Why wearable computing will win over the wavering

Most of the criticism about wearable computing technology is about social acceptability. "Nobody wears a watch anymore." "I wouldn't be caught dead wearing Google Glass."

Android becomes Windows' equal as a target for hackers

The capabilities of malware targeting the market-leading Android platform are mimicking those of Trojans that have wrung profits from Windows PC users for years, a new study shows.

Chrome to win over worried parents with 'supervised user' accounts

Android 4.3 isn't the only Google-made software getting a child-friendly makeover. This weekend, traces of a "Supervised user" mode appeared in Chrome Canary, the early, oft-unstable preview build for the popular web browser.

Twitter the 'trendsetter' gives you a chance to catch up

Twitter is like a runaway train. If you jump on midway through an event or a news cycle, you may as well hop right off again—there’s no way you’ll catch up, or at least there wasn't.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

Call it the end of an era. Friday, Microsoft announced that Steve Ballmer will be retiring within the next 12 months, bringing his 13-year run as CEO of the company to an end.

When speed is all you care about in a browser, turn to Chrome for Mac

The Mac browser market might be better off if Google applied some of the innovation it touts in other areas of its business to its Chrome Web browser.

Google buys augmented reality display patents from Foxconn

Google has bought Foxconn's Hon Hai Precision Industry display patent portfolio as the search company ramps up its development of Google Glass.

Intel previews multimode LTE chips

Intel will ship multimode LTE capabilities by the end of the month, Intel executives said Monday. It’s a technology the company is throwing its weight behind, to compete in the U.S. market.

Google Street View to include Britain's historic canal network

Google's Street View backpack has ascended Dubai's record-breaking Burj Khalifa skyscraper, hiked Arizona's Grand Canyon, and climbed Mount Everest. Now it's coming to capture the U.K.'s canal network in pictures.

The smartphone's battle for global domination is over; and won

According to the latest research from Gartner, smartphone sales have surpassed feature phone sales for the first time, with smartphones accounting for 51.8 percent of all mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013.

German government okays Bitcoins for private transactions

The German Federal Ministry of Finance said on Monday that Bitcoin is not a full-fledged currency but that it is permissible to use it in private transactions.

Apple acquires Embark, another public-transit app developer

Apple is once again on the acquisition train. The company confirmed to former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin that it has bought Embark, a Silicon Valley-based maker of public transit apps.

Can anyone tweet to inspire stock market confidence in Apple? Icahn can!

In the past months, Apple chief Tim Cook has had to deal with an increasingly indifferent press and an outright hostile stock market that pummels the company’s every move, despite its stellar success.

Facebook uncurls it's corporate fist, ready to plant a finger in the e-commerce pie

Over the next month, Facebook is expected to roll-out a mobile payment system that will allow users to make purchases with just their Facebook login on partnering e-commerce mobile apps.

Adobe After Effects CC needs no touching up

With the Edinburgh arts festival around the corner, Adobe won another 'Amused Moose Award' nomination with After Effects CC, expanding the software’s capabilities and refining the tools that professional filmmakers and motion-graphics artists depend on. Further enhancements in performance make After Effects CC a must-have partner for animators and video editors working with Premiere Pro CC.

Thunderbolt takes off (finally), but USB still reigns

Though still a small part of the overall interconnect market, Thunderbolt-equipped hardware shipments surged 300 percent over the past year, according to IDC.

Skype: Still the go-to app for Internet communications

A Microsoft acquisition and several user-interface faux pas haven’t stopped Skype for Mac 6.7 from continuing to be the go-to personal communication app for many OS X users.

It's not all about Flash... Yet.

Some of the biggest names in hard disk drives will band together this week to remind the world that storage isn’t all about flash.

A 'sneak peek' at OS X Mavericks: Power, apps, and other details

WWDC is a far distant memory. The long awaited autumn releases it foretold are inevitably just around the corner. Now it’s time to wrap up our own foretelling of what those releases will mean to us too. Specifically the forthcoming new OS X: Mavericks. Here are a few of the best features the OS we're all waiting to operate has to offer.

Publishers say e-book restrictions would hurt them, not Apple

Five book publishers have objected to restrictions that would be placed on Apple’s business after it was found guilty last month of conspiring to fix prices for ebooks.

New SATA spec paves way for even faster SSDs

On Thursday, the SATA-IO group paved the way for SATA Express, putting PCI Express speeds over a SATA interface for the next generation of ultrafast solid-state discs, or SSDs.

Older adults embracing social networking

A rising percentage of older adults are using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, according to a Pew study.

Firefox 23 kills of 'the blink tag'

When Mozilla released Firefox 23 on Tuesday, the updated browser put an unofficial end to one of the annoyances of the early Web—the “blink” tag.

Editing and annotating PDF files with Preview

When you double-click a PDF file, it opens, by default, in Preview. The first time you launch it, you’ll see the first page of the file (if it has multiple pages). You can navigate through the document by scrolling down or by dragging the document’s scrollbar, but there’s an easier way to make your way through it.

Analyst argues for Office on the iPad

Armed with a $900 million argument, an analyst has raised the Office-on-iPad banner, saying that the flop of the Surface RT gives Microsoft a chance to make billions in lemonade from its lemon.

Major overhaul modernizes the QuarkXPress 10 publishing package

Quark has let loose QuarkXPress 10, a massive overhaul of its cross-media publishing package for both Mac and Windows. QuarkXPress has been revamped from top to bottom, starting with an under-the-hood conversion from the Carbon to the Cocoa programming frameworks and ending with a new cutting-edge graphics engine and a refreshed user interface. More than 50 feature enhancements promise to streamline the design process and improve the user experience.

Bento database app for iOS and Mac is 'discontinued'

FileMaker has announced that it’s discontinuing Bento, its consumer-level database for the Mac and iOS. The app will be available for purchase until September 30.

NSA’s XKeyscore program has nearly limitless access to all Internet activity

The Guardian has detailed new revelations from NSA-leaker Edward Snowden about a program known as XKeyscore that has been described as the agency’s “widest-ranging” tool for online data collection.

Global cybercrime costs billions

Cybercrime and espionage could be costing the world between £45 billion and £260 billion a year from a total global economy of £45 trillion, a new estimate by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has calculated.

Apple acquires wireless chip-maker to bolster Bluetooth

Like celebrity deaths, Apple acquisitions seem to come in clumps. Last month the company acquired two mapping-related companies, Locationary and HopStop; on Thursday, Cupertino mixed it up by snagging a maker of low-energy computer chips, Passif Semiconductor. News of the deal was first reported and confirmed by former Wall Street Journal writer Jessica Lessin.

Review: Illustrator CC

Illustrator CC is the first release of the famous illustration and vector graphics app under the company’s new Creative Cloud subscription-based brand. With this latest iteration—the 17th version of the software—the company puts greater emphasis on improving existing tools than on rolling out new ones, and the application is better for it.

Some privacy advocates question mobile apps agreement

A proposed code of conduct for mobile app developers intended to make them explain how user data is collected and used does not have a clear enforcement mechanism,  one privacy advocate said.