Cupertino, Calif. - Apple launched its iPhone 3G in 21 countries on Friday, but problems with activating the software plagued both purchasers of the second-generation device and those updating their first-generation iPhones with a software update that includes the new App Store. [more..]

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to punish Comcast, the nation's second-largest broadband provider, for actively interfering with the file-sharing traffic of its customers, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Digital business news publisher PaidContent's parent company ContentNext has been acquired by U.K.-based Guardian News & Media (GNM), for a price "north of $30 million," All Things D reported. [more..]

Washington - The U.S. Justice Dept. has concluded its criminal investigation into the stock options granting practices of Apple, and will not bring criminal charges against CEO Steve Jobs or any other current or former executives, The Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]

Gutersloh, Germany - German media conglomerate Bertelsmann announced on Friday that it has agreed to sell its direct-to-consumer business, Direct Group North America, to Phoenix, Ariz.-based Najafi Companies for an undisclosed sum.
[more..]

Tokyo - Japanese video game developer and publisher Konami has filed suit against Viacom-owned "Rock Band" game developer Harmonix, alleging the popular music game infringes on several of Konami's patents, Bloomberg reported. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Activision Blizzard, the company recently created through the merger of video game publisher Activision with Vivendi's games division, announced on Friday that it will effect a two-for-one stock split. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - Despite a slowdown in the U.S. economy, worldwide revenue for consumer electronics will grow nearly 10% percent this year, hitting the $700 billion mark by 2009, according to new data from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the GfK Group. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - Though still dominated by white males, the venture capital industry is slowly shifting toward more diversity, according to a new survey by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureWire. [more..]

San Francisco - ByteShield, a provider of anti-piracy and digital rights management technologies, announced this week that it has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding, from Gylling Invest AB and other angel investors. [more..]

n/a

Don't be fooled by the fact that Will Farrell plays stupid in a lot of his movies - Or Die Networks is a great example of how you can leverage your celebrity-status and talent using Web 2.0, blogs Jay Baage. [more..]

DMW's Digital Media Conference, held two weeks ago in Washington, DC, was the focus of "The Communicators," C-SPAN's new weekly series featuring interviews with "the people who shape our digital future." [more..]

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it will next week begin a month-long field test of "white space" devices, which can receive broadband Internet access via unused portions of the broadcast spectrum used for TV. [more..]

London - Major record label EMI said this week that its roster act Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" has claimed the U.S. record for best-selling digital album ever, having sold 394,000 downloads in its first three weeks on sale. [more..]

Toronto, Canada - A Canadian court in Quebec has served an injunction against file-sharing service Quebectorrent.com, effectively shutting down the site that claimed around 50,000 users, Billboard reports. [more..]