Windows Phone 8.1 Update expands Cortana to new countries, adds “Live” folders on start screen, and more
Windows Phone 8.1 Update brings Cortana to new markets + new features — Back in April, you heard me talk about how we believe Windows Phone 8.1 is the world's …
Snapchat Said in Funding Talks With Alibaba at $10 Billion
Snapchat Inc., the company that makes a mobile application for disappearing photo messages, is in talks with investors including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) for a round of financing that may val...
Virgin Mobile intros customizable prepaid smartphone plans with options for unlimited data on certain services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest
Sprint Will Sell a $12 Wireless Plan that Only Connects to Facebook or Twitter — For about $12, Sprint will soon let subscribers buy …
Exclusive Interview: Best Buy CEO Says Tablet Sales Are “Crashing,” Hope for PCs
Re/code has landed in Minneapolis to talk to the folks at Best Buy — the last standing nationwide big-box, bricks-and-mortar consumer electronics retailer, with over 1,000 main stores and hundreds of ...
Heads rolling at Beats as Apple eliminating redundant positions, Ian Rogers & Trent Reznor to stay on
As Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics and Beats Music nears completion this financial quarter, the Cupertino and Santa Monica, California-based companies have begun work …
Russia wants access to Apple and SAP source code to see if their products are used for spying
Russia wants Apple, SAP to cooperate against foreign spying — * Apple, SAP guard their source code closely — * Russian, Western relations strained over Ukraine
Sony: EA Access Doesn't ‘Represent Good Value To The PlayStation Gamer’
Following EA's announcement of the company's new subscription program, Access, we were curious about it being tied only to Xbox One. We reached out to Sony for clarification, and it seems like PlaySt...
FCC Chairman: Verizon Uses a ‘Disturbing’ Loophole to Throttle Unlimited Data
Federal Communication Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is “deeply troubled” about Verizon Wireless's recently-announced plan to begin slowing down data speeds for some customers, he wrote in a strongly...
Yelp Swings To Profitability In Strong Q2 With $88.8M In Revenue, EPS Of $0.04
Today after the bell Yelp reported its second-quarter financial performance, including revenue of $88.79 million, and a profit of $0.04 per share. The company had net income of $2.7 million in the pe...
Hangouts Now Works Without Google+ Account, Becomes Part Of Google Apps For Business And Gets SLA
Say what you want about Google+, but it incubated two great products at Google: Hangouts for video meetings and Google+ Photos. While Photos is still deeply integrated with the social network …
Microsoft's OneNote for Mac and iOS apps now let you insert Office docs, reorganize notes, and more
Microsoft wants everyone to use its productivity software, regardless of the hardware or operating system they use most frequently. Today it's catering to Apple enthusiasts …
Twitter acquires deep learning startup Madbits
Twitter has acquired Madbits, a deep-learning-based computer vision startup founded by proteges of Facebook AI director Yann LeCun. It's the latest in a spate of deep learning and computer vision acq...
Popcorn Time Adds Apple TV Support, iOS App Coming Soon
The Popcorn Time phenomenon is one of the biggest piracy stories of the year thus far. — The software became an instant hit by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy-to-use Netflix-style i...
Tor Warns of Attack Attempting to Deanonymize Users
The Tor Project has disclosed details of an attack which appeared to be an attempt to deanonymize users of the popular anonymity network. — According to Tor Project Leader Roger Dingledine, the atta...
Consumers OK with Data Limits on Wireless, But Not Wired Broadband
GAO Finds That Internet Users Were Confused About How Much Data They Use — WASHINGTON—Consumers are OK with caps on how much data they can download on their wireless devices every month, but are muc...
Amazon To Invest $2B In Its India Marketplace As Competition With Flipkart Intensifies
Just one day after Flipkart disclosed that it had raised as massive $1 billion round, Amazon has upped the ante by announcing that it will invest $2 billion in its Indian marketplace, which it launche...
AMD announces dev kit with 64-bit ARM-based server chips for $2,999; paves way for x86 coexistence
AMD's new 64-bit ARM board points way to x86 coexistence — Advanced Micro Devices is moving closer to a motherboard design that will accept both x86 and ARM chips with the shipment of its first 64-b...
1Password debuts extension for third party apps on iOS 8
The popular password and security management app 1Password has already previewed its iOS 8 extension and Touch ID support for unlocking and accessing its content outside of its iOS app, and today Agil...
Interim No More: Rob Glaser Named Permanent CEO of RealNetworks
Rob Glaser, who founded RealNetworks in 1994 and served as its CEO until 2010, has been named permanent CEO of the Seattle-based digital media company. He has been interim CEO for the last two years,...
European regulators training sights on Google's mobile software
(Reuters) - European regulators are preparing what could be a stern challenge to Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) (GOOG.O) mobile software business in the coming months after a nearly four-year investigation in...
EXCLUSIVE: Payments giant First Data acquires Gyft in an effort to bring digital gift cards to the masses
Gyft, a Redwood City-based virtual gift card provider has agreed to an acquisition by payment giant First Data, Pando has learned. The terms of the transaction were undisclosed …
Andrew Mason's Audio Tour App Detour Steers You Away From The Typical Tourist Traps
I'm about 20 minutes late when I meet Andrew Mason at the famous Boudin Bakery in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf district. It's a tourist trap, but it's where Mason wants to meet and who am I to c...
Portland legalizes Airbnb-style short-term rentals
A portion of this Irvington home was available for short-term rental until someone complained to the city. (Janet Eastman/The Oregonian) — Portland will start issuing permits for its first legal sh...
BitPay cuts transaction fees on starter plan, making bitcoin payment processing free (and unlimited) for merchants
The Atlanta-based payment processor plans to announce today that it's dropped the 1 percent transaction fee on all starter plans. — The financial barrier to bitcoin processing just got obliterated.
BitTorrent starts testing Bleep, its new P2P messaging platform
BitTorrent's new P2P chat app is dubbed Beep, and Windows users can now line up to become part of an invite-only test. — BitTorrent is slowly starting to take the wraps off its upcoming P2P chat ini...
Square prepares new reader with support for forthcoming cards with embedded computer chips
Square Bets Big on Next-Gen Credit Card Tech — Square first came to fame with a credit card reader you could plug into your iPhone jack. But next year, the company's signature device …
Senate report claims unauthorized wireless cramming charges cost consumers hundreds of millions
U.S. cellphone users frequent victims of ‘cramming’: Senate study — (Reuters) - U.S. mobile phone users have likely paid hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges “crammed” …
After several costly errors by CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo could use another activist investor
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Marissa? — [Disclosure: Author was long YHOO at time of writing.] — There's been a sharp response to the post I wrote last Wednesday in Forbes outlining …
Virgin Mobile intros a blank-slate smartphone plan you can customize any way you like
Virgin Mobile's new prepaid plan can be anything you want it to be from a bare-bones emergency calling service to a custom unlimited Facebook plan. — Next month, Virgin Mobile USA will offer a new …
Q&A WITH TWITTER CEO DICK COSTOLO: Why Twitter Was Able To Blow Away Expectations This Quarter
Twitter delivered its first boffo earnings report as a public company for the second quarter. — It crushed expectations on revenue, EPS, and most importantly, monthly active users.
Microsoft's general counsel on how the government wants the right to access emails stored abroad
We're Fighting the Feds Over Your Email — Governments want the right to see email stored anywhere in the world. Microsoft says not so fast. — On Thursday Microsoft will oppose …
FreedomPop's free data and voice are now available on tablets
Many people can't really justify buying a cellular-equipped tablet — why pay for more data when your phone probably does the trick? FreedomPop is undoubtedly aware of that thriftiness, as it just sta...
64-Bit Chrome for Windows, Now in Beta
2 months after the Dev/Canary channels, the 64-bit version of Chrome for Windows is now available in the beta channel. It's still limited to Windows 7 and Windows 8+ and you obviously need a 64-bit o...