Nook

Today in Tech: Facebook worth $85 billion, Apple sues Amazon

A curated selection of the day's newsworthy tech stories from all around the Web. Read on, and join the conversation with a comment below.

Microsoft is suing Barnes & Noble -- alongside Foxconn and Inventec -- over alleged patent infringement, including "features" in the Android operating systems on which its Nook eBook readers are based. Things like window tabs, status bars, and showing the content of a page while it's still loading, are MORE

The $200 name-brand Android tablet

For the WSJ's Brett Arends, the Android-powered Nook Color with its sub-$200 price tag is the perfect tablet.

Who says you can't get a quality tablet for under $500?

It is certainly no iPad 2 or XOOM, but for a certain segment of the population, the Nook Color might be all the tablet they need.  Apple's (AAPL) iPad clocks in at $499 (old models can be had for $100 less) and the MORE

Today in Tech: Google, Groupon, and Motorola

Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

"Google doesn't understand the commercial business. ... They've been in the enterprise e-mail and collaboration space for four years and they have less than 1% of the enterprise e-mail market after four years." -- Tom Rizzo, MORE

Nook Color gets rooted, is now a full Android device

That means Angry Birds...

Developers at the XDA Forums have broken into Barnes and Noble's Nook Color, meaning that a high-quality name brand 7-inch color Android tablet that runs most Android apps is now at $250.

While the rooting is a significant event, it won't mean much to the average consumer who doesn't want to have to hack into his tablet to get it to run basic apps.

However, it does mean that MORE

If the iPad is the new iPod, is the new Nook an Atari Lynx?

Barnes & Noble decided it had to be first to market with a color e-reader, even if that meant not putting out a perfectly polished device. But in an iPad world, the dedicated e-reader race might not even matter.

When news leaked of the Nook Color, the new e-reader with a color screen from Barnes & Noble (BKS), the hype machine went into overdrive. Pundits frothed at that idea that this could MORE

Airport security loves MacBook Air

The 11-inch model can stay in your bag and sail through checkpoints (but not the 13-inch)

Here's another reason to like Apple's (AAPL) new entry-level 11.6-inch MacBook Air -- besides the 5-hour battery life (30-days standby), relatively cool operating temperature, nearly instant-on flash memory, 2.3-pound avoirdupois and $999 price tag:

You can take it through U.S. airport security checkpoints without removing it from your bag.

Based solely on its diminutive dimensions, the Transportation MORE

Today in Tech: News around the Web

Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

"Street View, we drive exactly once. So, you can just move, right?" -- Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when asked about Street View (Fortune Tech)

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison says he has proof that new HP CEO Leo Apotheker MORE

Barnes and Noble's Nook comes to Android

The Android-powered Nook now comes as an application on other Android devices.

Joining Kindle on Android, the Nook app looks to expand Barnes and Nobles' reach to millions more devices.  Strange because the Nook device is Android powered itself – except that you can't install apps on it.

I noticed when reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S phones from T-Mobile (Vibrant)  and AT&T (Captivate) that reading was so much easier on the Super MORE

Amazon scoops up Woot, drops price on Kindle DX

The vast empire of Amazon.com continues to expand, and its price war with competing e-readers heats up.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for Amazon.com.

Days after slashing the price of its Kindle eReader by $40, the company announced yesterday it would acquire discount retailer Woot.com for a reported $110 million. According to a statement, Amazon will "foster the long-term growth of Woot, allowing it to continue its passion for MORE

Jeff Bezos's mission: Compelling small publishers to think big

In the face of Kindle price cuts and wild iPad sales, Jeff Bezos is taking Amazon into new markets and onto every device he can. Will it be enough?

Jeff Bezos has been dismissed before. For most of the dot-com boom, he was assumed to be a one-shot wonder, inches away from having his bookstore, Amazon.com, (AMZN) extinguished by Wal-Mart (WMT). Now, with Apple's (AAPL) mad rush into books and MORE