Could Alex Jones's "revolution" actually happen?

Piers Morgan had it easy. Radio show host and author Alex Jones threatened the rest of us with a "revolution" if the government decides to confiscate guns from the homes and glove compartments of law-abiding Americans. It's almost too easy to dismiss Jones as a fringe figure, especially since fringe ideas make their way into the mainstream with (exciting? alarming?) frequency these days. So let's...

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HTC says licensing agreement with Apple will lead to better devices in 2013

Apple (AAPL) and HTC (2498) signed a 10-year licensing agreement in November that covered all current, pending and future patents and ended the ongoing litigation between the two companies. It has been estimated that the company will pay Apple between $6 and $8 for every Android device shipped, however HTC CEO Peter Chao refuted the claim. Regardless of how much is being spent, HTC China president...

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Nokia’s Lumia 920 remains as expensive as Apple’s iPhone 5

One thing handset industry analysts are watching like hawks is the price graph of the most important Windows Phone 8 model in the European handset market. Nokia (NOK) priced the Lumia 920 very, very ambitiously for its November debut. How long can the model maintain a stiff premium? Was the early pricing just designed to skim high margins from the pool of eager Nokia/Windows Phone early adopters?[More...

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Samsung and Apple are still the only winners in the mobile market

The duopoly of the U.S. mobile market intensified dramatically in 2012. Despite increased efforts from Motorola, LG (066570), HTC (2498), Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft (MSFT) to gain market share, Samsung (005930) and Apple (AAPL) continue to steal customers away from every other company. During a three-month period ending in November, comScore found that Samsung’s lead in the U.S. smartphone market increased...

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Nielsen And Twitter Team To Track TV

Your favorite TV shows may soon need a strong social-media presence if they’re going to stick around for a while. Networks and advertisers are hip to social media’s power to publicize a show, as well as TV’s influence over the social media conversation. They’ve even found ways to quantify this relationship.Twitter and Nielsen, the company that tracks TV viewership, are creating a Nielsen Twitter TV...

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NY comptroller sues Qualcomm on political spending

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's comptroller has sued Qualcomm Inc. in an attempt to compel the wireless technology company to disclose its political spending to him and other shareholders.The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware seeks a court order to inspect company records, saying prior requests for the information have been rebuffed by the San Diego-based corporation. The suit cites studies that...

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Snapchat: Solution or Problem?

Snapchat is all over the news from CNN to Slate, where journalists question its potential as a sexting tool. A mobile app that shares disappearing images, Snapchat can be used to send an explicit photo without fear exposure, CNN explained. The images cease to exist in seconds."Snapchat allows users to behave sexually without that behavior defining them," Slate suggested.How Snapchat WorksThe concept...

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U.S.: Time not right for Google executive's North Korea trip

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday the time was not right for Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former diplomat Bill Richardson to visit North Korea, which drew international criticism for a rocket launch last month.State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Schmidt and Richardson would be traveling as private citizens, not representatives of the U.S....

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"Hebrew Hammer" sequel profits from crowdfunding campaign

The Hebrew Hammer vs. Hitler," the sequel to 2003's "The Hebrew Hammer," will begin filming next year, after an innovative crowdfunding campaign that's raised $35,000 on Jewcer.com, the filmmakers announced Tuesday.Adam Goldberg will return in the lead role, with principle photography expected to begin in May 2013.In the film, Goldberg's character, now married and enjoying the good life in suburbia,...

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Instagram says no plans to put user photos in ads

 Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, said on Tuesday it has "no plans" to incorporate user photos into ads in response to a growing public outcry over new privacy policies unveiled this week.Instagram Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a blog post that users had incorrectly interpreted Instagram's revised terms of service, released on Monday, to mean that user...

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Sberbank to buy Yandex online payments service: source

 Sberbank, Russia's top lender, plans to buy Yandex.Dengi, an online payment service owned by Russian search engine Yandex, a source familiar with the matter said.Sberbank declined to comment. Yandex, which was not available to comment, was expected to hold a news conference on Wednesday.Sberbank, which accounts for a third of overall lending in Russia, has been expanding in the consumer credit...

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Tubular raises $2.5 million to serve burgeoning YouTube industry

Tubular, a small San Francisco start-up that provides analytics for YouTube content creators, has raised $2.5 million in venture capital in the latest sign of how far the business ecosystem has evolved around the Google-owned video repository.YouTube was once known as Wild West of online video, but over the past two years Google has focused on raising the quality of YouTube content through a series...

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Instagram tests new limits in user privacy

 Instagram, which spurred suspicions this week that it would sell user photos after revising its terms of service, has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.In forcefully establishing a new set of usage terms, Instagram, the massively popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, has...

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New job posting suggests Nokia may still be considering Android after all

Nokia (NOK) may finally be crying “uncle!” on its decision to go solely with Windows Phone. Per Gizmodo, Nokia has posted a new job listing on its LinkedIn page for a principle software engineer whose job will be to oversee the development of “embedded Linux device software and hardware drivers for our exciting new products.” As Gizmodo notes, Android is based on a Linux kernel so it’s possible that...

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Nokia debunks rumor that it may be considering shift to Android

A recent job listing on Nokia’s (NOK) LinkedIn page led to a great deal of speculation that the Finnish vendor was still considering Android as a potential smartphone platform in the event its efforts with Windows Phone continued to flounder. The listing sought a principle software engineer to lead the development of “embedded Linux device software and hardware drivers for our exciting new products.”...

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$120 tablet that runs both Android and Linux to launch in early 2013

For anyone who has ever used his or her Android tablet and wished that it could double as a desktop-style device, PengPod has a product just for you. Ars Technica reports that the new PengPod tablet, which runs both Android and Linux, has met its crowd-sourced fundraising goals and will so on sale in January for $120 a 7-inch model and $185 for a 10-inch model. According to Ars, the tablet will be...

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Habla el hombre que definió qué significa ser un hacker

Soy un hacker." La frase la pronuncia, sin titubeos, Pekka Himanen, un finlandés de 39 años que publicó, en 2001, La ética del hacker y el espíritu de la era de la información , un libro fundacional en su análisis de lo que significa la tecnología moderna en nuestra sociedad, y la influencia que tendrán los hackers en la sociedad futura. El hombre no acuñó el término, por supuesto (que ya estaba en...

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How Google Stole Christmas (And is Bringing it Back)

Google's Nexus smartphones and tablets have a unique feature that's also a curse. They come with the latest version of Android (which is actually unusual among Android devices), and they're basically guaranteed to get updates throughout their lifespan (which is also unusual). But on the downside, Nexus owners are also the first to discover new "features" in each version of Android ... like Google's...

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