5 o’clock roundup: AT&T restarts New York iPhone sales, Totlol alleges Google sabotage

Here’s the latest action:

AT&T stops, starts New York iPhone sales — The mobile carrier said it temporarily stopped selling iPhones on the web to buyers with a New York zip code due to “online fraudulent activity” or because it “periodically chooses to modify [its] promotions and distributions channels.” Or something. Especially at first, there was a lot of suspicion that AT&T was having difficulty dealing with the demand for data from Manhattan cell phone users.

Kiddie video website Totlol says it was sabotaged by Google — Rob Ilan, Totlol’s founder, used Google’s APIs to create a popular site featuring YouTube videos for kids. Google was apparently impressed enough to feature Totlol on its code site, but changes to YouTube’s terms of service threatened Ilan’s business model. This might just suggest thoughtlessness on either Totlol’s part or Google’s, but in a long, fascinating account of his relationship with YouTube, Ilan suggests something a little more malicious — that Google stopped his company from taking off because it wanted to build a similar service of its own.

Details available about Chrome OS netbooks — Google has said only certain computers will be able to run its new operating system, due next year. Based on the product specs, IBTimes says the Chrome OS netbook will be a high-performance machine with an ARM CPU.

Consumer groups ask government to block Admob deal — Two consumer groups, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy, sent a joint letter asking the Federal Trade Commission to block Google’s acquisition of the mobile ad startup based on antitrust and privacy concerns. This follows last week’s news that the FTC is taking a close look at the deal.

Beware of Apple “iSlate” speculation — Sure, it’s looking more and more certain that Apple will launch a tablet device next year, but many of the rumored details currently being reported may be wildly off. After all, before the iPhone launched, writers and analysts were saying it would have a click wheel, a slide-out keypad, and would ran on Apple’s own wireless network — all incorrect — notes Technologizer’s Harry McCracken.

LinkedIn launches improved iPhone app — New features include improved (and more Facebook-like) navigation, a new search interface, and the ability to mark certain profiles as your favorites.

Google may have bumped Lala down in music search — Following Apple’s acquisition of the music startup, Lala seems to be showing up less frequently in OneBox, the service where song streams from music services show up in Google searches. Officially, the Apple purchase isn’t supposed to affect Lala’s deal with Google, but TechCrunch’s MG Siegler argues that where Lala once seemed to provide the majority of Onebox results, links to the service now seem to be “few and far between.”