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Wednesday's Update pays top dollar to bring you the top stories:

Analysts are predicting that as many as 10 million iPhones could be sold if Apple launches it in September. That's because many reports are pointing to a Sept. 21 release date for the next model. So if you're planning on selling your old phone for cash, you should plan ahead to make the most money. Trade-in sites like eBay Instant Sale, NextWorth and Gazelle are already seeing an increase of visitors looking to sell an iPhone 4S or iPhone 4.

You can get more money for … Read more

Facebook is getting users accustomed to ads slowly and incrementally. One small change, then another -- that way, users get used to seeing them.

The social network began testing one more way to bring in ads today: dropping them into people's news feeds even though the user or their friends aren't necessarily fans of the brand or product.

According to TechCrunch, these tests are part of a hard-hitting Web and mobile news feed ad unit geared toward impressing investors. The way it would work is advertisers could pay to display their Pages in users' news feeds without having … Read more

A U.S. District Court judge has some concerns about the settlement Facebook struck over privacy concerns with its "Sponsored Stories" feature.

Judge Richard Seeborg yesterday heard the details of a settlement Facebook had inked with plaintiffs in a suit related to the way in which the social network was displayed Sponsored Stories. The five plaintiffs, which aimed at representing over 100 million members in a class-action suit, argued that by displaying their likeness and pages they had liked in a Sponsored Stories listing across the site, Facebook was violating their privacy. However, back in May, the parties agreed to a $20 million deal … Read more

Facebook's latest 10-Q filing reveals that nearly 20 percent of its more than 543 million monthly mobile users accessed the social network in June solely on their mobile device. That's 102 million people.

These astounding numbers were first reported by TechCrunch, which also notes that mobile-only users have increased dramatically. According to the SEC 10-Q report, 83 million people visited the site with only their mobile device in March, which adds up to a 23 percent increase of mobile-only users from March to June.

The specifics of Facebook's mobile use are important because the company's revenue … Read more

As a counterpoint to the company that claimed its Facebook Ads didn't work because most clicks came from bots, entrepreneur Brendan Irvine-Broque decided to tell the story of how he used the social network's advertising platform to make five figures in one day.

After deciding to get rid of a record collection consisting of 6,000 vinyl records, Irvine-Broque created a Facebook Event titled "MASSIVE Vinyl Sale in the East Bay!" He then spent $150 to promote it using Facebook Ads, which simply said "6000 Vinyl Records, $3 Each" and pointed to the event. … Read more

Downloading free Android apps could make you vulnerable to aggressive adware, according to San Francisco-based security firm Lookout.

In fact, as much as five percent of those free apps have spammy ads that may be parceling out your information to third parties according to CTO Kevin Mahaffey.

That number may seem small at first, but not after you consider how many hundreds of millions of times those free apps are downloaded. To combat the problem, Lookout has developed its own app that scans other apps to tells you which ones are engaging in bad behavior. It's up to you … Read more

The majority of Americans are very much against the practice of tailored political ads, a specific market that is seeing tremendous growth as we get closer and closer to the 2012 election. In fact, most Americans dislike tailored political advertising so much they claim it decreases their chance of voting for a candidate they already support.

The new results come from a 20-minute questionnaire conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. The full findings based on the 1,503 respondents surveyed are in the 28-page document titled "Americans Roundly Reject … Read more

People don't go to Facebook to shop for necessities, or even for luxuries, so it's not surprising a survey released today found that folks don't want to share their personal data in return for service on the social-networking site.

The survey -- done by Placecast, a location-based marketing firm -- found that U.S. adults are more than twice as likely to trust Amazon than Facebook with personal information. The firm aimed to gauge Americans' comfort with relinquishing private data in exchange for receiving marketing promotions offline, online, and through mobile devices.

Sixty-six percent of U.S. … Read more

You may have your friends in groups on Facebook so that when you share a piece of information you can pick which group(s) will see it. For instance, you may post about a personal accomplishment that is more relevant to your family than your co-workers or old classmates, so there's no need to share with everyone. Basically, tailored share settings on Facebook are great if you only want to divulge some of your personal details to specific people.

Unfortunately, the Facebook social ads can easily draw attention to details about your personal preferences to everyone who has you … Read more