Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Should Shame the PC Industry  —  On June 18, Microsoft (MSFT) beckoned 200 or so members of the media to an industrial, grimy part of Hollywood for what it described as a can't miss affair.  The dutiful reporters met at the appointed hour—3:30 p.m. …

Google Threatens To Sue Huge YouTube MP3 Conversion Site  —  YouTube is without doubt the biggest free resource of videos and music available online today.  It can be enjoyed on the site itself, embedded in any webpage, or accessed via YouTube's Application Programming Interface.

Spotify Finally Launches Web Radio, For Real.  And That's a Problem For Pandora  —  A lot of people confuse Spotify's streaming music service with Pandora's streaming music service.  —  Now they're going to be a lot more confused.  In a way that's good for Spotify and a problem for Pandora.

Google partners with Flipboard, adding Google+ streams to the app  —  Speaking at Le Web '12 in London, Google's Vice President of Product Management Bradley Horowitz announced that it has partnered with Flipboard, adding Google+ streams in the app.  The streams will launch soon.

Ex-Googlers Launch MightyText, An iMessage For Android Users  —  During their lengthy careers at Google in both senior technical and product management roles, Maneesh Arora and Amit Sangani were able to geek out on products like AdSense, AdWords, and the now-defunct Google Health.

Google Offers app now available on iPhone  —  Today we're announcing the new Google Offers app for iPhone.  Now, iPhone users can discover, buy and redeem Google Offers, as well as deals from our partners, on-the-go.  Some of the features of the new Google Offers app for iPhone include:

LG To Sideline Tablet Development To Focus On Smaller Devices  —  LG Electronics Inc. (066570), the world's No. 4 mobile-phone maker, will sideline tablet computer development to focus more on smaller devices rather than compete head-on with Apple Inc.'s iPad.

Kodak sues Apple, claiming interference in patent sales  —  (Reuters) - Photography pioneer Eastman Kodak Co sued Apple Inc to stop it from interfering with plans to sell a large patent portfolio, a significant part of its bankruptcy restructuring.  —  In a lawsuit filed on Monday …

They Work!  Facebook Mobile Ads Are Clicked 13X More, Earn 11X More Money Than Its Desktop Ads  —  How will Facebook monetize mobile?  Its organic-seeming Sponsored Stories ad format may be the answer.  Mobile Sponsored Stories are getting over 13 times the click-through rates and earn 11.2 times …

Facebook Adds Subscription Billing For App Developers, Backs Away From Credits As Primary Currency  —  Facebook is adding subscription billing for app developers, in what should help gaming and media companies earn more revenue from their most loyal users.  Starting next month …

B&N earnings: Nook Simple Touch drags revenues down, though digital content sales are up  —  Barnes & Noble reported Q4 revenues of $1.4 billion for the period ended April 28, on losses of $1.08 per share.  Following Microsoft's $300 million investment during the quarter …

Google's Project Glass trackpad gets swaddled in patent protection  —  Remember when Sergey Brin was on The Gavin Newsom Show showing off Project Glass' right-sided physical trackpad?  Today, that element of the tech was given the official thumbs-up by the US patent and trademark office.

AT&T and Sirius work to make spectrum available  —  AT&T is looking to put some of its unused spectrum to work in a move that could reshuffle the wireless spectrum deck.  —  On Friday, the carrier filed a joint proposal to the Federal Communications Commission with satellite radio provider Sirius.

Shapeways, Having Printed 1 Million Objects, Secures More Financing  —  People sure do like printing things in 3-D.  —  Shapeways, a company that enables people to print 3-D objects, announced on Tuesday that it had completed a $6.2 million series B round of financing from Lux Capital, a New York venture capital firm.

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Teardown  —  In case you missed it, we tore apart the new MacBook Pro with Retina display last week.  Inside, we found a whole mess of pretty, yet difficult to access components.  In fact, the MacBook Pro with Retina display earned our lowest repairability score ever, with 1 out of 10 points.

Schumer: Google, Apple Moves To 3D Maps A Dimension Too Far!  —  Noted consumer technology alarmist Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), is turning his intense scrutiny back on Google and Apple, this time over the two companies' competing plans to provide the most accurate 3D aerial maps of major metropolitan areas.

Dolphin releases Engine Beta browser, claims to be the fastest browser on Android  —  There is no shortage of third-party browsers available for the Android platform, and Android 4.0 users even have the option to use the excellent Google Chrome Beta for Android, if they wish.

JustAnswer rebrands as Pearl, raises $25M  —  Charles Schwab invests in Quora competitor, which is on track to generate $100M in 2012  —  There's tons of question-and-answer services out there.  But very few are places where you can find solid advice worth paying for, with the exception of Pearl, formerly known as JustAnswer.

China's ‘Twitter’ introduces fees  —  Sina Weibo may not be afraid of domestic competition said one analyst  —  Sina Weibo, China's biggest Twitter-like microblogging platform, has introduced a membership charge for premium features.  —  For a monthly fee of 10 yuan ($1.57, £1) …

Obvious Co. partner Lift releasing iPhone app to ‘achieve any goal’  —  The Obvious Co.-backed company Lift has announced plans to launch an iPhone app that is a 'simple, positive way to achieve any goal.  The app, which is designed to help people achieve ‘any goal’ will be released in August.

Google: 12 To 14 Million Searches Per Day Returned Hacked Sites  —  Google's security blog announced today several updates on how they have been addressing malware and hacked sites on the internet.  —  Google said that between 12 and 14 million search queries per day return warnings …