Microsoft's Surface Tablet Said To Be Wi-Fi Only In First Models  —  Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Surface tablet computer, unveiled this week to compete with Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPad, will initially go on sale without a connection to mobile-phone networks, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Lower pricing and simplified limits with the Google Maps API  —  Since launching the Google Maps API seven years ago, we've been awed by the many ways developers have used the service to build great mapping apps.  As you may know, last year we introduced limits on the number of free maps …

First hints of a Facebook ad network: Sponsored Stories appear on Zynga.com  —  Zynga's off-Facebook games platform Zynga.com now displays Facebook ads and Sponsored Stories, as part of what could be the beginnings of a Facebook ad network across the web.  —  According to the Facebook Help Center …

Apple expands App Store to 32 new territories in Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific  —  As promised by Apple CEO Tim Cook at WWDC, Apple has expanded the App Store's reach to 155 total territories, by adding 32 new territories today.  An email to registered iOS and Mac developers went out this evening detailing the change.

Google allegedly testing new, sidebar-free search interface  —  A video from Tecno-Net apparently shows a new version of Google's search interface.  The UI in the short clip is much more vertically-oriented, with sections like images and news placed at the top rather than the side.

How Reddit Got Huge: Tons of Fake Accounts  —  Is Reddit the most powerful website on the Internet?  Yeah, that's a pretty bold question to even be asking, especially considering it's only ranked 121 on Alexa.  But in terms of power, not traffic, Reddit is certainly up there.

Facebook's Instagram bid to be probed by OFT  —  Office of Fair Trading concerned social network might prevent picture uploads to other sites from the app  —  The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to investigate Facebook's $1bn bid for Instagram, because it is concerned the giant social network …

YouTube Revenues Could Pass $3.6 Billion in 2012: Citi's Mark Mahaney  —  Is Google making money off of YouTube?  You betcha, Google execs told shareholders today, without offering the slightest bit of detail.  Par for the course.  —  So in lieu of real numbers from Google …

Verizon turns on Razrs' GSM radios, pushes out Android 4.0 upgrade  —  We knew international roaming was coming to Verizon's LTE phones - the GSM radios shipped in many of its LTE handsets were just sitting there dormant - but on Friday, Verizon is finally turning them on in two of its devices …

Crunching the numbers on Retina: what to expect in iMacs, MacBook Airs, and Thunderbolt monitors with Retina displays  —  Ready to geek out on pixel densities?  Great, me too.  —  So when Apple announced its first computer with a Retina display, the revamped 15.4 MacBook Pro …

Tweetbot for Mac confirmed as first image surfaces on Twitter  —  We've suspected that the popular iOS Twitter client Tweetbot was coming to the Mac, and now it's been confirmed.  Tapbots' Mark Jardine posted an image on Twitter today, touting the Retina display of a new MacBook Pro …

ThisLife Raises $2.75 Million From Madrona And Others To Organize Your Photos In The Cloud  —  ThisLife quietly launched in 2010 as a cloud-based platform for storing and organizing all of a family's photos in a single place.  But after two years of working to refine the service …

HTC reportedly halting all phone sales in Brazil  —  Reports indicate that HTC is canceling the planned launch of its One series in Brazil and ending all phone sales in the country.  As it's exiting the Brazilian market, a number of HTC's employees will lose their jobs …

Apple sues HTC in Virginia court for abuse of 4G/LTE standard-essential patents  —  On Thursday (June 21), Apple filed FRAND contract and antitrust claims against HTC for the abuse of patents that are allegedly essential to the 4G/LTE standard.  Apple brought those claims as counterclaims …

Kosmix Founders Leave @WalmartLabs  —  Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, the cofounders of Kosmix, which was acquired in April 2011 by Walmart and became the Silicon Valley tech shop for Walmart, are leaving the company.  —  Harinarayan and Rajaraman headed the @WalmartLabs operation …

AMD launches Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, demands rematch with NVIDIA  —  If you've been missing out on the graphics card wars of late, then here's a quick rundown.  AMD launched its high-end $549 Radeon HD 7970 at the end of last year, and it reigned comfortably for a few months until NVIDIA came out with the masterful GeForce GTX 680.

Online donations to bullied bus monitor Karen Klein top $540,000  —  People of the Internet donated more than $500,000 in just 48 hours to send a bullied bus monitor on a vacation.  —  People of the Internet, you did it: In less than 48 hours you managed to raise more than half a million dollars …

Amazon.com's domain power play: We want to control them all  —  If Amazon.com gets its way — and that's still a big “if” — it will soon control 76 new domain extensions on the Internet.  Most observers had expected the company to apply for .amazon and .kindle, but it seems that was just for starters …

Facebook to require privacy policies in mobile apps  —  Facebook will require developers to include privacy policies in apps used by mobile users on the social network.  The move is part of an effort led by the California Attorney General's office aimed at getting Internet companies to provide better privacy protections for consumers.

Twitter's Bad Day: Site-Wide Outages Recall the “Fail Whale” Era  —  After nearly a year without any significant periods of downtime, using Twitter was almost nothing like the early days of being on the service.  —  So when Twitter went down on Thursday morning for a period of more than an hour …

Google stock split wins approval; CEO loses voice  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google shareholders gave CEO Larry Page what he wanted Thursday by approving an unconventional stock split meant to cement his authority, but he wasn't around to hail the victory.  —  Page missed the Internet search …