Apple has revealed that Samsung is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The company announced the investigation in a filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday, saying that the “Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the manner in which Samsung has used — or misused — its declared-essential patents.” …

Amazon is making its first Kindle push into Japan. Starting November 19, Japanese consumers will be able to buy Amazon’s new Paperwhite e-reader. The device, which has a built-in light to allow for reading at all times throughout the day, comes with up to eight weeks of battery life and allows users Internet access over Wi-Fi and 3G. In the …

Score another one for Apple. Or two. Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported over the weekend that Apple won a pair of cases against Samsung over the last several weeks. The first, which came down in mid-September, found that Apple did not infringe a Samsung patent related to application downloads. The second ruling occurred earlier this month, and found that Apple …

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son is ready and willing to entertain other buyout possibilities in the U.S., he has reportedly confirmed. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published yesterday, Son said that he isn’t yet willing to rule out other acquisition deals, though he didn’t specifically cite any company that might be in his crosshairs. Sprint CEO Dan …

The latest Samsung Chromebook does, in fact, come with a 3G version. And it’s more expensive than the Wi-Fi-only model. Samsung today posted the Chromebook 3G on its Web site for $329.99. For that price, customers get all of the features available in the Wi-Fi-only model, including an 11.6-inch screen, 2GB of memory, and 16GB of storage, but will have …

The drama between Sprint and Clearwire might finally be coming to an end. The carrier announced today in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has entered into a deal with Eagle River Holdings that will see it receive additional voting power. Up to now, Sprint held 48.1 percent voting power, giving it substantial control but not enough for …

The smartphone industry has reached an important milestone. During the third quarter, the total installed base for smartphones worldwide hit 1.04 billion, jumping from the 959 million smartphones in use during the second quarter, research firm Strategy Analytics announced today. Just a year ago, the total worldwide smartphone installed base was 708 million. It took 16 years for smartphones to …

Google might soon launch a cheaper Nexus tablet. The company is currently working with Taiwan-based Quanta Computer to produce a $99 Nexus tablet boasting a single-core processor that will launch by the end of this year, DigiTimes is reporting today, citing sources. According to the tech-news blog’s sources, the tablet isn’t being developed in partnership with Asus, the company that …

Now you see it, now you don’t. Just over a month after car-hailing service Uber launched support for taxi service in New York City, the company is pulling out, CEO Travis Kalanick confirmed to CNET in an e-mailed statement today. All mention of taxi service in New York City has also been removed from the company’s Web site. “We did …

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is growing concerned with the patent lawsuits simmering across the mobile industry. Speaking to U.K. news outlet Metro in an interview published today, Bezos said that he’s worried that the patent lawsuits “might start to stifle innovation.” He also that suggested governments around the world consider intervening in the suits to protect consumers. “Governments may need …