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The involvement between Facebook and Walmart is about to get a lot cozier than gift cards in aisle three. Facebook says it wants to "deepen" its connection to Walmart and hopes to learn from the big-box retailer's skill in building a long-term business; that's rather important when the social network is still young enough for the ink to be wet on shares from its initial public offering. To that end, Facebook's entire executive team will meet with Walmart at its Arkansas headquarters on July 20th in the hopes the two companies will be singing kumbaya when all is said and done. Knowing that both companies have taken a bruising in their public images from time to time, we can understand why some might be apprehensive about the idea of any tighter collaboration -- not until they can buy FarmVille harvests for 88 cents, at least.

Bang & Olufsen has been slowly but surely adapting to a wireless world. Its new Playmaker (shown at center) brings that evolution to audio: with the receiver linked up, any AirPlay- or DLNA-friendly audio device can beam its sound to a set of the Danish firm's designer speakers. Wireless audio bridging isn't anything new by itself -- we know at least one rival that might say it's old hat -- but the company is promising clean and powerful sound through a built-in DAC that can drive even the beefiest of BeoLabs, like the 2,500-watt BeoLab 5. We can look forward to the Playmaker reaching stores before the end of the month, but we'll pay a premium for all that theoretical power. The bridge by itself costs $425, while a special bundle with BeoLab 3 speakers will set listeners back an eyewatering (if ear-melting) $4,310.

Well, you can't get Firefox OS on a phone yet, but you can fire it up on your computer and give the HTML5 and JavaScript mobile platform a try for yourself -- right now! Mozilla has begun uploading nightly builds of the project formerly known as Boot to Gecko to its FTP servers. You can pull down a nicely wrapped package for Windows, Linux or OS X, or you download the source and build your own. It's not as simple as installing an app, there is some configuring you'll have to do, but the process is relatively simple and you'll find complete instructions at the more coverage link. Obviously the OS is still in the very early stages and is can't be considered representative of what the final product will be like. Still, its a nice glimpse at the progress Mozilla has made in just a single year of development. So, go get your own hands-on time with the next player on the mobile scene.

After all the excitement from the Yves Behar-designed OUYA console's massive Kickstarter campaign fades away, like every other console it will be judged on the quality of its games we finally have the name of one. Robotoki president Robert Bowling -- best known as @fourzerotwo on Twitter and formerly as a producer from Infinity Ward for the Call of Duty series -- has announced plans to bring an "episodic prequel" to the company's first game Human Element exclusively to OUYA. While not much is known about Human Element yet other than that it's a survival game set in a zombie apocalypse scheduled for release in 2015, although Bowling is promising OUYA backers will get exclusive access to updates during development. He can also be counted among that group, cheerfully noting in a video along with the announcement that he's contributed $10,000 to the cause. That's one project on the list -- any bets on which developer will be next to hitch their game to the bandwagon?

Well, things are looking slightly better for AMD this quarter. While revenues continued to decline the company actually posted a profit of $37 million, a stark contrast to $590 million net loss from last quarter. Still, with revenues down 11 percent sequentially and 10 percent year-over-year to just $1.41 billion the company isn't meeting expectations. Earnings per share were aticipated to hit $0.07, but the Sunnyvale crew only managed an EPS of $0.05. The company blames the softening PC market for its continued struggles, especially in the desktop space where it has traditionally enjoyed more success. It continues to plug away with its A and E series APUs, but it's still struggling to make much of a dent in a world increasingly dominated by Intel. The Computing Solutions division saw its revenues decrease 13 percent both sequentially and year-over-year, while the GPU department was down five percent for the quarter, but steady compared to the same time last year. For more detail hit up the source link.

If ever there were a purgatory for ideas, it'd be the USPTO's patent application database. That land of legal limbo plays host to a multitude of tech entries both bizarre and straightforward, much of which will never see the light of day. So, it's with a keen eye for the curious that we've stumbled upon this pair of filings submitted by Apple back in January of 2011 outlining a new social network specifically for hearing aids. Yes, you read that right, but its function isn't actually as obvious as you'd imagine. According to the claims, hearing aids worn by at least two users will work in tandem with a personal computing device to identify user identities, establish a communication link and then swap profiles -- not a list of likes and dislikes, but dynamic audio settings. It appears users will be able to update the sound processing on their respective devices to adjust for ambient noise and hone in on a specific sources. So, basically, it's the Cupertino version of Superhuman hearing. It certainly lends a whole new meaning to, "Can you hear me now?" Eh?

We knew Acer had some new tablets in the pipeline -- heck, we got our hands on them at Computex last month -- but the company still hasn't officially announced the Iconia Tabs A210 and A110. Still, following in the footsteps of the 10-inch A210, which hit the FCC earlier this month, the Tab A110 just cleared that all-important obstacle for hitting the US market. The filing doesn't shed too much light on the Tegra 3-powered 7-incher (you'll find the standard test reports and RT exposure info in the source link below), but then again we already got a good look at the slate in Taipei, and we imagine Acer's unveiling date can't be too far off.

Started saving up for your $845,000 purchase next fall yet? Yeah, neither have we. But we're at least considering it once again -- albeit not for very long -- thanks to a sneaky videographer that caught the dapper Porsche 918 Spyder winding around the turns of the Nürburgring in Germany. Packing a V8 with two electric motors, the super car can hit 60MPH in a hair over three seconds and touts a fuel efficiency of 78MPG. Don't worry, though, you have until someone late next year to get your stacks lined up to park one in your driveway.

Microsoft has just dropped its Q4 2012 earnings report and things are looking pretty darn good... depending on your angle. The company reported a record fourth quarter revenue of $18.06 billion, but did suffer a net loss over the last three months of $492 million. While the net loss was in stark contrast the net profit of $5.87 billion from the same time last year, Microsoft is still optimistic heading towards the launch of Windows 8 and its sibling mobile platform. And who can blame them, the new OS is sure to drive plenty of consumers to their local Best Buy with fists full of cash. And, it's easy to paint a rosy picture as long as revenues continue to grow, as they did by roughly $700 million compared to Q4 2011, and roughly $600 million sequentially. It's also important to realize that that loss is due to a one-time "goodwill impairment charge" associated with the collapsed aQuantive deal that set Redmond back $6.2 billion.

A good chunk of the revenue increase is thanks to the company's Business and Server divisions, which saw growths of seven and 13 percent, respectively. Income from the Entertainment and Devices division, which makes up a much smaller chunk of revenue over all at just $1.78 billion, also grew dramatically year-over-year, largely because of the inclusion of Skype.

Alongside Q4's results, Microsoft also released its year-end financials and, while that $6.2 billion lump drove profits down, revenues were up by $3.76 billion from 2011. Even with the aQuantive related hit, Redmond still managed to post a net income of $16.98 billion for the year. For all the finer financial details hit up the source link.

Google just defied expectations again -- it mustered a full $12.21 billion in revenue and generated an ample $2.79 billion in profit for its second quarter of 2012. The growth in revenue was a heady 21 percent over what the search leader saw a year ago (about 15 percent sequentially), even with a recently-swallowed Motorola now factoring (however slightly) into its results. About $10.96 billion of revenue comes from advertising and other close-to-the-vest businesses, $7.54 billion of which was from sites directly owned by Google. Unlike this winter, Google doesn't have any wildcards in store for share splits or other saucy details. Of course, we may learn more when executives hit the phones for a results call -- at present, the company is just happy to look forward to a summer of Nexus 7 sales and Jelly Beans.

Update: Drilling down into Motorola's separate results, Google said its new acquisition generated $1.25 billion by itself, about $843 million of which was after the acquisition was completed. If Motorola had stood on its own, it would have lost $38 million: success with the Droid RAZR MAXX in the US were offset by the continued decline of basic cellphones elsewhere in the world.

Before abandoning New New West Egg an international gaggle of Engadget editors held court on the freshly-shorn lawn over tea, cicadas, and auto-rapping apps. This is what they came up with.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guests: Many
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Orbital - Never

01:55 - Yahoo appoints former Google exec Marissa Mayer as CEO
03:10 - Yahoo reports Q2 2012 earnings, revenue remains unchanged
13:02 - Intel reports Q2 earnings: rakes in $13.5 billion, pockets $2.8 billion
16:36 - The Engadget Interview: RIM CMO Frank Boulben
32:14 - The Engadget Interview: OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman on taking console concept to reality
43:40 - Motorola Atrix HD review
47:02 - PSA: Sprint LTE goes live today, honest and for true (update: includes Missouri)
48:00 - WSJ: Next iPhone to have even thinner screen
50:00 - Into the wild: cultivating the next generation of American scientists with Project Aether
52:40 - Smule launches AutoRap for iOS and Android, Engadget's editors drop some mad beats (video)
56:26 - Steve Wozniak reveals contents of his backpack, has a lot of stuff



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GE is eager to reassure Nissan Leaf drivers that its WattStation isn't about to kill their car's charging ability: it just held a media scrum where it declared, after some study, that its EV charger isn't the culprit that knocked 11 cars off the power grid. While the electrical pioneer hasn't narrowed down the cause, it's confident enough in its innocence that it's having Nissan dealers retract their original claims of compatibility woes. Nissan spokeswoman Katherine Zachary had previously suggested the fault might lie in a "utility" issue with the power supply itself, although GE notes that it hasn't gone to people's homes; it's testing the affected WattStations in the lab, which could change the results. Whatever's responsible, we now know that the failure hit diodes in the car's charging equipment and that the incidents aren't specific to any one region. It's safe to say that Leaf owners with WattStations can once more plug in at home and expect to wake up to a full charge.

What's round and sits in the corner of your room spoon-feeding you Kanye West? If Sony has any say in the matter, it'll be the latest members of the SA-NSx family of wireless speakers. The three new models -- the 310, 410 and 510 -- come on the coattails of the firm's latest media players, and all come with built-in WiFi, AirPlay and that 360 degree design. As well as the wireless options above, there are apps for Android and PC, so non iOS users can keep the jams coming too. If you really want your music on the go, the 510 model also has a built-in battery for the extra portability. How much does all this fun and style cost? That'd be £150 (about $230) for the 310, £200 ($310) for the 410, rising to £300 ($470) for the 510. All of them available now.

All music should be accompanied by a light show. And, if said light show comes in the form of a three-foot tall self-contained iPod dock, all the better. iHome's iP76 LED Color Changing Speaker Tower is not just a catchy name any more, it's now a product you can actually purchase for $199. The unnecessarily tall iDevice dock is loaded with color changing LEDs that pulse, fade and blink in coordination with your tunes and you can even connect other media sources via Bluetooth. You can pick up the GlowTunes dock now direct from iHome or at unnamed "retailers nationwide." Check out the PR and video after the break.

The Chinese government has issued a study revealing that the smartphone has overtaken the PC as the most popular device to surf the internet with. China's Internet Network Information Center revealed that 538 million people -- around 40 percent of the country have internet access. It recorded 388 million instances of surfing from a mobile handset, compared to the 380 recorded from PCs. Microblogs are also popular, with around 43.8 percent of phone users documenting the minutiae of their lives on Weibos like Sina and Tencent -- which reminds us, we need to tweet about what we're having for dinner.

Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day -- we dig deep into each topic's history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com.

Digital audio. There's a very good chance that you've enjoyed some today. It's one of the more universal aspects of technology. In fact, perhaps the more relevant question would be, when was the last time you listened to an analog format? The truth, for many, will be quite some time ago -- vinyl purists and the odd cassette fanatic aside. Yet, despite its ubiquity, there's a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about digital audio. Some believe it'll never match analog for true fidelity, some assert quite the opposite. Many lament the lack of a tactile format, while others love the portability that comes with zeros and ones.

In this installment of Primed, we take a look at the history of digital sound, as well as provide an introduction to some of its key components, with the view to helping us understand it better. Wondering what bitrate to encode your MP3s at? Or whether you should choose a 96 or 44.1KHz sample rate? We thought as much. By the time we're through, these questions should no longer lay heavy on your mind, and you can enjoy that latest Knife Party, or Britney track as much as its bit depth allows. What's bit depth you say? Well, read on to find out...

Soon enough, Chrome OS won't be the only game in town when it comes to tightly integrated web apps running on a Linux core. Today Canonical announced Ubuntu WebApps, a new feature that will be integrated into version 12.10 of the open-source OS, Quantal Queztal. In its simplest form this means being able to place an icon in the launcher and open your favorite sites and services as standalone windows. When you visit a compatible page in the browser an alert pops up asking if you want to "install" it as a WebApp. So far, most of the engineers' efforts have focused on Firefox, but Pete Goodall (a product manager at Canonical) said Chrome and Chromium support is also in the works. The really fun starts, though, when devs start playing with the new APIs and Greasemonkey-like extensibility offered. WebApps will be able to access many of Unity's finer features like progress bars in the launcher, the sound menu and messaging menu as well. So now you can get desktop alerts from Gmail without installing some wonky app or setting up Thunderbird. WebApps can even tap into the HUD, though, it'll be up to the devs to expose the appropriate actions to the search-as-you-type menu system.

Of course, this is all just the first step. More APIs will eventually expose additional features, and high on that list is hardware access -- an essential feature for video and voice chat. Another key plan is integrating web credentials with desktop apps. So, if you log into Facebook in the browser, Shotwell will recognize that and upload imported photos to your profile. The initial list of recognized apps is small, but impressive, including Twitter, Last.FM, GMail, Google+, Facebook and YouTube. And, while the feature is set to debut in October with Quantal, Pangolin devotees will also be able to take advantage simply by adding a repository to their software sources.

Update: You'll now find the PR and a nice demo video after the break.