Boy Genius Report confirms Google plans to sell its forthcoming flagship smartphone directly to consumers via the Web. Citing internal information from T-Mobile, the blog says Google plans to launch the Nexus One phone in early January and will handle customer support for the device and exchanges along with manufacturer HTC. T-Mobile will provide billing, wireless coverage and rate plans as they do for other unlocked handsets on their network. The carrier could also start subsidizing the device sometime around March, according to BGR. The blogger has doubts about whether Google and HTC are …

New York and San Francisco aren't the only cities where iPhone users are dealing with sluggish Web connections and dropped lines. And AT&T apparently isn't the only wireless operator having trouble coping with data congestion caused by the iPhone. Ronan Dunne, CEO of UK-based carrier 02, has apologized to customers who couldn't make calls because the company's London network was overwhelmed by bandwidth-guzzling smartphones. Dunne told the Financial Times he was disappointed with O2's network performance over the last six months and said the carrier was making headway toward fixing the problems. That echoes …

Facebook hit an audience milestone recently when it crossed 100 million monthly visitors in the U.S. in November, according to comScore. Now, for the first time, the social network also became the No. 1 most visited site in the U.S. on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to Web analyst firm Hitwise. It makes sense that Facebook would benefit from the social nature of any major holiday, especially Christmas, as people turn to the site to send greetings, share photos and otherwise connect with friends and family. Last year, Facebook was runner-up to …

Fururist Ray Kurzweil, who is usually busy making everybody's heads spin with his theory of the "historical exponential future" and the like, has fixed his sights on the ereader. He's introduced a platform, not a device, called the Blio, which adds color, rich media, and lays out the "pages" on the screen. "If this seems a little like the promise of the "interactive multimedia" that was the CD ROM, it is," writes Wired's Gadget Lab. But, it says, what will make the difference will be the titles offered on the platform. And that we won't know until it …

Why spend all that time in your car just staring at the road when you could be surfing the Web and buying things on iTunes? reasons Ford. The automaker, which had already announced that the WiFi enabled car would be rolling off assembly lines in 2010, will be unveiling its HD radio with iTunes tagging, which allows listeners to tag songs for later purchase right from the dashboard, at CES. Just wait till they get a hold of Type n Walk.

Finally, an app for the biggest jerks on the sidwewalk -- the texting walkers. The Type n Walk iPhone app uses the phone's camera to show the strolling texter what where he's going. A nausea-inducing demo video shows off the merits of the app, which displays the street view behind whatever it is you are typing, unless you suffer from vertigo. The app does not yet, however, chew gum for you.

If you were feeling all warm and fuzzy toward Twitter these days, a precursory read of BuzzMarketing Daily's Top 10 Most Important Tweets of 2009 may sway you back toward the "microblogging is a pointless waste of time" camp. According to the list, the biggest benefit of Twitter is that it gives people a place to talk about, well, Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg and Google make the list because, well, they tweeted something (though Google achieved dork ecstasy by typing out "I'm Feeling Lucky" in binary code). Ashton Kutcher comes in at No. 2 for tweeting "Victory is ours!!!!!!" …

Awareness of the Android mobile operating system is rising, according to comScore, which found that 37% of U.S. mobile users had heard of Android in November. That was up from 22% as recently as August, likely due to the Verizon Droid ad campaign, according to eMarketer. Meanwhile, 17% of mobile users in the market for a new smartphone in the next three months planned to buy an Android phone, compared with 20% who would pick up an iPhone. Separately, according to Compete, usage patterns for Android and iPhone owners appear to be quite similar, while they tend to differ …

In the wake of news that the Federal Trade Commission was reviewing Google's recent $750 million acquisition of mobile ad network AdMob, two consumer groups have asked the FTC to block the deal on anti-trust grounds and privacy issues. In a joint letter to the FTC, Consumer Watchdog and the Center For Digital Democracy say that Google's acquisition of AdMob would lessen competition in the mobile advertising market, having a potentially negative impact on consumers, advertisers and application developers and others. AdMob is presently the leader in the mobile advertising space. The letter also raises concerns about consumer privacy, …

GigaOm has some additional thoughts on two screenshots of Facebook's forthcoming redesign. "While it's still a work in progress, it shows some simple yet major enhancements that reveal where the world's largest social network with over 350 million subscribers might be headed." For one, Facebook appears to be returning to its roots, accentuating "fidelity instead of noise" in its news feed. Also, the navigation bar is reorganized, and it looks as like Facebook is removing the duplicate profile link. The search field, meanwhile, is now next to the Facebook logo, a clear sign that the company wants search …