Google+: a mobile app with sense and soul
Sharing is deeply sensory. From cooking a favorite meal to getting together with friends, it's the smells and the stories and the smiles that make human connections so essential. With Google+ we wan...
Introducing the App Center
Today, we're announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of ap...
HP on laptop design similarities with Apple's: it's a struggle as we drive to simplicity
HP's spent the afternoon here in Shanghai to share some details about its latest products and strategy, and to our delight, there was one session dedicated to “Style Meets Function,” …
Etsy Raises $40 Million for International Expansion
Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, is getting a very non-D.I.Y. present. — On Wednesday, the company announced it was raising a $40 million Series F round in venture financ...
Tech Nation's Gunn Says She and Yahoo CEO Discussed Their CS Degrees Before 2009 Show (Video and Audio)
Last week, I posted an audio recording of Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, from a radio interview he did in early 2009, in which he did not deny he had a computer science degree when the host …
Deutsche Telekom Said to Discuss MetroPCS Deal for T-Mobile
Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) is discussing a merger of its T-Mobile USA unit with MetroPCS Communications Inc. (PCS) as it reviews options for the customer-losing business, according to people familiar w...
Status Update
So first thing's first: We're not being sold! Instead, we've just hired a bunch of brilliant writers and a new COO. Also, we've seen a resurgence of community support (with over a thousand people at...
How Goldman Sachs Blew The Facebook IPO
IPOs are wildly profitable deals for Wall Street investment banks, and they come with huge bragging rights. — So it's no surprise that the biggest Wall Street banks fought over the Facebook IPO for ...
Microsoft Accused of Hindering Firefox Browser
The company behind the Firefox Web browser says Microsoft Corp. is limiting its ability to distribute its browser on some hardware being designed for the next version of the Windows operating system. ...
Evernote for Mac Update: Card View, Word Count, New Save Features, and More
Today, Evernote for Mac gets a pretty great update (v 3.1) full of new features, redesigned screens and stability improvements. We've added a completely new Card View, word and character counts for n...
Two weeks of smartphone charging in your pocket
Juice in a box. Lilliputian's portable fuel cell can deliver between 10 to 14 full charges for an iPhone with one replaceable cartridge. — (Credit: Lilliputian Systems) — Retailer Brookstone this...
Oracle's request for fair use ruling denied, Google down to one count of infringement
Following the jury's inability to decide on the issue of fair use in the Oracle vs. Google trial, Oracle asked the judge to rule on the issue as a matter of law (JMOL).
Flipboard for Android leaks out for all to download
At the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III, one unexpected inclusion was the Flipboard app — supposedly exclusive to the handset for the first few months. However, despite the fact that the Galaxy S I...
Facebook Amends IPO S-1 To Admit Advertising Biz Hurt By Increasing Shift To Mobile, Note RSUS Grant
Facebook has just filed a sixth amendment to its S-1 filing to IPO in order to provide more transparency about how the shift of its user base from the web to mobile is causing …
Search engines have same speech rights as the New York Times, says Google report
Just as the New York Times can decide “All the News That's Fit to Print,” search engines have a free speech right to choose who or what to put in their search rankings. — That's the conclusion of a ...
Google Quietly Launches Groupon Now-Like Free Google Offers Across The U.S.
Google today announced its latest update for Google Maps for Android with support for Google Offers. One interesting piece of this announcement that stood out was that Google Maps for Android users n...
Nano-SIM update: Apple design modified to fix concerns, standard will be decided this month
We just spoke with SIM card maker (and pioneer) Giesecke & Devrient here at CTIA about progress on the creation of the 4FF standard — the so-called nano-SIM — over which Apple and Nokia have been warr...
Foursquare Joins the Coupon Craze
Foursquare doesn't want to be another popular—but unprofitable—social network. Its new plan to make money? Personalized coupons. — The company, which lets users alert their friends to their locati...
DVDs and Blu-rays will now carry two unskippable government warnings
The old FBI copyright warning gets an upgrade. — You know those FBI warning messages that appear at the beginning of DVDs and Blu-ray discs? They're getting an upgrade—and they're multiplying.
What's Behind the Drop in Kindle Fire Shipments?
Once hailed as the first true rival to the iPad, Amazon's Kindle Fire no longer seems to be much of a threat to Apple's tablet. The Fire had no impact on Apple's March-quarter iPad sales. Indeed, du...
Loeb Again Calls for Thompson Firing From Yahoo, as Former eBay Boss Support Him
As expected, Yahoo activist shareholder Daniel Loeb released a new letter on the bio controversy he set off at Yahoo, again calling for the firing of CEO Scott Thompson. — “It seems farcical to us …
Apple's next iPhone coming in September, 7-in. iPad launching in August - report
Pegatron has reportedly landed orders for Apple's next-generation iPhone, rumored to launch in September, while Foxconn will allegedly manufacture a new 7-inch iPad arriving in August.
Klout In The Airport: A High Score Gets You Into Cathay Pacific's SFO Lounge
Last month, Klout launched its iPhone app. Today, it's announcing its first big mobile partnership, one that should make app pretty appealing to any air travelers in San Francisco.
CloudOn brings Microsoft Office to Android tablets, gets Google Drive support
After releasing a major update to its iPad app last month, CloudOn is today bringing its Microsoft Office virtualization technology to Android tablets. — And, going alongside support for cloud stora...
Apple releases OS X 10.7.4, FileVault bug gets addressed
Hey, Mac users: are you ready for an update? Because Apple is dropping its latest OS version on your heads. 10.7.4 just hit, and it brings with it a number of small fixes to help improve things like...
Venture-Capital Firm NEA Raises $2.1 Billion
In the venture-capital industry's most significant fundraising this year, New Enterprise Associates has closed on $2.08 billion for a fund that could grow in size to become one of the largest ever rai...
Results make up for awkwardness of iPhoto for iPad
Any review of iPhoto for iPad (released back in March, priced at just five tiny dollars) has to deal with an awkward truth: It isn't a terribly intuitive app. During your first go, you'll find yourse...
Viewing child porn on the Web ‘legal’ in New York, state appeals court finds
Viewing child pornography online isn't a crime, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the case of a college professor whose work computer was found to have stored more than a hundred illegal ...
Safari update automatically disables old versions of Flash
Apple on Wednesday released Safari 5.1.7, an update to its Web browser. One of the new security features is that Safari will automatically disable old versions of Adobe's Flash Player. — “Out-of-da...
Google adds more semantic smarts to its search engine
Google seems to be eking out a major new tweak to its search results. — Reportedly spotted by several users, the search pages are now displaying semantic data nestled to the right of the regular res...
Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History?
Mobile computers are on track to saturate markets in the U.S. and the developing world in record time. — Today's technology scene seems overheated to some. Apple is the most valuable company on ear...
Ustream is pissed about DDOS attack, may launch Russian site tomorrow
Ustream is undergoing what chief executive Brad Hunstable says is the “largest and most coordinated DDOS attack Ustream has ever seen” today and the team is pissed. The attack is rumored to be an att...
SoundCloud announces “Next” version of its site, hits 15M users
Social audio sharing service SoundCloud is announcing its “next” version of the service during a press event in San Francisco. We last told you about the company when it hit 10M users in January of t...
Samsung Acquires Mobile Entertainment And Music Streaming Startup mSpot
Samsung Electronics has acquired mobile entertainment startup mSpot, according to a release issued today. Financial terms were not disclosed, but previous reports point to an acquisition price of $8....
Apple's D.C. lobbying effort has yet to ripen
Apple is taking a bruising in Washington, and insiders say there's a reason: It's the one place in the world where the company hasn't built its brand. — In the first three months of this year, Googl...
Introducing the App Center
Today, we're announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of ap...
AOL Offers Up an Earnings Beat, But a Disappointing Ad Number
First look at AOL's earnings: Revenue of $529 million and earnings of 22 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for $527 million and seven cents a share. — The earnings beat is nice for AOL.
Samsung Galaxy S III confirmed as official Olympic phone, delivering NFC payWave payments to athletes
We may have known this was the case for a number of months already but today Visa has announced that Samsung's new Galaxy S III will indeed be the official London 2012 Olympic Games smartphone …
How Amazon saved Zynga's butt—and why Zynga built a cloud of its own
and why Zynga built a cloud of its own — Five years ago, the social gaming company Zynga was cruising along with a fairly standard IT infrastructure. Servers were racked and stacked in a retail data...
Telefonica launches Tu Me for iPhone with free VoIP calling and messaging
It's not often you see a wireless carrier launch an app that directly competes with its core services, but that seems to be just what the Madrid-based Telefónica is doing with Tu Me, a new integrated ...
Facebook spawns ecosystem of startups
To get the true measure of what's often called “The Facebook Effect,” look beyond the company. Generally ignored in the klieg lights focused on Facebook's IPO is a growing ecosystem of other startups...
BlackBerry Curve 9320 now official: BB OS 7.1, 2.44-inch display, BBM button
The 9320 has visited more countries during its short gestation than some phones get to see in their whole lives, but it's finally arrived. The specs are pretty much what we guessed, with the socially...
Netherlands: First country in Europe with net neutrality
May 8th, 2012 is a day to celebrate in The Netherlands as it becomes the first country in Europe to protect its citizens by enshrining net neutrality into law. — The Netherlands is also implementing...
Virgin Media site goes titsup in Pirate Bay payback attack
Anonymous claims takedown victory — Virgin Media's main website dropped off the interwebs on Tuesday with hackivist collective Anonymous claiming responsibility for the DDoS attacks in response to t...
Garth Ancier advises Intel on virtual-MSO plan
Tech giant taps TV biz vet to help set deals with content companies — Hollywood and Silicon Valley may be worlds apart, but Intel Corp. is relying on a TV-biz veteran to bridge the gap. — Sources ...
Flint Launches image-Based Mobile Payment App, Raises $3M Series A
The race to find the mobile payments solution that works best for every type of business is on, and San Francisco-based Flint Mobile thinks it has the ideal offering for small businesses who operate m...
As venture capitalists turn their backs on China, funding dries up
Venture capital investment is hitting the skids in China, the world's largest Internet market. — VC investment fell to its lowest level in six years this quarter, as reported by Dow Jones VentureSou...
Sony Xperia GX packs 13MP camera and 4.6-inch HD display, joined by Xperia SX to offer LTE in Japan
Sony's announced its first two LTE-capable phones for its Japanese customers — and there's two of 'em. The Xperia GX is up first, with a 720p 4.6-inch display squeezed in alongside …
Evo 4G LTE out on May 18th for $199.99 from Sprint
Sprint has just confirmed the official release date for the Evo 4G LTE: May 18th for $199.99 on a two-year contract. Pre-orders for the dual-core Snapdragon S4-equipped handset were already open sinc...