* At a developers' conference in Japan earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 8 for PCs and tablets will ship some time next year. He also referenced a Windows Phone 7 update, due out later this year in Japan that will introduce over 500 new features. (Los Angeles Times)
* Twitter's $40 million-plus acquisition of TweetDeck was reportedly finalized yesterday. (CNNMoney)
* Jack Dorsey's mobile payments startup Square made several announcements, chief among them: the shipment of 500,000 Square card readers and processing of $3 million in mobile payments a day, and more interestingly, an iPad app that replaces cash registers and lets user pay for products with their Android or iOS devices. (TechCrunch and CNNMoney)
* Has Sony CEO Howard Stringer's company makeover failed? (Reuters)
* Meet Weotta, a real-time itinerary builder for people who want a night out but don't want to go through the fuss of researching bars, restaurants, and events. To that end, the service offers a 3-step process: pick the type of outing you want (ie. Business, Dating, Family, Solo), the mood, and then hit "Generate." Weotta bases its on customizable factors like time, date, preferred geographic radius, current events, as well as Facebook Likes and your all-important social graph. Sign up for the beta here. (Weotta and TechCrunch)