A judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission had made a ruling yesterday that HTC is guilty of violating Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) patents. The ITC banned HTC from importing several models of their smartphones as a result. The ban is supposed to take effect on April 19th. The patents are related to two patents related to “data tapping.” Apple had accused HTC of violating about 10 patents total. Fortunately for HTC, they will be able to get around the patent by making a few shifts in the user interface. In other words, it’s a quick fix and they can get back to business as usual.

Lady Gaga’s Twitter account was hacked temporarily and she promised her 17 million Twitter followers with an iPad 2. “Monsters, I’m giving away FREE iPad2′s to each one of you in the spirit of the holidays Go to [bitly link] to receive one!” said the person that hacked her Twitter account. The bit.ly link was connected to a referral ID linked to WebGiftRewardsToday.com. Close to about 7,000 people clicked on that link. Twitter deleted the hacked links and Lady Gaga was able to get control of her Twitter account again. [TechCrunch]

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is ending their bid for T-Mobile USA. AT&T had announced in March 2011 that they have offered $39 billion to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom. However AT&T had a hard time getting through all of the legal hoops associated with the acquisition. This is what AT&T had to say about the government regulation:

Shoppers are planning to spend on an average of $704.18 on gifts and seasonal items this year. Online shoppers will be spending about 22% more than shoppers in physical stores. Outright.com has created this awesome infographic about the commerce of Christmas.

Brought To By Outright.com

The BBC has created a documentary for former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs. The entire video is currently on YouTube, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is taken down soon enough so I would watch it right away. The documentary features interviews with Steve Wozniak, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and Stephen Fry.

As much as I like Apple products, they also seem to be the preferred products to steal. Remember when the iPad first came out and a man lost his finger when someone tried to snatch his bag? Well apparently there is a mugger walking around Columbia University that is a hardcore Apple fanboy too.

As Bill Cosby has taught us, kids just say some of the most crazy things. Matt Dam proved the same thing when he dressed up like Santa to explain the clean water crisis to children. The best part of the video is when the kid says that he knows who Ben Affleck is, but not Matt Damon. [Water.org]

On Friday, Jason Trawick proposed to pop singer Britney Spears. One day after the engagement, Britney Spears made her engagement “Facebook official.” The night she got engaged, she also sent out a tweet saying “OMG. Last night Jason surprised me with the one gift I’ve been waiting for. Can’t wait to show you! SO SO SO excited!!!! Xxo.” It is interesting to see how social media plays a big part in the lives of celebrities during momentous occasions too. [People]