Sparrow and Google  —  We're excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!  We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience.  Now we're joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision …

Making money with your apps through the Windows Store … Currently, all the apps that are available in the Windows Store are free for customers to acquire—keeping with the preview nature of the Windows 8 releases to date.  At Windows 8 RTM (Release To Manufacturing), all developers signing …

Nexus 7 sees “incredible demand”, sells out at major retailers  —  Summary: The Nexus 7 has already sold out at retailers such as GameStop, Staples, and Costco.  Here's how you can get one.  —  Ed Burnette  —  Follow @eburnette  —  Introduced 3 weeks ago at Google I/O 2012 …

Video: Nexus 7 touchscreen defect  —  As Nexus 7 pre-orders start filtering out into the world, users are finally getting acquainted with Google's 7-inch slate.  There is a lot to like about the device; it's fast, solidly built, and has great software.  I should say, these things are true in most cases.

v1  —  As betaworks and Digg both announced on their blogs, we are taking over Digg and turning it back into a startup.  What they didn't mention is that we're rebuilding it from scratch.  In six weeks.  —  On August 1, after an adrenaline and caffeine-fueled six weeks, we're rolling out a new v1.

Russian hacker strikes again with new ‘free in-app purchase’ exploit for Mac apps on OS X  —  Alexei Borodin, the same hacker who came up with the recent in-app purchase exploit that allowed free transactions for iOS users has struck again with a new method that allows users of Mac apps to do the same.

Venture firm General Catalyst loses co-founder  —  John Simon out at General Catalyst  —  FORTUNE — John Simon is leaving General Catalyst Partners, a Cambridge, Mass.-based venture capital firm he co-founded back in 2000.  His investments have included Bullhorn (acquired by Vista Equity Partners) …

Microsoft fixes ‘big boobs’ coding gaffe  —  Microsoft is gearing up for the release of Windows 8 that will run on desktops, tablets and phones  —  Microsoft has swiftly fixed an embarrassing gaffe which saw a chunk of code labelled “big boobs”.  —  The hexadecimal string 0xB16B00B5 …

Tokyo, Seoul, and Paris get faster, cheaper broadband than US cities  —  Tokyo is one of the world's leading cities for high-speed Internet access.  —  Kondo Atsush  —  A new study from the New America Foundation suggests that the United States is lagging in the broadband speed race.

Intelligent, Context-Aware Personal Assistant App “Friday” Makes Its Public Debut  —  How appropriate.  That crazy Android personal assistant app called Friday is debuting today, on a Friday.  Marketing genius!  Friday comes from a startup called Dexetra, the same folks who previously launched the Siri-like Android app Iris.

Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously  —  In a future conflict, an adversary unable to match our military supremacy on the battlefield might seek to exploit our computer vulnerabilities here at home.  —  Last month I convened an emergency meeting of my cabinet and top homeland security, intelligence and defense officials.

Stanford and Venter Institute Simulate an Entire Organism With Software  —  STANFORD, Calif. — Scientists at Stanford University and the J. Craig Venter Institute have developed the first software simulation of an entire organism, a humble single-cell bacterium that lives in the human genital and respiratory tracts.

Apple says iOS 6 to fix in-app-purchase fraud, gives developers a temporary fix  —  Apple has responded to the recent App Store in-app-purchase bug and fraud with an email and temporary solution for registered iOS developers.  This email includes a link to a new Apple developer web document …

Google is now rolling out Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, to Nexus S phones on various carriers  —  According to Google, it is now rolling out Jelly Bean (Android OS 4.1) to Nexus S phones on a few different carriers: … According to Android Police, the rollout started yesterday …

Exclusive: Comcast Prepping 305 Mbps Tier - To Counter Verizon's New Quantum FiOS Offerings  —  Last month Verizon raised the bar for residential broadband (and high prices) when they announced their new Quantum FiOS tiers, which included a new top shelf 300 Mbps downstream, 65 Mbps upstream tier for $205 a month.

VCs pump $2.1 billion into early-stage startups, biggest haul in more than a decade  —  Venture capitalists are pumping more money into early-stage companies.  And that, say some industry watchers, is very much a good thing.  According to the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers …

Google Says Some Apple Inventions Are So Great They Ought to Be Shared  —  Patent wars, Apple CEO Tim Cook once said, are “a pain in the ass.”  Few more so than the one the company is waging against Google's new Motorola Mobility division and the new argument the defendants are making around standards-essential patents (SEPs).