Microsoft has announced the $1.2 billion purchase of Yammer, the social network aimed at enterprise users. Yammer will become part of the Office division, led by Kurt DelBene.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 is expected to be a sales juggernaut, according to a new report. Speaking to Reuters in an interview published yesterday, Samsung telecommunications chief JK Shin said that he expects Galaxy S3 sales to reach 10 million units during July. Samsung typically calls devices it shipped "sales," since the products have been sold into the retail channel, so it's not immediately clear if Shin's Galaxy S3 figure is actual sales to consumers or simply units shipped.

Google CEO Larry Page remains silent about coming Google attractions, not because he refuses to speak but because he can't.

Apple's iPad costs precious little for you to charge it each year, according to a new study. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) conducted a study recently to see how much the iPad costs in electricity if users fully charge it every other day. The research agency, which is funded by electric power companies, found that the iPad will cost owners $1.36 a year, thanks to its consumption of just 12 kWh of electricity each year.

Despite the fact that Nintendo’s 3DS is an excellent hand-held console, 3DS sales haven’t been on par with what the company was expecting.

Windows Phone 8, the successor to its Windows Phone 7.5 Mango mobile operating system, will ship on handsets starting this fall, according to Microsoft.

While working, I constantly have music bumping here at the Oakland bureau of Ars (aka, my home office). More often than not, my stream of choice is set to Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current. But I know that the kids these days are all about Rdio, Pandora, and of course, Spotify.

Google prides itself on being proactive in protecting its users from malware and other attacks (even government-sponsored ones) on the Web via its Safe Browsing API and other technologies over the past five years. In a blog post today, the company reveals the numbers behind some of its anti-malware initiatives:

Forget about operating systems. Forget about mice, keyboards and snoozy computer accessories. Microsoft is now a full-fledged, no-excuses mobile computing manufacturer. On Monday a team of excited executives showed off Microsoft Surface — a pair of Windows tablets accompanied by clever keyboard covers that aspire to true innovation in the mobile space.

After about a month of speculation, Facebook has finally announced its acquisition of Israeli facial recognition technology Face.com.