The global smartphone market saw its best quarter in nearly three years, according to new findings from research firm Strategy Analytics. Global smartphone shipments jumped by a whopping 50% to 54 million in the first quarter -- up from 36 million year-over-year. Nokia, for one, shipped a record 21.5 million smartphones, which gave it a dominant 40% market share. Beating out Apple's 16.4% market share, Blackberry-make RIM accounted for a 20% market share in the first quarter. Separately, IDC reported that the broader mobile phone market grew by by 21.7% to 294.9 million during the first quarter …

After having a little time to digest Facebook's far-reaching Open Graph initiative, blogger Robert Scoble concludes that the top social net "has broken an invisible privacy contract with its users." Indeed, "Previously private data is showing up on Yelp, Pandora, and Spotify ... That wasn't expected by the users." Still, due to the fear of being left behind and/or the promise of more engaged users, publishers are falling over themselves to play Facebook's game. Scoble now says that his initial prediction that 30 of the top 100 Web sites would incorporate Facebook's "Like" buttons in the first …

Slamming social networks as nothing more than tools for "cyber-bullying," the principal of one New Jersey middle school is asking parents to join a voluntary ban on the popular services. "Rumors used to be some mean girl says something in the hall, but now it's out there for the whole world to look at," Anthony Orsini, the principal at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, NJ told CBS 2. Meanwhile, Meredith Wearly, the school's guidance counselor, told the TV station that about 75% of her day is now spent dealing with social networking issues with students. Principal Orsini said …

Just hours after Apple head Steve Jobs released an open letter on Thursday lambasting Adobe and its Flash media player, The Wall Street Journal sat down for an exclusive interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. As The Journal noted, "The squabbling between Apple and Adobe has been getting increasingly personal, with Adobe executives and employees angered in particular by Apple's decision to block Adobe software that would allow developers to produce programs in Flash that would then be converted to work on the iPhone." In response to what The Journal called Jobs' "extraordinary attack," Narayen said the …

In a huge blow to Microsoft and its mobile strategy, Hewlett-Packard has killed its highly anticipated Windows 7 tablet computer, a source tells TechCrunch. In grand fashion, Microsoft head Steve Ballmer unveiled the device at CES 2010 in January, and it was expected to hit shelves by mid-year. Yet, HP was reportedly not satisfied with Windows 7 as a tablet operating system. "HP may also be abandoning Intel-based hardware for its slate lineup simply because it's too power hungry," TechCrunch speculates. So, what will HP use in lieu of Windows 7? "Look for Google-powered devices, which have …

Lala -- the cloud-based music-streaming service that Apple bought late last year -- is going bye-bye at the end of May. In its place, industry watchers are predicting that Apple will launch a cloud-based iTunes.com -- the mere implication of which has serious implications for the digital music business. Citing unnamed sources, a Wall Street Journal story published in late January said Apple was planning to launch a Web-based version of iTunes as soon as June. "Tentatively called iTunes.com, the service would allow customers to buy music without going through the specialized iTunes program …

Trying to keep up with social trends, LinkedIn is now giving members the ability to "follow" any company profile. "It's very similar in theory to the act of 'following' someone on Twitter of [sic] becoming a fan of someone on Facebook," TechCrunch notes. "The idea is to help users keep track of company updates, such as job openings, new developments and more, but in real time." Similarly, last fall, LinkedIn integrated Twitter into its system, thus allowing users to Tweet from its platform, and send Tweets from outside clients to LinkedIn with a hashtag. The company also recently launched a …

Potentially opening the floodgates for mobile ad budgets, Apple might charge marketers upwards of $10 million for first dibs on its iAd mobile ad network, a source tells The Wall Street Journal. Post launch, Apple then plans to charge close to $1 million for ads on its mobile devices this year, sources say. By contrast, ad executives tell The Journal that they're used to paying between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar mobile deals. "It's a hefty sum," Phuc Truong, managing director at Mobext, a mobile marketing business owned by Havas SA -- whose clients include Sears, Choice Hotels, Amtrak and …

In just a week, some 50,000 Web sites have adopted Facebook's "Like" button, along with its other new social plug-ins, the social network tells TechCrunch. Granted, 75 of those sites were Facebook's launch partners -- including CNN and The New York Times -- but the numbers and the rate of adoption is still "pretty amazing," according to the blog. "This growth is important, because as more sites integrate these social widgets, Facebook will increasingly own social interaction across the web," TechCrunch writes. (TechCrunch says it added Facebook's new "Open Graph" features the day they launched last week.) Facebook also tells …

ReadWriteWeb accuses Facebook of using "high pressure tactics" to promote its new "connected" features among users. "Facebook users who choose not to link their user accounts to Facebook's public Pages are ending up with blank profiles containing no information at all," it reports. Reads an FAQ from Facebook's Help Center: "If you don't want to connect to any Pages, the corresponding sections on your Profile will be empty ... Connecting to Pages will now be the main way to express yourself on your profile." According to the blog, this is "a good example of how Facebook is coyly forcing people …