Live: Windows 8′s Big Day  —  It's a big day for Microsoft as the company gets set to launch Windows 8, the biggest change in years for its flagship operating system.  —  Windows 8 moves Windows into new directions.  It can run on traditional PC processors as well as those traditionally used in phones and tablets.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has plans for more hardware  —  Steve Ballmer: 'This is one of two or three big moments in Microsoft's history'  —  Microsoft's chief boss has confirmed he plans to release more devices.  —  Steve Ballmer told the BBC: “Is it fair to say we're going to do more hardware?

MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Late 2012 Teardown  —  Apple just expanded their Retina family.  The newest bundle of joy: a 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display.  It's small, it's sleek, and all those pixels are pretty darn snazzy.  What goes best with a new gadget?  Yep, you guessed it: kittens.

UK retailer Carphone Warehouse pushes Nexus 4 preorders early, promises delivery by October 30  —  Getting a little ahead of itself, UK mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse has pushed live preorders for LG's Nexus 4, confirming specifications and a delivery date of October 30.

Pinterest pierces Top 50 most-visited sites list  —  Though Google still reigns as No. 1, a ComScore study shows that Pinterest joined other social networks for the most frequently visited sites in the U.S. for September.  —  ComScore released its list of Top 50 most-visited Web sites …

Audio Comes to Flipboard on Android  —  Starting today, Flipboard fans on Android smartphones can add a soundtrack to their flipping.  That's right—Flipboard on Android now has audio.  —  This means that you can now enjoy everything featured in our Audio category in the Content Guide …

View later service Pocket gets a crisp and capable Mac app at last  —  Today, view later service Pocket gets a beautiful Mac app to compliment its apps for Android, iOS and the web.  It offers a capable translation of the Pocket paradigm from its other incarnations to the Mac design language without giving up its own unique flavor.

New Kindles start shipping today in Europe, Lovefilm launches on Kindle Fire  —  As promised, Amazon has started shipping its latest Kindles on the other side of the Atlantic, with the Kindle Paperwhite as well as the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD making the trip.

From Typing To Gliding And Back Again: SwiftKey Touchscreen Keyboard Maker Adds Swype-Style Input, Calls It SwiftKey Flow  —  It's a tale of two increasingly similar touchscreen keyboards: SwiftKey's latest move to counter Nuance-owned rival Swype is to adopt a Swype-style input method …

Sprint sells 1.5 million iPhones, 1 million other smartphones, but makes a net loss of $767 million  —  Sprint's latest financials show that the network is stemming its losses, but is still taking a hit on a $767 million net loss and an operating loss of $231 million.

Torrent Site Webhost Ordered to Pay “Piracy” Damages  —  For years Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has tried to find out who is behind the SumoTorrent website.  —  After being initially hosted in the Netherlands, the site moved to Canada to escape BREIN's jurisdiction, but it later returned as a client of hosting provider XS Networks.

Facebook's final Instagram purchase price: $715 million in cash and stock  —  Today Facebook detailed the final Instagram purchase information in its 10-Q. The company stated that the final purchase of Instagram will sit in its accounting as $521 million.  —  That figure was arrived …

Google, Microsoft and Nokia launch one-stop ‘hide from maps’ service in Germany  —  Summary: Google, Microsoft and other companies have come together to help Germans to blur pictures of their properties in mapping services like Google Street View.  The service has been made necessary …

Judge steps down in patent lawsuit filed over Apple's Siri  —  In a new lawsuit that claims Apple's virtual personal assistant is infringing on already developed patent technology, the judge recuses himself because of “interest” in the tech company.  —  A recently filed lawsuit over Apple's Siri …

Exclusive: Huawei partner offered U.S. tech to Iran  —  (Reuters) - An Iranian partner of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a Chinese company that has denied breaking U.S. sanctions, last year tried to sell embargoed American antenna equipment to an Iranian firm, according to documents and interviews.

Verizon, AT&T put Samsung's Galaxy Note II on pre-sale for $300 with a two-year contract  —  Samsung's Galaxy Note II played coy at first by only hanging out with the European crowd, but now that it's here, it's the life of the US carrier party.  The two biggest, AT&T and Verizon …

A Stuxnet Future?  Yes, Offensive Cyber-Warfare is Already Here  —  According to Mihoko Matsubara, the Stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear facilities demonstrates that well-resourced actors now have the capacity to use offensive cyber capabilities to fragment command and control structures …

Education, Technology “Journalism,” and the Apple PR Machine  —  I wasn't planning to write anything about Apple's media event yesterday.  I tuned in to the livestream, but when all the announcements were made, it seemed clear to me that nothing that was revealed on stage in San Jose was that significant to education.

iPad mini won't upset low-end market: analysts  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc's “iPad mini” will attract new customers but the higher-than-expected price is unlikely to make it a threat to low-cost tablets such as Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, analysts said, in a muted reaction to the new tablet.

Apple confirms that 12W adapter will charge iPads quicker than older 10W adapters  —  The morning of Apple's iPad mini event earlier this week, we told you there was a handful of new accessories coming including four new Lightning adapters and a 12W USB power adapter.

Telefonica Digital Buys Video Chat Platform TokBox, An Airtime For The Rest Of Us  —  Telefonica Digital, the new media arm of the giant Spanish carrier Telefonica, has made another big investment in its bid to become an international communications platform extending beyond basic voice and data services.

Alibaba-owned e-commerce giant Taobao quietly launches mapping service in China  —  Apple's decision to ship iOS 6 without Google Maps last month was an opportunity seized upon by Baidu in China almost immediately.  Now, following the calm after the #Mapgate storm, a new challenger has entered …