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The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such the White House, State and Continue Reading →

Instagram on Thursday revealed how ads will look like on the social network when they finally come to the photo-sharing app. The Facebook-owned company is treading carefully and says it will gently introduce users to the concept by posting a one-time sample ad for its US-based users “within the coming week.” Earlier this month, Instagram Continue Reading →

Twitter announced on Thursday after the market closed that it is setting its IPO share price at $17 to $20 per share and is looking to sell 70 million shares. Twitter’s offering could raise up to $1.4 billion, although it will raise somewhere around $1.2 billion if it sells all its shares at the median Continue Reading →

Would you ever host a party and spend the entire time talking only about yourself—or, going a step further, selling yourself—to guests? Would you ever want to attend a party like that? Of course not. A brand’s presence in social media is very much akin to a party, one they want customers to like, speak Continue Reading →

When Samsung launched its Galaxy Gear smartwatch last month, it could only work with the Note 3 and Note 10.1. The Korean company announced on Wednesday that the Galaxy Gear will be compatible with more devices including the Galaxy S4, S3 as well as Note 2, after a software update to Android 4.3. It seems Continue Reading →

Google is introducing the ability to control what its Chrome browser will show with a new feature called supervised users. Like Windows Phone 8’s Kid’s Corner, the feature’s aimed at families, and allows the owner of a device to block websites and set permissions in Chrome that determine the parts of the internet other users Continue Reading →

NASA has set a new record for data transmission to and from the moon with a 622Mbps transfer carried over laser beams. The space agency used pulsed lasers to transmit data between a ground station in New Mexico and a spacecraft 239,000 miles away during its recent Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration. The agency was also Continue Reading →

When Apple released OS X 10.7 two years ago, it stopped selling operating system DVDs in its stores, stopped shipping recovery disks with new Macs, and switched to downloadable installers for OS X upgrades. These download-only installers have actually worked pretty well—I’ve never had an issue downloading the software from the Mac App Store or Continue Reading →

The iOS 7.03 update that Apple released on Tuesday completely fixes Apple’s iPhone 5S sensor problems. As I reported early this month, Apple’s flagship iPhone 5S — and 5C — were experiencing significant sensor malfunctions. In my testing, they were consistently 2 degrees to 3 degrees off, and others had significantly worse results. Those issues Continue Reading →

Automatic Labs, a San Francisco startup trying to turn unconnected cars into connected ones, just got a distribution boost courtesy of Apple. Starting Wednesday, Automatic’s Link vehicle-data-sniffing device will be available for purchase at Apple’s 250 U.S. stores and in the Apple Online Store. For those of you unfamiliar with Automatic Link, it’s a $100 Continue Reading →