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Facebook on Tuesday raised its initial public offering price target range to between $34 and $38 per share in response to strong demand, an increase from $28 to $35, according to a new filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The new price range pushes the social networking company’s valuation to between $93 billion and $104 billion. Facebook will offer a total of 388 million shares, and is looking to raise $14.7 billion. Facebook will make its initial public offering on May 18th and its shares will be listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the “FB” ticker symbol.

Samsung recently updated its website to include a list of T-Mobile devices that will receive Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades. “Samsung is in close communication with both Google and our carrier partners to upgrade devices to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as quickly and as smoothly as possible,” the company wrote on its website. The manufacturer will be issuing over-the-air updates to the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 10.1. Unfortunately, neither T-Mobile nor Samsung have announced a release schedule for the upcoming updates.

General Motors, the world’s largest automaker and third biggest advertiser in the U.S., plans to stop advertising on Facebook, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. After meeting with Facebook managers to address concerns, the company’s marketing executives were left unconvinced of the effectiveness of the site’s advertising methods, claiming its paid ads had little impact on consumers. GM will thus pull its $10 million ad spend, although the automaker will continue to use the social networking site to display free content on its own Facebook page. GM is only skeptical about Facebook, and not about digital advertising as a whole; the company spends almost $300 million each year on digital brand advertising. The news comes at a bad time for Mark Zuckerberg and company, who are on the verge of their initial public offering.

Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a note to investors on Tuesday that Apple has reduced iPhone orders by between 20% to 25% from the 35.1 million units the company shipped in the March quarter. Wu now expects shipments of between 26 million and 28 million iPhones, lower than the Street’s consensus of between 30 million and 31 million units. The analyst also noted that Apple has an estimated 8.6 million iPhones in channel inventory, 2.6 million of which were added in the most recent quarter, allowing the Cupertino-based company to achieve supply-demand balance of between four to six weeks.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the United States have spent money on mobile applications on at least one occasion according to a survey conducted by ABI Research. More than 70% of users spend little to nothing on apps, however, while the highest 3% of all spenders account for nearly 20% of the total amount spent. “The median amount among the consumers who spend money on apps is much lower than the average, just $7.50 per month,” senior analyst Aapo Markkanen said. “This reflects the disproportionate role of big spenders as a revenue source.” ABI Research also found that the most successful money-making apps have typically been utility apps often used for business purposes, or iOS games that utilize in-app purchases, though in both cases the money comes from a remarkably small number of customers. Read on for ABI Research’s press release.

Half of all Americans think Facebook is a passing fad and the social networking site’s expected asking price of $34 to $38 is too high, according to a joint poll conducted by The Associated Press and CNBC. A third of those surveyed think the company’s expected value is appropriate, while 50% believe it is too high. Of those who invest in the stock market, 58% claimed Facebook was overvalued while nearly 3 out of 10 investors claim the expected share pricing is fair. Despite these claims, half of all the people surveyed believe Facebook is a good investment, compared to 31% who disagree and roughly 19% aren’t sure.

A Russian startup that received $100,000 of funding from Microsoft made headlines recently as its emerging efforts to battle digital piracy found their way to the spotlight. Dubbed Pirate Pay, the company’s technology launches attacks on groups of computers hosting pirated content, theoretically making it impossible for them to share copyrighted material. While the company claims to have already successfully trialed its technology when it blocked nearly 45,000 attempts to download pirated copies of a Russian film, one expert believes Pirate Pay’s system may be illegal.

T-Mobile in March said that the company was looking to restructure and in doing so, it cut 5% of its workforce while closing seven call centers. Now, in a memo sent to employees on Tuesday, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm said the carrier will begin a “new structure” plan that will involve some difficult decisions. “Changes will include some position eliminations and changes to individual roles and responsibilities,” the executive wrote. While no specific details were provided in the note, the letter clearly suggests layoffs are coming to the troubled wireless company in the coming weeks. Humm’s memo follows below in its entirety.

Despite a slew of rumors and speculation that Apple plans to enter the TV business, analysts are beginning to back away from the idea of an “iTV,” Fortune reported. Richard Gardner, formerly of Citigroup, warned in December that “Apple has not even defined specs yet.” Barclays’ Ben Reitzes in February suggested that Apple was focused more on lining up content partnerships than on the production of a full-fledged television set. And now, Analyst Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest called the idea “a terrible use of retail space.” 

Google’s emerging social network Google+ may boast big user numbers, but a new study suggests that social activity and user engagement are anything but impressive. Intended to give Google a stronger grip on the massive amount of data shared by users on social networks, Google’s answer to Facebook opened its doors to the public last September. After using some user acquisition methods that seemed a bit desperate, Google revealed in December that Google+ was then home to 62 million users. Google+ boasted an impressive 100 million users as of early April, but according to eCommerce analytics firm RJ Metrics, the social network is not the waterfall of data Google hoped it would be.

Apple’s much rumored “iPad mini” will reportedly utilize new touch panel technology that allows the device to be thinner than previous models while also managing to cut Apple’s costs, likely a necessity if the company aims to hit the rumored $200-$250 price point. Citing anonymous industry sources, Digitimes on Tuesday reported that the Cupertino, California-based technology giant has contracted Nitto Denko to supply touch panels that utilize “G/F2″ thin-film technology. Nissha Printing and TPK Holding will reportedly build the touchscreens, which measure 7.85 inches diagonally. Digitimes adds that Apple is expected by its sources to ship between 7 million and 10 million iPad mini tablets in 2012. Earlier reports suggest that Apple’s new smaller iPad tablet will launch in October.

Dish Network made no friends among the major television broadcasters last week, but it will likely pique the interest of tens of thousands of consumers in the coming weeks as news of its latest feature proliferates. Dubbed “Auto Hop,” Dish began rolling out a new commercial-skipping feature to owners of its multi-room digital video recorder, the Hopper. Currently compatible with recorded shows originally broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX, Auto Hop skips commercials automatically when enabled, with no action required by the viewer. Groups of ads are replaced by a single black frame for separation, and then the Hopper will skip directly to the next segment of the program.

Apple’s next-generation iMac will reportedly feature a new high-resolution Retina display according to a recent report. Earlier this week, reports emerged claiming that Apple is readying a next-generation MacBook Pro with a redesigned ultra-thin case and a 15-inch Retina display. Production of the new MacBook Pro laptops has already begun according to earlier rumors. At the same time, Apple may take the wraps off an updated iMac model that also includes a high-resolution Retina display. ABC News reports that multiple sources have tipped the site off to the imminent launch of a Retina display-equipped iMac alongside a new MacBook Pro with a similar display, though no launch timing was discussed. Many expect Apple to unveil its next-generation iMac and MacBook Pro computers during its keynote at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference on June 11th.

The statewide ban on texting while driving wasn’t enough for one New Jersey town, according to The Huffington Post. After 74 crashes involving pedestrians in 2011, three of which were fatal, Fort Lee, New Jersey passed a new law earlier this year that fines walkers $85 who do not stop prior to texting. “It’s a big distraction,” Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli said. “Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not aware.” Since the law has been in place, Fort Lee police have issued more than 117 tickets. New York State Senator Carl Kruger has attempted to bring a similar ban to New York, which would also prohibit talking on the phone or using iPods while walking or running, however Kruger has been unsuccessful thus far.

UPDATE: According to MSNBC, there is no ban on texting while walking in Fort Lee, although there is a $54 jaywalking ticket, of which more than 117 tickets have been issued.