Articles by

FirstRain has released its third iteration of the mobile version of its personal business analytics app, enhancing it with social sharing functionality and building in a new contextual layer that gives users more information about the data they receive. FirstRain also debuted a version for Windows Phone with this rollout.

The Open Invention Network, or OIN, was created in 2005 as a white hat organization to protect Linux. It has considerable financial backing from Google, IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony. More than 800 organizations worldwide have joined the OIN community by signing the free OIN license ...

The European Court of Justice, which is the highest court for matters of European Law, on Tuesday handed down a preliminary ruling that indicates Google may have to remove links to consumers' names on request -- if appropriate The case was referred to the ECJ by Spain's Audiencia Nacional, or National High Court. The ECJ's ruling lays down the guid...

Parrot has added a new model to its line of airborne drones -- the Bebop. Demonstrated in San Francisco over the weekend, the lightweight Bebop includes some snappy features, such as built-in image stabilization, a 14-megapixel camera with a fish-eye lens, and support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset Although a price hasn't been announce...

AT&T has been negotiating to buy DirecTV for close to US$50 billion, based on reports that surfaced Monday. The deal, which has not been confirmed by the companies, could close within a few weeks. The current option on the table, according to anonymous sources, would be largely a stock trade but it would include some cash, with AT&T offering in th...

AT&T has been negotiating to buy DirecTV for close to US$50 billion, based on reports that surfaced Monday. The deal, which has not been confirmed by the companies, could close within a few weeks. The current option on the table, according to anonymous sources, would be largely a stock trade but it would include some cash, with AT&T offering in th...

Twitter on Monday launched a new feature that allows users to mute others, giving people the power to silence fellow tweeters without having to unfollow them The feature is designed to give users more control over what pops up in their daily feeds. If someone mutes a follower, the muted user's tweets and retweets won't show up in the muter's feed, ...

The Reveton Gang is at it again. This time, though, they're targeting users of Android phones -- typically visitors to porn sites The gang that pioneered the idea of locking up a target's computer and demanding a ransom to unlock it has turned its attention to the rapidly growing mobile market....

A major federal agency has launched a program designed to acquire information technology and other essential goods and services for the government the same way that major corporations handle procurement The General Services Administration, which acquires a wide range of products and services on behalf of federal agencies, has initiated a category m...

Walmart customers who use the banking services provided inside the chain's stores are among the highest payers of fees -- especially overdraft fees -- in the U.S., a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal filings concluded. The five banks with the most Walmart branches ranked among the top 10 U.S. banks in fee income as a percentage of deposits l...

The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved the marketing of a prosthetic arm nicknamed "Luke" in a nod to the bionic hand grafted onto Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker after his was cut off by Darth Vader's light saber The arm, eight years in the making, was funded by the military....

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission reportedly is changing a proposal for regulating Internet traffic in response to a wave of dissension against the idea Chairman Tom Wheeler had proposed a new "Net neutrality" plan that would allow Internet service providers to negotiate with companies that use the Internet to provide services t...

Google last week acquired restaurant website builder Appetas, a move that could strengthen its relationships with small businesses and ratchet up competition with Yelp, which currently dominates the restaurant review scene. Appetas helps restaurants increase their online presence by building out professional websites that can be integrated with lo...

Aiming in part to counteract losses sustained on its Wii U gaming device launched in late 2012, Nintendo now is setting its sights on emerging markets and planning a brand-new console and games with those markets in mind, Reuters reported last week Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata cited higher entertainment budgets among many emerging nations' middle-clas...

Over the next several months, we will see a massive step forward in the systems we use in our cars to connect to our phones, listen to music and watch videos. As I write this, the new Kenwood Excelon DNN991HD is being installed in my project car, and it promises pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. In August, Jaguar will start supplying a new AV system provided by Intel and compliant with Apple's CarPlay system. This is on top of the driving improvements, which will include laser lighting, lights that make rain and snow almost invisible, and improvements in automated driving up to and including self-driving cars. ...

Snapchat has agreed to a settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission to resolve privacy issues resulting from a hacker's publication in January of data associated with 4.6 million of its users The company has not admitted any wrongdoing, but it has agreed to implement a comprehensive privacy program that will be audited by a third pa...

Netflix is hiking subscription fees for new users of its streaming video service effective immediately, while current members will have a grace period before they must start paying the increased rates Subscribers in the U.S. and Canada will fork over an extra dollar a month, with the fee jumping to US$8.99. Existing subscribers will pay their curre...

The hottest -- and possibly craziest -- tech rumor of the week is,hands down, that Apple is in negotiations to acquire BeatsElectronics for US$3.2 billion First reported byMatthew Garrahan and Tim Bradshaw of the Financial Times, thestory has been fanned into a raging infernofaster than a wildfire on a hot August day. Unfortunately, the onlycited s...

If you have a story to tell -- even a dull one -- Adobe Voice can improve your presentation. The free app can't make your story more compelling, but it can give you a better shot at getting it across. Adobe Voice is available for the iPad 2 and above running iOS 7.To kickstart your use of Voice, Adobe offers a welcome page with a pair of sample sl...

One of the geographic regions asserting itself as an epicenter of technology innovation focused on the rapidly evolving Internet of Things is the Boston area. To bring greater attention to the widening array of area companies pursuing new business opportunities in the IoT market, the region recently hosted a series of IoT events, anchored by Axeda's annual Connexion conference...