Technology

There are a lot of truly excellent books available on e-readers. From current best sellers to the classics, you can broaden your intellectual horizons, learn new things, enjoy brilliant literature… and slog through that bane of our online existence: spam. … Full Story »

A team of researchers at the Warsaw University of Technology have uncovered a way that spies (yes, actual spies) can communicate with one another using search engines like Yahoo and Google. And we're not talking about sending email messages back … Full Story »

Mobile search startup Do@ is changing how we hunt for information on our phones. Typically, if you want to find something while you're out and about, you turn to the mobile web and spend a few minutes on a search engine's mobile website. Or you launch one of a dozen or more apps to help you find the specific thing you want -- you turn to your Yelp app to find a good restaurant nearby, and you open Fandango to find a theater showing that movie you want to see. Full Story »

Bangalore (Reuters) - Paul Ceglia, who says a contract and emails entitle him to half of Facebook, has cleared a polygraph examination conducted to determine the veracity of the alleged contract with the online social network's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, his lawyers said in a court filing. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An advocacy group for deaf Americans sued Netflix on Friday for failing to provide closed captioning on its streaming online television and movies. Full Story »

It’s tale as old as time – or close: Streaming service has content yanked by label because of largely unacknowledged legal holdups. Netflix has fallen victim to this dilemma before and now it will again as Starz has told Netflix to pull Sony movies while the subscription service works out a new deal with the label. The two upsides to the situation are that Netflix is only forbidden from Sony content for the week, and that Netflix and Sony aren’t the ones duking it out – because in those cases, the streaming service usually loses. Full Story »

Google's latest attempt at its own branded hardware may be in the pipeline, and this time the device may be part of the vanguard of LTE devices. A report said the latest Nexus phone is likely to be 4G LTE compatible, but didn't specify a carrier or a manufacturer. Full Story »

DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado mother who told police she was surfing Facebook when her 22-month-old daughter was struck and killed by a van was arrested on suspicion of child abuse, police said on Friday. Full Story »

Humongous waves of hot plasma roiling on the surface of the sun appear to be moving at speeds as high as 4.5 million miles per hour, a new study found. The waves are so huge it would take up to 16 Earths, end-to-end, to match them. Full Story »

Being the developer of a photo app for the iPhone has never been a particular easy fate. So much competition exists within the App Store it can be hard to stand out. But I suspect that developers from Instagram, Hipstamatic, Photogram, and others never expected to find competition from outside of the App Store. Full Story »

The advent of a Facebook photo-sharing app (of some nature) is upon us. And while the service looks pretty impressive and undoubtedly has some considerable pull by being directly integrated with the social network titan, the field is rife with competition. It can be a confusing landscape to navigate depending on your level of interest and commitment–even if all you want is to fancy up your photos before sending them on their way to Twitter. Whatever you’re looking for, it’s probably there. Here are a handful of the best photo-sharing mobile platforms out there for your posting pleasure. Full Story »

Spotify is starting to look like the boy who cried wolf. After trying to introduce a US version for two years, and despite the months of “imminent US launch” whispers we’ve endured, it once again sounds like Spotify is about to arrive stateside. As usual, there is some pretty solid evidence to back this up: AllThingsD reports that the European music streaming phenom has just closed a $100 million round of fundraising (raising its valuation to approximately $1 billion) and is in talks with yet another big US record label, Warner Music Group. Capping that off is Spotify exec Jonathon Forster’s confirmation. “We’re signing the remaining deals as I speak. We won’t launch before July 5,” Forster said at an Omnicom conference in London earlier this week according to Silicon Valley Watcher. Full Story »

Facebook is preparing to launch an iPad app -- finally. So says The New York Times, citing people briefed on Facebook's plans. Full Story »

Oracle (ORCL) is known for some epic lawsuits, often throwing its weight around in California courtrooms over software licensing and patents. Coming off a recent victory against SAP (SAP), Oracle’s throwdown against Google (GOOG) is just getting warmed up, as the software maker seeks billions in damages over claims that Android software uses technology related to the Java programming language. It’s a drama that’s been building its plot since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, and Java along with it. ... Full Story »