Summary: News: Mountain Lion is Apple's 'most successful' OS X release with three million downloads in four days Apple's recently released OS X 10.8, codenamed Mountain Lion, is officially the California company's most successful OS X release to date. Totalling more than three million downloads in its first four days of availability, it overshadows OS X 10.7 Lion — the prior version of the operating system, which was also the first to be made available via a direct download from the Mac App Store. Lion was already the fastest-spreading OS X upgrade in Apple's history, thanks to that direct distribution method, and the cheaper and universally better Mountain Lion seems to be keeping that momentum going. http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/30/3201520/apple-mountain-lion-launch-downloads Surface to arrive with Windows 8 on 10/26, says Microsoft Though it's not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, Microsoft has confirmed that Surface tablets will arrive October 26 along with Windows 8. "The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices," Microsoft said in its annual report filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Microsoft has said before that Surface products "would be available the same time that Windows 8" was launched, but it's reassuring to see the date in writing. And, remember, those are Windows RT tablets only. The Intel-based Surface Pro is expected about 90 days later, according to Microsoft. Microsoft has also peppered disclaimers throughout the annual report (these appear often in SEC filings) about the success, or lack thereof, of Windows 8. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57481965-75/surface-to-arrive-with-windows-8-on-10-26-says-microsoft/?tag=mncol;topStories Digg's resurrection: can Betaworks revive the once-loved site? Digg.com, the beloved aggregator that rose to become one of the most influential sites on the web but then fell into disrepair, relaunched yesterday from a completely clean slate. None of the old Digg remains, and the 10-person team working on the project is calling the new site Digg version 1. The familiar list of links on the front page is gone, pushed aside in favor of a news-style layout curated by three editors who pick top stories and protect the site from spam. The new Digg team is all from the Betaworks business incubator in New York that bought the Digg name, branding, and codebase. Betaworks developed the social news reading application News.me, which sparked its interest in Digg, and I interviewed some of the new team about what went into redesigning the site in six short weeks. I arrived at Betaworks yesterdayshortly before the new Digg site and iPhone app went live, and tension was high. The team pulled up a Twitter search for "Digg" and projected it on a wall to watch as the early reviews came in. The last time Digg had a major redesign, the users revolted and basically abandoned the site, leading to its downfall. "I feel like there's a lot of pressure," said Jake Levine, the new general manager of Digg. "People want to see Digg restored to what it once stood for." Levine spent a recent Saturday reading through 3,500 responses to a user survey about the future of Digg. No less than 92 percent of respondents said they would not recommend the old Digg to a friend, but many were still rooting for the site. "People were surprisingly very positive and excited and optimistic," about the relaunch, said Levine, although "a handful of folks was just kind of trolling." One survey respondent wrote: "build something awesome, the internet is rooting for you," Levine recalled. Those responses gave the Betaworks team license to completely rethink the site — the current version 1 is just the first iteration of a new Digg,
