London - Apple is in talks with the major record labels on possible new models that would see music come pre-loaded, or be available through unlimited subscription plans on its iPod and iPhone devices, the Financial Times reports. [more..]

Los Angeles - The government of Antigua is threatening to legalize piracy of U.S. music and movies -- with World Trade Organization approval -- should the U.S. fail to end a running dispute over the legality of Internet gambling, Variety reports. [more..]

Tokyo - Toshiba is likely to report a loss of about $986 million at its HD DVD business for the year, after deciding to discontinue the format and cede victory to Sony's Blu-ray, according to an estimate in Japan's Nikkei business paper, Reuters reports. [more..]

Minneapolis - In light of the format's impending demise at the hands of Sony's Blu-ray, electronics and media retail chain Best Buy announced on Wednesday that it will provide $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD DVD player or HD DVD attachment from its U.S. stores before Feb. 23 -- and expects to shell out more than $10 million during the program. [more..]

Seattle - Apple's iPhone is handily beating competitors in the smartphone category, and blowing away the cell phone market in general when it comes to using a mobile phone to access news or information, watch live or on-demand video, access social networks or listen to music, according to a report from market research firm M:Metrics. [more..]

Los Angeles - The sophomore record from Gnarls Barkley has been posted for sale on iTunes in advance of its April 8 release date, and fellow Warner Music act the Raconteurs have announced plans to release their new album next Tuesday without offering any advance review copies, according to reports. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - With the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament set to officially tip off on Thursday, a new study has found that sports fans are using the Internet at greater rates than ever before to watch games and follow their favorite teams. [more..]

London - Songkick on Wednesday introduced its live music recommendation service, which scan's a user's music library and alerts users when a band they like -- or may like -- is playing in their area. [more..]

Baltimore - Blogdigger, a search engine for blogs and syndicated content, said that it has been acquired by New York-based Odeo, which is rebuilding its podcast network to include both audio and video. [more..]

Keenan Reilly blogs about the rise of mobile gaming. [more..]

Rohit Bhargava blogs about Everywhere Magazine, a publication composed entirely of user generated content. [more..]

San Francisco - Adobe Systems plans to work with Apple to enable Flash applications to run on the iPhone, according to Adobe CEO Shantau Narayen, who made the statement during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Facebook is implementing changes to its social network that will allow users to control what their friends, and friends of friends see on their profiles, Reuters reported. [more..]

London - Mobile network operator Vodafone announced that it has reached a deal with Warner Music International, that will give its subscribers access to tracks from Madonna's forthcoming album "Hard Candy" a week before it goes on sale. [more..]

New York - News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Company announced that it will not renew the news partnership between its Dow Jones Newswires and the Associated Press, and instead has signed a deal to distribute editorial content from rival Agence France-Presse (AFP). [more..]

Philadelphia - Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV provider, said on Wednesday that its On Demand service has now served up more than 7 billion video-on-demand views, and 1 billion viewing hours since 2003. [more..]

Milpitas, Calif. - SanDisk, a maker of Flash-based MP3 players and storage media products, announced on Wednesday that it will offer a promotional microSD card containing DRM-free music from over 50 new and emerging artists. [more..]