Exclusive: Microsoft's Metro branding to be replaced ‘this week’ according to internal memo  —  Microsoft is killing off the use of its Metro design name to describe a tiled interface in Windows Phone and Windows 8.  We brought you news of the change earlier today, but a tipster has provided …

Samsung to unveil new Galaxy Note in late August  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics is set to take the wraps off a sequel to its popular Galaxy Note smartphone at an event on August 29, about two weeks before the possible debut of Apple's new iPhone.  —  The two arch rivals are bracing …

Platform Hygiene  —  Yesterday, Google's Vic Gundotra proudly exclaimed that “I'm not interested in screwing over developers” as he piled on top of Dalton Caldwell's post accusing Facebook of being naughty on the platform front.  I'm not here to defend Facebook or Twitter or anyone else …

Bye bye Tweetdeck - Tweetbot for Mac's new alpha has multiple, docking timelines, a menu bar icon and more  —  Tweetbot for Mac Alpha has been updated to version 0.6.3 with some fantastic new features, including the ability to pop out separate timeline windows and dock them together …

Final copy of Windows 8 leaks online  —  The final build of Windows 8 has leaked to the internet, just a day after Microsoft confirmed it had finished the development cycle for the new operating system.  Although MSDN and TechNet customers won't officially receive access …

Facebook Is Now Worth $58 Billion, Not The ‘$39 Billion’ Everyone Thinks...  Last week, I noted that most financial and market data sites are wrong about a key piece of information for Facebook: Its market capitalization.  —  These sites, which include Yahoo Finance and Google Finance …

LinkedIn Q2 Earnings Beat The Street: $228.2M In Sales; EPS of $0.03  —  LinkedIn has just released Q2 earnings, and the enterprise-focused social network continues to rise.  It's posted revenues of $228.2 million and earnings per share of $0.03 (non-GAAP EPS: $0.16).

Mayer Brings in First Googler — in PR — to Yahoo  —  New CEO Marissa Mayer has brought in her first Googler over to Yahoo — one of her longtime PR staffers, Anne Espiritu.  Espiritu has worked closely with Mayer at the search giant, especially on various media appearances and on consumer products.

Does Cybercrime Really Cost $1 Trillion?  —  Gen. Keith Alexander is the director of the National Security Agency and oversees U.S. Cyber Command, which means he leads the government's effort to protect America from cyberattacks.  Due to the secretive nature of his job …

Amex Knocks Google for Misleading Comments About Its Role in Google Wallet  —  American Express has not formally agreed to participate in Google Wallet, which is why it was surprised yesterday when Google said it, along with Visa, Discover and MasterCard, were now forms of payment in Google's mobile payments application.

Marc Andreessen Steps Down From Dalton Caldwell's Mixed Media Labs Board  —  Wednesday was an ugly day for infighting in the Valley, after Dalton Caldwell, a Silicon Valley veteran and serial entrepreneur, posted a withering missive to his personal blog on Wednesday, in which he accused Facebook …

Apple initially wanted an iPhone with shaped glass, deposition reveals  —  The Apple-Samsung trial has provided us with an absolute treasure trove of information regarding Apple's iPhone prototypes.  Below is why Apple initially shied away from shaped glass and why an iPhone prototype resembling …

BREAKING: David Pogue Has Lost His iPhone (UPDATE #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16—THEY GOT IT—Still Updating #17 #18)  —  New York Times technology writer David Pogue has lost his iPhone.  He has posted a screenshot of where it might be on Lockerz.com, though.

PSA: Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners now have direct access to Google Wallet  —  Nobody puts Google Wallet in the corner for long, not even Big Red.  Though the carrier courted controversy late last year by withholding support for the burgeoning NFC-based platform amidst security concerns, it appears to have finally changed tack.

Demonoid Starts Redirecting to Ads and Malware  —  Demonoid is one of the world's largest and longest standing sites that not only indexes torrents, but also operates its own tracker.  —  Although the site has a reasonable uptime record, there have been a few occasions where it has not only gone down, but has disappeared completely.

3-week old Jelly Bean hits 0.8% Android device adoption, as Ice Cream Sandwich reaches 15.9%  —  It's been just over a month since Google officially announced Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) and barely three weeks since the first rollout, but already the latest flavor of Android is installed …

Exclusive: FiveStars Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card  —  FiveStars, a loyalty program for local retailers, has raised $13.9 million in a first round of funding.  —  The Mountain View, Calif., company is trying to eliminate the need for loyalty punch cards in a very low-tech way …

Apple requests ruling in its favor over Samsung press leak, judge prohibits 2001: A Space Odyssey references  —  At the beginning of the week, we reported Samsung leaked slides to the press that Judge Koh excluded as evidence in the Samsung-Apple trial currently underway.