Articles by Rachelle Dragani

HP unveiled two new mobile devices Wednesday that are set to launch in India as the company attempts to gain traction in the global mobile market ...

Google on Monday announced that it has acquired Nest for US$3.2 billion. The deal could help Google make significant inroads into the smart home market Since its 2010 inception, Nest has been developing a line of smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as thermostats that adjust to household activity in order to increase energy efficienc...

Google on Thursday started rolling out changes designed to further integrate its Gmail and Google+ platforms. The updates make it easier for Google+ users to contact other users without knowing their email addresses Going forward, when users with both a Gmail and a Google+ account begin typing a contact's name into an email draft, a list of Google+...

Kickstarter on Wednesday released a breakdown of its successful 2013. Three million backers pledged US$480 million to help finance 19,911 projects. The company saw plenty of repeat backers: 807,733 people pledged to more than one project; 81,090 backed more than 10; and 975 people donated to more than 100 campaigns....

Pebble on Monday unveiled new hardware and software designs, along with a wearable tech appstore. The Pebble smartwatch got its start last year with a successful Kickstarter campaign that resulted in sales of more than 300,000 devices worldwide. ...

Two Russian cosmonauts on Friday began a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to install camera equipment from UrtheCast, which soon could provide near real-time streaming images to viewers on Earth ...

The Federal Communications Commission this week released a proposal to kill the sports blackout rules that can prevent local TV broadcasts of games when a stadium doesn't sell out The rules regarding blackouts were adopted in 1975 when the majority of National Football League teams' revenue came from ticket sales, the proposal notes. The laws were ...

Verizon on Thursday said it will release a semiannual report about the data requests it receives from the government. It is the first major telecom to make such a move Verizon and other tech industry giants have come under fire for cooperating with government surveillance programs. Verizon and AT&T in particular were named in documents leaked by fo...

Facebook has announced a new feature that allows users to donate money to nonprofit organizations through the site, a move designed to help raise both funds and global awareness for the charitable causes Facebook was inspired to launch the donation feature following last month's successful partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross....

Ford on Thursday unveiled its Fusion Hybrid Research Vehicle, part of an ongoing research project on autonomous cars and other assisted driving technologies that can help lead to safer roads and less traffic congestion ...

Spotify announced Wednesday that it is offering a new free mobile streaming option to listeners, a move that could help it compete in the evolving digital entertainment space Mobile users previously were limited to the Spotify Premium plan, which provides streaming access on phones or tablets for US$9.99 per month. The new service gives iPad and An...

More than 5 million students in 167 countries are getting at least one hour of computer coding instruction this week as part of Code.org's Hour of Code initiative, an event designed to promote computer science in educational curricula worldwide ...

Moon Express on Thursday unveiled the design of its MX-1 robotic spacecraft to more than 10,000 attendees at the closing session of Autodesk University in Las Vegas ...

Cybercriminals recently stole more than 2 million usernames and passwords from several popular sites including Facebook and Google, according to security researchers at Trustwave's SpiderLabs Pony, a botnet that logs user keystrokes, captured the information from more than 90,000 websites during the past month and then sent it to a hacker-controlle...

New York University researchers have designed a flying machine that appears to use the same pulsating motions as a jellyfish Leif Ristroph and colleague Stephen Childress wanted to create a small robot that could serve practical purposes such as monitoring traffic. Ristroph presented their creation at the American Physical Society's Division of Flu...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced Thursday that the commission is considering changing its rules regarding the use of cellphones and mobile broadband in an effort to offer consumers more flexibility when flying It is possible for the latest electronic gadgets and broadband to be used safely during flights, he noted, a...

Instagram and Waze became available Wednesday at the Windows Phone Apps+Games store -- the latest popular titles to join the expanding platform Facebook-owned Instagram, which already has 150 million users worldwide, allows users to enhance and add filters to their photos and then share them with fellow Instagram users....

NASA's MAVEN mission is under way following Monday's successful launch from Cape Canaveral of a spacecraft that will explore Mars' upper atmosphere and seek answers to questions about the planet's evolution ...

Twitter announced changes to its timeline feature on Tuesday, unveiling a feature that allows users to create custom data streams within TweetDeck The custom timelines are designed to help users curate a stream of tweets centered around specific hashtags, events, people or any other piece of information a Twitter user deems noteworthy. The timeline...

The next six years will see smartphone subscriptions triple and LTE network deployment make large strides in North America, according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report The report, published Monday, details the ongoing evolution of the wireless industry. Mobile subscriptions are expected to increase from 6.3 billion in 2012 to 9.3 billion in 20...