Technology

Google is considering a plan to expand its Android newsstand -- and heat rivalry with Apple's iTunes -- by charging publishers a lower price to sell news to Android users than the 30% fee that Apple typically charges to sell apps on iTunes. Will that be enough to attract more news?

If you want to know how the rural developing world could get cheap, easy wireless Internet access, just follow the money: Remittances to those regions total tens of billions each year, and the money flow isn't very efficient. The profits from micro-telcos taking over the business could prime the pump for an information revolution in the hinterlands.

Aiming to ease a major concern among Hollywood studios, Intel is set to introduce new chips that will have antipiracy measures built in. This will allow the streaming of top-quality 1080p movie images to PCs, something pretty much not possible up to now.

Square makes it much easier for even the smallest retailers to accept credit cards: The mobile payment firm offers easy to use hardware that plugs right into iPhones or Android devices. But at least part of its new high price tag probably derives from the fact that its founder, Jack Dorsey, also co-founded Twitter.

Look for Chinese companies to keep the U.S. IPO pipeline primed in 2011, coming off a year when they accounted for nearly a third of U.S. offerings. But they'll be less prominent on private exchanges like SharesPost, Second Market and Xpert Securities.

Three days into January 2011 and some Apple (AAPL) iPhone users are still struggling with a glitch in the phone's alarm function.

For a third consecutive day, iPhone alarms failed to go off, leading to users missing flights and arriving late at work in Asia and Europe, Reuters reported.

"My iPhone...

Facebook raised a $500 million investment from investment bank Goldman Sachs Group (GS) and an unnamed Russian investor, according to The New York Times.

The deal values the social-networking site at $50 billion, more than companies including Yahoo Inc (YHOO) and Time Warner (TWX), The New York...

It's hard to make huge changes in your spending habits all at once. To reach your new year's resolution to manage your finances better, try small steps instead. Financial experts offer 10 easy suggestions that could help you spend less and save more in 2011.

Forecasting which technologies will succeed is always hazardous, but it proved especially difficult in 2010, a year full of surprises -- and also several disappointments. Facebook blew away even the most optimistic expectations for the year. Google Buzz? Not so much.

China's plans to cut exports of rare earth minerals -- used in alternative energy technologies -- has the rest of the world scrambling. In the U.S., the country's first new rare-earth mine in more than a decade is set to reopen.