Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99  —  We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8.  Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets.

Exclusive: Amazon buys 3D mapping startup UpNext  —  It looks like Amazon is building up its presence in the mapping business.  The tech giant today closed a deal to acquire 3D mapping startup UpNext, GigaOM has learned.  —  For Amazon, which doesn't have a mapping service of its own …

Facebook e-mail mess: Address books altered; e-mail lost  —  An alarming number of people are reporting that the new e-mail address Facebook forced on users this week is changing their address books while intercepting and losing unknown amounts of e-mail.  —  Facebook users say contacts' e …

Announcing The Declaration Of Internet Freedom  —  A whole bunch of organizations and individuals are getting together today to launch the beginning of a process, the creation of an Internet Declaration of Freedom.  We've seen how the internet has been under attack from various directions …

Nokia: We have a Windows Phone ‘contingency plan’  —  Nokia has a plan in its back pocket should a deal with Microsoft fall through, or the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 software update fail to generate interest, according to Nokia's board chairman.  —  Speaking on his debut television appearance …

Twitter Transparency Report  —  Wednesday marks Independence Day here in the United States.  Beyond the fireworks and barbecue, July 4th serves as an important reminder of the need to hold governments accountable, especially on behalf of those who may not have a chance to do so themselves.

Why Your Complaint About Twitter Is Wrong  —  I know I usually try to be a thoughtful tech writer, but sometimes, holy s**t you guys. … That's Dalton Caldwell (with my emphasis added), who is a very nice guy, but does nothing to break the pattern that everything I read on the Svbtle network exists solely …

New Arc soft keyboard may be coming to Windows Phone 8  —  More than a year ago we reported on Microsoft designing a “one handed and next gen soft keyboard” for Windows Phone 8.  —  We now have a picture of the keyboard in question, courtesy of a leaked Microsoft Research presentation.

Google Makes Offer To EU Regulators To End Antitrust Probe  —  Google Inc. (GOOG) offered concessions to European Union regulators in an effort to end an antitrust investigation into allegations that the operator of the world's largest search engine discriminates against rivals.

VLC 2.0.2 adds Retina display support, kills font cache, and more  —  VLC 2.0.2 has just been released for Windows and OS X, and while the update further tweaks video playback on both platforms, the major changes come to the version for Apple's desktop OS.  For those who took the plunge …

New York Judge Overrules Twitter: Tweets Broadcast to the Public ‘Belong to the Public’  —  Things are not looking very good for Malcolm Harris, the Occupy Wall Street protestor who was arrested for disorderly conduct for taking place in the 2011 protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

RIM's tailspin  —  The number of BlackBerry phones sold fell 41% year-on-year in the last RIM fiscal quarter.  Sequentially the fall was 30%.  Though surprisingly poor, I note that Nokia's smartphone business fell even more dramatically last quarter (down 50% y/y and 39% sequentially).

The Weather Channel Companies Acquire Weather Underground  —  The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC) today announced an agreement to acquire Weather Underground, a leading provider of Web based weather data.  The transaction, terms of which were not disclosed, was announced by TWCC chairman …

Google stole sharing idea for Hangouts and YouTube, lawsuit claims  —  A New York start-up claims that a video sharing feature in YouTube and Google+ is based on concepts that it showed to Google when the two companies met to discuss collaboration strategies in 2011.

Weekend Lightning Stung Amazon and Instagram Right Where It Hurts  —  Friday night's severe lightning storm knocked out power to millions of people on the East Coast, killed more than 20 people and left a sweltering mess in its wake.  —  The list of damages is long, but if you go down far enough …

Google's Hybrid Approach to Research  —  In this viewpoint, we describe how we organize computer science research at Google.  We focus on how we integrate research and development and discuss the benefits and risks of our approach.  The challenge in organizing R&D is great because CS is an increasingly broad and diverse field.

Microsoft Writing Off Nearly All of the $6.3 Billion it Paid For aQuantive  —  Microsoft said on Monday that it is taking a $6.2 billion non-cash charge to account for its disappointing 2007 acquisition of internet advertising firm aQuantive.  —  That's a huge charge-but even more significant …

Google improves “search by image”, now includes Knowledge Graph in results  —  When you're using Google for search, one of the cooler features is dragging or uploading an image into the search box and letting the company's computer vision technology find results based on matches.

Net Applications: iOS Web share hit record 65.3% in June  —  Android grew faster (38% to 24.5% year over year) but still trails the iPhone/iPad combo  —  FORTUNE — The presence of Apple's (AAPL) mobile devices on the Web continues to surge according to Net Applications and StatCounter …

Three Things I Have Learned From Ev, Biz, and Goldman  —  Since January, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman have been helping us build Branch.  I feel very lucky to call them mentors and friends, so I thought I would pay it forward by sharing some of the wisdom that they have shared with me.

Apple Tweaks Genius Bar To Increase Capacity  —  In reaction to an ever-increasing number of visitors to its Genius Bars and limited space to seat them, Apple is testing out a new configuration that increases Genius Bar capacity, and emphasizes the use of iPads to manage service records.

The other Windows 8 hits some snags  —  Microsoft Surface tablet packing an Nvidia ARM chip.  —  (Credit: Microsoft)  —  Don't be surprised if the other version of Windows 8 — you know, the one that doesn't run on Intel chips — stumbles out of the gate.