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In 1991, Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs was considered for a sensitive position in the Bush Administration, according to a recently released FBI dossier. The 191-page file reveals a background investigation conducted on Jobs when he was being considered for the President’s Export Council. When the Bureau spoke with individuals who knew Jobs, it received a large number of negative feedback with many saying that “Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals.” The FBI was also concerned about Jobs’s prior drug usage and estranged relationship with his daughter, Lisa, who was born out of wedlock. There were a large number of people who praised his upstanding moral character, however, and recommended him for the appointment. The material also contains previously unknown details about Jobs, such as a 1985 threat made against his life.

The recent federal takedown of notorious file-sharing service Megaupload was initially seen as a huge victory for owners of copyrighted music and movies, but new research shows this may not be the case. Federal prosecutors successfully shuttered the service last month and arrested seven men associated with Megaupload including site founder Kim Dotcom, who is said to have earned $42 million from the site in 2010 alone. What was initially thought to be a victory for movie studios and record labels is turning out to be an empty win, however, as Megaupload’s closure has had almost no impact on file-sharing. Read on for more.

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple on Thursday that reveals a 3D eye-tracking-based interface that could be used for gaming, digital photography and videography in future iOS and iMac devices, reports PatentlyApple. The new features could work in conjunction with Apple’s current 3D head tracking and ambient light technologies. The solution would utilize a variety of sensors such as an accelerometer and compass in combination with eye-tracking technology to alter the perspective of 3D graphics displayed on an iPhone. The result would be a 3D experience that constantly adjusts to the user’s position and a device’s position, creating a unique experience far more advanced and precise than current solutions. The patent application was originally filed in the third quarter of 2010 and it is unclear if Apple is currently experimenting with the technology.

HTC announced on Thursday that an Ice Cream Sandwich update will be available for select devices by the end of March. The announcement came through the company’s Facebook page and states that the first devices to receive the update will be the Sensation, Sensation 4G and Sensation XE, followed shortly after by the Sensation XL. The Rezound, Vivid, Amaze 4G, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G, Incredible S, Desire S and Desire HD will all be updated “later this year,” as previously reported. HTC is expected to launch multiple new Android 4.0-powered smartphones later this month at Mobile World Congress, including the HTC Ville and HTC Edge.

When new CEO Thorsten Henis took the reins at Research In Motion, he immediately pointed to the smartphone vendor’s marketing strategy as an area the company needed to focus on if it hoped to regain share in key markets like the United States. The wheels on RIM’s recent marketing efforts had already been set in motion, however, and early reports suggest that the increased volume of familiar BlackBerry ads aren’t having the impact RIM was hoping for. Read on for more.

With great power comes great responsibility — and a flurry of advertising campaigns that target your wares. Samsung tried to make its name a verb in a recent round of anti-Apple ads where senseless iPhone owners got “Samsunged,” and the South Korea-based vendor’s campaign culminated with a $10 million extravaganza that aired during the Super Bowl. Amazon is next up to the plate, and the company’s recent commercial takes aim at Apple’s iPad. A woman sunbathing and reading a book on her Kindle is approached by a passing iPad owner who is intrigued by the fact that she can read in the sunlight. When the man mentions the Kindle’s inability to play movies, she points to a cabana where her two children are sitting, each with a Kindle Fire tablet. As a final jab, the woman points out that her three Kindles — one $79 eReader and two $199 tablets — are still cheaper than a single iPad. Amazon’s full commercial can be viewed below.

Apple and Samsung are in the midst of a patent-fueled war with no end in site, but the pair has also inadvertently joined forces to make it increasingly difficult for other vendors to continue making smartphones. New estimates suggest Apple and Samsung combined to take in a staggering 95% of smartphone industry profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. The figures paint an even bleaker picture for the rest of the players in the smartphone business than earlier estimates; UBS analyst Maynard Um said last week that Apple and Samsung’s combined take amounted to 90% of smartphone industry profits. Read on for more.

A German court affirmed a preliminary ruling on Thursday that determined Samsung’s reworked tablet does not look so much like the iPad that it should be banned. The ruling comes as another blow to Apple, which is in the midst of several other lawsuits with rival smartphone and tablet makers over intellectual property. The court said that there were “clear differences” between the Galaxy Tab 10.1N and the iPad, reports Reuters. Apple and Samsung have been tangled in what seems like an endless patent battle in Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, Japan and Korea. Thus far, courts in several countries including the Netherlands, the United States and Australia have decided to allow Samsung to continue selling its Galaxy smartphones and tablets despite Apple’s continued efforts.

All Things D is reporting that Apple is going to hold its annual iPad introduction event during the first week of March. Going one step further, the blog reiterates what the rumor mill (and BGR) has been reporting — faster processor, Retina Display, same basic size and shape, with possibly a dash and sprinkle of 4G LTE. The iPad 3 is expected to be available by the second or third week in March, and iOS 5.1 may be released even sooner.

More details surrounding the design of Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 have been revealed as images of a variety of internal components have been published online along with new images of the tablet’s rear shell and possibly Apple’s new Retina Display as well. Following reports on Wednesday that emerged surrounding a purported image of the iPad 3′s rear case, Cult of Mac has published higher-quality images of the same component along with a number of additional internal parts. While the various components pictured in the new leak show significant differences in many instances compared to their counterparts in the iPad 2, the external design of the upcoming iPad 3 looks like it will only offer a few minor differences compared to the current model, in line with earlier reports. Read on for more.

Google’s bid to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion is set to gain regulatory approval as soon as next week, multiple reports claim. Google announced last summer that it intended to purchase the struggling smartphone and set-top box maker for $40 per share, and CEO Larry Page explained that Motorola’s patent portfolio was a key draw for the company. Google’s Android partners had fallen under attack from patent predators such as Apple and Microsoft, and the ability to spread Motorola’s patents around as needed could be the only way to save Android. As recent events in Germany have shown, Motorola’s patents could indeed be Android’s best bet. While some regulators apparently remain unconvinced that Google intends to license Motorola’s patents on fair terms, The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal is still on track to gain approval from the Justice Department as early as next week.

E Ink, the popular company that provides paper-look gray-scale displays for eReaders, reported consolidated revenues of $48.02 million in January, down 63.6% from the same month last year and 11% sequentially. The growing popularity of media tablets with full-color displays likely played a big role in the decline — sales of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet are thought to be eating into the companies’ respective dedicated eReader businesses to an extent. Even though E Ink’s revenue took a nose dive in January, the company said that it expects to post revenues of $1.35 billion this year, up 5% from 2011.

When the HP TouchPad was released in the summer of 2011 it did little to impress consumers, leading to the tablet being discontinued after a mere 49 days on the market. Remaining TouchPad stock received substantial price reductions, dropping to as low as $99 dollars during a huge fire sale. Shortly after inventory ran dry, crafty hackers had announced their intention to run the Android operating system in replace of WebOS on the TouchPad, and progress thus far has been slow, with alpha versions being released that are fairly stable but have serious bugs. In an act of good will, HP has now released an Android kernel source code to the hacking community. Read on for more.

Mobile Web usage is on the rise, with users who access the Web through mobile devices having nearly doubled every year since 2009 according to analytics firm StatCounter. Web usage on mobile devices grew to 8.5% in January of 2012, up from 4.3% in the same month a year earlier. “While global Internet usage through mobiles is still under 10%, the pace of growth is remarkable,” said StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen. Apple leads the way in both the United States and United Kingdom, however Nokia is still the global leader — driven by its dominance in India — with nearly 40% of mobile Web browsing. In North America, Apple has a massive share of 59.11%, with Samsung and RIM coming in at 11.43% and 10.06%, respectively. Apple comes in second globally with roughly 30%, followed by Samsung with a 14% share. Android manufactures combined to account for less than 25% of mobile Web usage, with Research in Motion falling to roughly 8%. The Blackberry maker ranks second behind Apple in the U.K., however. Read on for StatCounter’s press release.