We’ll excuse you for not getting overly excited about the latest reports that Facebook is building its own smartphone. Yes, you’ve heard it many times before, and the source of the report, DigiTimes, has a so-so track record. Anyway, even if true, it sounds like the phone will be mostly HTC’s doing. According to DigiTimes, Facebook is working "in cooperation" with HTC on a customized smartphone, due out by the third quarter of the year -- at the earliest."The new Android smartphone being developed by HTC will have a platform exclusive to Facebook to enable and integrate all functions …

Expanding further into so-called desktop services, Google this week debuted a new cloud storage service with 5GB of free storage, and paid options up to 16TB. Dubbed Google Drive, the service is what The Washington Post calls “an evolution” of Google Docs. “If you've ever used the popular document-syncing service, you'll be right at home with Google Drive,” it writes. “Just like Docs, the majority of the service is based in the web browser: You'll primarily be managing your account and viewing your files from the web app.” What's new? Users can now upload any file to Drive, not just …

Chirpify -- a platform that transforms Twitter from a broadcast platform into a transactional, ecommerce-friendly one -- has secured $1.3 million in series A financing, led by Voyager Capital, with participation from Geoff Entress, BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu, former Facebook exec Rudy Gadre, Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, and TiE Oregon Angels. Until recently known as SellSimp.ly, the startup is pioneering a Twitter-based commerce platform that lets brands and consumers buy, sell, donate and transact through tweets -- all without leaving Twitter. “Since launch,” TechCrunch reports, “Chirpify has seen growing traction, thanks, in part, to a promotional campaign launched at SXSW, …

How goes Microsoft’s big mobile comeback? By some measures, not so great. In the three months ending in February, for instance, Microsoft's share of U.S. smartphone subscribers was 3.9% -- down from 5.2% last November and 7.7% last February, according to comScore. “Even now, more than a year after Microsoft started shipping Windows Phone 7 devices, U.S. mobile customers are getting rid of Microsoft devices faster than they're buying new ones,” remarks ReadWriteWeb. “Longer term, Microsoft's share has been in a freefall: comScore had it at 18% at the end of 2009, and 36% in late 2007, the year Apple …

In other Netflix news, CEO Reed Hastings is once again suggesting that Comcast is competing unfairly in the streaming-video sector. "Comcast caps its residential broadband customers at 250 gigabytes per month," Hastings explained in a letter to investors, this week. "On the Xbox the Netflix app, the Hulu app, and the HBO GO app, are all subject to this cap. But Comcast has decided that its own Xfinity Xbox app is not subject to this 250 gigabyte cap. This is not neutral in any sense." In other words, Hastings believes Comcast is giving its own Xfinity Web-video service a competitive …

Like countless industry leaders before them, are Google and Facebook growing fat, happy, and complacent? Citing their lack of mobile focus as evidence, so suggests Nick Bilton. “This month, when Google showcased a new design for Google Plus, the company’s social network, it was as if mobile phones and tablets were still a glimmer in some future inventor’s eye,” Bilton writes on The New York Times’ Bits blog. “The made-over Web site was beautifully designed, but the smartphone app and mobile site were completely ignored.” Facebook’s willingness to drop $1 billion on the two-year-old Instagram is clear evidence that the …

Could the party already be over for Pinterest? That isn’t likely, but, after losing momentum in March, new data suggests that the picture-based social network is actually losing users, this month. According to AppData, which monitors how often users of third-party apps and Web sites interact with Facebook, the number of Facebook-connected Pinterest users has declined precipitously the past 50 days. As Business Insider notes, “most Pinterest users sign-up to the site using their Facebook accounts.” By AppData’s calculations, Pinterest’s monthly active users are down from 11.3 million on March 1 to 11.15 million on April 1 to just 8.3 …

Doing everything possible to fend off government regulation, Web giants are spending more than ever on their respective lobbying efforts. This quarter, Google spent a whopping $5.03 million on lobbying fees -- tripling its spend from the same period a year ago -- reports TechCrunch, citing the most recent disclosure reports filed in the U.S. Senate’s lobbying database. By contrast, Microsoft only spent $1.8 million on lobbying for the quarter. Small by comparison, Facebook doubled down on its own lobbying efforts ahead of its IPO in May. According to TechCrunch, the social network spent $650,000 on lobbying in the first …

Fast Company checks in on Google Ventures and Bill Maris, who launched the division in mid-2009 with the hope of turning some of the search giant's cash in startup gold. "We're trying to do something completely different, not because it's different, but because we're looking for a different outcome," Maris tells FC. “Despite the mythology that has built up around venture capital, it has become a slowly moldering investment vehicle,” FC writes. Indeed, according to Maris: "The past 10 years haven't been very productive.” Indeed, during the decade ending last September, VCs as a class earned a 2.6% interest rate for …

Moving closer to a possible sale of the company -- and a massive shift of the mobile landscape -- Research In Motion is reportedly ready to pick JPMorgan Chase as its financial adviser. “RIM is considering options, such as a licensing deal or a strategic investment,” according to Bloomberg, citing sources. “A final choice hasn’t been made and could come within days.”  Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins, who recently took over for co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, said he is open to strategy changes in light of customer and market-share losses, which have led to five straight quarters of …