Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year's End  —  People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer's eyeballs in real time.

What we learned from the ‘Nightline’ report on Foxconn factories  —  After teasing the story yesterday, Nightline has aired its report from Foxconn's factories on ABC.  In the report, host Bill Weir speaks directly to factory workers as well as their managers.

How to parse a Microsoft denial  —  Summary: Microsoft's response to The Daily's latest Office on iPad story provides a lesson in how to interpret Microsoft's official responses to information the company isn't ready to share.  —  As a long-time Microsoft watcher, I've seen lots of Microsoft denials in my day.

Flickr Is Getting a Major Makeover  —  The new Flickr photo view, slated to roll out 2/28/2012.  —  Markus Spiering has, as they say, a good eye.  Most of his resume was in mobile before he became a senior product manager for Flickr.  In March 2011, he slipped into the head product role, lording over Flickr's 45 or so employees.

Qualcomm just announced the chip that would be a one-stop shop for Apple's mobile needs  —  Chipmaker Qualcomm today took the wraps off a new piece of silicon—a fifth iteration of its Gobi reference platform.  It packs comprehensive support for TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, LTE on FDD and TDD networks worldwide and embedded GPS capability.

Facebook plans to release a new premium ads product Feb. 29  —  According to leaked documents, Facebook plans to upgrade its premium ads on February 29.  The company expects the new ads to perform 40 to 8o percent better than its previous product.  —  As the owner of a social creative agency …

CIA to software vendors: A revolution is coming  —  (Reuters) - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency told software vendors on Tuesday that it plans to revolutionize the way it does business with them as part of a race to keep up with the blazing pace of technology advances.

Research, no motion: How the BlackBerry CEOs lost an empire  —  “We are no longer a company that is innovative and energetic, we are drowning in paperwork.”  —  By many accounts, the problems at RIM go deeper than just outdated software.  Things reached a crisis point in 2011, which could be known as “The Year of the Open Letter.”

Police Raid File-Hosting Site, Arrest Operator and ISP  —  On June 11th last year Europe witnessed one of the largest piracy-related busts in history.  —  An international operation shut down the movie streaming portal Kino.to and police made more than a dozen arrests.

Amazon Simple Workflow - Cloud-Based Workflow Management  —  Simple Workflow  —  Today we are introducing the Amazon Simple Workflow service, SWF for short.  This new service gives you the ability to build and run distributed, fault-tolerant applications that span multiple systems (cloud-based, on-premise, or both).

Acta: EU court to rule on anti-piracy agreement  —  The European Union's highest court has been asked to rule on the legality of a controversial anti-piracy agreement.  —  The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) has been criticised by rights campaigners who argue it could stifle free expression on the internet.

Microsoft launches no holds barred anti-Google campaign [video]  —  “What happens when the world's largest advertising business tries to sell productivity software on the side?”  Microsoft asks users in its new Googlighting video.  “Beware the Googlighting Stranger.”

Storify launches a slick iPad app to open its story-building service to a new audience  —  Storify is today announcing a brand new app for the iPad, bringing its drag and drop curation of Tweets, videos and other web links to the tablet.  The experience looks smooth and carries over the core features of the web app.

Mozilla to challenge big players in mobile web  —  Mozilla, the Mountain View nonprofit that took on Microsoft's Internet browser dominance nearly a decade ago and won, now wants to play the same transformative role with the mobile web.  —  Mozilla is expected on Wednesday to announce plans …

Google Sued by Apple Safari-User Over Web-Browser Privacy  —  Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. officials were sued for violating users' privacy rights on Apple Inc.'s Safari Web browser by bypassing computer settings designed to block monitoring of consumers' online activity.

Samsung Galaxy S II announced for US Cellular: ‘coming soon’ for $230  —  We already had a strong hunch that it was coming to US Cellular, thanks to the FCC, but now it's official: Samsung's iconic Galaxy S II is finally making its way to the regional carrier in the coming weeks for $230 …

MegaUpload founder released on bail  —  In a surprise move, a New Zealand court released Kim DotCom today after concluding that he was not enough of a flight risk.  —  Kim DotCom, founder of cyberlocker MegaUpload, has been released on bail following the emergence of new evidence, according to media reports in New Zealand.

San Francisco Or Palo Alto?  —  When I started TechCrunch in 2005 there was no question that Palo Alto was the center of the tech universe.  San Francisco was really pretty and a nice place to see the symphony, but all the startup action was in and around Stanford University in Palo Alto.

Facebook to Microsoft: P3P is outdated, what else ya got?  —  Summary: Facebook has confirmed it is also bypassing IE's privacy settings.  The social networking giant has told the software giant that P3P is outdated.  As they say on the playground: too bad, so sad.

Social messaging apps ‘lost networks $13.9bn in 2011’  —  Social messaging costs remain the same - even for messages sent globally  —  Social messaging applications cost mobile network operators $13.9bn (£8.8bn) in lost SMS revenue last year, a report has claimed.

Awesome Inventory Management Startup Stitch Labs Nabs $1M From True Ventures  —  Small business inventory management startup Stitch Labs is announcing a $1 million seed investment this morning led by True Ventures.  In the same space as Bizelo and Ordoro, Stitch Labs allows design-focused small businesses …

Chinese firm seeks halt of iPad sales in Shanghai  —  (Reuters) - A Chinese technology firm sought to halt the sale of Apple Inc's iPads across the affluent city of Shanghai, arguing at a local court hearing on Wednesday that the U.S. firm had infringed on its trademark.