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All may be revealed on May 21, when Microsoft officially unveils its next-generation video game console and follow-up to its popular Xbox 360. In the meantime, the rumor mill is churning Xbox executive Adam Orth reportedly departed Microsoft this week after engaging in a controversial Twitter exchange related to the console's rumored "always on" re...

Worldwide PC sales plunged during the first three months of the year, the worst quarterly decline since 1994, according to research firm IDC PC shipments have been declining recently thanks largely to the rise of mobile devices, but the first quarter of 2013 was as bad as it's been since IDC started tracking the market. PC makers shipped 76.3 milli...

The ACLU has raised a disturbing possibility after reading 247 pages of records it obtained from the Internal Revenue Service via a Freedom of Information Act request: The agency may be reading taxpayers' emails without a warrant. The IRS was told not to do this after a 2010 appellate court ruling in United States v. Warshak that resulted in the c...

Iran -- long irked by Google's mapping systems -- said that it will launch its own 3D mapping service, one liberated from the geographical inaccuracies and "Zionist" bent of Google Earth The system will be an "Islamic Google Earth," according to Mohammad Hassan Nami, Iran's minister for information and communications technology. It will go by the m...

Scientists from the University of Washington and MSNW are working on a fusion-powered rocket that could slash the estimated four-year round trip from Earth to Mars to a maximum of 90 days The technology might also make flights to Mars affordable. The launch cost alone of a manned flight using chemical rocket fuel would be about US$12 billion, acco...

Facebook added another level of targeting to its advertising strategy Wednesday with the introduction of partner categories, a self-service feature that uses data collected from other channels to deliver ads on the social network. Partner categories will let advertisers target Facebook users based on browsing and purchase history, occupation, a wide range of specific interests, and location...

The wireless industry is in the middle of a transformation. That means there are many new opportunities going forward, but there are many new challenges as well. Which ideas, companies and sectors will win is the question. I have been a wireless and technology industry analyst for more than 25 years. I have followed and worked with many companies...

I was talking to a friend of mine whose company had a rough first quarter. As is often the case, both sales and marketing came under scrutiny; several salespeople were let go, and marketing is now under a microscope In trying to perform a post-mortem on the problems, we struck upon the issue of salespeople. The sales manager held up a former employ...

Due to a concerted effort by ISPs and email providers, new laws and education, we've seen a gradual drop in the amount of spam that appears in our email in-boxes However, some gets through. Here's a look at the steps you can take to minimize this disruptive, time-wasting intrusion....

Brainwave authentication can be used instead of passwords to protect computer logins, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Information said this week. The development opens up the potential for users thinking certain thoughts or picturing specific images to gain access to devices, thereby adding a layer of biometric security...

While anyone with the right antenna can pick up a broadcast TV station's signal for free, the fact that Aereo allows subscribers to view time-shifted streams of over-the-air television has some broadcasters threatening to go the pay-TV route News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey this week threatened to pull the Fox network off the airwaves...

Streaming video service Vudu is the latest Web-based business to be the victim of data theft, although unlike some recent highly publicized data breaches, this one began with a physical break-in Thieves broke into the Vudu offices on March 24 and stole hard drives that contained personal customer information including names, email addresses, phone ...

Bitcoin's meteoric rise has pushed it over the US$200 mark. Five days ago, the open source peer-to-peer digital currency was trading at $150, a level that alternately wowed and worried speculators. Two months ago, it was worth about $20 Bitcoin's sudden ascent has fueled talk of a bubble -- and not just any bubble, but one in a financial asset clas...

Microsoft and Nokia are part of the coalition of companies that filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators claiming that Google is using its Android mobile operating system to promote its own products and services Made public Tuesday by lobbying group FairSearch, the action comes as European regulators are reportedly near a settlement with Goo...

Google has revamped its Google Play Android app with designs on making it easier to use and better for discovering content. The search giant is also thinning its app catalog by removing what it considers to be low quality offerings. In what has become the rage in digital design circles, text will take a back seat to images at the new Google Play....

Shodan has burst from the shadows into the spotlight, courtesy of a profile in CNN that describes it as "the scariest search engine on the Internet." Indeed, delving into what it can do is sure to generate some uncomfortable -- even fearful -- possibilities. Shodan searches for and indexes things that are connected to the Internet -- a category t...

Mobile app measurement provider Flurry on Tuesday opened its mobile Flurry Marketplace advertising platform, a real time bidding offering that will help publishers adjust their ad prices by backing inventory with analytics data. Advertisers will be able to use the data to target ads in smartphone and tablet apps by segments such as device, location or even interests...

Four members of the LulzSec hacker community have pleaded guilty in a British court to charges of hacking into the computer systems of various organizations, including Sony, PBS, the Arizona State Police, and HB Gary Ryan Ackroyd, whose LulzSec handle was "Kayla," on Tuesday was the last to enter his guilty plea. He joins Jake Davis, whose handle w...

After almost two years of litigation, a federal judge has ruled on a dispute between an employer and former employee over control of a LinkedIn account. The case turned on a specific Pennsylvania law about using the likeness of another individual, so the impact may be limited, but since there is so little litigation concerning LinkedIn or other s...

Sugar CRM took its annual customer and partner show on the road this week and brought what had been a Bay Area extravaganza to the Big Apple -- the better to attract a sizable population of customers and partners from Europe and other points beyond North America It seems to have worked, because even though New York is one of the most cosmopolitan o...