How Comcast manages its Internet traffic has come under fire. It will will cooperate with an investigation, but insisted it had not interfered with file-sharing services. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said on Tuesday that the agency would investigate claims by consumer groups that cable operator Comcast has blocked file-sharing services such as BitTorrent. Comcast is the second-largest high-speed Internet provider in the United States, with 11 million customers. If it's found that the company blocked certain kinds of content, it would be a denial of Net neutrality, which treats all content equally.

Apple Inc. will now charge users in the U.K. and Europe the same amount for iTunes music downloads. Apple charges about 9 cents more per song in Britain, compared with prices in countries that use the Euro. Apple said it pays record companies in Britain more for distribution rights. The European Union has been investigating Apple since April, after British consumer group complained that Apple and major record companies were unfairly restricting choice and ramping up the cost of downloads. The European Commission said it had closed an antitrust probe into Apple's iTunes operation after finding no evidence …

CBS News has teamed up with Digg, the social news site that lets members decide which stories get priority treatment. The two companies will work together during the the 2008 presidential race. As of Tuesday, CBSNews.com began featuring links to various election news stories on the Web that Digg's community favors. In turn, Digg.com will distribute CBS News' "Campaign '08" video content. Also, CBSNews.com's own stories will be "diggable" -- readers can rate them and submit them for possible placement on Digg.com.

Mobile phone operators Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile have sided against tech giants including Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. over access to "white spaces" spectrum. Google, Philips Electronics N.V., Intel Corp. and others have pressed the FCC to allow mobile devices to connect wirelessly to the Internet using the white spaces, even if the device provider doesn't own, or license, the spectrum. They argue it will allow more affordable Web connections. Spring and T-Mobile disagree, saying only licensed use of such space should be allowed. Previously, Microsoft, Google and others pushing for unlicensed use of the white spaces …

Client discontent reached an all-time high last year, as $27.5 billion went into review last year. The figure represents a 57 percent increase over 2006 and a $5 billion increase over the previous record of $22 billion in 2005. The number of clients that switched ad agencies was also up 20 percent to 153, compared to 128 in 2006. The data was compiled through an analysis of accounts totaling over $20 million. The biggest shift last year was Dell Computer's $4.5 billion global review, won by WPP Group, which created a new agency specifically for …

Web-enabled devices will soon be "location-aware" and be able to "augment reality" Intel CEO Paul Otellini said during a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He said the technology industry would soon create a "new level of capability and usefulness to the Internet" that would be "proactive, predictive and context-aware." Achieving this next level of communication between wireless devices would require Internet access over WiMAX connections, a technology in which Intel has invested billions. "Instead of going to the Internet, the Internet comes to us," he said. "We need a ubiquitous, wireless broadband infrastructure. Eventually, …

Microsoft's big day at CES 2008 may not show substance. Indeed, chairman Bill Gates' keynote was more about his pending departure this summer; there was little in the way of anything new or innovative in the address. The biggest news was Microsoft's new partnership with Disney, NBC Universal and MGM to bring their TV and movie content to both MSN and the Xbox online marketplace. It might be a nice addition for Microsoft, but it wasn't big news for the studios in question, which already distribute content on other services. Other items revealed by Gates include Microsoft's running …

Social networking sites like MySpace could reach $1 billion in ad sales by the end of the year, but widget makers won't be seeing much of that revenue. For all their traffic, social networks still aren't properly monetized. Part of the problem for widget makers, which aim to make money by developing software for social networks, is a lack of reliable data about how many people use their products. ComScore, sensing a big opportunity for advertisers, wants to fill that void. According to the Web measurement firm, nearly 586 million Internet users viewed embedded software in November 2007, …

Hollywood executives revealed that advertising has become the digital revenue model of choice for its productions after years of pithy revenues from paid downloads. During a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, executives overseeing digital distribution for ABC Disney TV, Fox, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures. Most of the talk centered around high-quality streaming on-demand video. "People online want to watch for free, because they can get content for free via piracy," said Fox digital media's Dan Fawcett. "Downloading to own and keep on a PC seems to be losing out. People like to …