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To one who has been predicting the demise of print media for over five years, it might seem odd that such a techie as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would buy The Washington Post. Why, even this past November, Bezos said in an interview, "one thing I'm certain about: There won't be printed newspapers in 20 y...

Facebook reportedly will begin providing TV broadcasters with data about the chatter their shows are inspiring on the site. Facebook is in fierce competition with Twitter to become the primary destination for second-screen users to post their reactions and engage with others while watching TV series...

After three years of wrangling with Google over its alleged anticompetitive business practices, the EU has suggested there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. "We have reached a key moment in this case," EC Vice President Joaquin Almunia, who is responsible for competition policy, said at a ...

The automotive industry has begun to fully embrace wireless technology in recent years, bringing more to the driver than ever before. However, automotive companies don't fully understand wireless, and many are making a serious mistake that could harm their brand and future sales. Automakers are reac...

After announcing its VoIP mobile phone plan back in June, FreedomPop on Tuesday launched the service into beta, calling it the world's first completely free mobile service with free voice, text and data. Users get a guaranteed 500 MBs of data, 500 text messages and 200 anytime voice minutes free eve...

AOL on Monday launched a limited version of Gathr, which aggregates online services for subscription at discounts of up to 60 percent of what they would cost on their own. Monthly subscriptions to prebundled packages start at $15, and some come with a bonus $10 Amazon gift card. Alternatively, con...

In a paperless society, office file cabinets may become an endangered species. However, the need to store documents will remain. The U.S. government is struggling to develop efficient means to retain billions of electronic messages. NARA is playing a central role in the government-wide effort to ret...

In AMC's Breaking Bad, high school chemistry teacher Walter White, although starting out as a protagonist, descends into depravity and ruin. Clearly, not all high school chemistry teachers are Walter Whites. Similarly, not all scientists, innovators and patent owners are evil. Yet Congress, at the u...

As the prolific trend of adoption would suggest, the case for cloud is compelling from both a business and technology perspective. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the more compelling reasons from a technologist's point of view has to do with the ability to abstract lower levels of...

Apple has displaced Coca-Cola as the leading global brand in Interbrand's 14th annual Best Global Brands report, ending the soda maker's 13-year rule. Google took second place, pushing Coke into third. Overall, tech companies grabbed five of the top 10 slots. "It surprised me because Apple doesn't h...

Silicon Valley loves an underdog. That's partly because such tales feed the industry's self-mythologizing and the IPO culture that attracts fresh money and new investors. To be honest, IT can boast more than its fair share of such successes: Hewlett and Packard, Jobs and Wozniak, and Page and Brin a...

Ford has announced the acquisition of Livio Connect, a 5-year-old Michigan company that wields influence in the car connectivity field out of proportion to its size. That's partly because Livio's technology is used by some major players and partly because Livio's Keys marketplace is a B2B exchange w...

Google may have breached federal and California wiretapping laws by machine-scanning Gmail messages in order to deliver targeted advertising, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh ruled on Thursday. As a result of the ruling, a class-action suit against Google over the issue can now proceed. The suit, whi...

Google on Thursday introduced a new search algorithm called "Hummingbird." The company actually started rolling out the algorithm about a month ago, but it formally unveiled it on Thursday, the 15-year anniversary of Google Search's launch. At the heart of the new algorithm is a new, better ranking ...

An ever-increasing proportion of the world's communications and activity occurs online, but that doesn't mean everyone has bought into the concept. In fact, a full 15 percent of American adults remain offline, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Proje...