Facebook launches iPhone camera app

NEW YORK Facebook's rocky initial public offering hasn't stopped life at the world's biggest online social network. On Thursday, the company unveiled a camera app for the iPhone.

The app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store and works like most other camera applications for smartphones. To take a photo, you tap a camera icon in the upper left corner of your screen, aim and shoot. You can then add filters, crop or tilt your photo, and share it on Facebook.

The new app is similar to Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook is in the process of buying for $1 billion. The acquisition, however, has not yet been completed, and Instagram's employees did not work on the Facebook app. Facebook has said it expects the Instagram app to close sometime this year.

Court: Families can’t sue over loan discount fee

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that three families cannot sue a mortgage company for allegedly charging them a loan discount fee without giving them a lower interest rate.

The high court's decision tosses out lawsuits filed in 2008 against Quicken Loans Inc. in Louisiana by three families who claimed they paid the fees without receiving anything in return. The Freeman family paid $980 and the Bennett family $1,100 in loan discount fees but allegedly did not get lower interest rates in return. The Smith family allegations focus partly on a loan origination fee of $5,100, which they claim was a mislabeled loan discount fee.

A federal judge threw the lawsuit out, saying the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act made the lawsuit improper. That decision, which was upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, was appealed to the Supreme Court.

Amazon.com to improve warehouse conditions

SEATTLE Amazon.com Inc., addressing issues that have drawn heavy criticism of the company, told shareholders Thursday that it planned to improve warehouse conditions and drop its membership in a conservative public-policy organization.

More than 100 protesters rallied outside the company's annual shareholders meeting Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum, calling on the Seattle Internet retailer to pay more taxes, treat its workers better and drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council.

During the meeting, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the company will spend $52 million this year retrofitting its warehouses with air conditioning. Amazon has come under heavy criticism for conditions at its warehouses after a Pennsylvania newspaper revealed that employees were forced to work in temperatures above 100 degrees last summer.

From wire reports