With hordes of fans flocking to the nearest Apple store to pick up their shiny new iPhone 4′s (provided that you didn’t pre-order yours of course), it looks like Microsoft has opened a store right next to their biggest rival.

Today is the grand opening of the Microsoft Store in Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego, California. The San Diego store marks Microsoft’s fourth foray into the retail space and opens later this morning at 10 a.m. PST.

The Microsoft Store is just yards away from the Apple Store, which means it’s competing for attention with the massively long line of people hoping to get their hands on the new iPhone 4. (Mashable)

While the tactic may seem cheesy (pun not intended), building a store next to your rival is actually a strategy perfected by Burger King, who is (in)famous for building stores next to every McDonalds within sight (at least in the US). More →

Today is a good day for Google. Not only are Android phones selling faster than expected, but it looks like the courts have dismissed Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube.

Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement. We’re extremely gratified by this decision and the now established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are immune from liability when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them protect their rights online. (Official YouTube Blog) More →

While Android’s official number of sales are not as impressive as Apple’s (who sold 600,000 iPhone 4′s the first day), nonetheless it looks as if Google’s mobile OS is finally emerging as the counterweight to the iDevice.

There are now 160,000 Android devices being activated every day — up from the 100,000 number he gave us at Google IO in May.

And on top of that, the Android Market now officially hosts 68,000 applications (which of course includes keyboards, skins, ringtones and other thing you wouldn’t consider to be apps). (Android Central)

If Google can maintains this rate of growth, they may actually attract more developers and hopefully better Android apps (as the ones thus far are not exactly made for their eloquence).

Android still has a long ways to go before it can dethrone iOS as the world’s most popular mobile OS (at least on a decent smartphone that is, and no RIM doesn’t count).

Either way Android’s rise will force Apple and Microsoft to create awesome smartphones, which translates into better phones for everyone (and hopefully cheaper prices as well).

Despite being late to the smartphone game, it looks like Microsoft’s Windows 7 smartphone could make a strong entrance into the smartphone arena, despite the crowded field.

While the mobile OS looks highly functional (in some ways more than Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, especially in the social networking department), the overall layout of the OS remains an eye sore as one can tell from the video below. More →

Location based services have taken over the cellular market in the last several years and now Apple has decided that your location information may be worth a bunch of cash. Apple changed their company license today to state that they now store “the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device” and that they have the right to share it with “partners and licensees.”

Apple is working to calm customer fears, claiming that all location based data is “collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you.” It’s a statement that should seem familiar to Facebook users who were told the same thing months ago, only to find out that their profile information and the profile information of their friends were being shared with advertisers.

Unlike Facebook, there is apparently no way to opt-out of the Apple policy. Actually that’s not totally true, you can refuse to ever download another app for the life of your device and then stay away from the iTunes store, at which point you aren’t forced to agree to the companies new terms of service before proceeding with purchases. More →

Heralded by some as a potential Skype killer, Google has finally allowed the masses to sign up for Google Voice without having to scout for an invite online (provided you live within a certain country that is).

A little over a year ago, we released an early preview of Google Voice, our web-based platform for managing your communications. [...] Today, after lots of testing and tweaking, we’re excited to open up Google Voice to the public, no invitation required. [...]

Just to clarify, though we’ve opened up sign-ups, Google Voice is still limited to everyone in the U.S. for now. (Official Google Voice Blog)

For now Google Voice acts more like a forwarding service than a true VoIP phone service, so for now Skype currently has the edge over its deep pocket rival.
More →

It looks like Microsoft’s Bing may have just upped the ante for search on the iPhone by fully embracing two of the largest social networks in the US.

Now you can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and see combined status updates from your friends from within the Bing app. But that’s easy. When we asked what else we could do with this personal intelligence, we looked at the data behind how people were using their social networks. Turns out that over 40% of the time when people ask ambiguous queries that don’t have a defined answer (like where should I go to eat tonight), social networks are faster at providing a great answer than traditional search engines. (Bing Community Blog)

Although Google has already included Twitter within their search engine results, Bing’s personal integration of Facebook and Twitter should make the latter more relevant against the search Titan (who is looking rather bland).

Social integration wasn’t the only feature Bing offered users, as they have also included a feature that may help the smaller rival compete against Google Goggles. More →

With the Gulf of Mexico fiasco spilling out of control (pun intended), the boys and girls at Bing have offered to help CNN raise funds for the media network’s telethon.

Bing’s fundraising attempts mimic Tumblr’s previous efforts, the latter who became famous for changing their dashboard from blue to black unless a user donated to a specific charity. More →

Known mostly for creating PC’s powered by Windows, it looks like Dell could be pondering a laptop powered by the search engine giant’s official operating system (aka Chrome OS).

“There are going to be unique innovations coming up in the marketplace in two, three years, with a new form of computing, we want to be on that forefront … So with Chrome or Android or anything like that we want to be one of the leaders,” [Dell's president for Greater China and South Asia] Midha said, adding that there were no firm announcements to be made but talks were underway. (Reuters) More →

Google, known for taming the digital universe and organizing the chaos known as the “interwebs,” may soon bring their expertise to make your television relevant again.

Google TV is a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet. Watch an overview video below, sign up for updates, and learn more about how to develop for Google TV. (Google TV)

The search engine giant has thus far partnered with Sony, Logitech and Intel in order to help make this dream a reality.

While the marriage between PC and TV is nothing new (after all Hulu and TiVO are “in a way” doing this right now), Google’s upcoming entrance into the market could force competition to either innovate or become extinct. More →