Microsoft unveils the new Office  —  Delivers Office as a cloud service while harnessing innovations enabled by Windows 8  —  Today, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, available at office.com/preview.

Apple May Meet Tablet Competition With a Smaller iPad  —  The tech companies are at it again — trying to catch the blockbuster iPad in a race to win the tablet market.  —  Google on Friday began shipping its Nexus 7, which is smaller and less expensive than Apple's iPad …

Apple Releases iOS 6 Beta 3 to Developers  —  Apple today released the third beta of iOS 6, the company's next-generation mobile operating system set to launch “this fall”, presumably alongside new iPhone hardware in the September-October timeframe.  —  The third beta, which arrives as Build 10A5355d …

Apple Store overnights happening July 24.  Mountain Lion launch the next day?  —  We've heard a few whispers (3 and counting) that Apple Stores both in the United States and overseas have planned overnights for Tuesday, July 24th.  With OS X Mountain Lion launching “in July”, according to Apple …

Introducing a Simpler Homepage  —  Millions of you are coming to LinkedIn everyday to discover and discuss what matters most to your professional life.  And today, we've started to roll out a simpler and easier way to navigate Homepage experience that offers quick access to the relevant information …

Skype confirms ‘rare’ bug that sends messages to unintended contacts, promises fix soon  —  Only a handful of Skype users have reported this problem over at the support forum, but what they're complaining about is pretty hair-raising.  They say that, following an update in June …

MSNBC.com Renamed to NBCNews.com as Microsoft and NBC Divorce  —  On Sunday night, MSNBC.com did something that successful Web sites almost never do: it renamed itself.  —  The site became NBCNews.com, signifying the end of a relationship between NBC and Microsoft that dates back to the earliest days of the commercial Web.

An iPad Lover's Take On The Nexus 7  —  Trolls, feel free to skip to the bottom of this column and post your comments immediately without reading a word.  Actually, who are we kidding — you didn't make it this far.  —  Everyone else, brace yourselves.  You may want small children to leave the room.

Apple begins bid to block in-app purchasing flaw, but service remains operational (for now)  —  Apple has begun taking steps to limit the impact of a flaw in its iOS in-app purchasing mechanism that allows iDevice owners to download free in-game content, but despite its initial efforts, the service remains operational.

Cisco Acquires Virtuata  —  Cisco is pleased to announce that it has acquired privately held Virtuata.  Based in Milpitas, Calif., Virtuata provides innovative capabilities for securing virtual machine level information in data centers and cloud environments.

Tax Break Nears End For Online Shoppers  —  Republican Governors, in Need of Revenue, Drop Opposition  —  Republican governors, eager for new revenue to ease budget strains, are dropping their longtime opposition to imposing sales taxes on online purchases, a significant political shift …

How Google is becoming an extension of your mind  —  SAN FRANCISCO — It's time to think of Google as much more than just a search engine, and that should both excite and spook you.  —  Search remains critical to the company's financial and technological future, but Google also is using …

U.S. Venture Capital Has Its Biggest Quarter Since Dot-Com Days  —  U.S. venture capitalists put $8.1 billion into 812 deals in the second quarter of 2012, their single largest quarter in more than a decade, according to CB Insights.  —  It's clear factors like the greater American economy …

Steam store search shows categories for non-gaming apps  —  The Steam app for Android shows a number of new categories that have little to do with gaming, which could be a shred of evidence that Valve is considering different kinds of apps for its popular game distribution service.

Samsung widens lead over Apple, says survey  —  Samsung appears to be widening its lead over Apple in the titanic battle over smartphone sales, according to a recent survey.  —  Analysts forecast that thanks to its flagship Galaxy S III, Samsung sold about 50 million smartphones in the second quarter, according to a survey by Reuters.

Here is why Facebook bought Spool  —  Over the weekend, news reports emerged that Facebook was buying Spool, a mobile-oriented social bookmarking service started by Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer.  At the surface, this seems like yet another acqua-hire but scratch a little deeper and you start …

Sky's pay-as-you-go online Now TV service launches tomorrow on PC, Mac and Android  —  We knew that BSkyB was launching its pay-as-you-go Internet TV service this summer, but the exact details around the launch, including the date, weren't known until now.  —  At a launch event in London today …

Sprint details full list of 15 cities with live LTE service  —  While Sprint may have turned on its LTE service a little early over the weekend, the carrier has officially announced the 15 total cities where users can get on its new network.  While we already knew about the main metropolitan areas …