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This Day in Tech: Apple has best-ever quarter; Anonymous suspects arrested

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET (and elsewhere) for Tuesday, July 19.

Boonsri Dickinson
Boonsri Dickinson is a multimedia journalist who covers science, technology, and start-ups. She is a contributing editor at CBS SmartPlanet, and her work has appeared in Wired, New Scientist, Technology Review, and Discover magazine. E-mail Boonsri.
Boonsri Dickinson
2 min read

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET (and elsewhere) for Tuesday, July 19.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will support key Android partner HTC in its patent fight with Apple. Speaking at a Google mobile conference in Tokyo today, Schmidt didn't specify exactly how Google plans on supporting HTC but said "we will make sure they don't lose."

• Apple, for its part, isn't losing any steam on the earnings front. The company this afternoon reported a profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per share, for the second quarter, more than double its profit last year, as it prepares to digitally debut the next version of Mac OS X, code-named Lion, tomorrow. "We're thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.

• We all might be paying with our mobile phones soon, now that a payment system between major carriers and credit card providers is under way. ISIS, the joint venture between AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile, has formed a new partnership with major credit card companies, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Also in the mix are Google Wallet, expected to debut later this summer, and PayPal technology that would let customers swipe their Nexus S phone to transfer money.

Google+ has a plan to get celebrities to join their circle of friends. Sure, the more outspoken of social media-friendly celebrities, including Alyssa Milano and 50 Cent, are already on Google+. However, Google will likely have to work out the impersonator issues before celebrities who are less addicted to social media consider joining the online network.

• Given all our coverage of Google+, this was inevitable. We just had to have another rendezvous with the new social network. CNET's Josh Lowensohn gives his hands-on observations of Google's new native app for the iPhone.

• The FBI has arrested 14 suspected members in connection with the Anonymous hacking investigation. The hacking collective has been targeting computer attacks on government and corporate Web sites, including those of Egypt and Sony, respectively.

Prominent Web activist Aaron Swartz was arrested in connection with data theft. Swartz is accused of breaking into a computer wiring closet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hacking into the MIT network, and accessing Jstor's library, from which he downloaded "more than 4 million articles, book reviews, and other content from [Jstor] publisher partners' academic journals and other publications."

• All good things must come to an end--a phrase that rings true, even in zero gravity. Atlantis has left the space station, marking the end of NASA's 135th and final shuttle flight.