Amazon has locked horns with the State of California over a referendum that would require the online retailer to collect state sales tax. California has been exploring ways to collect sales tax from online retailers as the state struggles to balance its budget. Unpaid taxes have been estimated at a growing $1.2 billion this year by the state’s Board of Equalization. READ MORE
Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for Northern California has ruled that Amazon will not have to immediately cease use of the name “Appstore.” Apple had filed suit claiming that the company holds trademark rights to the term. Hamilton, in her ruling, said that while Apple has invested significant amounts of money in advertising and publicity for the Apple App Store, the term is not exclusive to them. READ MORE
The space in which a community defines itself is rapidly changing, now going far beyond the neighborhoods of a city. The Connected States of America, an infographic released by MIT’s Senseable City Labs with sponsorship from AT&T and IBM, proves just how the use of the cell phone has redefined community space. READ MORE
For this year’s second annual Small Business Saturday, held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to encourage shoppers to support small businesses, American Express Open is teaming up with Facebook to give five small companies a Facebook facelift and $20,000 to grow their businesses. READ MORE
Noting that Wi-Fi technologies are not “designed or intended to be public,” a California judge has ruled that Google’s packet sniffing could have been wiretapping. It was just a year ago that it was discovered that Google’s Street View cars had been capturing data from people’s networks. This set off a round of panic and outrage—and the lawsuits ensued. READ MORE
On Wednesday, California governor Jerry Brown signed a law that requires online retailers to collect sales tax from CA residents even if the companies have no brick-and-mortar presence in the state. It’s another example of the so-called “Amazon Tax,” which circumvents the brick-and-mortar statute of federal law by declaring CA-based affiliates–say, a personal blog linking out to Amazon or Drugstore.com products for a small slice of any sale action–as a physical presence. READ MORE
What if you could simply walk into any movie theater, flash your smart phone, and enjoy any movie of your choosing? MoviePass, a Northern California-based company, aims to revolutionize the theater-going experience the same way Netflix changed the DVD rental game: Unlimited movies in any theater for a flat rate of $50 a month. READ MORE
Earlier this month at the “D” conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Flip video camera inventor Jonathan Kaplan surprised everyone by taking the stage to announce his latest start-up: a grilled cheese sandwich. Even harder to believe was that Kaplan had already attracted leading venture firm Sequoia Capital, which in the past has backed Google, Apple, and Oracle, and had raised upwards of $10 million in funding. READ MORE
If there’s one company that embodies the environmentalist spirit, it’s Google. GigaOM reports Google established a $280 million fund in SolarCity, a solar power company based in San Mateo, California, to develop rooftop solar panel projects. This is Google’s first investment in residential and distributed solar power, and also its largest venture in clean power to date. READ MORE
Apple CEO Steve Jobs surprised everyone by making a cameo appearance at a Cupertino City Council meeting Tuesday night. He wasn’t there to talk iOS 5 or the iCloud; The New York Times reports Jobs attended to propose construction of a new Apple campus, marked by a ring-shaped building made entirely of huge panels of curved glass that even Jobs admits looks “a little like a spaceship landed.” READ MORE
