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The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place. The national license-plate recognition Continue Reading →

A security firm revealed Wednesday that a vulnerability on the popular dating app Tinder made it possible for an attacker with some know-how to pinpoint users’ precise locations. Tinder was made known of this security flaw Oct. 23 and the hole was patched up before the new year, according to Max Veytsman from the Include Continue Reading →

You can now use Amazon Coins, the online retailer’s virtual currency, to purchase apps, games, and in-app content on Android devices. Unsurprisingly, those purchases must all be made within Amazon’s standalone Appstore; Google Play is sticking with more traditional payment options. Amazon first unveiled Coins last year and gave every Kindle Fire owner $5 in Continue Reading →

Square is debuting a special-edition reader in partnership with AIDS organization (RED). The new ‘SQUA(RED) Reader’ is red in color, and for every order via the device, 97.25 percent of the $10 donation amount will go to the fund to fight AIDS. When consumers swipe their cards on a (RED), customers can donate right from Continue Reading →

No braille? No problem! This FingerReader by the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab is a high-tech way to help visually impaired people read; it actually scans printed text and narrates it aloud. This short vid shows how it works from a few different angles, but basically: as a fingertip follows along in Continue Reading →

Google Fiber is ready to expand, as Google has identified nine sites scattered around the country as possible sites of deployment, the company said. “We’ve invited 34 cities in nine metro areas across the US to work with us to explore what it would take to build a new fiber-optic network in their community,” Google Continue Reading →

Visa and MasterCard are introducing Internet-based technologies to make it easier for shoppers to buy things at retail stores without pulling out a credit card. The two technologies, announced separately on Wednesday, will give merchants and banks more options for incorporating so-called contact-less payment systems into their mobile apps. The customer uses the app to Continue Reading →

After just under a year in preview, Google on Wednesday announced that it is now rolling out the new Google Maps to all of its users as the default option. Since Google announced the new version of Maps at its I/O developer conference last year, users were able to switch between the two versions. Still, Continue Reading →

If you want to run emulators on your iPhone (or iPad), you’ve basically got two options: Use this crazy workaround which involves rolling the date of your device back to 2012 and installing old, previously signed emulators. Alternatively, you can just bite the bullet and jailbreak and install any number of emulators that people are Continue Reading →

Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town. Want to see your old roommate’s baby or post your vacation status? Chances are, you’ll use Facebook instead. But Google isn’t worried. Google Plus may not be much of a competitor to Facebook as a social network, but it is central to Google’s future Continue Reading →