San Francisco Officials Plan to Block Apple Procurement  —  San Francisco city officials say they are moving to block purchases of Apple desktops and laptops, by all municipal agencies, after the company removed a green electronics certification from its products.

Ballmer: “Surface Is Just a Design Point”  —  By designing and building the Surface tablet itself, Microsoft is not blowing off its longtime PC manufacturing partners.  And PC makers shouldn't take it that way.  Surface is a reference design meant to show them what's possible.

Amazon Testing a Smartphone  —  TAIPEI—Amazon.com Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a smartphone, people familiar with the situation said, suggesting that the Internet retail giant, which sells the Kindle Fire tablet computers, is considering broadening its mobile-device offerings.

Rumor: Next-gen iPhone, ‘iPad mini’ engineering samples pictured  —  A pair of reports on Tuesday allege to show an “engineering samples” of Apple's rumored next-generation iPhone and smaller 7-inch iPad, the latter being one of the first mock-ups to hit the web.

Expansive experiences in latest mobile apps for iPhone, Android  —  Today you can download new versions of Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android.  These new apps contain several updates to bring you closer to everything you care about.  —  Expand Tweets

Google+ app for iPad available now in the App Store  —  In May, we redesigned the Google+ experience for iPhone, adding full bleed photos that fall into place and bold visual elements that bring your stream to life.  Today, we're introducing new features for iPhone and an iPad app that you won't be able to put down.

In mobile design, failure is inevitable, says Path's Dave Morin  —  Dave Morin, the chief executive of the private mobile social network app Path, was onstage at MobileBeat 2012 this morning with Michael Copeland, the senior editor of Wired.  And Morin, true to form, was full of great one-liners.

Samsung to offer hacker-friendly ‘developer edition’ Galaxy S III on Verizon  —  Want a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III without all the huffing and puffing that comes a long with encrypted bootloaders?  The manufacture has you covered, as it will offer a “developer edition” Verizon Galaxy S 3 through its developer portal for $599.

Sprint's Galaxy S III update removes local search abilities  —  Yesterday we heard that the Sprint Galaxy S III was in the midst of getting a small “security” update over-the-air, but with little detail of what exactly was changed.  The jury is still out about any security fixes …

Facebook connects users to free antivirus software  —  Here is a screenshot of the prompt Facebook users will get when they indicate that their computer may have an infection.  —  Facebook is now directing users who think their computer might be infected to sites where they can get free antivirus software.

Penny Arcade's Kickstarter project aims to dump site ads  —  Penny Arcade without the banner ad.  —  Everybody's doing Kickstarter, so why not Gabe and Tycho, too?  —  That's the news today from Penny Arcade, the Seattle-based media and conference company that has grown up around …

Apple to return to vertical, tall iPod nano design, add home button?  —  Macotakara claims that Apple is gearing up to launch a redesigned iPod nano later this year.  This new iPod nano will return to the device's old horizontal design, but will be 3/4 the height of the fifth-generation of the music player, according to the report.

A Fight in Silicon Valley: Founders Push for Control  —  There's a power struggle underway in Silicon Valley.  At stake: Power itself.  —  Over the past two years, one of the most influential venture-capital firms has turned the usual rules of start-up investing on its head.

Crossdressing, Compression and a Collider: The First Photo on the Web  —  The first photographic image ever uploaded to the Web was a Photoshop disaster.  It was created to sell something, and featured attractive women in a come-hither pose.  —  In short, photo-uploading was born …

Dropbox offers pro users twice the space as competition heats up  —  This story was corrected at 11:10 a.m. with the correct pricing for Box.net's services.  —  Dropbox pro subscribers can now get excited about twice as much storage space on their accounts for no additional cost …

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean begins rolling out to the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus  —  We knew it was just a matter of time, and now Google has announced that Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has begun rolling out to the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus.  For owners of the phone, the new OS will be appearing over the next few days …

Formspring suffers security breach - 420k password hashes leaked, all passwords reset [UPDATE]  —  Formspring, used by many for the purposes of answering questions, has suffered a massive security breach with 420,000 password hashes posted on a security fourm.

Obama clarifies plan to keep the internet running during emergencies in executive order  —  President Barack Obama has signed an executive order that changes the way the US deals with telecommunications in the event of an emergency.  “Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness …

Congress to discuss sales bans if key patents infringed  —  (Reuters) - The Congress is considering whether companies that hold patents essential to a standard, such as a digital movie format, should be forbidden from asking that infringing products be banned from the U.S. market.

Protecting user files with File History … What is File History?  —  File History is a backup application that continuously protects your personal files stored in Libraries, Desktop, Favorites, and Contacts folders.  It periodically (by default every hour) scans the file system for changes …

Google Adds 20 Museums To Indoor Google Maps, Says More On The Way  —  Following the debut of indoor maps in Google Maps back in November, Google announced today that it's adding the indoor maps for twenty U.S. museums to its Maps app on Android.  The museums added include the de Young Museum …

Bitly Raises $15M Led by Khosla Ventures  —  Bitly, the link-shortening and tracking service, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Vinod Khosla at Khosla Ventures.  —  The round is aimed to help Bitly hire and grow.  “We make many millions of dollars per year …

DNSChanger Post-Mortem: What Did We Learn?  —  The DNS Changer Working Group took its DNS servers offline earlier today, and the world didn't end.  Isn't that great?  —  As PCMag.com reported earlier today, many of the Internet Service Providers configured their own substitute DNS servers and are continuing to work the problem.

LinkedIn Is Gearing Up For A Redesign: Bigger Pictures, Anchored Menu (And A Life Less Tweeted)  —  LinkedIn these days may be the social network that is used most by those looking for a new job (and not the place to read tweets), but the company has long wanted to be seen as the place for a whole lot more …

FreedomPop raises $7.5M to free you from your carrier shackles (exclusive)  —  The seemingly mythical FreedomPop, which aims to disrupt the mobile broadband landscape by offering a freemium 4G service, is one step closer to reality.  The company has raised $7.5 million in a first round of funding …

Exclusive: Darpa Gets a New Boss, and Solyndra Is in Her Past  —  New Darpa director Arati Prabhakar.  Photo courtesy of SRI International  —  Until last year, Arati Prabhakar worked for the venture capitalists who backed Solyndra, the green-tech firm that imploded in a scandal described …