Microsoft, Facebook Announce Patent Agreement  —  Microsoft Corp. and Facebook announced today a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will assign to Facebook the right to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it recently agreed to acquire from AOL Inc. Facebook has agreed to purchase this portion for $550 million in cash.

Instagram … Two years ago we invested $250,000 in Instagram.  Thanks to the spectacular vision and effort of Kevin Systrom and the Instagram team, the investment will be worth $78,000,000 when the Faceboook acquisition closes.  The work that Kevin and team did will go down as legend in the industry and we thank them immensely.

Intel's Ivy Bridge chips launch using ‘3D transistors’  —  Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors use a new tri-gate transistor technology to boost processing power while reducing the amount of energy needed  —  Intel is launching its Ivy Bridge family of processors - the first to feature what it describes as a “3D transistor”.

Share your stuff with a link!  —  We're super excited to announce a whole new way to share: now you can send a link to the files or folders in your Dropbox!  —  Sharing with friends and family is easy!  Once you've saved that video of your niece's birthday party to Dropbox …

The Flight From Conversation  —  WE live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating.  And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.  —  At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail.  At work executives text during board meetings.

Adobe Officially Unveils CS6 And Its $49/Month All-Inclusive Creative Cloud Subscription Service  —  Today is a big day for Adobe.  Not only is the company officially unveiling the next versions of virtually all of the applications in its Creative Suite, but Adobe is also launching its Creative Cloud online offerings.

Obama to target foreign nationals' use of new technologies in human rights abuses  —  President Obama will issue an executive order Monday that will allow U.S. officials for the first time to impose sanctions against foreign nationals found to have used new technologies …

NimbleTV Aims to Stream TV on Devices  —  In a move that could hasten the slow pace of so-called TV Everywhere, a technology start-up is introducing a way to move a whole subscription's worth of TV onto the Web, with or without the subscription company's permission.

Justice Department Bites Apple  —  The 30% revenue-share model is the company's standard practice, not the product of a conspiracy.  —  'I don't think you understand.  We can't treat newspapers or magazines any differently than we treat FarmVille.  With those words, senior Apple executive Eddy Cue stuck …

Frustration, Disappointment And Apathy: My Years At Microsoft  —  Editor's Note: This Guest post is written by Max Zachariades, who spent the last five years at Microsoft in various roles.  He blogs under the name Max Zografos.  —  I first used Windows on a TULIP portable computer, some twenty years ago.

Will Stanford and Silicon Valley Transform Education?  —  Stanford University is so startlingly paradisial, so fragrant and sunny, it's as if you could eat from the trees and live happily forever.  Students ride their bikes through manicured quads, past blooming flowers and statues by Rodin …

Google and Facebook Grow Comfortable and Complacent  —  Google and Facebook, young and successful companies that they are, risk being left behind as technology shifts from PCs and Web browsers to mobile devices.  —  Earlier this month, when Google showcased a new design for Google Plus …

Read Offline: News.me Automatically Downloads Your News Whenever You Leave Home  —  News.me, the newsreader app hatched in The New York Times' R&D lab and incubated at betaworks, today added a nifty feature to its new iPhone app, which gives readers instant access to their news offline — whenever they leave the house.

In its 3rd year, Kickstarter successfully raises over $119 million, taking home $6 million in commission  —  It's easy to root for Kickstarter.  The company has made it possible to bring new, innovative products to market and finance projects that would never get off the ground before the popularization of crowdfunding.