Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99  —  We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8.  Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets.

Facebook e-mail mess: Address books altered; e-mail lost  —  An alarming number of people are reporting that the new e-mail address Facebook forced on users this week is changing their address books while intercepting and losing unknown amounts of e-mail.  —  Facebook users say contacts' e …

Exclusive: Amazon buys 3D mapping startup UpNext  —  It looks like Amazon is building up its presence in the mapping business.  The tech giant today closed a deal to acquire 3D mapping startup UpNext, GigaOM has learned.  —  For Amazon, which doesn't have a mapping service of its own …

Twitter Transparency Report  —  Wednesday marks Independence Day here in the United States.  Beyond the fireworks and barbecue, July 4th serves as an important reminder of the need to hold governments accountable, especially on behalf of those who may not have a chance to do so themselves.

Announcing The Declaration Of Internet Freedom  —  A whole bunch of organizations and individuals are getting together today to launch the beginning of a process, the creation of an Internet Declaration of Freedom.  We've seen how the internet has been under attack from various directions …

Microsoft Writing Off Nearly All of the $6.3 Billion It Paid for aQuantive  —  Microsoft said on Monday that it is taking a $6.2 billion non-cash charge to account for its disappointing 2007 acquisition of Internet advertising firm aQuantive.  —  That's a huge charge …

Why Your Complaint About Twitter Is Wrong  —  I know I usually try to be a thoughtful tech writer, but sometimes, holy s**t you guys. … That's Dalton Caldwell (with my emphasis added), who is a very nice guy, but does nothing to break the pattern that everything I read on the Svbtle network exists solely …

Nokia: We have a Windows Phone ‘contingency plan’  —  Nokia has a plan in its back pocket should a deal with Microsoft fall through, or the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 software update fail to generate interest, according to Nokia's board chairman.  —  Speaking on his debut television appearance …

New York Judge Overrules Twitter: Tweets Broadcast to the Public ‘Belong to the Public’  —  Things are not looking very good for Malcolm Harris, the Occupy Wall Street protestor who was arrested for disorderly conduct for taking place in the 2011 protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

RIM's tailspin  —  The number of BlackBerry phones sold fell 41% year-on-year in the last RIM fiscal quarter.  Sequentially the fall was 30%.  Though surprisingly poor, I note that Nokia's smartphone business fell even more dramatically last quarter (down 50% y/y and 39% sequentially).

Apple Tweaks Genius Bar To Increase Capacity  —  In reaction to an ever-increasing number of visitors to its Genius Bars and limited space to seat them, Apple is testing out a new configuration that increases Genius Bar capacity, and emphasizes the use of iPads to manage service records.

Google stole sharing idea for Hangouts and YouTube, lawsuit claims  —  A New York start-up claims that a video sharing feature in YouTube and Google+ is based on concepts that it showed to Google when the two companies met to discuss collaboration strategies in 2011.

New Arc soft keyboard may be coming to Windows Phone 8  —  More than a year ago we reported on Microsoft designing a “one handed and next gen soft keyboard” for Windows Phone 8.  —  We now have a picture of the keyboard in question, courtesy of a leaked Microsoft Research presentation.

Google Makes Offer To EU Regulators To End Antitrust Probe  —  Google Inc. (GOOG) offered concessions to European Union regulators in an effort to end an antitrust investigation into allegations that the operator of the world's largest search engine discriminates against rivals.

When His Project Was Canceled, an Unemployed Programmer Kept Sneaking Into Apple to Finish the Job  —  by Julia Dahl … Ron Avitzur knew his project was doomed.  By the time his bosses cut the cord in August 1993, his team was actually relieved.  The graphing calculator program …

Samsung Galaxy S III Arrives at AT&T stores July 6  —  Great news, the wait is finally over!  I'm excited to share with you that the Samsung Galaxy S III will arrive in AT&T stores on July 6th.  —  Thousands of customers, who just couldn't wait, have already preordered it and have the device in hand.

The Weather Channel Companies Acquire Weather Underground  —  The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC) today announced an agreement to acquire Weather Underground, a leading provider of Web based weather data.  The transaction, terms of which were not disclosed, was announced by TWCC chairman …

App Store Adding New “Food & Drink” Category  —  The App Store will soon be updated with a new “Food & Drink” category, according to developers of existing iOS applications who received an email from Apple today about the upcoming change.  “In the next few weeks”, applications …

Google's Hybrid Approach to Research  —  In this viewpoint, we describe how we organize computer science research at Google.  We focus on how we integrate research and development and discuss the benefits and risks of our approach.  The challenge in organizing R&D is great because CS is an increasingly broad and diverse field.

Google Places for iOS renamed as Google+ Local, now includes Zagat scores and voice search  —  Google revamped its Google Places service back in May, adding data from its purchase of Zagat and renaming it Google+ Local.  Now, the company has gone ahead and similarly revamped its iOS app …

The IRL Fetish  —  The deep infiltration of digital information into our lives has created a fervor around the supposed corresponding loss of logged-off real life.  Each moment is oversaturated with digital potential: Texts, status updates, photos, check-ins, tweets, and emails …

Google improves “search by image”, now includes Knowledge Graph in results  —  When you're using Google for search, one of the cooler features is dragging or uploading an image into the search box and letting the company's computer vision technology find results based on matches.

Three Things I Have Learned From Ev, Biz, and Goldman  —  Since January, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman have been helping us build Branch.  I feel very lucky to call them mentors and friends, so I thought I would pay it forward by sharing some of the wisdom that they have shared with me.