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The Apple-following portion of the Internet blew up earlier today when an analyst floated the rumor that part of Steve Jobs’ keynote would be set aside for Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer. Eric Savitz with Barron’s Tech Trader Daily:

Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with tiny Global Equities Research, contends that 7 minutes of the June 7 keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been blocked off for a presentation by Microsoft to talk about Visual Studio 2010, the company’s suite of development tools. Chowdhry says the new version of VS will allow developers to write native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. And here’s the kicker: he thinks Microsoft’s presentation could be given by none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

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Nilay Patel:

We’d heard rumors this morning that Matias Duarte had left Palm for Google, but now we’ve got it straight from Mountain View: Mr. Duarte is the new User Experience Director for Android.

This could be the shot in the arm Android’s interface team badly needs.

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Joshua Topolsky:

There is a missing link in our computing experience that has recently been made painfully clear thanks to the current onslaught of highly advanced mobile devices, and I believe the solution to this problem is simple. Allow me to set the stage. Just now, I was reading one of my favorite blogs on my laptop, but I wanted to relocate to my couch, and I wanted to switch to reading on my iPad. Of course, this required starting a new browser session, calling up the web page, and finding my place once again. This same situation now occurs constantly with Twitter (where I’ll have to read and re-read timelines depending on whether I’m checking on my phone, laptop, or iPad), Facebook (a mess similar to that of Twitter), and even in my IM sessions (different locations, different conversations, different logs). There is no continuity in my call logs, text messages, or notes when seated with my laptop or desktop, and there is no way in which to continue working on something in an application on two platforms without tremendous effort. Frankly, it’s a mess.

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The New York Times:

In intraday trading shortly after 2:30 p.m., Apple shares rose 1.8 percent, which gave the company a value of $227.1 billion. Shares of Microsoft declined about 1 percent, giving the company a market capitalization of $226.3 billion.

The only American company valued higher is Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $282 billion.

This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history, as Apple had been given up for dead only a decade earlier. But the rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds a cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.

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MSNBC:

Atlantis returned to Earth Wednesday, wrapping up the final mission of its 25-year career. Once the shuttle program ends, the United States will rely on Russian Soyuz rockets to carry its astronauts to the International space station until a commercial US launcher can be developed.

I’m sad I’m too young to remember NASA in its heyday of Mercury, Gemini and the moon landings.

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Kevin Soh for Reuters:

Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou, one of Taiwan’s best known businessmen, on Wednesday led a rare media tour of the Chinese complex, part of an unprecedented publicity blitz to counter a growing backlash over the suspected suicides.

“I’m very concerned about this. I can’t sleep every night,” said Gou. “From a scientific point of view, I’m not confident we can stop every case. But, as a responsible employer, we have to take up the responsibility of preventing as many as we can.”

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Chris Anderson:

The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. We can offer you a history of Mars landings that lets you explore the red planet yourself. We can take you inside Trent Reznor’s recording studio and let you listen to snippets of his work in progress. And we can show you exactly how Pixar crafted each frame of its new movie, Toy Story 3.

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From the Howard Forums:

It has a 4.1" screen, OMAP 3630, 8 GB Internal, 8 GB MMC, 8MP camera and HDMI out.

There has been speculation this device is actually the Droid 2. I have it on good authority it isn’t. The Shadow doesn’t have a physical keyboard and may end up running Motoblur, while the Droid 2 will run stock Android. The Droid 2 will ship a little later than this device, and is basically just a refreshed Droid — smoother edges with better physical keyboard.

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Google’s Mike Smith:

Today, I’m happy to announce that Google Chrome for Mac is being promoted out of beta to our stable channel. We believe that it provides not only the stability, performance and polish that every Mac user expects, but also a seamless native Mac application experience that Mac users will feel instantly at home with.

I’ve been using the beta as my main browser for several weeks with very few issues.

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Speaking of lawyers, be sure to check out this site built by Matthew Butterick, a LA attorney with a knack for good design:

Even though the legal profession depends heavily on writing, legal typography is often poor. Some blame lies with the strict typographic constraints that control certain legal documents (e.g. court rules regarding the format of pleadings).

But the rest of the blame lies with lawyers. To be fair, I assume this is for lack of information, not lack of will. This website fills that void. There are numerous guides on typography for generalists but none specifically aimed at lawyers. So as one of the few typographers-turned-attorneys in America—yes, there are others—I figure that if I don’t do it, nobody will.

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Case No. CGC 09–492590:

Representative plaintiff Steve Camuti, on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a Complaint in San Francisco County Superior Court on September 15, 2009. The lawsuit is on behalf of all persons employed in non-exempt (hourly paid) “Genius” positions in California. It alleges that Apple denied those employees rest breaks without paying wages for that time in violation of California law. The proposed plaintiff class seeks to recover unpaid wages, penalties, an injunction and other equitable relief and fees and costs for the period of September 15, 2005 through the present.

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The Big Picture:

Over one month after the initial explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, crude oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, and oil slicks have slowly reached as far as 12 miles into Louisiana’s marshes. According to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, more than 65 miles of Louisiana’s shoreline has now been oiled. BP said it will be at least Wednesday before they will try using heavy mud and cement to plug the leak, a maneuver called a “top kill” that represents their best hope of stopping the oil after several failed attempts. Based on low estimates, at least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf so far - though some scientists have said they believe the spill already surpasses the 11 million-gallon 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska as the worst in U.S. history.

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