The FTC has approved Microsoft's $8.5 billion bid for VoIP giant Skype, just weeks after its proposal.

Microsoft plans to integrate the popular service into its Windows Phone 7, Windows 8, Microsoft Office and Xbox Live platforms.

The deal is Microsoft's largest ever and is one of the biggest deals the industry has seen in the last decade.

Skype has almost 200 million users that use the service to make phone and video calls around the world. Skype is free for Skype-to-Skype communications and costs minimal fees to call land lines and mobile devices.

Google is said to have bid $4 billion for the service, so Microsoft completely overpaid (by most accounts) but if executed correctly, the move could pay off in the long run.

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Consumer Reports has reported today that the new Nook Simple Touch Reader is their highest-rated e-ink e-reader, ever, ahead of Amazon's market leading Kindle.

Barnes & Noble launched its first Nook in 2009, to strong reviews, but never better reviews than the comparable Kindle.

The latest Nook, just like its predecessor and the Kindles, uses E-Ink Pearl Tech and offers weeks of standby battery life on one charge. Differentiating the device is its touchscreen E-Ink, allowing for quick page flipping with no buttons.

CR says the Simple Touch "matches or bests—albeit modestly—its Amazon competitor in almost every aspect of performance. Among the attributes on which we score the devices equally is battery life; despite a power struggle between B&N and Amazon over which device runs for longer, we give both equal credit for a claimed battery life of five days or more."

The latest generation Kindle and the Nook Simple both cost $140 for Wi-Fi-only models.

CR concludes:

Updates to firmware might eventually allow Kindle to reclaim its top rank in our Ratings. Among the pluses that allowed the Simple Touch to edge ahead of the Kindle was its support for e-book loans from public libraries, but Amazon has announced that it will bring library loans to the Kindle later this year; assuming it's implemented well, that functionality might boost Amazon's e-book reader by the few points that now separate it from the Simple Touch.

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Netflix has reported today that Sony has temporarily pulled its movies from the company's streaming library, due to a dispute with Starz.

Says the company:

You may have noticed that Sony movies through StarzPlay are not currently available to watch instantly. This is the result of a temporary contract issue between Sony and Starz and, while these two valued partners work through their differences, we hope you are enjoying the wide variety of new movies and TV shows added daily.

Some of the popular new releases like "Easy A" are no longer available, but Netflix is confident the films will be back when the dispute is resolved.

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As of today, Redbox has gone nationwide with video games for their rental kiosks, following a year-long testing period.

Games for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii will be available for $2 per night.

Redbox has over 21,000 locations around the U.S.

New releases, like L.A. Noire, Brink and Duke Nukem Forever are available, as of launch.

"Historically, video game products have not been available at grocery stores, drugstores or convenience stores," added Joel Resnik, vice president of games at Redbox. "We make it very convenient by having our kiosks in front of the places people are at every day."

Gamers can reserve games online via Redbox's website.

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Over a year after the launch of the iPad the device still notably lacks a native Facebook app.

Sources are reporting today, however, that the social networking giant may be prepared to launch the app in the "coming weeks."

The same sources say Facebook has been developing the app for a year now and will perfectly compliment the iPad's larger touch screen interface and UI.

It appears the app will have tablet-optimized versions of Facebook Chat and Groups, and direct integration of the tablet's cameras. The video and camera apps are allegedly "amazing, offering full resolution and full-screen images."

Facebook and Apple would not comment.

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25-year-old Dhanji Damor of Gujarat, India has died this week, after his Chinese knockoff phone electrocuted him while making a call.

The phone was plugged into the wall while Damor tried to make a call.

His friends rushed him to the hospital, where he was declared dead from electric shock.

In 2010, a similar incident claimed the life of an Indian woman using a Chinese-made knockoff phone.

"Shanzhai" (Chinese imitation) mobile devices have become very popular in India due to their cheap prices, but the Indian government has tried to crack down as the devices usually lack IMEI numbers and have untested batteries that are considered hazardous.

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It took six months, but it appears that Spotify has closed its last funding round.

Raising $100 million from DST, Accel and Kleiner Perkins, the company is now valued at around $1 billion.

After 15 months of delays, it also appears that the service is ready to launch in the U.S. in July, with an exec alluding to the date but not giving an official confirmation.

Spotify has been negotiating with the Big 4 labels for over a year now and has finally stuck deals with Universal Music Group, months after striking deals with smaller labels EMI and Sony.

Warner Music Group remains the last holdout, but sources claim that a deal is imminent within a week.

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Nokia Europe VP Victor Saeijs has confirmed today that the company's first Windows Phone 7 devices will launch in at least 6 European nations, first.

Speaking at the 2011 Mobile Telecompaper conference, Saeijs noted that the Netherlands, France, Germany, UK, Spain and Italy would be the first.

The exec also says the Netherlands will be very important to the launch, as Nokia has a significant market share there for smartphones.

Saeijs would not give a timeframe but did confirm that the first devices would launch this year, and that himself and other execs were already carrying early prototypes.

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RIM, the makers of the once-popular BlackBerry smartphones, has seen its stock fall to its lowest point in 5 years following another quarter of horrible earnings.

The stock is now down 62 percent from its high this year, and is trading down 23 percent today to $27.50 per share.

Two months ago, the company downgraded its own revenue forecast for the quarter, yet somehow still managed to miss its own downgraded forecast, by a significant amount.

Additionally, the company drastically reduced its earnings and revenue forecast for the entire fiscal 2012.

Adding to the misery, the phone maker noted that its new phones would not hit stores until after the start of the "back-to-school" period.

While analysts remain excited for the launch of BlackBerrys with the new QNX operating system, some have called it "vaporware," due to RIM's lack of a roadmap. The company only says the devices will hit "sometime in 2012."

PlayBook sales were a slight bright spot, but they did not even put a dent in iPad or Android tablet market share.

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