This week, on Episode 226 of The Drill Down podcast, Devindra, Dwayne, and Andy talk about a controversial new lawsuit that pits Yahoo! against Facebook and a new suggested code for sharing content on the Internet.

But first, the headlines…iPad preorders are through the roof, Instagram teases an Android app, Gowalla shuts down, Microsoft tests a super-fast touchscreen, former Facebook director becomes Reddit CEO, CNN to purchase Mashable, Twitter buys Posterous, and the Encyclopedia Britannica stops publishing.

This week on the show the TDD team explores Microsoft‘s Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and of course, Apple‘s latest tech offerings, the new iPad, Apple TV, and iOS 5.1. But first, this week’s latest tech headlines…

Devindra recaps Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress 2012, including Nokia‘s 41-megapixel 808 PureView, AT&T modifies their data throttling policy, Zynga launches a standalone destination, Google consolidates media sites into Google Play, EU says Google’s new privacy policy is bogus, Lulzsec is sold out by its own leader, Valve may be entering the console arena, and DARPA builds a robot cheetah.

This week, TDD regulars Andrew Sorcini, Dwayne DeFreitas, and Lidija Davis join Venturebeat‘s Sean Ludwig as we talk to top contributors to Social news site Reddit.com as we find out what makes them do what they do to make Reddit so popular.

But first, the week’s top tech news…President Obama proposes a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, Apple acquires Chomp, iPhone user wins $850 in throttling case against AT&T, Apple announces iPad 3 event, Yahoo seeks to force Facebook into licensing patents, Google+ suffers low turnout, Reddit crafts an Internet privacy law.

I think one of the worst things old school publishing companies can do as they transition into the digital age (kicking and screaming) is lock themselves down into their own application or portal. Apparently someone at Marvel Entertainment thinks so too because Marvel announced this week that a bevy of their most popular graphic novels are now available in the Apple iTunes iBookstore.

This week, The Drill Down team and VentureBeat writer Sean Ludwig take a look the science of habit formation and how retailers and other businesses are leveraging that data to finely tune their marketing focus. Later, we look at how Google bypassed privacy settings in Apple‘s Safari and Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer to track users web browsing.

But first, the headlines…Facebook launches verified accounts and pseudonyms, Apple delivers new version of OS X to developers, Foxconn hid underage workers before Fair Labor inspections, Google to sell heads-up glasses by year’s end, and Flickr gets a major makeover.