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Google on Thursday is making a change to Gmail that will further bake in Google+ to its webmail product in a way that’s actually somewhat practical, though also potentially invasive. Going forward, you’ll now be able to directly email your Google+ contacts from Gmail, even if you don’t know their email address. And by default, Continue Reading →

Love is supposed to mean never having to say you’re sorry. But Snapchat has expressed both love and apologies for a bug that caused headaches for the millions of users whose names and phone numbers were exposed unexpectedly. In a blog post on Thursday, Snapchat said it was “sorry for any problems this issue may have Continue Reading →

IBM wants to build a large and profitable business from what has mostly been a triumph of computing bragging rights, so it is giving Watson $1 billion and a nice office. Watson is IBM’s name for a combination of powerful data-processing capabilities and software that analyzes information from almanac entries, medical records, sales information and Continue Reading →

More lending companies are mining Facebook, Twitter and other social-media data to help determine a borrower’s creditworthiness or identity, a trend that is raising concerns among consumer groups and regulators. Lending companies—some of which are backed with venture funding from Google Ventures, the venture-capital arm of Google Inc., and Accel Partners, an early Facebook Inc. Continue Reading →

Each December, CBS’s Chief Research Officer Dave Poltrack addresses the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications Conference. This year’s talk, “The Outlook for the Broadcast Networks,” covered a wide range of topics, including social TV: “Nothing was hotter this year than social media with Twitter front and center with its IPO,” according to Poltrack. “Television programs Continue Reading →

What company could claim to have helped launch satellites into space, brought US rappers to North Korea, been part of powering up the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and resurrected the TV show Veronica Mars? Kickstarter, of course. This crowdfunding platform came out with its stats for 2013 on Wednesday and the year proved to be Continue Reading →

Makerbot Chief Executive Bre Pettis unveiled something “epic” at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday. Like a showman, he removed a black covering to reveal a mammoth 3D printer. And it’s for making big, epic things, he said. The CEO announced the Replicator Z18 for printing large objects — up to 12 by 12 by 18 Continue Reading →

If 4K televisions were one of the big stories of CES last year, the availability of 4K content is shaping up to be a big story this time around. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings just took the stage at Sony’s press conference to announce that all new Netflix original programming will be shot and finished in Continue Reading →

Intel intrigued many with its “charging bowl” concept this week. The idea of coming home and dropping your phone and wearables into a tasteful bowl by the door for fast and easy battery charging is appealing. Yet Asian component powerhouse Mediatek may be racing ahead in the wireless charging wars with its Inductive and Resonance Continue Reading →

Garmin’s been on a real heads-up display kick as of late. Back in September, the company showed off a bit of dash-mounted hardware for $150 a pop. Now the navigation giant’s looking, ahem, ahead a bit, with a concept targeted specifically toward automakers — meaning that you likely won’t be installing this on your own Continue Reading →