Verizon Vacation Blackout Reveals The New iPhone Will Launch On Friday, September 21  —  A trusted Verizon employee has just confirmed to TechCrunch that the carrier is having an all-staff vacation blackout from the dates of Friday, September 21 to September 30.  You know what that means, right?

Apple-Samsung Jury Told Not to Upgrade Gadgets Received as Evidence  —  Jurors hearing arguments between Apple and Samsung have been warned not to accept software updates or install apps on mobile gadgets they receive while deliberating the merits of the patent-infringement case.

Amazon Glacier: Archival Storage for One Penny Per GB Per Month  —  You Need Glacier  —  I'm going to bet that you (or your organization) spend a lot of time and a lot of money archiving mission-critical data.  No matter whether you're currently using disk, optical media or tape-based storage …

Inside Intellectual Ventures, the most hated company in tech  —  Nathan Myhrvold and other executives at the controversial company say critics simply don't understand what they're doing.  CNET went behind the scenes to understand what 40,000 patents and an unapologetic plan to make money from them really means.

Windows 8 Pro to be priced at $199 following $69.99 promotional pricing  —  Microsoft's Windows 8 Pro software will be priced at $199 after a promotional price of $69.99 expires on January 31st 2013, according to one source familiar with Microsoft's plans.  The software maker will also offer …

Updates to Skype for iPhone & Skype for iPad Improves Performance & Adds Photo Sharing  —  Millions of people use Skype for iPhone or Skype for iPad each month.  Today, with updates to both apps, we are introducing a frequently requested feature: Photo Sharing for iOS.

This Week in MarissYa: iPhones for All, Flickr Love and Management Musical Chairs  —  Even with all the swirl around the worrisome stock declines at Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, along with happier expected new product launches from Apple and Amazon, don't think things aren't cooking over in the land where Marissa Mayer reigns.

Apple Sued by Ex-Worker Who Says Jobs Guaranteed His Job  —  Wayne Goodrich, who says he was a confidant, sounding board and close adviser to Apple Inc. (AAPL) co- founder Steve Jobs, sued the iPhone maker claiming he was fired for no legitimate reason despite Jobs's promise of job security.

Exclusive: Barry Diller's IAC offers $300 million for About.com  —  (Reuters) - Barry Diller's IAC/Interactivecorp submitted an offer in excess of $300 million to buy the About.com information website from the New York Times Co, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger  —  In late 2010, Sean Brooks received three e-mails over a span of 30 hours warning that his accounts on LinkedIn, Battle.net, and other popular websites were at risk.  He was tempted to dismiss them as hoaxes …

Twitter may face govt axe in India  —  Twitter might face legal action if the popular microblogging site does not comply with Indian government's demand to censor objectionable content posted by its users.  —  Stung by the misinformation campaign that spread like wildfire through SMS …

Tech Confessional: The Googler Who Looks At The Worst Of The Internet  —  Sitting in the sun at a tech company cafeteria, this former Google worker described a year spent immersed in some of the darkest content available on the Internet.  His role at the tech company mainly consisted …

MetroPCS unveils budget-friendly 4G plan and new 4G phone  —  The carrier is rolling out a $55 unlimited 4G LTE plan and a $149 LG Motion 4G phone to sweeten the deal.  —  MetroPCS may hand the major carriers some competition, with its new 4G LTE plan for budget-conscious consumers.

Dell Beats Earnings Expectations, Pares Outlook on Weak Sales  —  Dell's quarterly numbers just came in and, as expected, it's a mixed bag of mostly bad news.  —  Per share earnings were 50 cents a share on sales of $14.48 billion.  The earnings exceeded the consensus expectation …

Apple patent lets users switch away from broadcast commercials automatically  —  Apple on Tuesday was granted a patent that allows users to skip unwanted audio and video broadcast segments such as commercials with on-device content like songs, podcasts or other media, possibly hinting …

Lockups and Insider Selling  —  There is a lot of sturm und drang out there in the worlds of social media, finacial media, and just plain media about all the lockups coming off and all the insider selling going on in some big internet stocks.  As someone who has played this game a few times, I tought I'd post some thoughts about this.

Google Play gift cards officially announced, now rolling out to Target, RadioShack and GameStop  —  We've seen hints of them in the Google Play app and some pretty clear evidence of them in the wild, and now Google has finally officially announced the availability of Google Play gift cards.

Google Launches Octane: A New JavaScript Benchmark Based On Popular Apps And Libraries  —  Google's Chrome team just launched Octane, a new JavaScript benchmark suite that aims to measure real-world performance.  Unlike most other benchmarks, which tend to use artificial tests developed …

Office Web Apps integrate touch support on iPad and Windows 8, brace us for an Office 2013 world  —  Touch-friendliness is a centerpiece for the upcoming Office 2013, but don't fret if you prefer to live in the world of Office Web Apps ahead of time.  As of new preview versions of both OWA and Office 365 …

Synaptics ThinTouch: Bringing the Capacitive Touch Revolution to Mechanical Keyboards  —  Earlier this month Synaptics announced the acquisition of Pacinian, a company that focused on physical keyboards that used capacitive touch.  To expand, Synaptics has to look beyond clickpad and capacitive touch controllers into adjacent markets.

Facebook brings mentions to 3rd party apps via Open Graph  —  Facebook announced today it's giving developers a new toy: the ability to tag a user's Facebook friends in an off-Facebook app.  —  So, for example, in your food-picture-taking app, Bob the User might snap a picture of his macaroni …

Google, Boingo bring their free Wi-Fi experiment to mall rats  —  Google and Boingo are building on their free Wi-Fi project in New York City, launching the advertising-paid access model in eight malls across the country.  Though the project is still in its infancy, it represents a growing trend …

Chrome OS gets updated with smaller apps list and option to save directly to Google Drive  —  Chromebook and Chromebox users (and anyone else using Chrome OS) have an update waiting for them that offers several usability improvements.  Before you go check for the update, however …