Xbox One review: a work in progress with surprisingly strong launch games, solid entertainment hub functionality
Xbox One: The Review — The Xbox 360 that exists in 2013 bears little resemblance to the console that Microsoft launched in 2005. It's so different, in fact …
Xbox One almost reaches Microsoft's ambitious vision for a next-gen console
The Xbox One: The Kotaku Review — The Xbox One is a testament to Microsoft's towering ambition. It represents their desire not only to occupy a place in your home entertainment center, but to lumbe...
Google Wallet Card is Official, Wallet Users Can Sign Up Now for Physical Cards
A few months back, rumors of a physical Google Wallet card surfaced, suggesting that Google would give you a credit/debit card that could access your Google Wallet balance and be used for purchasing g...
Introducing Place Pins, for the explorer in all of us
About a year ago, we noticed Pinners creating more and more boards around the vacations they're planning, special places near where they live and sites they want to see someday. In fact, every day pe...
Snapchat CEO Says 70% of Users Are Women
Roughly 70% of Snapchat users are women, the chief executive of the messaging app said at a closed-door Goldman Sachs conference Wednesday. — Co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said Snapchat users are ...
EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Videos Show Snapchat CEO Saying Ousted Co-Founder ‘May Deserve Something’ For Role At Company
Reggie Brown, Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel attended Stanford University together and joined the same fraternity, Kappa Sigma. — Now the three are tangled in a lawsuit over equity in today's hottest...
The First Apple Store App For iPad Nails Tablet Shopping With Clever Gesture And Image Focused Interface
Today, Apple is launching its very first Apple Store app for iPad, bringing a gorgeous shopping experience to its tablet in a long-overdue move. The new app arrives just in time for the holidays …
End of an era: Once-popular media player Winamp closing down on December 20
The end of an era is here. AOL announced that the music service Winamp is shutting down on December 20, 2013. This move affects its website, Winamp.com, associated Web services, and also its Winamp ...
Cupid Media Hack Exposed 42M Passwords
An intrusion at online dating service Cupid Media earlier this year exposed more than 42 million consumer records, including names, email addresses, unencrypted passwords and birthdays, according to i...
Southwest to Be First With Gate-to-Gate Wi-Fi Service
Frequent fliers have been quick to note which airlines are allowing passengers to use their electronics during takeoff and landing, but Southwest Airlines is upping the ante. — In addition to alread...
While jury is deliberating, Samsung brings emergency motion to stay Apple's patent case
[Update] Shortly after the notice this blog post reported on initially, Samsung brought the actual motion, published toward the end of this post. [/Update] — On the second day of jury deliberations...
Samsung Urges Mistrial Citing Racism in Lawyer's Remark
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) accused Apple Inc.'s lawyer of making a prejudiced remark during closing arguments in a retrial over how much the South Korean company owes the iPhone maker for patent...
Google Play Newsstand merges Currents, magazines and newspapers on Android today, iOS in 2014
Google is not particularly great at keeping secrets. Its Nexus devices always leak and peeks at code are constantly revealing features before they're announced.
Gaming Company Fined $1M for Turning Customers Into Secret Bitcoin Army
A gaming software company has been slapped with a $1 million fine after secretly adding bitcoin mining software to a product update earlier this year. — E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) …
Snapchat plans an API and experimental monetization with ads, emoticons, stickers, and virtual gifts
EXCLUSIVE: How Snapchat Plans To Make Money — Last week, news broke that a ~2.5 year old company called Snapchat had rejected an all-cash $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook.
Instagram comes to Windows Phone with in-app image capture but no video support
Instagram comes to Windows Phone Store today without in-app image capture or video support (update: image capture is there) — These days, a mobile OS is only as good as its ecosystem, and no company...
Hands-on with Logitech's PowerShell Controller, an iOS 7 gamepad that charges your phone
Remember that fuzzy-looking iOS 7 gamepad that leaked back in June? Turns out it's called the Logitech PowerShell Controller + Battery (a mouthful, right?), and it's one of the first iOS 7 certified ...
Microsoft Now Sells T-Shirts That Claim Google's Chrome Steals Your Data
Microsoft has started to sell t-shirts, hats, mugs, and sweatshirts that bear slogans from its Scroogled campaign that needles Google as bad on privacy. I confirmed with the company that the clothing...
US and UK struck secret data pact
• 2007 deal allows NSA to store previously restricted material — • UK citizens not suspected of wrongdoing caught up in dragnet — • Separate draft memo proposes US spying on ‘Five-Eyes’ allies — ...
Apple's iBeacon Comes To Retailers Via Shopkick's ShopBeacon
When Apple, with much fanfare, announced iOS 7 in June, it also quietly confirmed a new feature called iBeacons, which uses Bluetooth Low Energy signalling to enable micro-location services and to tri...
Apple Receives Final Approval for ‘Spaceship’ Campus From Cupertino City Council
Apple today received final approval for its Apple Campus 2 project from the Cupertino City Council after gaining a unanimous initial approval back in October. “Go for it,” said Cupertino Mayor Orrin ...
The New Threat: Targeted Internet Traffic Misdirection
Traffic interception has certainly been a hot topic in 2013. The world has been focused on interception carried out the old fashioned way, by getting into the right buildings and listening to the rig...
Self-driving vehicles still a decade away, experts tell Congress
Truly autonomous vehicles won't arrive until at least 2020 and likely later, according to a panel of car company executives and researchers that spoke to Congress this week. Mike Robinson, vice presi...
Jay Z and Ashton Kutcher-Backed “Uber For Planes” Grinds to a Halt
Of all the “Uber for __” propositions, the splashiest by far was Blackjet, the app that purports to help wealthy users book seats on private jets (for a $2,500 annual membership fee). When it launche...
Google's chief internet evangelist says ‘privacy may actually be an anomaly’
Google's chief internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, suggests that privacy is a fairly new development that may not be sustainable. “Privacy may actually be an anomaly,” Cerf said at an FTC event yesterday...
Mapping service MapBox demos 40-minute drone flight producing 100 acre map for OpenStreetMap
Drone Imagery for OpenStreetMap — Last weekend we captured 100 acres of aerial imagery at 4cm resolution. It took less than an hour to fly, and it was easy to publish the imagery …
Bitcasa's infinite cloud storage balloons to $999 a year
If you thought Bitcasa's infinite cloud storage was too sweet of a deal to exist on this mortal plane for $99 a year, that's because it was — or at least partly because the bulk of subscribers filled ...
Google Maps SDK for iOS adds 64 bit support and more
DirecTV to Stream 30 Live TV Channels Outside the Home
DirecTV is expanding its Internet video service to let subscribers watch more than 30 live TV channels outside the home — including HBO, Showtime, Starz and Food Network — and will deliver 100 live TV...
Android/ARM has become a new de facto platform for any piece of smart connected electronics
The meaning of really cheap Android — One of the big puzzles in trying to understand the tablet market is data. Apple is pretty much the only large manufacturer giving unit sales …
Dell Venue 8 Pro review: A Windows 8.1 tablet for the rest of us
Dell's new 8-in. tablet offers a fine display and good features at a price that most Windows users can afford. — With the new Dell Venue 8 Pro, we're finally seeing a full-blown Windows 8.1 tablet f...
Dropbox-Rival Box Is Raising $100M In New Funding At A $2B Valuation
Posted 13 seconds ago by Alex Wilhelm (@alex), Leena Rao (@leenarao) — TOMS Founder Blake Mycoskie On Turning The One-For-One Charity Model Into A Platform — Enterprise cloud file storage firm Box...
Nest Protect: Another Unloved Appliance, Reborn
Tony Fadell! You've just spent 18 years at Apple, designed the iPod, and changed the world! What are you going to do now? — The answer, evidently, was “reinvent the thermostat.” Fadell founded Ne...
A bum rap for Ballmer? Microsoft CEO defends profit growth during his tenure
Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer listens to a question at this week's shareholders meeting. — What about the stock price? — That's the perennial question from the floor at Microsoft's annual s...