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Half of all vehicle infotainment systems capable of smartphone-integration will use Apple’s upcoming “iOS in the Car” by 2018, according to a report by ABI Research. The iOS in the Car user interface, expected out next year, links Apple’s iOS 7 mobile operating system with vehicle infotainment systems to provide an optimized interface for messaging, Continue Reading →

On Friday morning, a coder turned up a surprising feature in OS Mavericks, a chunk of code that seemed to reset idle time whenever the computer sensed movement. Immediately, the concern spread to Twitter. Did that mean the iSight camera was always on, opening up the same privacy concerns that have dogged the next-generation Kinect? Continue Reading →

I don’t know about you, but I’m digging the whole “quantified self” trend. I use Sleep Cycle, a great little iPhone app to find out exactly how well I sleep each night; I just pre-ordered the new Fitbit Force; and I’ve come dangerously close to dropping my money on the cheeky Spreadsheets app–but that’s where Continue Reading →

Beginning Friday, the majority of U.S. consumers will have to pay sales tax on their Amazon.com purchases. That’s a milestone of sorts for the retail giant, which has spent years trying to avoid collecting the tax, a leg up over brick-and-mortar retailers. Laws that take effect in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Wisconsin Friday mean about 163 Continue Reading →

I get it. There seems to be something silly about asking everyone — from the homeless to really young kids — to learn to code. There are deeper things that need to be fixed in the “system” too. But I don’t think that means we should dismiss the value of learning to code. Being a Continue Reading →

When we hear the words robot and alcohol in the same sentence, we get curious. We recently sat down with Monsieur, a robotic bartender that learns what you like, and its creators for a drink and a chat. The box-shaped Monsieur doesn’t actually have any robot arms to physically mix drinks, but it does feature Continue Reading →

Google, Red Hat, Oracle and other technology companies are contributing dozens of computer engineers and programmers to help the Obama administration fix the U.S. health-insurance exchange website. The help is arriving as the government’s main site for medical coverage remains plagued by repeated outages a month after its Oct. 1 debut. Michael Dickerson, a site Continue Reading →

Pre-schoolers who learn a second language tend to increase their understanding and study habits in relation to other academic pursuits. If your kiddo shows a knack for Spanish, it’s best to get them started with vocabulary acquisition. These apps in particular are tailored to meet them at their undeveloped skill level. Little Pim Spanish ($2.99) Little Continue Reading →

On Thursday Google announced details of its long-awaited Android 4.4 KitKat operating system for the first time, going beyond just the candy bar branding. KitKat is designed around three major tentpoles, Google told TechCrunch, including reaching the next billion (it previously announced 1 billion activations) Android users, putting so-called Google “smarts” across the entire mobile Continue Reading →

Google’s latest flagship phone, the Nexus 5, runs on a new “launcher” app that unites the phone interface around Google services. It’s kind of like how Facebook Home reshapes Android phones around Facebook services — but for Google itself. The goal for the phone is to deliver “the right information, when you want it, at Continue Reading →