Exclusive: Microsoft's Ballmer Throws Down Gauntlet Against Apple  —  “We have our advantages in productivity,” he said.  “We have our advantages in terms of enterprise management, manageability.  We have got our advantages in terms of when you plug into server infrastructure in the enterprise.

Apple Seeds Golden Master of OS X Mountain Lion to Developers  —  “200 New Features” Mountain Lion slide shown at WWDC  —  Apple released the Golden Master (GM) version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers today.  The “golden master” designation indicates that this version of the software …

RIM CEO on What Went Wrong and the Future of BlackBerry  —  In an exclusive Q&A, CIO.com's Al Sacco chats with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins on the current state of BlackBerry and how it fell from grace, what the company is doing to ensure things in Waterloo don't get worse, and the product delay problems that have plagued RIM.

Google, FTC Near Settlement on Privacy  —  Google Inc. is close to a deal to pay $22.5 million to settle charges related to its surreptitious bypassing of the privacy settings of millions of Apple Inc. users, according to officials briefed on the settlement terms.

Next Issue brings its all-you-can-read magazine store to the iPad, plans start at $10 a month  —  The last time we heard about Next Issue, the all-you-can-read magazine store was launching on Android, with an iOS version said to be coming “soon.”  Three months later, the startup's made good on its promise …

Why GitHub abandoned the bootstrapper's ship for a $100M Series A  —  After half a decade of preaching about the virtues of bootstrapping, the GitHub founders are finally getting in bed with a major VC firm to the tune of $100 million — that's $1 million per employee at the still-small startup.

Should (And Will) Kleiner Perkins Settle Its Gender Discrimination Fight?  —  High-profile venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers faces off in San Francisco court later today against its partner Ellen Pao in what will be the first public face-off in one of the most closely watched stories of the past months in Silicon Valley.

Let's Try to Think This iPad Mini Thing All the Way Through  —  We're Talking About a Smaller iPad, Not a Bigger iPod Touch  —  I've seen a fair bit of speculation that, if Apple produces a 7-inch iOS device, then maybe it would be a bigger iPod Touch, not a smaller iPad.

Kim Dotcom's Extradition Hearing Postponed Until March 2013  —  In this Feb. 22, 2012 file photo, Kim Dotcom, the founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, comments after he was granted bail and released in Auckland, New Zealand.  The U.S. wants to extradite Dotcom from New Zealand …

Apple launches new iPad in China on July 20th  —  Apple is about to complete an important part of the puzzle for the new iPad's world rollout: it just confirmed that its Retina display-packing tablet will reach mainland China on July 20th.  The company isn't specific about local pricing …

Steve Wozniak Shares His Thoughts On Google Glass And Microsoft's Surface Tablet  —  Steve Wozniak recently spoke at the Entel Summit in Chile, and as usual, expressed his thoughts on emerging technology.  Wozniak offered his opinion on Google Glass, Microsoft's Surface tablet, and even the Kim Dotcom case surrounding Megaupload.

Eric Schmidt: The Great Firewall of China will fall  —  Technology and information penetration in China will eventually force the Great Firewall of China to crumble and even lead to the political opening of the Chinese system, according to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

One-bit Internet: The iPad is/isn't a content creation device  —  In the conclusion to my Retina MacBook repairability post, I wrote: “on the Internet, it often seems that everything must be compressed to a one-bit image: black or white, triumph or catastrophe, the very best or the absolute worst.”

Firefox Developer: ‘Everybody Hates Firefox Updates’  —  Look, Yet Another Firefox Update.  Screenshot: Webmonkey  —  Mozilla's Jono DiCarlo has come out to say what many a Firefox user has long been thinking: the rapid release cycle is killing Firefox.  —  DiCarlo has a long …

AT&T Exclusive: Lumia 900 is pretty in pink  —  The Nokia Lumia 900 stands apart in the smartphone market with solid polycarbonate construction, a beautiful ClearBlack Display, stunning design, and with the simple and beautiful Windows Phone operating system.

Samsung Tops Apple on Fortune Global 500 List  —  Placing below the top 50 on Fortune's Global 500 list may not be every company's dream, but Apple can still count this year's No. 55 slot as an accomplishment.  —  Rising from number 111 last year, Apple's profits grew by almost $12 billion …

Porn Studios Accused of Screwing Their Fans in BitTorrent Lawsuits  —  A handful of pornography producers are being accused of racketeering, fraud, defamation and other charges in connection to their BitTorrent online litigation trolling strategies.  —  The program is simple …

Reddit lifts its ban on “The Atlantic”  —  The Atlantic has returned to Reddit.  —  A month after the social news site kicked out the news magazine and dozens of other sites —including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Discovery News—for spam, Reddit has welcomed many back into the warm embrace of its monster traffic, with little fanfare.

Lady Gaga's social network “Little Monsters” opens its doors to everyone  —  We told you about Lady Gaga and her jump into social networking with the site “Little Monsters.”  The site has been in private beta, but users all over the globe can now sign up.  —  Invites had been trickling …

Google Chrome 21 beta can interact with cameras, mics, and game controllers  —  The latest beta version of Google Chrome adds two new APIs that allow web developers to do a few interesting things.  They can write web apps that will use your computer's mic or camera without a plugin.

About the future of Thunderbird  —  Jb Piacentino  —  Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Jb Piacentino, the managing Director of Thunderbird, following the recent Thunderbird announcement.  —  TN : Hi Jb, I read on the Web that Thunderbird is dead.  Is it true or is the rumor of Thunderbird's death greatly exaggerated?

Google Nexus 7 Tablet on Sale: Staples Takes Pre-Orders  —  Staples says it will carry the Google Nexus 7 tablet in its brick-and-mortar stores later this month, and that Google's 7-inch Android tablet is now available for pre-sale on its website.  —  The office-supply retailer's site …