HUD Google Glasses are real and they are coming soon  —  We detailed the first information about the Google [x] Glasses project in December. … Since then, we have learned much more regarding Google's glasses...  Our tipster has now seen a prototype and said it looks something like Oakley Thumps (below).

Wolfram Alpha Pro democratizes data analysis: an in-depth look at the $4.99 a month service  —  On Wednesday, February 8th, Wolfram Alpha will be adding a new, “Pro” option to its already existing services.  Priced at a very reasonable $4.99 a month ($2.99 for students) …

Amazon S3 Price Reduction  —  As you can tell from my recent post on Amazon S3 Growth for 2011, our customers are uploading new objects to Amazon S3 at an incredible rate.  We continue to innovate on your behalf to drive down storage costs and pass along the resultant savings to you at every possible opportunity.

Halliburton to ditch BlackBerrys in corporate transition to Apple's iOS platform  —  Exclusive: In yet another blow to troubled Research in Motion, one of the world's largest energy service corporations — Halliburton — plans to phase out thousands of employee BlackBerrys in favor of advancing …

Best Buy Explains Its Leaked Apple HDTV Survey  —  The current Apple TV is a set-top box, so pundits are using the term iTV to denote a speculated Apple-branded HDTV.  Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com  —  News and rumors suggest an Apple-branded HDTV is somewhere on the horizon, but it's hard to differentiate hard evidence from hype.

New High-DPI UI Resources in 10.7.3  —  Have you noticed that Safari's hovering-over-a-link pointing-finger cursor looks a little different in Mac OS X 10.7.3?  It's not just that the finger is at a slightly different angle — it's a new UI resource that scales gracefully to larger sizes.

Apple intern's thesis leaks secret project to port Mac OS X to ARM processors  —  An academic paper written by a former Apple intern who now serves as a Core OS engineer at the company has revealed that it was working on a secret experiment to port Mac OS X Snow Leopard to the ARM architecture.

Those Millions on Facebook?  Some May Not Actually Visit  —  On the first page of Facebook's prospectus for its sale of stock to the public, it pegs the number of its “monthly active users” at a whopping 845 million people.  The social networking site arrives at an even more astounding number …

Farewell Stack Exchange  —  I am no longer a part of Stack Exchange.  —  I still have much literal and figurative stock in the success of Stack Exchange, of course, but as of March 1st I will no longer be part of the day to day operations of the company, or the Stack Exchange sites, in any way.

Rogers and BCE Already Have the Apple iTV in Their Labs, Controlled with Voice and Hand Gestures  —  The Globe and Mail reports that Apple is actively seeking launch partnerships with Canada's Rogers Communications and BCE Inc. to offer their upcoming Apple TV.

Vice President of iPhone and iPod Engineering David Tupman left Apple at the end of last year  —  Last year Apple saw the loss of many executives ranging from its OS X chief, iAd chief, and Global Security chief, and 2012 has started off with another leave: the departure Vice President David Tupman.

Hackers wanted $50,000 to keep Symantec source code private  —  Symantec told a hacker group that it would pay $50,000 to keep the source code for some of the company's flagship security products off the Internet, the company confirmed to CNET this evening.  —  An e-mail exchange revealing …

Designing Windows 8 or: How to Redesign a Religion  —  There are lot of hard jobs at Microsoft.  Like the guy who collects Steve Ballmer's dry cleaning.  But Sam Moreau just might have the hardest gig in Redmond.  Or at least the most harrowing.  Over the past five years …

Intel SSD 520 review roundup: too expensive  —  The first reviews of the Intel SSD 520 were published today, giving us a good idea of whether or not Intel's latest solid-state drive deserves to find its way into your next laptop, HTPC or gaming rig.  —  PC Perspective, Tech Report, AnandTech …

BlackBerry App World stats: six million daily downloads, higher profitability than Android  —  Alec Saunders, RIM's VP for Developer Relations, used the BlackBerry DevCon Europe stage today to “bust a few myths” about the state of the BlackBerry app ecosystem.

Apple's Macroscalar Architecture: Will it Take iOS to the Next Level?  —  The general consensus in the market today is that Apple's upcoming A6 quad core processor is to bring more performance to the 2012 iPad and iPhone.  It's said that it will also preserve battery life due to a shift from a 40-nanometer to a 28-nanometer process.

What's your X?  Amplifying technology moonshots  —  Last week, we ran an experiment.  We hosted a gathering, called “Solve for X,” for experienced entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists from around the world.  The event focused on proposing and discussing technological solutions to some of the world's greatest problems.

SOPA and PIPA prompt Reddit, Mozilla, and 73 others to ask Congress to halt work on intellectual property laws  —  A coalition of 75 groups including Reddit, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Open Congress, and Human Rights Watch, have sent an open letter …

IDC says Apple finished 2011 on top of the Smartphone world, here are the numbers  —  Analytics firm IDC just released a report covering the top five smartphone vendors by shipments and market share for Q4 2011.  Apple not surprisingly takes the top position.

Romanian Prime Minister Admits He Has No Idea Why Romania Signed ACTA  —  Here's a bizarre one.  With Poland putting ACTA ratification on hold, and Slovenia apparently regretting its signature, now we've got Romania's Prime Minister, Emil Boc, admitting that he doesn't understand why the country signed ACTA.

Third-gen iPad's ‘window of opportunity’ expected to drive Apple market share gains  —  Apple's third-generation iPad is expected by one market watcher to soon arrive during an advantageous “window of opportunity,” in which competitors have nothing significant to offer, that will further increase …

You Can't Copyright Porn, Harassed BitTorrent Defendant Insists  —  When confronted with an accusation that they have illegally shared unauthorized material online, Internet users quickly realize they are in a Catch 22 situation.  Even if innocent, these accusations cost money to deflect …

Commentary: Is the Open Web Doomed?  Open Your Eyes and Relax  —  We asked veteran technology writer and investor Esther Dyson, a longtime friend of Personal Democracy, for her thoughts on a current controversy: is the open web dying?  —The Editors  —  I'm wading into an argument that I think may be overblown.