News to know: Microsoft; Apple; Green tech; Laptop deals

Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET’s around-the-Web tech coverage.

FT: Apple joins forces with record labels

Robin Harris: The Wintel blue light special

John Morris: Sunday specials: Wal-Mart, Best Buy battle over $300 laptops

• Jennifer Bergen: Walmart to sell $298 Compaq laptop in time for back-to-school 'while supplies last'

Heather Clancy: BusinessWeek article questions safety of batteries in electric cars

Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft agrees to give choice of browsers to Windows 7 users in Europe

LifeHacker: Five Best Instant Messengers

Sean Portnoy: Kitchen designers rejoice: Toshiba introduces Stainless Style LCD/DVD combo unit

Richard Koman: Microsoft will offer browser choice to European users

• Streaming music fundamentally changing music business

Harry Fuller: Congress, China, Copenhagen and climate change connected

• International Polar Year: data on climate change
• Tidal mystery

Matthew Miller: First impressions of the AT&T Nokia Surge

Yahoo Tech: Bill Gates quits Facebook over too many friends

NYT: Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

• For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Get Tricky

Paul Murphy: Thinking about ROCK

TechCrunch: Are Bing users twice as likely to click an add than Google users

Garett Rogers: Latitude for iPhone shows off iPhone deficiency

CNet News: HP researchers develop browser-based darknet

Janice Chen: New Olympus Stylus-7010 ultracompact sports 7x wide-angle zoom for under $200

Gallery:

Mitch Ratcliffe: Don't take my Moleskine notebook and Rotring pen

Zack Whittaker: Next-generation students want careers in computing

Ryan Naraine: Adobe 'zero-day' flaw is eight months old

Sam Diaz: Thoughts to ponder as Apple Tablet rumors spread

• Jason O'Grady: Weekend diversion: Rolando 2 for iPhone

Tom Foremski: RantWatch: Shoddy AppleCare - arrogant Apple

Jason Hiner: 'President of the Internet' Leo Laporte names his cabinet

ReadWriteWeb: Twitter Banned From White House! Seriously!

David Morgenstern: Upgrading to Final Cut Server 1.5? Check the best practices note first

Heather Clancy: Week-end round-up of e-cycling resources (consumer-tech only)

Harry Fuller: Is $400 billion a lot of money?

• Need another reason to dislike our heavy use of coal?
• New and better solar cells

Photos: Inside the world's largest wind tunnel

• Open source advocates still called zealots

Dion Hinchcliffe: First impressions of Google Wave

Andrew Nusca: Amazon CEO apology: 'Stupid,' 'thoughtless' to remove e-books from Kindle readers

Andrew Nusca: Maingear debuts eX-L 18, 'world's most powerful laptop'; dual GeForce, triple HD, $3-6K

Sam Diaz: Palm re-enables iTunes sync for Pre. Take that, Apple.

Gizmodo: Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart Updated

Heather Clancy: New financing alternatives for solar power installations

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Is it "Windows" or "Vista" that's dragging Microsoft down?

Jason D. O'Grady: Appearance: PPUG meeting Saturday in Philadelphia

Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft removes Mac price reference from Apple-aimed ad

• Are there more layoffs in Microsoft's future?

Richard Koman:Groups demand privacy for Google Books

Jennifer Bergen: Gadget Gal's daily deals: Memorex MP3 player, Panda Internet Security 2009, Philips HDTV

Dana Blankenhorn: Falling profits forced Microsoft's open source hand

Sean Portnoy: Sony introduces massive Blu-ray disc changers for the one guy with 400 Blu-ray discs

Larry Dignan: Windows 7: The waiting is the hardest part (for Microsoft)

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Are early adopters all suckers?

Larry Dignan: Apple and Google's native vs. Web app iPhone game: Get used to it

• Hearing footsteps? Verizon Wireless thumps chest after AT&T's subscriber gains
• How to mentor entry level developers

Dan Kusnetzky: Dead-finger tech: Universal integration kit for iPod/iPhone