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If there’s one thing the App Store is saturated with, it’s messengers: WhatsApp, of course, but also Facebook’s, and Snapchat, and Hangouts, and Line, and Kik, and all the rest. So why would Pinterest, a social network for exploring your interests, spend time building a messenger? The answer says a lot about where Pinterest is Continue Reading →

During his keynote and a press conference that followed here at the Black Hat information security conference, In-Q-Tel Chief Information Security Officer Dan Geer expressed concern about the growing threat of botnets powered by home and small office routers. The inexpensive Wi-Fi routers commonly used for home Internet access—which are rarely patched by their owners—are Continue Reading →

While your fingers are in firmly in control of hand-held devices, they’re guided strictly by your eyes — and Microsoft thinks that’s a waste of your sense of touch. Researcher Hong Tan found that using so-called haptics to add tactile sensations to screens can have some concrete benefits. For instance, by adding a keyboard-like “click” Continue Reading →

Twitter has announced that its Promoted Tweets ad platform has been revamped to allow businesses to better specify the type of campaign they want to run across the social network. From Thursday, small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) and Twitter API partners can access objective-based ad campaign options in beta, thereby allowing brands to create campaigns that Continue Reading →

While Apple’s Siri has been an iOS staple since 2011, the tech has yet to make the jump to OS X. An exhaustive new patent filing, however, details a very similar desktop version of the virtual assistant that can perform dictation, high-level system commands and even act as a “third hand” for Mac users. As Continue Reading →

Football fans will soon have another way to catch up on their team’s games, thanks to a new app from the NFL called NFL Now. The app, which launched Wednesday on the web as well as mobile and connected devices, wants to make NFL action available in a lean-back mode: NFL Now will present viewers Continue Reading →

Netflix has surpassed HBO in subscription revenue, CEO Reed Hastings proclaimed on his Facebook page Wednesday. Netflix subscription rates have been consistently on the rise this past year–from just above $500 million to nearly $1.2 billion in the past year–while HBO’s subscription revenue has remained comparatively steady, Quartz reports. But, as Hastings alludes, don’t think Continue Reading →

Google and Barnes & Noble are joining forces to tackle their mutual rival Amazon, zeroing in on a service that Amazon has long dominated: the fast, cheap delivery of books. Starting on Thursday, book buyers in Manhattan, West Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area will be able to get same-day deliveries from local Continue Reading →

There really isn’t such a thing as being too secure online, and Google is trying something new to get more website owners thinking about keeping their users’ information safe. After a few months of experimentation, the search giant now considers how secure a site is when it decides how prominently it gets placed in search Continue Reading →

It’ll be a long time (if ever) before someone sets foot on the moon again, but you can now go on a few lunar excursions of your own without leaving the comfort of Google Maps. Just pop into the ‘Earth’ view and keep zooming out — once you’ve reached escape velocity and can see our Continue Reading →