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TECH TREK

China Toughens Smartphone Standards

New smartphone regulations in China have caused concern among technology companies. The regulations, which would add a new layer of licensing and testing for smartphones, reportedly were filed to a WTO database of technical barriers to trade. They were submitted by China's Ministry of Industry and I...

TECH TREK

Syria's Internet Silence Enters Day 2

Internet and mobile phone service has been cut off throughout war-ravaged Syria. The Syrian government blamed terrorists for the outage. Activists, on the other hand, have warned that Internet and phone blackouts commonly precede military operations in isolated areas. The networking firm Renesys rep...

As many as 10,000 Twitter users in the United Kingdom face the threat of legal action because of their tweets regarding recent sexual abuse allegations. The tweeters could be in trouble because of comments -- either posted to Twitter or forwarded to other people -- in which they refer to a BBC repor...

"GUYS, young people like to hang out in groups, and The Times is ON IT." So goes The Times Is On It, the latest parody account to take Twitter by storm. Creator Benjamin Kabak's running joke is on The New York Times for its breathless reporting of everything obvious. On Monday, though, @NYTOnIt sudd...

Lytro, the new darling of the digital photography world, has added a perspective shift feature and nine filters to create effects in Living Pictures. The software update will be available on Dec. 4, and will work even for photos previously taken. Because the Lytro camera captures a wealth of inform...

Military strikes between Israeli forces and Gazan militants have been particularly intense in recent days, and that aggression has spilled over onto Twitter. The verified Twitter account of the Israeli Defense Forces has been tweeting a running commentary about its campaign against militants in Gaza...

The Samsung Galaxy Camera will become available on Nov. 16 for $499.99, AT&T announced Monday. The 16-megapixel camera runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which opens the lens on a new category for cameras and wireless services. "This is brand new thinking that links AT&T, Samsung and Android," sai...

TECH TREK

Google Maps Loses Its Way in China

Google Maps' mobile app reportedly is losing market share to local competition in China. Statistics from the third quarter show that Google Maps has lost almost half its market share since the second quarter -- from 17.5 percent to 9.5 percent -- and fell to No. 6 from No. 2 among mobile map apps. A...

Facebook has rolled out a round of security features intended to better educate new users about what information they can keep private and how. Now, when new users sign up for the site, they will have the option to take an online privacy tour to get information on its privacy policies. It will inclu...

Norwegian Air Shuttle, one of Scandinavia's biggest airlines, announced that in 2013 it will introduce a new-age in-flight entertainment system. The upgrade will vault in-flight media into the digital age. Carried out with Ink, which provides magazines for some 30 international carriers, the Norwegi...

Voters in Iceland have responded favorably to the government's offer to let them participate in drafting the nation's new constitution. The idea to let citizens chime in online, namely via Facebook and Twitter, was hatched by 25 people on the Constitutional Council, which was tasked with devising a ...

Social media has become a channel through which many Americans participate in politics. Sixty-six percent of social media users -- or 39 percent of all American adults -- have engaged in some form of civic or political activity via social media, suggests a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Ce...

In a letter to several French ministerial offices, Google reportedly has warned that it could exclude French media sites from its search results if the country implements a proposed law that would force search engines to pay for content. The letter reportedly said that such a move -- which would for...

Twitter on Thursday blocked tweets from the accounts of a neo-Nazi group that is in violation of German law. The ban is effective only within Germany. This is the first time Twitter has acted on its "country withheld content" policy, which it first announced in January. Twitter enacted the policy in...

Online gaming is big business, and one of the fastest-growing segments of the online game market is casual gaming -- simple games that can be played on websites, through social media sites like Facebook, or on mobile devices. "The casual games appeal to a broad market because they don't involve an e...

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