Washington - Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV company and second-largest broadband ISP, on Thursday appealed sanctions levied against it by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the company's throttling of customers' peer-to-peer traffic to the U.S. Court of Appeals. [more..]

Seattle - Microsoft has announced plans to slash the price of its entry-level Xbox 360 video game console in the U.S. from $279 to $199, dropping it below the $250 price tag on the popular Nintendo Wii in advance of the holiday shopping season, BusinessWeek reports. [more..]

Washington - Following a Congressional inquiry into privacy concerns with behavioral advertising, NebuAd has postponed its plans to more widely deploy technology with Internet service providers that would monitor users' Web surfing for the purpose of targeting them with advertisements, the Washington Post reported. [more..]

London - Wippit, an eight-year-old firm that launched an early, legal peer-to-peer music service, has shut down, Distorted Loop reports. [more..]

Seattle - Amazon.com on Thursday launched a new feature on its Amazon Video On Demand service that lets customers instantly begin streaming ad-free movies and TV shows on their PC or Mac.
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San Diego - A second class action lawsuit was filed against Apple last week by a San Diego man who claims the company and partner AT&T have oversold the new iPhone 3G in the U.S., leading to an overtaxed 3G network and inferior performance, Apple Insider reported. [more..]

Tokyo - Japanese video game publisher Tecmo said on Thursday that it has rejected an up to $206 million takeover bid from fellow publisher Square Enix, and is instead in merger talks with game maker Koei, Reuters reported. [more..]

Tokyo - Microsoft has joined a dozen other companies investing in the first 24-hour, English-language TV network in Japan, to be launched by broadcaster NHK in February, according to Thomson Financial, which cited a report in the local Nikkei newspaper. [more..]

Chicago - Vibes Media, a ten-year-old mobile marketing firm, announced on Thursday that it has landed a $15 million first round of funding from Fidelity Ventures. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Raptr, a social network based around online games, on Thursday announced its official launch, and disclosed that it raised $12 million back in February from Accel Partners and the Founders Fund. [more..]

Hyderabad, India - Pressmart, an India-based provider of digital publishing services for print media producers, announced on Thursday that it has raised $6 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and NEA IndoUS Ventures. [more..]

Tel Aviv, Israel - SemantiNet, a stealth-mode company developing software that "enables the discovery of new information as part of the natural browsing experience," announced on Thursday that it has secured $3.4 million in first round funding. [more..]

Once TV makers start dropping in browsers, search-based program guides (i.e. not tied to proprietary video service) and some flash memory, the battle will really be on, blogs Paul Sweeting. [more..]

Philadelphia - Comcast has quietly expanded its Fancast broadband service to include paid video downloads, to compete with similar offerings like the iTunes Store, Amazon Unbox and CinemaNow. [more..]

Englewood Cliffs, N.J. - NBC Universal's CNBC announced that it has partnered with business-focused social network LinkedIn, and will integrate LinkedIn functionality into CNBC.com, while CNBC content will be broadly distributed across the LinkedIn network, which claims 27 million users worldwide. [more..]

Los Angeles - Continuing a string of acquisitions, National Lampoon said on Thursday that it has acquired ZingFu.com, a provider of "widgetized social content," for an undisclosed sum. [more..]

New York - Retail store chain Target and Target.com will be the exclusive retail spots to purchase a forthcoming greatest hits album from Sony BMG/RCA Records artist Christina Aguilera, Billboard reports. [more..]

Irvine, Calif. - Fast food chain Taco Bell said on Thursday that it will reprise its "Feed the Beat" indie music promotion, this year offering 100 bands a month's supply of Taco Bell Bucks ($500) while they are on tour. [more..]

Hollywood - BETARecords.com, an online music site focused on new music and social networking, on Thursday announced the launch of BETA Records TV, a half-hour weekly TV series that will air in over 140 U.S. television markets. [more..]

San Diego - MP3tunes, an online music storage locker and streaming service, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Logitech to make songs stored in a user's MP3tunes locker available via the new Squeezebox Boom networked boombox music player. [more..]