This week, Dwayne DeFreitas & Andrew Sorcini examine Microsoft‘s announced new versions of Windows 8 OS, and Twitter‘s pledge not to join the Patent War offensive.

But first, the headlines…Google announces a stock split, Google Drive launches next week, Yahoo CEO’s plan to drop fifty properties to turn the company around, Valve announces research into wearable computing, IKEA will sell a HDTV modular furniture system, text messages soothe the soul, and Tupac lives again via “hologram.”

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Headlines

• GOOGLE COFOUNDERS: Here’s Why We Just Announced A Stock Split
• Google Drive Launching Next Week
• Yahoo CEO’s Turnaround Plan: Do Less, Do It Better
• Valve reveals mystery hardware project: wearable computing
• Watch Out, Best Buy, Ikea Will Soon Sell Their Own HDTV System And It’s Awesome

• Text messages “” even automated ones “” can soothe the disconnected soul
• Video: Tupac’s Ghost Performs At Coachella Music Festival
• Tupac ‘hologram’ merely pretty cool optical illusion
• Header image from R2-D2’s Other Message

Audible Book of the Week

• 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time by Michael Brooks

Musical Interlude #1

Hot Topic

• Microsoft talks Windows 8 SKUs: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and “Windows RT” for ARM

Musical Interlude #2

Final Word

• Twitter’s no-lawsuit pledge: “We will not join the patent wars”

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Geeks Of Doom’s The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all.

Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), VentureBeat editor Devindra Hardawar, marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor. Occasionally joining them is Techmeme editor Lidija Davis.