From LAPTOP's Cherlynn Low:

Who needs a Facebook friend when you can have furry friend at your side? According to a new study, almost half of America's pet owners think their four-pawed friends are better for their social life than a social networking account.

Lots of people dream about working for Facebook, and why wouldn't they? It has, after all, produced its fair share of millionaires and billionaires. Facebook employees voted the company the best place to work in 2013 in Glassdoor's annual survey.

Last week, the White House dropped a broadband bombshell in the form of a series of initiatives aimed at freeing up government-controlled spectrum for wireless providers. It also released a new report, "Four Years of Broadband Growth," which is brimming with positive news about our nation's broadband infrastructure.

It was a good week for both consumers and our country's vibrant tech industry.

CANNES - Microsoft believes its Xbox game console can take marketers' messages to consumers beyond gaming's traditional hardcore audience.

"The fastest-growing demographic on Xbox today is females aged 18 to 39, who happen to be the chief decision makers on purchases in most households around the world," Microsoft's advertising and online corporate VP Frank Holland said.

Holland spoke with Beet.TV during Cannes Lions, where Microsoft is announcing its new Windows 8 Ad Pano format.

George Orwell's name is being thrown around a lot these days. It should be Aldous Huxley's.

Marcus Tillman, known to the people he helped with office chores as "Stephen Warner," is finally going to jail.

The world's final telegram will be sent next month by India's state-run telecommunications company, the Christian Science Monitor reported. The July 14 stop date will be over 160 years after Samuel Morse sent the first telegram in the U.S. in 1844.

NEW YORK -- Following crowd-funding campaigns from "Veronica Mars" and Zach Braff, James Franco is trying to raise $500,000 to bankroll a trilogy of movies.

Franco on Monday night started a campaign on Indiegogo, a crowd-funding alternative to Kickstarter that allows people to keep the money they raise even if the project doesn't come to fruition. Franco isn't trying to direct the films; he's raising money so that a collection of young filmmakers can adapt his 2011 short story collection, "Palo Alto."

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has met South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul to discuss ways to stimulate entrepreneurship and venture firms in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Park's office said Zuckerberg assured the South Korean leader that Facebook would continue to invest in the country, and he invited South Korean firms to jump on Facebook to reach global users.

Zuckerberg's visit is the latest in series of meetings between Park and high-profile U.S. technology pioneers. In April, Park met Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and Google CEO Larry Page in her office.

Bonjour from a remarkable day 2 at Cannes Lions 2013!

Yesterday was marked by incredible conversations up and down the Croissette with premium publishers such as Condé Nast about building native and programmatic advertising, the unprecedented expansion of advertising technology companies, and a glimpse into the future of creativity. In addition, Cannes Lions Award winners were revealed and I attended the AOL Makers dinner where I was able to talk with some of the most amazing women in history who are still trailblazing today.

While it seems like anyone can put together an app in an afternoon and make millions selling digital tat to nerds, it's not actually that simple.

Well, not anymore.

Making apps takes time. It's difficult work, and involves a lot of knowledge and thought - and practice. It also requires great ideas, collaboration with artists, marketing and salespeople, as well as a healthy dose of luck and money.

Usually.

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - The Republican head of a congressional panel on Tuesday said officials are concerned that former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden's continued efforts to speak out and release intelligence information pose more risk for the United States. U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, speaking ahead of a hearing on the disclosures, also said concerns remain that Snowden may not have acted alone in leaking information on the federal government's top-secret surveillance programs.

Never has there been a bigger "Scr__ You" to American workers and manufacturing than tax-avoider Apple's tag line on all of its national advertising:

"Designed by Apple in California"

In his brilliant and brilliantly titled 2006 polemic Take This Job And Ship It, now-retired U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) called out the abhorrent behavior of companies like Apple which have insensitively offshored millions of American jobs to countries like China.

So, Apple, how about some truth in your advertising:

"Designed by Apple in California BUT MANUFACTURED IN CHINA"