Apple Likely to Unveil “iPad Mini” at October 23 Event  —  October 10, the date on which Apple was rumored to be distributing invitations to a second fall product event, passed without a word from its Cupertino, Calif., HQ.  The silence from the iconic tech company left some to wonder …

Office Reaches RTM!  —  Today we reached an important milestone in the development of the new Office.  —  Moments ago, the Office engineering team signed off on the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build.  This milestone means the coding and testing phase of the project is complete …

Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite sales make Amazon no profit  —  Amazon boss Jeff Bezos discusses the Kindle Fire HD  —  Amazon has confirmed it will not make a profit from sales of its latest Kindle tablet and e-reader devices.  —  “We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware …

Windows 8 packaging and pricing revealed, standard OEM starting at $99, Pro Pack $139  —  We're almost there.  Just a few more days until the big reveal.  But that doesn't mean there aren't still a few final Windows 8 secrets to be revealed.  Two of those are the price and the packaging …

Chip Design Luminary Leaves Samsung for Apple  —  Samsung recently raised eyebrows by beefing up its team of Texas-based chip designers, including those whose backgrounds pointed to an interest in chips for server systems.  Now one of the most prominent of those recruits has left the South Korean company for Apple .

Exclusive: Upcoming Gmail For Android 4.2 Will Finally Have Pinch-To-Zoom, Swipeaway Delete/Archive [Video]  —  Today, we are thrilled to share some exciting news about the next version of Gmail for Android.  We may or may not be in possession of an unreleased version of Gmail …

Apple Has Quietly Started Tracking iPhone Users Again, And It's Tricky To Opt Out  —  Apple's launch of the iPhone 5 in September came with a bunch of new commercials to promote the device.  —  But Apple didn't shout quite so loud about an enhancement to its new mobile operating system …

Exclusive: Ellison eyes fellow billionaire's AEG empire - sources  —  (Reuters) - Oracle Corp's Larry Ellison, known for his taste for the finer things in life, is now intrigued by a multibillion dollar sports and entertainment empire.  —  Ellison, who recently bought a Hawaiian island …

Best Buy to Match Online Prices  —  Retailer Will Match Online Prices, Shrugs off ‘Showrooming’  —  Best Buy Co. is planning to match the prices of Internet competitors such as Amazon.com Inc. this holiday season, even as it plays down its concerns over shoppers browsing gadgets in stores only to buy them for less online.

Microsoft To Make Same Privacy Change Google Was Attacked For; No One Seems To Care  —  Earlier this year, Google announced a privacy policy change that was widely covered by tech blogs, the mainstream press and which generated much governmental concern.  Last month, Microsoft announced the same type of change.

Apple rumored to be expanding iPhone production to Foxconn subsidiary  —  Foxconn International Holdings, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology and the largest cellphone manufacturer in the world, will reportedly take orders to build certain iPhone models in the company's first-ever Apple partnership.

AMD: Third quarter unravels amid weak demand, excess inventory  —  Summary: AMD is hobbled amid weak demand and excess inventory.  Company plans a $100 million writedown of excess product.  —  Larry Dignan  —  AMD cut its revenue outlook for the third quarter for the second time amid …

Google German Criminal Street View Probe Said to Be Dropped  —  German prosecutors will drop a criminal probe into whether Google Inc. (GOOG) illegally gathered wireless-network data for its Street View mapping service, two people familiar with the issue said.

Talk is cheap: Cell phones hit six billion worldwide  —  It's something that we all knew but perhaps didn't fully appreciate—just about all of us have cell phones now, and we use them a lot.  —  According to new figures published by the International Telecommunications Union on Thursday …

Nathan Myhrvold's Cunning Plan to Prevent 3-D Printer Piracy  —  A patent that covers digital encryption of “objects” could bring copy protection to 3-D printing.  —  Sometime in the none-too-distant future, replacing your favorite coffee mug or creating a new iPhone case might be as simple …

Reddit, freedom of speech and the dark side of community  —  Unless you spend a lot of time on Reddit, the discussion-forum community that more or less took over after Digg sank beneath the waves, you may have missed the latest storm of controversy over content posted on the site's various “sub-Reddits” or topic pages.

As mobile rises, desktop search declines for the first time  —  Analysts at the Macquarie Group say mobile devices could account for a third of all search traffic by year's end.  —  In a sign of the mobile-centric times, desktop Web search declined in September for the first time since Macquarie Group began tracking it in 2006.

Uncovered: Google creating a “Nexus Call Center” for device support  —  One of the big complaints surrounding the Nexus 7 launch was the lack of customer support when dealing with the device.  Google was not initially prepared to handle the volume of users that required support …

Microsoft gearing up to make smartphones, tablets and PCs in company-saving strategy shift  —  Microsoft (MSFT) is currently in the midst of a major transition unlike anything the company has dealt with in the past.  According to our own sources and multiple subsequent reports, Microsoft is working on its own smartphone.

Samsung announces Galaxy S3 Mini  —  Device Vital information What the experts say  —  • Cost: £529 for pay-as-you-go 16GB model from Apple  •Full specification  —  “If you have an iPhone 4S the only real feature is the new screen, as most of iOS 6 will be available to you …