Barbie dolls and stuffed animals are getting more high-tech neighbors at Toys R Us stores, with the retailer announcing that it has bolstered its electronics assortment ahead of the all-important holiday season.

The company said its stores now feature new and expanded product categories including prepaid mobile phones, tablet computers, headphones, iPod docks, digital cameras and accessories for the Apple ecosystem.

To make room for the products, Toys R Us has redesigned its electronics department and increased the space dedicated to consumer electronics by designing an open floor plan and adding interactive displays to all of its stores nationwide.

The toy seller also said that about 450 of its stores offer layaway on electronics, including the Apple iPod, tablet computers, netbooks, MP3 players, digital cameras and televisions.

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-- Andrea Chang

twitter.com/byandreachang

Photo: A Toys R Us store in New Jersey. Credit: Associated Press

Amazon Prime has added Kindle book lending to its list of perks, alongside streaming movies and TV shows and free two-day shipping from Amazon.com.

The service, which Amazon seems to be building up as a Netflix rival and even a "Netflix for books," runs at an annual subscription price of $79.

The Seattle-based tech firm and online retail powerhouse's Kindle Owners' Lending Library allows Amazon Prime members to borrow one book a month from a specific selection that Amazon said includes "over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers." Amazon said the Lending Library has more than 5,000 titles to choose from.

Of course, in order to read the borrowed Kindle books, an Amazon Prime subscriber has to own a Kindle e-reader or have a device with a Kindle app to read the books on -- such as a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

Seems straightforward enough, right? Barnes & Noble has offered a similar feature called LendMe that has no cost associated with it and allows Nook owners to lend Nook books to friends for up to 14 days.

But the Kindle Owners' Lending Library isn't without its own controversy.

As noted on our sister blog Jacket Copy, Amazon "had approached publishers about participating in the program for a flat fee -- and many turned them down. Much to their surprise, their books appeared as part of the program anyway."

What Amazon's bold move mean for e-books and Kindle lending remains to be seen, but head over to Jacket Copy to read more about the growing backlash.

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Image: A screenshot of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for Amazon Prime subscribers. Credit: Amazon.com

Google christened its new Los Angeles office on Thursday night with a party that featured top executives, L.A. glitterati and a speech by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The company let visitors wander the 100,000-square-foot complex, a set of buildings designed by architect Frank Gehry and recently refitted with oodles of Googlesque flourishes. That means cafes, snack and juice bars, game rooms, a top-flight gym and plenty of whimsicality.

Follow the link to see the full slide show.

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Photo: A hallway in Google's new L.A. office bears many of the famed Google doodle logos from the past and present. Credit: David Sarno / Los Angeles Times

The HTC Rezound will be the first phone with Beats Audio to hit the U.S. when it arrives in Verizon stores Nov. 14.

At $300 on a two-year contract, the Rezound will feature a 4.3-inch touchscreen, a 1.5-gigahertz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel rear camera capable of shooting 1080p video, a dual LED flash on the back, a 2-megapixel front camera and 32 gigabytes of storage (16 gigabytes built in and 16 gigabytes on an included micro SD card).

The Rezound will ship with Google's Android Gingerbread operating system, skinned in the HTC Sense user interface, but will be upgraded to the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich early next year.

The phone will run on Verizon's 4G LTE network and ship with Beats Audio in-ear headphones; black with red cables to match the phone, which will be black with red highlights. 

HTC is hoping that Beats Audio will be a differentiator for its smartphones as the competition for high-end handsets grows -- the Motorola Droid Razr and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus are both launching this month on Verizon too.

In order to get Beats Audio's name and technology into its product line, HTC purchased a $300-million stake in the company known mostly for selling high-priced headphones marketed by hip-hop legend Dr. Dre.

HTC has already released smartphones with Beats headphones and speakers, such as the Sensation XE, in markets outside the U.S.

Record mogul Jimmy Iovine, who is chairman of Beats Audio and started the company with Dr. Dre, has pitched Beats as more than just fancy headphones and speakers on HP laptops and in Chrysler sedans. Rather, Iovine preaches Beats as a solution to the music industry's sales decline as digital music files and cheap headphones have degraded the quality of music being sold.

"HTC fully recognizes the destruction to audio caused by the digital revolution," Iovine said in a statement. "They embrace our vision to repair this ecosystem and bring the feeling from the recording studio to the smartphone." 

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Image: The HTC Rezound with Beats Audio. Credit: HTC/Verizon

AT&T has delayed into the middle of next year the expected closing of its bid to take over T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

Federal regulators are scrutinizing the deal, which would sell the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier to the nation's second-largest wireless carrier. AT&T had originally planned to get regulatory approval and close the deal by about March.

On Friday, the Dallas-based company is said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it plans to have everything completed "in the first half of 2012."

The AT&T takeover of T-Mobile was challenged by the Justice Department in August when it sued to block the deal, arguing that it would lead to higher prices and less choice for consumers.

"We dispute the allegations and intend to vigorously contest the matter," AT&T said of the DOJ suit in its SEC filing. A trial date for the suit has been set for Feb. 13, 2012.

If AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile falls through, the company would be required to pay a "breakup fee" of $ billion and then enter into a broadband roaming agreement and transfer to Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile USA's parent company) "certain wireless spectrum."

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Photo: AT&T Inc. signage at a company store in Chicago. Credit: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg

The legal war between Apple Inc. and Samsung Corp. continues to escalate, and it looks like the newest front is the halls of the European Union. 

The European Commission, Europe's top competition enforcer, has contacted Apple and Samsung, according to a statement posted by patent maven Florian Mueller on his FOSS Patents blog.

"The Commission has indeed sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector," the statement says. "Such requests for information are standard procedure in antitrust investigations to allow the Commission to establish the relevant facts in a case. We have no other comments at this stage."

As Mueller points out, "standards-essential patents" -- protections on technology that's used to build common phone features -- make up the heart of Samsung's legal case against Apple, not the other way around.  If the Commission feels that Samsung its overstepping its bounds by suing over standard technology that many manufacturers rely on, it could hurt the company's counterattack against Apple, Mueller said.

"This investigation has the potential to force Samsung to withdraw most of its claims against Apple," Mueller wrote on his blog.  "But let's not forget that the underlying issue concerns the technology industry at large. Everyone -- not just Apple -- relies on ... [technology] standards."

As we detailed in a longer article today, Apple is suing Android makers in six countries over what it perceives as a wholesale theft of the technology that makes its iPhone distinctive. Samsung has sued back, claiming Apple is infringing on a variety of its telecommunications patents, including those found in standard technology.

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Photo: Apple's iPhone and iPad, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Credit: Liewcf / Flickr

Groupon's initial public offering is on at $20 per share, to give the Chicago daily deals site a valuation of $12.7 billion.

That's the highest tech valuation since Google went public in 2004 at a valuation of $23.1 billion, according to the San Jose Mercury News. So, can Groupon be the next tech industry giant that Google has grown to be?

Groupon seems to think so, issuing about 35 million shares on Friday that will sell for more than "the initially projected range of $16 to $18, as demand materialized despite lingering concerns about Groupon's accounting and business model," noted Times reporter Walter Hamilton in a story he wrote about the company's IPO.

The daily deals site will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol "GRPN." Groupon's chief executive, Andrew Mason, was in New York on Friday to ring Nasdaq's opening bell.

The Chicago Tribune's editorial board wrote that Groupon's IPO will help change Chicago's reputation "for a city with, at best, a mixed reputation as a hub of business innovation."

"Can it really be just three years ago that Northwestern University grad Andrew Mason and his gutsy financial backers launched their daily deal site, spawning a new industry?" the Tribune asked. "Can it really be that Groupon expanded from 37 employees in late 2009 to more than 10,000 today? It's an amazing business story."

It's also a business story that has left many investors questioning whether or not Groupon has a sustainable business model.

"There's fear — perhaps smugness on the part of rivals — that the company is a flash in the pan, too easily imitated and failing to pay off for its advertisers," the Tribune wrote. "Missteps in reporting its financial results have raised legitimate questions. The answers haven't always been satisfactory."

Currently, Groupon operates in 35 countries, with more than 3,000 employees and expected annual revenue of $500 million this year. The company is said to have turned its first profit after just seven months in business and makes its money by taking a 50% cut of each discount coupon it sells through its website.

In early trading on Friday, shares of Groupon rose nearly 50% to about $27.71 per share.

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Photos: Entrance to Groupon's headquarters in Chicago. Credit: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg

Seattle-based Doxo wants to be your digital filing cabinet -- where you pay your bills and get any other sort of documentation from businesses online via web browser or mobile app.

And the company, which names Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos among its investors, recently inked a deal with AT&T to make use of the company's digital bill and documentation services which it believes will help its cause.

AT&T, the nation's second largest wireless carrier, has more than 100 million customers in the U.S., and of course Doxo sees each of them as potential customers. The company has raised more than $15-million in investor funds to date.

"It's great validation of what we're doing," said Steve Shivers, Doxo's CEO, in an interview. "We opened up Doxo to the public from a private beta on July 1. And we've seen very, very healthy growth. We have Sprint on board, accepting payments through Doxo and we have multiple utilities, our first credit union, we'll have our first government customers, healthcare and insurance customers soon too."

But AT&T so far is the biggest company, by far, to integrate into Doxo's system.

Doxo operates not by allowing its users to pay with credit or debit cards, but by withdrawing funds directly from bank accounts. The direct bank account withdrawal allows the company, its users and its integrated businesses -- such as AT&T and Sprint -- to avoid credit and debit transaction fees.

That, Shivers says, is the key as to why Doxo is a better route to go than automatic bill pay options through banks or even online payment options from companies themselves.

"I look out there and I see a lot of companies that are collecting money, mailing bills and other documents on paper and statements and they still don't even have a decent website and they aren't even offering online payment options," Shivers said. "There are lots of other companies that, if they offer online services, they're still sending a lot of valuable documents by mail. And if people go that route, they're going to have to set up a credit card or bank account with each business, and if they ever get a new credit card or switch banks, they have to go to the website of each individual business and change all the information for each autopay account."

"With Doxo, you never have to do that again. You can just change your payment information in one place and it keeps all your payments going with no interruptions."

Shivers said that Doxo can cut a business' mailing and collections cost by about 80% for each user who signs up for Doxo. On Thursday, the company also rolled out a new feature to its service that allows users to set limits on how much they pay automatically. If a bill is higher than a user's set limit, they get an alert to take a look at the bill before approving its payment or not.

Doxo makes its money when a user pays its bills through the service by collecting a fee from the business paid. Shivers wouldn't say just how much its fees are, how many users it has or how many businesses it has integrated into Doxo, but he did say that its user base is up more than 300% since opening to the public about four months ago.

However, the CEO did admit that the idea of having a person's bills coming into one place is a concept a bit foreign to many people.

"It still sometimes astounds me, the sort of 'no duh' complexity that can be eliminated by turning the payment concept around and focusing on the customer rather than the business," he said. "But I see that changing, and with every business like AT&T that we get signed up with Doxo, we can go to other businesses and say: 'Hey, your customers are probably also customers of this business or this business or this one. And Doxo will be easier for your customers, if they want to use it, and it will save you money.'

"There is a real network effect to what we're doing."

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Image: Doxo dashboard screenshots. Credit: Doxo

On Thursday Google delivered new Google+ integration for YouTube and the Chrome Web browser.

Vic Gundotra, the executive leading the Google+ efforts, said in a blog post that the new features were the tech giant's latest example of "shipping the Google in Google+."

So, what does that all mean exactly? For one, a YouTube slider tab has been added to the right-hand side of Google+ -- just below the black navigation bar along the top of every page.

When you scroll your mouse over the YouTube tab, a search bar pops out asking "What would you like to play?" Entering any text will return YouTube video results, which pop up in a new window. "And if you move the pop-up elsewhere, you can still navigate your playlist from the slider," Gundotra noted.

The feature is pretty slick (as long as you don't mind pop-up windows) and enables users to find, watch and +1 anything they see without leaving Google+ itself.

"Sharing YouTube videos with your circles also works (of course), but there's a nice little twist: The people you share with can open a related playlist directly from your post," Gundotra said in his post. "Last but not least, we're starting to include YouTube playlists in Google+ search results."

These are the latest of what probably will be many more YouTube plus Google+ features.

The first step came in August, when Google released a feature that allows Google+ users to launch Hangouts (group video chats) directly from YouTube's website.

Chrome, another widely successful Google product, released two new browser extensions for Google+ as well.

One of the new extensions adds a +1 button beside the URL bar in Chrome. With this extension installed, a click of the button shares that website to a user's Google+ profile.

The other extension adds a Google+ notifications box to show up next to Chrome's URL bar -- enabling users to be alerted of Google+ activity when they're logged into Google+ but not actually visiting a Google+ page.

Google also added the two extensions to its Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer as new features.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

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Images: (Top) The YouTube slider in Google+ and (bottom) Chrome's Google+ extensions. Credit: Google

Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, with 43% of U.S. mobile phone subscribers owning one, according to Nielsen's third-quarter survey of mobile users.

The numbers are even higher for younger consumers. Sixty-two percent of adults 25 to 34 years old have smartphones; among 18- to 24-year-olds and 35- to 44-year-olds, the smartphone penetration rate is near 54%. 

Among 12- to 17-year-olds and 45- to 54-year-olds, the rate is about 40%, Nielsen said.

Android remains the most popular smartphone operating system in the U.S., capturing 43% of the market. Apple is the top smartphone manufacturer, with 28% of smartphone consumers owning an iPhone.

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Photo: A new iPhone 4S. Twenty-eight percent of smartphone users own an iPhone. Credit: Robert Galbraith / Reuters