New full-sized iPad with improved internals, Lightning connector to be announced next week at current prices  —  .  —  Apple will announce a refreshed version of its full-sized, 9.7-inch Retina display iPad at its media event October 23rd, according to our sources.

Initial Surface US pre-orders sold out, some UK orders delayed to November 2nd [update]  —  Microsoft's initial stock of Surface RT devices has sold out in the United States.  The 32GB base model, at $499, sold out earlier in the week, but all stock has now been depleted with a wait …

In Silicon Valley, Perks Now Begin at Home  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Phil Libin, chief executive of Evernote, turned to his wife last year and asked if she had suggestions for how the software company might improve the lives of its employees and their families.  His wife, who also works at Evernote, didn't miss a beat: housecleaning.

In Victory for Common Sense, Minnesota Will Allow Free Online Courses After All  —  In a win for common sense, Minnesota has decided to allow universities to offer free online courses to its residents after all.  —  Courtesy of Coursera  —  For one day, Minnesota's Office of Higher Education felt …

Google Weighs Mobile-Patent Antitrust Settlement  —  Google Inc. is weighing whether to settle a potential claim by U.S. authorities that it violated antitrust law in the way it handles mobile-device patents, according to a person familiar with the matter.  —  At issue, according …

Motorola confirms which phones won't get Jelly Bean, will get $100 upgrade discount instead  —  When Motorola announced its new Droid RAZR lineup in September it said it would be providing a $100 discount to some customers whose older Motorola phones weren't getting bumped up to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Google Books Ngram Viewer Gets A Larger Dataset, Now Understands Parts Of Speech  —  Google's Ngram Viewer for Google Books, a tool that lets you see how the usage of specific words has increased and decreased over time, just got an update.  The Ngram Viewer now draws upon a larger dataset …

Apple rebuts juror misconduct claims, says Samsung dropped the ball  —  Earlier this month Samsung accused the jury foreman in the Apple v. Samsung trial of misconduct, arguing that Apple's $1.049 billion win should be thrown out in favor of a new trial.  Now Apple has filed its response with the court …

Waze Is The Only App To Gain Meaningful Marketshare After Apple Maps Fail, Onavo Finds  —  The poor reception for Apple's new maps app temporarily boosted usage for other map applications.  But it didn't actually increase longer-term marketshare for any of them — except for one.

New Photos of 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro Show Battery Layout, Ports, and More [Updated]  —  Earlier this week, we pointed to a forum thread [Google translation] at Chinese site WeiPhone.com sharing a pair of photos of what was said to be the display assembly from Apple's upcoming 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

Money Troubles: What Happens When Kickstarters Fail?  —  Since Kickstarting games became a thing, everyone has soothsayed the possibility of how it could go wrong.  There are two significant ways, really.  A high profile game comes out, and is a big pile of doo-doo.  Or a high profile game never comes out at all.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: Windows 8 is ‘the end of Windows’  —  NEW YORK CITY — Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, always game for a little tech trash talk, said that Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system would be “the end of Windows” and that “Windows is irrelevant.”