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.

Making personal cloud storage for Windows available anywhere, with the new SkyDrive … Over the last year we've been hard at work building SkyDrive alongside Windows 8, setting out a unique approach to designing personal cloud storage for billions of people by bringing together the best aspects of file, app, and device clouds.

Facebook's Yearly Revenue Up 45 Percent, But Down Quarterly  —  Facebook filed an updated version of its S-1 public offering document today, which included first-quarter financials.  —  In the new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, its fourth update for its upcoming public offering …

The Intel Ivy Bridge (Core i7 3770K) Review  —  The times, they are changing.  In fact, the times have already changed, we're just waiting for the results.  I remember the first time Intel brought me into a hotel room to show me their answer to AMD's Athlon 64 FX - the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

Apple May Add Secure Password Suggestions to Safari with OS X Mountain Lion  —  1Password is a popular password service which offers apps and browser plug-ins for a number of platforms, including Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.  The service automatically generates strong …

EMC close to buying XtremIO for $400-450m  —  The flash memory storage company has raised $25 million.  —  EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is in talks to buy storage solutions company XtremIO for $400-450 million and market sources believe that an acquisition is close at hand.