Exclusive: Microsoft's next Xbox will take over your TV, interact with your cable box  —  The fight for the living room continues  —  Microsoft is investing in TV in a big way with its next Xbox console as part of a fight for the living room.  Multiple sources familiar with the company's Xbox plans …

Computer Sales in Free Fall  —  Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 13.9% in the first quarter, according to market researcher IDC, in the biggest decline since the firm began issuing quarterly numbers in 1994.  —  The grim estimate of 76.3 million units shipped is the latest sign …

Microsoft's Office for iOS, Android: Not until fall 2014?  —  Summary: An alleged roadmap for Microsoft's two-year wave of coming Office updates implies Office for iOS and Android may be further away than many industry watchers thought.  —  An alleged roadmap for Microsoft's coming ‘Gemini’ wave …

Microsoft Plans 7-inch Tablet  —  The personal-computer business is at a crossroads, and Microsoft Corp. isn't sitting still.  —  The software giant is developing a new lineup of its Surface tablets, including a 7-inch version expected to go into mass production later this year, said people familiar with the company's plans.

Glass Explorer Edition To Ship Within The Next Month, Google Confirms  —  Today during Google Venture's “Glass Collective” event, Google told us that it hopes to get the Glass hardware into the hands of developers “within the next month.”  The exact date for when Google plans to ship …

Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video  —  LAS VEGAS—Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network.  Speaking at the National Association …

Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone  —  An extremely well attended talk by Hugo Teso, a security consultant at n.runs AG in Germany, about the completely realistic scenario of plane hijacking via a simple Android app has galvanized the crowd attending the Hack In The Box Conference in Amsterdam today.

Bitcoin Is Crashing  —  It's shaping up to be a pretty ugly day for Bitcoin.  —  After soaring past $250 earlier, it's tumbled all the way down to current levels around $156.  —  Bitcoin is now 41 percent off its intraday high of $266.  —  The chart below shows Bitcoin prices since April 7.

Well, That Was Fast: Twitter Already Shut Down Ribbon's Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature  —  This morning, payments startup Ribbon announced support for “in-stream” payments on Twitter.com, allowing users to click a button directly within a tweet in order to make a purchase without having to leave the Twitter.com website.

Apple job listing confirms Apple is investigating using flexible displays in future products  —  Update: Apple appears to have removed the job listing, but we grabbed a screenshot above and below.  —  We know that Apple has been investigating various methods of incorporating flexible displays …

Google Wants To Operate .Search As A “Dotless” Domain, Plans To Open .Cloud, .Blog And .App To Others  —  If it gets it, Google wants to turn .search into a “dotless domain,” the company told ICANN a few days ago.  Last year, Google applied to manage the .app, .blog, .cloud …

Samsung Galaxy Mega is official and comes in 6.3- and 5.8-inch sizes  —  We knew Samsung was planning more devices, but we didn't expect the arrival of two Galaxy Mega smartphones .  The 6.3-inch model has a ‘HD display’ (we're chasing the precise resolution) alongside a dual-core 1.7GHz processor …

IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant  —  The ACLU has obtained internal IRS documents that say Americans enjoy “generally no privacy” in their e-mail messages, Facebook chats, and other electronic communications.  —  The Internal Revenue Service doesn't seem to believe …

Google Map Maker edit tools extended to cover the UK  —  Users can add four different kinds of features to the firm's online maps  —  Google is expanding its Map Maker edit tools to the UK.  —  The browser-based software allows users to add details about buildings, hiking trails …

Silicon Valley Goes Hollywood: Top Coders Can Now Get Agents  —  To be a good coder in Silicon Valley is to be among the pampered elite.  You get fat paychecks, people bring you free gourmet food, drivers shuttle you around town.  Coders here are really treated much like talented entertainers would be down south in Hollywood.

Google Babel News: Google Voice Support “Eventually” Coming, Synced Notifications, “First Class” iOS Experience  —  Whenever Google Babel does arrive for public consumption, we're starting to believe it will be everything we have ever asked for in a unified messenger service.

Yahoo Dealmaker Reses Targets Mobile Talent in M&A Spree  —  Yahoo Dealmaker Targets Mobile Talent in M&A Spree  —  Marissa Mayer's strategy of using deals to reignite growth at Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) will hinge on the success of a private-equity veteran named Jacqueline Reses who was largely unknown in Silicon Valley six months ago.