The Inside Story of the Moto X: The Reason Google Bought Motorola  —  THE PHONE THAT REVEALS WHY GOOGLE BOUGHT MOTOROLA  —  lmost exactly two years ago, Google announced its purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.  It was the company's biggest deal ever, far exceeding previous big buys …

Exclusive: Apple Recently Acquired Low-Energy Chipmaker Passif  —  As the smartphone wars heat up, Apple has acquired a key technology in the arms race.  —  The company in recent months purchased Silicon Valley-based wireless chip developer, Passif Semiconductor, according to people briefed on the deal.

Can Marissa Mayer Save Yahoo?  —  Marissa Mayer is sitting in URLs, the Yahoo! (YHOO) cafeteria, making the case for the future of a company that almost everyone in Silicon Valley views as doomed.  Employees swarm around her, assembling rows of chairs for the afternoon's FYI …

BBM For Android/iOS Betas Rolling Out In The Beta Zone  —  It seems that BlackBerry are moving forward with the cross-platform version of BBM as we have learned that there are a small number of users that are getting the chance to test out the Android, and iOS versions of BBM.

LinkedIn Beats Again as Revenue Jumps to $364 Million  —  Another earnings season, another beat from the Internet company that can seemingly do no financial wrong.  —  LinkedIn reported second-quarter earnings results on Thursday, with earnings per share of 38 cents on revenue of $364 million.

Google extends Windows Phone calendar and contacts syncing until December 31st  —  Google has granted new Windows Phone users another extension to access its Sync service until December 31st.  The company had originally planned to drop support for the Exchange ActiveSync protocol on January 30th …

Amazon Experiments With Its Own Take On Pinterest Called “Amazon Collections”  —  Amazon has quietly launched its own direct challenger to Pinterest with the debut of a feature called “Amazon Collections.”  It's a more attractive, image-heavy website where consumers can save …

HootSuite Raises $165M Series B Round From Insight, Accel And OMERS To Go Large On Enterprise Social Media Monitoring  —  It was a little over a year ago when we reported that Vancouver-based HootSuite, the platform that lets enterprises manage social media accounts, was raising a $50 million round at a $500 million valuation.

Apple's Next iPad Mini Will Likely Have ‘Retina’ Display From Samsung  —  TAIPEI—Apple Inc.'s suppliers are gearing up for mass production of a new iPad mini in the fourth quarter that will likely feature a high-resolution screen from Samsung, people familiar with the matter say …

Apple Notifying Former MobileMe Customers of Impending iCloud Storage Downgrade  —  In 2011, when iCloud replaced MobileMe, Apple gave paying MobileMe customers an additional 20GB of iCloud storage as a thank you for their purchase.  That storage was to be discontinued in September of 2012 …

Apple Stores Suffer From Sameness  —  With No Head of Retail for 10 Months, iPhone Meccas Lose Some Luster Apple Inc.'s AAPL +0.92% search for a new head of its retail stores is dragging into its 10th month, and the effects are showing: The company recently reported its first drop in store sales in at least four years.

Google Launches Real-Time API For Analytics In Invite-Only Beta  —  Google today launched the beta of its real-time API for Analytics that will finally allow developers to programmatically take action based on the real-time data they get from Google's service.

Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ  —  • Secret payments revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden  —  • GCHQ expected to ‘pull its weight’ for Americans  —  • Weaker regulation of British spies ‘a selling point’ for NSA

AT&T unseats Verizon in the J.D. Power rankings for the 1st time  —  Verizon Wireless may be losing some of its edge when it comes to subscriber goodwill.  Verizon has long dominated J.D. Power's customer care rankings for mobile carriers, but on Thursday the global rankings company crowned …

Pinterest Now Sends Alerts When Price Drops on Pinned Items  —  Instead of viewing Pinterest as a site to collect more stuff you want but just can't afford, you might start to think of it as a place to help you save money.  Starting today, the social network is adding a new feature that alerts users when prices on pinned items drop.

Netflix individual profile rollout brings up to five unique experiences per account  —  Netflix is finally ready to deliver individual profiles for its streaming service, meant to satisfy households with shared accounts by providing everyone their own settings, viewing history and (where available) queue.

Facebook Brings Home's Lockscreen Replacement To Their Main Android App - A Bad Sign For Home?  —  Four months after the launch of Facebook Home, which aimed to turn every Android phone into the long-rumored Facebook Phone, the company is starting to bring certain Home features into their primary app with an update today.

Foursquare Selling Its Location Data Through Ad Targeting Firm Turn  —  Check-in Data Being Used to Contextualize Ads on Facebook  —  As part of its efforts to generate new sources of revenue, Foursquare is working with ad-tech company Turn to allow advertisers to use its treasure-trove …

Twitter Launches Its Version Of Universal Search Results  —  Twitter is in the process of rolling out what you could call its version of “universal search results” on Twitter.com.  The changes bring Twitter's web search more in line with the current mobile experience.

Albumatic takes another whack at getting photo-sharing right, announces $4.2 million Series A  —  Albumatic launched back in February as a way for friends all attending the same event to share photos with each other when they're together and taking photos.  Seems simple enough, right?

Senators Caution White House Over ITC's Looming iPhone Ban  —  On Aug. 5 — Monday of next week — an International Trade Commission import ban on older iPhones and iPads found to infringe one of Samsung's standards-essential patents will go into effect — unless the White House overturns it.