Apple May Meet Tablet Competition With a Smaller iPad  —  The tech companies are at it again — trying to catch the blockbuster iPad in a race to win the tablet market.  —  Google on Friday began shipping its Nexus 7, which is smaller and less expensive than Apple's iPad …

MSNBC.com Renamed to NBCNews.com as Microsoft and NBC Divorce  —  On Sunday night, MSNBC.com did something that successful Web sites almost never do: it renamed itself.  —  The site became NBCNews.com, signifying the end of a relationship between NBC and Microsoft that dates back to the earliest days of the commercial Web.

Apple Store overnights happening July 24.  Mountain Lion launch the next day?  —  We've heard a few whispers (3 and counting) that Apple Stores both in the United States and overseas have planned overnights for Tuesday, July 24th.  With OS X Mountain Lion launching “in July”, according to Apple …

Tax Break Nears End For Online Shoppers  —  Republican Governors, in Need of Revenue, Drop Opposition  —  Republican governors, eager for new revenue to ease budget strains, are dropping their longtime opposition to imposing sales taxes on online purchases, a significant political shift …

An iPad Lover's Take On The Nexus 7  —  Trolls, feel free to skip to the bottom of this column and post your comments immediately without reading a word.  Actually, who are we kidding — you didn't make it this far.  —  Everyone else, brace yourselves.  You may want small children to leave the room.

Here is why Facebook bought Spool  —  Over the weekend, news reports emerged that Facebook was buying Spool, a mobile-oriented social bookmarking service started by Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer.  At the surface, this seems like yet another acqua-hire but scratch a little deeper and you start …

Steam store search shows categories for non-gaming apps  —  The Steam app for Android shows a number of new categories that have little to do with gaming, which could be a shred of evidence that Valve is considering different kinds of apps for its popular game distribution service.

Sky's pay-as-you-go online Now TV service launches tomorrow on PC, Mac and Android  —  We knew that BSkyB was launching its pay-as-you-go Internet TV service this summer, but the exact details around the launch, including the date, weren't known until now.  —  At a launch event in London today …

Skype confirms ‘rare’ bug that sends messages to unintended contacts, promises fix soon  —  Only a handful of Skype users have reported this problem over at the support forum, but what they're complaining about is pretty hair-raising.  They say that, following an update in June …

Microsoft Hits Back as Google Muscles In  —  Microsoft Corp. has publicly dismissed Web-based Google Apps as a competitor to its Office software suite.  But, behind the scenes, Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to halt Google Inc.'s encroachment on its business-software turf.

Evernote Wants To Be The Automatic, Trusted Place To Store Your Life [Interview]  —  Evernote, the multi-platform app that lets you capture notes, audio and images when you are on the go, and then access those mementos wherever you want to next, has carved out a position as one of the more …

Creamery is deal central for SF techies  —  Miguel Raimilla (l to r), executive director Telecentre.org, and Rebecca Masisal, co-CEO Techsoup Global, who both work for community technology companies discuss work over lunch at The Creamery on Friday, July 13, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle / SF

The Most Important Tech Company You've Never Heard Of  —  Information about every cell phone in the country is in a Neustar database.  Which is why it's kind of weird that 400 or so companies trust them to deal with law enforcement surveillance requests.  —  A Delaware-based company …

U.S. Venture Capital Has Its Biggest Quarter Since Dot-Com Days  —  U.S. venture capitalists put $8.1 billion into 812 deals in the second quarter of 2012, their single largest quarter in more than a decade, according to CB Insights.  —  It's clear factors like the greater American economy …

Anonymous hackers target oil industry giants, more than 1,000 email credentials exposed  —  More than 1,000 email credentials from five multinational oil industry companies, including Shell and Exxon and BP, has been dumped online by hackers associated with the Anonymous movement.