As promised, activists representing Change.org and SumOfUs delivered petitions to Apple Stores in New York City, Washington, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore on Thursday, according to AdAge. About 199,000 Change.org signatures were recorded, with another 57,000 from SumOfUs. ...

The US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is dropping BlackBerries from the roster of supported devices for workers, reports indicate. A memo from CIO Joseph Klimavicz, dated February 3rd, is said to show that BlackBerry support will end after May 12th. ...

Having originally launched it in the UK, Microsoft has finally brought MSN for iPad to the US and Canada. The app mainly presents MSN articles in a magazine-style format, divided into categories like News, Autos, Video, and Entertainment & Celebrities. An offline mode can be toggled for reading away from Internet access....

Warner Music Group was reported its fourth quarter sales, and while they stayed consistent, at $780 million, revenue from digital music sales increased by 17 percent. What's more, it is now a 28 percent slice of the pie of all sales. This is a sign of the changing way music lovers access their music, and the label provided a further breakdown of these sales....

Slidevana, a new template package designed for Keynote, has been launched at the discounted price of $69. More than 130 slides are included in the bundle, ranging from simple lists, tables, and charts, to more complex timelines and business frameworks. ...

Apple has been exploring the idea of a 3D iOS interface that reacts to its surroundings, a newly-published patent application reveals. Called Three Dimensional User Interface Effects on a Display by Using Properties of Motion, the document notes that products like the iPhone have the benefit of numerous different sensors, such as accelerometers, compasses, cameras, and GPS receivers. ...

An exceptional run on Apple stock over the past few days has made Apple's stock value worth more than either of its two most direct rivals combined. A comparison has shown that, as of mid-day Thursday, Apple's market cap of about $456 billion was greater than both those of Google ($198.9 billion) and Microsoft ($256.7 billion). ...

Apple is facing a rare instance of foreign patent trolling this week after a discovery that Swiss firm SmartData has sued it over a lone patent. The accusation, quietly filed earlier in the week in Apple's home court district in San Jose, alleged that the Apple TV, the iPhone, and the iOS Remote app violated a patent for a "modular computer. ...

The FBI has released a 191-page file on former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Gawker notes. The document actually dates back to 1991, when Jobs had long left Apple, but was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council in the George Bush Sr. administration. It also makes reference to an earlier bomb threat against Jobs, dating back to 1985....

New Nielsen data about TV viewing habits has shown that cord-cutters, or those who drop paid TV in favor of Internet viewing, are often decreasing their viewing habits as a whole. ...

Two financial analysts have raised their targets for Apple stock. The highest target comes from Canaccord Genuity's Michael Walkley, who has pushed his forecast up to $655. "Our monthly channel checks indicated very strong sales trends for the iPhone 4S at all three U.S. carriers and overall strong iPhone sales in international markets. ...

Kodak validated rumors and said Thursday that it would stop making what most consider its core products. It plans to shut down production of still cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital photo frames within the first half of this year. The shift would leave it to inkjet printers and other photo printing....

A parts reseller, Eye Lab Factory, has managed to obtain what could be a display panel for the iPad 3, says Macotakara. The part measures about 9.7 inches, and uses a flat cable similar to that connecting the iPad 2's display. It also reportedly supports resolutions up to 2048x1536, the level most commonly anticipated for the iPad 3....

Apple may hew closely to the formula of its iPad launch last year for the iPad 3 if leaks Thursday are indicators. The company would use the "first week in March" to introduce the new tablet and put it on sale roughly a week later, AllThingsD heard. ...

Telus became the third Canadian carrier with an LTE-based 4G network on Thursday. Starting on February 10 in Halifax, the carrier will have the same 75Mbps peak download speeds and 12-25Mbps averages as the existing networks from rivals Bell and Rogers. It plans to kick off the network with the Galaxy Tab 8. ...

Another proclaimed leak of an iPad 3 casing has given some possible clearer indicators of how the design might change. Unlike the previous tip, Apple.pro's view shows the back and more conspicuously shows the moved rear camera. The outside also suggests a conservative design with virtually the same tapered aluminum as the iPad 2....

Samsung got a reprieve on Thursday after a Dusseldorf court ruling (PDF) denied Apple's call for a preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1N. Fulfilling early expectations, the judge determined that the 10.1N was sufficiently different from the iPad to avoid confusion over Apple's claimed design rights. The court also tossed ideas that even the consciously modified Tab 10. ...

Google is said to be close to launching its own cloud-storage service that is set to compete with Dropbox. The tip-off was offered to the Wall Street Journal, which says that it has talked to ëpeople familiar with the matter. ...

A hacker group calling itself SwaggSec has published data from internal Foxconn servers that the group hacked into, including usernames and passwords for management officials right up to and including CEO Terry Gou. ...

Lenovo as part of record results for its fall quarter clinched the top spots in key parts of the PC business. While it wouldn't give exact numbers, it mostly sided with IDC rankings that saw it claim 14 percent of the computer market worldwide, or second place. It was now large enough that it was the leader for shipments in work PCs of any kind as well as in home desktops....

Amazon has started running one of its first TV ads for the Kindle Fire this week in a conspicuous jab at Apple. The spot (below) recalls Amazon's earlier ads criticizing the poor readability of the iPad but, this time, has an answer to the regular Kindle's lack of features. ...

Apple has now informed resellers that the educational version of the white MacBook, the last such model, is now discontinued, MacRumors reports. The $999 notebook was marked "end of life" for consumers last July, but the company continued to offer the model to educational institutions. ...

IGG Software, which is planning to release a version of its iBank financial software for the iPad sometime later this year, has teased a new feature of the unreleased app on its developer blog. The product now has a name -- iBank Access -- and will feature a new optional service to automatically keep bank records and the app in sync every time the app is launched. ...

The Department of Justice is leaning towards approving Google's takeover of Motorola, insiders leaked Wednesday. It wasn't clear what the motivating reasons were in the Wall Street Journal tip, but the approval could be publicized as soon as next week. Regulators would mostly be watching to see if Google abused the patents it would get with Motorola to attack competitors....

An incidental rumor floated next to talk of a purported iPad 3 case back has raised the possibility that Apple's expected A6 chip isn't quad-core. Citing unnamed sources, The Verge claimed that it would stay dual-core but have a "significantly more powerful" graphics core. ...

Most people know that iTunes Match, Apple's latest music-related service that offers to backup and make available whole iTunes libraries online, costs $25 year. While many assume the fee is at least in part a "bribe" to record companies to allow unlimited re-downloading, in fact Apple pays rights holders a fee each time a song is re-downloaded -- and for independent ...

Foursquare updated its iOS (App Store) and Android (Market) apps Wednesday to roll in some of the features seen from the web. Explore now has contextual results for locations, such as pushing restaurants to the top at dinnertime, what friends have been doing, and whether they're on lists. A filter lets users skew the results to look for undiscovered places or those friends visit frequently....

Housing for the iPad 3 suggests a few differences with the frame for the iPad 2, according to RepairLabs. Sources in China have allegedly gained access to the newer part, which, for instance, is said to show different mounts for the logic board. This should allow more space for a battery, potentially increasing battery life, or at least keeping it the same....

Google wrapped up and posted the finished version of Chrome 17 for the desktop on Wednesday. The new browser update takes site prerendering beyond just search results to include autocompletion. If the autocompletion in the address bar is headed towards a likely web address, the browser will start loading content in the background to speed up the perceived load time. ...

Tapbots revamped its signature Twitter apps in large form on Wednesday, starting with the surprise release of Tweetbot for iPad ($3, App Store). The new version both adapts to the bigger canvas of the tablet and shares its support for creating multiple timelines from one account and gestures to save time. Likewise, it can save content for later through Cloudapp, Instapaper, and Read it Later....

Smartphone app developer Path has apologized and fixed the tendency of its app to collect user's entire contact lists to its own servers when the app is first launched. The Android app was already fixed, and now, the developers have released an updated iOS app, version 2.0.6 (free, App Store) that won't upload the data without a user's permission. ...

New digging in the iOS 5.1 beta has given a possible clue as to Apple's target date for the OS. About 11 new carrier profiles all have references to an Apple diagnostic web address with "09Mar2012-Update" in the timeframe, suggesting to YourDailyMac's discoverer that the date was at least being kept in mind for a launch or a milestone. ...