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Last week, China's military took its new "ultra-high speed missile vehicle" -- or "hypersonic glide vehicle," if you prefer -- for its first test drive, raising eyebrows among U.S. defense officials The hypersonic aircraft, capable of maneuvering at a mindboggling 10 times the speed of sound -- that's more than 7,500 miles per hour -- is designed t...

GnuCash version 2.6, released earlier this month, fixes many of the nagging problems in earlier versions and is more convenient to use.It tracks bank accounts, investments, income and expenses. You can use GnuCash just to handle your checking and savings accounts -- but it is capable of doing much more....

Microsoft and GoDaddy on Tuesday announced they were partnering to market Microsoft's Office 365 to GoDaddy's 12 million small business users. GoDaddy's small business users can attach Office 365 to a domain name and get access to cloud storage and Microsoft's productivity suite. 24/7 live customer service is part of the package. Launched in 2011...

What's up with T-Mobile? It reminds me of that old Rip Van Winkle tale. Rip fell asleep for 20 years, somewhere in the Catskill Mountains, and then woke up with a long, white beard. Except for the facial hair and the length of time, his story sounds a lot like T-Mobile USA's, right? It too has awakened from its long nap and has come out swinging. So what can we expect next?...

In-app mobile advertising is expected to jump significantly between now and 2018, according to new figures from Juniper Research. Ad spend in this category will reach US$16.9 billion by 2018, up from $3.5 billion last year, the consulting group found Smartphones currently account for approximately 70 percent of in-app ad spend, Juniper said, but th...

I was pleased last year when Apple finally took a proactive stance and reached out to 28 million App Store customers who might have been bamboozled by shady in-app purchases in games designed to take advantage of children. However, even that action had dubious beginnings stemming from a class action lawsuit that Apple settled this summer Most recen...

Charter Communications is pursuing the acquisition of Time Warner Cable, but it seems unable to offer a price the cable giant can accept. Now, with its third offer made and spurned, the dialogue between the two companies has gone public and become somewhat nasty in tone. Charter on Monday offered to acquire Time Warner Cable for US$132.50 per shar...

Silent Circle and Geeksphone have teamed up to create the Blackphone -- a smartphone designed to truly protect users' privacy Carrier- and vendor-independent, the Blackphone allows users to make and receive phone calls securely, as well as transfer and store files, swap secure text messages, and conduct video chats without compromising their privac...

The United States National Security Agency's surveillance efforts include radio transmissions from circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into computers, The New York Times reported Tuesday. This apparently has been going on since 2008 The story bears out Der Spiegel's December report that the NSA had a 50-page catalog of surveillanc...

Facebook will start peddling user data to Yandex, Russia's top search engine, as part of a deal between the two tech giants Yandex will get full access to public data from users in Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Yandex will use the data in question -- which includes posts and comments that have not been classified as "private" -- ...

There are some good reasons to consider platform's primacy in our thinking. Most vendors have some version of a platform that includes a hardware or infrastructure layer, middleware and applications. Most vendors have been at it for a while, so product sets are reasonably well configured and are in working order -- no slideware here....

Consumers might soon have access to cheaper, more talented smartphones that could challenge the market dominance of Android and iOS ...

Net Neutrality received a body slam from a federal appeals court Tuesday, but the door was left open for resuscitating the policy In a case brought by Verizon against the Federal Communications Commission, the judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the agency lacked the authority to impose antidiscrimination ...

In 1999, Chris Baty was looking for inspiration to write a novel. He got together with some friends in coffee shops and started writing, with rewards of coffee for those who reached their word counts It was the birth of National Novel Writing Month, which the following year would become NaNoWriMo, a Web-based community of writers who commit to writ...

Advanced persistent threats and stealth malware attacks have been making the rounds for years. Now, University of Michigan researchers Robert Axelrod and Rumen Iliev have created a mathematical model that, in essence, lays out the best time for nation-states to launch cyberattacks. Axelrod is a professor of political science and public policy at the university's Ford School of Public Policy, and Iliev is a post-doctoral student at the school...

AMD is attempting to take computing to a new level with the launch of its 2014 AMD A-Series Accelerated Processing Units ...

Google on Monday announced that it has acquired Nest for US$3.2 billion. The deal could help Google make significant inroads into the smart home market Since its 2010 inception, Nest has been developing a line of smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as thermostats that adjust to household activity in order to increase energy efficienc...

Facebook on Monday announced its acquisition of Branch, which it plans to use in a new unit or product called "Facebook Conversations." Branch's model mimics an Internet forum in that the users create "branches" to discuss topics. Links are shared and friends are invited to participate. Participants can branch off further to discuss related topics...

French taxi drivers reportedly attacked vehicles linked to the smartphone app Uber, which helps people find shared rides and drivers-for-hire -- or, from cabbies' perspective, helps erode a time-honored business model Protestors blocked traffic and went after the service's vehicles, reported one Uber-using witness, Kat Borlongan. The vehicle she wa...

Forget second-screen TV viewing with a tablet or smartphone -- so-called second screens are a kludgy, old-school method of extending a show. What's new? SeeSpace InAiR: The World's 1st Augmented Television. ...