Archive

The Beijing First Intermediate Court ruled against Apple in a case that pitted it against a Shanghai-based firm and the country's State Intellectual Property Office's Patent Review Committee. The court found that the intellectual property rights of Zhizhen Internet Technology, a company that holds s...

People need to work less than 1 percent of the time they do to fulfill their basic needs -- housing, security and opportunities for their children -- Google cofounder Larry Page suggested recently, reviving a Utopian vision that has long been a staple of sci-fi as well as technologists' vision of th...

Mobile payment app Isis is focusing on rebranding following the emergence of the militant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. ISIS has gained notoriety in recent weeks for its links to violent strikes in Iraq. Not wanting its company to be associated with that group, Isis announced Monday that...

Marie Antoinette may not have been too far off the mark when she intoned the immortal line, "Let them eat cake." When it comes to the right to be forgotten, it seems Europeans want both to have their cake and eat it. They are up in arms over Google's having deleted links to various news stories from...

The years-long PC sales slide will slow somewhat this year, Gartner has predicted. "After declining 9.5 percent in 2013, the global PC market is on pace to contract only 2.9 percent in 2014," Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal said. The company lumps in desktops, notebooks and premium ultramobil...

Google has kicked explicit pornographic advertising from its ad network. The company said it made the AdWords change, which it announced in March and recently brought into effect, "as an effort to continually improve users' experiences with AdWords." Advertising policies were updated to reflect the ...

Microsoft-owned Nokia created some fireworks over the holiday weekend by making the Lumia 635, sporting Windows Phone 8.1 , available with T-Mobile's Simple Choice prepaid plan over the Home Shopping Network. The first device to feature personal digital assistant Cortana, it will be available direct...

Do you remember those snotty little kids who didn't seem to understand the difference between right and wrong? You know, the little brats who thought the rules didn't apply to them. The kids who thought they could get away with whatever they wanted -- rules were for somebody else. Well, that seems t...

A confluence of recent events has gotten me thinking about laptops. First, IDC and Gartner released PC market surveys that suggest a significant slowing in the declines plaguing PC sales for the past few years. Then last week, due to "stronger than expected demand for business PCs," Intel said it wa...

T-Mobile's efforts to market itself as the un-carrier that puts customers first may be impacted by the FTC's allegations that it has engaged in "cramming" -- charging consumers for services offered by third-party companies without their knowledge or consent. "We're asking the court for an order both...

Google has acquired music-streaming service Songza, adding to its portfolio of streaming media properties. Songza provides custom music playlists intended to match whatever situation listeners be in, effectively providing a fitting soundtrack to their lives. Users select playlists based on time of d...

It's unlikely that Facebook's psych experiment that turned some 700,000 of its users into involuntary lab rats will hurt its brand or advertising revenue. However, it has unleashed a torrent of criticism. Facebook has faced this kind of outrage before, though, and the results have almost always been...

Twitter is deepening its mobile advertising capabilities with the acquisition of TapCommerce, a retargeting and re-engagement provider. Twitter announced the deal on Monday, calling the company's toolset an important piece of the mobile advertising platform it is building for marketers, app develope...

Google on Monday announced that it is bidding farewell to Orkut, its first attempt at a social network, which saw fair international success before Facebook took over the scene. Launched in 2004, Orkut provided a place for users to display profiles, hang out and connect with others. The site gained ...

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a measure that legalizes the use of bitcoins and other virtual currencies in the state. The law repealed previous legislation that specified only "lawful money of the United States" could be used in California. "Modern methods of payment have expanded b...