From kindling to inferno: Full specs for next-gen Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablets  —  Amazon to combine powerhouse specs and affordable prices in bid to scorch the competition  —  Amazon's first-generation Kindle Fire was absolutely not an iPad killer, and that's exactly why it was so successful.

Facebook Said to Plan to Sell TV-Style Ads for $2.5M Each  —  Facebook Inc. (FB), seeking to break the long-held dominance of television over advertising budgets, plans to sell TV-style commercials on its site for as much as $2.5 million a day, two people familiar with the matter said.

Instagram deleting and blocking photos uploaded from third-party Windows Phone app (update)  —  While Vine, Flipboard, and Path have all promised Windows Phone 8 support, one particular app is still missing: Instagram.  Nokia has tried to pressure Facebook into building an Instagram Windows Phone app …

Android Fragmentation Visualized  —  Fragmentation is both a strength and weakness of the Android ecosystem.  When comparisons are made between Android and iOS the issue of different API levels, and the vastly different devices running them, is often emphasised.

Android 4.3 Update Brings TRIM to All Nexus Devices  —  One of the common complaints late in the life of the original Nexus 7 was slow storage I/O performance, leading to an inconsistent user experience.  After a fresh flash, the Nexus 7 was speedy and performant, but after months …

Facebook Announces New Mobile Game Publishing Effort  —  A few weeks ago, we reported that Facebook was experimenting with becoming a mobile games publisher by offering distribution to studios in exchange for a cut of revenue.  —  Today, Facebook is formally announcing that effort …

Intel, Apple and Others Rethink How We Watch TV  —  SANTA CLARA, Calif.—To understand how much television could soon change, it helps to visit an Intel Corp. INTC +0.40% division here that runs like a startup.  Erik Huggers, a Dutch-born former British Broadcasting Corp. executive …

Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview Now Available  —  Today, I'm excited to announce that Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview is now available for download for customers to start testing the operating system in their environments.  Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview builds on the Window 8.1 Preview …

Looking at CPU/GPU Benchmark Optimizations in Galaxy S 4  —  Somehow both Anand and I ended up with international versions of Samsung's Galaxy S 4, equipped with the first generation Exynos 5 Octa (5410) SoC.  Anand bought an international model GT-I9500 while I held out for the much cooler …

Facebook skyrockets back to within cents of IPO price  —  After a tumultuous year, the social network's blossoming mobile business has finally made believers out of skeptics.  —  Facebook's Hacker Square at the Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.  —  Fourteen months after listing on the Nasdaq …

Former Mozilla CEO Kovacs to Head Security Software Firm AVG Technologies  —  Gary Kovacs, who recently stepped down as the top exec at Mozilla Corporation, has been named CEO of AVG Technologies.  —  Kovacs said he wanted to join the publicly held Internet and mobile security software company …

Netflix's Personalized User Profiles Begin Showing Up on Apple TV  —  According to multiple Twitter reports and a tipster who contacted MacRumors, individual Netflix profiles are now showing up on the Apple TV.  The personalized profile feature, which is expected to be launched in August …

SmugMug Revamps Its Site, in a Challenge to Flickr  —  In May, Yahoo riled up photography lovers everywhere by revamping its popular Flickr photo-sharing site.  The new Flickr offers everyone 1 terabyte of free storage.  That's a lot.  It's enough to back up and display 600,000 photos at full resolution.

Fab Lays Off More Than 100 Employees in Europe, as It Continues Retreat From Flash Sales  —  Fab has just made significant cuts to its European staff, laying off more than 100 employees at its headquarters in Berlin.  The reason for the cuts, the company said, is a transition away …

Bitly Hires Former AOL And Outside.In Exec Mark Josephson As Its New CEO  —  Bitly is announcing that Mark Josephson (pictured), who was most recently senior vice president of Patch Labs at AOL, has joined the link-shortening and tracking company as its new CEO.

Asus Pulling Back on Windows RT, Chairman Says  —  Asus's Jonney Shih has made some crazy bets over the years — teeny-tiny laptops, phones that turn into tablets, and even a seven-inch tablet that can be held to the ear to make phone calls.  —  But, so far, the only bet that Shih …

Mentor/Investor Whiplash  —  I've been doing a tour of the summer accelerator programs and a question I get a lot is about the feedback the teams get from the investors and mentors they meet with.  They ask me how much should they react to the feedback they are getting advising them to do things differently …

Samsung to Buy Germany's Novaled, Raising Bet on Next-Generation Screens  —  Company Specializes in Displays Using Energy-Saving Organic Light-Emitting-Diode Technology  —  By - EYK HENNING And - MIN-JEONG LEE -  —  Samsung Group is poised to acquire German lighting specialist Novaled AG …

RelayRides to Provide Peer-to-Peer Car Rentals at San Francisco Airport  —  Flyers who don't want to pay $18 per day for long-term parking at the San Francisco International Airport will have an option, starting in August, to park their cars for free, courtesy of startup RelayRides Inc.

Feds will declassify Yahoo PRISM decision by September  —  The Justice Department says it will declassify a 2008 decision in which the country's secret spy court rebuffed Yahoo's attempt to challenge a controversial surveillance program.  —  In a rare public filing with the Foreign Intelligence …

Amazon dances around Apple restrictions with ‘free sample’ search inside Kindle for iOS app  —  Amazon has released an update to its Kindle for iOS app, and it features (for the first time ever) the ability to search its catalog of books online.  This is a departure from the past versions of the app …

Vimeo and Redbox Instant are coming to Chromecast.  Next up: Plex and HBO Go?  —  Chromecast, the streaming video adapter introduced by Google last week, is quickly gaining support from a number of media platforms.  Case in point: Vimeo told us it wants to support Chromecast …