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Welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, when we take a break from exploring the world around us in search of Pokmon just long enough to bring you the most compelling -- for better or worse -- recent gadget announcements ...

Facebook last week carried out the first full-scale test flight of Aquila, a high-altitude solar-powered unmanned aircraft designed to provide Internet access to remote regions The company had flown a one-fifth scale version of the airplane for several months....

Polish authorities last week arrested the alleged owner of pirate website KickassTorrents, or KAT, 30-year-old Artem Vauln of Kharkiv, Ukraine Vaulin faces charges in the United States of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering....

When gamification was just starting to catch on several years ago, I recall sitting next to the CMO of my then-company at a Gartner conference session. The presenter walked the audience through the concept of using ideas borrowed from gaming as a motivational tool, and about two-thirds of the way through, the CMO turned to me and whispered, "This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen."

The FBI on Monday confirmed it has opened an investigation into allegations that the Wikileaks email dump of nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee emails over the weekend might be linked to the Russian government. Hackers connected to Russian intelligence agencies allegedly have been working to help tilt the United States presidential election.

Amazon has teamed up with Wells Fargo Educational Financial Services to offer Amazon Prime Students a 0.5 percent discount on private student loan interest rates, Wells Fargo announced last week. Wells Fargo is the largest private student lender in the United States among commercial banks The Amazon discount can be added to the 0.25 percent discoun...

Verizon Communications on Monday announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Yahoo's operating business for approximately US$4.83 billion in cash. The deal, which comes on the heels of Verizon's $4.4 billion AOL purchase last year, will allow it to expand its digital advertising business. The purchase will provide Verizon ...

As we approach the end of the free Windows 10 upgrades this month and get used to the anniversary edition, it suddenly hit me the Windows we knew died with Windows 8 -- what we got with Windows 10 really isn't what we've come to know as Windows. Hell, looking at Microsoft's latest financials, Microsoft really isn't Microsoft any more, either. Bo...

Chrome OS and Android Apps now run together on some Chromebooks. Many, but not all, Chromebook models will get the operating system update that allows it as fall approaches....

Fleeting memories will be a thing of the past with a new Snapchat feature currently rolling out "Memories," introduced earlier this month, allows users of the app to save photos and photo stories to their phones, as well as share them with friends....

Ransomware infections are on the rise, and healthcare organizations are ripe targets, which may be why the federal government addressed the subject last week Ransomware attacks have risen from about 1,000 a day last year to 4,000 a day this year, Symantec has reported....

Verizon reportedly is close to a deal to buy the core Web assets of Yahoo for US$5 billion, which would end a months-long process of jockeying over the future of the struggling company Verizon emerged as the winner of a lengthy bidding contest to acquire the assets, according to reports that surfaced Friday. An agreement is expected early next week...

LinkedIn this week announced three updates to Sales Navigator. One is deeper integration with Salesforce CRM data, allowing leads and accounts to be imported into Sales Navigator automatically. More than 20 LinkedIn customers already are using this feature The second is direct integration of Sales Navigator with Gmail, allowing users to access all ...

Elon Musk on Wednesday introduced a second master plan for Tesla, a follow-up to the vision he shared 10 years ago. The original master plan is now in the final stages of execution, he said....

Tinder on Thursday announced the launch of Tinder Social, a new platform that helps users plan group nights out. The new platform will help users plan double dates or larger group events, creating new opportunities for people to make connections, the company said.

NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden and noted hacker Andrew "Bunnie" Huang on Thursday published a paper on their collaboration to design a smartphone case that will protect user privacy The pair developed a prototype compatible with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, as it's "driven primarily by what we understand to be the current preferences and tastes of re...

Facebook on Wednesday announced that the number of people using its Messenger app every month has surpassed 1 billion -- a major milestone for what is arguably the most important tool in the company's growth strategy going forward A growing number of people are using Messenger to communicate with friends, send money, plan events, play games and tel...

Splice Machine this week announced it has open sourced its Spark-powered relational SQL database system The company has set up a cloud-based sandbox for developers to put its new open source Splice Machine 2.0 Community Edition to the test. The company also announced the release of a cluster version and the launch of a developer community site....

Teal on Wednesday introduced what it billed as the world's fastest production drone. Aside from its drone's capabilities, the company is drawing attention because George Matus Jr., its founder and CEO, is an 18-year-old recent high school graduate The drone can fly at 70 mph in all weather conditions and has reached a top speed of 85 mph in favorab...

The platform land rush is definitely on. You can't swing a dead cat, as the saying goes, without finding an announcement about some new platform or some established vendor's attempt to enhance its existing platform. Some sorting out seems to be in order What's not a platform these days?...