To get a reality check, we chatted just after the keynote finished with two prominent Apple developers: Evernote CEO Phil Libin and Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.

Both liked what they saw, but said they needed more details to really know what it means for them.

As for Libin, the one thing he’s certain of is that he is going to get the new Mac Pro that Apple premiered at the conference. Here are his answers to a few other questions.

Have they made life easier for you as a developer?

Libin: We’re never looking for our life to be made easier. I’ve never been this excited about just how much work is ahead of us over the next couple months. We are going to rethink a lot of things with iOS 7, but I think it is going to be great.

What are the biggest opportunities?

The whole look is different. That’s not just changing the icon. It’s rethinking every part of the app. It’s going to be a total overhaul just to make the app worthy of the new iOS.

But also a bunch of the capabilities sound really exciting. I’m really interested to see what the new multitasking APIs are. That’s one thing we’ve always wanted more on the phones on iOS — better background processing, better multitasking, a bit more connections with other services or other apps. We’ll see what we can do there.

Were there any features you hoped for you didn’t see?

I try to keep my expectations pretty open-ended, since guessing what they are going to do is pretty random. I was happy to see the redesign was not just cosmetic.

What about on the Mac? Were there any changes there for what you guys do?

I’m definitely going to get the new Mac Pro as soon as I can get it. That was pretty sweet. The new OS X — it seems like a bunch of incremental improvements. The things we use in OS X that are getting better are notifications. … I’d love to see how we can play with the new maps, if maybe we can integrate with the tag system they have — if we can make Evernote tags [work] with the Finder tabs they have.

Update: I followed up with Libin to see what he was thinking a day later. “I’ve had some time to play with iOS 7 now and it’s confirmed my initial reaction: This is a very big deal for us,” he said. “We’re going to have to do a serious redesign of our apps to really take advantage of the new capabilities, but it’ll lead to a much better product. Lots of work, lots of excitement.”

Asa Mathat | D: All Things Digital

As for Flipboard’s McCue, he said the new software was inspiring to him as both a developer and user and that “everybody has to step up their game a bit.” Here’s what he had to say in response to our questions.

Was there anything specific in iOS 7 for you? Are there new opportunities created?

McCue: Multitasking for me. I need to get a little bit more detail. To the extent we can do some things like downloading in the background, that’s absolutely huge. There’s a lot of great new UI stuff. I think the clean look of iOS is very compatible with how we think of things. I loved the notifications integration into OS X.

Would you do an OS X version of Flipboard?

It’s certainly one of the most requested things we have on our list. Certainly we’ve thought about it quite some time, but we’ll have to see.

Were you at all concerned with the new reading list feature where you go from one story recommended by your friends to another? Obviously some people use Flipboard for that.

Not really. There’s all sorts of different capabilities that are built into browsers these days that let you do that kind of stuff. Flipboard, especially today, has evolved into a whole ecosystem of people building magazines and sharing content. I think more ways to see your tweets integrated into the OS is a good thing overall.

The most striking things about iOS 7 are the rather dramatic changes that Apple has made to the visual appearance of the software that powers the iPhone and iPad.

But iOS 7 is a lot more than just a makeover. While Apple went into detail on roughly a dozen new features of iOS 7, there is a long list of changes big and small that will be part of the new phone operating system when it ships this fall.

The first category of additional changes: Things that just didn’t make the keynote cut.

Apple showed two slides worth of these at WWDC on Monday, with one detailing consumer features and the other going into new options for developers.

On the consumer side, that means things such as better mail search and improved download of TV shows. Businesses will also get some key improvements, such as better support for virtual private networks, and security and manageability enhancements.

For developers, Apple added a bunch of new “hooks” into the operating system, including the ability to have content download in the background, the ability to include directions from Apple Maps into other apps, and improved video capture abilities.

Still, some developers were disappointed by what didn’t make the list.

TouchType, maker of the SwiftKey software keyboard, had been hoping Apple would open up its keyboard to third-party alternatives. For now, though, that dream would appear to be on hold.

“Obviously we’re disappointed, but we hope that Apple take a more open approach to the keyboard in future,” TouchType Chief Marketing Officer Joe Braidwood said in an email on Monday.

Braidwood had been hoping that the comments about increasing openness that Tim Cook made at D11 last month would lead to a more open keyboard.

The second category of new features is the things that Apple didn’t talk about at all on Monday. The company often saves a thing or two to reveal closer to when customers can actually get their hands on the software. Often these involve partnerships with other companies or features tied to new hardware, such as whatever new iPhone Apple has up its sleeve.

As a result, it will probably be closer to the fall release of iOS 7 that we’ll really be able to evaluate whether Apple’s changes are enough to retain iPhone customers as well as that elusive, hard-to-define “cool factor.”

But, in addition to modestly raising its offer, SoftBank is also dramatically shifting where its cash is going.

Under the amended deal, an extra $4.5 billion of cash goes to existing Sprint shareholders.

The revised bid comes just ahead of a scheduled shareholder vote and amid competing interest from Dish Network.

The direct impact is twofold. It means that Sprint shareholders will get $1.48 more per share in cash ($5.50 instead of $4.02). It also means that SoftBank will own more of the combined company (78 percent vs. 70 percent).

But, this also means that the new Sprint will have less cash to work with under the revised deal. That’s money that Sprint could have put toward network investments and other areas needed to compete with its two larger rivals, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint and SoftBank downplayed the importance of the multi-billion-dollar shift.

“SoftBank and Sprint believe that the reallocation of primary capital to Sprint stockholders is warranted given the companies’ refined operating and capital expenditure synergy expectations resulting from extensive due diligence over the past nine months, as well as Sprint’s improving profitability and execution of its Network Vision plan,” the companies said in the press release announcing the revised deal.

Sprint also said that its board committee has found it unlikely that Dish Networks will put forth a better offer, though it did give the satellite provider until June 18 to come up with a best and final offer.

“We have expended substantial time and energy engaging with DISH over the past nine weeks, including an extensive due diligence process, but these efforts did not lead, in the Special Committee’s view, to a proposal that was reasonably likely to lead to a proposal superior to SoftBank’s,” Sprint board member Larry Glasscock said in a statement.

A Dish Network representative was not immediately available for comment.

A shareholder vote on the SoftBank proposal, which was slated for this week, has been delayed until June 25.

Update: In a statement, Dish said: “We continue to believe that Sprint has tremendous value. We will analyze the revised SoftBank bid as we consider our strategic options.”

This year, we can expect details on iOS 7, a major update to the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, along with information on the next version of OS X. In addition, Apple could announce new hardware, and is poised to launch a streaming music service, having signed up all the major record labels.

Meanwhile, developers will be paying keen attention to what parts, if any, of the iPhone become accessible. Speaking at D11, CEO Tim Cook indicated that the company will be getting somewhat more open. Today could bring the answer to just what he meant by that.

AllThingsD will have live coverage once things kick off (and a few sporadic musings before then):

8:44 am: AllThingsD is here in force. I’m joined by reviewer Bonnie Cha and news colleagues Mike Isaac and John Paczkowski; Adam Tow will be shooting photos.

8:57 am: We are still waiting to get seated. The usual millings about. (Auto-correct wanted to make that “killings,” btw.)

9:08 am: If you were wondering if reporters still run for seats in the Tim Cook era, the answer is yes. Good news: We all survived the stampede.

9:16 am: Since we promised free puppies, here ya go:

(image courtesy Flickr user Vivian Chen)

9:26 am: Ahead of the keynote, CEO Tim Cook mingles with former VP and current Apple board member Al Gore.

9:32 am: Half an hour to go. So far, the only things you are missing are bad music and sweaty journalists (still winded from running to their seats).

9:43 am: A little more than 15 minutes to go. You know what that means, right?

Time for more free puppies.

10:03 am: Apple starts with a video, and then Tim Cook enters to a hearty round of applause.

10:04 am: “You are going to have an incredible week,” Cook said. It’s the 24th year for the conference, but two-thirds of the audience are here for the first time. Apple has more than 1,000 of its engineers here.

“Don’t ask them about future road maps,” Cook quips.

(FYI — things are working smoothly now, but we’ve been having wireless issues, as have lots of folks here.)

10:05 am: And, of course, it’s recap time.

Starting with the stores. There are 407 of them. Lots of people shop there, apparently.

10:07 am: They are really pretty, too.

The one in Berlin, built in an old theater, is so pretty they made a video of it.

10:09 am: The App Store turns five next year, and has now crossed the 50 billion app download mark. There are 900,000 total apps; 375,000 are specific to the iPad (compared to “just a few hundred for those other guys,” Cook said).

Importantly, they also have more credit cards than anyone else.

The company said it has now paid developers $10 billion since the store opened, half of that in the last year. That’s three times more than all other platforms combined, Cook said.

10:11 am: Cook introduces Anki, a company launching today that uses iOS devices to bring artificial intelligence and robotics to everyday life.

Cook intros Boris Sofman, co-founder. Anki started while Sofman and team were getting their Ph.D.s at Carnegie Mellon.

Their first product is Anki Drive, which has three self-driving miniature cars moving around a race track.

10:14 am: And the demo gods briefly curse Anki. But they play it off well, suggesting that one of the cars was just being “camera shy.”

Now a fourth car, the hero, is weaving in and out of the traffic of the other cars.

Fun stuff.

Now the cars are trying to block the hero, while it aims to find a path through.

“We are bringing videogames to life on the floor of your living room,” Sofman said. It should arrive at Apple stores and online this fall.

“I think these guys are going to be super successful,” Cook said, noting that it is a great example of the power of iOS when matched with developers’ ideas.

10:17 am: Cook shifting to the Mac. There are 72 million Macs in use, double that of a few years ago, Cook said. In the last five years, the Mac has been growing 15 percent per year, compared to an average of three percent a year for the PC market as a whole.

But it’s not about making the most, Cook said, repeating a refrain.

Cook said Apple has sold 28 million copies of Mountain Lion, the most Apple has ever sold.

Cook also notes that around a third of Macs are running Mountain Lion, compared to just a few percent for Windows 8.

To talk about what’s next, Cook brings on Craig Federighi.

10:20 am: Federighi notes that Apple is running out of cat names.

He quips that they don’t want to delay the OS because they are out of names. He jokes that they would name the next version Sea Lion.

Apple plans to start naming its future OS X releases after places in California.

So the next Mac OS X will be Mavericks, which will focus on extending battery life and improving performance.

10:22 am: Federighi shows off the first of three new features for power users.

Finder tabs will make it easy to have multiple areas open in one window.

The second feature is tagging, so a document can have properties in addition to a name. That makes searching better.

Lastly is better support for multiple displays. In Mavericks, menus and the dock can appear on both displays.

An HDTV can also act as an additional display.

As for the tagging feature, the option comes up when one is saving a document.

10:29 am: Federighi is moving on to some new battery-savings technology, including a feature that lets apps “take a nap” so they aren’t draining the battery when not in use.

That and other battery-saving changes can reduce CPU activity by 72 percent, Federighi said.

This stuff is pretty techy, but another performance improvement is “compressed memory,” which lets you access more memory without having to write data to disk.

10:33 am: On to Safari:

There are new Shared links, which automatically brings up links to those you follow on Twitter or LinkedIn, along with improvements to JavaScript. The improved Safari also uses “way less energy” than Chrome or Firefox, Federighi said.

App Nap also notices when a power-sipping browser tab is covered by another window, and throttles things down.

In perhaps a sign of things to come, the new “top sites” page has a much flatter design.

10:39 am: Apple is also taking on the password problem with the introduction of iCloud Keychain, which helps store and manage passwords across devices. It will even suggest a secure password.

Same thing goes for remembering credit cards, although you have to use your own credit card. Bummer.

10:40 am: A new feature of Mavericks is the ability to respond to notifications right from the alert.

Another feature is the ability to have your apps update in the background.

10:42 am: On to the calendar, which includes the option for Facebook calendar data.

10:42 am: That Maps app you don’t like on your iPhone … it’s coming to the Mac.

The good news is that Apple is making lots of improvements. You can also send maps from your Mac directly to an iPhone.

Apple’s iBooks store is also coming to the Mac, including its 1.8-million-book collection.

10:46 am: These features are really self-explanatory, but we’re getting a demo anyway.

Calendar is good for putting dates on; iBooks is great for reading, and the Maps app is designed to help, say, find where you want to go.

“Mavericks continues making your digital life follow you easily from device to device,” Federighi said.

A developer preview of Mavericks will be available today, with the final release available for download this fall.

Cue Phil Schiller to talk more about the Mac.

He starts with the MacBook Air. Says it’s the answer to what is the future of the notebook in an age of the iPad.

New MacBook Airs have “all day” battery life, using Intel’s Haswell processor.

The 11-inch model will go from five hours to nine hours of battery life, while the 13-inch MacBook Air will deliver 12 hours of battery, up from seven hours in the last generation.

The new MacBook Airs will support 802.11ac, a faster version of Wi-Fi. Apple will also have new AirPort networking devices.

The 11-inch MacBook Air starts at $999, with a 128 gigabyte solid-state drive; the 13-inch version starts at $1,099. Both models are shipping today.

10:55 am: Now Schiller is offering a “sneak peek” at something they are working on — something Apple doesn’t usually do.

He shares what’s being done with the Mac Pro — Apple’s desktop, a high-end computer that hasn’t been updated in a very long time.

10:56 am: The Mac Pro is a black, cylinder-shaped device.

“Can’t innovate anymore, my ass,” Schiller said.

10:58 am: Inside is state-of-the-art, Schiller said, including up to 12-core Intel Xeon processors. Double the CPU power of the prior model. Its internal storage is based on high-speed flash memory. Expansion is external over the Thunderbolt 2 connection that Intel just announced.

It’s also the first Mac to come standard with dual workstation graphics, Schiller said.

It supports up to three super-high-definition 4K displays.

“It is a Mac unlike any we’ve ever made,” Schiller said. It’s also a lot smaller than the boxy aluminum Mac Pro, occupying just one-eighth the volume.

It is coming “later this year,” and is assembled in the U.S.A., Schiller said.

Cook is back.

“You’re going to love the new Mac Pro,” Cook said. “It’s killer.”

He’s on to talking iCloud, though.

Apple plans to deeply integrate iCloud into the next version of iWork — Apple’s productivity bundle that includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

Cook brings up Roger Rosner, who says new releases are coming later this year for Mac and iOS. Today, Apple is introducing iWork for iCloud, which lets you create or edit documents in a browser on either Mac or PC.

Word documents can be dropped into an iWork browser for iCloud, and then edited in Pages for iCloud. There are Web-based versions of Keynote and Numbers, too.

Rosner shows documents being created, updated and edited with 3-D animations.

“This is all happening in a browser,” Rosner said.

Next he shows iWork for iCloud working on a Windows 8 PC with Internet Explorer and Chrome.

“I’m just going to fire up Chrome,” Rosner said.

11:12 am: iWork for iCloud will be available as a beta for developers today, and as a public beta later this year, Rosner said.

11:12 am: Cook is back, and it’s time to talk iOS.

Apple has now sold 600 million iOS devices. Cook repeats his line that it’s not about the numbers, though. As he did at the recent D11 conference, Tim is talking about how people also use their iOS devices more than Android owners do.

Customer satisfaction “is literally off the charts,” with one recent survey finding that 97 percent were “satisfied,” and nearly three-quarters of users reporting themselves as “very satisfied.” Windows Phone was at 53 percent, while Android was at 49 percent, Cook said.

Cook notes that 90 percent of iOS owners are using the latest version of the operating system, compared to more than a third of Android users, who are using an operating system that was released in 2010.

“It’s a pretty bleak story,” Cook said.

That is why each new version of iOS is so important, and such an opportunity for developers.

Which, of course, brings him to iOS 7.

Cook says iOS 7 is “the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.”

11:18 am: Cue video of Jony Ive talking about the thinking that went into the design of iOS 7.

“I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency,” Ive said in the video.

It’s more than the absence of clutter. It’s about bringing order to complexity.

Video shows AirDrop and AirPlay features, the revamped Calendar (that looks a lot like some rumored renderings), redesigned icons, etc.

The weather page is more deeply animated, kind of like HTC’s Sense.

“In many ways, we’ve tried to create an interface that is unobtrusive and deferential,” Ive said.

System pages change appearance based on the wallpaper that a user has chosen.

11:22 am: Okay. Cook is back onstage to hopefully talk a little more concretely about iOS 7.

He gets a huge round of applause from the developer crowd.

“You are going to absolutely love iOS 7,” Cook said.

“I love you,” said one man in the audience.

“Thank you,” Cook said with a laugh.

11:23 am: Craig Federighi comes back to talk about iOS 7.

“Let’s take a look,” Federighi said, gushing over the new icons and home screen.

There is a neat parallax effect that lets you see behind the icons by tilting the device.

Federighi walks through some of the design for the calendar, weather, photos, etc.

“Your friends never looked more attractive,” Federighi said.

Game Center loses its faux-casino look.

“We just completely ran out of green felt,” Federighi jokes.

11:27 am: In messages and email apps you can swipe from the left to get back to the full list of messages. (It’s a bit like the hub in BlackBerry 10, but for individual apps.)

Among the new features, the notification center will be available from the lock screen, as well.

“Installing iOS 7 on your phone is like getting a whole new phone — but one that you know how to use,” Federighi said.

11:30 am: A new “Control Center” brings up frequently accessed settings such as airplane mode, Wi-Fi, play a song, or turn on a new, built-in flashlight (sorry, flashlight-app developers).

11:31 am: Multitasking, which debuted for certain apps back in iOS 4, will now be available for all apps in iOS 7. The device will notice which apps you use when, and give them background-updating access. The average user wakes their device dozens of times a day — which is a good time to get an update.

“If you have good coverage, it is a good time to fetch (new data),” Federighi said. It also uses push notifications as an opportunity to update an app.

11:33 am: As for the mobile version of the Safari browser, it has a smart search bar to enter URLs or search different engines. It also has a new tab view, parental controls, and other additions.

The new way tabs are displayed is more visual and allows access to more than the previous limit of eight open pages.

Safari’s new tabs remind me of the “cards” in webOS.

11:37 am: AirDrop in iOS 7, which Apple bills as the easiest way to share with the people around you. Nearby friends pop up, and you can share with multiple people. It works with any app that supports the built-in iOS method of sharing.

“No need to walk around the room bumping your phone,” Federighi says, taking a shot at third-party app Bump.

It only works on the latest iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, though.

11:40 am: On to the camera, which has new filters, as well as better sorting options, including filtering them into “moments” that are created out of photos shot at a similar time and place.

When you zoom out, moments are sorted into broader “collections” of photos. Zoom out further, and you see all the pictures taken in a year, including some of the most interesting locations visited.

“You may not remember it, but iOS does,” Federighi said.

11:42 am: New sharing options include AirDrop and iCloud (which lets you share to multiple Photo Streams). Other people can also now add to a Photo Stream created by someone else.

Videos can now also be shared via iCloud.

Integration with other services is also important, Federighi said, calling on Eddy Cue.

Cue starts off with Siri, which has a new interface. Siri has a new voice (including both male and female options), as well as new French and German options. More languages coming.

She’s also getting smarter, allowing a user to play their last voicemail, increase brightness, and answer questions via Wikipedia and Bing (not Google!) search results.

Apple is also creating iOS in the car, using iOS on the screen built into the car.

That’s coming in cars built for the next model year.

11:47 am: On to the App Store, where you can find the most popular apps based on location or the age of the user.

“It’s that easy to discover new apps,” Federighi said.

Also, the App Store will update your apps automatically, so no more red circle with numbers of apps waiting to be updated.

11:49 am: Cue intro for iTunes Radio, which is built into the music app and is billed as a great way to discover new music.

Like some other streaming services, you can create a station based on the song you are listening to. iTunes Radio also lets you share the stations you create with friends.

As we’ve previously reported, Apple has deals in place with all the major U.S. record labels to make this service possible.

iTunes radio is built into iOS 7, and works on iTunes on Mac or PC, as well as Apple TV. It’s free with ads, and ad-free for those with Apple’s paid iTunes Match service.

It’s starting in the U.S., and Apple will be adding more countries over time.

11:53 am: And that’s the 10 features of iOS 7 that Apple promised.

Of course, there’s more to iOS 7 than those 10, Federighi said.

Among other features are FaceTime audio (high-quality audio calls over Wi-Fi), and integration with China’s Tencent Weibo.

11:55 am: One other new feature is called “activation lock,” which prevents a stolen phone from being reactivated even if a device is wiped.

There are 1,500 new developer program interfaces for developers, though I didn’t see hoped-for access to the keyboard.

A developer beta today is for iPhone only, with a beta for iPad coming soon. It will come this fall for iPhone 4, and later, iPad 2, iPod touch (fifth generation) and iPad mini.

11:57 am: Cook is back recapping: Mac OS X Mavericks, new MacBook Airs, next-generation Mac Pro, iWork for iCloud, iOS 7 and iTunes Radio.

“We are incredibly proud of all of these products,” Cook said. They are great examples of what Apple does,” he said, thanking his colleagues.

“I’d like to close this morning with a reminder. Our goal at Apple is to make amazing products that our customers love,” Cook said.

Cook shows a new ad reflecting those values. “This is it,” the voice-over says. It’s the experience that matters. How will it make someone feel? Will it make life better? Does it deserve to exist?

“We spend a lot of time on a few great things,” the announcer says.

The commercial ends with the text that adorns Apple’s products: “Designed in California by Apple.”

“This is our signature, and it means everything,” the voice-over says.

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• At WWDC, Apple Unveils a Reimagined iOS and a Refreshed OS X
• Millions and Billions: Apple’s WWDC Digits
• Apple Debuts iTunes Radio, Beefs Up Services
• Apple Give iOS an Entirely New Look and Feel
• Apple Previews New Mac Pro with Cylindrical Design, Double the Power
• Apple Brings iWork to the Cloud
• Apple Unveils MacBook Air With All-Day Battery Life
• Anki Launches Real-World Video Games With $50M in Funding and a Primo Slot at WWDC
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On Monday, AT&T is announcing that it plans to offer Nextel-like push-to-talk capabilities on the iPhone.

It’s part of a broad investment AT&T has made in push-to-talk in an effort to win business customers. Sprint, which plans to shutter the Nextel network as of June 30, has also been adding various push-to-talk capabilities to phones running on its main network. However, it has yet to announce such support on the iPhone.

AT&T said that its push-to-talk service on the iPhone will allow large contact lists of up to 1,000 names and the ability to group-call up to 250 people at once.

The service, enabled through an app, will work on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, AT&T said.

But to get there from its software roots is going to mean more change for the company. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher had the scoop that Redmond is pondering how best to reorganize itself for that future.

Swisher talked to CBS This Morning about just what that shake-up might mean.

Also, check out Arik Hesseldahl on CNBC talking Zyngaand on Fox Business News discussing wearable computing. Also give a listen to Peter Kafka talking about Vevo and the music video business on WNYC’s Soundcheck.

Following the lead of Verizon, AT&T said it will start making customers wait a full two years, rather than 20 months, to get a new phone. The change affects those whose contracts are up in March 2014 or later. Verizon announced a similar move back in April.

“Today, we’re announcing a 24-month upgrade policy across all of AT&T’s wireless products and services,” AT&T said in a blog post. “This aligns device upgrade eligibility with our standard two-year wireless agreement and it applies to any customer whose agreement expires in March 2014 or later.”

The company also helpfully pointed out other options, such as bringing your own phone or paying full retail price for an upgrade.

“I have no intention of hiding who I am because I have done nothing wrong,” he told the paper.

Snowden said he hopes the attention will stay focused on what the U.S. government is doing and not on him, but also said he expected to “suffer” as a result of his actions. He said he is risking a very comfortable lifestyle in coming forward.

“I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building,” he said.

For more on the evolving scandal, check out AllThingsD’s handy primer.

Update: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement Sunday saying that it has referred the matter of the leak to the Department of Justice, but added that the intelligence community “is currently reviewing the damage that has been done by these recent disclosures.”

“Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law,” the agency’s director of public affairs, Shawn Turner, said in a statement.

Update 2: In a video with The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwood that was posted to YouTube on Sunday, Snowden talks about his background and his reasons for coming forward.

Here’s a primer on the subject, including links to read more.

First off, check out the pieces by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, which has been breaking most of the news on this. Its original report from Wednesday detailed collection of phone records for millions of Verizon customers, while later stories have looked at the PRISM program for monitoring data collected on the Internet as well as a separate program, dubbed Boundless Informant, used to map and classify the data that has been collected.

Initial reports from both the Guardian and Washington Post suggested that Internet giants including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple had given the government complete and unfettered access to their servers. The Internet giants lashed back, saying they hadn’t heard of PRISM and weren’t providing the government with direct access to their servers. It appears reality is more subtle, perhaps with the companies providing an automated shared storage mechanism to deliver materials requested by the government and authorized by a secret court.

While the government hasn’t specifically responded to much of what the Guardian and others reported, it has criticized the paper both for publishing secret information and for failing to provide the proper context. On Saturday, the director of national intelligence declassified a few details about the PRISM program. Some senators, including Mark Udall and Al Franken, have called for reform of the Patriot Act and closer oversight of the monitoring.

To better understand the laws that make all this monitoring possible, check out this piece from our own Arik Hesseldahl.

Meanwhile on Sunday, a story in The Guardian identified 29-year-old Edward Snowden as the source behind much of its reporting.

Here are some other good stories to read out there:

• CNET’s Declan McCullagh reports there is no evidence to suggest that the Internet giants were giving the federal government direct and complete access to their servers.
• Speaking at the Nantucket Conference, former IBM and Microsoft executive Ray Ozzie lashed out at the government programs, saying it is time to rein in such efforts.
• Hacker News had an interesting discussion on how companies might be able to do a better job of indicating if they have been forced to participate in government data-gathering efforts.

Wednesday’s vote, though, could be delayed as a committee of Sprint’s board continues to weigh a competing offer from Dish Network. That committee has to decide whether Dish’s overtures are likely to lead to an offer that is superior to the bid put forth by SoftBank.

So far, the company has not publicly indicated a plan to change the June 12 vote.

“We have scheduled the meeting for June 12th and have made no announcement otherwise,” a Sprint representative said, when asked whether the company could delay the vote.

The SoftBank deal has already won approvals from state regulators and a number of federal agencies. On Friday, Sprint said it was adding retired Adm. Mike Mullen to its board as part of a national security agreement with the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, even as SoftBank pushes for Sprint, Reuters is reporting that the company is looking at T-Mobile as a potential “Plan B” acquisition target.

The Internet giants accused of giving the government access turned to the Web to defend themselves, while others in the industry voiced strong criticism over the apparent government activity.

Meanwhile the federal government, including President Obama and Director of National Security James Clapper, defended their actions, while others in Washington said it was time to rein in some of the surveillance tactics.

Here are a smattering of opinions offered up this week.

Ray Ozzie, Lotus Notes founder, former Microsoft executive, speaking at the Nantucket Conference:

“I hope that people wake up, truly wake up, to what’s happening to society, from both a big brother perspective and little brother perspective. … We got what we asked for, and now it’s time to pull it back. Imagine if you had an administration targeting journalists or groups of people based on political leanings.”

(via Boston.com)

Mark Zuckerberg, in a post on the social network:

“Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn’t even heard of PRISM before yesterday.

“When governments ask Facebook for data, we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes and all applicable laws, and then only provide the information if is required by law. We will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure.”

David Drummond, chief legal officer, Google, in a blog post:

“We cannot say this more clearly — the government does not have access to Google servers — not directly, or via a back door, or a so-called drop box. Nor have we received blanket orders of the kind being discussed in the media. It is quite wrong to insinuate otherwise. We provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process. And we have taken the lead in being as transparent as possible about government requests for user information.”

James Clapper, director of national security, in a statement on Saturday.

“Over the last week we have seen reckless disclosures of intelligence community measures used to keep Americans safe. In a rush to publish, media outlets have not given the full context–including the extent to which these programs are overseen by all three branches of government–to these effective tools.”

President Obama, speaking to reporters in Silicon Valley:

“Now, the programs that have been discussed over the last couple days in the press are secret in the sense that they’re classified, but they’re not secret in the sense that when it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed on this program. …

“When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program’s about. As was indicated, what the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls. They are not looking at people’s names, and they’re not looking at content. …

“Now, with respect to the Internet and emails, this does not apply to U.S. citizens, and it does not apply to people living in the United States. And again, in this instance, not only is Congress fully apprised of it, but what is also true is that the FISA Court has to authorize it.”

(via Wall Street Journal)

Al Franken, U.S. senator, D-Minn.:

“There’s a balance to strike between protecting Americans’ privacy and protecting our country’s national security. I don’t think we’ve struck that balance. I’m concerned about the lack of transparency of these programs. The American public can’t be kept in the dark about the basic architecture of the programs designed to protect them. We need to revisit how we address that balance.”

PRISM, the government said, “is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program.”

“It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” the government said in a just-published “fact sheet.”

The government statement also said it does not unilaterally collect information but does so only with specific permission of the secret courts created to oversee requests under FISA.

“The Government cannot target anyone under the court-approved procedures for Section 702 collection unless there is an appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose for the acquisition (such as for the prevention of terrorism, hostile cyber activities, or nuclear proliferation) and the foreign target is reasonably believed to be outside the United States,” the fact sheet states. “We cannot target even foreign persons overseas without a valid foreign intelligence purpose.”

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said he was declassifying certain details around the program in order to clear up misconceptions.

Clapper again defended the information gathering techniques as both lawful and necessary and insisted that this week’s reports “have not given the full context.”

Clapper essentially confirmed reports in the Guardian and the Washington Post, but said that the news articles failed to detail “the extent to which these programs are overseen by all three branches of government.”

Clapper also defended the laws that allow for such collection and the need for secrecy around just what is being gathered and the means by which it is obtained.

The defense comes even as details continue to spill out on both the scope and magnitude of the NSA’s monitoring of the Web and telecommunications systems.

Here’s Clapper’s statement;the accompanying fact sheet is embedded below:

Over the last week we have seen reckless disclosures of intelligence community measures used to keep Americans safe. In a rush to publish, media outlets have not given the full context–including the extent to which these programs are overseen by all three branches of government–to these effective tools.

In particular, the surveillance activities published in The Guardian and The Washington Post are lawful and conducted under authorities widely known and discussed, and fully debated and authorized by Congress. Their purpose is to obtain foreign intelligence information, including information necessary to thwart terrorist and cyber attacks against the United States and its allies.

Our ability to discuss these activities is limited by our need to protect intelligence sources and methods. Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a “playbook” of how to avoid detection. Nonetheless, Section 702 has proven vital to keeping the nation and our allies safe. It continues to be one of our most important tools for the protection of the nation’s security.

However, there are significant misimpressions that have resulted from the recent articles. Not all the inaccuracies can be corrected without further revealing classified information. I have, however, declassified for release the attached details about the recent unauthorized disclosures in hope that it will help dispel some of the myths and add necessary context to what has been published

James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence

Facts on the Collection of Intelligence Pursuant to Section 702

The company already announced that the device will be able to run games written for Android. But, in a surprise move, the startup is announcing Friday that the set-top box will also be capable of running games written for Apple phones and tablets. It’s doing that through a virtualization process BlueStacks is calling LookingGlass.

It would appear to be the first non-Apple device capable of pulling off such a feat.

“Developers really like this because it gives them another way to monetize,” CEO Rosen Sharma said in an interview. Those who have written their apps for iOS would work with BlueStacks to offer their games through GamePop.

Does Sharma expect Apple to take a dim view of what it is doing?

“I don’t know,” Sharma said. “That’s the honest answer.”

Sharma said that BlueStacks was careful not to use any Apple code. It takes the developer’s apps and runs them using its emulation software. With its Android engine, BlueStacks uses Google’s open source code to actually run the software, but Sharma said that LookingGlass doesn’t use any Apple code.

BlueStacks plans to have hundreds of iOS and Android titles running on GamePop when the console is released later this year, probably this winter. The company is offering the console and controller for free to those who preorder by June. The service will cost $6.99 per month, including the games.

Cook said at D11 that the company does plan on opening up more opportunities for developers, but didn’t go into specifics.

“I think you will see us open up more in the future,” he said. “But not to the degree that we put the customer at risk of having a bad experience.”

That leaves a lot of open questions as to what access Apple might grant developers and when. Details could come at Monday’s Worldwide Developer Conference, where Apple is set to show off the next version of its iOS operating system.

Among those eagerly hoping for good news is TouchType, the maker of the popular SwiftKey software keyboard for Android phones.

Currently, Apple doesn’t allow developers access to create custom keyboards. But Cook’s comments are giving the company reason for optimism.

“It’s great they are thinking in that way,” TouchType marketing chief Joe Braidwood said in a telephone interview. “That’s very different from the message we would have gotten a year ago.”

Indeed, SwiftKey started with the hope of convincing device makers to include their software from the get-go. It released its software as an Android download mainly to show what was possible.

“We thought this was just a great test bed” to show phone makers that the technology works, Braidwood said.

The fact that it has become a top download — along with Nuance’s Swype — shows the interest smartphone owners have in a better typing experience. While Android has lots of options, Apple has thus far limited customers to its keyboard experience which offers a much-maligned autocorrect, but not advanced options such as tracing the word you want to write or predicting what word you might want to type next.

“The most obvious API for them to open is the keyboard, because it is the greatest weakness,” Braidwood said. “The keyboard is the thing that needs work more than anything on that platform.”

As for what else Apple might open up, Urban Airship CEO Scott Kveton speculated it could be access to the lock screen, more features for PassBook or even an expansion of the push notification system — something critical for his company.

“We also hope Apple will update its push notification service since it has been far too long since that went live,” Kveton said in an email interview. “It would be great if the enhancements included rich multimedia or cross-device synching of messages.”

For his part, Braidwood said SwiftKey is eager to work on iOS if the opportunity arises, declined to say if SwiftKey has talked directly to Apple about working together.

As for how long it would take to bring SwiftKey to iOS, Braidwood said it would depend on the specifics of what Apple announces. But he hoped it could be done in a matter of a few months.

“If and when the keyboard is liberalized, we would jump on it with the greatest speed we could bring to the table,” he said.

The social network is adding a dock to Facebook Home that allows users to more easily access their favorite apps. It’s part of a broader effort by Facebook to retool its Android software.

The new feature comes as part of an update to the Facebook app for Android.

“Early feedback from users focused on a desire for a more robust app launcher and in addition to a dock, Facebook is working on folders and widget support which will come in future updates,” Facebook said in a statement.

At last week’s D11, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg noted that it is early days for Facebook Home.

“I think it will be a long road,” Sandberg said. “[The smartphone is] an incredibly powerful device and social device. We believe that the phone will get reorganized around people — Home is the first iteration of that.”

From its inception, Facebook said Home would get frequent updates. Other features in the app include the ability to change permissions for who can see something already shared, the ability to send multiple photos in a message, and other stability improvements.

Samsung’s first move was to cover almost every imaginable screen size with a phone, tablet or phablet. If the smartphone business is a game of chess, Samsung has essentially put a piece on every space on the board.

With that effort complete, the company is moving into a new phase. Now, it is working to offer products that target specific niches of the market.

The latest announcement along those lines was Wednesday’s introduction of the Galaxy S4 Active — a heartier version of its new flagship smartphone. The dustproof and waterproof version of the S4 is due to arrive this summer, initially in the U.S. and Sweden.

Though not a truly ruggedized device, it offers those who want a little more protection the option to get it without having to sacrifice features or put up with much added bulk.

But Samsung’s efforts along these lines go further, including a rumored camera-centric Galaxy S4 Zoom. The company has promised to show off new products in the Galaxy line at a June 20 event in London.

On the tablet side, Samsung now has both its standard and pen-based Note models in a variety of sizes. Samsung is also trying to take Android to new types of devices, such as the Galaxy Camera.

The efforts appear to be working. On the phone side, Samsung captured 30.8 percent of the global market in the first quarter, according to Gartner, up from 27.6 percent a year earlier.

Software is certainly increasingly important but, long term, it is unlikely that good hardware alone will keep Samsung in the dominant position. That explains all the money the company is pouring into various software projects, incubators and its Knox security program to make its devices ready for big business.

But for the short term, Samsung’s carpet bombing of the market has put enormous pressure on rivals, particularly companies such as HTC and Sony.

The so-called declaratory ruling will be part of the commission’s open meeting later this month.

“This important declaratory ruling will help ensure that private consumer information — such as the time, duration, and location of calls from a mobile device — will be protected,” acting FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn said in a statement. “Millions of wireless consumers must have confidence that personal information about calls will remain secure even if that information is stored on a mobile device.”

The ruling would clarify when carriers need a customer’s consent and also directs the carriers to ensure they are taking appropriate safeguards to prevent the information from falling into the wrong hands.

It would apply only to call data such as the number called, the length of the call and where a user was when on the call. It applies only to the carriers, not to device makers or companies that create cellphone operating systems.

Carriers will still be able to collect such information, which can help them to target weak areas in their network as well as busy areas in need of more equipment. However, they would need consent before transferring that information to a third party.

The genesis of the ruling dates back to late 2011 when a flap erupted over the operators’ use of software from Carrier IQ that allowed tracking of various information.

Shutterstock / Innershadows Photography

The San Francisco District Attorney and New York Attorney General are holding a “smartphone summit” next week to meet with four of the largest players in an effort to address the trend of “Apple picking” (and presumably Samsung swiping and Motorola mugging).

“With 1.6 million Americans falling victim to smartphone theft in 2012, this has become a national epidemic,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “Unlike other types of crimes, smartphone theft can be eradicated with a simple technological solution.”

Phone makers and carriers have already committed to creating a database to help track stolen phones.

However, at the June 13 meeting to be held in New York, the elected officials will press Google, Microsoft, Apple and Samsung to create a simple way for stolen phones to be rendered permanently inoperable, reducing the incentive to steal the devices.

“The theft of handheld devices is the fastest-growing street crime, and increasingly, incidents are turning violent,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “It’s time for manufacturers to be as innovative in solving this problem as they have been in designing devices that have reshaped how we live.”

Image: Shutterstock / Innershadows Photography

The company has been dribbling out news of its new features, including more personalization, deeply integrated Bing search and the option to boot straight to a traditional Windows desktop.

Speaking at Computex overnight, Microsoft showed off some of these features, and posted a YouTube video showing the forthcoming operating system in action. It has also said it will release a preview version on June 26 at its Build conference in San Francisco.

The final version will be a free update from Windows 8, and is due out later this year.

Here’s the video:

This summer, the company plans to offer a plan with various Android phones that gives customers 200 free voice minutes, along with unlimited texting and 500 megabytes of data service.

FreedomPop already offers customers 500MB of free data on various devices, including hotspots, USB sticks and an add-on sleeve for the iPod touch.

In an interview, FreedomPop CEO Stephen Sokols said that his company had set out to offer its voice and data plan first, but decided for a variety of reasons, including testing, to start out with data-only devices.

“This is actually what we wanted to do out of the gate,” Sokols said. The new service should be ready by August or September, he said, though FreedomPop will start taking preorders on its website.

In addition to the free plan, Sokols will offer a $10-a-month option for unlimited voice calling. All of the calls (except emergency 911 calls) are routed over the Internet using customized tweaks the company has made to the Android dialer.

FreedomPop is planning some unique options when it comes to getting devices. Rather than make customers pay high unsubsidized prices for high-end devices, the company has been stocking up on tens of thousands of high-quality refurbished WiMax devices, such as the Galaxy SII and Evo 4G — devices it hopes to be able to sell for $200 or less without a contract.

Beyond that, Stokols said that the new service will work with any Sprint phones, including the newest LTE devices, such as the Galaxy S4. The FreedomPop service could be especially attractive to Sprint Android customers who have reached the end of their contract.

There are other low-cost plans out there, such as Republic Wireless’s $19-a-month plan, as well as free cellphone service for low-income families, such as Sprint’s Assurance Wireless.

But FreedomPop is trying to do what several Internet service providers did back in the original dot-com boom — take the basics all the way to free, and make money on add-on services. The company, which is backed by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom, added a further $4.3 million to its coffers earlier this year.

First, it is adding a version of its Outlook email and calendar app to Windows RT — the version of Windows 8 that runs on ARM-based chips from Qualcomm and Nvidia. Prior devices, such as Surface RT, came with only Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, along with a custom email and calendar program.

“We’re always listening to our customers and one piece of feedback was that people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Second, Microsoft is cutting some sort of deal with computer makers that want to bundle Windows 8 and Office Home and Student onto a seven- or eight-inch tablet. Microsoft isn’t going into detail on what it is charging PC manufacturers, but it is clearly low enough to enable some pretty inexpensive tablets.

The first of these tablets to be announced, Acer’s Iconia W3, has a $379 sticker price. That’s pretty darn cheap for a machine that includes full-blown Windows and Office.

Microsoft isn’t saying which other computer makers may also be working on small tablets, but with the PC market struggling, it seems reasonable to think we will see a number of such tablets in short order.

And while Microsoft’s bundle program appears limited to small tablets, one could conceivably hook up the tiny tablet to a monitor and keyboard and use it as a home PC.

Microsoft is announcing the new Windows options at a speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei.