No, HP didn't spend a billion dollar on smartphone-maker Palm to have a go at the smartphone market. Really. Instead, the top computer maker is more interested in Palm's IP -- specifically webOS, which it wants to put on "tens of millions of HP small form-factor Web-connected devices," HP CEO Mark Hurd just told investors at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch tech conference. "Sure, that makes sense, and it lines up perfectly with HP's plan to 'double down on webOS' and put it on everything from netbooks and slates to printers, but hey, Mark?" asks an incredulous …

NOTE: A previous version of this story reported that Hearst had confirmed the sale price. This was incorrect; no one at the media company has spoken about the financial terms of the deal. It's been a longtime coming, but Hearst has finally firmed up the purchase of iCrossing for roughly $325 million, a source familiar with the deal tells the Wall Street Journal. "The owner of magazines including Cosmopolitan and Esquire for months has been chasing iCrossing, one of largest remaining independent businesses that specialize in advising marketers on buying Web-search keywords, crafting their websites, …

Verizon Wireless is currently testing Apple iPad devices on its network, reports the Boy Genius Report, citing "highly placed sources." Boy Genius has been told that the model Verizon is testing is a CDMA-compatible device, and while 4G technology is likely, the mobile blog wasn't able to independently confirm its existence. "It would appear like the gates of heaven have opened, as we're probably going to see not only an iPhone but also iPad on Verizon very soon, huh?" Wishful thinking, perhaps, but Verizon subscribers have shown their readiness for the iPhone. Indeed, nearly 17% of the …

Ecommerce services provider GSI Commerce has acquired FetchBack, an ad startup that specializes in retargeting. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a TechCrunch source puts the cost at roughly $40 million. FetchBack CEO Chad Little will continue to run the business within GSI Commerce. When Web surfers visit e-commerce sites, FetchBack shows them related ads from that retailer -- or even the exact product they viewed -- elsewhere online. The conversion rates are apparently much higher than with standard display ads because they are being shown to people who have already shown an interest in the brand …

In a move with broad ecommerce implications, Disney has begun selling tickets to "Toy Story 3" directly on Facebook. The application, dubbed Disney Tickets Together, "could transform how Hollywood sells movie tickets by combining purchases with the powerful forces of social networking," concludes The New York Times. Encouraging viral peer pressure, the application alerts your Facebook friends when you buy a movie ticket, and even prompts you to invite them to buy tickets of their own. According to Disney, early results indicate that people are using the application to buy tickets in groups as large as 80. …

About 1-in-5 American wireless subscribers -- 21% -- owned a smartphone by the fourth quarter of last year -- up from 19% the previous quarter, and significantly higher than the 14% at the end of 2008 -- according to new data from Nielsen. Meanwhile, 14% of mobile subscribers -- among a pool of 4,200 survey respondents -- reported downloading an app over the last 30 days. On average, iPhone owners downloaded the greatest number of apps (37), followed by Android owners (22), Palm users (14), Windows Mobile users (13), and BlackBerry users (10). Not surprisingly, games -- both …

PCWorld considers AT&T's decision to do away with unlimited data plans highly suspect. "Did AT&T institute these sweeping changes to shield itself from further abuse and strengthen its network, or has it spun the chamber on another round of Russian roulette?" the magazine asks. Under AT&T's new smartphone data plans, subscribers already paying $30 a month for unlimited data will be allowed to keep that package -- though PC World suspects that "once these new plans gain steam, AT&T may strip customers of those privileges." Under the new terms, most iPhone and iPad users won't be affected, …

Google has acquired a mid-sized ad technology start-up by the name of Invite Media, MediaMemo reports, citing multiple sources. It suggests that the deal cost Google somewhere in the neighborhood of $70 million. Invite is a three-year-old "demand-side platform" geared to help media buyers steer their way through high-volume display-advertising exchanges, including the one Google debuted last year. Headquartered in New York City, Invite builds and operates what it refers to as a "universal buying platform" for display media, called Bid Manager. "First there were ad networks, then ad exchanges to make buying …

Clearly not content to let Google and Facebook take all the heat over privacy infringements, Yahoo plans to augment its status update and social aggregation features so users can more easily follow other users. Presently, to view status updates for other Yahoo Mail users, one has to have a "mutual follow," meaning both people have agreed to be "friends." Once Yahoo makes the switch, it will no longer require the so-called "mutual follow" for one user to follow another. "So, like on Twitter, users can follow whomever they choose," explained TechCrunch. Still, "The PR fiascoes that have …

What some might describe as a present tsunami of digital data will soon look like a mere drop in the bucket, according to Parthasarathy Ranganathan, a technologist at HP Labs. Ranganathan tells ReadWriteWeb that data is growing significantly faster than Moore's Law. Similarly, last summer, HP CEO Mark Hurd said: "More data will be created in the next four years than in the history of the planet." And the data appears to be coming from every direction one can image. Ranganathan is particularly interested in real-world objects that connected to the Internet, which is creating a massive …