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Sprint has been holding its breath while under water for a painfully long time. Several months ago, it surfaced for a gulp of air on news it would be acquired by Softbank. Since then, I've been listening for the buzz about the new Sprint -- but so far, I'm just hearing crickets. This is a mistake. Investors, customers, workers and competitors kno...

Amazon this week unveiled a new program designed to draw third-party developers to the company's platform. Known as "Appstore Developer Select," the program offers incentives such as promotional boosts to developers that optimize their apps or games for the Amazon Appstore and the Fire OS mobile operating system on which the company's Kindle Fire ...

On Wednesday Groupon announced that it has added new CRM features to itsBreadcrumb point-of-sale app with the potential to drive traffic and improve customer relations for Groupon merchants Customer tracking, for instance, is one of the new features now included in Breadcrumb, which was acquired by Groupon in May 2012. Specifically, the software tr...

The Chromium OS Vanilla Build by Hexxeh is a no-frills approach to trying out the concept of a browser-based Linux operating system without buying a branded Google Chromebook.It boots from a USB drive on any compatible computer. Unlike CR OS, Chromium OS boots into the Chrome browser environment. It does not have a full Linux desktop under it to r...

Early upgrade plans are tips of the hat to phone-as-fashion-statement. Who wants a graying two-year-old phone? Such plans do come at a cost, however What if you don't actually need a new phone and the innards and battery are still good? If you're not a hard-core phone geek, aren't they all just about the same? Slab of plastic with screen, in other ...

China continues to crack down on online rumors, as 110 people were detained in the northwest China province of Xinjiang Those arrested are accused of creating and spreading rumors, instigating violence and disseminating religious extremism....

Microsoft on Tuesday forked out what might be the biggest payment to a bug hunter yet: US$100,000 The money went to James Forshaw, head of vulnerability research at Context Information Security, for coming up with a new exploitation technique that affects Windows 8.1 Preview....

Hard on the heels of LG's announcement earlier this week that it is planning flexible-display handsets of its own, Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced the release of the Galaxy Round, which it says is the world's first smartphone featuring a curved screen New features enabled by the device's curved design include the "Roll Effect," which ena...

The company that brought Apple-style elegance to the lowly home thermostat is attempting to do the same for the common smoke detector Nest Labs, founded by Apple emigres Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, on Tuesday announced Nest Protect, a US$129 combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector with more smarts than others in the market....

PayPal on Tuesday announced Payment Code, a new tool that allows customers to pay for in-store purchases by simply presenting a QR code or four-digit number at the cash register ...

I took a trip in the Wayback machine last week when I attended DataWeek at the invitation of Dun & Bradstreet. As you might recall, D&B is a data company that collects copious amounts of information about individuals and firms and then sells it for use in filling out profiles for business purposes -- an oversimplification, but it will suffice. That data helps companies evaluate business risks -- to determine, for example, when to extend credit to an unknown entity. Companies happily subscribe to the service to help with decision-making...

It's not all photo apps and more apps when it comes to taking photographs with an Android smartphone. I've written about apps for photography with an Android smartphone, but there are some basics that you need to know, unique to smartphones, that have nothing to do with imaging apps....

The Multipath Router -- a project seeking crowdfunding on Indiegogo -- could change the way we connect to the Internet ...

Google and HP on Tuesday unveiled the latest addition to the Chromebook family: the HP Chromebook 11 Like its earlier counterparts, this Chromebook weighs next to nothing -- roughly 2 pounds -- and runs Google's Linux-based Chrome OS operating system. This new one, however -- priced at US$279 -- comes with some high-end touches and enough power to ...

Russia's Pirate Party wrote a letter to NASA offering to host the agency's website, which is currently out of commission because of the government shutdown The Pirate Party -- a minority political movement in many European countries predicated on privacy and transparency -- informed NASA that it could use the party's dedicated servers until the U.S

AT&T is teaming up with FiLIP to launch a smartwatch designed to appeal to kids -- and their parents. The colorful, durable FiLIP watch connects to a parent or caretaker's smartphone and tracks the child's location using WiFi triangulation, cellular towers and GPS information. It offers two-way calling to five set contacts as well as the ability t...

The Obama administration has upheld a ban won by Apple earlier this year that requires Samsung Electronics to stop importing certain smartphones and tablets into the U.S U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman made the announcement on Tuesday morning....

Nielsen on Monday rolled out Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings, a service it says is the first-ever measure of the total activity and reach of TV-related conversation on Twitter Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings measure not only "authors" -- or the number of people tweeting about TV programs -- but also the much larger audience of people who actually view thos...

A coalition of companies, foundations and governmental bodies has launched the Alliance for Affordable Internet Access to create the conditions for open, competitive and innovative broadband markets in developing nations The alliance "will undertake a blend of international advocacy and research, coupled with on-the-ground work," starting in three...

With so much riding on the holiday season for retailers, marketers pull out all the stops. This year, the latest ad technologies are being put to the test in the mobile realm Following are some of the ways marketers are juicing up campaigns to deliver topnotch results for the retailers that launch them....