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NASA's Kepler mission on Monday confirmed the discovery of a small planet 600 light-years away from Earth in the "habitable zone" of a star not unlike our own sun About 2.4 times the size of Earth, the newly confirmed planet -- called "Kepler-22b" -- is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone, or the region where liquid ...

Gowalla CEO Josh Williams acknowledged on Monday that the location technology company has been acquired by Facebook. Rumors had been swirling over the weekend Gowalla will wind down its service by the end of January. However, user data will not make the trek to Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters with the rest of Austin, Texas-based Gow...

The United States needs an overarching national authority to oversee cybersecurity efforts connected to the national power grid, an MIT study suggests The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) have authority over the development of cybersecurity standards for the bulk power system...

Online social game-maker Zynga has lowered it expectations in regard to the initial public offering it plans for the near future The maker of popular games such as "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars," and "Cityville" is hoping to offer 100 million shares, or about 14.3 percent of its total, priced between US$8.50 and $10, valuing the company at about $9 bill...

Google has launched a major interface redesign for YouTube. This latest change revamps the site overall. It also provides a new home page and simpler, customizable channels "We want to grow the amount of time people spend on the site, and we feel that growing channels is a way to help them find the videos they love," YouTube spokesperson Chris Dale...

The logistics industry faces several challenges with the tremendous growth observed in the last two decades. Global manufacturers in industries such as automotive, IT and consumer goods have outsourced supply chain activities such as distribution and warehousing to third parties. The industry has begun to offer additional value-added services around processing of products. In addition to transportation and storage of goods, logistics service providers (LSPs) may also assemble goods or package accessories. They are also doing consulting work to address complex global supply chain problems...

Well, it is December, when sugar plums fill children's heads and analysts look into their crystal balls to see what the new year will bring. Assuming the world doesn't end, 2012 should be a watershed year for personal technology, showcasing the beginning and end for a lot of companies, as well as major transitions for those that are left. Overa...

Online retailers considering selling their goods overseas need to know the expectations of consumers in the countries in which they want to do business. This is particularly important at the checkout -- with payment methods becoming an increasingly sensitive issue, consumer trust will help determine conversion rates. A consumer in Germany, for ex...

WikiLeaks launched a new spinoff website called "Spy Files" on Thursday that will publish documents about surveillance and privacy violations worldwide The site has a page displaying a map of the world indicating where various violations are occurring, and it lists companies involved in monitoring and surveillance....

RIM announced on Friday that it would record a pre-tax provision in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 of about US$485 million, or $360 million after tax. The provision is related to the high level of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet inventory. The charge is expected to be mainly non-cash Increased promotional activity is necessary to drive sell-throug...

Google is reportedly in talks with major retailers to launch a shipping service that would provide same-day delivery. The search engine giant is talking with retailers such as Macy's, The Gap and Office Max to create partnerships that would offer users speedier shipping, according to The Wall Street Journal. If an online shopper bought a product f...

Operational for just barely four months, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has received some 5,000 complaints about credit card companies. The bureau issued an interim report on the nature of the complaints, ranging from objectionable advertising and marketing practices, application processing delays and high interest rates, to identity theft, privacy intrusions, and the unsolicited issuance of cards...

I was sitting in the "blogpound" at Cloudforce New York, the seating area where Salesforce.com considerately places press, analysts and bloggers along with tables, power and WiFi, when it dawned on me: Despite all the articles, blogs and books (and Paul Greenberg's ceaseless public speaking) dedicated to the social media phenomenon in CRM, we may have been under-reporting its importance all this time...

SugarCRM, an open source CRM provider, has released 6.3, a new version of its flagship product line. It has also upped the ante in the cloud wars by partnering with IBM on its SmartCloud platform. The upshot, CMO Nick Halsey told CRM Buyer, is a CRM app more than able to go head to head with long-established vendors....

Norton Anti-Theft Plugin is available at the Android Market as a free add-on to Norton Security products or at a subscription price of US$29.95 per year. Believe it or not, antivirus software makers are now pitching solutions for our smartphones. Do you believe the hype? Statistics floating around the sea of press releases from antivirus merchants...

Users of Google Maps are already accustomed to relying on the technology for directions to places like the airport or mall, but now they can also use it for help getting around inside once they've arrived ...

It appears that Google's relatively new Chrome browser has displaced Mozilla Firefox from the No. 2 spot in the worldwide browser market, following leader Microsoft Internet Explorer "Three years ago, we built Chrome to help spur more innovation on the Web, and we're excited that over 200 million people around the world are using it," Google spokes...

The chatter around a Yahoo deal increased on Tuesday and Wednesday as potential buyers and investors starting lining up. It appears Yahoo will be considering a deal to acquire a minority stake in the company by year's end, according to The Wall Street Journal. Offers for roughly 20 percent of the company reportedly came in this week from a number ...

Software from the company Carrier IQ that's preinstalled on many mobile devices sold in the United States is capable of recording many of the activities performed on those phones and potentially relaying the data back to carriers, according to security researcher Trevor Eckhart. Eckhart refers to the software as a "rootkit." The revelation has caus...

A Nevada judge has ordered that 228 online domains belonging to outfits that sell counterfeit Chanel items be seized, shuttered and de-listed from social networks and search engines. The case has raised questions regarding the control of Internet fraud in a widespread global marketplace and what constitutes censorship. Luxury goods maker Chanel fi...