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Virtual city planners faced a crisis this week as a plague of server issues kept SimCity 5 gamers from connecting. This meant that building virtual roads, zoning communities, and all other jobs involved in creating a city in the game couldn't be accomplished While essentially a single-player game, SimCity 5 requires that players have an Internet c...

The T-Mobile-MetroPCS merger has moved one step closer to the finish line now that the Department of Justice has signaled it doesn't oppose the deal. The department allowed a required waiting period to pass without objection, T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom said Wednesday, bringing the deal to an "important staging post."

Apple's iPhone grabbed the first place spot in U.S. smartphone sales during the holiday quarter, increasing its lead over rival handsets before Samsung, BlackBerry and other competitors launch new devices this spring The company took a 37.8 percent share of the domestic smartphone market during the three months ending in January, according to the l...

Android -- and, by extension, Google -- has too much control over China's smartphone industry, according to a white paper from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or MIIT. Android is used by handset manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE, as well as Samsung, which has a solid footprint in China....

Until about six years ago, the wireless world was pretty predictable. BlackBerry and Nokia were the leaders, and everything was growing and stable. Then the iPhone earthquake changed everything. Android soon followed, creating more disruption. Today the global handset leaders are Samsung and Apple. However, the big story in 2013 is who will be No....

The jargon of an industry is a good indicator of where the mindset of that industry is at any particular moment. Think of terms like "the cloud," which are set upon by marketers and subverted to their ends until the meaning has been wrung from them For many in IT, the cloud is a place that solves many of their routine problems, sight unseen, and it...

Office 365 Home Premium, the 2013 Windows 8 version of Microsoft's latest version of its Office product, amusingly remains a suite of applications that run under the Windows desktop -- as in earlier, non-tiled versions of Windows Although Office installs quick launch tiles, each core element, like Word or Excel, is anapplication, not a ballyhooed a...

Amplify, the education subsidiary of News Corp., announced Wednesday a 10-inch Android tablet platform for K-12 schools The device will run the latest version of Android Jelly Bean, and will be available in WiFi-only and a 4G LTE versions running on AT&T's network....

Verizon wants complete control of its joint Verizon Wireless division with Vodafone, so it is reportedly considering a merger of the two companies or a buyout Vodafone currently holds a 45 percent stake in the wireless venture, estimated to be worth about US$115 billion. The two have discussed a merger as recently as December, according to publishe...

Microsoft on Tuesday demonstrated added hand gesture functionality for its Kinect technology, which is being adapted to let users not only wave their hands, but clench their fists and pinch their fingers to pan and scroll through an on-screen app The company showed the latest version of Kinect during its annual TechFest conference, which highlights...

Microsoft was just handed -- and has accepted -- a fine by the European Union for failing to offer users a choice of browsers on its Windows 7 operating system, despite a legally binding commitment. The European Commission's top antitrust regulator, Joaquin Almunia, announced the decision on Wednesday Microsoft issued a brief statement accepting ...

Google is planning to broaden its reach into the e-commerce space with Google Shopping Express, a service similar to Amazon Prime, according to TechCrunch. The subscription fee would be US$10-$15 cheaper, and another draw would be same-day shipping from brick-and-mortar stores, an anonymous source told the publication....

Tough week for Microsoft After Denmark announced it was seeking US$1 billion in back taxes from Microsoft, the tech giant was hit with a $731 million fine from the European Union.

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S IV smartphone, which will be revealed later this month, could offer users an eye scrolling feature, according to published reports. The S IV's front-facing camera will reportedly track a user's eyes to determine where to scroll. When a user reaches the bottom of a page being read on the device, for example, the software...

When Brooklyn-based PruneDanish.com sends shipments of its electronics, accessories, and home and garden products to customers overseas, it uses Swedish stamps. As odd as that might seem, it makes sense for the e-commerce company PruneDanish.com uses the services of Direct Link, a U.S. subsidiary of Sweden Post. By using Swedish stamps in its shipp...

Could we have a moment of sustained loud noise for all of the companies that form the various ecosystems around major product lines? I mean it. The ecosystem -- and maybe not even social -- is the story of the last five years. While many of us have been running around like Chicken Little talking up the advantages that social will bring us, the eco...

Puppy Linux is a distro I keep coming back to. No matter how entrenched I become with any flavor of Ubuntu -- sans the Unity desktop -- or Linux Mint's Cinnamon and KDE desktops, nothing can beat the speed, convenience and reliability of Puppy Linux on a stick Boot it directly from a hard drive or from an external drive; either method is fast and c...

Server provisioning, configuration management, and automation are the latest examples of where the tech industry is being driven, largely by open-source software. The leading open-source server and IT infrastructure automation frameworks, Opscode Chef and Puppet Labs' Puppet, sit on the leading edge of significant trends underway in enterprise IT -- particularly disruption from cloud computing and DevOps, where application development and IT operations come together for faster, smoother delivery of software and services...

Forget software, applications and programs. While you're at it, forget utilities -- they'renow called "tools." The future is apps, and Windows 8 is not going to be left out. Windows 8 has beendesigned for touch, yet many of us still use keyboards and mice.

After years of running, jumping, swimming and shooting, Lara Croft is going back to the beginning. The heroine of the sometimes loved, sometimes loathed video game series Tomb Raider is back for her "first adventure." Just as Star Trek and James Bond were rebooted on the big screen, Tomb Raider is getting a fresh start The new game from developer C...