Mobile Apps

A new version of Google Maps for the iPhone and iPad hit the App Store Tuesday. Added to the app's repertoire is the ability to notify a driver when a faster alternative route is available. When Google Maps' navigation feature is running, traffic conditions will be monitored by the app. When it dete...

TECH TREK

Internet Domain Names Get More Character

Tuesday ushered in a series of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that for the first time in Web history, include Arabic, Chinese and Russian characters. The new gTLDs -- which are the suffixes to Web addresses, such as ".com" and ".net" -- were approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names...

Facebook on Thursday announced next week's launch of Paper, a free app for iOS that combines user and curated content into a personalized news medium. Users can create stories as well as receive stories based on their interests and organized into sections. Section stories are chosen by both human an...

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is rolling out a program in two of its hotels -- one in New York City's Harlem and one in Cupertino, Calif. -- that will allow customers to try a new lock system. Guests can download a mobile app that will allow them to virtually check in once they've arrived at the hot...

This Is Your Game on Glass

Google on Monday announced that it had hacked together five simple games that take advantage of the unique features of Glass. The company presented a brief demo of the five-title mashup as Mini Games Glassware, and it encouraged Glass developers to offer feedback.Google emphasized that voice command...

Don't get angry, but... U.S. and British intelligence agencies have long been mining data from smartphone apps such as the wildly popular Angry Birds. The National Security Agency and its British brethren at the Government Communications Headquarters reportedly have targeted the swell of data moving...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Biz Brass Kept in Dark About Breaches

With breaking news about data breaches a common occurrence, you'd think security threats to an organization's data would be something CEOs and their management teams were kept in the know about. Apparently not. Some 80 percent of IT pros in the United States and United Kingdom said they did not freq...

OPINION

Apple TV: From High Hopes to Has-Been

When it comes to TV, Apple is starting to recede into the dark corners of my mind. Its relevance -- and even potential relevance -- is waning. A fancypants Apple-made big-screen HDTV device that seems to float in the air and function like a delightful work of art... . It not only seems unlikely any ...

The Jamaican bobsled team, which qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 2002, is heading to the Sochi Olympics, thanks in large part to a group of supporters who raised more than $25,000 worth of "Dogecoins," an Internet currency. The team needed about $40,000 total, and after the Inter...

For the second time in less than a year, Apple has agreed to reimburse customers for purchases within applications made by children without their parents' consent. In a settlement with the FTC announced Wednesday, Apple agreed to pay at least $32.5 million in refunds to consumers who incurred char...

Starbucks has admitted storing users' passwords in plain text on its mobile apps, creating security and privacy risks. Anyone with access to a customer's phone could obtain that person's user name, password and email address by connecting the device to a computer and opening a file. The clear text r...

I was pleased last year when Apple finally took a proactive stance and reached out to 28 million App Store customers who might have been bamboozled by shady in-app purchases in games designed to take advantage of children. However, even that action had dubious beginnings stemming from a class action...

TECH TREK

French Cabbies Attack Uber Vehicles

French taxi drivers reportedly attacked vehicles linked to the smartphone app Uber, which helps people find shared rides and drivers-for-hire -- or, from cabbies' perspective, helps erode a time-honored business model. Protestors blocked traffic and went after the service's vehicles, reported one Ub...

TECH TREK

China Gets Its First Homegrown Game Console

Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications outfit best known for its mobile phones and its propensity to spook U.S. lawmakers, announced that it has created China's first videogame console. The timing of Huawei's announcement, coming at this week's CES extravaganza in Las Vegas, is interesting: Just thi...

Flir Systems this week unveiled an iPhone case with a difference. The Flir One, which made its debut at CES, lets consumers view heat signatures through a thermal imaging camera attachment to the phone. It works by focusing the camera's attention on a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum t...

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