Week in review: Nokia’s faces US challenges, plane crash kills three Tesla employees

Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
Why can’t Nokia sell phones to Americans? — Nokia is the biggest mobile gadget maker in the world. But none of the company’s best models are available in phone stores in the rich-geek neighborhoods of downtown San Francisco. Paul Boutin investigates why that is.
Macworld iPad panelists defy Steve Jobs’ snub of show — This year’s annual Macworld conference was missing a key component: Apple. But that didn’t stop attendees from packing into an auditorium last Saturday to hear four serious Mac geeks talk about the iPad tablet computer, even though there were no iPads in the room, nor anywhere else at Macworld.
The best way to beat the iPhone? Don’t try to copy it — Designer Christian Lindholm looks at past attempts to imitate the look and feel of the iPhone. He concludes that other handset makers need to stop copying the form factor of Apple’s device and instead differentiate themselves in other ways.
Mobile World Congress 2010: Nokia out, Google in, Apple in your pocket — Last week’s Mobile World Congress 2010 was a time of great excitement and trepidation for all connected with the mobile industry. Before the conference, Lindholm looked at some of the important trends.
Incredible shrinking pico projectors will infiltrate more phones and gadgets — Texas Instruments announced a new chip set that will allow pico projectors to be built into smaller devices across a wider range of products. To date, these small projectors have been built into more expensive cell phones and chunky projectors. But with the nHD chip set from TI, the devices can be built into small phones and handheld gadgets.
And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:
Three Tesla employees dead in plane crash: CEO Musk, execs not involved — A small passenger plane piloted by a top executive at Tesla Motors crashed into a house in East Palo Alto, Calif. before 8 a.m. on Wednesday, killing the pilot and two other passengers — all employees at the electric car company.
Android tablets resurface at the Mobile World Congress — Apple is getting all the attention right now for its shiny new tablet device the iPad, but Google and its partners may be about to steal the spotlight. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, VentureBeat’s Matthaus Krzykowski had the chance to play with a tablet device using Google’s Android operating system and running a Wired magazine application. Matthaus was super-impressed, and when Adobe and Wired later released a video of the app, I could see why.
Richard Garriott comes down to earth with Facebook game startup Portalarium — The last we heard from video game designer Richard Garriott, he was in outer space. Taking time off from game design, he dished out $30 million to take a private space flight to the International Space Station. Now he has come down to earth, coming out as one of the founders of Facebook game company Portalarium.
Buchheit’s lucky streak as an angel (and a founder) — Gmail creator, FriendFeed co-founder, and now Facebook employee Paul Buchheit has not only has had a stellar career as an entrepreneur and engineer. He’s also proving to be a savvy angel investor with four acquisitions of his portfolio companies in six months.
Yahoo-Microsoft search deal cleared by both U.S. and Euro bureaucrats — “We’ve received clearance from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission for our search agreement with Microsoft,” Yahoo senior vice president for search products Shashi Seth announced this week. Microsoft will provide Yahoo’s search results once the two companies complete their planned integration.
[bottom image via LALate News]