a confidence in our city, in our workforce, in our infrastructure, and in our future. This is a monumental moment for Newark -- a true milestone in our city's rebirth and revitalization."

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Not everyone was happy with the new development. Upset over the loss of a major employer in the region, Secaucus officials -- along with the company's former landlord Hartz Mountain Industries -- filed an appeal to overturn the tax award saying it was misused to shift jobs away from Secaucus. The appeal was later withdrawn, but Taylor says he understands why the residents were upset. However, Secaucus just wasn't an option. "We couldn't do a green building, and we couldn't have mass transit, and I would hardly say that Secaucus is a town in transition." He says the move could have a much more positive impact in Newark, a city plagued by high unemployment and crime rates.

There was also criticism that the state was paying too much to keep Panasonic from leaving, which Taylor says isn't true when you consider the benefits. "Even after the $102.4 million tax break, the state would net a total of $223 million," he says. "Just moving 1,000 people into the city overnight could create delicatessens, dry cleaners, and a whole infrastructure that would convince other companies to take a chance on this place as well."

Pete Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future, a non-profit land planning and policy organization
says Panasonic's move will be good for Newark since it'll build momentum. "You're creating momentum that changes perception, it starts to change the tone of being downtown," says Kasabach. "Pretty soon other companies are going to think about opening offices here too since it already has a national headquarters."