Google’s Motorola buy closing this week, layoffs likely coming (report)

Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility will finally close this week and some of Moto’s staff could be axed in the process, according to a TechCrunch report.

Chinese antitrust authorities approved the $12.5 billion deal Saturday, clearing the final hurdle for …

Nasdaq responds to upset Facebook investors with a chunk of cash

One day after admitting it screwed up, Nasdaq is planning to make things right with investors who lost money over trading glitches during the Facebook IPO. Nasdaq is planning to spend $13 million to make amends for bad trades that …

Will the iPhone 3GS be Apple’s key to prepaid markets?

With the next iPhone on the horizon, all signs point to an imminent demise for the iPhone 3GS. Apple, however, has other plans.

Apple’s aging third generation smartphone will live on as the company targets emerging markets not dominated by …

Comcast launches a new cable box worthy of taking on Roku, Apple TV

Comcast is finally rolling its new X1 cable/DVR set-top box for the Boston, Mass. market, with a handful of other major markets following soon after, the company announced today.

We first heard about Comcast’s enhanced TV service nearly a year …

Hotspot Shield maker AnchorFree lands $52M to protect you from the horrors of web browsing

Simply browsing the web can open you up to a ton of malware or privacy risks. And let’s not even get started on the dangers of public Wi-Fi.

With 60 million downloads and more than 100 million monthly user sessions, …

GitHub finally releases its Windows app (looking at you, enterprise developers)

GitHub has maintained a long and profitable love affair with all things Apple, but today, the folks behind the most popular code repository site are sullying their allegiance to Cupertino with — get ready to gasp and clutch your pearls …

David Karp: CrunchFund now an investor in Tumblr

Tumblr CEO David Karp announced today at that the Michael Arrington-led CrunchFund has joined as an investor in his popular blogging company.

Karp was speaking with CrunchFund partner MG Siegler on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in New York. …

How Ghost Recon is gunning to take over the hardcore and social markets (interview)

Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft, explains his company's strategies on Facebook, how they're coordinating three different Ghost Recon products, and most importantly, how they're going to make money on these ambitious plans.

EU giving Google one last chance to settle antitrust search case

The European Union’s antitrust chief has given Google a final chance to settle matter related to anti-competitiveness with its main search engine, according to a Reuters report.

The EU first opened up an investigation in November 2010 after rival companies …

Fred Wilson: We invested in DuckDuckGo for the Reddit, Hacker News anarchists

Fred Wilson, managing partner at Union Square Ventures, shed some light today on why his VC firm invested in search engine startup DuckDuckGo, even as it pales next to Google and Bing.

DuckDuckGo has seen incredible growth in the past …

Are You a Human replaces annoying CAPTCHAs with games

Websites need to verify that a visitor is a real person and not an automated bot. But the CAPTCHA test that they came up with — where you have to type in the word that you see in a blurry …

Threatened by wireless carriers, Time Warner, Comcast, Cox team up for CableWifi

It’s rarely a good thing when the country’s biggest cable providers partner up, but subscribers might be okay with today’s news.

Customers of Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner will soon be able to connect to each …

Facebook shares fall to $33 on second day of trading

Facebook’s shares tumbled this morning to a low of $33.01, well below the company’s initial price of $38 on Friday.

Pre-market trading of Facebook’s stock was already below $38, reports USA Today, but it quickly sank to $33 within the …

Hulu teams up with Kevin Smith on new original show for the summer

The summer season is usually when the lesser-known cable channels debut their own original programing, and this year Hulu is jumping into that game with three original shows and seven exclusives.

Perhaps the most recognizable of the bunch is a …

Google Chrome is now the world’s top web browser, says StatCounter

Google Chrome isn’t just for über-geeks anymore. Google’s minimalist web browser is now the most popular web browser in the world, according to the latest figures from StatCounter.

For the week of May 14th to May 20th, Chrome edged out …

Mixin lets users insert comments into video and share with friends (exclusive)

Mixin, a social video startup, is coming out of stealth mode today with a personal video sharing technology and more than 200,000 users.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company allows users to mix their personal comments into online videos and then …

Game of Thrones Ascent aims to please fans with a Facebook game (exclusive)

Game startup Disruptor Beam has announced today the first Facebook game based on the award-winning novels by George R.R. Martin and the award-winning television show on HBO. Titled Game of Thrones Ascent, it is slated for an unspecified “future release” …

Not magic, motion control: The Leap controls your computer with a flick of a finger

Anyone who has wanted to point their finger at their computer to make something happen will appreciate the Leap, a new motion control peripheral from startup Leap Motion. The small aluminum device uses finger waves and hand gestures to interact …

Yahoo agrees to sell back half of Alibaba stake in $7B deal

Yahoo and Alibaba have finally hashed out terms that will see Yahoo sell back half of its stake in the Chinese e-commerce site in a $7 billion deal, according to an AllThingsD report.

Yahoo will sell half of its 40 …

Nasdaq admits screwing up early Facebook IPO trading

Nasdaq chief exec Robert Greifeld admitted Sunday that the exchange was at fault for some glitches in early trading of Facebook’s IPO but said it had nothing to do with the stock’s uninspired performance.

Social networking service Facebook went public …