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It's still got a long way to go to catch Apple and Google, but Microsoft's App Hub for Windows Phone 7 is gaining steam. The number of available applications for Microsoft's mobile platform now totals more than 30,000, according to the blog Windows Phone Applist, which tracks Windows Phone 7 apps. Apple's App Store counts 425,000 apps, while Google has about 250,000 Android apps, according to unofficial tallies

A day or two after the phone was lost at San Francisco's Cava 22, which describes itself as a "tequila lounge" that also serves lime-marinated shrimp ceviche, Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said. Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like.

Microsoft has been tracking Windows Phone 7 users movements despite promises that customers can opt out of the location-reporting program, according to a lawsuit recently filed in federal court. In a potential class-action filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court at Seattle, attorneys for a Michigan woman claimed she and countless other Windows Phone 7 users have been reporting their movements to Microsoft even after attempting to opt out of the location- tracking program.

Starz has been a great content partner for many years and we are thankful for their support. While we regret their decision to let our agreement lapse next February, we are grateful to Chris and his team for the early notice of their decision, which will give us time to license other content before Starz expires.

The $20 million CrunchFund is the latest example of Mr. Arrington’s casting aside one of traditional journalism’s cardinal rules — that reporters should avoid conflicts of interest by maintaining distance from the people, organizations and issues they cover — and raises questions about whether industry bloggers are journalists. “I don’t claim to be a journalist,” Mr. Arrington said, though he breaks news and writes prolifically. “I hold myself to higher standards of transparency and disclosure.”

Apple has put the previous version of its Final Cut Studio video editing suite back on sale after a mixed reception to the new and completely redesigned Final Cut X. We received word that Apple had issued a memo this afternoon announcing re-availability of the product. We confirmed with an Apple telesales representative at 800-MY-APPLE that Final Cut Studio, part number MB642Z/A, is again available for $999 (and $899 for educational customers). The product is only available through the 800-number and is not available in Apple Retail Stores or on the Apple Online Store.

Well, SF Weekly's Peter Jamison called the police, and the police said they had no record of any such investigation. What's more, the police spokesman says he told CNET that the police had no record of any such investigation. So CNET's "source familiar with the investigation" must be seriously in the know!

The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the mega-deal between AT&T and T-Mobile now rests in the hands of a federal judge who has ruled against the government before in an antitrust case with some parallels to this one. U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the District of Columbia — who was described as a “judicial machine” because she processes cases so efficiently — in 2001 ruled against the Justice Department’s attempts to block a merger between two dominant computer-disaster-recovery companies.

"Any time you take four major parties and turn it into three, the Justice Department is going to take a close look," Maxman said. Telecom mergers attract more scrutiny in part because it's next to impossible for new competitors to emerge. Companies need permission to transmit data on public airwaves. The licenses are costly and scarce. And the cost of building a new system of cell towers and satellites is enormous. "You can't just pull a bunch of capital together and launch a national cellphone provider, Brown said. The Obama Justice Department has allowed several big mergers to proceed without court action. But it made the companies sell or change parts of their businesses.

In an interview with SF Weekly last night, Calderón told us that six badge-wearing visitors came to his home in July to inquire about the phone. Calderón said none of them acknowledged being employed by Apple, and one of them offered him $300, and a promise that the owner of the phone would not press charges, if he would return the device. The visitors also allegedly threatened him and his family, asking questions about their immigration status. "One of the officers is like, 'Is everyone in this house an American citizen?' They said we were all going to get into trouble," Calderón said.

I believe it is running on a single-core chip (though I’m not 100 percent sure). My understanding is that the 10-inch version, if it comes, will have a dual-core chip. I also believe the device only has 6 GB of internal storage. The idea is that this will be more of a “cloud device” for things like music and movies. The storage is meant for storing books and apps There were a few references to an SD card expansion, but I couldn’t find a slot on the hardware itself.

In a sense, Mr. Arrington’s digital megalomania has been rewarded. He built a competitive site, flipped it to AOL for $30 million, used it as a platform to build a venture fund, slipped the bonds of his current job while persuading AOL to kick in half of his $20 million fund, and will now use the luster of a journalistic brand to enhance his new capital venture.

n this blog posting, we present concrete evidence that the recent compromise of Dutch Certification Authority Diginotar was used for spying on Iranian Internet users on a large scale. We found that Internet users in more than 40 different networks of ISPs and universities in Iran were confronted with rogue SSL certificates issued by Diginotar. Even worse: we found evidence that some Iranians who used software designed to circumvent censorship and snooping on traffic were not protected against the massive man-in-the-middle attack.

An executive at Android tablet maker Lenovo claims that Samsung sold only 20,000 of the 1m tablets that it shipped last year as it tried to "buy share" from market leader Apple. The dramatically low figure suggests that Samsung's efforts with its first 7-inch tablet, launched exactly a year ago, fell far short of targets.

AT&T may not have to pay Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) a multi-billion dollar breakup fee, even if its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA fails, a person familiar with the matter said. "There are a number of options under which the contract will not come into effect," the person, who is familiar with the contract, told Reuters on Monday.

"We have been able to show that you can provide electricity to a single molecule and get it to do something that is not just random."

The products getting the axe include Aardvark, Desktop, Fast Flip, Google Maps API for Flash, Google Pack, Google Web Security, Image Labeler, Notebook, Sidewiki, and Subscribed Links.

Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) will allow customers to reserve the next generation of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone as of today in anticipation of supply bottlenecks for the device, spokesman Alexander von Schmettow said by phone.