YouTube will launch a video rental service on Friday. [CNN Money]

Starbucks continues to revamp stores and increase sales. [NY Times]

The International Olympic Committee suggests gender-testing. [AP]

America's White House launches its own iPhone application. [Washington Post]

Prada directs a film set in Shanghai to promote its latest menswear collection. [Independent]

Apple may drop Google in favor of Bing for its iPhones. [Business Week]Continue reading...

Apple and HarperCollins Publishers are in talks to create electronic books specific to Apple's new tablet device. The partnership would give Amazon.com Inc. its first taste of competition.

Unlike Amazon's Kindle e-books, the Apple tablet e-books will have added multimedia features. This will allow for HarperCollins to set higher prices than the standard $9.99 that Kindle charges for best-selling e-books. Apple will receive a percentage of sales earned.

In the past month, Kindle's low $9.99 price point has put pressure on the already struggling book publishing industry. In order to improve the sales of their more expensive hardcover books, some leading publishing houses, including HarperCollins, have postponed the release of bestselling hardcover e-books for several months.Continue reading...

American Airlines increases check-in baggage fees starting Feb. 1. [Consumerist]

Bag embargo imposed on American Airlines flights to Domincan Republic and Haiti. [Trading Markets]

Harper Collins and Apple in talks to collaborate on upcoming Tablet. [WSJ]

Strike vote against British Airways planned over unacceptable working conditions. [NY Times]

Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti charity is fiscally questioned. [Washington Post]

Walgreens will sell fresh food and prepared meals. [Consumerist]Continue reading...

A year ago, it was referred to as the “Google Phone.” Today, Android is gaining in brand recognition and accelerated adoption by cellular manufacturers and providers. Can Android-based devices topple the competition -- the iPhone in particular, popular but plagued by complaints about exclusive partner AT&T's coverage -- and gain market share?

Introduced last fall on the T-Mobile network and G1 handset, Android was a mere babe in the woods. Now, as Verizon launches a major campaign for their Droid phone, every major carrier in the United States has begun to, or agreed to, carry Android phones. Android fever is catching on.

Manufacturers are following suit quickly, and the rumor mill is working overtime on who will be next to release an Android device. Most notably, Motorola has dropped the Windows Mobile operating system in favor of Android. Motorola, manufacturer of Verizon's Droid, is confident in the ability of Android to win market share, and plans to carry the operating system on at least 30% of their products in 2010.Continue reading...

Save Your Logo campaign enlists Lacoste's help for crocodile protection. [idsgn]

Environmental consumer efforts aim to change behavior; threaten Charmin. [Daily Beast]

Chief NY Times editor appears to confirm imminence of Apple's Tablet. [Valleywag]

Consumers unwilling to trade down from Tide, Kraft, Coke. [Marketing Charts]

Ex-Star/US Weekly editor Bonnie Fuller's Hollywood Life "looks like what would happen if In Touch and Life & Style got wasted on cosmos and then barfed all over the internet." [Gawker]

Steal this e-reader: Amazon's new Kindle is going global.

Introduced late Tuesday, the new Kindle will be available for the first time in over 100 countries, with the capacity to download books and periodicals on AT&T and international partner wireless networks.

Through the Kindle store, consumers worldwide will have a choice of 200,000 titles, and US consumers a choice of 350,000 titles, from publishers Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Lonely Planet, Penguin, Bloomsbury and Hachette. Expected to ship October 19, the international version will retail for $279, while the US versions pricetag will drop $40, to $259.

Consumer interest is expected to build this holiday season. CNET reports that Forrester Research recently upped their 2009 sales forecast for US e-readers to 3 million units, from earlier targets of 2 million, with about 60% market share for Kindle and 35% for Sony's Reader.Continue reading...