One Billion People on Facebook  —  This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.  —  If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you.  —  Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.

Zynga Lowering Full-Year Results Again; Recording Huge Negative for OMGPOP  —  Zynga is reporting preliminary third-quarter results today, but it won't do much to comfort investors who were already growing wary of the company's prospects.  —  The social games company says that the third quarter …

Updating our built-in apps for Windows 8 … As we get close to the general availability (GA) of Windows 8, there are many things that the Windows team and other teams at Microsoft have been doing to get ready.  Of course, the most important thing has been working with PC makers to help …

Microsoft to launch Surface at midnight on October 26th  —  Microsoft has started sending out invites to a special “Surface Reception” event on October 25th.  Alongside a Windows 8 introduction, the software giant will launch its highly anticipated tablet at midnight on October 26th — according to a company spokesperson.

Sprint Said to Eye MetroPCS Bid to Rival T-Mobile Offer  —  Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), the third- largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, is in the early stages of evaluating whether it should make a counter offer for MetroPCS Communications Inc. (PCS) to top Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) …

Facebook confirms it is scanning your private messages for links to increase Like counters  —  Yesterday I spotted a video submitted to Hacker News by the Polish startup Killswitch.me that clearly showed sending a link in a Facebook private message increases the Like counter on the link's originating third-party website.

Samsung's Galaxy phones drive record $7.3 billion profit  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics reported quarterly profit of $7.3 billion on Friday, a fourth straight record quarter and nearly double last year's figure, as strong sales of its Galaxy smartphones more than offset reduced orders …

Mozilla's First Preview Release Of Firefox Metro Arrives On Windows 8  —  With the official launch of Windows 8 just around the corner, Mozilla today unveiled its first preview release of Firefox Metro.  The Metro version of Firefox, Mozilla says, was “designed from the ground up for Windows 8″ …

Interbrand: Apple, Amazon, Samsung fast becoming brand darlings, ousting crusty traditional labels  —  Interbrand likes to give the world's top companies a brand value, or a mix of their on-the-ground fiscal performance with an estimate of the premium they can ask through name alone.

Intel unveils personal cloud platform for SMBs, consumers  —  Summary: Intel is diving into the personal cloud storage space with a new Atom-based platform targeted towards both consumers and small businesses.  —  Rachel King  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Intel is getting into the personal cloud storage game …

Suspicion over Dotcom net glitch  —  Telecom engineers investigating internet irregularities weeks before GCSB has said it started spying on him.  —  Kim Dotcom's internet connection was being diverted inside New Zealand weeks before the Government Communications Security Bureau says it started spying on him.

Worldwide raids on web drug sales  —  A worldwide crack-down on the sale of fake and unlicensed medicines on the internet has netted £6.5m of drugs.  —  UK drug officials took part in a series of co-ordinated raids with Interpol and agencies from more than 100 different countries over the past nine days.

No more clipboards: ZocDoc lets patients check in online  —  Since launching in 2007, ZocDoc has been laser-focused on bringing its appointment booking engine to doctors and patients in cities across the country.  But with the Thursday rollout of its new patient Check-in product …

Razer's Project Fiona Gaming Tablet Confirmed for Production  —  Razer garnered a lot of press at CES this year with their Fiona gaming tablet, a 10.1" Windows-based tablet packing a Core i7 processor and two joystick handles featuring dual analog sticks and a typical controller-style button layout.

Oracle appeals ruling in lawsuit over Google's use of Java  —  The database giant takes issue with the judge's decision in the case that the APIs used in Android are noncopyrightable.  —  Oracle announced today it plans to appeal the verdict in its long-running patent and copyright battle with Google over Java.

Cisco buys VCider to boost its distributed cloud vision  —  Cisco is buying vCider, a specialist in virtual network overlay technology (and a former GigaOM Structure LaunchPad finalist).  The move is a response to VMware's acquisition of Nicira and its software-defined networking technology …

Street View comes to Google Maps on your Mobile Browser  —  To make Google Maps even more comprehensive, accurate and useful, today we're making Street View available on mobile browsers.  With access to Street View on your phone, you can use panoramic, street-level imagery to explore and navigate the places around you, even on the go.