Archive

Apple has changed the date for the launch event for its 4-inch iPhone and new iPad Air from March 15 to March 21, according to news reports. If the rumor is correct, Apple will be holding the event the day before it appears in a federal court in California to contest a controversial court order. App...

The Obama administration plans to increase the amount of private communications the National Security Agency can share with other government agencies without first adding privacy protections, according to a report published last week. The plan would ease restrictions on the amount of intercepted ema...

Microsoft has announced measures to improve security management and transparency for Azure cloud services and Office 365. The features, which come from technology Microsoft acquired when it purchased Adallom, will bolster security in cloud apps such as Office 365, Box, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Ari...

Facebook has yanked the drapery off its Canvas, inviting marketers to splash it with their best promotions. The new platform will provide brands with a new medium for storytelling, and it will return ad pages up to 10 times faster than mobile Web pages do, the company proclaimed. It's a big screen a...

Wearable device makers shipped more than 27 million units globally in the fourth quarter of 2015, an increase of nearly 127 percent over the year-ago quarter, IDC reported Tuesday. Vendors shipped a total of 78.1 million units in 2015, up 171.6 percent over 2014, according to the "Worldwide Quarterl...

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Xamarin, a platform provider for mobile app development. Xamarin's platform will be used in conjunction with Microsoft's Visual Studio, enabling developers to build apps using C# to deliver fully native mobile app experienc...

Operation Blockbuster, a coalition of security companies led by Novetta, on Wednesday published a report detailing the activities of the Lazarus Group, the organization responsible for the 2014 cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment. Researchers last week published detection signatures to t...

Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Tuesday attempted to clarify his position regarding Apple's conflict with the FBI, telling Bloomberg he was disappointed that his earlier comments had been construed as taking sides with the government. Apple has sparked a public debate through its resistance to a cou...

Facebook has been using artificial intelligence to sharpen its focus on the roughly 10 percent of the world that has been overlooked by the Internet revolution, the company announced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress. The work has been led by the Connectivity Lab, Facebook's research and developme...

MasterCard on Monday announced facial recognition and fingerprint technology that essentially would allow customers to take selfies to help authenticate their identity when engaged in mobile shopping. The rollout, which is planned for this summer in the U.S., Canada and part of Europe, follows a pil...

IBM on Monday announced cloud-focused deals with VMware and Apple at its InterConnect conference. The strategic partnership with VMware would facilitate IBM's positioning in the hybrid cloud services territory and help the company grow its cloud service offerings, according to IBM. Enterprises that ...

U.S. government agencies have spent more on cloud configurations than official budgets have predicted -- and those agencies will pick up the pace of cloud spending over the next five years. Federal agencies will significantly boost spending on cloud deployments with various "as a service" configurat...

Facebook has been preparing to push personalized ads through its Messenger app, according to a report last week. The company will allow brands to send their own marketing materials through the popular chat app, suggests a leaked document apparently intended for Facebook's advertising partners. The c...

In the days following the court order directing Apple to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone associated with the San Bernardino terrorists, supporters have lined up behind both sides. A federal magistrate last week ordered Apple to create software that would let authorities access data in an iPh...

Yahoo on Friday announced that it has hired banking advisers and formed a committee to explore its strategic alternatives, the latest indication that the struggling company is serious about pursuing a possible sale. The committee, along with advisers Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and PJT Partners...