Microsoft Is the Most Exciting Company in Tech, Hands Down  —  I never thought I'd ever hear myself utter such words post-1995.  But after Monday's reveal of the Surface tablet—complete with an ultra-thin, pressure-sensitive keyboard cover and the most discrete integrated kickstand ever …

HTC's Windows Phone 8 roadmap: ‘Zenith’ flagship, ‘Accord’ midrange, and ‘Rio’ entry-level models  —  After yesterday's official look at Windows Phone 8 from Microsoft, we've received some details from a knowledgeable source on exactly what HTC — arguably the most important Windows Phone 8 licensee right …

Today's turbulence explained  —  Not how we wanted today to go.  At approximately 9:00am PDT, we discovered that Twitter was inaccessible for all web users, and mobile clients were not showing new Tweets.  We immediately began to investigate the issue and found that there was a cascading bug in one of our infrastructure components.

Problems For Monetization: Lawsuit Forces Facebook To Let You Opt Out Of Sponsored Story Ads  —  Facebook's business model just hit a stumbling block, as the social network is being forced to let users opt out of having their likenesses repurposed as endorsements in Sponsored Stories ads.

The art of important work, of making a ruckus and of inventing the future  —  Entrepreneurs teach VCs, not the other way around.  And I was lucky early in my career to back Seth Godin, who taught me a lot.  When I met Seth, he was writing books and building a web company.

Apps Rule!  Wooga No Longer Distributing HTML5 Games on Facebook.  —  Wooga, a German-based social game developer, said it will no longer be developing games in HTML5, after a conducting a six-month long experiment that included distributing one game through Facebook.

RIM says first BlackBerry 10 device will not have a physical keyboard  —  TORONTO — The first BlackBerry device running Research In Motion Ltd.'s new operating software will not have a physical keyboard, only a touch-screen one.  —  The BlackBerry 10 software will be offered on devices …

Startup Accelerator Fail: Most Graduates Go Nowhere  —  Startup accelerators continue to grow in popularity.  There are now more than 200 around the world attracting twice as many applicants as they did just two years ago.  But there's a dirty little secret: A lot of accelerators are just spinning their wheels.

Review: The 2012 MacBook Air soars with Ivy Bridge  —  New Air may look the same, but performance has surged ahead in just one year.  —  Another year, another MacBook Air.  Apple's lightweight machine has come a long way since it was first released in 2008.

Exclusive: Gaming company Gaikai seeks buyer  —  Orange County start-up could be worth well over $500 million.  —  FORTUNE — Gaikai, a popular provider of cloud-based streaming services for PC and console games, in on the block.  Sources tell me it already has hired bankers, and is expecting well in excess of $500 million.

TaskRabbit Launches On-Demand Courier Service ‘Deliver Now’ In San Francisco  —  San Francisco is a relatively tiny place — famously just 49 square miles — but now its residents will have the whole city at their fingertips even more so than ever.  —  TaskRabbit, the online marketplace …

Google Launches Coordinate: A New Service For Managing Mobile Workforces  —  Location-based apps and services like Foursquare have made significant inroads among consumers in the last few years, but most of the recent developments around location-based apps have bypassed the business market.

Bing Rolls Out New Image Search With Better Search Suggestions, Filters And Bigger Thumbnails  —  Just a few weeks after completely redesigning its regular search results pages, Bing rolled out a nice update to its image search feature today.  With this update, Microsoft is improving …

New La. law: Sex offenders must list status on Facebook, other social media  —  (CNN) — A new Louisiana law requires sex offenders and child predators to state their criminal status on their Facebook or other social networking page, with the law's author saying the bill is the first of its kind in the nation.

Microsoft sends takedown notice to sites hosting Xbox 720 doc, including Dropbox  —  A massive 56-page document on Microsoft's “Xbox 720” plans surfaced on the internet over the weekend, revealing some potential ideas around Kinect Glasses and more.  The document itself was hosted on Scribd …

Texas Presses Google Probe  —  The Texas attorney general's office, as part of its two-year-old antitrust probe of Google Inc., earlier this week filed a civil action in state court that demands the Internet company hand over an unknown number of documents that it withheld from investigators.

T-Mobile selling 16GB Samsung Galaxy S3 for $279 after rebate  —  (Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)  —  T-Mobile users hankering for Samsung's Galaxy S3 will have to pay more than their counterparts on AT&T and Sprint.  —  The latest Galaxy S smartphone is now up for sale …

Android Developers can now respond directly to user reviews on Google Play  —  Google Play developers can now write replies to user reviews of their apps, Google announced today in a blog post.  —  As of today, developers with a Top Developer Badge — a designation awarded to developers directly …

Former Microsoft And Amazon Employees Launch Livestar, An App For “Trusted” Recommendations  —  After a year or so of stealth preparation, Livestar today launches an iOS app where you can view “trusted” recommendations.  In an effort to become the one-stop-shop for everyone's recommendation needs …

Galaxy Nexus Listing in Play Store Outs Jelly Bean as Android 4.1, Arriving “Soon”  —  And I'd say this about settles it.  Jelly Bean will be Android 4.1, according to the Google Play listing for the Galaxy Nexus.  We had all sort of assumed that 4.1 would be next, but now the question remains …