YouTube close to launching paid subscription channels, reports say. 

Amazon launches first Android app-store in China, ahead of Google. 

Pfizer lets bashful buyers get Viagra online.

Al Jazeera America plans to open Detroit bureau.

Asustek plans to make small Windows 8 tablets.

Audi considers doubling production at Mexico factory under construction.

Berkshire Hathaway provides peek at era after Buffett.

BuzzFeed takes steps to expand foreign news.Continue reading...

"Death to tyranny" reads one of the t-shirts offered from right wing radio host Glenn Beck's new denim and clothing brand, 1791. The tyranny shirt is sold, online only, alongside jeans and other message shirts with shallow, jingoistic messages of Americana including cherry trees and Native Americans. All products are, of course, made in America.

The 1791 brand, which launched as a charity clothing line 11 months ago, is the latest extension of a dwindling Beck empire. It is also the latest brand line from a right wing radio host looking to leverage popularity to fill his own pockets. The problem for Beck's particular endeavor is that the market is currently filled with a glut of Tea Party-focused products.Continue reading...

Amazon looms as nemesis of book publishers, as children's book publisher pulls its titles.

Apple denies designer Philippe Starck's claim of 'revolutionary' device.

Arby's makes social media blunder over Rush Limbaugh advertising.

Archie comics legal battle heats up.

Audi may select its North American plant site this week, with Mexico the favorite, Automotive News says.

CBS emphasizes hard news to regain an edge.

Citigroup reports better-than-expected revenue growth.Continue reading...

Not surprisingly, the American news media have begun to move on from the outcry over Rush Limbaugh and the crumbling of his radio empire in the wake of the radio host's Sandra Fluke comments.

Chalk it up to subsequent breaking news, such as the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, nudging the right-wing radio commentator off the front pages of newspapers and websites in the past month. Or is it that, almost a month after Limbaugh's March 5th apology to Fluke, things are turning out differently than many on the left had hoped and imagined?Continue reading...

For nearly 30 minutes on Monday, a full sixth of his show, Rush Limbaugh raved about the new iPad.

Limbaugh's plug of the new iPad is just his newest Apple infomercial. "El Rushbo" has in the past raved about other Apple products, including the iPod. In 2008 he declared that his "life has changed" thanks to Apple's iPhone.

So, we put it directly to Rush: Are you on Apple's payroll?Continue reading...

Recognizing the outsized role that use of social media by his critics has played in peeling advertisers away from his radio show, Rush Limbaugh has gone on the offensive. And not in the usual way, through his monologues. He finally decided to take Twitter seriously by launching and authoriing a @RushLimbaugh account.

"I'm activating my account and using it for strategic purposes," he declared on Thursday before letting loose a series of tweets that has included, for example, calling out a "good story" on the Daily Caller website about the contretemps and another one on the site LegalInsurrection.com about the role that the liberal media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, has played in inflaming marketers' passions against the Rush Limbaugh Program.

"Thare are a [few] things I want to get out there and not waste valuable broadcast time to do it," Limbaugh stated by way of partially explaining his newfound fondness for Twitter. "And you [listeners] can re-tweet it, so it ends up saturating the Twitterverse."Continue reading...

Apple plans to spend $45 billion of cash hoard on $10 billion stock buyback and share dividend yet may have to deal with rising brand dislike as it discusses today its plans for $100-billion cash horde.

Apple critic Mike Daisey changed his one-man show after admitting fabrications, while Foxconn declines to sue.

Boeing faces concerns about aging of 737.

Chevron executives can't leave Brazil.

Cumulus Media debuts radio program featuring Mike Huckabee to challenge Rush Limbaugh Program.

E! Network signs Clint Eastwood and family to reality TV series.

Facebook spends less on R&D than rivals.Continue reading...

AOL CEO defends strategy.

Ben & Jerry's renames flavor to support gay marriage.

Benihana explores possible sale.

DelMonte Foods brings back "Meow Mix" jingle.

Encyclopaedia Brittanica to stop printing encyclopedias.

Facebook sees startups resist its pull.

Las Vegas Sands faces suit by former Macau partner.

Paramount Pictures goes to the mattresses with Puzo family over ownership of The Godfather franchise.Continue reading...