In a battle between AT&T and Verizon Wireless that never seems to end, AT&T's partner Apple now appears to be getting into the mix with two retaliatory iPhone TV ad that air Monday night. The ads comes hot on the heels of AT&T's TV ad campaign that aimed to "set the record straight" around Verizon's "there's a map for that" campaign.

The two Apple ads (see below) show the iPhone's ability to browse the Web and manage phone calls simultaneously, a feat that's possible over AT&T's UMTS/GSM wireless network but not over Verizon's CDMA network, according to an account in Apple Insider.

Google's gobbling up another advertising company, the search giant has announced. Google will acquire Teracent, a Silicon Valley startup specializing in "intelligent display advertising." Yep -- that means more online ads customized specifically for your visit.

Teracent, of course, is far from Google's first foray into the online advertising world; as most people who use the Web can't help but know, Google-served ads are practically everywhere these days. Here's an overall look at Google's ad-related acquisitions and how they play into your online life.

A report from AdMob has people claiming there is now proof that iPhone users now account for more than half of mobile data traffic. For months now many have suspected the iPhone -- with its data-hungry applications -- is a network bandwidth hog. But a closer look at the AdMob report reveals iPhone users probably aren't as hoggish as some in the blogosphere are claiming.

It's not totally fair to extrapolate AdMob's results, as AppleInsider does (and as we have), to all smartphone data traffic, because that's not what the report measures. AdMob serves advertisements for mobile Web sites, but its in-app ads only appear on the iPhone and Android phones. AdMob spokeswoman Nicole Leverich said that roughly a third of the company's network consists of iPhone and Android applications.

It's official: AOL is now Aol. As the fading Internet giant nears its 20th anniversary, the newly independent media company is prepping for another revamp. The latest step is a new logo, as seen below. The corporate name is now spelled with an upper case "A," a lower case "o" and "l," and a period:

Microsoft Windows 8 may be coming as early as 2012, based on a recent rash of comments and hints dropped by Microsoft personnel in official capacity and informal context.

About 10 percent of software applications turned down by Apple's App Store are "inappropriate," either because they will steal personal data, are meant to help users break the law, or contain "inappropriate content," an Apple senior executive reportedly said.

But in an interview with a leading business magazine, Apple's Phil Schiller ignored some big issues spurring iPhone developers to move to the Droid and other mobile platforms, and he didn't explain why Apple is acting as a software gatekeeper for mobile users.

News Corp. and Microsoft are reportedly in "early stage talks" to cut an exclusive deal that would prevent Google from indexing the media conglomerate's news Websites some of which include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and others. The deal will allegedly give Microsoft's Bing search engine the exclusive rights to deliver search results and news pages with New Corp. content, according to The Financial Times . The report also says that Microsoft has approached other unnamed major Web publishers to cut similar deals.

This is the second time this month that rumors and speculation have surfaced about News Corp. delisting its content from Google. In early November, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told Sky News Australia that his company might block Google from indexing its news Websites once all of the company's news properties erect pay walls by next year.

To get the best deals on Black Friday, you'll need patience, aggression and preferably advanced knowledge of what you're looking for. But with the help of Web sites, mobile apps and social media tools, your day of shopping can be made easier, or even avoided thanks to online or early deals. Here's a list of tech tools to ease the pain of Black Friday:

Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber owes his entire career to the Internet. When he was the ripe old age of 13, Bieber and his family began posting videos of his performances on YouTube. Someone in a suit liked the tunes and boom -- Bieber was signed with Usher's label. Now his infamy shall be cast in the iron of the Web, as one of Bieber's team was arrested for not using Twitter. One more time: arrested for not using Twitter.

James A. Roppo, 44, senior vice president of Bieber's label, Island Def Jam Records, was arrested November 20 on felony assault charges.

Three thousand crazy screaming girls (and their parents) showed up at Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island for a Bieber album signing. Soon, the crowd became unhinged with teenybop bloodlust, and Roppo refused to send out a Twitter message saying the signing had been canceled. This "reckless behavior," as police called it, resulted in escorts to the hospital for five and a "minor injury" on a crowd-control police officer. Roppo was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, obstruction of governmental administration, reckless endangerment, and criminal nuisance. That's a lot of wrist-slapping for 140 characters of "Please calm the expletive down."

Spotify, the popular music streaming service available only in select European countries, introduced on Monday a mobile application for the Symbian operating system, which includes Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung phones.

European owners of various Nokia phones, such as the N97, E72 or XpressMusic, can now download the Spotify app and enjoy music streamed to their phones. Several other phones will be able to run this app, including the Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung Omnia HD (i8910). A full list of supported devices can be found here.

Google's mantra is "Don't be evil." Let's hope it the tech giant means it, because if Chrome OS succeeds in replacing Windows at the world's dominant operating system, Google's sway over the computing world could be exponentially higher than it is today.

Now, I'm not suggesting that Google's Web-centric OS is a nefarious, 1984-esque plot to subjugate the human race -- or at least the 1.7 billion (and rising rapidly) people who use the Internet. But Google already knows more about many of us than we may know. A few examples:

Earlier this week, Google gave the world a first look at the Chrome OS. The press event confirmed what was suspected when Google announced it was working on a netbook operating system four months ago -- it would emphasize speed and simplicity. As the tech world tests versions of the operating system that were compiled from Google's source code it is looking like the project's priorities may be weaknesses.