Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Microsoft expanding Mac team ahead of new products  —  Microsoft’s Mac Business last week kicked off the largest hiring spree in its history as the group prepares to accelerate development of a new wave of software products for Apple users.  —  “The Mac BU at Microsoft is growing …

Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog:
Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant  —  Sometimes, software isn’t so magical.  Even for Bill Gates.  —  For the opening piece in our series on Gates leaving daily life at Microsoft, one goal was to give a clear picture of the Microsoft co-founder’s role inside the […]

Josh / Redeye VC:
The Death of Stealth Mode  —  D Seeing how attacking startup lawyers seems to be en vogue this month, let’s put this post in the category of “Things I wish lawyers told their startup clients.”  —  Here’s a situation I see all the time:  —  A pre-launch, stealth-mode company just closes […]

Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Digital politics: The future is broadband, not Facebook  —  NEW YORK—It’s time to stop waxing philosophical about how this thing called “new media” is shaping American elections and time to focus on the real tech issues, like broadband policy.  —  We talked about bloggers in 2004 …

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
After Steve Jobs: Handicapping Apple’s back bench  —  “You know, I think it wouldn’t be a party,” Steve Jobs told Fortune in February, describing the future of his company if, as he put it, Jobs got hit by a bus.  “But there are really capable people at Apple. …

BIZ / Twitter Blog:
Welcoming Bijan and Jeff  —  We’re happy to announce two new members of our investment team: Bijan Sabet with Spark Capital in Boston and Jeff Bezos of Bezos Expeditions in Seattle.  Bijan has also accepted a seat on our board of directors.  We’re looking forward to the guidance and advice both […]

Ian Dumych / Download Squad:
Tiny XP Rev 09: Windows XP with cuise control  —  Installing or reinstalling Windows can be a real hassle.  Although Windows XP comes with a basic set of drivers, there’s a good chance you’ll have to dig out the driver disc for some of your hardware, or scour the Internet […]

Tnkgrl / tnkgrl Mobile:
MacBook Air SuperDrive for all  —  So like me, you have a MacBook Air SuperDrive… It’s affordable, it’s functional, it’s sexy.  If only it was usable with other Macs and PCs!  —  Well rejoice I have successfully hacked my MBA SuperDrive to work with other Macs and PCs.

Ray Pellecchia / NYSE:
New York Stock Exchange Today Launches NYSE Realtime Stock Prices  —  The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a subsidiary of NYSE Euronext (NYX), today will introduce NYSE Realtime Stock Prices, a new data product that enables Internet and media organizations to buy real-time …

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Symbian, iPhone & the New Mobile Reality  —  Nokia, already a stakeholder in mobile OS maker Symbian, has announced that it will buy the remainder of the company and throw all the assets into a new platform called the Symbian Foundation, which will unite all the flavors of Symbian […]