Announcing the Firefox OS Developer Preview Phone!  —  Firefox OS is a new mobile operating system built entirely using open web standards.  In Firefox OS, HTML5 apps can do “phone things” - they can make the phone vibrate, make a phone call or send a text message.

Microsoft Grows Surface Family  —  Announces Surface Windows 8 Pro availability, market expansion and new accessories.  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Surface family of PCs is growing.  Its newest model — Surface Windows 8 Pro — will be available for purchase on Feb. 9 …

Microsoft Might Kick In $1-$3 Billion To Help With The Dell Buy Out  —  Microsoft is in talks to participate in the deal to take Dell private, CNBC's David Faber reports.  According to his sources, Microsoft might invest $1-$3 billion with the group looking to take Dell private.

An update to embedded Tweets  —  Tweets bring you closer to what's happening around the world, from breaking news to global conversations.  With embedded Tweets, you can see and interact with Tweets across the web.  We often embed Tweets here on our blog to highlight great Tweets …

Verizon Q4 loss doubles thanks to Sandy, pension costs  —  The telecommunications provider saw revenue rise nearly 6 percent on strong customer growth in the wireless business.  —  Superstorm Sandy and mounting pension costs took its toll on Verizon.  —  The New York telecommunications provider posted …

Apple Pulls 500px's Mobile Apps From The App Store, Claiming It's Too Easy To Search For Nude Photos  —  Toronto photo-sharing startup 500px is reporting today that both of its applications, 500px for iOS and its recent acquisition ISO500, have been pulled from the Apple App Store due to concerns about nude photos.

As Obama heads back to office, a battle rages over the tech that got him reelected  —  Programmers and politicians spar over sharing the campaign-winning code with the public  —  The tech team behind the 2012 Obama campaign has probably received more attention than any political programmers in history.

Yahoo Poised to Acquire Content Curation Site Snip.it  —  Marissa Mayer's Yahoo is in the process of acquiring a startup to help its efforts to become a destination for content.  —  Yahoo is expected to announce this week that it has acquired Snip.it, a Pinterest-like site for article curation …

A close look at how Oracle installs deceptive software with Java updates  —  Summary: Oracle's Java plugin for browsers is a notoriously insecure product.  Over the past 18 months, the company has released 11 updates, six of them containing critical security fixes.

AT&T acquires Alltel's US retail wireless business for $780m to boost its rural coverage  —  American telecommunications giant AT&T has signed an agreement with Atlantic Tele-Network to acquire its retail wireless operations, which currently operate under the Alltel brand …

Hot email app Mailbox launches reservation system to handle demand, arrives for free in a few weeks  —  Mailbox, an app that is attempting to change the way that we manage our inboxes, has managed to garner a significant amount of hype over the past few weeks.

Samsung Ventures Buys Fixmo Stake to Take on BlackBerry  —  Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) bought a stake in Canadian security software maker Fixmo Inc., looking to extend its smartphone growth with businesses and government customers traditionally served by Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)

The Happiness Machine How Google became such a great place to work  —  A cube at Google's global headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.  —  Courtesy Google.  —  A few years ago, Google's human resources department noticed a problem: A lot of women were leaving the company.

Etsy Acquires Mixel for Mobile Team  —  Craft marketplace Etsy has acquired mobile photo appmaker Mixel as part of its efforts to beef up native mobile app development.  —  Mixel launched in Nov. 2011 as a hyped collage creation app for the iPad, and later pivoted to be more of a simple photo manipulation tool for the iPhone.

Google integrates Google+ profiles into its company jobs board, adding one-click applications and more  —  Google has updated its company jobs board with support for Google+ profiles, allowing users to see more relevant search results, star jobs they want to return to later on and receive curated email updates.

Basecamp Personal Takes Project Management Out Of The Office, Ditches Subscriptions For A One-Time Fee  —  Basecamp, the project management platform from 37 Signals that originally launched back in 2004, has withstood the test of time to become one of the established players in the online collaboration market.

Inside H-P's Missed Chance To Avoid a Disastrous Deal  —  Days before Hewlett-Packard Co. dived into an $11 billion software deal it almost instantly regretted, it missed a chance to back away.  —  During a call with an H-P delegation, outside auditors for British software maker Autonomy Corp. mentioned …

Who Needs Starbucks?  Dwolla Gets Into Gov't With Iowa Tax-Paying Plan  —  This could save you money—and make the company much more of it.  —  Paying taxes in Iowa could soon be a tad less annoying than in other states.  —  That's because Iowa is accepting some tax payments using startup …

LG's Optimus G Will Hit LTE Markets In 50 New Countries Starting In Late January  —  LG's Optimus G might not have gotten the same attention as the Nexus 4, but it's the cream of LG's 2012 crop.  And to that end, the company has just announced that it will roll out the Optimus G smartphone globally …