Microsoft kept PC partners in dark about Surface  —  (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp kept its personal computer partners largely in the dark about its plans to launch a competing tablet computer, with some long-time collaborators learning of the new gadget only days before its unveiling, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A new way to experience profiles: with or without replies  —  When you visit a Twitter user's profile, you may want to see his or her original Tweets rather than their conversations.  Then again, you may enjoy seeing the back-and-forth exchanges they have with other Twitter users.

Galaxy Quest: One Phone Aimed at All Networks  —  While smartphones based on Google's Android operating system collectively outsell Apple's iPhone, no single Android phone has risen to become a giant hit the way the iPhone has.  Instead, there has been a profusion of often-confusing models …

A Redesigned, Slicker PayPal Is Coming Tomorrow; Some Seeing New Look Today  —  PayPal, the eBay-owned online payments service that is making significant inroads into mobile, is giving its website an overhaul to make it easier for its 100 million+ users to pay and get paid, find help …

HotelTonight ExpandsTo The UK, Former Jetsetter Leads The Charge  —  HotelTonight, the last-minute discounted hotels booking app, is bringing its service to the UK, with an initial service in London launching today.  In addition, Heather Leisman, most recently of the troubled Jetsetter travel startup, has joined as MD for Europe.

U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say  —  View Photo Gallery — Stuxnet and other big worms and viruses: The computer virus is growing in popularity as the weapon-of-choice in the Middle East.  Here's a look at some of the more notable viruses and worms.

Microsoft's Phone Efforts Move Into the Spotlight Wednesday  —  While Monday was a huge day for Microsoft, thanks to the Surface tablet, Wednesday is also shaping up as a pretty important milestone.  —  The company is set to meet with developers to talk about the future of Windows Phone …

Peter Thiel Launches Mithril: A New $402 Million Late-Stage Fund  —  Peter Thiel may be best known for his angel investments, most notably, his legendary call with Facebook.  But now he's got something for companies that sit just on the cusp between public and private markets.

UK waterways to become active routes on Google Maps  —  At the moment, waterways in England and Wales are not listed as routes on Google Maps  —  Google Maps users may soon find it easier to plan a trip on one of UK's waterways.  —  The US search engine has teamed up with the Canal and River Trust …

Mobile Ads Are An Ugly Nightmare.  955 Dreams...Of A World Where They're Beautiful  —  “I don't want to talk about whether ads are good or bad.  I just want to make good ads.  Good for apps, good for users.”  That's from Kiran Belubbi, founder and CEO of 955 Dreams which today added …

First look at the curved tabs in Firefox's new Australis design  —  A Mozilla developer published a Firefox build that shows the new tab style.  —  A screenshot of the custom Firefox build with the Australis tab style.  —  Earlier this year, we reported on Mozilla's effort to unify the look …

Greplin Recasts Itself as Cue, an Intelligent Personal Assistant App  —  Greplin, the personal search start-up, is trying to become more helpful and more mainstream with the launch of a new personal assistant app called Cue.  —  Cue is an app that processes users' emails, contacts and files.

Chinese online censorship targets “collective action” posts  —  A Harvard team finds that China's Internet policy allows more than most realize.  —  We all know that China and the Internet aren't exactly BFFs.  The Great Firewall of China has been around for over 15 years now, and it shows no sign of crumbling.

After Facebook's IPO flub, value of tech startups falls back to earth  —  A string quartet played a medley of pop radio hits as several hundreds startup founders, Goldman Sachs bankers, and venture capital investors, chatted over drinks inside a gleaming neon temple of Angel Orensanz in lower Manhattan.

Bing Ties Yellow Pages Sites For Most Accurate Local Data  —  In April I wrote about a local data accuracy study preformed by a company called Implied Intelligence.  The company offers data services to publishers and developers.  In April the company found that yellow pages site Superpages bested Google Maps …

WWDC 2012 session videos go live for developers  —  As promised, Apple has quickly posted videos of many of the WWDC 2012 developer sessions.  There are currently 113 videos of sessions live on Apple's developer website.  Sessions for both iOS and OS X application development are available …

NVIDIA PR Responds To Torvalds' Harsh Words  —  NVIDIA's PR department has issued a statement following the harsh comments by Linus Torvalds last week where he referred to the graphics company as the single worst company they have ever dealt with, called them out on not supporting Optimus, and other issues.

Indian ISPs Unblock BitTorrent Sites After Appeal  —  Last month millions of Indians were shaken up by what appeared to be a mass anti-piracy action from the Government.  —  Many of the country's leading Internet providers had blocked access to a wide range of file-sharing …

NSA: It Would Violate Your Privacy to Say if We Spied on You  —  Gen. Keith Alexander, center, the head of the National Security Agency, visits Afghanistan, 2010.  Photo: ISAF  —  The surveillance experts at the National Security Agency won't tell two powerful United States Senators …

Google Mail no more: German users can switch to a Gmail.com email address today  —  Nearly seven years after it had to rebrand its Gmail service as Google Mail in Germany, Google has today announced that users in the country will now be able to use a gmail.com email address from today.