Apple Seeds Golden Master of OS X Mountain Lion to Developers  —  “200 New Features” Mountain Lion slide shown at WWDC  —  Apple released the Golden Master (GM) version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers today.  The “golden master” designation indicates that this version of the software …

Microsoft shows off USB stick capable of bringing Windows 8 to older machines  —  Call it “Windows 8 on a stick.”  During Microsoft's Digital Worldwide Partner Conference on Monday, Microsoft showed off a USB stick that doesn't just help users bring their personal data to different PCs …

RIM CEO on What Went Wrong and the Future of BlackBerry  —  In an exclusive Q&A, CIO.com's Al Sacco chats with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins on the current state of BlackBerry and how it fell from grace, what the company is doing to ensure things in Waterloo don't get worse, and the product delay problems that have plagued RIM.

Why GitHub abandoned the bootstrapper's ship for a $100M Series A  —  After half a decade of preaching about the virtues of bootstrapping, the GitHub founders are finally getting in bed with a major VC firm to the tune of $100 million — that's $1 million per employee at the still-small startup.

Next Issue brings its all-you-can-read magazine store to the iPad, plans start at $10 a month  —  The last time we heard about Next Issue, the all-you-can-read magazine store was launching on Android, with an iOS version said to be coming “soon.”  Three months later, the startup's made good on its promise …

Let's Try to Think This iPad Mini Thing All the Way Through  —  We're Talking About a Smaller iPad, Not a Bigger iPod Touch  —  I've seen a fair bit of speculation that, if Apple produces a 7-inch iOS device, then maybe it would be a bigger iPod Touch, not a smaller iPad.

Kim Dotcom's Extradition Hearing Postponed Until March 2013  —  In this Feb. 22, 2012 file photo, Kim Dotcom, the founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, comments after he was granted bail and released in Auckland, New Zealand.  The U.S. wants to extradite Dotcom from New Zealand …

Google, FTC Near Settlement on Privacy  —  Google Inc. is close to a deal to pay $22.5 million to settle charges related to its surreptitious bypassing of the privacy settings of millions of Apple Inc. users, according to officials briefed on the settlement terms.

AT&T Exclusive: Lumia 900 is pretty in pink  —  The Nokia Lumia 900 stands apart in the smartphone market with solid polycarbonate construction, a beautiful ClearBlack Display, stunning design, and with the simple and beautiful Windows Phone operating system.

Firefox Developer: ‘Everybody Hates Firefox Updates’  —  Look, Yet Another Firefox Update.  Screenshot: Webmonkey  —  Mozilla's Jono DiCarlo has come out to say what many a Firefox user has long been thinking: the rapid release cycle is killing Firefox.  —  DiCarlo has a long …

Samsung Tops Apple on Fortune Global 500 List  —  Placing below the top 50 on Fortune's Global 500 list may not be every company's dream, but Apple can still count this year's No. 55 slot as an accomplishment.  —  Rising from number 111 last year, Apple's profits grew by almost $12 billion …

Porn Studios Accused of Screwing Their Fans in BitTorrent Lawsuits  —  A handful of pornography producers are being accused of racketeering, fraud, defamation and other charges in connection to their BitTorrent online litigation trolling strategies.  —  The program is simple …

Eric Schmidt: The Great Firewall of China will fall  —  Technology and information penetration in China will eventually force the Great Firewall of China to crumble and even lead to the political opening of the Chinese system, according to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Google Chrome 21 beta can interact with cameras, mics, and game controllers  —  The latest beta version of Google Chrome adds two new APIs that allow web developers to do a few interesting things.  They can write web apps that will use your computer's mic or camera without a plugin.

Lady Gaga's social network “Little Monsters” opens its doors to everyone  —  We told you about Lady Gaga and her jump into social networking with the site “Little Monsters.”  The site has been in private beta, but users all over the globe can now sign up.  —  Invites had been trickling …

Noise Free says Apple stole its technology, sues to stop patent claim  —  A Silicon Valley firm called Noise Free says it showed Apple its secret noise cancellation technology in a series of meetings but that Apple then turned around and used the technology without permission for its iPad and iPhone devices.

About the future of Thunderbird  —  Jb Piacentino  —  Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Jb Piacentino, the managing Director of Thunderbird, following the recent Thunderbird announcement.  —  TN : Hi Jb, I read on the Web that Thunderbird is dead.  Is it true or is the rumor of Thunderbird's death greatly exaggerated?

Google Nexus 7 Tablet on Sale: Staples Takes Pre-Orders  —  Staples says it will carry the Google Nexus 7 tablet in its brick-and-mortar stores later this month, and that Google's 7-inch Android tablet is now available for pre-sale on its website.  —  The office-supply retailer's site …

How Big Music Threatened Startups and Killed Innovation  —  By interviewing 31 CEOs, company founders and VPs who operated in the digital music scene during the past 10 years, Associate Professor Michael A. Carrier at Rutgers University School of Law has produced a most enlightening report …

Reddit lifts its ban on “The Atlantic”  —  The Atlantic has returned to Reddit.  —  A month after the social news site kicked out the news magazine and dozens of other sites —including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Discovery News—for spam, Reddit has welcomed many back into the warm embrace of its monster traffic, with little fanfare.

Sexy Payments Startup Stripe Swipes $20M From General Catalyst, Sequoia, Thiel And More  —  White-hot payments startup Stripe has closed a $20 million Series B round of financing, led by General Catalyst with existing A-list investors Sequoia, Peter Thiel (personally) and Elad Gil also following on.

Speech recognition anyone?  AT&T opens up Watson API  —  Look out Nuance Communications, there's a new speech recognition player in town.  Nuance can't simply buy up this potential competitor as it has in the past since this company happens to be AT&T. Ma Bell has taken the locks off …

One-bit Internet: The iPad is/isn't a content creation device  —  In the conclusion to my Retina MacBook repairability post, I wrote: “on the Internet, it often seems that everything must be compressed to a one-bit image: black or white, triumph or catastrophe, the very best or the absolute worst.”