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Hello again!

Did you miss us over the long weekend? We hope so! We're back now to share the bigggest tech news of the day with our discerning readers, and we've got a few doozies.

Smashmouth Technology
So far, the big FTC investigation into Apple and Google's relationship has claimed two victims: Mr. Arthur Levinson has resigned from Google's board, following Eric Schmidt's resignation earlier this year. The gentlemen were on the boards of both companies and drew fire from the Federal Trade Commission--their cooperation with both group may have violated an ancient anti-trust act regarding reduced competiton between companies. (The companies must not compete on products that exceed two percent of thier total revenue, but with these guys even two percent is no joke!)

We think it's safe to say, judging from the recent GoogleVoice and Android animosity, that the competition is just beginning.

Regardless, Mr. Levinson's resignation has called off the barking FTC and calmed the waters so to speak...maybe the Trade Commission realized that these two companies are heading for a big breakup and wanted to get out of the middle. We can't say we blame them. It might get messy. There could be punches.

It's Magical!
On a happy note, Steve Jobs is applying his retail genius to another company he has a vested interest in: Disney. Since his aquisition of Pixar in 2006 he's been around but relatively quiet--he's been a little busy since then, no? But when Disney saw the opportunity to re-brand its stores and position itself at the top of the entertainment heap, Steve-O was more than happy to give a push past just a quick remodeling. When the economic downturn ends and consumers snap open their wallets for kiddie-centric Disney vacations and all the souveniers that come with it, they'll be able to come to a mall, pop into the Disney store, park their kid in front of a live Hannah Montana chat or movie and book that Disney Cruise from a travel kiosk. The entire layout and look of the stores are set to change with a focus on interactive features to set the childern a-flutter. Various high tech perks, like tree-ography controlled by iPhone, scent technology, and mobile checkouts round out the new plan, and with a new flagship store being contemplated in Times Square the razzle dazzle may be experienced by hundreds of thousands. Interesting...

Nielson Claritas recently came out with some market research suggesting there's a class divide visible in online social networking: "middle class, blue-collar" types are more likely to be on MySpace, while more affluent, educated folks like FaceBook. Tope of the list, though? Twitter wins, and we hope you'll come follow us there!

Till tomorrow, Newsies...