Microsoft subsidizes developers up to $600,000 per Windows Phone app  —  How desperate is Microsoft to get developers to write apps for Windows Phone?  The company is willing to subsidize them up to $600,000 per app.  —  With an estimated 70,000 apps available for Windows Phone …

AT&T Will Unlock Off-Contract iPhones Starting Sunday, April 8  —  AT&T has announced it will begin unlocking customers' iPhones once their 2-year contracts have expired.  The move will free up the currently-locked devices to use a micro-SIM from any carrier offering a network compatible with the device.

An Expert's View on Google's Goggles  —  Mark Changizi, a neurobiologist and the author of The Vision Revolution, discusses Google's augmented-reality glasses.  —  Project Glass, the latest sci-fi concept to come out of Google's X Lab, has gotten a lot of attention online in the past 24 hours thanks …

Scaling Venture Capital?  We suck.  We can do better.  —  I'm kind of embarrassed to call myself a Venture Capitalist.  —  In fact, most of us who call ourselves VCs should be too.  —  Why?  Because MOST of us are hypocrites, and have NO idea what we're doing.

First Google tablet now expected in July due to price cutting effort  —  Google's first foray into the tablet market with a co-branded Android device won't be with us until July at the earliest.  The current design was ready to go for May, but Google pushed back the planned release …

Amazon S3 - 905 Billion Objects and 650,000 Requests/Second  —  At the end of the first quarter of 2012, there were 905 billion objects in Amazon S3.  We routinely handle 650,000 requests per second for those objects with occasional peaks substantially above that number.  Here is the latest chart:

Why Is AT&T Releasing Nokia's Big Phone on Easter?  —  AT&T has said that the release of the Nokia Lumia 900 will be its biggest product introduction ever.  But the phone is coming out on Easter Sunday, when some AT&T stores won't even be open.  —  Melissa Havel, a spokeswoman representing Microsoft …

Sequoia Set to Lead $500M Valuation Round for Instagram  —  The fact is, if you make a consumer Internet app that people actually use, you're probably raising venture capital right now.  So we try not to write about every funding round that's in the works.  But it looks like Instagram …

Heirs to Old Money Plunge Into Tech  —  Like many young scions, Mark Ghermezian joined the family business, an empire started by his grandfather that now includes banks, manufacturing companies and the largest mall in America.  He spent two years leading an energy group, managing dozens of oil and gas drilling sites across Texas.

Security hole in Facebook iOS app doesn't require jailbreak or theft, and Dropbox has it too [Updated]  —  Earlier today, security researcher Gareth Wright revealed the discovery of a security hole in the Facebook app for mobile devices running Android and iOS.

Apple interested in wireless power to charge devices on store shelves  —  Apple has shown interest in wirelessly powering and charging its portable devices, allowing products like the iPhone and iPad to be powered up while sealed in packaging and on display at a retail store.

Security Company Palo Alto Networks Files For $175 Million IPO  —  Palo Alto Networks, a security software company, has filed its S-1 for a public offering, aiming to raise as much as $175 million.  The company was rumored to be in the process of filing earlier this year.

Travis County considers terms for Apple to receive up to $7.4 million in incentives  —  For Apple Inc. to receive up to $7.4 million in incentives from Travis County, the technology giant must promise to hire a percentage of “economically disadvantaged” local residents, county officials said Tuesday.

Aileen Lee Launches Kleiner-Backed Seed Fund  —  Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Aileen Lee is founding a new seed fund — still unnamed — that is focused on backing and helping develop early-stage start-ups.  —  Lee, who has been at the famed Silicon Valley venture firm for a dozen years …

Pinterest now the third most popular social network after Facebook & Twitter  —  As if there was ever any doubt that the “pin” is winning, a new report from Experian says Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the U.S., based on number of visits, surpassed only by Facebook and Twitter.

Exclusive: a behind-the-scenes look at Facebook release engineering  —  Facebook is headquartered in Menlo Park, California at a site that used belong to Sun Microsystems.  A large sign with Facebook's distinctive “like” symbol—a hand making the thumbs-up gesture—marks the entrance.