Quite the to-do was created this week when telematics provider OnStar sent out new privacy terms that states the company will continue to collect information about your driving habits even if you no longer subscribe to the company’s service. What the what!?! That is sort of like your local phone company still keeping track of your calls even though you switched to a VoIP provider.

So, AT&T Mobility is finally set to commercially launch LTE services across five markets this weekend, throwing its hat into the oncoming LTE battle that is currently dominated domestically Verizon Wireless. (Sorry MetroPCS.)
(I only half kid with the use of the term “finally” as I still vividly remember AT&T executive Kris Rinne speaking at a 4G World event a couple of years ago basically saying the carrier was in no hurry to roll out LTE services as its plans for HSPA+ would take care of its mobile broadband needs. This plan was quickly pushed aside following Verizon Wireless’ rapid LTE rollout plans and AT&T Mobility has managed to throw up a LTE network in a relatively short period of time.)

Not sure if I am like the rest of you, but short work weeks are somehow the most awesome and most frustrating things ever invented by the Dalai Lama. As such I both love and hate these four-day work weeks with a passion I usually reserve only for breakfast.

VoIP firm Skype has reportedly paid $85 million for smartphone group text messaging service GroupMe, to put itself on competitive footing with rival messaging services from RIM, Apple and others.

In a letter to accompany their earnings, which were announced this afternoon – the first since the unpopular announcement of a price rise, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings remained bullish on the firm’s growth and value proposition.

Nokia has been having a hard time of it recently. The firm’s floundering smartphone products have been almost completely eclipsed by efforts from Apple and Google, and now the once-king of the handset finds itself shedding marketshare at an alarming rate.

The World Bank has been in the news rather a lot recently, and not always for the most salubrious of reasons, but the global financial institution seems to want to clean up its image and make itself more transparent to citizens everywhere. How better to do this than with a mobile app? Or, in the World Bank’s case of overkill, six iPhone/iPad apps, with a promise of “more great mobile applications” to come.

Yesterday Apple held their quarterly earnings call to announce their revenues for the last three months and, somewhat unsurprisingly, they managed another quarter or massive growth, huge profits and all-round good times.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. One-time king of the social networks, MySpace, has finally been sold by owner News Corp for a rather paltry (rumoured) $30 million to advertising firm Specific Media. The amount is less than a third of the $100 million News Corp were hoping to recoup with the sale of the iconic social network, which paved the way for current social supremo Facebook.

RIM’s continued slowdown was laid bare in the company’s quarterly earnings call yesterday, where the Canadian smartphone maker dished out their latest figures, which included lower-than-expected revenue, and bad news for those looking for a 4G Playbook.