Category: Tech news

 New Yorkers hoping to catch a ride with Lyft today are out of luck. The company said via email and on its blog that it’s putting off its NYC launch. Lyft had announced launch plans for Brooklyn and Queens earlier this week, and it said yesterday that it would move forward with those plans despite the fact that the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission said the service did not… Read More

 When you’re in charge of keeping many hundreds of thousands of passwords under lock and key, trust is everything. Maintaining that trust means fessing up when things go wrong — even if it’s something you don’t think affected your users. Read More

 Quantum computing technology company D-Wave Systems has raised a new $28.4 million round of funding, according to a new filing on the SEC’s site. Read More

 A bill that will allow consumers to transfer their cell phones to other wireless carriers more simply was amended and approved by a Senate committee Thursday. The House passed similar legislation in February, and the bill is now expected to see a full Senate vote.
The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act was first introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Read More

 MonkeyParking, one of two apps that made the Internet get all shouty last week, is “temporarily disabled” in San Francisco following a cease and desist letter from the city.
In case you missed all the hubbub, MonkeyParking allowed drivers to make money when leaving a parking spot by selling the spot to another driver. Turns out the City of San Francisco, with its already… Read More

 What if in-app purchases didn’t have to happen in-app? Rather than indirectly helping developers monetize with ads that drive them installs and re-engagement, Facebook today began letting them sell Facebook desktop game virtual goods straight from ads in the News Feed or sidebar. But an even more lucrative opportunity could be bringing these “out-app purchase” ads to mobile.… Read More

 The diversity of human languages has been on the decline for decades. With the rise of globalized communications and business, the world has accelerated its shedding of unpopular languages, as speakers increasingly focus their efforts on those that afford them the most economic and social opportunities. The loss of these languages has even spawned efforts like the Endangered Languages Project… Read More

 This morning Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella released an internal memo detailing his vision for the company’s future. The new chief executive used the missive as a way to signal an intentional break with the past. That break? Sharpening its “devices and services” strategy to focus on “productivity and platforms.” Read More

 Halo 3 has its fair share of Easter Eggs — but 7 years after the game’s release, you’d probably figure they’d all been found by now, right?
Nope! As the series’ more hardcore fans already know quite well, there was one last easter egg that no one had found… until now. Read More

 Microsoft says it will be launching a form to process requests to remove information on its search engine Bing! under the so-called “Right to Be Forgotten” ruling in Europe soon. “We’re continuing to work out the details on how we plan to implement the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice and expect to launch a form soon for EU residents to submit… Read More

 Oh the double dip. If you’re a movie fan, especially one who was around for the beginning of the DVD revolution 18 years ago, those words will strike a chord. It’s the practice of a studio putting out a crappy bare-bones edition of a DVD to home video and following it up weeks or months later with a full-on loaded edition featuring extras like director’s commentary,… Read More

 Back in May, cartoonist The Oatmeal (or, as his momma named him, Matthew Inman) publicly reached out to Elon Musk and asked for help in his mission to build a museum dedicated to Nikola Tesla.
At 2 A.M. the next morning, Elon responded. “I would be happy to help”, he tweeted.
Two months later (on Nikola Tesla’s birthday, no less!), we now know what Elon’s help looks… Read More

 The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Amazon Thursday, alleging the company billed parents for millions of dollars of in-app purchases that their children made without their consent. The filing follows Amazon’s refusal to comply with the FTC’s request to implement a “consent” model similar to the one Apple conceded to earlier this year, according to… Read More

 Online fashion marketplace Twice, which buys gently worn, quality women’s clothing from consumers then resells it via its own website, mobile and tablet applications, is today expanding into the offline world with the launch of a new service called Twice Local. Following a similar trend among “push button services” that allow you to call up everything from black cars to… Read More

 Major League Baseball was among the first to embrace Apple’s iBeacon technology on a wide scale, installing them in 28 MLB ballparks across the U.S. last year to help iPhone owners check-in to games automatically and collect special offers. Now, the project is entering phase two, with a debut project at this year’s All-Star Game at Target Field that uses iBeacons combined with… Read More