News

US plan to end ICANN oversight could lead to ‘Net censorship, lawmakers say

Ending the NTIA's formal oversight of ICANN could open the door for other countries, critics say

Amazon releases Fire TV set-top box with voice activation

The box will retail for $99

Windows Phone 8.1 confirmed, with Cortana digital assistant

Microsoft calls Cortana the first 'truly personal' voice-activated assistant

Microsoft slates April 8 release of Windows 8.1 Update

Free refresh to roll out next week via Windows Update

Cortana, Microsoft’s response to Siri, says ‘Hello world’

The voice-activated personal assistant was demonstrated at the Build conference

Fumble-free USB 3.1 connector will be in products by year end

USB Implementers Forum says final USB 3.1 specification will be published in July

Steve Jobs called for ‘holy war’ against Google

The former Apple CEO planned to speak of a holy war during a 2010 management retreat, according to court exhibits

First images of reversible USB cables emerge

USB Type-C plug will initially sport up to 10Gbps data transfer speeds

Researchers publicly disclose vulnerabilities in Oracle Java Cloud Service

The flaws could allow attackers to break into Java applications hosted on the service, researchers from Security Explorations said

Tidemark wants to save European companies from Excel hell, says CEO

The company will offer its hosted analytics applications in the UK, France, Germany and the Benelux region

Wanted: developers to make outdated documents readable again

The Document Foundation project aims to develop tools for converting files from proprietary to open formats

How to respond to a data breach

GAO: Data breaches have more than doubled since 2009, how should government, companies respond?

Microsoft to live stream Build keynote today

Three-hour presentation starts at 8:30 a.m. PT, 11:30 a.m. ET

FireEye, AhnLab score low in lab test of breach detection systems

NSS Labs  gives 'below average' score to both vendors' breach-detection products

IT Leaders Pursue Data Center Innovation to Beat the Heat

New rugged laptop from Dell has a screen with a twist

Dell introduces a 11.6-inch rugged laptop that can double up as a tablet

Cisco reveals OpenFlow SDN killer

OpFlex protocol for ACI offered to IETF, OpenDaylight

Apple patches Safari’s Pwn2Own vulnerability, two-dozen other critical bugs

Cupertino again leaves Snow Leopard users out in the cold by omitting fixes for Safari 5.1.10

LucidWorks preps Solr stack as Splunk killer

LucidWorks combines the LogStash log engine with the highly scalable Lucene search engine

Climate change could blunt tech’s travel culture

Along with more air turbulence and flight delays, global warming presents multiple tech market opportunities

Bitcoin wallet service Coinbase denies security breach as user names posted online

A list of names circulating on the Internet represents only a small fraction of Coinbase users, according to the Bitcoin wallet service

Intel to bring exclusive content to devices powered by its chips

Intel is hoping to attract more vendors to its mobile chips as ARM processor flood the market

Enterprise software, devices to drive IT spending growth this year, Gartner says

Companies will start pulling the trigger on projects they planned in 2013, according to a Gartner analyst

Google asks US Supreme Court to review ruling on Wi-Fi packet sniffing

Google claims that its collection of data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks was legal

Intel taps Chinese tech hub to fuel its mobile processor business

Intel is establishing a new innovation center in Shenzhen

BlackBerry will not renew tie-up with T-Mobile

BlackBerry criticized T-Mobile in February for pushing iPhones to BlackBerry customers

Judge orders Mt. Gox’s Karpeles to US for questioning

Karpeles must answer questions on April 17, a Texas judge ruled

Apple’s Schiller takes jury back to 2007 and the dawn of the iPhone

The Apple marketing chief is first to give testimony as the company clashes with Samsung

Apple demands over $2B from Samsung for patent infringement

Apple lawyers spoke of 'massive' infringement by Samsung as a jury trial began in California

Windows can’t keep partying like it’s 1999

Microsoft will use its Build developer conference to talk about innovations for its flagship OS

Newton is the first MIPS-based mini-computer for wearables

The Newton development kit is the first with a MIPS CPU

NSA phone metadata collection program renewed for 90 days

Reauthorization was needed to ensure continuity while changes are made, feds say

U.S. Navy to test humanoid robotic firefighters

Autonomous robots expected to communicate and work with sailors

Western Digital’s ‘MyCloud’ has been broken for 5 days

There's still no information about when the site will be fixed

NSA isn’t evil, says noted civil libertarian

Geoffrey Stone says the beleaguered agency has successfully thwarted multiple terrorist plots since 9/11

BMW’s new i8 is the first production car with laser headlights

The headlights project whiter light that's three times brighter than LEDs

Google trumpets extra encryption for Gmail, but stays mum on other apps

While touting an additional security layer to protect Gmail users against snooping, Google remains vague on its other apps

Ex-Microsoft employee pleads guilty to trade secret theft

Prosecutors will recommend three-month prison sentence for insider who allegedly shared info with French blogger

Last-minute lazybones dump Windows XP

Windows 7 outduels Windows 8 as haven for those abandoning nearly-retired XP

Hacked passwords can enable remote unlocking, tracking of Tesla cars

Tesla Motors accounts that enable remote car control are only protected by six-character passwords, researcher says

Amazon super-sizes instances to lure Hadoop users to Web Services

The company has launched 12 new virtual servers that can be used for image processing and financial analytics

Alcatel-Lucent ups the ante in unified access

Second rev of its strategy adds SDN and analytics to wired/wireless unification portfolio

InteropNet: The show behind the show

A lot of work for the people behind the networking conference's own network.

Offshore firms took 50% of H-1B visas in 2013

Government data shows who is really using the visas

Mozilla steps up damage control as pressure for CEO Eich’s ouster mounts

Petition calling for Brendan Eich to renounce past support for same-sex marriage ban nears 70K signatures

Open-Xchange adds spreadsheet program to its online app suite

OX Spreadsheet offers online collaboration and allows editing of Excel documents

Microsoft slashes Azure prices, introduces new basic tier

Amazon Web Services and Google also cut prices in March

Mistake in ransomware program leaves decryption key accessible

It's unlikely, however, that average users would pick up on the error and reclaim their files

Twitter looks to cash in on TV-related tweets overseas

Two acquisitions could help Twitter develop new advertising partnerships overseas, one expert said

With one ‘dinosaur’ and one BlackBerry owner, iCourt jury is selected

Apple gear was well-represented among the pool of prospective jurors