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Mashable – UPDATE: As of 4:45 p.m. PDT, “Friday” is back online once again. We’re working to find out why it was pulled in the first place.

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Appolicious – Internet retail superpower Amazon (AMZN) is gunning for Google (GOOG) and its place as the top provider of Android app services. Just about a week after rolling out its new Amazon Appstore that sells apps for Android devices, Amazon has rolled out a new cloud music service that works on PCs and Android devices.

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PC Magazine – Verizon on Tuesday began taking online orders for the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot, which connects up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices to Verizon’s nascent 4G broadband network.

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Reuters – The owners of a California Web site that sold Beatles songs for 25 cents each before they went on sale legally through iTunes have agreed to pay the band’s EMI Group label $950,000 to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit, court papers showed on Monday.

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Reuters – Colorful, outspoken Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton has authored a children’s book titled “The Boy With Pink Hair” that is meant to celebrate individuality, his publisher said on Tuesday.

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NewsFactor – Amazon.com on Tuesday did something not even Apple and Google have done yet — launched a cloud-based streaming-music locker. Although rumors have swirled around an Apple cloud-based streaming service since the iPod maker acquired Lala in 2009, a streamable iTunes service has yet to appear. And although news reports signal Google’s music service is in the testing phase and could launch soon, Google is still not competing in the market.

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Reuters – Amazon.com Inc said it has unveiled an online service that would enable its customers to securely store and access music through their smartphones and computers.

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AFP – China’s largest Internet portal Sina said Tuesday it has replaced Google’s search service on its websites with its own technology, further denting the US giant’s presence in the Asian nation.

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AP – Amazon.com wants to be more than a destination for shopping online — it also dreams of being a place where you can store your music, photos and videos and access them any time, from any computer.

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AP – A website that sold Beatles songs online for 25 cents apiece before they became legally available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit.

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Mashable – Amazon has just entered the streaming music business with the launch of Cloud Player, a music player that lets anyone upload their music to Amazon’s servers and play them via the web or Android.

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AFP – American Express on Monday launched an online financial transactions service that it claims goes beyond what others provide in a market dominated by PayPal.

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AP – Online marketplace operator EBay said Monday that it will pay $2.4 billion for GSI Commerce, which operates websites for retailers like Toys R Us and Bath & Body Works.

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Reuters – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with Cuban Jews on Monday at the start of a private three-day visit to the island, but he did not discuss with them a U.S. aid contractor jailed for allegedly providing illegal Internet access to Jewish groups.

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Reuters – Online auction site eBay Inc moved to bolster its ability to take on No. 1 Web retailer Amazon.com Inc with a $1.96 billion takeover bid for e-commerce service provider GSI Commerce.

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AP – The New York Times began charging Monday for full access to its website and mobile services.

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PC World – With teens using social media more than ever, there’s no shortage of doom and gloom about what the internet is doing to children. The latest threat being bandied about is “Facebook Depression,” in which the constant barrage of smiling, happy friend updates amplifies a teen’s feelings of inadequacy.

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Reuters – The owners of a California Web site that sold Beatles songs for 25 cents each before they went on sale legally through iTunes have agreed to pay the band’s EMI Group label $950,000 to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit, court papers showed on Monday.

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AFP – The New York Times began charging online readers Monday for full access to its website and dangled a heavily discounted introductory offer intended to lure its first digital subscribers.

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NewsFactor – eBay on Monday announced plans to acquire GSI Commerce for about $2.4 billion. That equals $29.25 per share for the e-commerce and interactive marketing services provider.

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AFP – The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday urged doctors to ask parents about their kids’ use of social media, texting and the Internet, including Facebook.

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AFP – NASA’s inspector general warned Monday that computer servers used by the US space agency to control spacecraft were vulnerable to cyber attack through the Internet.

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Reuters – Social media, video and mobile advertising pushed British online ad spending above 4 billion pounds ($6.4 billion) for the first time in 2010, an increase of 12.8 percent, the Internet Advertising Bureau said.

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PC Magazine – EBay on Monday announced plans to buy e-commerce company GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion.

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PC World – Earlier this month, the guardian of the Internet’s domain name system, ICANN, played straight into the hands of the ICM Registry. ICANN trumpeted the news that a sexy new top-level domain has been approved for rollout later this year. ICM Registry hopes to get what is coyly called the adult entertainment industry to register domains with the suffix .xxx.

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PC World – The former owner of an Illinois technology firm has pleaded guilty to providing bribes and kickbacks to school districts in exchange for networking contracts that were part of a U.S. government program designed to bring Internet services to schools and libraries in poor areas.

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Mashable – It’s news to no one that ecommerce is on the rise. Not only are more consumers turning to the web to purchase online for the first time, they’re also beginning to purchase in more expensive categories — including, one startup has found, in fine jewelry.

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PC World – PC World can’t verify them, and there’s no indication these glitches are causing serious problems for consumers. We can only acknowledge that people are discussing the issues online — and promise to keep tabs on them.

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Reuters – Former President Jimmy Carter will begin a three-day visit to Cuba on Monday for what is described as a “private, non-governmental mission” where the main topic may be the fate of a U.S. aid contractor jailed for setting up illegal Internet service.

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Reuters – The race for western New York’s 26th Congressional seat, left vacant by Republican Chris Lee’s abrupt resignation after shirtless pictures of him surfaced online, likely won’t include much mention of that scandal.

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AFP – Chinese search engine giant Baidu apologised on Saturday to writers who accused it of violating their copyright and promised to delete infringing items within the next three days.

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PC World – Time-saving online abbreviations like LOL, OMG, and IMHO are now part of the official English language. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) announced the addition of several acronyms to its dictionary, adding some interesting trivia behind the origins of these Internet-associated expressions.

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PC Magazine – Google might soon release its own iTunes competitor.

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Mashable – Combining game-playing and philanthropy, Sony Online Entertainment has created in-game virtual items that players can buy to support those affected by Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami.

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Mashable – Web culture can be fleeting, but when the Internet grabs hold of something it really, really loves to make fun of, a mere mortal meme can transcend the petty bounds of its digital adolescence and live forever in the soul of our civilization — the uber-meme, as Nietzsche (would have so obviously) described it.

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PC World – One of my PCWorld comrades, Katherine Noyes, recently wrote a story titled “Why Tablets Are Just a Fad”. Katherine and I often find ourselves in opposing camps on various issues, and apparently tablets are no different. So, I offer up my counterpoint explaining how Ms. Noyes is off base, and describing why tablets are a “fad” like horseless carriages, or that Internet thing were fads.

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AFP – Internet rights attorneys appealed a US judge’s order that Twitter must hand over data of three users in contact with the controversial website WikiLeaks.

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PC World – A cyber-attack linked to Iran this week is the latest in a string of cyber-events that some say represents a new step in a shadowy and long-running war between the Iranian government and those who criticize it on the Internet.

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Macworld – Are your iTunes tracks heading cloudwards? We may find out as soon as next month. Elsewhere, Kodak faces off in a “say cheese” battle against Apple and RIM, and the iPad’s glass is put to the test. The remainders for Friday, March 25, 2011 will bend before they break.

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PC World – Speculation is rising that Apple has ambitious goals for the living room, where it’s currently one of many players that stream Internet content to your HDTV.

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NewsFactor – ASUSTeK Computer rolled out a new Android-based tablet for purchase in Taiwan on Friday, with plans to introduce the device in the United Kingdom on March 30, followed by a U.S. introduction in early April at a price that has yet to be disclosed. Called the Eee Pad Transformer, the convertible web tablet runs Honeycomb — the new Android 3.0 OS that Google has designed specifically for web tablets.

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AFP – More than half of US adults use online social networking service Facebook, according to an upcoming study.

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PC Magazine – On Friday, Wynn Resorts said it would work with PokerStars to develop an online poker site. A day before, Nevada regulators approved a partnership between 888.com and Caesars Entertainment.

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Reuters – News flash for the legions of online haters poking fun at Rebecca Black: We probably haven’t heard the last of the YouTube phenomenon.

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PC Magazine – Google launched a Cherokee-language interface on Friday in collaboration with the Cherokee Nation and community members.

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Mashable – Ann Smarty is a search marketer and full-time web entrepreneur. Ann blogs on search and social media tools. Her newest project, My Blog Guest, is a free platform for guest bloggers and blog owners. Follow Ann on Twitter at @seosmarty.

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PC Magazine – Intuit ended the week the same way it began it: apologizing for outages within its small-business services.

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PC World – Members of the software industry have warned that the current draft of Europe’s Consumer Rights Directive could undermine protection for users of digital services.

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AP – OMG! The exclamatory online abbreviation has won the approval of the Oxford English Dictionary.

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PC World – Du Xiang Yu, a 20-year-old living in Beijing, has never heard of Facebook. He adds that he never visits any foreign websites, even though he uses the Internet everyday.

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