Amazon Said To Plan Smartphone To Vie With Apple  —  Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is developing a smartphone that would vie with Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone and handheld devices that run Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android operating system, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Exclusive: Yahoo and Facebook Strike Patent Peace Deal, Significantly Expanding Ad and Content Partnership  —  Executives at Yahoo and Facebook have completed an extensive strategic deal, as part of a final settlement of their contentious patent infringement lawsuit and countersuit.

AT&T to launch new blocking service for stolen devices on July 10th  —  AT&T will launch a new service for reporting and blocking stolen devices on Tuesday, according to a trusted source.  The service will allow customers to deny voice, data and SMS access to any individual phone or tablet …

Apple Says It Has Fixed Server Bug That Led to Crashing Apps  —  Apple said late Thursday that it has resolved a glitch that was causing some apps downloaded from its online store to crash upon launch.  —  “We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code …

Microsoft vets weigh in: Here's what needs to change  —  The opening spread of the upcoming Vanity Fair piece on Microsoft and Steve Ballmer.  —  Stephen Toulouse worked at Microsoft for 18 years before leaving earlier this year, so he read Kurt Eichenwald's Vanity Fair piece on the company's “Lost Decade” with a former insider's eye.

At ‘Hacker Hostels,’ Living on the Cheap and Dreaming of Digital Glory  —  SAN FRANCISCO — From the outside it's just a beige three-story building in a quiet residential neighborhood.  But inside, in a third-floor apartment, there are enough Ikea bunk beds to sleep 10 people, crammed into two bedrooms.

Introducing BitTorrent Torque  —  Over a decade ago we introduced BitTorrent technology and BitTorrent clients, and the Internet was profoundly changed.  This week we are aiming to revolutionize the web once again by integrating the power of BitTorrent with the most familiar experience on a computer: the browser.

Apple's next iPhone rumored to feature quad-core processor  —  Apple's next-generation iPhone will be powered by a quad-core ARM processor based on Samsung's Exynos 4 architecture, according to a new report.  —  The claim comes from the sometimes-reliable DigiTimes, which cited …

British Airways flies into privacy storm over Google identity checks on passengers  —  British Airways today faced a backlash from privacy campaigners after it revealed plans to use the internet to create “dossiers” on passengers.  —  The airline said it wanted to be able to deliver a more personal touch by researching passengers.

Just By Itself, HP Increased Tech Industry Layoffs Tenfold This Year  —  Layoffs in the tech industry are 10 times higher so far this year than they were for the same period in 2011—and it's all thanks to the hard cuts CEO Meg Whitman has put in place at Hewlett-Packard.

Hulu CEO: I Don't Want To Run Yahoo  —  Yesterday, Yahoo's CEO search was down to two names: interim CEO Ross Levinsohn and Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.  —  Now it's down to one.  A Hulu spokesperson just sent us a statement confirming that Yahoo was interested in Kilar but that he doesn't want the job.

Five years after the iPhone, carriers are the biggest threat to innovation  —  Five years ago, the iPhone revolutionized the mobile business and kicked off a seismic shift in the technology industry that continues today.  But the massive success of Apple's phone has overshadowed the grim reality …

Samsung's Galaxy powers record $5.9 billion profit  —  (Reuters) - Soaraway sales of the Galaxy smartphone drove record quarterly profit of $5.9 billion at Samsung Electronics, though the South Korean tech giant is sweating over how Europe's debt crisis is denting demand in its biggest market for televisions and home appliances.

Kim Dotcom Can See One File Of 22 Million Says FBI  —  A 40-page document “cherry-picked” from nearly 22 million emails is the only information the FBI believes should be made available to Kim Dotcom before his extradition hearing.  —  Lawyers spent yesterday arguing over what the internet mogul …

“Search & discovery in @twitter set to change forever after tmrw.” says Twitter engineer  —  Twitter is preparing to make a major update to the search and discovery side of the popular microblogging platform tomorrow, according to one of its senior engineers.

Facebook App Center officially rolling out across the UK  —  This morning if you logged into your Facebook account in the UK, it's likely that you will have noticed a persistent little pop-up notification alerting you to the arrival of the App Center.  —  We certainly knew that this was coming …

Cisco backs down, drops cloud from default router settings  —  Summary: Cisco faced backlash over its abrupt decision to update the embedded software on some its routers, but now has backed down on compulsory cloud management.  —  Charlie Osborne  —  Follow @ZDNetCharlie

Def Leppard re-record own songs to win back digital download revenue  —  Sheffield rockers Def Leppard, probably most famous for their 1987 hit “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” are going rogue.  After lengthy negotiations with Universal Music, the band has been unable to agree a suitable royalty fee …