Here is why Facebook bought Instagram  —  You might have heard by now that Facebook has acquired Instagram for nearly a billion dollars in cash and stock.  Incredible, isn't it?  I have received text messages of awe and shock from many people in the Valley, for no one saw this coming.

Google's Chrome OS Will Soon Look More Like Windows Than A Browser  —  It's hard to say how popular Chrome OS, Google's browser-centric operating system, really is.  There can be little doubt, though, that Google is quite serious about this initiative.  Today, Google launched …

Amazon's Takes In-App Purchases Out Of Beta: Here's How They Compromised On Revenue Share  —  Amazon is taking the wraps off a new in-app purchasing service today in an effort to make its app store competitive with what Apple and Google offer developers.  That should let developers …

Iran To Shut Down Internet Permanently; ‘Clean’ National Intranet In Pipeline  —  Millions of Internet users in Iran will be permanently denied access to the World Wide Web and cut off from popular social networking sites and email services, as the government has announced its plans to establish a national Intranet within five months.

Toshiba introduces 13.3-inch Android 4.0 tablet, new Excite range  —  Toshiba announced its back-to-school tablet lineup today, adding three models to its Excite brand.  The first one you'll notice is the Excite 13, which you can hardly avoid — its 13.3-inch display is absolutely enormous, nearly twice the size of a 7-inch slate.

Why Microsoft spent $1 billion on AOL's patents  —  Microsoft dropped an eye-popping $1 billion on 800 AOL patents today, an astonishing amount likely spent to keep the intellectual property trove away from rival Google.  —  But according to a source close to the situation, Google didn't even bid on the portfolio.

Nokia Lumia 900 hit by bug that disables data  —  Nokia Lumia 900 launch marred by data bug  —  Nokia's Lumia 900 launch has been partly soured by a bug encountered by early adopters.  Both an AT&T source for Phone Arena, as well as buyers on Nokia's forums and those at WPCentral …

About Pando  —  Some of you may have read Sarah Lacy's post today stating that I'm no longer on the board of Pando Daily.  —  This wasn't a complete surprise to me, the company notified me last week that they weren't happy that I and MG Siegler (my partner at CrunchFund) were going to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt this coming May.

Carriers Band to Fight Cellphone Theft  —  The nation's major wireless providers have agreed to a deal with the U.S. government to build a central database of stolen cellphones—part of a broad effort to tame an explosion of thefts nationwide.  —  The database, which the wireless companies …

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn resigns  —  Summary: Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn resigned this morning.  Director G. Mike Mikan will serve in the interim.  —  Brian Dunn, chief executive of tech big box retailer Best Buy, resigned this morning.  —  “There were no disagreements between Mr. Dunn …

How Google is using OpenFlow to lower its network costs  —  Google is checking out a new form of networking protocol known as OpenFlow in the communications networks that run between its data centers.  The search giant is testing the use of software-defined networks using OpenFlow in order …

AT&T Unlocking In-Contract iPhones for Deployed Service Members  —  This weekend, AT&T began unlocking iPhones for off-contract customers.  This allows the iPhone be used with a SIM-card from overseas carriers, or T-Mobile in the U.S. In addition to unlocking phones for off-contract customers …

Poll: Google's More Popular Than Facebook, Twitter, and Even Apple  —  Guess what?  Most Americans still love the tech giants.  —  Poll a random sample of tech writers to determine their feelings about the corporate giants they cover, and you'd probably get hugely mixed results: On the one hand, Google search!