According to the Journal, Amazon has been in talks with several major media companies, including NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp., and Viacom, about a web-based subscription service that would compete with Apple, Netflix and Google.

Amazon's Digital Target

Apple announced 99-cent TV-show rentals from ABC and Fox on Wednesday. Apple's model will make new shows available for rent starting the day after the original air date. The rental fee allows unlimited viewing for 48 hours.

The Journal reports Amazon's model is shaping up to look more like Netflix with a catalog of older content. The subscription service would make content viewable via a web browser or through Internet-connected devices, including televisions, Blu-ray players and the Xbox 360 video-game console.

Amazon also would also be competing in the same field as Hulu. In June, Hulu unveiled a subscription service that offers viewers access to full seasons of TV shows on a slew of devices. Dubbed Hulu Plus, consumers can tap into the service for $9.99 a month to watch shows whenever and wherever they want.

Cable's Decline

Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, called the rumored development significant, particularly when put in the context of statistics released in August that show cable-TV subscribers declined.

According to data from SNL Kagan, cable companies saw a dip in subscribers during the second quarter. The cable-TV industry, which has until now experienced consistent growth, shed 711,000 subscribers in the period. Cable's share of pay TV also dipped from 63.6 percent to 61 percent in the second quarter.

"Although it is tempting...

The web giant has reportedly been holding talks with the major Hollywood studios in order to snag films for its new service which would compete with existing sites like Netflix, iTunes and Hulu, as well as the rapidly dwindling neighborhood video stores.

Citing studio bosses, the report said that YouTube would charge up to five dollars per film -- roughly the same amount that viewers of cable and satellite TV spend to view pay-per-view movies.

Google first unveiled its online movie ambitions by streaming a handful of titles from the Sundance Film Festival in January. It also announced plans earlier this year for a Google TV service which would be built into televisions and set-top boxes and provide a unique search and content system for TV viewers.

The Financial Times report said that talks have been continuing for "several months" but have "taken on greater urgency in recent weeks," and that the new service could debut before the end of the year.

Hollywood studios are reportedly excited about extending their online reach as they seek to combat the growing problem of pirated movies online and also replace the dwindling revenues from DVD sales.

"We're super excited to announce that someone found our social games as much fun as you have -- in this case, that 'someone' is Google," SocialDeck wrote on its web site. "We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting new mobile devices."

Google's Gaming Moves

Founded in 2008, SocialDeck's vision is to enable "anywhere, anytime, anyone" gaming. The company has rolled out several social-gaming titles for the iPhone, Facebook and BlackBerry using its gaming platform. Popular titles include Shake & Spell 3D, Color Connect, and Pet Hero Puzzle. The apps are free.

SocialDeck's technology makes possible simultaneous game play across multiple mobile devices and social networks. The technology also facilitates viral content discovery, distribution and monetization. SocialDeck raised its first financing round from the BlackBerry Partners Fund in March 2009. The company was founded by Anish Acharya and Jeson Patel. SocialDeck reached the million-mobile-download milestone in February.

Google purchased Angstro earlier this week. Angstro works to compliment Google's news aggregator services by analyzing a wide breadth of information from multiple data sources to deliver fewer, but more accurate, results. Then there was the Slide acquisition for $182 million. Slide develops apps on social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Its claims to social-gaming fame include SuperPoke!, Pets and Academy of Magic.

Google's Social Hook

Google also recently acquired Jambool, which peddles a virtual economy platform called Social Gold that developers can use to create currency systems and monetize them using in-game payments. Founded by Amazon.com veterans, Social Gold also offers analytics. Social Gold is found in popular Zynga...

Google empathizes with people who are overwhelmed by jammed inboxes. Google software engineer Doug Aberdeen said his inbox is slammed with messages from colleagues, from lists, about appointments, and automated mail that's often not important.

Google's Priority Inbox works to figure out what needs to be read and what needs a reply. Aberdeen calls the beta tool an "experimental new way of taking on information overload in Gmail."

Predicting Priority Messages

"Gmail has always been pretty good at filtering junk mail into the 'spam' folder. But today, in addition to spam, people get a lot of mail that isn't outright junk but isn't very important -- bologna, or 'bacn'," Aberdeen wrote in the Official Google Blog. "So we've evolved Gmail's filter to address this problem and extended it to not only classify outright spam, but also to help users separate this 'bologna' from the important stuff. In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules."

Here's how it works: Gmail automatically flags some incoming messages as important, using a variety of signals, including the people you e-mail most. For example, if Gmail users e-mail Bob a lot, the system figures the message from Bob is probably important. Gmail also works to predict priority messages based on which messages you open and reply to, figuring those messages are likely more important than the ones you skip over.

"As you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you. You can help it get better by clicking the buttons at the top...

The Galaxy Tab runs Google's Android 2.2 (Froyo) and sports a seven-inch screen, a one-gigahertz ARM Cortex A8 processor, front- and back-facing cameras, and enhanced Swype input for text. It will be equipped with both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. With Skype reportedly developing an app for Android, the Tab could soon enable video chatting with anyone who has a desktop camera, giving the Tab a leg up over Apple's no-camera iPad. The Tab is also Flash-compatible, something Apple has barred on the iPad.

Crowded Field

The Tab will likely be unveiled by Samsung Thursday at the IFA Consumer Electronics Conference in Berlin. Verizon did not confirm reports in numerous tech media that the device, seen in leaked photos, will soon be on its shelves. The company did not respond to our requests for comment. But one blog found the device listed on the company's internal computer systems. The Tab is compatible with Verizon's CDMA network.

The Tab will face a crowded tablet market now dominated by Apple's iPad, with new devices planned by Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Sharp and others. Motorola is also expected to have an Android-based tablet on the market through Verizon, and HP has announced separate devices that will run Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 for business users and the Palm webOS for consumers.

Leaked photos of the Tab show a device very similar to the iPad, but with a screen smaller than Apple's 9.7 inches, and with twice as many cameras. The rear-facing Tab camera is said to take shots at 3.2 megapixels, and a slot for microSD memory expansion allows storing and transferring photos.

Better Apps Needed

While AT&T offers service for the...

Interval said Friday it filed the suit in a U.S. District Court in Seattle against the companies. In addition to Google and Apple, the defendants named in the suit are: Facebook Inc., eBay Inc., Yahoo Inc., Netflix Inc., AOL Inc., Office Depot Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples Inc. and Google-owned YouTube LLC.

Interval owns patents from Interval Research, which was a technology research and development company that Allen started with David Liddle in the early '90s.

Interval said that the patents it believes are being violated are key to how e-commerce and search companies work. The patents described in the suit refer to technology used for things such as Web browsing and sending alerts over the Web.

"This lawsuit is necessary to protect our investment in innovation," Allen's spokesman, David Postman, said in a statement.

Interval is seeking unspecified damages for the alleged infringements, and an order that the defendants either stop infringing on its patents or pay royalties for doing so.

Several companies named as defendants did not return requests for comment. Netflix, AOL, Yahoo and Office Depot had no comment.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes called the suit "completely without merit," and eBay spokeswoman Johnna Hoff said the company is reviewing the suit.

Google said the suit "reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace."

Gerry J. Elman, founder of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania-based Elman Technology Law PC, said the suit looks like one "that has to be taken seriously and not just blown away as a nonstarter."

Still, the products and services offered by the companies named in the suit aren't immediately threatened. Patent cases can...