El Segundo, Calif. - Satellite TV operator DirecTV announced on Monday that it plans to mere with the entertainment unit of Liberty Media, which will be spun off into a separate, publicly-traded company. [more..]

New York - Amazon.com is expected to introduce a larger version of its Kindle e-book reader device this week, which will be "tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks," The New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the plans. [more..]

Port Washington, N.Y. - RIM's BlackBerry Curve outsold Apple's iPhone to claim the top spot in smartphone sales in the U.S. during the first quarter, according to market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

New York - YouTube is reaching out to popular video producers who have secured product placement deals for their videos, to remind them that according to its terms of service, such commercial videos are prohibited without permission, Mediaweek reported. [more..]

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple has rejected an iPhone application from the band Nine Inch Nails, reportedly due to its inclusion of a song with explicit lyrics -- which ironically may be purchased from the company's iTunes Store, frontman Trent Reznor explained in a series of posts on Twitter. [more..]

Framingham, Mass. - IDG Communications, a provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, has consolidated staff for some of its main brands into one business unit that now includes the CIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, Network World, CSO, IT World and Industry Standard titles.
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Los Angeles - The four individuals associated with file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, who were recently convicted of copyright infringement by a Swedish court, may soon face similar charges in Italy, IDG News Service reported. [more..]

London - Spotify, the European ad-supported music streaming service that recently passed 1 million users in the U.K., is offering a library of nearly 3.6 million tracks from over 264,000 artists, according to the Music Machinery blog. [more..]

New York - Blog network Gawker Media announced on Friday that Valleywag editor Owen Thomas has left the company to work at NBC, and will be replaced by night editor Ryan Tate. [more..]

Tokyo - Nintendo has launched a free video-on-demand service for its Wii console in Japan that features entirely original programming, Wired.com reported. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts announced on Monday that players of its "Spore" civilization simulation game have now designed and uploaded over 100 million creations, since the company launched the Spore Creature Creator in June 2008. [more..]