Trouble in Austin: Apple repeats last year's iMac holiday shortage with the Mac Pro
The December supply of Mac Pros? — The new Mac Pro is an awesome machine for those with several thousand dollars to spend on a computer and a need for all the power that comes with that thermal core...
Foursquare Raises a $35 Million Round and Adds DFJ's Schuler to Board
Foursquare, the iconic social location service, has raised $35 million in a Series D round, led by DFJ Growth and the Capital Group's Smallcap World Fund. — The company confirmed the raise to me and...
Target confirms breach: 40 million accounts affected
Summary: Customer name, credit or debit card number, and the card's expiration date and CVV (the three-digit security code) were breached, the retailer said. — Target on Thursday confirmed that its ...
Steam Machine Teardown
If last month's round of next-gen console launches left you in a fog, prepare yourself for the incoming Steam Machine. Valve has released only 300 beta kits into the wild, so grab your companion cube...
DA to Apple: Make iPhone's Activation Lock the rule
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón released survey results Wednesday that he says makes an argument for Apple to enable its Activation Lock security feature on every phone. — When enabled...
Exclusive: Dish eyes 2014 bid for T-Mobile - sources
(Reuters) - Dish (DISH.O) is considering making a bid for T-Mobile (TMUS.N) next year, according to people close to the matter, in what would be the satellite TV provider's second attempt in as many y...
Apple's Redesigned Mac Pro Now Available for Online Orders
In line with yesterday's announcement, Apple's redesigned Mac Pro is now available for order through the company's online stores. The Mac Pro currently ships by December 30, though upgraded versions ...
SEC Charges Microsoft Senior Manager and Friend With Insider Trading in Advance of Company News
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a senior portfolio manager at Microsoft Corporation and his friend and business partner with insider trading ahead of company announcements.
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Sell Shares, Facebook Stock Price Drops
After a nice run on the Nasdaq, Facebook and its CEO are selling a big block of shares. Wall Street's reaction: We're selling, too. — Facebook says it is planning a secondary sale of 70 million sha...
Apple hints at future Maps app in ‘layered map’ patent filing
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application that takes the company's existing mapping apps and extends them to new levels of interactivity with data-rich lay...
Bitcoin, Magical Thinking, and Political Ideology
Last week, investor Chris Dixon posed a provocative dichotomy when introducing his employer's USD $25M investment in Bitcoin service Coinbase: … Now working at vogue venture capital firm Andreessen Ho...
Calxeda, Chipmaker That Sought to Bring ARM Chips to Servers, Has Shut Down
Depending on whom you ask, the coming year is supposed to be the one during which server chips based on the ARM architecture that is now so popular in smartphones and tablets start appearing in server...
WhatsApp announces 400M active users, aims to “steer the conversation” away from registered users
WhatsApp Does a Passive-Aggressive Stats Release to Call Out Others for Bulls**t Metrics — There's a big difference between someone signing up for a service, and someone using it on a regular basis.
Up close and personal with the new Mac Pro (hands-on)
It's been talked about and endlessly dissected. It's either the future of professional computing or an overpriced, undersized trash can. It's the new Mac Pro, it's on sale starting today, and I've f...
Porn filters block sex education websites
The new filters are designed to block sites unsuitable for children — Pornography filters used by major internet service providers are blocking websites offering sex education and advice on sexual h...
Lyft tells TechCrunch its revenues are growing 6% per week
Hey Uber, Lyft Is Growing Faster Than You — Uber's revenue numbers, which were leaked to Gawker just a few weeks ago, look bold at roughly $20 million per week. — But there isn't necessarily a def...
British Airways is first European airline to allow electronics use during takeoff and landing
Following the wave of US airlines that changed policy after the FAA reassessed the rules, British Airways is letting passengers keep their electronic devices switched on for the entirety of their flig...
Verizon to Publish Transparency Report Disclosing Law Enforcement Requests for Customer Information
NEW YORK — Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today announced plans to publish an online report that will provide data on the number of law enforcement requests for customer information …
Shazam for iPhone can now listen for songs and shows in the background
Ever rush to identify a song with Shazam with your phone, only to be frustrated as the tune ends before you've even reached into your pocket? That won't be a concern with the latest update to Shazam'...
Windows Phone Turned the Corner in 2013
We're number three. And no, that doesn't suck — 2013 was nothing less than a blockbuster success for Windows Phone, which went from industry also-ran to the undisputed third mobile ecosystem, and i...
Mobile Growth Pushes Facebook to Become No. 2 US Digital Ad Seller
Mobile now accounts for more than 22% of all US digital ad spending, compared with less than 3% in 2010 — US mobile ad spending is expected to near $9.6 billion in 2013 and account for a whopping 22...
Hot mod: Cyanogen raises another $23 million to become the next big version of Android
The effort to turn CyanogenMod into the next big mobile operating system just got a big new vote of confidence. The company announced today that it has raised an additional $23 million …
$350 Google Glass Competitor Covers Both Eyes to Augment Your Reality
If you think wearing Google Glass makes you look like a futuristic cyborg, than the Atheer One is sure to make you feel like you've just crawled out of a time machine. Atheer Labs has just announced ...
After recall, Google releases updated HP Chromebook 11 with newly-designed power adapter
Google recalled the power adapters to its popular little HP Chromebook 11 last week after an investigation by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said that some of the AC adapters were overheati...
Yahoo Mail brings back popular tabs feature
When Yahoo overhauled its Mail product in October, many people howled at the redesign, and particularly missed a tabs feature that allowed users to multitask while writing and reading e-mails. — Rel...
Google: Gov't removal requests rise sharply, especially in Turkey, Russia
Summary: A Google legal director pointed to a more “worrying trend,” which she specified was the number of removal requests related to political content. — Google is one of the few tech companies di...
Prismatic wants to build a social network around all of your interests, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds
There are social networks all around us these days, from Facebook and Twitter to more targeted networks like Instagram and Path — and new ones seem to be launching every week.
Verizon's Motorola Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini to get Android 4.4 starting today
Verizon Wireless has announced that the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Motorola Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini smartphones will begin rolling out to users today. The update follows the launch of KitK...
Jolla Sailfish phone on sale in UK and Europe for £331
The Jolla phone is available to buy now for €399 …
BitTorrent serverless chat replaces usernames with crypto keys
BitTorrent, Inc. is developing a serverless instant messaging system that relies on public key encryption to protect the privacy of communications, identifying users not with traditional usernames but...
Instagram's First Ad Results Are “Promising” With Recall Up 32%, Show It Wants TV Brand Dollars
Instagram may prove a valuable platform for advertisers. Instagram released its first results on ads since they began appearing November 1st. Brands saw average ad recall up 32% …
IBM acquires Aspera and its tech for moving massive files to the cloud
IBM on Thursday announced plans to acquire Aspera, a startup whose protocol technology is used to transfer large files fast over the slow public internet. The Aspera protocol, called fasp, is used by...
Senate Report Opens a Window Into Hidden World of Data Aggregators
Today, the powerful Senate Commerce Committee issued a damning report on the invasive practices of the online data broker industry. The Committee's report is the result of a year-long investigation t...
What streaming music lacks: the metadata of analog days and the personalization of now
What Streaming Music Can Be — Getting past the breadth of Spotify's catalog to more meaningful connections with the music — One gift that I won't be giving to loved ones this holiday season is mus...
Secret Spy Court Won't Reconsider Phone Data Collection
The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected a request by a civil liberties watchdog group to re-examine an order authorizing the U.S. to collect call data from phone companies. — The C...
WSJ's revamped tech section to be called “WSJD”, launches in January
The Wall Street Journal's Answer To AllThingsD Launches Next Month — The Journal's revamped tech coverage section launches next month . The company is launching a global conference, too. — Jason ...
Datameer picks up $19M to help companies do analytics along with Hadoop
In simplifying Hadoop — which takes an elephant as it mascot — Datameer is helping more people process and analyze data. — Hadoop, the leading framework used by companies to process huge amounts of ...
Microsoft's ‘Project Siena’: A Metro-Style app for creating Windows 8 apps
Summary: Microsoft has added another tool to its Windows-development arsenal with the just-released beta of ‘Project Siena.’ — Microsoft made available on December 19 yet another tool to help non-pr...
Europe reaches deal on common mobile phone battery charger
(Reuters) - Mobile phone makers will have to provide a standard battery charger that can fit any device, including smart phones, under a provisional deal on a new EU law reached on Thursday. — Provi...
Latest mobile dev trends: Facebook's mobile API & Javascript are hot; HTML5 & old web architecture are not
For mobile developers, a lot has changed in the past year. — Facebook has now swiftly become the most popular social service for devs to connect their apps to …
Facebook Home update to bring new lockscreen and gestures to select Android phones
Facebook hasn't forgotten Home, the Android launcher that originally came out this past April and has trickled out to a few select handsets since. The social network just posted a video showing an up...
Airbnb Tops 10 Million Guest Stays Since Launch, Now Has 550,000 Properties Listed Worldwide
This is what hockey-stick growth looks like: Peer-to-peer lodging marketplace Airbnb announced this morning that it'll top 10 million guest stays since being launched in 2007.