Amazon opens Black Friday deals site early, while Walmart offers sneak peak at Black Friday specials on Facebook and its Sams Club unit enhances the holiday-shopping experience.

Apple acknowledges iPhone battery problem.

Sony predicts $1-billion loss.

AOL posts loss despite ad gains.

Diamond Foods punished by investors for accounting delay in purchase of Pringle's from P&G.

Ford launches licensed-products website.

GlaxoSmithKline settles with U.S. over investigations.Continue reading...

* McDonald's promoted McDonald's UK president and CEO Steve Easterbrook to EVP, global chief brand officer, a new position that fills the hole in its senior management team created when former CMO Mary Dillon left in May to join U.S. Cellular. Jill McDonald, currently CMO for McDonald's in the UK and northern Europe, is being promoted to UK CEO.

* Dell put its first U.S. smartphone on sale today: the Aero, which costs $99 with a two-year AT&T contract and runs on Google's Android platform.

* Watch out, Netflix: Apple is rumored to be preparing a 99-cent TV show service.

* Facebook sues Teachbook, a social networking site for teachers, over use of -book in its name; deletes accounts purporting to be from North Korea; and bans marijuana-based advertising campaign.

* Microsoft is now handling all search requests for Yahoo in North America; the global rollout will take until 2012.Continue reading...

In sad news for the Village People, the YMCA follows KFC, NPR and AARP in formally adopting its acronym and shedding three letters to become just the Y. Individual branches will still be known as "The YMCA of ____." (Update: Village People respond, more details here.)

BP shares rise on news it's making progress on oil spill containment but not making promises — and that it's rumored to be in talks to sell assets to Apache, and facing a possible ExxonMobil takeover bid. Louisiana is pitching BP on a scheme to get unemployed commercial fishermen back on the job.

Spain's octopus-predicted triumph over the Netherlands in the World Cup final drew Nelson Mandela to the closing ceremony while Uruguay's Diego Forlan won the Adidas Golden Ball (not the unpopular Jabulani) for individual achievement. A likely terrorist attack in Uganda killing at least 60 World Cup fans marred yesterday's celebrations.Continue reading...