Video: Even smartwatches designed with beauty in mind are still ugly
Pretty much every smartwatch that has been released so far has been ridiculously ugly. Most of them feature a rectangular screen that many consider to …
Ben Zigterman
Articles by Ben Zigterman
Apple urges Arizona governor to veto discrimination bill
On Monday, Arizona’s Legislature passed a bill that would let businesses refuse service to gays and lesbians. Governor Jan Brewer has until Friday to sign …
Mozilla plans to mow down rivals with an army of $25 smartphones
Mozilla has teamed up with Chinese manufacturer Spreadtrum to try to create a $25 smartphone that runs Firefox OS. They aim to make a phone …
Facebook employees tell us how they really feel about WhatsApp
When Facebook bought WhatsApp last week, only a few executives besides CEO Mark Zuckerberg were aware of the deal, which is similar to what happened …
How Verizon, AT&T blew their chance to be WhatsApp
Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp does a good job of showing just how much the wireless carriers failed to capitalize on messaging. It was their game …
Apple has bold plans for its iPad Smart Cover
Since 2011, Apple has been selling Smart Covers for its line of iPads. While they cleverly lock and unlock the iPad, they have not evolved …
The quest to build a better Siri
Since Marissa Mayer became CEO, Yahoo has been on a bit of a roll and has released several well-reviewed apps (Weather, News Digest, Sports, etc.) …
Video: This is what iOS in the Car should look like
Touchscreen car displays are notorious for being terrible. Either the screen isn’t very responsive to touches or the interface is incredibly clunky. Of course, both …
Apple has more than a trillion reasons to get into mobile payments
During last quarter’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook all but confirmed that mobile payments will be coming to the iPhone. This always made sense: With …
Meet the smartwatch maker that’s begging to be bought out by anyone
Basis, a company that sells health-monitoring smartwatches, is hoping to be bought by Apple… or pretty much anyone, for that matter. According to a report …
Outgoing NSA director: ‘It’s not our mission’ to spy on everyone in the world
The National Security Agency (NSA) will send its recommendations for where to store telephone metadata records to President Obama later this week, the outgoing NSA …
Obama pals around with Comcast’s chief lobbyist
Although it seems like the Comcast–Time Warner Cable merger would be a nonstarter for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, Comcast may have …
EU court decides not to ruin the Internet
A European Union court ruled on Thursday that hyperlinks are not copyright infringement. In other words, the court decided not to ruin the Internet. In …
Largest DDoS attack ever nails company that protects against DDoS attacks
A company that is supposed to protect against DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks just suffered what appears to be the largest one ever. According to IT …
Here’s how to make calls on your iPhone sound 100 times better for free
In iOS 7, Apple introduced a feature called FaceTime audio that offers sound quality that is far better than anything we had ever experienced before …
Sprint reportedly mulls killing its own T-Mobile merger plan
Sprint’s never-ending attempt to acquire T-Mobile has run into some headwinds lately. Two weeks ago, unnamed sources in the Department of Justice told the Wall …
Yet another way coffee will improve your life
We all know coffee is good for us and that it’s just a matter of time before scientific studies everywhere confirm this. Now, it looks …
The stink continues: Apple investigating smelly retail stores
A week ago, we shared Rocco Pendola’s story over at The Street about the body odor problem at the Santa Monica Apple store. After speaking to …
Apple’s iWatch is so complex it needs physiologists to help finish it
Apple is looking to hire physiologists who can “design and run user studies related to cardiovascular fitness & energy expenditure.” This job listing effectively confirms …
Former NSA chief explains how Snowden gained high-level access
In an interview on Tuesday with the Wall Street Journal, former NSA chief and Booz Allen Vice Chairman Mike McConnell explained how Edward Snowden gained …
Amazing video shows just how scratch-proof the next iPhone could be
At this point, we can just about assume Apple’s next iPhone will have a sapphire screen. Foxconn has apparently been producing small batches of iPhones …
How Apple could dramatically improve iCloud’s performance
Apple is working on its own content delivery network (CDN), a move which could improve iCloud’s performance. According to a report from Dan Rayburn at …
Not dead yet: Windows XP somehow gained market share last month
With Microsoft dropping support for Windows XP in April, you would think people would start moving on to Windows 7 or Windows 8. Apparently they …
Want to email people without the FBI reading it? Try Safe-mail
Last week, we learned that the FBI has a copy of the entire TorMail database. Naturally, people who used the secure e-mail service began looking …
Apple retail stores stink… literally
Apple is known for sweating the smallest details in its retail stores: the floors come from a family-owned quarry outside of Florence, Italy; the glass …
PayPal is itching to help Apple with its mobile payments platform
It really looks like Apple is getting into the mobile payments game. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on a …
HTC One sequel to reportedly come in four colors
The next HTC One, codenamed the HTC M8, will reportedly come in four colors, according to a tweet from XDA TV producer Shen Ye spotted …
Latest encryption trick to thwart hackers is as sweet as Honey
It seems like every other week another high-profile company’s servers are hacked. Last November, for example, Adobe suffered a security breach and as many as …
Nothing is safe: FBI reportedly bulk collects entire TorMail database
By now, the NSA is known for its bulk collection of personal data, including metadata from cellular carriers. However, it was not known that the …
Dutch court lifts ban on The Pirate Bay after it proves ‘innefective’
A Dutch court lifted a ban on The Pirate Bay, ruling that the ban had proven to be “innefective,” reports Tweakers. Dutch ISPs XS4ALL and …
