Patents and innovation
The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by peopl...
Discover new accounts and search like a pro
We've made it easier to find and follow Twitter accounts based on your interests. When you search for a topic, you can now discover accounts that are relevant to that particular subject. (Previously...
Google: Product chief, Silicon Valley veteran Jonathan Rosenberg to step down
Larry Page's retaking the reins as Google's (GOOG) CEO Monday came with the most significant change in years in the makeup of the company's tight-knit senior management core: Jonathan Rosenberg …
AT&T confirms early upgrade price changes for iPhone 4, other smartphones
AT&T has confirmed to BGR that it has made changes to early upgrade pricing for its smartphones. The changes impact customers who wish to upgrade to a new smartphone but are not yet eligible for an u...
Windows 8 Secrets: Modern Reader
Part four in a series of co-posts by Windows 8 Secrets co-authors Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott. — There are two big pieces of news in today's revelation. First, Microsoft will apparently be incl...
Grand Jury Investigates Apps
Online music service Pandora Media Inc. said it had received a subpoena related to a federal grand-jury investigation of information-sharing practices by smartphone applications. — In a Securities a...
Milk: Kevin Rose's New Company Aims to Solve Big Problems on the Mobile Web
Well by Silicon Valley standards, that certainly wasn't a long “stealth” period. Just weeks after he quit Digg, Kevin Rose is announcing details of his new startup. Knowing Rose, I can tell why he's...
Android is a mess, say developers
A new survey analyzes the pros and cons of writing for various mobile platforms — On the heels of the debate played out over the weekend between Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson and Instapaper's M...
Texas Instruments to Acquire National Semiconductor for $6.5 Billion
Two of the oldest names in the chip business are about to combine. About as long as I've known about electronics, I've known of the names Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor.
The MacBook Air: A $2.2 Billion-a-Year “Quasi-Tablet”
With all the chatter over the iPad 2, the iPhone 4 and its successor, it's easy to forget that Apple has another ultra-portable device that's doing quite well at market: the MacBook Air. — Nearly si...
Jott service ending on May 3rd, 2011
By now you probably know that we will no longer be offering the Jott service. We have included below the text of an email we sent to our active customers today. — We founded Jott in April of 2006. ...
Facebook For iPhone Gets Event Check-Ins, Maps, And Unfriending
A couple weeks ago, after All Facebook spotted the ability to check-in to Facebook events, the social network confirmed to us that the feature would be launching shortly on the iPhone and their mobile...
After 201 days in review, Apple greenlights iPhone app that unmasks blocked calls (updated with video)
Apple's review process has gone a long way since the early days when every day would bring a new story about a controversial rejection. It's rare nowadays that an app would take longer …
Microsoft may announce Silverlight for Xbox next week
The software giant looks set to detail its plans at the MIX11 conference next week in Las Vegas.
FT won't give up subscriber relationship to Apple
(Reuters) - The Financial Times wants to keep selling subscriptions for its digital news directly to readers rather than surrender control of new customers who sign up via Apple's iPad, the managing d...
AOL's Going(.com) Going Gone!
AOL's Going.com has announced it will be closing on May 1, 2011. Below is the email that AOL (NYSE:AOL) sent to Going.com community members earlier today. Kara Swisher reported on AOL's acquisition ...
It could be worse: data caps around the world
Here at Ars we spend a lot of time writing about data caps—those ceilings on how much broadband data you can use before your ISP taps you on the shoulder and tells you it's time to pay more. Dependin...
LivingSocial Files To Authorize Up To $565M In Series E Funding
Reports of daily deals site LivingSocial being in talks to raise around $500 million in Series E are now backed up by LivingSocial's amended and restated Certificate of Incorporation filed on March 31...
Sprint Plans Tap-and-Go Payment Service This Year to Get a Jump on Rivals
Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) plans to start a service this year that will allow customers to make purchases with their mobile phones, ahead of a similar initiative from rivals Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. (...
IT'S OFFICIAL: AOL Fires Freelancers*
A couple of weeks ago, AOL threw its freelance journalists into purgatory: — They were supposed to sit tight and wait to hear from their editors on their roles in the post-merger Huffington Post Med...
In Race With Groupon, LivingSocial Raises $400 Million
Last summer, Tim O'Shaughnessy drafted a fictional article, entitled “How LivingSocial Won the Local Commerce Space.” — In 1,500 words, the chief executive of LivingSocial spun a tale about how his ...
Google Said to Be Possible Target of U.S. FTC Antitrust Probe
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering a broad antitrust investigation of Google Inc. (GOOG)'s dominance of the Internet-search industry, two people familiar with the matter said. — Before...
10 Things That Simply Need To Be In iOS 5
WWDC. It's like Christmas for OS X and iOS developers. Each year, they flock to San Francisco's Moscone Center, anxiously awaiting the pair of gifts that Apple annually bestows: the new iPhone, and ...
Apple Wins Reversal of $625.5 Million Mirror Worlds Verdict
Apple Inc. (AAPL) won a court ruling that throws out a $625.5 million patent-infringement verdict over how documents are displayed on a computer screen. — A federal judge in Tyler, Texas, today said...
Sony's Howard Stringer confirms Honeycomb tablet in US by summer
Ready for a taste of a sweet Honeycomb tablet with a Sony twist? You'd better be — Japan's Nikkei is quoting Sony chief executive, Sir Howard Stringer, saying that the company's first Android 3.0 tab...
How We All Missed Web 2.0′s “Netscape Moment”
On May 26, 2009 Mike sat down with Yuri Milner, Mark Zuckerberg and a Flipcam to talk about the then-scandalous $200 million investment DST made in Facebook, at a price that valued the company at abou...
Myspace Bake-Off Starts Wednesday and-Despite Reports-No Bidder in Lead (and No Zynga Interest Either)
While no one inside or outside Myspace owner News Corp. expects fireworks and giant piles of money, the tire-kicking for the long-troubled social-networking-turned-entertainment site actually starts W...
What Do Kids Say Is The Biggest Obstacle To Technology At School?
iPads. Interactive Whiteboards. Netbooks. Video games. Although educational technologies are being implemented more and more in classrooms across the country, we don't often stop and ask students ...
The Libyan War Derails Letter.ly, Will More .ly Startups Be Threatened?
Letter.ly, a startup that helps set up and manage paid email newsletters, had its service briefly shut down by the Libyan war and has had to move its service to the domain Letterly.net.
Untethered iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak is out, supports all devices except iPad 2 and Verizon iPhone
Fans of jailbreaking have long known that Sundays are traditionally reserved for major iPhone jailbreaks. Following yesterday's tweet by a team member MuscleNerd, Dev-team released a set …
Why Nintendo isn't making a phone
Playing Super Mario on a Nintendo phone will remain a pipe dream. — Although Microsoft and Sony — Nintendo's rivals among the “Big Three” gaming companies — have branched into mobile phone developme...
iAd rival: Unofficial app store Cydia lands advertising deal with Toyota
Companies are keeping a close eye on the jailbreaking community as at least one big brand demonstrates willingness to advertise on Cydia, the unofficial store for unsanctioned third-party programs whi...
Most Fortune 50 Brands Still Hiding Their Social Media
Looking for Facebook or Twitter Icons on Corporate Websites? Keep Looking — Surely, as we head into the second quarter, the Fortune 50 — if not all big companies — are now at least involved in soci...
Developer bypasses carriers, delivers Windows Phone update
In the last two months, Microsoft has released a pair of updates to its Windows Phone software, including the March update ("NoDo") which adds bug fixes, performance improvements, and copy-and-paste s...
Intel Oak Trail tablets to ship in May
New chip helps Intel compete with ARM — Agam Shah — Intel expects tablets running its power-efficient chip code-named Oak Trail to become available next month, the company said on Friday. — Inte...