The U.S. Department of Justice has a lot of questions for tech companies these days. This time, it’s taking a second look at Google’s proposed $12.5 billion takeover of Motorola Mobility, which could delay the purchase. The acquisition would give the company access to valuable Motorola’s patents. And as the patent wars heat up, it’s a delay Google can ill afford. READ MORE
Wednesday’s long-awaited announcement that Amazon is entering the tablet game with their $199 Amazon Kindle Fire was an appropriate follow-up to news from earlier in the month that the world’s largest Internet store (with revenue of $34 billion in 2010) was testing a major redesign of their website, in short optimizing the shopping experience for tablet devices. READ MORE
“It’ll seem like a traditional browser, just a lot better and a lot faster.” That’s the bold claim for Amazon Silk, the new browser currently available nowhere, to be released exclusively on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet coming in November. READ MORE
When it comes to the issue of privacy, recent attention has been focused on social networking sites—particularly on Facebook and Google. But consumers often overlook one other potential source of privacy breach: mobile phone records. READ MORE
You might’ve heard about the phone hacking scandal that’s enveloped Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. But have you thought about the business potential in that? Well, we mean the potential for designing, marketing, and selling mobile-security solutions. READ MORE
I travel frequently for story assignments. When I do, I have a hard time finding good places to work. Holing up in a hotel room is dull, and coffee shops tend to be noisy and ill suited for meetings. So when I read about a new crop of websites designed to help you find a temporary workspace, I was eager to give one a whirl. READ MORE
When in-car safety and concierge service OnStar announced its revised terms and conditions–which allowed the company to keep open its two-way cellular connection even after a subscriber cancelled the service, and to share or sell in-car data such as seat belt use and vehicle location and speed–the new language created widespread controversy. Current OnStar subscribers, privacy advocates and legislators including Democratic senators Chuck Schumer (NY) and Al Franken (MN) quickly and loudly denounced the new policies, which yesterday led to OnStar announcing it had reversed course. READ MORE
Last week Inc. posted a wildly popular story about the latest in marketing technology that featured things like billboards that use facial recognition, try-before-you-buy displays that use augmented reality and movie trailers that can change in real time depending on the gender of a viewer. READ MORE
Color CEO Bill Nguyen has re-launched the innovative but poorly implemented social discovery app as a Facebook app for Android and iPhone. Color for Facebook is the second go for the company, a $41-million-funded start-up that faltered out of the gate. READ MORE
If you’re overwhelmed by the panoply of tablets out there (and who wouldn’t be?) CNET’s Harry McCracken helps cut through some of the clutter with a thoughtful analysis of the various operating systems now challenging (or no longer challenging) Apple’s iOS and the iPad. READ MORE
