Carl Icahn Takes Up to a 6 Percent Stake in Dell: Sources  —  Carl Icahn appears set to enter the fray over the leveraged buyout of Dell.  —  Trading sources said they were confident that Icahn had amassed a position in Dell that may approach 100 million shares, and would bring him to a roughly 6 percent ownership.

Big layoffs at T-Mobile headquarters, ahead of merger  —  A significant round of layoffs is happening at the Bellevue headquarters of T-Mobile USA just ahead of its merger with MetroPCS, according to people inside the company.  —  Employees are expecting the cuts, which may affect …

Facebook's Redesign Hopes to Keep Users Engaged  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook plans to announce on Thursday a substantial redesign of its News Feed — a makeover aimed at both keeping users glued to the social network and luring more advertising dollars.  —  Company executives have broadly …

Path 3.0 adds private messaging and The Shop, with ‘handcrafted’ stickers and premium photo filters  —  Path 3.0 for iOS adds two major features to the private social network.  The first is the ability to privately message your fellow users, and the second is The Shop, part of Path's ongoing effort to monetize its app.

Aaron Swartz Case Was ‘a Good Use of Prosecutorial Discretion,’ Attorney General Says  —  Holder, the nation's top prosecutor, is the highest-ranking member of the President Barack Obama administration to defend the indictment and prosecution of the former director of Demand Progress …

Microsoft to update its core Windows 8 apps well before ‘Blue’  —  Summary: Microsoft may have refreshes of its Mail, Calendar, Music and Games apps for Windows 8 and Windows RT in its app store as soon as this month.  —  There's been some worry that Microsoft's Windows team may be waiting until the …

EU's Microsoft Fine a Warning to Google  —  The European Commission's announcement Wednesday of $732 million in sanctions against Microsoft is an inevitable and expected comeuppance for the software giant's failure to comply with the terms of an antitrust settlement requiring it to offer consumers a choice of Web browsers.

Internet Marriages on Rise in Some Immigrant Communities  —  With a red embroidered veil draped over her dark hair, Punam Chowdhury held her breath last month as her fiancé said the phrase that would make them husband and wife.  After she echoed them, they were married.

Unreported Side Effects of Drugs Found Using Internet Data, Study Finds  —  Using data drawn from queries entered into Google, Microsoft and Yahoo search engines, scientists at Microsoft, Stanford and Columbia University have for the first time been able to detect evidence …

Computer Scientists Measure the Speed of Censorship On China's Twitter  —  Censorship on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, is near real-time and relies on a workforce of over 4000 censors who stop work during the evening news, according the first detailed analysis of censorship patterns

EA won't have microtransactions in all future games, exec clarifies  —  Electronic Arts chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen clarified today that while all of EA's future games will support the ability to include microtransactions, that doesn't mean that all of them will actually have them.

Samsung's Patent Spat With Apple Spurs U.S. Lobbying Push  —  Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) has doubled mobile-phone sales in the U.S. since 2008.  As the company faces anti-dumping measures and a protracted court battle with Apple Inc. (AAPL), its U.S. lobbying bill is growing even faster.

A Mac Pro Mini  —  For years, geeks have wanted Apple to make an “xMac”: an expandable desktop tower like the Mac Pro, but much cheaper, generally achieved in theory by using consumer-class CPUs and motherboards instead of Intel's expensive, server-grade Xeon line.

The Check In Is Dead; Long Live The Check In As Foursquare Adds Quick Glide Feature On iOS  —  Depending who you ask, Foursquare could be in a great place as far as growth.  Or in a bad place.  We've heard about potential acquisitions, difficulty fundraising and everything in between.

comScore: Apple debuts 2013 as top US smartphone maker, Samsung gains but Android falls for the first time  —  In the US, Apple ended 2012 as the top OEM and it has only further increased its lead with the start of the New Year.  Samsung is gaining as well, but not quite as quickly.

Megaupload founder can sue New Zealand spy agency: court  —  WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A court ruled on Thursday that Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can sue New Zealand's spy agency for illegal surveillance, opening the government up to more scrutiny over its role in an unlawful 2011 police raid on the internet entrepreneur's home.

Yammer's David Sacks offers to create $250k Launch fund to support five startups from the festival  —  At the 2013 Launch Festival, Yammer co-founder David Sacks took part in the conference's third fireside chat.  During the conversation, Sacks offered to help fund five of the startups presenting …

Bug allows complete lock screen bypass on Samsung Galaxy S III  —  Summary: Following a brief lock screen bypass that had ‘limited scope’, another Samsung owner has found that the lock screen on Galaxy S III handsets can be bypassed completely.  —  Michael Lee

EU caves in to pressure on new data, privacy law changes; U.S. tech firms breathe sigh of relief  —  After major U.S.-based technology companies lobbied European member states and politicians, many will wake up today able to breathe a sigh of relief, as the European Commission is forced …

Facebook shops Kendall Square office space for a return to Cambridge  —  Facebook is poking around in Cambridge for office space it may “like.”  —  The $66 billion social networking company, founded in a Harvard University dorm by Mark Zuckerburg and friends, is seeking 7,000 square feet …

Trulia Launches Trulia Suggests, A Recommendation Engine For Real Estate  —  Trulia, the popular real estate search engine, just launched the beta of Trulia Suggests, a personalized real estate recommendation engine.  The typical search experience on virtually every online real estate site involves telling …

Urban Storage Startup Boxbee Wins Best New Startup Prize At Launch, Zillabyte Takes Enterprise With Its ‘Pandora For Leads’  —  Boxbee, a startup that's looking to make urban storage (not of the digital variety) less of a pain in the ass, just won the best new startup award at the Launch conference in San Francisco.