Articles by

The deal isn't done, but Activision Blizzard already was calling itself a "crowned leader" earlier this week, as it anticipated acquiring Candy Crush publisher King Digital Interactive Both companies' boards of directors are on board with the acquisition, and the two sides have signed a "definitive agreement" that entails Activision Blizzard pickin...

NewsON on Wednesday launched a free, ad-supported app that offers instant access to broadcast-quality local newscasts and clips Users can search by market for curated content linked to breaking news from 118 stations in 90 markets, covering about 75 percent of the United States....

The Motion Picture Association of America ran a victory lap on Tuesday, after announcing the shutdown of movie and television torrent sites Popcorn Time and YTS. The shutdowns resulted from major legal wins in Canada and New Zealand. The MPAA last month obtained injunctions against the sites in those countries, effectively blocking them from furth...

Microsoft this week launched a survey for Windows Insiders, seeking candidates for a limited beta of Cortana for iOS "We're testing the Cortana for iOS app with a limited number of users in the U.S. and China before releasing [it] publicly," Microsoft spokesperson Jennifer Reynolds told TechNewsWorld. The full app is slated for release later this y...

GALPon MiniNo is one of the strangest and most distinctive Linux distros to grace the Linux Picks and Pans computer screens. Those two traits make it an almost ideal option for anyone looking for a reliable operating system for youngsters and educational facilities that cater to early education students....

For once,Oracle OpenWorld went long on substance. That's hard to do when you have so many products to discuss and Larry Ellison pontificating, but he was both under control and substantive -- though he couldn't resist taking a few shots at competitors Oracle's team hardly ever sees SAP and IBM in deals these days, he announced, and he gave due prai...

Nokia will testArtemis Networks' pCell technology, which promises speed boosts in bounds for wireless broadband without requiring new handsets, the companies announced Monday Nokia plans to work with wireless carriers to test the technology in the U.S. and other countries starting in 2016....

The good news about mobile malware in 2015 is that growth has slowed down. The bad news is that the malware entering the market is more virulent than ever While there hasn't been a sharp rise in the volume of mobile malware this year, the increasingly malicious nature of the types of malware and attacks is alarming,Blue Coat Systems said last week ...

Business-to-business marketers know what customers want, in general terms, from initial contacts with the people they buy from. It's taken awhile, but through trial, error, some more error and eventually some actual thought, the mystery has been solved Before I give it away, just ask yourself what you want in any communication from anyone when it c...

Amazon on Monday informed employees of significant improvements to its parental leave policies. It also announced the opening of its first physical bookstore in a letter to customers posted online Tuesday. Both moves no doubt have been in the works for a while, but the timing of the announcements may not be coincidental. Amazon's image could use some buffing, having become tarnished in the aftermath of sharply unfavorable publicity...

For Apple TV fans, the new Apple TV is the long-awaited upgrade we've been pining for, and while it's a welcome addition to my living room, I'm only half as impressed as I thought I would be. After spending some quality time -- and some not-so-quality time -- I'll share my experience, which, it turns out, all comes down to this: The new Apple TV is...

Welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that looks at the best, brightest and tiredest of the week's gadget announcements while, for this edition at least, taking things a little easy in California's wine country. ...

DJI on Monday unveiled a high-performance embedded computer running Ubuntu 14.04 for use in its Matrice 100 drone The Manifold supports CUDA, OpenCV and ROS, and it is compatible with third-party sensors. It lets developers connect a variety of devices -- including infrared cameras, atmospheric research devices, and geographical surveying equipment...

The controversy over the management of email systems by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in the spotlight since March. More recently, in October, the CIA director acknowledged that his personal email had been hacked Both situations highlight the continuing vulnerability of email, whether personal or professional....

San Franciscans will vote Tuesday on Proposition F, also known as the "Airbnb Initiative," which seeks to restrict short-term rentals. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m At first glance, it appears that the fight is about short-term rental aggregators such as Airbnb....

The long-awaited split of HP's personal computer and enterprise operations has taken place, and CEO Meg Whitman, who oversaw the transition of the massive, listing ship, clearly faces the most challenging crisis of her career -- trying to save a legacy business from being buried by the sands of time and progress HP, which struggled for more than 15...

Google last week announced that it has developed technology for its self-driving vehicles that would be able to detect people in costumes -- presumably children dressed for Halloween The company is teaching its cars to drive more cautiously around children and thus be ready to adapt to sudden and even erratic movement, it said....

The New York Times Company last week indicated would take steps to circumvent ad-blocking tools "As you know, the Times' digital subscription revenue stream means that we are less exposed than most publishers to the impact of ad-blockers," said NYT Company CEO Mark Thompson during an earnings call. "Nonetheless, let me make it clear that we oppose ...

I watched with interest last week's Republican debate and realized very quickly that whatever that was on my TV, it sure as hell wasn't an actual debate. The idea is for us to be able to compare the qualifications and positions of a variety of candidates and then make a more informed choice -- but if every candidate is asked a different question, then how do we compare the answers? ...

Google is two years into a plan to consolidate the Chrome operating system -- which it uses as the platform for a series of stripped down, low-cost computers -- and the Android mobile OS, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday Google officials quickly pushed back against the WSJ report, which claims that the company, now a subsidiary of the newl...