Google is going beyond Google Street View and rolling out the backpack cam operated Google Street View Trekker, a wilderness cam that offers a wilderness view of all the corners of the world that Google Street View has previously left untouched, namely woods views and forest views. The backpack cams can be carried by hikers and campers who are on foot and already headed to spots where cars and planes cannot easily go and Google is starting with the Grand Canyon.

Yesterday we featured an article on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) contest challenging anyone from the public to come up with a way to beat spam phone calls. The reason for expanding their efforts, says the FTC, is because complaints about spam phone calls, or, “robocalls,” more than doubled in April of 2012, from their last high in October 2010 . So what should we do to avoid these nuisance calls until our unknown hero steps forward with the answer?

This weekend Amazon sent an alert to all of their Kindle customers, informing them of a recent antitrust lawsuit settlement over ebook pricing (some people are calling this a ‘class action’ lawsuit, but it was actually an antitrust suit filed by the government). The settlement is expected to be approved sometime in February 2013, at which time those who have purchased Kindle books can expect to see an estimated credit of $0.30 to $1.32 per each eligible Kindle book that they purchased.

Perhaps iOS 6’s Mapplegate was simply meant to be a great distraction from the fact that Apple is now covertly tracking users through IFA (or IDFA) tracking technology with the iOS 6 update. While Apple had disabled the tracking of iPhone users by advertisers by disallowing app developers from using the data from Apple devices through the unique serial number permanently assigned to each device, it seems that iOS 6 has brought tracking back.

Google is again blaming technical glitches for violating privacy policies and collecting personal data, this time from those using Apple’s Safari web browser. Google has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $22.5 million – the largest amount that the FTC has ever fined – because they sneakily undermined the privacy settings of millions of Safari users by using computer code to trick Safari into granting Google access to user activity through cookies.

Today Apple announced their new iPod lineup full of upgrades and the usual array of bright bubblegum colors. The iPod Touch is revised with the same anodized aluminum that is used in the MacBook. The colors come in black, silver, turquoise, neon green and pink. This is the lightest iPod Touch to date, and comes with a detachable wrist loop as an easy way to keep your iPod Touch close, without having to actually carry it.

The Obama administration is proposing to strengthen child privacy laws, and Internet giants Facebook, Twitter and Google are not happy. According to the three websites, the proposed law changes will interfere with their user’s ability to tweet, share information on the Web, and to “like” Facebook posts. They also say that these changes hamper free speech.

Google Street View is back for iOS 6 users. It seems that Google is the knight in shining armor to the whole Mapplegate fiasco that has left scores of iOS 6 users frustrated with the quality of Apple maps. The victory is small, but at this point, iOS 6 users will take any scrap thrown their way.

The tech world has been abuzz over rumors that Apple is gearing up to release the tiny mini iPad, so far having been dubbed the “iPad Mini.” Speculations based on various “unnamed insiders” and forecasts from technology experts have offered some insight into what we can expect.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has issued an open letter apologizing for how badly the new Apple iPhone 5 iOS 6 Mapping app sucks. In the mapping apology, Cook acknowledges that with the stunning issues with the iPhone 5’s maps, which has been dubbed ‘Mapplegate’, Apple “fell short on their commitment” to “deliver the best experience possible to our customers.” However, he also claims that the more people use the map app, the better it will get, which somehow sounds like “we released it half-baked so that our users could be the guinea pigs who get the data into it.”

Mapplegate is taking over the Internet world. Apple released their iOS 6 two days ago with one change in particular that has people buzzing – their new Maps app. Many are comparing this to Apple’s infamous 2010 “Antennagate,” when Apple released an iPhone with shoddy antennas, prompting a hasty PR cleanup job by then-CEO Steve Jobs.

From the BlackBerry outage, to Yahoo giving it the boot, BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM) have not been having the best week, and many are concluding that it is the beginning of the end for the beleaguered company. Whether it is the end, or just a series of unfortunate events, there is no doubt that they’re are struggling fiercely to stay afloat amidst market-dominating Apple, and their runner-up, the Android market.

Apple’s iPhone 5 has been released with mixed reviews. Many people are outraged at the fact that Apple has released a new cord, which will force most to buy adapters at around $30 a pop, just to make their new phone compatible with their accessories. And according to senior analysts from ABI research, Apple stands to make roughly $40 million in revenue from the adapters alone in the next fiscal quarter. Over the next year, the adapters will make Apple a minimum of $100 million in revenue. And despite consumers largely being outraged at this switch, and underwhelmed with the latest iPhone, many will still devotedly follow Apple because they are devout fans.

Apple unveiled the new iPhone 5 and their new connector cable, Lightening. What Apple today called “the biggest things to happen for iPhone since iCloud,” eager Apple fans are calling, “meh.” Apple unveiled the official iPhone 5, which does not appear to be much different from the iPhone 4S. The phone was introduced as being, “designed and built to an exacting level of standard unlike anything we, or anyone in our industry, have made before.” Except the last iPhone, apparently.

Streaming radio service, Pandora, may soon be regretting opening its music box. Apple is apparently sticking with what should be their official mantra, “anything you can do, I can do better,” after reports began to leak that they are working on a streaming radio option of their own. With this one announcement, Pandora shares went into a tailspin, plunging 19%.