In its struggle to find willing customers, Nokia just announced yet another flagship phone - the Nokia Lumia 1020. It's essentially a Lumia 920/925, but with the Nokia 808's PureView camera bolted on. Also, it's exclusive to AT&T in the US, for $299 with a two year contract, which is a steep price. So, who gets the honour to be the first to claim that this, yes this Lumia will turn Nokia around?

"In a large staff memo, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer details how the company is aiming for a 'One Microsoft', by altering its organization around the 'devices and services' vision. Terry Myerson will lead a new operating systems engineering group that will span across console, mobile device, and PC. Myerson used to lead the Windows Phone group at Microsoft. Julie Larson-Green takes over a new devices and studios engineering group."

I have a Surface RT tablet. I bought it because I'm a Windows Phone user, and despite its major flaws, I still hate WP much less than I hate its competitors. As such, it made sense to me that I would like the Surface RT as well - I mean, my favourite UI on a tablet? Count me in! It should come as no surprise by now that Windows RT was a major disappointment, so now that the Windows 8.1 preview is here, did Microsoft address any of the major problems?

"In a decision that could reshape how books are sold on the Internet, a federal judge ruled that Apple conspired to raise the retail prices of e-books in violation of antitrust law, and called for a trial on damages. The decision by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan is a victory for the U.S. government and various states, which the judge said are entitled to injunctive relief." Yet another ruling confirming that virtually all technology companies are criminals. But don't worry, there's nothing wrong with how companies are run and the immense power they have, no sirree!

"A war between two of the major conglomerates will always have casualties, and unfortunately for us, this time we are the casualties. We aren't yet at a state where it is impossible to use Google services on Microsoft platforms, but we are moving towards a stricter ecosystem world where we might see Googlers/Gmail users on one side and Bingers/Outlook users on the other. We can only hope for the sake of technologies future and for the sake of innovation that the two companies can learn to work together in an ever expanding world of data." We can hope so, but we're talking large companies, and large companies do not care about users. Never have, never will.

"Apple and Amazon.com have ended their lawsuit over who has the right to use the 'app store' name, clearing the way for both companies to use it." The silliest lawsuit in the history of technology.

After the release of the desktop version of the new Opera - based on Chrome and the WebKit-fork Blink - it has now made its way to Android. It's available free of charge in the Play Store for both tablets and smartphones.

"Windows 8.1 RTM will be available for OEM partners in late August. This means OEMs will be able to get the RTM bits and begin preparing devices with Windows 8.1 just in time for the holidays! We’ll have more details to share in the coming months for consumers and other customers on how to get Windows 8.1." So far, Windows 8.1 has been a massive improvement over Windows 8 on my Surface RT - except for the total system crashes (including shrieking sounds) Skype causes a few times per week.

It took some back-and forth, since the original winner couldn't attend, but we finally selected a confirmed winner of a three-day pass to OSCON, July 22-26 in Portland, Oregon. It's Gregory Eric Sanderson. Congratulations, Gregory! If you didn't win but you still want to attend, you've got two options: represent OSNews as a writer, as described here, or buy a ticket using the code "OSN" to get 20% off. Update: Free Expo Hall Only pass to OSCON with code MPEXPO. Includes all parties, 5K, expo hall, sponsored sessions + more.

"People who don't play video games would be forgiven if they turned on an Xbox 360 and didn't realize it was a device used to primarily play games. The first screen you see on the Xbox 360 Dashboard is often a mixture of ads for all sorts of goods and services, and many times games are in the minority of ad slots. The latest redesign increased the ad space that can be sold to advertisers, and that in turn increased this problem. Let's be clear, it is a problem. Game discovery is terrible in the current design of Xbox Live, and the usability of a system that used to be about games is suffering in order for Microsoft to make money on ads." Written a year ago by Ben Kuchera for Penny Arcade. In light of increased advertising efforts in Windows 8.1, this has become relevant once more. In a nutshell, do not count on Microsoft being able to strike a proper balance (thanks, Soulbender!).

"HTC has just announced its unaudited results for the second quarter 2013, and they're not pretty. Despite launching a much-lauded flagship smartphone, the HTC One, the company made just NT$1.25 billion (roughly $41 million) after tax from NT$70.7 billion ($2.35 billion) revenue. In the same quarter last year, the company took in revenue of NT$91.04 billion ($3 billion) and made NT$7.40 billion ($246 million) profit." Make the best Android phone - and perhaps, the best phone period - and still not be out of hot water. And people still claim the smartphone market is not a one-to-one replica of the desktop market. Anywho, another victim of iceberg Apple and hurricane Samsung.

"Today, Microsoft said its advertisers will be able to target users not just on Web search results pages but directly inside Windows Smart Search. David Pann, general manager of Microsoft’s Search Advertising Group, said in an interview that advertisers don’t have to do additional setup to participate. The Smart Search ads will feature a preview of the websites the ad will send people to, as well as click-to-call info and site links, which are additional links under the main result that direct users deeper into a website to the most likely page they might want." So, you pay for a product, and then Microsoft shoves ads in your face. Scumbags. Then again, they've done the same on the Xbox, which is now virtually unusable due to all the ads plastered all over your dashboard. And then people say Google is bad with ads.

"Internet users worried about their personal information being intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies should stop using websites that send data to the United States, Germany's top security official said Wednesday." Cute, but pointless. France does it too, as does the UK. Documents from the Dutch intelligence agencies indicate that they, too, are involved in mass surveillance, the extent of which will supposedly be investigated by parliament.

"Douglas C. Engelbart, a visionary scientist whose singular epiphany in 1950 about technology's potential to expand human intelligence led to a host of inventions - among them the computer mouse - that became the basis for both the Internet and the modern personal computer, died on Tuesday at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 88." We lost one of the greatest - if not the greatest - visionaries of computing today.