Facebook Unwraps Gifts; Porn Search Engine; Intel, Partners Showcase Win 8 Tablets

Topping tech headlines on Thursday, Facebook turned its social network into an online retailer when it unveiled Facebook Gifts.

Users can now send actual presents to friends. Recipients will be notified about the gift as they would any other Facebook update, and can customize it themselves, or exchange it for something of equal value. Facebook's Gifts will provide hundreds of options, including cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, a stuffed animal from Gund, or a digital gift card from Starbucks.

Also on the Facebook front, some administrators woke up to find that their Pages had lost thousands of "Likes" overnight, but it appears those "fans" were actually among the millions of fake accounts cluttering the social network.

In other news, Google has some search competition, at least when it comes to porn. The ICM Registry officially opened Search.xxx, which makes it easier to sort through adult content available on the .XXX domain. According to ICM, the new search engine rummages through only .XXX domain-based porn, while sites like Google or Bing allegedly de-rank adult sites to filter out content. Pages crawled by Search.xxx are scanned daily by McAfee and can be modified to keep underage searchers from the sites.

Meanwhile, Samsung and several other Intel and Microsoft partners were on hand at an Intel-hosted event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Thursday to showcase upcoming Windows 8 tablets and hybrid laptops that use Intel's dual-core, 1.8GHz System-on-a-Chip (SoC), formerly code named Clover Trail. The Atom Z2760 will be released on Oct. 26 alongside Microsoft's next-generation, touch-optimized operating system, with hardware manufacturers like Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and others coming out with tablets and hybrid tablet-laptops built around the x86 SoC and running Windows 8.

Also making tech headlines Thursday:

• Purple Flare Shootout: iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III vs. HTC One S: Much ado has been made about the iPhone 5's propensity to capture purple lens flares, but is it worse than the competition?
• Bing, Klout Team Up for More Influential Search Results: Bing is teaming up with Klout in order to enhance Web discovery and influence.
• Rovio Releases Angry Birds Spinoff Bad Piggies: Have you ever wondered what the world of Angry Birds would be like from the sinister green piggies' point of view? Now you can find out.
• Report: EU to Charge Microsoft Over Browser Ballot Glitch: Microsoft's failure to adhere to the European Commission's "browser ballot" requirement could result in formal charges, according to a new report.
• Google Exec Detained in Brazil Over Controversial YouTube Video: A Google executive was detained in Brazil after the firm refused to remove a YouTube video that attacked a mayoral candidate, according to various reports.
• Nokia Lumia 920, 820 Pre-Orders Begin in Europe: Nokia is now taking pre-orders for the Lumia 920 and 820 in Russia, Italy, and Germany.
• Dish Satellite Broadband Service Launches Monday: Dish Network unveiled dishNET, a satellite-based broadband Internet service that will be available starting Oct. 1.
• iPhone 5 Comes to Regional U.S. Carriers on Friday: A number of regional carriers will start offering the new iPhone 5 today, and a few are knocking $50 off the price of the updated Apple smartphone.
• Despite Loss, RIM Rallies on Wall Street: Riding positive vibes after showing off its next-gen BlackBerry 10 OS this week, Research in Motino loses less than expected in Q2 and earns a reprieve from investors.