Weren’t online much over the weekend? Here’s what you missed.

If you spent the weekend away from the safe, soothing, reassuring data flow of an Internet connection, here’s what you missed on The Next Web and beyond:

The news

As our own Jon Russell put it, Google just dropped an Android-shaped bomb in China. Google is unhappy about Chinese online commerce firm Alibaba’s Aliyun operating system, which is based upon a modified version of Android. A statement from Google said “Non-compatible versions of Android, like Aliyun, weaken the ecosystem,” while Android chief, Andy Rubin called Aliyun “An incomplete version” of the operating system.

Also:

• Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is offering staff their own choice of a top-of-the range smartphone. Just as long ast it isn’t a BlackBerry.
• Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has made hopes of a super-low-price Surface tablet seem faint.
• It’s emerged that the Windows Phone 8 lockscreen will sport Facebook and Twitter notifications.
• Samsung and Nokia have inadvertently used the same slogan in their fight against the iPhone 5.

Good reads

Make sure you catch these features, published over the weekend. Perfect to catch up with over your lunch or for that dull bus ride home.

• Will the Internet replace traditional education?
• How to evaluate whether or not you should join a startup
• Google’s Project Glass is cool, but it raises a number of privacy concerns
• What it’s like to start your own startup accelerator
• 13 tech trends to adopt before the year’s end

And from elsewhere…

Here are some pieces that you definitely shouldn’t miss from around the Web:

• iPhone 5 fully dimensioned design drawing available for all to see [iMore]
• Disruptions: Let Silicon Valley Eat … Ramen Noodles? [New York Times]
• iPhone 5: Customers in the Big Apple camp out 8 days early [Fortune]
• iPhone 5 Memory Size and Speed Revealed: 1GB LPDDR2-1066 [AnandTech]