Updated: It appears the news is as good as confirmed. Ahead of Facebook's F8 event, a number of people are receiving a notification that pre-announces "Messenger as a platform". This is going to be one of the biggest focuses of F8 by the look of things. We'll hear more very soon, but it sounds like…

Right now the stream of leaks coming from HTC is more like a full-on flood: we're seeing pictures and specs lists for not one but two handsets that are set to accompany the HTC One M9 in the firm's line-up for 2015.Today we've had our best look yet at one of those handsets, the HTC One M9 Plus.…

Take a look at your computer, phone and tablet. The chances are they are encrusted with dirt, grease and are home to some germs that can be harmful to your health. Forget that old clichéd quote regarding our toilets being cleaner than our kitchens – nowadays, our smartphones contain ten times more…

Design, screen, power and cameraIt's time to try out a curved smartphone if you're an early adopter bent on the trendiest devices, and the LG G Flex 2 is the latest curved phone to fit that description.If you're not buying the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, this sequel to the the world's first…

Latest Google IO 2015 news and rumorsOfficial dates were revealed for Google IO in mid-February. The developer conference is set to invade San Francisco's Moscone Center May 28 - May 29. Registration opened March 17 at 9 a.m. PT/5 p.m. GMT and lasted until March 19 at 5 p.m. PT/1 a.m. GMT. Demand…

Page 1It's time to determine your favorite phone!We've created this fun contest to determine what is the best of the best, as voted by you.Click through the slides to vote, and remember have fun!It's claimed that LG is looking to switch to new CNC (computer precision control) methods to create its…

NoSQL database company Couchbase is adding new scaling technology in its next major release of Couchbase Server to increase application performance as well as reduce costs. Couchbase Server 4.0 with Multi-Dimensional Scaling is planned for release in the summer of 2015.

Music that is made from using instruments without using any form of electronic means, can be considered as acoustic music. This type of music started to get a name for itself, after the arrival of electrical instruments such as the electric guitar. Of course the advent of these electrical…

This morning at Baselworld, the world’s premiere luxury watch show, there was ample news about wearables. That’s a sign that wearable tech is coming of age in some ways, but this represents the awkward teen years, not the arrival of adulthood and maturity. The announcements at this event felt like…

Today the Swiss watch industry makes a major leap into embracing the smartwatch. LVMH Watch Group head Jean-Claude Biver is not a man to ignore pop culture and all that is modern even though he made his money running companies that sell traditional, mechanical watches. Today, sitting as the CEO of…

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On-demand delivery service Postmates just announced that it has entered a deal with Starbucks to deliver the coffee giant’s addictive wares to customers who order via the Starbucks mobile app. Starting with a pilot program in Seattle in the second half of the year, you’ll be able to order a Grande…

A new application called Fradio is officially launching today, offering a service that allows anyone to become a DJ, broadcasting their favorite tracks to their friends or fans, and even talking over the tunes with a push of a button in order to engage their audience. The app, which is backed by…

Live video broadcast app Meerkat is edging away from being so reliant on Twitter’s network to power its own: The company announced a new “light follow” feature that works via the web, making it easy for anyone to follow users quickly without following them on Twitter, and to then receive…

Call it a sign of the times: hot on the heels of Meerkat’s sudden boom in popularity among techies and Twitter’s kneecapping of the service as SXSW began, live-streaming startup Ustream is opening its internal API to the public so that anyone can build their own Meerkat-like broadcasting app. Read…

On this week’s Droidcast, we discuss Google’s big changes to the Play Store, with the introduction of a review process that involves human eyes on apps before they’re made available, as well as the adoption of app age ratings based on existing standards. Google clearly wants to make Android a…

Gumroad, a startup that helps creators sell digital goods, now allows those creators to make items available for rent, too. It seems like an obvious addition — I’m used to renting movies from iTunes, and the Gumroad system is pretty similar (although it’s a little more generous, time-wise). But a…

Twitter’s own dedicated music app never really took off, but a new partner integration with Rhapsody brings 30 million full tracks to the app via new Rhapsody audio cards. The new cards go live starting today, with a number of artists posting their own tracks to the social network as part of the…

Last Spring, University of Michigan students Niko Natsis and Aaron Nussbaum noticed that some of their friends and siblings would send their pictures to each other on iMessage in order to give edits that would do better on social networks. The pair decided to build Yaytop, an app that lets you…

McDonald’s announced a partnership with General Assembly today at South by Southwest. They are launching a pilot program in which a small subset of McDonald’s employees can take one of two GA courses and receive a monthly stipend for the duration of the courses. The idea is take qualified people…

Stacked with execs from the mobile and social gaming industry, Mango Health has been taking the behavioral mechanics that make games addictive and applying them toward more intractable problems in the world of healthcare. Two years ago, they launched a mobile app that helps patients with drug…

Microsoft detailed its efforts today to reduce the footprint of Windows 10, a forthcoming operating system that the software company hopes will run across devices of every screen size. Fitting Windows onto smaller devices, however, is a challenge, given that the operating system isn’t known for…

Amazon has gone stealth in its steps to build up an Internet of Things (IoT) strategy by quietly taking on board Denver-based startup 2lemetry.The acquisition, which has been confirmed by TechCrunch, gives Amazon an IP-enabled machine and connected device management and tracking solution geared…

Introduction and taking responsibilityImagine that you're in an autonomous car when a lorry jack-knives in front of you on the motorway while a cyclist appears alongside. The computer inside your car now has to choose between swerving out of the way and killing the cyclist, or remaining where it is…

In order to support Apple’s new wearable device, the Apple Watch, the company announced this morning it’s rolling out an updated version of the iOS mobile operating system, version 8.2, starting today. Included in the new OS is a brand-new “Apple Watch” app, which is how Apple Watch users will be…

Thanks to a city ordinance passed last fall, this will be the first year on-demand ride services like Uber and Lyft will be competing for passengers in Austin during SXSW. As both companies prepare to meet demand that comes from the city’s biggest event of the year, Uber and Lyft will be urging…

One year after its cars first became available in China, Tesla Motors is scaling back its workforce after weak sales. The company confirmed to Bloomberg that it will eliminate several positions after a report in the Economic Observer, a Chinese newspaper, claimed that Tesla China planned to cut 180…

China’s book publishing market is worth about $20 billion and e-books are a fast-growing segment, but it’s difficult for foreign authors to gain a foothold. First they have to find a publisher and then wait for their book to be translated and edited, a process that can take up to a year. Fiberead,…

This year’s GDC featured a wide range of themes and topics, subjects of interest and discussion. It was also a somewhat uncertain and quiet GDC however. Read More

MWC has become a valuable forum to meet with mobile hardware and software innovators, many of which are exhibiting with large partners at the show or behind closed doors as they seek new avenues to access markets. Read More

I’ve spent the past two years selling to, building for, and raising from VCs. In this time, I have met with thousands of people who play various roles in the deal sourcing and dealmaking process and learned a fair amount about the thinking behind sourcing deals. These are some of my observations.…

News Corp is continuing its focus on India after it announced a deal to buy tech and startup-focused media company VCCircle. Read More

The FCC recently voted to reclassify high-speed Internet service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. This effectively treats the Internet as a public service. In a simplistic sense, this enables the FCC to regulate in such a manner as to prevent the paid prioritization or the blocking of…

“Oh, Apple’s making a luxury watch thing, of course it hired the CEO of Burberry to pitch it.” That’s the common line of thinking when it comes to how Apple will change its retail operations to sell the watch. But I think that’s shortsighted, and ignores several realities about Apple then and now —…

One by one, technology has unlocked communication mediums for the masses. Ways of sharing once reserved for those in positions of influence with professional equipment are now open to everyone with a smartphone. What once only a journalist or TV star could do is now a possibility for those who were…

SugarCRM, a CRM and open source rival to Salesforce, has made an acquisition to help the company raise its game on the mobile front. It has acquired and is shutting down Stitch, a startup co-founded by ex-Salesforce execs that created a mobile-first platform and iOS app for salespeople to…

Privacy was a theme bubbling under the surface at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow — even more so than last year when Silent Circle and Geeksphone grabbed attention with demos of a privacy-centric smartphone called Blackphone. Read More

They lurk, unnoticed in the great halls of engineering that are the office strips along Highway 101. “Programmers” not programmers, people who have cheated, stolen, and lied their way through engineering careers without anyone realizing they can’t code. They are among us, incompetent Cyclons…

After a courageous 5 years, it’s game over for Storybricks, the AI gaming startup best known for its work on EverQuest Next, the upcoming new release in the EverQuest MMORPG franchise. Read More

Apple has a wee announcement tomorrow. Perhaps you’ve heard. It’s called The Apple Watch, and tomorrow’s the big day. Naturally in the days before the launch, as with past device debuts, we are hearing a range of predictions about how it will flop, be wildly successful and everything in between. In…