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I got a note from a guy a few days ago who said he had an idea that would transform Microsoft, and he wanted me to introduce him to Bill Gates so he could present it. I don't do that, but he was persistent, and it got me thinking. Given that both Apple and Microsoft are based on ideas that came from outside, there is irony in the fact that both firms now have a massive wall between them and outside ideas.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced Thursday that the commission is considering changing its rules regarding the use of cellphones and mobile broadband in an effort to offer consumers more flexibility when flying It is possible for the latest electronic gadgets and broadband to be used safely during flights, he noted, a...

Neptune Computer, founded by 19-year-old Simon Tian, has raised more than CA$250,000 since launching a 33-day Kickstarter campaign for its Neptune Pine smartwatch on Monday with a target of $100,000 ...

Samsung Electronics must pay Apple US$290 million in damages for infringing five of its patents, a federal jury in California decided on Thursday The sum may not make a huge mark -- or even a moderate one -- on Samsung's balance sheet, but the verdict gives Apple one more victory against its rival as the two battle their way through courtrooms arou...

Scientists may have just created the most water-resistant artificial material in the world Many of those who study hydrophobic materials -- water-repellant surfaces in both nature and laboratories -- had found themselves at an impasse with a theoretical limit on the amount of time it takes for water to rebound from a surface. However, a team of res...

A bit more than six months ago, EMC and VMware celebrated the launch of Pivotal, a new company led by former VMware CEO Paul Maritz. Pivotal's team included IP and personnel from EMC's Greenplum and Pivotal Labs organizations, and VMware's vFabric (including Spring and Gemfire), Cloud Foundry and Cetas organizations. A considerable surprise was th...

There's always a lot to digest after Salesforce.com's annual bacchanalia, Dreamforce, which drew 135,000 registrants this year. Some of it is about Salesforce's announcements, but a lot more of it is about the implications of those announcements, the people who attend, and what goes on around the show. Here are a few things that stood out to me.

GoToMyPC is available for free in the Google Play Store, but accessing machines costs US$9.95 per computer. A one- month trial is available....

In this week's All Things Appy, we take a look at the top five free tools for Firefox that will help you navigate the polyglot world The PC-based browser is well-suited to languages, and in this week's piece we recommend the best pop-up dictionary along with a multilanguage search tool and highly efficient translator engines that are superior to ha...

"Privacy may actually be an anomaly," Vinton Cerf, who's hailed as one of the fathers of the Internet, told participants in a workshop on privacy and security in the Internet of Things held by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday Privacy doesn't really exist in small towns, for instance....

LG Electronics on Thursday said it is preparing a firmware update to address concerns over the discovery that some of its smart TVs have been monitoring users' viewing habits and sending the information back to the company without owners' consent The issue was discovered when UK-based IT consultant Jason Huntley found that his LG smart TV had logge...

Google on Wednesday introduced the Google Wallet Card, a debit card that gives people instant access to the funds they have stored in Google Wallet The card works like a traditional debit card, so users can swipe it to pay at a restaurant or store, for instance, or use it to get money from an ATM. The card is funded via Google Wallet, which gets it...

Instagram and Waze became available Wednesday at the Windows Phone Apps+Games store -- the latest popular titles to join the expanding platform Facebook-owned Instagram, which already has 150 million users worldwide, allows users to enhance and add filters to their photos and then share them with fellow Instagram users....

Australian police are investigating an Aussie who is openly advertising and, presumably, selling marijuana on Facebook The dealer, who operates under the pseudonym "Rick Kush Dispenser," has posted advertisements for multiple strains of marijuana on a "swap and sell" Facebook page that is generally used for clothes, children's toys and electronics....

The United States Federal Communications Commission is ramping up efforts to transition the country's phone networks from their current time-division multiplexing, or TDM, technology to Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP The FCC's January meeting will include consideration of an Order for immediate action, according to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

AT&T and Verizon, the leading telecom service providers in the U.S., are growing in several different sectors. They offer the widest variety of services, including wireless, landline telephone, Internet protocol television and high-speed Internet access. They are also the biggest targets. If 2014 will see lots of change, how will that impact AT&T, Verizon -- and you?...

AT&T and Verizon, the leading telecom service providers in the U.S., are growing in several different sectors. They offer the widest variety of services, including wireless, landline telephone, Internet protocol television and high-speed Internet access. They are also the biggest targets. If 2014 will see lots of change, how will that impact AT&T, Verizon -- and you?...

This holiday season, everything from Nerf N-Strike Elite Hail-Fire Blasters to Doc McStuffins dolls and even diamond jewelry will be purchased via mobile devices to a greater extent than ever before. In fact, mobile shopping will surpass the growth of all other channels during the upcoming holiday season, eMarketer has predicted, as more and more consumers change they way they purchase gifts.

Attention to detail is often the missing feature that separates really useful to-do managers from the mundane list-tracking options. Task Coach goes out of its way to help you keep track of the details.The latest version of Task Coach -- version 1.3.33-1 -- does a good job of servicing two categories, in fact. It is both a personal task tracker an...

Windows 8's blah reception from many computer users may have been due at least in part to a peculiar trait that we humans have, and that's our obsession with improvement Improving our lot has been a fixation throughout virtually all of human history, so it shouldn't come as any great surprise that Microsoft couldn't help itself when it became time ...