Microsoft Plans New York  Lab with Yahoo Refugees: Microsoft grabbed 14 Yahoo researchers to kickstart a soon-to-open New York research lab. The company’s extensive research organization includes 850 Ph.D.s., and the New York office will be its 13th. The hires come after Yahoo made significant layoffs that hit its research organization hard. For the time being the researchers are working Microsoft’s sales office. AllThingsD Rochester Nanotech Center Could Bring 1,000 Jobs: A Pentagon designation of a New York State nanotechnology center could bring up to 1,000 jobs to the Rochester area over the next three to five years. The STC Center in Canandaigua has been named a “trusted foundry” by the Defense Department. Since so much chip manufacturing is being done offshore, the Pentagon's security concerns led it to establish a process for ensuring “trust” in the creation and manufacturing of new systems. The designation allows the center to work on projects for the military, other federal agencies, contractors and foreign allies. Dice New RIM CEO Hints at Upcoming BlackBerrys: RIM CEO Thorsten Heins outlined new product plans for the beleaguered company. Determined to rebuild RIM as a "mobile computing" powerhouse that goes beyond smartphones and tablets, he said the company will start its revival with a 4G-equipped BlackBerry PlayBook later this year, most likely using the company's new BlackBerry 10 operating system. RIM will also continue to develop and support the BlackBerry 7 OS. Heins also reassured online gossip-mongers that RIM's physical keypad will not be missing from upcoming BlackBerry 10 phone models. Network World Facebook Profiles Add Organ Donor Status: Facebook has invited its 200 million American and British users to share their organ-donor status on their personal profiles. The company hopes the move might create enough peer pressure to nudge more people to sign up as donors. To date, says the New York Times, fewer than half of Americans have become organ donors, but that number could skyrocket if millions shift their status — even if it’s not legally binding. Dice Amazon’s Texas Tax Deal Will Lead to Jobs: Amazon and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts have reached an agreement to resolve their sales tax issues. The move clears the way for Amazon to create at least 2,500 jobs and invest some $200 million in the state over the next four years. As part of the deal, Amazon will begin to collect and remit Texas sales tax on July 1, resolving. Texas had been arguing that Amazon’s distribution center in Irving constitutes a physical presence, entitling Texas to collect sales taxes based on a 1992 Supreme Court ruling. Seattle Business Journal HP Leads PC Sales, Beating Even Apple and iPad: HP retook the lead in the worldwide client PC market in the first quarter, according to the latest figures published by analyst firm Canalys. That's despite Apple shipping 11.8 million iPads, bringing its total client PC number for the period to 15.8 million. HP’s shipments were higher by around 40,000 units. Lenovo took third place, with impressive year-on-year growth of 50 percent. Acer and Dell took the remaining top five places. The total client PC market grew by 21 percent to 107 million units. Notebook and desktop PC shipments were up, rising 11 percent and 8 percent respectively, but netbook shipments were down 34 percent on the year-ago quarter, the sixth consecutive fall. Canalys

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