Washington – The U.S. Justice Dept. and Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) are looking at Apple’s (NASD: AAPL) new subscription terms for selling
content via its iPhone and iPad devices, The Wall Street Journal reported,
citing people familiar with the matter. The probe is reportedly at a
"preliminary" stage, and may not develop into a formal investigation
or result in any actions taken.

The antitrust regulators are investigating whether
Apple is breaking the law by insisting publishers use its subscription system
to collect payments from iPhone and iPad users — where it collects a 30% cut.

Apple is also prohibiting publishers from offering links within their apps to
websites where consumers could purchase their products, or from offering a
better deal anywhere outside of its App Store.

Previously, U.S. antitrust
regulators have looked at Apple’s music business practices, as well as issues
with rival Adobe’s Flash platform, and how third-party ad networks are treated on
Apple’s ecosystem.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/45haotv
(WSJ)

http://tinyurl.com/4ouu6k6
(DMW previous coverage)

Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook has added the ability for users
to designate their relationship status as "in a civil union" or
"in a domestic partnership," after consultation with leading groups
that represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities,
the Huffington Post reported. "This has been a highly requested feature
from users," said Facebook’s Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy
communications. "We want to provide options for people to genuinely and
authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook."

The new statuses
will become available in countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada, France and
Australia, which have created such legal arrangements.

Other options offered by
Facebook include single, in a relationship, married, engaged, "it’s
complicated," in an open relationship, widowed, separated and divorced.

"As
LGBT people face a patchwork of relationship recognition laws, this gives
people more tools to adequately describe their relationship," said Michael
Cole-Schwartz, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign.

"Facebook has
been a company that has tried to be inclusive of the LGBT community and this
just one sign of it."

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4mp34vv
(Huffington Post)

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=161164070571050

San Francisco – Contrary to reports earlier this week in The
Wall Street Journal and other outlets, Apple (NASD: AAPL) is not developing a smaller
iPhone, although the company is working on making the smartphone cheaper, The
New York Times reported, citing "people briefed on Apple’s plans."

One source told The Times "Apple was not planning to introduce a smaller
iPhone any time soon," while another noted a smaller iPhone could
potentially be more difficult to operate, and force developers to alter their
apps for a smaller screen.

The Times additionally reports that Apple is working
on improving voice navigation, and changing out parts in a bid to lower costs.

The Times’ sources also confirmed earlier reporting that Apple is looking to
re-vamp its MobileMe service, potentially allowing users to store photos and
other media in the cloud.

Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/technology/18apple.html

http://tinyurl.com/4hd3uba
(DMW previous coverage)

London – Major record label EMI has signed a licensing deal
for the U.S. with European streaming music service Spotify, All Things D
reported, citing sources. Reportedly after many months of difficult
negotiations, Spotify last month signed its first major label deal for the U.S.
territory with Sony Music, but has still yet to sign Warner Music or the
largest of the four majors, Universal.

The company has secured deals with all
of those companies to offer a mix of free, ad-supported music streaming and
ad-free, on-demand subscription plans in the U.K., Sweden, Spain, Norway,
Finland, France and the Netherlands.

Spotify counted around ten million users
as of September, some 750,000 of whom are paying subscribers.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4hgs9th
(All Things D)

http://tinyurl.com/4ujembs
(DMW previous coverage)

Los Angeles – According to tests run by iPhone customers
using a connection speed testing application, AT&T’s 3G network is
delivering data transfer rates roughly twice as fast as iPhones on Verizon’s 3G
network, Wired.com reported.

Based on data from 43,000 AT&T and 14,000
Verizon iPhones using Ookla’s Speedtest.net app, the average data download
speed for the AT&T iPhone was 1,769 Kbps and upload speed 730 Kbps,
compared with an average download speed of 848 Kbps and upload speed of 506
Kbps for the Verizon iPhone.

The test does not measure reliability of the data
signal, or dropped connections.

Related Links:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/02/iphone-speedtest

http://tinyurl.com/4esoyop
(Speedtest.net app)

San Francisco – Social games publisher Zynga is nearing the
close of a new $500 million round of funding that values the company at $10
billion, All Things D reported, citing sources. Investors are said to include
Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Investments and previous backer Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers.

San Francisco-based Zynga has published such
popular games as "CityVille," "FarmVille" and "Mafia
Wars."

The funding round is likely a prelude to an initial public offering
for the company, whose games have been played by more than 320 million people
and at peak times count 3 million concurrent players.

All Things D noted that
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal also have reported on the deal, but
pegged the investment at $250 million.

The company has already raised more than
$500 million; other backers include SoftBank, Google, Andreessen Horowitz and
DST Global.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4r9yane
(All Things D)

http://tinyurl.com/4cah3se
(DMW previous coverage)

http://www.zynga.com

New York – Jack Griffin, the new chief executive at magazine
publisher Time Inc. who has been in the position only since August, has left
the company.

A memo from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes, published by sites
including PaidContent, reads, "Although Jack is an extremely accomplished
executive, I concluded that his leadership style and approach did not mesh with
Time Inc. and Time Warner."

PaidContent notes there have been no public
reports of disputes within Time; Griffin had restructured parts of the company
during his brief tenure.

"Until a permanent successor is identified, Time
Inc. will be led by an experienced interim management committee, reporting
directly to me, composed of Howard Averill, Maurice Edelson and John
Huey," Bewkes continued.

"You will be hearing from them within the
next several days regarding their plans during this transitional period."

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4lbuw9d
(PaidContent)

http://tinyurl.com/69dtjue
(Bloomberg)

San Francisco – Anomaly Innovations, the developer of a
service that manages real-time data streams to display the most relevant
content, has raised $500,000 in seed funding, TechCrunch reported.

Investors
included Russel Simmons, Max Levchin, Steve Chen, Reid Hoffman, Thomas
McInerney, James Hong, Harry Cheung and Steph Tryhponas.

Founded in 2008, San
Francisco-based Anomaly has developed Cadmus, a tool that helps users manage Twitter, RSS and other
real-time content streams.

The company will use the funds to hire additional staff as
it continues to build its product before launching in the coming months.

Related Links:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/17/anoma-ly 

http://anoma.ly