In tandem with the iPad 2 going on sale today (at 5pm EST), Apple released some new commercials to promote apps on the device: above, a spot promoting the device's camera-enabled FaceTime; below, exclusive-to-iPad publications including The Daily, and streaming video with AirPrint.Continue reading...

Deutsche Telekom is in preliminary talks to sell T-Mobile to Sprint, a deal that would remake the mobile landscape.

Facebook introduces movie streaming and rentals with Warner Bros., sending Netflix stock down; and launches real-time analytics for social plug-ins.

BP plans $3.5 billion bond sale as CEO apologizes for Gulf Spill and says industry must take more precautions.

Airbus receives $9.5 billion order for 100 jets.

American Apparel head Dov Charney's latest scandal: a $250 million employee lawsuit alleging sexual assault.

Bill Gates is unlikely to reclaim the world's richest title tomorrow, due to philanthropic contributions.

Bupa launches integrated marketing campaign and new tagline.

Coca-Cola invests in green bottling facility in UK.Continue reading...

Apple, hot on the heels of iPad 2 launch, tops Fortune's Most Admired Companies list for fourth year in a row.

Best Buy and other big box retailers rethink as they shrink.

Budweiser posts first global increase in two decades thanks to World Cup.

Charlie Sheen hits 1 million Twitter followers in less than a day.

Facebook growth slows in the US.

Ford issues recall, plans to harness its design gurus to relaunch the Mustang.

GM leads incentive spending as "Old GM" expected to be liquidated today.Continue reading...

Apple's iPad 2 smart cover also comes in (RED).

BSkyB/News Corp. deal is set to close next week.

Cablevision brings on demand cable TV programming to the iPad.

Charlie Sheen's Twitter intro was fast-tracked with Ad.ly.

Discovery Channel introduces free iPad app.

Ford recalls an additional 35,000 vehicles in North America.

Lady Gaga previews new song as walks the runway for Mugler, invites fans to apply to blog for Virgin Mobile.

Morgan Spurlock's EMC-sponsored TED talk sells out.

PayPal and MasterCard reinstate payments to WikiLeaks — this time for Julian Assange's legal defense fund.

Whole Foods launches baby photo contest on Facebook.

The Middle takes great pains to make its middle-American family — well, middle-American. In the Wednesday-night sitcom, ABC also goes perhaps too far out of its way to cut against the grain of TV-product placement — and on at least one recent occasion, did so to its own clear detriment.

Allow us to explain. The Heck family is situated as ordinarily as ordinary can get. They live in mythical Orson, Ind., outside Indianapolis. The family home is decorated in a form of, shall we say, Underfunded Retrograde Eclectic. And star Patricia Heaton, as Frankie Heck, is about as prototypical  a housewife-and-working mother as Americans get.

Strategically, this approach also apparently extends to product placement. The series misses – or does it forego? – all sorts of product-placement opportunities, from the family’s frequent visits to fast-food joints to Frankie’s employment at “Ehlert Motors,” selling small cars that appear to be Chevrolets but are not identified as such.Continue reading...

Alibaba CEO resigns in the wake of fraud on his watch.  

Blockbuster receives $290 million initial takeover bid.

Carmelo Anthony is joining the New York Knicks.

Chick-fil-A gains momentum. 

Diageo gambles on acquisition in Turkey.

Dynegy sees top officers and directors depart over Icahn bid.Continue reading...

Well, technically it's News Corp.'s The Daily, although Fox did plug it on last night's Super Bowl.

Fresh from his plug for JFK's 50th inauguration anniversary, watching NBC's late-night host spoof new NBCU owner Comcast, and find the funny side of iPad journalism, makes for a promo that Rupert Murdoch would have been better served to run during last night's Super Bowl than this.

Apple typically shirks celebrity endorsements in favor of its own ads, but Steve Jobs certainly couldn't ask for more glowing praise than this.

Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona senator whose shooting at a peaceful Tucson, Arizona, last month shocked the world, raves about her iPad (and her husband's) in a pre-shooting interview with News Corp.'s just-launched digital newspaper, The Daily.