Tony Fadell brought the iPod to life at Apple Inc., ushered in the iPhone, started Nest Labs in 2010 to modernize home gadgets and sold to Google for $3.2 billion in 2014. Then he spent the last two years shaping Google’s vision of the connected future and pushing its wares deeper into consumers’…

version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"? Nest CEO Tony Fadell. Flickr / TED Conference Google's parent company Alphabet just had its first big executive shake-up, and it underscores one of the important tenets of its new operating structure: Alphabet is a bunch of independent companies with central…

Tony Fadell is leaving Nest, the home automation company he founded and sold to Google (now Alphabet). He'll be stepping into an advisor role to Larry Page and Alphabet, but won't be involved in Nest day-to-day. According to a blog post he just put up, the transition has been in progress since "late…

If Facebook knows what your status update is about, it can show it to people who care about that topic. If it understands the difference between “I just got out of the taxi” and “I need a ride” messages, it can ask if you want an Uber. If it detects that you’re trying to sell something in a status…

Yahoo published three secret requests for user information from the FBI on Wednesday. It marked the first time the FBI has allowed a company to tell the public it received National Security Letters based on a process set up in last year's USA Freedom Act, Yahoo said. The letters are special…

You might not have thought of – much less visited – Myspace in years. (Yes, it’s still around. Time, Inc. acquired it and other properties when it bought Viant earlier this year.) But user data never really dies, unfortunately. For Myspace’s new owner, that’s bad news, as the company confirmed just…

Its new Snapdragon Wear 1100 chipset is aimed at smartwatches for kids and the elderly The Joon, made by Infomark, is a $100 smartwatch for kids sold in Korea Credit: James Niccolai Why should grown-ups have all the fun? Qualcomm has developed a new chipset that aims to build a worldwide wearables…

If you're an Amazon Echo owner but wish your device could follow you around the house like a Star Wars droid, Asus has a product for you: the $599 Zenbo robot. Announced at the Computex electronics show in Taiwan today, it closely resembles an iMac G4 . But it's way more than a computer: Zenbo's…

If you aren't using Google Photos, it's worth checking out. Even if you aren't biggest Google fan, Google Photos gives users a free, easy-to-use way to backup all of their photos on their device. That said, don't expect to have your crazy-high-resolution images go up to Google's cloud; currently,…

ARM's new CPU provides up to 30 percent better power efficiency and 30 percent higher performance. ARM You may think your iPhone or Galaxy device works just fine today. But wait until you see what it could do with new chips coming in 2017. Think: better battery life (of course), VR-ready graphics,…

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1070 is one hell of a graphics card, delivering Titan X-level performance at a price real gamers can afford. At a Glance Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition PCWorld Rating $430.00 MSRP $450.00 View on Amazon Meet the new people's champion. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070…

29 May 2016, 10:00 am EDT By Quinten Plummer Tech Times UK wireless carrier Three is heading a massive offensive against advertisers and publishers. For a full 24 hours, Three will block ads at the network level. ( Three ) Advertisement With advertisers and media outlets stepping up the technology…

Peter Thiel, left, and Nick Denton. Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for New York Times and Fred Lee/ABC via Getty Images. Peter Thiel, an eccentric libertarian and billionaire tech entrepreneur, confirmed on Wednesday that he financed Hulk Hogan’s…

Tech Amazon by Dan Seifert @dcseifert May 28, 2016, 4:57p Amazon Amazon's Alexa personal assistant is super useful in the Echo and lot of fun to use. But if you don't have an Echo or can't buy one because you're outside of the US, it can be hard to appreciate Alexa's skill set. In light of this,…

Amazon has put Alexa, the voice-powered AI software found in the Echo, Dot and Tap , right inside the browser with the launch of Echosim.io . After logging in with an Amazon account, anyone can start asking Alexa questions by clicking and holding on the mic button. Amazon’s Alexa is able to answer…

SAN FRANCISCO—Following a two-week trial, a federal jury concluded Thursday that Google's Android operating system does not infringe Oracle-owned copyrights because its re-implementation of 37 Java APIs is protected by "fair use." The verdict was reached after three days of deliberations. "Ladies…

Shahar Waiser is the chief executive of Gett, a popular ride-hailing app in Europe. The company said it has established a relationship with Volkswagen. Gett SAN FRANCISCO — Automakers are looking toward a technology-driven future, one where they increasingly acknowledge that getting around may not…

Ad Loading... x Embed x Share PayPal co-founder turned investor Peter Thiel is among the most successful businessmen in Silicon Valley. In his new book, 'Zero to One' he shares his advice for entrepreneurs -- seek "creative monopolies." VPC Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who Forbes has reported…

The MAREA undersea cable between Virginia and Spain. Microsoft and Facebook are building it to enhance their data carrying capabilities. (Photo: Microsoft) SAN FRANCISCO — A 4,000 mile undersea cable deal announced Thursday by Microsoft and Facebook is just the latest of a dozen high capacity…

As the housing market improved and prices rose over the last few years, the number of borrowers that owe more on their home than it’s worth fell dramatically, but there are still a number of borrowers that are underwater on their home. According to recent analysis by RealtyTrac , the number of…

Microsoft is bowing out of building its own phones for consumers. After dramatically scaling back its Lumia devices last year, Microsoft hammered the final nail in the coffin today with an additional $950 million write off and 1,850 more job losses . Microsoft's Lumia devices still account for more…

Annette Hurst is an attorney at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe who represented Oracle in the recent Oracle v. Google trial. This op-ed represents her own views and is not intended to represent those of her client or Ars Technica. The Oracle v. Google trial concluded yesterday when a jury returned a…

Partially confirming earlier reports , Twitter announced this morning plans that will begin to distance it from its strict adherence to the rule that tweets can only contain 140 characters. The company says that, among other changes designed to welcome new users to its service, it will no longer…

Facebook has apologized to an Australian feminist group after blocking an advertisement featuring plus-sized model Tess Holliday in a bikini. The social network had told the group, called Cherchez La Femme, that the image was rejected because Facebook's guidelines do not allow health and fitness ads…

21 May 2016, 9:38 pm EDT By Anu Passary Tech Times Google has introduced a new "rich card" search format, which aims to make googling on mobile devices a more visual experience. The company is optimistic that the new format will lure more users. ( Google Blog ) Advertisement Using Google while…

Mark Zuckerberg invited prominent conservative media figures, including Glenn Beck and Dana Perino, to a meeting at Facebook's headquarters this week. The meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, is aimed at addressing the alleged suppression of conservative news stories in Facebook's "trending" stories…

At Google I/O, Sundar Pichai & Co had lots to show off. New smart home gadgets! New all-powerful AI bots! New VR goodies! Next-generation messaging apps! Dad jokes and hijinks! Whoa. We synthesized the chaos into the 12 best and worst things from Google I/O today. Here’s a look at what Google has in…

Google wants you to get scientific A new app from Google uses your phone's sensors to let you observe the world in a new way. by Iyaz Akhtar Close Drag Google announced Science Journal, a new Android app for budding scientists in a blog post on Google for Education . Aiming to "bring out that inner…

Hey! You -- yes, you ! Didja hear? It's actually happening! For realsies: The long-discussed Android-Chrome OS merger is officially underway! Hang on -- I should clarify. This isn't the outright combining of Android and Chrome OS that people have been predicting for ages, with ever-increasing fervor…

Rumors that Google would merge Android and Chrome OS , or even just outright kill Chrome OS , have been coming and going for years . At its I/O 2016 developer conference, the company finally unveiled its grand plan: Android and Chrome OS aren’t merging (yet?), but their best features, respectively,…

It's just an early prototype, but it works! I just sat down with Rafa Camargo and several members of his Project Ara team to learn more about the modular smartphone — because there's a lot going on with this thing. The project, which many had assumed was on its way to being Spring Cleaned by Google…

Coming this fall Google just announced that Chrome OS finally has what many people have been clamoring for almost since its introduction five years ago: true native apps. And it has a massive number of them, too. When support for them launches later this year, there will be more and better apps than…

Rumors have circulated that Twitter could drop photos and links from its 140-character tweet limit as early as within the next few weeks. Bethany Clarke, Getty Images Twitter users who want a little more room for creativity in their tweets might be in luck. There's a report that Twitter may stop…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Picture an 18-wheel truck barreling down the highway with 80,000 pounds of cargo and no one but a robot at the wheel. To many, that might seem a frightening idea, even at a time when a few dozen of Google's driverless cars are cruising city streets in California, Texas, Washington…

Google Home Unveiled tomorrow, released in the fall by Jacob Kastrenakes @jake_k May 17, 2016, 6:27p Google will unveil an Amazon Echo competitor called Google Home tomorrow, according to The New York Times . It's not stated exactly what form the device will take — a speaker seems like a reasonable…

Former employees of Google, Apple, Tesla, Cruise Automation, and others — 40 people in total — have formed a new San Francisco-based company called Otto with the goal of turning commercial trucks into self-driving freight haulers. Prominent staffers include former Google Maps lead Lior Ron and…

When you sign up for a dating website, you are making your information available for other users to see. But does that mean your information is “public”? Experts are now mulling this question after researchers released a data set of nearly 70,000 users from the online dating site OkCupid. The…

Apple announced yesterday that it has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing , but CEO Tim Cook refused to elaborate on the reasoning behind the move, beyond saying that it will help the company better understand the Chinese market and "deliver a strong return" on its…

I downloaded the new Gboard for iOS today, and have been really enjoying it so far. Along with wondering about what Google will tell advertisers now that they can read every single thing I type, I came to the realization that pretty much every major function of my iPhone has now been taken over by…

Instagram’s new icon is pink. Well, it’s pink and purple and yellow and orange. It’s definitely different. And that’s not all the company has changed today. Instagram this morning is rolling out a radical redesign of its mobile application, which not only includes this new, brightly colored app icon…