Exclusive: Microsoft's next Xbox will take over your TV, interact with your cable box  —  The fight for the living room continues  —  Microsoft is investing in TV in a big way with its next Xbox console as part of a fight for the living room.  Multiple sources familiar with the company's Xbox plans …

Microsoft's Office for iOS, Android: Not until fall 2014?  —  Summary: An alleged roadmap for Microsoft's two-year wave of coming Office updates implies Office for iOS and Android may be further away than many industry watchers thought.  —  An alleged roadmap for Microsoft's coming ‘Gemini’ wave …

Computer Sales in Free Fall  —  Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 13.9% in the first quarter, according to market researcher IDC, in the biggest decline since the firm began issuing quarterly numbers in 1994.  —  The grim estimate of 76.3 million units shipped is the latest sign …

Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video  —  LAS VEGAS—Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network.  Speaking at the National Association …

Glass Explorer Edition To Ship Within The Next Month, Google Confirms  —  Today during Google Venture's “Glass Collective” event, Google told us that it hopes to get the Glass hardware into the hands of developers “within the next month.”  The exact date for when Google plans to ship …

Well, That Was Fast: Twitter Already Shut Down Ribbon's Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature  —  This morning, payments startup Ribbon announced support for “in-stream” payments on Twitter.com, allowing users to click a button directly within a tweet in order to make a purchase without having to leave the Twitter.com website.

Bitcoin Is Crashing  —  It's shaping up to be a pretty ugly day for Bitcoin.  —  After soaring past $250 earlier, it's tumbled all the way down to current levels around $156.  —  Bitcoin is now 41 percent off its intraday high of $266.  —  The chart below shows Bitcoin prices since April 7.

Google Babel News: Google Voice Support “Eventually” Coming, Synced Notifications, “First Class” iOS Experience  —  Whenever Google Babel does arrive for public consumption, we're starting to believe it will be everything we have ever asked for in a unified messenger service.

IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant  —  The ACLU has obtained internal IRS documents that say Americans enjoy “generally no privacy” in their e-mail messages, Facebook chats, and other electronic communications.  —  The Internal Revenue Service doesn't seem to believe …

Microsoft Plans 7-inch Tablet  —  The personal-computer business is at a crossroads, and Microsoft Corp. isn't sitting still.  —  The software giant is developing a new lineup of its Surface tablets, including a 7-inch version expected to go into mass production later this year, said people familiar with the company's plans.

Yahoo Dealmaker Reses Targets Mobile Talent in M&A Spree  —  Yahoo Dealmaker Targets Mobile Talent in M&A Spree  —  Marissa Mayer's strategy of using deals to reignite growth at Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) will hinge on the success of a private-equity veteran named Jacqueline Reses who was largely unknown in Silicon Valley six months ago.

Silicon Valley Goes Hollywood: Top Coders Can Now Get Agents  —  To be a good coder in Silicon Valley is to be among the pampered elite.  You get fat paychecks, people bring you free gourmet food, drivers shuttle you around town.  Coders here are really treated much like talented entertainers would be down south in Hollywood.

Inside Operation Inversion, the Code Freeze That Saved LinkedIn  —  LinkedIn's May 2011 initial public offering was a blowout.  Its share price more than doubled in the first day of trading, giving the networking site a near $9 billion valuation.  Behind the scenes, though, the company's computing systems were a total mess.

Google Wants To Operate .Search As A “Dotless” Domain, Plans To Open .Cloud, .Blog And .App To Others  —  If it gets it, Google wants to turn .search into a “dotless domain,” the company told ICANN a few days ago.  Last year, Google applied to manage the .app, .blog, .cloud …

Online Education Lifts Pass Rates at University  —  San Jose State University's test results are in: Online education technology appears to improve pass rates in real-world college courses.  —  The university, which is Silicon Valley's largest higher-education institution …

Buy Signal: Facebook Widens Data Targeting  —  Gunning to win more advertising dollars, Facebook Inc. is using new ways to cull personal information from outside the social network and match it with data submitted by its billion-plus users.  —  The efforts are winning over advertisers …