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PC World – Who’s to blame for the massive Skype crash of 2010 that knocked 10 million users off the grid right before the holiday season? Microsoft’s Windows? Or Skype itself?

PC World – The iPhone in 2010 wasn’t just topping headlines for color defects and faulty phone connections. Apple’s smartphone also had a seedy underbelly over the past 12 months filled with robberies, muggings, murder and assault. Numerous criminals tried to get away with iPhone-related schemes this year, but were often foiled thanks to the handset’s numerous capabilities such as GPS, Wi-Fi and video capture.

LiveScience.com – When Henry Cuellar took to the Speaker’s podium at the United States
House of Representatives with an iPad in his hand recently, the
congressman had no idea he was accelerating a course of change in the
august body.

NewsFactor – Industry observers report that the number of applications available for Android smartphones has risen dramatically since October, when more than 100,000 apps were available from the Android Market. According to the AndroLib web site, which tracks Android metrics, Google’s mobile platform gained more than 24,000 new apps in November and 26,000 this month.

Macworld – In October, Amazon promised that users would be able to lend Kindle books to each other by the end of the year, and the retail giant has at last delivered that feature—just under the wire. On Thursday, the company quietly updated its e-book system to support lending titles.

AP – RATES RISE: The average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages rose to 4.86 percent from 4.81 percent in the previous week, Freddie Mac said. The rate on 15-year fixed loans rose to 4.20 percent from 4.15 percent.

Digital Trends – The saga continues. Seemingly unwilling to let the year end without at least one more rumor about Apple’s iPhone heading to Verizon, a reliable source has told Bloomberg that Apple is planning to wait for the roar of CES to die down before finally, finally putting to bed the years of rumors, and officially unveiling the Verizon iPhone.

The Cutline – NPR isn’t alone in misreporting the number of State Department cables that WikiLeaks has actually published so far.  Contrary to some reports, WikiLeaks never dumped hundreds of thousands of cables online. Instead, the organization has been steadily releasing them, with 1,947 published online as of Thursday. Ombudsman Alicia Shepard commended “one persistent listener” today for [...]

Macworld – Is it really true that it’s only a matter of time before Macintosh users are under siege by a flood of viruses and malware? McAfee announced recently that 2011 would be a bad year for people using Apple computers, as hackers will be increasingly attracted by growing Mac market share. It’s not at all hard to find experts who agree.

Reuters – Cyber activists say they have brought down Zimbabwean government websites after the president’s wife sued a newspaper for publishing a WikiLeaks cable linking her with illicit diamond trading.