Einhorn to Sue Apple Over Plan to Discard Preferred Stock  —  David Einhorn has long been known as a fervent fan of Apple Inc. But the hedge fund magnate is making an unusually public stand to oppose a move by the maker of the iPad: a lawsuit.  —  His hedge fund, Greenlight Capital …

Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW — Silicon Valley's job growth has returned to dot-com boom levels and San Francisco has emerged as a major new tech hub.  But good times have not returned for all area residents and ethnic groups.

Microsoft Attacks Gmail Over Privacy In Latest “Scroogled” Campaign  —  If at first you don't succeed, get negative once again, seems to be the game plan at Microsoft.  Having attacked Google Shopping with a “Scroogled” campaign last November, Microsoft is back again.

800 million Android smartphones, 300 million iPhones in active use by December 2013, study says  —  By the end of this current year, 1.4 billion smartphones will be in use: 798 million of them will run Android, 294 million will run Apple's iOS, and 45 million will run Windows Phone, according to a new study by ABI Research.

Microsoft's new Xbox will include improved Siri-like speech recognition  —  DON'T MISS ANY STORIES FOLLOW THE VERGE  —  Microsoft will greatly improve its speech recognition technology inside the next Xbox, The Verge has learned.  Sources familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans have revealed that Durango …

The LinkedIn Rampage Will Be Tested Today  —  On the surface, today's LinkedIn earnings report is about revenue and profits, like any other quarterly filing.  At bottom, though, investors are looking for the answer to a question that gets well beyond accounting: Can the market support a second social network roughly as big as Facebook?

Suicide Girls founder launches mobile-first dating app Let's Date in the US, backed by Science Inc.  —  Last October, Los Angles-based Science Inc. launched its newest company, Let's Date, a service focused on being your social dating identity.  Founded by Sean Suhl, Steve Simitzis …

Here's our pick of the most promising companies from 500 Startups' fifth batch  —  500 Startups is hosting its latest session of Demo Day this week, and TNW was there to watch the proceedings in Mountain View on Wednesday.  That's the first port of call before the startups and their pitches …

Facebook deleted all EU facial recognition data, regulators confirm  —  Both the Irish data protection commissioner and a German regulator confirmed Facebook deleted the data  —  Facebook has deleted all European facial recognition data, the Irish data protection commissioner …

Online learning goes official as five Coursera courses get approved by the American Council on Education  —  Coursera announced a big milestone today: the first big step towards credit options.  The American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT) …

Opera: Android devices were served most ad impressions in Q4 2012, but iOS still top for engagement  —  Opera has released its latest quarterly State of Mobile Advertising report and the findings from Q4 2012 show a sizable growth in the number of impressions served to Android devices, but Apple users remains the most engaged.

Ubuntu Smartphone Shipping in October  —  Smartphones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will be available to customers beginning in October 2013, according to Mark Shuttleworth, founder and CEO of Canonical Ltd. Canonical provides services for corporate customers using Ubuntu open source software.

FreedomPop Raises Another $4.3 Million In Funding, Finally Lets Users Share Their Data  —  Freemium wireless service provider FreedomPop has been pumping out its fair share of hardware lately, and its momentum seems to have been received favorably by its backers.

37 Percent of PC Users Migrate Activities to Mobile Devices, According to The NPD Group  —  Content that was once primarily accessed by consumers on their PCs, is shifting to mobile devices.  According to the Connected Intelligence Application and Convergence Report from global information company …

Evernote rolls out Evernote Business to 26 new markets in Europe and names new COO to oversee growth  —  Evernote has expanded its Evernote Business product in Europe, adding 26 new markets where companies can now leverage the cumulative knowledge and contribution of every employee.

iPads (Thanks To The Mini) Were 1 In 6 ‘PCs’ Shipped, Tablets One-Third, And Windows RT Didn't Even Break 1M: Canalys  —  The PC market is fast shifting into a touchscreen world, and Apple is leading the charge.  Some new numbers from the analysts at Canalys note that in Q4 of 2012 …

Facebook isn't making its own phone, but it's pre-loading its software into millions of devices  —  Facebook wants to ensure that billions of people in emerging markets have access to its mobile apps when they buy their first phones.  The social networking giant found an easy solution to that problem …

Sprint Q4: Loss widens, 1 million subscribers jump ship  —  Summary: The cellular giant saw its quarterly loss widen as more than 1 million subscribers left the company, thanks to the Nextel side of the business.  —  Zack Whittaker  —  Continuing its running streak of weak performance …

Kim Dotcom's Mega gets a new CEO: Entrepreneur and open Internet advocate Vikram Kumar steps in  —  Kim Dotcom's Mega has today announced that it has appointed entrepreneur and open Internet advocate Vikram Kumar as its new CEO, to replace interim chief Tony Lentino.

Wii Street U hands-on: Google Maps comes to Wii U with motion control  —  DON'T MISS ANY STORIES FOLLOW THE VERGE  —  Nintendo's delayed Google Maps app for Wii U is finally out in Japan.  As demonstrated late last year, Wii Street U is based around Street View, and lets you use …

Google Joins JPMorgan in Seeking Software Patent Limits  —  Google Inc. owes its creation in part to a patented software algorithm for ranking documents in a database, issued to company founder Larry Page and owned by Stanford University.  —  The world's largest search-engine company contends …

Hands on with Google's new Chrome message center  —  The tech world's been a-buzzin' this week with word of a new Chrome-based message center from Google.  Signs of the system first showed up in a Chrome OS screenshot captured by developer François Beaufort and shared on Google+.

Netflix Promises To Make Its Open Source Cloud Management Tools More Portable  —  Over the last several years, Netflix has put a lot of work into building a cloud-based architecture off of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run its video streaming and DVD rental services.

Inbox Unchained: Mailbox just fixed email on the iPhone  —  How a startup outdid both Apple and Google in one fell swoop  —  Gentry Underwood had a feeling that his startup might be making some users depressed.  Orchestra was Apple's Productivity App of the Year 2011, but users were leaving after a few months using the service.

Apple & Samsung capture 103% of handset profits as rivals lose money  —  Together, Apple and Samsung accounted for 103 percent of mobile phone profits in 2012, a number made possible because of losses incurred by rivals Motorola, Sony and Nokia.  —  Apple took a commanding 69 percent …

After Doubling Its User Base Over The Last 7 Months, Video Discovery Startup Telly Improves Recommendations With Social Data  —  Telly has come a long way since being rebranded.  In the seven months since adopting its new moniker, the company formerly known as Twitvid has doubled its user base …