This Morning's Top Stories in Tech, Mobile and Social Media

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.
20 Million Android Devices Sold in Third Quarter
According to a new report from Gartner, 80.5 million smartphones were sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2010, a 96% increase compared to the same period last year.
Android accounted for 25.5% of worldwide smartphone sales with 20.5 million handsets sold, which makes it the second biggest smartphone platform, behind Nokia’s Symbian and Apple’s iOS, which now owns 16.7% of the market after selling 13.5 million handsets in Q3 2010.
Ask.com Exiting the Search Business
On Tuesday, Ask.com announced that is will lay off the vast majority of its engineers and concede its small piece of the search market to Google and Microsoft.
For Employees, Facebook Counts as Free Speech
A federal agency has declared Facebook posts are legally protected speech, even for employees who write negative things about their employers.