Windows Phone 8 Preview  —  Thanks to a recent leak which has revealed some interesting information about the next major Windows Phone version, I can now publicly discuss Windows Phone 8 for the first time.  —  Windows Phone 8, codenamed Apollo, will be based on the Windows 8 kernel and not on Windows CE as are current versions.

Facebook's Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery  —  So the numbers are out, and we know that Facebook's ad business really is huge.  And it really is growing like a weed.  Just like we thought.  —  But how exactly does Facebook's ad business work?  We still don't know a lot about that part.

Key Internet operator VeriSign hit by hackers  —  (Reuters) - VeriSign Inc, the company in charge of delivering people safely to more than half the world's websites, has been hacked repeatedly by outsiders who stole undisclosed information from the leading Internet infrastructure company.

Tim Cook boasts about Apple's charitable contributions during internal all-hands meeting  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook held a town hall meeting last week to celebrate Apple's record quarter, and in addition to giving employees deep discounts on Apple products, we're now hearing that he spent quite …

GSM Galaxy Nexus Receives Google Wallet Access on AT&T, Still Nothing for the LTE Variant on Verizon  —  By now, most of you know the story behind Google Wallet and the fact that it has only been officially available to the Nexus S 4G on Sprint, something that irritates the hell out of all new Galaxy Nexus owners.

Feds Seize Sports Streaming Domains in New Super Bowl Crackdown  —  US authorities began another round of domain name seizures a few hours ago, targeting several sports streaming sites.  —  Thus far, neither the Department of Justice nor Homeland Security's ICE unit have officially commented …

Peek killing off US email and Twitter devices after ‘lifelong service’  —  There's an old saying that eternal love lasts for two years.  Apparently, that also applies to Peek's bare bones email and Twitter devices, which launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Google not ‘forthcoming’ during congressional questioning  —  House lawmakers grilled Google officials for two hours on Thursday about the company's recent privacy changes, but Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) said she wasn't satisfied with their answers.  —  “At the end of the day …

Nokia Lumia 900 now available for pre-order at Microsoft's retail stores with $25 downpayment  —  We're still not sure when we'll see Nokia's Lumia 900 (signs currently point to March), but if you want to ensure you'll be among the first to have it, you can pre-order the handset now at Microsoft's retail stores.

Super Bowl XLVI releases free official app for iOS and Android  —  If you're going to the Super Bowl, you've probably already spent plenty of money.  Fortunately, the NFL isn't asking anything for its official Super Bowl XLVI app, released yesterday.  While it's out on both iOS and Android …

RIM Offering Free PlayBook Tablets to Woo Android Developers  —  Research In Motion plans to give away tablets to Android developers who quickly port their apps to run on the PlayBook device.  —  RIM developer executive Alec Saunders mentioned the program in a Twitter message on Thursday …

Facebook Tests Photo Viewer That Encourages Comments, Google+ Comparisons  —  Facebook is testing a new photo viewer layout that mounts engagement buttons and comments to the right rather than beneath images.  See, Facebook doesn't want you to just view comments, it wants you to start a conversation.

How Marc Andreessen makes Silicon Valley magic  —  There's no question that Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm headed up by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, has become a major force since it was founded back in 2009.  The young VC firm has funded some of the best and brightest companies …

Introducing Reuters Social Pulse  —  Today we launched Social Pulse, our new social media hub on Reuters.com designed to show you the most talked-about news, companies and influencers across the Web.  —  The first thing you'll see on the page is the news most popular in Reuters social network.

Judge complains of too many patents in Apple case against Motorola  —  Circuit Judge Posner has expressed dissatisfaction with the number of patents Apple is arguing against Motorola, asking the company to “winnow” its claims.  —  Apple originally brought 15 patent claims against Motorola …

10 Key Statistics about Facebook  —  As Facebook Inc. filed for its initial-public-offering yesterday afternoon, now is the perfect time to examine the website's performance online and how its audience compares with that of other social networks.  Given the expected $75 billion …

One studio accounts for 1/3 of Twitter DMCA takedowns  —  Twitter recently released all of the DMCA takedown notices they have received in the past year.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, the 4,410 claims reveal that a single studio, Magnolia Pictures, was responsible for a third of them.

Under new CEO, AMD will launch processors for tablets this year  —  Advanced Micro Devices said at its analyst meeting today that it will ship its first chips designed to provide the processing and graphics power for tablet computers.  —  Rory Read (pictured), chief executive of Sunnyvale …

Apple researching social fitness tech sporting real-time sharing of performance data for competitive workouts  —  In the future, hitting the gym along with your iPhone-toting pals could spur competitiveness in ways unlike ever before.  Apple's mobile devices run a variety of fitness apps …

Kelihos botnet, once crippled, now gaining strength  —  Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab are now seeing the botnet it shutdown in September coming back to life  —  A botnet that was crippled by Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab last September is spamming once again and experts have no recourse to stop it.