Tech Biz

Google Wallet, the NFC and online payments service run by Google, may soon be available on a card. Not just a digital prepaid card — Google Wallet tried that already but abandoned the effort — but a real-life, tangible, physical card. So why would a payments service aimed at replacing the wallet offer up a card Continue Reading →

Amazon quietly made a big change to its Prime service this week, allowing some customers to subscribe on a monthly basis rather than committing to a full year. The service, which includes free two-day shipping and free streaming of movies and TV shows in Amazon’s library, normally costs $79 for a year’s commitment. The monthly option Continue Reading →

Goodbye, Windows Live Messenger. As the BBC notes, Microsoft will soon be retiring its instant message chat tool and will instead be encouraging users to use Skype. “Skype and Messenger are coming together,” wrote Tony Bates, President of the Skype Division at Microsoft, on Tuesday. “We will retire Messenger in all countries worldwide in the first quarter Continue Reading →

Google isn’t treating searches related to presidential candidates fairly, a new report charges. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that it commissioned a study on the way in which search results related to President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are displayed on Google. The study found that when users search for “Obama” or “Romney,” Google displays Continue Reading →

Each week, Team Shelly Palmer sends me a prompt for this column, focusing on a topical event or idea, which I then explore in regards to the future. This past week, the last week of October 2012, I received no prompt. I hadn’t really expected to. It’s been a hard week on the east coast Continue Reading →

While serial self-publicist Kim Dotcom was re-igniting the submarine cable debate in New Zealand, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation’s (EFF’s) case trying to recover files on behalf of a former Megaupload user Kyle Goodwin took a new twist. The EFF has been in court trying to gain access to the servers seized by the Feds last year, Continue Reading →

Windows 8 is rife with features and behaviors that conspire to perplex even the most experienced PC users. Not all of them are bad, per se, but few of them are immediately intuitive. Making matters worse, the OS was primarily designed for touch control, and as a result, many mouse and keyboard commands feel like Continue Reading →

Depending on who you ask, and indeed how much you even care, Tuesday night is going to be a long one. If you buy the arguments of the prognosticators lean on the latest national polls such as this one from The Wall Street Journal and NBC News the race will go down to the wire, with Continue Reading →

A smartphone app which provides summaries of news stories soared to number nine in Apple’s app store just two hours after its release in the US. The app, called Summly, was designed by 17-year-old Londoner Nick D’Aloisio, and has received more than $1m in funding from investors. High-profile supporters include Stephen Fry, Tech City CEO Joanna Shields Continue Reading →

The Apple iPad mini is now on sale, as is the Wi-Fi version of the revamped fourth-generation iPad. Pricing for the smaller, 7.9-inch Apple tablet starts at $329 for the 16GB Wi-Fi version. The 32GB Wi-Fi is $429, while the 64GB is $529. The Wi-Fi plus cellular versions are $459 (16GB), $559 (32GB), and $659 (64GB). The Continue Reading →