Today in Tech: OSX Lion launches today

“NFC [near field communications] just adds a new layer for the consumer and merchant on top of a broken system.” — Square COO Keith Rabois at Fortune Brainstorm Tech

* Apple surpassed analyst expectations yet again for the company’s third fiscal quarter: profits soared 124.7% to $7.3 billion on sales of $25.6 billion. Also announced by CFO Peter Oppenheimer during the call: the latest major software upgrade to the Mac operating system, OSX Lion, should be available today for download. Update: Apple’s Web site has been updated with new MacBook Air models pre-loaded with Lion, too. (Fortune)

* Twitter CEO Dick Costolo suggested during his appearance at Brainstorm Tech yesterday that commerce might be the next leg of Twitter’s revenue stool. (Fortune)

* CNN reports that Google is drawing up a “celebrity acquisition plan” for Google+. Part of that initiative would involve a celebrity verification system so random users couldn’t create fake celebrity profiles for its growing social network. (CNN)

* Microsoft has reportedly dropped out of the bidding race for Hulu. Meanwhile, Yahoo is willing to pay up to $2 billion to buy the TV-streaming site so long as its owners can guarantee exclusive access to current TV shows and older movies for at least four years. (Bloomberg and Business Insider)

* As for Yahoo itself, the Internet company’s latest earnings were slightly below predictions from the Street, at least as far as revenues go. Sales came in at $1.08 billion — a 5% decline compared to the year before — while profit was $237 million. Said CEO Carol Bartz: “We experienced softness in display revenue in the second half of the quarter due to comprehensive changes we have made in our sales organization to position ourselves for more rapid display growth in the future.” (All Things D)

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