Ed Oswald

Taking artistic license on such a serious subject like Foxconn's working conditions disgusts me.

When National Public Radio aired a segment of Mike Daisey's popular stage show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" during its current events program "This American Life", little did NPR know the implications of its piece. The show set off a firestorm of criticism, putting Apple in even a worse light than it already is.

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When NetZero burst onto the scene with the promise of free Internet for all in 1998, it was a transformative moment. No longer was the Internet a playground for the privileged: all you needed was a computer and a phone line, and you were online. The company is about to do the same for mobile data.

Starting today, NetZero is offering 200 megabytes of data free to anyone who purchases a dongle or hotspot from them. The dongle retails for $49.95, while the hotspot sells for $99.95. The service is provided through a partnership with Clear. With the purchase, NetZero's free plan will remain in effect for a period of one year.

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Steve Jobs left behind a legal mess for Apple chief executive Tim Cook. Decisions the former CEO made when brokering ebook distribution deals haunt Apple, as a civil price-fixing case moves forward and the specter of a federal antitrust investigation approaches. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates left Steve Ballmer in similar straights in early 2000. Look what happened to Microsoft since.

Apple is alleged to have colluded with major publishers to fix ebook prices, in violation of US antitrust law. There has been little analysis from legal experts on whether or not Apple is actually in danger of criminal complaint. I sat down with William Markham, a partner with San Diego-based law firm Maldonado & Markham, to understand the basics of the civil ebook case and possible federal criminal action. It seems like Apple may find itself a target of antitrust claims in short order, if Markham is right.

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Smarting over its loss in court -- a customer awarded $850 for shady throttling practices -- AT&T has taken the brazen step of threatening that person with termination of service if he doesn't agree to a settlement. Matthew Spaccarelli of Simi Valley, Calif. won his case in late February, and possibly laid the groundwork for thousands of other suits.

In a letter on Friday, AT&T uses Spaccarelli's own admission of tethering his device as grounds for termination if he does not agree to settlement talks. The carrier promises no additional compensation above the $850 already due and asks for confidentiality that settlement discussions are underway.

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As tablets become more popular among consumers, our functionality requirements also increase. The rise of this sector contributes to the blurring of the lines between notebooks and tablets, says NPD's Ross Rubin. Things will only get murkier when Windows 8 releases later this year, its Metro interface built with touchscreen interfaces in mind.

NPD and Rubin see the entire industry encroaching on one another's turf. Android has found its way onto dual-boot devices like ViewSonic's Viewpad tablet. On the flipside, Windows 8 makes it enticing for manufacturers to add tablet-like features as the OS was built with mobile in mind.

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Apple may find itself on the precipice of an antitrust lawsuit over its handling of ebooks, but on the flipside is quickly becoming a key witness in the US Government's continuing investigation into Google's business practices. The Federal Trade Commission has asked the Cupertino, Calif. company to detail Google's integration into iOS.

Google has been the default search engine for the iPhone since its debut in 2007, and on the iPad since 2010. While consumers do have the option to change the setting to Yahoo or Microsoft's Bing, from the factory it's all Google. Google Maps also is the basis for iOS' navigation functionality, with no other options provided.

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Apple and Motorola held talks late last year to settle the patent row between the two companies but Motorola's demands blew up the deal, legal filings now indicate. The revelations are part of documents from the European Union's review of the merger between Google and Motorola, and essentially flips the argument that Apple is the patent bully in this mess.

Motorola gets a pass in the patent row that has become a crippling plague in the technology sector, while Apple is continuously beat up by pundits with an ax to grind. But Motorola's demands are so out of line it's almost comical: for Apple to gain access to Moto's standards-essential patents, it has to license all of its own porfolio.

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European Union antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia says that the Competition Commission is open to a settlement with publishers in the increasingly high-profile ebook price fixing case, but only if the companies address key regulatory issues. Almunia says regulators are coordinating with the Justice Department, which is also investigating the industry.

Apple's activities are still central to the investigation, with Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster's deals with the Cupertino, Calif. company being questioned. Like the US Justice Department investigation, Apple's efforts to restrict how ebooks are sold to competitors is a key issue.

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While Apple and book publishers may find themselves on the precipice of an antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department, filings in a concurrent civil class-action lawsuit obtained by BetaNews indicate that Apple has already admitted to two of the most damaging allegations in the case that the federal government is likely to include.

According to reporting Thursday by the Wall Street Journal, at the heart of the case is the agreement struck with publishers which changed the way ebooks are sold to retailers. This in turn caused prices to increase dramatically, critics argue. Apple is also accused of further controlling the market through a clause in its own contract for iBooks that forbade publishers from permitting competitors to sell books at a cheaper price than the iBookstore.

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Marginalized by bigger competitors such as Foursquare and Facebook, mobile location company Loopt was acquired by Green Dot, a major provider of prepaid banking services on Friday. The deal is said to be worth $43.4 million and results in the shuttering of Loopt's current service at an unspecified future date.

Loopt's technologies will be folded into Green Dot's own services. In a statement, Green Dot says Loopt's technologies will form the basis of its planned mobile wallet offering. Loopt's patent portfolio is also of interest to Green Dot, which includes technology related to mobile marketing through real-time location-based messaging. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.

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Before his death in October of last year, one of Steve Jobs' last big moves was Apple's foray into electronic books. The company announced the platform in March 2010, but the method in which Apple handled its deals with publishers has caught the eye of regulators.

The Justice Department plans to sue Apple and the five biggest book publishers -- including Simon & Schuster Inc, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group USA, Macmillan, and HarperCollins -- and accuse them of colluding to raise prices of books. Apple is alleged to have struck an agreement with the publishers that allowed them to change the way they sold ebooks, and in turn allowed the publishers to take more control over pricing.

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Apple on Wednesday debuted the new iPad, the third generation of the bestselling tablet with few surprises. While the name is missing the HD that everyone expected, it does include the Retina Display that has been rumored for months. Resolution comes in at 2048 x 1536, which is equivalent to 3.1 million pixels.

In demoing the new device, marketing chief Phil Schiller says it is the best display ever in a mobile device. In fact, it has a million more pixels than an 1080p high definition television set, which has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. At a distance of 15 inches or more, the human eye will not be able to distinguish separate pixels, the company says.

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LightSquared has struggled with the issue of GPS interference for much of its existence. It is this unfixable issue which threatens the company's entire business, and has its chief backer Sprint set to yank its support as early as next week according to sources.

A March 15 deadline (with unspecified conditions) looms for LightSquared in its deal with Sprint. While the companies will not disclose the terms of the deal, it's not out of the question to expect that this had something to do with its interference issues, as well as a clear way forward. With no strategy in place, Sprint has an opportunity to cut its losses now and move on.

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All eyes are on Apple, as the company prepares for its iPad event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco Wednesday. It is widely expected to debut the next-generation model of the market leading tablet, but like always the Cupertino, Calif. company is bound to have some surprises in store.

What can we expect to see? I've compiled some of the most likely things the next iPad will have, as well as anything else Apple will show off at the event. Let's hear from you. What do you think Apple's going to do Wednesday? Let us know in the comments.

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LulzSec is gone now following the ratting out of its top members by the group's apparent leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka "Sabu". Charges were filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, charging four members with two counts of conspiracy to commit computer hacking.

Those charged on Tuesday include Ryan Ackroyd aka "Kayla" and Jake Davis aka "Topiary" of London; Darren Martyn aka "pwnsauce" and Donncha O’Cearrbhail aka "palladium" of Ireland. A fifth, Jeremy Hammond aka "Anarchaos" of Chicago was also charged, but in connection with the Stratfor hack that occurred last December. He was arraigned separately of the rest of LulzSec.

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