AP - The Obama administration is calling for stronger privacy protections for consumers as mobile gadgets, Internet services and other tools are able to do a better job of tracking what you do and where you go.

AP - California is clamping down on nosy mobile applications, telling them they must give people advance warning if they want to keep pulling sensitive information from smartphones and computer tablets.

Yahoo! News - Welcome to Just Show Me on Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to turn off in-app purchases on your iPhone. Some apps let …

Yahoo! News - Was your favorite part about a visit to the Air and Space Museum the little packets of space ice cream they sell at the gift shop? If so, you'll be glad to know that scientists are preparing to create a new generation …

Mashable - Calling all supertaster space nerds: NASA wants your help to improve the bland food astronauts would have to eat while on a mission to Mars.

Reuters - The White House on Thursday proposed a "bill of rights" that would give consumers greater online privacy protection and could eventually give the government greater powers to police Internet firms such as Google Inc and Facebook.

Reuters - South Korea's top Internet provider, KT Corp plans to charge data-heavy content providers such as Google's Youtube and Internet-enabled TV service operators to subsidize costly network upgrades, a KT executive said on Thursday.

Digital Trends - As confirmed on the official Verizon Twitter account this morning, the cellular service provider noted a problem with the 4G LTE network. However, the spokesperson noted that the “3G data, voice and text services are operating reliably.” Unhappy customers in Detroit, Phoenix, Arizona, Columbus, Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Philadelphia posted complaints on the Verizon discussion forums throughout the morning. Some of the customers also stated that 3G service was unavailable at the same time. According to Verizon Wireless spokesman Tom Pica, Verizon Wireless started receiving customers calls about the outages around 6:30 A.M. Eastern time. 

Appolicious - Are you sick of the way your Android phone organizes your text messages? The innovative and free Powow: Text Messaging app for Android is a fabulous new way to organize your text messages just by downloading this modern and fun text app.

Digital Trends - Last year saw an increase in identity theft incidents when compared to 2010. According to a fraud report from Javelin Strategy & Research, there has been an increase of 13 percent in ID Theft for 2011, and some of the blame can be pinned on the rise of social media and smartphone use.

Digital Trends - Amazon has removed 5,000 e-book titles from its Kindle store after it failed to reach an agreement with distributor Independent Publishers Group (IPG) over the terms of a new contract. IPG was founded in Chicago 41 years ago and entered the e-book business in 2001. It’s the second largest independent book distributor in the US.

Appolicious - Today’s most innovative comedians are not necessarily telling jokes in front of a live audience, on TV, or in the movies. A new golden age of comedy is playing out online and via mobile applications for smartphones and tablet computers. There are apps that showcase the funniest satirists on Twitter, broadcast interviews with newcomers and comedy legends, and make classic publications like The Onion and Cracked come alive.

Reuters - Everything Everywhere, Britain's biggest mobile carrier, expects to start building a next-generation LTE network by the end of the year, catching up with the United States and parts of Scandinavia and Asia that already have more advanced networks.

ContributorNetwork - Ubuntu is an African word that roughly translates to "humanity to others." It's also "the third most popular desktop operating system in the world," behind Windows and OS X, according to its developer outreach page. And it might be coming to an Android smartphone near you, turning it into a home desktop PC as well as a media center.

Digital Trends - Last month we learned that Apple was planning to open a store inside one of the world’s most famous department, Harrods in London.

Reuters - Chip-design software maker Synopsys Inc posted a quarterly profit that beat analysts' estimates, helped by strong demand for its new products, and raised its full-year outlook.

Reuters - International Business Machines is gearing up to take a chunk of the growing Internet security market by applying its data analytics to help companies and organizations fight cyberattacks.