Exclusive: Yahoo and Facebook Strike Patent Peace Deal, Significantly Expanding Ad and Content Partnership  —  Executives at Yahoo and Facebook have completed an extensive strategic deal, as part of a final settlement of their contentious patent infringement lawsuit and countersuit.

Simpler search  —  We're constantly working to make Twitter search the simplest way to discover what's happening in real time.  To that end, today we're introducing search autocomplete and ‘People you follow’ search results to twitter.com.  In addition to recent improvements like related query suggestions …

AT&T to launch new blocking service for stolen devices on July 10th  —  AT&T will launch a new service for reporting and blocking stolen devices on Tuesday, according to a trusted source.  The service will allow customers to deny voice, data and SMS access to any individual phone or tablet …

So, That's It For Thunderbird  —  Mozilla is not “stopping” Thunderbird development, it has just decided that: “continued innovation on Thunderbird is not the best use of our resources given our ambitious organizational goals.”  And it's pulling people off the project.  But it's not stopping?

Introducing BitTorrent Torque  —  Over a decade ago we introduced BitTorrent technology and BitTorrent clients, and the Internet was profoundly changed.  This week we are aiming to revolutionize the web once again by integrating the power of BitTorrent with the most familiar experience on a computer: the browser.

What Amazon Brings to the Smartphone Market  —  The notion that Amazon might do a smartphone is not new, though a new Bloomberg report suggests that one might hit the market sooner rather than later.  —  And, while clearly a novice at making phones, Amazon brings a lot of know-how and relevant skills …

Microsoft vets weigh in: Here's what needs to change  —  The opening spread of the upcoming Vanity Fair piece on Microsoft and Steve Ballmer.  —  Stephen Toulouse worked at Microsoft for 18 years before leaving earlier this year, so he read Kurt Eichenwald's Vanity Fair piece on the company's “Lost Decade” with a former insider's eye.

Facebook to Target Ads Based on App Usage  —  Facebook Inc. is launching a new type of mobile advertising that targets consumers based on the apps they use, pushing the limits of how companies track what people do on their phones.  —  The social network is tracking the apps that people use through …

Apple Removes Negative Reviews From Apps Affected By DRM Bug [Updated]  —  Earlier this week, an error in Apple's DRM code generation for App Store apps caused a number of app updates to crash on launch.  The issue, initially reported by Instapaper developer Marco Arment …

At ‘Hacker Hostels,’ Living on the Cheap and Dreaming of Digital Glory  —  SAN FRANCISCO — From the outside it's just a beige three-story building in a quiet residential neighborhood.  But inside, in a third-floor apartment, there are enough Ikea bunk beds to sleep 10 people, crammed into two bedrooms.

Hulu CEO: I Don't Want To Run Yahoo  —  Yesterday, Yahoo's CEO search was down to two names: interim CEO Ross Levinsohn and Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.  —  Now it's down to one.  A Hulu spokesperson just sent us a statement confirming that Yahoo was interested in Kilar but that he doesn't want the job.

Under the Hood: Timeline apps behind Facebook engineering  —  A big part of working at Facebook is dogfooding our own products.  Before new features roll out to the public, our team uses them frequently and thoroughly to figure out what we can do better.  So when we started building Open Graph …

Def Leppard re-record own songs to win back digital download revenue  —  Sheffield rockers Def Leppard, probably most famous for their 1987 hit “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” are going rogue.  After lengthy negotiations with Universal Music, the band has been unable to agree a suitable royalty fee …

Apple's next iPhone rumored to feature quad-core processor  —  Apple's next-generation iPhone will be powered by a quad-core ARM processor based on Samsung's Exynos 4 architecture, according to a new report.  —  The claim comes from the sometimes-reliable DigiTimes, which cited …

British Airways flies into privacy storm over Google identity checks on passengers  —  British Airways today faced a backlash from privacy campaigners after it revealed plans to use the internet to create “dossiers” on passengers.  —  The airline said it wanted to be able to deliver a more personal touch by researching passengers.

Kim Dotcom Can See One File Of 22 Million Says FBI  —  A 40-page document “cherry-picked” from nearly 22 million emails is the only information the FBI believes should be made available to Kim Dotcom before his extradition hearing.  —  Lawyers spent yesterday arguing over what the internet mogul …

Just By Itself, HP Increased Tech Industry Layoffs Tenfold This Year  —  Layoffs in the tech industry are 10 times higher so far this year than they were for the same period in 2011—and it's all thanks to the hard cuts CEO Meg Whitman has put in place at Hewlett-Packard.