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Microsoft last week began to accept bitcoins as payment for digital content purchases Bitcoins can be credited to a Microsoft account by anyone in the United States at the currency's market value -- currently around US$352 per bitcoin -- and used to buy content at the Windows Store or stores that carry Xbox games, music and video. ...

This has been an interesting quarter. After Andy Grove left, Intel often seemed to struggle with its place in the world and seemed at odds with the computing OEMs. Now, though, it seems more and more like it did when it was 20 years younger. It's not alone, either. Microsoft, which seemed to have forgotten why there were OEMs in the first place for the last 15 or 20 years, suddenly is acting much more like the firm we knew in the early 90s...

Welcome, dear readers, to another installment of Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, a weekly perusal of the best and worst in just-announced gizmos ...

Iowa plans to issue digital drivers' licenses in the form of a smartphone app by next year, Paul Trombino, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, said earlier this week at a public state agency budget hearing The digital license will be accepted by Iowa law enforcement officers conducting traffic stops, as well as by security officers w...

Apple and IBM have delivered the first batch of enterprise-class apps for iOS, rolling out 10 apps that cover key industry verticals like banking and finance, travel and transportation, retail, insurance, telco and government. The companies have pledged to deliver more than 100 such apps The apps are the first proof point in the "unprecedented" par...

Ford Motor on Thursday introduced Sync 3, its new communications and entertainment system. It is faster, more intuitive and easier to use than MyFord Touch, the company said.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration this week gave five licenses to four companies for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations -- that is, flying drones The drones will be used in aerial surveying, construction site monitoring, and inspecting oil rig flare stacks....

Since December 'tis the season when industry prognosticators provide their predictions for the year to come, I'll offer my ideas about how three major tech forces -- cloud computing, big data the Internet of Things -- will converge in 2015, and four ways organizations can capitalize on this convergence The idea that cloud computing, big data and th...

Since the hacker group calling itself "Guardians of Peace" announced its attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment late last month, things have gone downhill for the company After confidential documents were leaked to the Internet over several days, a denouement of sorts was reached last week, when a security company examining the stolen data discovere...

4MLinux is a unique mini Linux distribution that tries to be what it is not. Its limited-purpose design is too basic for even lightweight distro functions.Much of any benefit users might derive from 4MLinux mimics what already is available from USB-launched pocket Linux distros such as Puppy Linux,Porteus and Knoppix. However, much of the advanced...

Google on Thursday said it will close Google News in Spain, as of Dec. 16 That's in reaction to a new law that will take effect in Spain in January....

The Google-supported FIDO Alliance this week achieved a key milestone in its mission to end the use of passwords by releasing version 1.0 of its namesake open standard "Today, we celebrate an achievement that will define the point at which the old world order of passwords and PINs started to wither and die," said Michael Barrett, president of the a...

The Pirate Bay, which was closed down following a raid by Swedish police on Tuesday, appears to have found safe haven on a Costa Rican domain The site, which gained notoriety for hosting pirated movies and music files, has been raided repeatedly by the Swedish police. Its founders have been arrested and convicted of copyright infringement, and two...

Uber and Lyft are two new, rapidly growing competitors in the taxi and limousine space. They are upending the traditional taxi and limo model in city after city. Now the taxicab industry in New York City is fighting back. NYC cabs could be getting their own app This is something that should have happened years ago. If the traditional cab industry w...

How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know, 2nd EditionBy Brian WardNo Starch PressNovember 21, 2014, 392 pp.US$39.95 Print Book and E-Book (No Starch Press) $26.37 Paperback (Amazon)$31.95 E-Book (No Starch Press) How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know offers an unglamorous view of the Linux operating system. It takes readers be...

Apple and Samsung last week squared off again in court over their long-running patent dispute The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard Samsung's appeal of the US$930 million in damages a district court awarded to Apple for patent infringement, following a trial in 2012 and a retrial in 2013....

Blackphone on Tuesday announced plans to open an app store for privacy-focused applications to run on its secure smartphone. The store is expected to launch in January The Blackphone runs PrivatOS, a modified version of Android 4.4.2 that comes bundled with tools that encrypt phone calls, texts, emails and Internet browsing....

Two password manager makers on Tuesday announced new features that allow their users to minimize the hassle of resetting passwords One of the first things online users are advised to do after a data breach -- and there have been more than few of those lately -- is to change their passwords. Few users act on that advice, though, because creating uni...

The United States National Security Agency, which is known for monitoring landline, Web and cellphone communications worldwide, also targets wireless carriers, The Intercept reported last week Documents released by whistle-blower Edward Snowden show the NSA has monitored more than 1,200 email accounts associated with major cellphone network operato...

Does anyone really think that we have any privacy? Probably not. Between GPS tracking and our favorite app, most of us gave up on privacy long ago. Some privacy advocates claim that cell carriers have not been transparent about what personal data they have been gathering and using, although we now know that in order to use a cellular device, we ...