Three years after committing to LTE as its fourth-generation network standard, Verizon Wireless announced on Wednesday that it will be launching the new network on December 5th in select U.S. cities.

A total of 38 cities in the United States will make up the first crop of LTE-enabled networks, as well as 60 airports across the country.

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For about six months, I've pondered writing this post asking the dreaded Google question. Following yesterday's announcement that the European Union has opened a Google antitrust investigation, I can wait no longer. My life, and perhaps yours, is enmeshed in Google products and services. If there is a devil, a Great Satan of modern technology companies, Google is it. I sold my soul to Google for free services, which are disrupting -- some would say destroying -- businesses that produce valuable content and other intellectual property. In the 1970s, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates warned of the very problem Google is creating today: Making things that are inherently valuable nearly worthless.

The problem is simple: Google's business model is fundamentally about free. Someone else pays to produce content or other valuable intellectual property, around which Google wraps search keywords, adverts and services. The information giant doesn't produce content, but its entire business model is about cannibalizing others' valuable intellectual property. Google's search dominance -- anywhere from 65 percent to 90 percent share, depending on the geography and analyst crunching the numbers -- means that content creators must pay homage to free. The content's base value to the producer is at least the cost of production, but content creators are compelled to give away their stuff for less and often for free. If not, the content becomes invisible to the Internet -- or at least to the majority of people who use Google search and other services.

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The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday outlined its next steps for the "Open Internet Order," the set of rules for Net Neutrality proposed last year that were based upon the "Four Freedoms" for the open internet introduced by former Commissioner Michael Powell in 2005.

The Open Internet Order, which comes up for vote at the next open FCC meeting on December 21, is a set of guidelines that seek to limit the power of Internet service providers while maintaining an environment that fosters innovation and equal access.

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Market research company ChangeWave released the results of a survey on Tuesday that attempts to illustrate some of the recent consumer trends in the e-reader business.

ChangeWave said Amazon's Kindle holds a "rapidly diminishing lead" over the Apple iPad in the e-reader market, and that the iPad's overall presence in the space has doubled since August.

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Comcast is being criticized after it has decided to charge Level 3 Communications a surcharge for 'excessive' bandwidth usage. According to the cable provider, Level 3 is sending about five times as much data to Comcast as is going the other way, it said in a statement.

Under protest that it violates open Internet principles Level 3 is paying the surcharge. It claims Comcast essentially gave the company an ultimatum to accept its terms, which Level 3 had no choice but agree to or face possible disruptions. Comcast's move has also spurred the FCC to ask for more information on the deal.

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The European Commission Tuesday announced it has launched an investigation into Google's practices, to determine whether the Mountain View, California company is abusing its power as Europe's number one search engine.

The case will examine whether Google violates European Union treaty Article 102, which states:

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Microsoft on Monday announced that Kinect, the sensor attachment for the Xbox 360 that supports motion-based controls, has been sold to more than 2.5 million customers worldwide in just 25 days.

"We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

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Google on Monday released an update to its 3D globe and map software, Google Earth. This milestone beta version, classified Google Earth 6.0, doesn't add any huge new features, but increases usability and realism by tying the 3D Earth images to those captured in Street View, and by adding 3D rendered trees.

Google first brought Street View to Google Earth in 2008 when Google began giving all its mapping and navigation products a similar interface. The first-person perspective view of the world was added as a layer to Google Earth which users would have to switch to if they wanted to use it. Now, there is no switching, as it's simply been included in Google Earth's zoom. Users can go as far out as they like and still be able to zoom all the way down to street level without swtiching views.

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Though "Cyber Monday" was already a painfully outdated-sounding term when the National Retail Federation's Shop.org began using it as a marketing buzzword five years ago, the phrase appears to be sticking around, and Verizon Wireless grabbed a firm hold of it today.

Verizon Wireless bought the hashtag #CyberMonday on Twitter, which turns the term into a "Promoted Trend" that all users of the microblogging service see in their list of trends.

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Today's Wall Street Journal features an article by Christopher Lawton that talks about the difficulty independent app stores face when competing with Apple and Google for developer and consumer attention. Paul Reddick, chief executive of third-party app store HandMark told WSJ that he couldn't simply bet the whole company's fate on independently distributing apps with a presence like Google to compete against.

It may not even be a prudent bet to be in the app store business at all.

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In what is being called the biggest judgment ever for software piracy, German business software provider SAP has been slapped with a $1.3 billion verdict for stealing rival Oracle's software. At issue were the actions of TomorrowNow, a subsidiary SAP purchased in 2005.

TomorrowNow provided third party support for a host of applications, including those developed by Oracle. Oracle became suspicious and then filed suit after it noticed unusually high downloads by SAP, which came as a result of TomorrowNow downloading support materials and software from the Oracle website.

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Two days from now, Black Friday officially kicks off the holiday buying season -- although some retailers are off to an early start. I've been wondering; What about Windows Phone? I recall how last holiday sales season, Verizon cranked up Droid sales with two-for-one deals. Yesterday, I got e-mail from AT&T announcing four days of Windows Phone buy one get one free, or what Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, calls BOGO. Can the offer, presumably others coming later in the holiday season and Microsoft's aggressive Windows Phone 7 advertising campaign jumpstart sales? I refer to jumpstart in context of new software and devices, like Verizon Droids were last year.

BOGOs, whether the one for free or another for half price, are common during the holidays, along with rebates and other discount incentives. AT&T's promotion starts on Friday and applies to all three Windows Phone 7 handsets it carries: HTC Surround, LG Quantum and Samsung Focus. There also is a free accessory offer. Deal takers must agree to a new two-year contract.

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Sony PlayStation 3 users can now download and stream high definition movies from Wal-Mart's video on demand service Vudu, with an application released in the PlayStation Store today.

Unlike Netflix and Hulu Plus, two streaming content services previously available on the video game console, Vudu is not subscription-based. It is instead a pay-per-view or download-to-own service like the "Movies" section in Sony's own PlayStation Store.

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Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet is selling remarkably well globally, according to a report in the Korea Herald. Since its launch last month, the device has sold about 600,000 units across the 30 countries where it is currently available.

While that is nowhere near the million-per-month sales rate of the iPad, Samsung's success in the space shows that there is space for another tablet device to do well. Executives say that they expect to sell about one million Tabs before the end of the year, and the company expects sales to accelerate as the entire market grows in 2011.

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Personal computing giant Acer on Tuesday took the wraps off of three tablet computers it plans to launch in 2011, powered either by Windows 7 or Android.

Since earlier this year, Acer has been rumored to be working on at least two Android-powered tablets for the United States market, and the company today confirmed that it does have Android tablets in the pipleline for an April launch.

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