Exclusive: Microsoft's Ballmer Throws Down Gauntlet Against Apple  —  Declaring that Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) and its partners had in the past “ceded some of the boundary between hardware and software innovation” to Apple (NSDQ:AAPL), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told CRN in an exclusive interview Monday …

RIM Said To Sell Jet To Help Save $1 Billion  —  Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), which has lost 95 percent of its market value since 2008, is selling one of its two business jets under a plan to save $1 billion in operating costs, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Google set to pay record $22.5M fine for violating Apple users' privacy  —  Google is expected to pay a $22.5 million fine, the largest in the history of the Federal Trade Commission, for bypassing the privacy settings of users of Apple's Safari Web browser.

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.

Oracle Buys Involver  —  Today we are excited to announce that we have signed an agreement for Oracle's purchase of Involver and we expect the transaction to close in the summer of 2012.  The proliferation of social media has changed the way that organizations and consumers interact.

Bitly Raises $15M Led by Khosla Ventures  —  Bitly, the link-shortening and tracking service, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Vinod Khosla at Khosla Ventures.  —  The round is aimed to help Bitly hire and grow.  “We make many millions of dollars per year …

Dropbox offers pro users twice the space as competition heats up  —  Dropbox pro subscribers can now get excited about twice as much storage space on their accounts for no additional cost, as the company plans to announce Tuesday that it will double the storage space it offers to paid subscribers.

Apple launches new iPad in China on July 20th (update: here's why)  —  Apple is about to complete an important part of the puzzle for the new iPad's world rollout: it just confirmed that its Retina display-packing tablet will reach mainland China on July 20th.

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 …

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 …

A Reality Series Intrudes on Silicon Valley, and Finds It Cringing  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley is finally getting the treatment once reserved for rowdy housewives and excitable chefs: its own Bravo reality series.  But the tech world is not quite ready for its close-up.

Steve Wozniak Shares His Thoughts On Google Glass And Microsoft's Surface Tablet  —  Steve Wozniak recently spoke at the Entel Summit in Chile, and as usual, expressed his thoughts on emerging technology.  Wozniak offered his opinion on Google Glass, Microsoft's Surface tablet, and even the Kim Dotcom case surrounding Megaupload.

Google Nexus Q hacked to run launcher, apps, Netflix, and more  —  While Google's Nexus Q is an undeniably attractive piece of hardware, we found the device to be lacking in overall functionality.  Enterprising developers are already on the case, however, with the latest Nexus Q hack bringing apps …

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.

News360 news reader app massively improved, business model not so much  —  News360's new iPad app has an unconventional main story display, but it's fast, intuitive, and rewarding to use.  —  (Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)  —  Last August I covered the news-reading iPad app, News360.

Paydiant Gets $12M More To Build Out Its White-Label Mobile Payments API  —  Paydiant, one of the more recent entrants in mobile payments, has closed a $12 million round of funding that it plans to use to build out its white-label, API-based product for banks and merchants to offer …

Apple's $74B overseas cash hoard leads all U.S. tech companies  —  A report released on Monday from investment bank Moody's revealed that Apple leads a list of technology U.S. companies holding overseas cash with some $74 billion, up from $64 billion in December and $35 billion at the end of 2010.

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.

Salesforce.com suffers worldwide disruption after power outage  —  Summary: Salesforce.com has suffered a series of outages that left many unable to use the CRM service.  Even the service status page was down for a while.  —  Zack Whittaker  —  Follow @zackwhittaker

Motorola announces Atrix HD for AT&T: 4.5-inch 720p display, LTE, Android 4.0 for $99  —  Motorola officially announced the much-leaked Atrix HD this morning, bringing the new handset to AT&T's LTE network.  At first blush, the new phone's something of a Droid RAZR / RAZR Maxx hybrid …

DirecTV-Viacom Dispute May Affect Access for 20 Million Customers  —  DirecTV customers may lose access to Viacom's 17 television channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central, at the end of the day on Tuesday because of a dispute between the two companies.

GroupMe, a Messaging Start-Up, Rolls Out Group Event Service  —  Remember the frenzy around mobile group-messaging services?  —  Group messaging made a splash last spring when a wave of services like GroupMe, Beluga, Yobongo, FastSociety, HurricaneParty and Kik arrived on the market.

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 …

Nokia Bridge: Nokia's Incubator Gives Departing Employees €25k And More To Pursue Ideas That Nokia Has Not  —  Nokia may still be fighting some pretty major fires on its burning platform, but it's also building some bridges — namely the Nokia Bridge incubator program …

Ouya's Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar  —  A handful of details briefly slipped out about the project earlier, but now it's here: the Ouya, an attempt not just to delve into the cutthroat world of TV game consoles but to try and shift the goal posts.