One Lap: The Orange Chef Preps At Full Speed

Every industry is ripe for disruption, and food preparation is no exception. Traditional recipes are static and driven by standard portion sizes. With experience, a good chef knows how to properly modify recipes according to objectives of taste and healthiness. But this process today is driven by intuition, based on years of experience cooking and learning what works and what doesn’t.… Read More

Ghost Hunters Kinect With Spirits

Microsoft's Kinect motion controller may have been intended to keep gamers moving while in the throes of play, but some intrepid explorers have been using it for a different purpose altogether: hunting ghosts. Thanks to its skeletal-tracking and infrared-sensing capabilities, Kinect can "see" as many as six players in a room. What makes spines start to tingle, however, is when it sees some who aren't there. Use of the device in this way was demonstrated in the Travel Channel's paranormal investigation show Ghost Adventures.

Security-Minded Qubes OS Will Satisfy Your Yen for Xen

Qubes OS is a hybrid computing technology that raises the bar for security. It takes locking down computers to a new level. It has advanced far beyond the primitive proof of concept demonstrated more than four years ago. Beta Release 2, which arrived in late September, is a powerful desktop OS. Qubes succeeds in seamless integrating security by isolation into the user experience. However, comparing Qubes to a typical Linux distro is akin to comparing the Linux OS to Unix.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Has Crashed

This morning, Virgin Galactic tweeted that their SpaceShipTwo spaceplane had experienced an “in-flight anomaly” We have now confirmed that SpaceShipTwo has crashed due to currently unknown causes. Read More

Gadget Ogling: Logged Jogs, Manual Music, Smart Weapons and Skinny Phones

Welcome to another installment of Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, a weekly look at the treats and horrors revealed as manufacturers pull back their curtains. Behind door number one is a selection of updated activity trackers from one of the oldest dogs in the yard, with the other shiny prizes including a music controller, a smart accessory for police firearms, and the planet's thinnest smartphone. Nary a week goes by without some upstart announcing a new or updated fitness tracker. This time, however, it's one of the pioneers in the field.

Microsoft May Have Launched a Band of Gold

Microsoft on Wednesday made another foray into the mobile health market with the introduction of the Microsoft Band, powered by its new Microsoft Health platform. The band, which is available at Microsoft Stores for $200 as of Thursday, is designed to be worn 24 hours a day. It has 10 sensors. In addition to the usual monitoring capabilities -- heart rate, sleep quality, calorie burn, exercise -- the band will notify wearers of incoming calls, emails, texts and social updates.

HP May Sprout New Manufacturing Techniques

HP on Wednesday announced its Blended Reality ecosystem, consisting of HP Multi Jet Fusion, an advanced 3D printer; and Sprout by HP -- a combination scanner, depth sensor, high-res camera and projector that provides 3D images of items and enables real-time remote collaboration. The ecosystem might revolutionize manufacturing, sharply reducing the design-to-prototype cycle and making it easy to customize products. It also might let individual entrepreneurs -- the traditional backyard shops -- carve a niche for themselves in the market.

Apple Pay vs. CurrentC: Prelude to the Beacon Wars

The current dustup between Apple Pay and CurrentC is a stark, bleak mess. That's not because Apple promises an easier, more secure way of making a smartphone-based retail transaction. Nor is it because CurrentC wants to harvest data on you and provide behavior-bending coupons, incentives and special deals, while cutting out the middleman credit card processing industry. It gets worse. Paying by smartphone -- which seems like a new and cool convenience -- is just the start of an unavoidable new in-person retail experience.

GoCardless Launches Enterprise Direct Debits, Secures The Guardian

GoCardless is a Y-Combinator alum which created a simple way for online businesses to set up and accept direct debit payments. Why is this important, I hear you ask? Well, out there in the rest of the world, recurring payments are almost always driven by direct debit transactions from bank accounts, a market which is not well developed in the US, but happens to be highly developed… Read More

With Ampy, You'll Get a Charge Out of Exercising

While some people are vaguely aware that movement can be converted into electrical energy -- think wrist watches or emergency crank flashlights -- a new Kickstarter project has created Ampy, a small, wearable battery pack that can harness the kinetic motion of common humans and release it back into smartphones, smartwatches and other USB-powered electronic gadgets. If you walk about 10,000 steps, cycle for one hour, or run for 30 minutes, you can generate about three hours of smartphone life.

The Long and Winding Road to Shellshock Recovery

Four days after the Shellshock vulnerability was disclosed, Incapsula's Web application firewall deflected more than 217,000 attempted exploits on more than 4,100 domains. The company recorded upwards of 1,970 attacks per hour, from more than 890 IPs around the world. Shellshock was expected to be far worse than the Heartbleed flaw, which was expected to impact about 17 percent of the secure Web servers worldwide. That added up to about 500,000 servers. That's because Shellshock lets the hacker take over -- whereas Heartbleed did not.

HP May Sprout New Manufacturing Techniques

HP on Wednesday announced its Blended Reality ecosystem, consisting of HP Multi Jet Fusion, an advanced 3D printer; and Sprout by HP -- a combination scanner, depth sensor, high-res camera and projector that provides 3D images of items and enables real-time remote collaboration. The ecosystem might revolutionize manufacturing, sharply reducing the design-to-prototype cycle and making it easy to customize products. It also might let individual entrepreneurs -- the traditional backyard shops -- carve a niche for themselves in the market.

With Ampy, You'll Get a Charge Out of Exercising

While some people are vaguely aware that movement can be converted into electrical energy -- think wrist watches or emergency crank flashlights -- a new Kickstarter project has created Ampy, a small, wearable battery pack that can harness the kinetic motion of common humans and release it back into smartphones, smartwatches and other USB-powered electronic gadgets. If you walk about 10,000 steps, cycle for one hour, or run for 30 minutes, you can generate about three hours of smartphone life.

Elon Musk Calls for Preventive AI Demon Wrangling

Elon Musk, CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla Motors, among his many roles, this week warned about the threat humans face from artificial intelligence. AI is probably our biggest existential threat, he told students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon," Musk said, indicating that it might not be possible to control it. Musk repeatedly has warned about the dangers of AI, as have renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and other scientists.

Mobile Malware Takes Victims by Surprise

Malware writers behind Koler, a bad app that attacks Android devices, have upped their game with a new variant of the pernicious program. In its original version, Koler hijacked phones it landed on and wouldn't set them free until a ransom was paid. This latest strain of the malapp also does the ransomware thing, but it takes its malignancy a step further. "This version self-replicates," said Denis Maslennikov, a security analyst with AdaptiveMobile. "This is the first time we've seen self-replicating ransomware on Android."

Debian's Civil War: Has It Really Come to This?

Well it seems no matter how loudly we here in the Linux blogosphere try to hum a happy tune or discuss cheerful FOSS matters, we just can't seem to drown out the shouts and screams coming from those standing too close to the Systemd Inferno. Stand back, people! It's dangerous! The embers, of course, had been hot for some time already before the blaze flared sky-high a few months ago. Now, the conflagration appears to be completely out of control. Need proof? Two words: Debian fork.

Fitbit Tosses 3 More Bands Into the Activity-Tracking Melee

Fitbit on Monday announced three new fitness and activity-tracking wearables: the Fitbit Charge, Charge HR and Surge. The Charge HR and Surge will be available early next year. The Charge is available now on Fitbit's site and will be available from retailers nationwide. Prices are high -- $130 for the Charge, $150 for the Charge HR, and $250 for the Surge, a fitness super watch with eight sensors. This strategy "will likely backfire unless there's more to the product that has yet to be released," said tech analyst Susan Schreiner.

Matomy Media Acquires Austrian Mobile Ad Platform MobFox For $17.6M

In a move to increase its mobile capabilities, Israel’s Matomy Media Group is to acquire Austrian mobile-advertising specialist MobFox for $17.6 million in cash and shares ($10.1 million in cash and $7.5 million respectively). The move boosts Matomy’s 2014 revenue from mobile-related activity to 20% from 7%, the company said. It expects MobFox’s technology to enable it to set… Read More

Hybrid IKEA Desk Could Get You Off Your Duff

IKEA last week introduced a new desk that can be raised and lowered with the push of a button to accommodate both sitting and standing positions. Part of IKEA's Bekant line, the desk serves as a hybrid alternative to traditional desks designed purely for sitting or standing. "This desk promotes a healthy work environment by getting people on their feet," said Karen Haas, IKEA's U.S. sales leader for Workspaces. "With the Bekant electric sit/stand underframe, you can ... change your work position as often as you like, keeping your body active."

Debian's Civil War: Has It Really Come to This?

Well it seems no matter how loudly we here in the Linux blogosphere try to hum a happy tune or discuss cheerful FOSS matters, we just can't seem to drown out the shouts and screams coming from those standing too close to the Systemd Inferno. Stand back, people! It's dangerous! The embers, of course, had been hot for some time already before the blaze flared sky-high a few months ago. Now, the conflagration appears to be completely out of control. Need proof? Two words: Debian fork.

Twitter Has No Short-Term Plans To Monetize Vine

Twitter has no short-term plans to monetize Vine, a social product that it purchased in its infancy. The information was shared during the company’s earnings call, following a quarterly financial report that included stronger-than-expected third-quarter performance but soft guidance and user growth that investors found troubling. Twitter is down more than 10 percent in after-hours trading. Read More

Fitbit Tosses 3 More Bands Into the Activity-Tracking Melee

Fitbit on Monday announced three new fitness and activity-tracking wearables: the Fitbit Charge, Charge HR and Surge. The Charge HR and Surge will be available early next year. The Charge is available now on Fitbit's site and will be available from retailers nationwide. Prices are high -- $130 for the Charge, $150 for the Charge HR, and $250 for the Surge, a fitness super watch with eight sensors. This strategy "will likely backfire unless there's more to the product that has yet to be released," said tech analyst Susan Schreiner.

Amazon Sticks It to Google Chromecast

Amazon on Monday introduced the Fire TV Stick, a new streaming-media device that can connect to an HDTV's HDMI port and deliver video content from Amazon Prime Instant Video, as well as Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, YouTube, Spotify, Vevo, Pandora and A&E. It also can be used to play games. New and existing Amazon Prime customers can pre-order the Fire TV Stick for $19 through Tuesday. The device officially will be released on Nov. 19 for $39, and it will ship with a remote control.

Robots Gearing Up to Join Ebola Front Lines

The White House and roboticists have set Nov. 7 to get together in a workshop to explore ways of using robots to help in the battle against Ebola. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will cohost the workshop on safety robotics for Ebola workers, with Texas A&M University's Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, or CRASAR. Medical and humanitarian aid workers, members of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and representatives from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of California at Berkeley also will attend.

Detroit's Stupid Plan to Kill Tesla

In watching the illicit attempts of dealers and U.S. auto companies to try to kill Tesla, I have to think they are all wrongheaded. I don't drive a Tesla, but this kind of thing makes me really mad because it is so incredibly stupid. Tesla is as much an idea as it is a company -- and an idea that should be flowing through the car industry anyway, because the world is changing. The way we buy most things is changing, and firms that try to fight waves like this typically find themselves out of business.

About That Microsoft Quarterly Report

Microsoft’s first quarter of its fiscal 2015 was big. The fiscal quarter, corresponding to the calendar third of 2014, brought stronger than expected revenue and profit. The company’s cloud business continued to grow, Windows Phone put points on the board, Surface took off and Office 365 picked up a grip of new paying users. Read More

Gadget Ogling: Up In The Air, Big Reads and Ghastly Wearables

This week in Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, a peek at newly announced gadgets that caught my eye, we're going back to the future. Yes, there's an actual hoverboard on the agenda, alongside a larger Nook tablet, a high-end Kindle, smart luggage, and the tipping point for wearable tech. As always, there are ratings for each item, which are based on how interested I am in using them -- they're not an indicator of each product's quality. For starters, someone finally has created a real-life, working hoverboard.

Android Wear Gets Its First Big Update

Google's Android Wear on Thursday got its first major update, bringing GPS support and offline music capabilities to the wearables platform. "Android Wear is great for tracking things like route, distance and speed," wrote Kenny Stoltz, Android Wear product manager. "Before today, you had to keep your phone close at hand. Starting today, Wear supports watches with GPS sensors, so you can enjoy these features regardless of where your phone's at." The platform's new offline music capabilities enable users to store music on their smartwatch too.

Robots Gearing Up to Join Ebola Front Lines

The White House and roboticists have set Nov. 7 to get together in a workshop to explore ways of using robots to help in the battle against Ebola. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will cohost the workshop on safety robotics for Ebola workers, with Texas A&M University's Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, or CRASAR. Medical and humanitarian aid workers, members of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and representatives from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of California at Berkeley also will attend.

Terminal’s Containers Pioneer A New Way Of Developing Apps From The Cloud

Terminal, a San Francisco-based startup founded by some ex-Facebook and Google technical talent, is trying to transform the way we do software development. They’ve built system supporting containers, or ultra-fast virtual machines that will let developers write, ship and collaborate on code directly from the browser. While there are other somewhat comparable startups like Docker,… Read More

Google's Inbox: Beginning of the End of Email as We Know It?

Google on Wednesday introduced Inbox, a free mobile app that aims to separate the email wheat from the chaff. It's currently available to Android and iPhone users on an invitation-only basis. The software is aimed at managing email on small screens, although once set up and running on a phone, it can be accessed through Google's Chrome browser on a desktop. Inbox has a number of features for better managing and pulling out what you need from email messages. "There are some really cool ideas in it," said Baydin CEO Alex Moore.

Calculate Linux Provides Consistency by Design

Calculate Linux 14 is a distribution designed with home and SMB users in mind. It is optimized for rapid deployment in corporate environments as well. Calculate gives users something no other Linux distro makes possible. The Xfce desktop session is customized to imitate the look of the KDE desktop environment. This design approach goes a long way toward making Calculate Linux a one-distro-fits-all solution. Individual users or entire departments can fine-tune user preferences and features without changing the common appearance or performance.

Space Explorers Hole Up in Hawaii to Simulate Life on Mars

The third in a series of four simulated missions to Mars planned by NASA kicked off last week at a remote site on the Hawaiian island of Mauna Loa. A six-person team, comprising the Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation 3 mission, is inhabiting a dome for an eight-month study of the human factors that contribute to astronaut crew function and performance over time. The HI-SEAS team is equally divided between women and men. One of the women, Martha Lenio, is its commander.

Slack Is Raising Another Round At Up To A $1B Valuation

Slack, the enterprise collaboration platform co-founded by Stewart Butterfield of Flickr fame, continues to defy its namesake: we have heard from sources that the company is raising a new round of funding at a valuation of between $800 million and $1 billion, just six months after raising nearly $43 million. The total raise is said to be eight figures and Sequoia and KPCB are participating,… Read More

Apple Is Confusing Tablet Leadership With Awesomeness

The new super thin iPad Air 2 is starting to get tepid reviews, most of which begrudgingly call it the "best tablet" in the market, while admitting it's boring. Instead of talking up all the great things about how it makes their lives better or fun, the focus is starting to turn to the glaringly obvious annoyances about what it doesn't do well at all. These criticisms aren't coming mainly from Apple haters -- they're coming from Apple's friends. "The best tablet needs to work harder," said one. "Is 'better' enough?" asked another.

Reading and Writing and Open Source

Digital textbooks with open-licensed content -- and sometimes even complete open source textbooks -- are two publishing models that are starting to change the way students and teachers interact with subject material. The budget-busting prices of traditional printed textbooks and the ubiquity of mobile devices in schools have provided textbook authors and educational leaders with convincing reasons to give students an alternative. Textbook publishers are offering digital alternatives to traditional printed books.

When Should Startups Hire A CFO?

Many founders and CEOs of start-ups don’t spend a lot of time thinking about CFOs. When it comes to finance for a start-up, founders focus on more pressing needs: What’s my burn rate? How long is my runway? How does our annual recurring revenue (ARR) look? How much more money do we need? Read More

Smart Nightlight Calls Your iPhone When Smoke, CO Alarms Start Wailing

Leeo on Tuesday introduced the Smart Alert Nightlight, a $99 gadget that can detect when the alarm sounds from a smoke or carbon monoxide detector and send alerts to an iPhone. About the size and shape of a coaster, the Smart Alert Nightlight plugs into a wall outlet where it does double duty as illuminator and monitor. When it hears an alarm, it uses its WiFi connection to send a push notification to a free app running on an iPhone 4S or later. If there's no response, the device will start working its way through a call tree of contacts.

Twitter Introduces Fabric, A Toolkit For Developers To Build Apps On Its Platform

At Twitter’s Flight conference this morning, Dick Costolo’s introduced Fabric, a set of APIs aimed at developers to encourage them to build apps and services on top of the Twitter platform. In the build up to introducing the new APIs, Costolo said that Twitter “wanted to approach this not from the perspective of what would be best for Twitter, but what would help [developers]… Read More

The Next-Gen TV Cable Dilemma

Television manufacturers are moving toward ultra high definition -- also known as "4K" -- which offers four times the resolution of HD. It also offers greater depth of color and faster frame rate. That means more information must travel through the cable from the video source to the TV. The current de facto cable, HDMI, or high-definition multimedia interface, solves some of the old problems of multiple cables, incompatible interfaces and bandwidth issues, but it could it be approaching the end of the line.

Google Takes a Flyer on Magic Leap

Magic Leap on Tuesday announced that Google was the lead investor in a $542 million round of funding for its secret endeavors. Also participating in the financing round were Qualcomm, Legendary Entertainment, KKR, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz and Obvious Ventures. Details are scarce about Magic Leap's forthcoming products, but they are likely proprietary wearable technology. Magic Leap is said to be developing an eyeglasses-like device that can project computer-generated images over real-life settings.

Kickstarter Puts Kibosh on Tor-Based Router Funding

Kickstarter on Friday suspended a crowdfunding campaign for Anonabox, a portable networking device designed specifically to run Tor. The campaign for the privacy-minded router, which launched earlier last week, was wildly successful. In just a few days, it reportedly garnered more than $600,000 in pledged funds from thousands of backers. The Kickstarter goal for the $45 device was just $7,500. By Thursday, however, an acrimonious debate had arisen over some of the project creators' claims.

Black Box Keeps Cybersnoops in Dark

Following Edward Snowden's revelations about indiscriminate government snooping on U.S. citizens, many Net surfers would like to find a way to lower their visibility on the Internet. There are a number of tools in cyberspace that can help a soul do that, but they can take time and savvy to set up. That's why Kerry Cox launched the Sierra Project. The project, which he hopes to fund through Kickstarter, aims to provide consumers with a way to anonymously wander the Net, as well as encrypt all their network traffic.

Watch The Disrupt London Live Stream Right Here!

Today is, sadly, the final day of Disrupt. But though we’re heartbroken that our London conference is coming to an end, we’re thrilled about the content we have in store for you today. We’ll be joined by Brian Armstrong from Coinbase, Michael Acton Smith from Mind Candy, and Ed Vaizey, the British Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy, among many many more. Read More

Tablet Wars: The iPad Drifts Toward Mediocrity

There have been a lot of interesting tablets launched over the last month, but Apple -- the primary driver in this market -- didn't launch one of them. Remember when the first and second iPads came out? They were magical, amazing devices. Fifty percent of the installed base is still generation 1 and 2 iPads. This shows what a great job Steve Jobs did at exciting the market, but it reflects on the fact that Tim Cook can't get people to give them up to buy new ones. Tablet sales growth has dropped, and Apple doesn't dominate the market any more.

FOSS and the Fear Factor

In a world that's been dominated for far too long by the Systemd Inferno, Linux fans will have to be forgiven if they seize perhaps a bit too gleefully upon the scraps of cheerful news that come along on any given day. Of course, for cheerful news, there's never any better place to look than the Reglue effort. Run by longtime Linux advocate and all-around-hero-for-kids Ken Starks, as alert readers may recall, Reglue just last week launched a brand-new fundraising effort on Indiegogo to support its efforts over the coming year.

FBI's Comey Argues Against Encryption: Trust Us

FBI director James Comey, in a speech last week at the Brookings Institute, reiterated his concerns about encryption built into iOS 8 and Android stymieing law enforcement. "I'm a huge believer in the rule of law, but I also believe that no one in this country should be beyond the law," he said. However, the law has not kept pace with technology, and "we have the legal authority to intercept and access communications information pursuant to a court order -- but we often lack the technical ability to do that," Comey explained.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Dishes On The Cloud, Gender Inequality In Tech And Piracy-As-Freemium

After recently managing to stuff two feet into his mouth at the same time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stopped by CNBC for a wide-ranging interview covering not only his recent comments on women in the workplace, but also his company’s bets on the cloud, and how Microsoft has long had an implicitly freemium business model. Read More

Tablet Wars: The iPad Drifts Toward Mediocrity

There have been a lot of interesting tablets launched over the last month, but Apple -- the primary driver in this market -- didn't launch one of them. Remember when the first and second iPads came out? They were magical, amazing devices. Fifty percent of the installed base is still generation 1 and 2 iPads. This shows what a great job Steve Jobs did at exciting the market, but it reflects on the fact that Tim Cook can't get people to give them up to buy new ones. Tablet sales growth has dropped, and Apple doesn't dominate the market any more.

Gadget Ogling: Apple vs. Google, a Bossy Activity Tracker, and Feeling Your Path

Just a month after bumping up the iPhone's size, Apple is back at the table with updated versions of its tablets. There was plenty of focus on the cameras at Apple's presentation, as it tries to promote the tablet as an ideal viewfinder for taking high-quality images, while adding iPhone features like time-lapse and burst mode. However, the new push of iPad photography is just encouraging even more people to look foolish by taking photos with their tablet in public. This is a plague, and Apple is about to make the situation worse.

BBC to Preserve Memory of Its 'Forgotten' Articles

The BBC will publish and continually update a list of its published articles that were removed from Google searches under Europe's "right to be forgotten" rule. David Jordan, director of editorial policy and standards for the BBC, announced the move at a public meeting hosted by Google. The decision is a reaction to the European Commission's ruling in May -- affecting all 28 EU member states -- that search engines must remove links to someone's personal information upon request when the links are "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant."

The iPad Air 2 Reveals Chink in Apple's Armor

The launch of the faster, thinner, goldier iPad Air 2, revealed a gap in Apple's shiny armor. This gap is the place where competitors have a chance to attack. However, the gap remains protected by a suit of chain mail. Let me explain. The iPad Air 2 sure looks like an amazing feat of engineering -- at just 6.1 millimeters thick, it's 18 percent thinner than its super-thin predecessor. Its Retina display is made up of three layers fused as one -- plus, it has a coating that gives it the lowest reflectivity of any tablet screen on the market.

Introducing The 14 Companies Participating In Disrupt London: Startup Battlefield

We’re thrilled to introduce the impressive group of companies participating in this year’s Startup Battlefield. The Battlefield serves to showcase the best and most promising early-stage startups in the industry, and this batch does not disappoint. We’ve got something for everyone, from medical diagnostics, enterprise mobile tools and social curation to fintech and gaming. Read More

Watch The Disrupt Europe Live Stream Right Here!

TechCrunch has crossed the pond and has set up shop in London for the second annual Disrupt Europe conference. This year, we’re in London at Old Billingsgate and we couldn’t be more excited to hang out with our European friends. But we know that it’s not possible for everyone to make it out to the conference, so we’re heading directly into your home with the live stream. Read More

A User’s Guide To Disrupt London 2014

Hard to believe that Disrupt London opens tomorrow! As always, TechCrunch has partnered with an amazing array of folks who promise to make your experience at the conference better than ever. Official Wifi Sponsor: Our wifi is sponsored by Cushman & Wakefield. You can find it using the network name “Cushman And Wakefield.” Official Hardware Alley Sponsor: Autodesk Manufacturing… Read More

Watch The Disrupt: London Hackathon Judging Live Stream Right Here!

I’m tired and I didn’t do anything. After coding for 24 hours, the participants of the first TechCrunch Disrupt: London hackathon will now present their creations on the massive Disrupt stage. From developer geek to investor chic, these judges are ready for anything and will assess hackathon participants on a scale of technical difficulty, usability, usefulness and creativity. In… Read More

Andrei Cherny’s ‘Aspiration’ Brings The Investment Tools Of The 1% To The Other 99%

At 39 years old, Andrey Cherny has advised presidents, consulted with Fortune 100 companies, worked as a state prosecutor, served as a Naval reserve officer, founded a think tank and policy journal, and written a couple of books. Now he’s adding entrepreneur to the list with the launch of Aspiration Partners LLC. Read More

Gadget Ogling: Apple vs. Google, a Bossy Activity Tracker, and Feeling Your Path

Just a month after bumping up the iPhone's size, Apple is back at the table with updated versions of its tablets. There was plenty of focus on the cameras at Apple's presentation, as it tries to promote the tablet as an ideal viewfinder for taking high-quality images, while adding iPhone features like time-lapse and burst mode. However, the new push of iPad photography is just encouraging even more people to look foolish by taking photos with their tablet in public. This is a plague, and Apple is about to make the situation worse.

One Year In, Keepy Reaches 500K Users And Introduces Video To Its Family Timelines

One year since launch, Keepy is announcing that more than 500,000 users sharing content with their families on its service. Read More

BBC to Preserve Memory of Its 'Forgotten' Articles

The BBC will publish and continually update a list of its published articles that were removed from Google searches under Europe's "right to be forgotten" rule. David Jordan, director of editorial policy and standards for the BBC, announced the move at a public meeting hosted by Google. The decision is a reaction to the European Commission's ruling in May -- affecting all 28 EU member states -- that search engines must remove links to someone's personal information upon request when the links are "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant."

The iPad Air 2 Reveals Chink in Apple's Armor

The launch of the faster, thinner, goldier iPad Air 2, revealed a gap in Apple's shiny armor. This gap is the place where competitors have a chance to attack. However, the gap remains protected by a suit of chain mail. Let me explain. The iPad Air 2 sure looks like an amazing feat of engineering -- at just 6.1 millimeters thick, it's 18 percent thinner than its super-thin predecessor. Its Retina display is made up of three layers fused as one -- plus, it has a coating that gives it the lowest reflectivity of any tablet screen on the market.

Microsoft Patch Blocks Sandworm Tunnels

iSight Partners this week revealed that a cybergang it dubbed "Sandworm" has been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability that impacts all supported versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Server 2008 and 2012. The announcement was held off until Microsoft issued its patch earlier this week. If exploited, the flaw will let attackers remotely execute code on target systems. The cybergang hit NATO, government organizations in the Ukraine and Western Europe, a Polish energy firm, a French telecom, and academic organizations in the U.S.

Tide Starts to Turn Against Gamergate's Women-Hating Campaign

Backlash against the #Gamergate movement escalated several notches this week, thanks to high-profile newspaper reports and a public statement from the Entertainment Software Association. "Threats of violence and harassment are wrong," the ESA said. "They have to stop. There is no place in the video game community -- or our society -- for personal attacks and threats." Though #Gamergate purports to focus on ethics in gaming journalism, it's become known primarily for misogyny, harassment and threats of violence against women.

Find My iPhone? Find Me! Lost Phone Feature Helps Rescuers Locate Crashed Car

A woman whose car rolled 500 feet down an embankment near San Jose, California, was located through the Find My iPhone feature on her smartphone after spending 19 hours in the ravine where her Chevy Cruze ended up. The OnStar feature in her car triggered two calls to police, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Monday, but neither pinpointed the location of her car. Police searched the area fruitlessly for hours. At 3 a.m. Tuesday, Vasquez's stepmother called Campbell police to report her missing.

For Gentoo Linux Initiates, Iron Penguin May Be Too Heavy

Gentoo Linux can be either an experienced Linux user's ideal desktop choice or a new user's worst computing nightmare. I am not talking about being new to the Linux OS. I mean just plain and simple new to Gentoo Linux. The Linux OS has many dozens of specialized distributions. Many of them are easy to install and need only a few settings adjustments to perform as desired. Some distros, however, can be a bit more challenging to master. Gentoo Linux is very easy If you don't go beyond the live session in the most recent Iron Penguin release.

Enter the Nexus Dragon

Google on Wednesday announced three new devices in its Nexus line: a tablet, a phablet, and a streaming media game player-cum-Android TV device, all of which run Lollipop, the latest version of its Android OS. Lollipop lets users sync content from phones to tablets to TVs and use it seamlessly. It has a consistent design across devices so transitions between tasks are more fluid and content responds to users' touch or voice. The Nexus 6 phablet is from Motorola; the Nexus 9 tablet is made by HTC; and the Nexus Player comes from Asus.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Edges Out iPhone 6 Plus: Reviewers

The first reviews are out on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, unveiled last month in Berlin, and they're generally positive. "The best big-screen phone you can buy right now," screams one headline. "A phablet that can teach Apple a few things," says another. "I'm not sure where the good story is on this," said tech analyst Jeff Orr. "The Galaxy Note 4 is continuing down the Samsung innovation path on the larger display, and Apple with the iPhone 6 Plus is entering a segment where Samsung has most of the mindshare, if not also the revenue."

Skype Qik Video Chat: Shoot, Send, Vaporize

Microsoft on Tuesday released Skype Qik, a new mobile chat app that features short, self-destructing video messages that automatically self-destruct in two weeks -- or sooner if set to do so. Skype need not be installed on a mobile to use Qik, which runs on Android, iOS and Windows phones and is available for free from the Google Play, the iTunes App Store and the Windows Phone Store. With Skype Qik, Microsoft aims to capture some of the audience for lightweight communication apps such as SnapChat, WhatsApp and WeChat.