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Would you award the internet a Nobel prize?
Since it was first created 40 years ago, the internet has had a huge impact on the world: it's helped connect millions of people around the globe, reshaped industries and changed the way many of us live and work. But should the internet win the Nobel

Google Reduces Its Nexus One Termination Fee
CWmike writes 'The only smartphone Linus Torvalds doesn't hate is that much less unlikable now that Google has quietly chopped $200 off its early termination fee on the Nexus One. Customers who cancel the service had been on the hook for $550, including

Breakfast briefing: Is Google going social? Plus Macworld and EA's struggles
Google has been slowly trying to improve its social web offerings - recently introducing search results from your contacts and real-time updates, for example. But the company's now planning to push even harder in this arena, with an event on Tuesday set

Google launches Nexus One phone support
Google has launched phone support for its Nexus One phone. (Credit: James Martin/CNET) Google is answering the call from Nexus One phone owners. More than a month after , the search giant on Monday launched a phone support line specifically to answer the

Job Postings Hint at Amazon’s Kindle Plans
It looks as if color screens and Wi-Fi might be the next additions to Amazon’s Kindle. Last week, Brad Stone and I reported that Amazon had acquired the New York based multitouch screen company Touchco to integrate into Lab126, the Kindle hardware

The 7 Somewhat United States of Facebook
Peter Warden, a former Apple engineer, likes to analyze data — so much so that he started scraping public profiles and photos from hundreds of millions of Facebook accounts about a year ago, and now has data collected from more than 200 million around

Safer Internet Day targets 5-7 year olds and Microsoft's web browser
On Safer Internet Day, the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is promoting a cartoon to help children stay safe online, and making information and advice available via Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 It's the EU's annual Safer Internet

Twins learn of teen brother's death on Facebook
Put yourself in their shoes. They are twins. It's the morning of their 20th birthday. So they log on to Facebook, expecting to find messages from well-wishers. Instead Angela and Maryanne Vourlis discover posts that read 'RIP Chris Naylor' and 'RIP

Google reduces its Nexus One termination fee
Google has quietly chopped $200 off its early termination fee on the Nexus One, meaning it will now cost users less -- $350 rather than $550 -- to cancel service on the smartphone. That matches Verizon Wireless's termination fee for smartphones, now tied

Google Making Gmail Into A Communications Hub
Gmail users will soon have more ways to keep up with their friends via a widget that shows quick status updates like Facebook and Twitter do, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move would further turn Gmail, which revolutionized online e-mail, into

Jurors: Stop Twittering
A federal court policy making body is belatedly entering the internet age by proposing that judges clearly inform jurors they must not electronically discuss cases they are hearing. It’s standard procedure to inform jurors to remain mum and not

Google Shooting for Smartphone Universal Translator
nikki4 writes to tell us that giving some major improvement tweaks to its existing voice recognition tool for the Smartphone, Google is bringing new translator software for an instant translation of foreign languages. 'The company has already created an

Google to Add Social Features to Gmail
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google plans to take another stab at capturing some of the momentum surrounding social networking companies like Facebook and Twitter by leveraging Gmail, its popular e-mail service. Later this week, Google will unveil add-ons

Google’s Real-Time Voice Translator Could Make Any Language Lingua Franca
The real-time-translating Babel Fish from Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy was named for the Tower of Babel, a biblical structure fractured by linguistic confusion. Google engineers are working on a translator for Google Android

Google to make Gmail a little more social
Google is getting ready to add social-networking features into Gmail as it attempts to jump-start its social Web strategy. Gmail users can already set their status within the service, but Google plans to expand that into a stream of status updates like

Job Postings Hint at Amazons Plans for the Kindle
It looks as if color screens and Wi-Fi might be the next additions to Amazons Kindle. Last week, Brad Stone and I reported that the New York based multitouch screen company Touchco to integrate into Lab126, the Kindle hardware division. This move sends

Nexus One takes a beating in Google behind-the-scenes video
A start-of-the-week treat for iPhone fanboys--Google has released a new entry in its series of behind-the-scenes Nexus One videos, this time featuring the search giant's smartphone being squeezed, dropped, bent, and subjected to several other flavors of

Nexus One car kit spotted in Google promo vid
We know that a Nexus One car dock was coming. Google has already released . And when you consider that the Nexus One is preloaded with a very robust turn-by-turn navigation app with a dedicated in-car interface, a car dock seems like the next logical

EA's game arsenal coming to Facebook?
Is 'poke' the new Konami Code? Maybe not literally, but one Electronic Arts exec has hinted that at least one of the gaming behemoth's titles is headed to Facebook, further blurring the line between social network apps and the game industry. In , EA

Linus Torvalds doesn't hate the Googlephone
Linus Torvalds hates cell phones. But that doesn't include the Googlephone. The Linux founder 'broke down' last week and bought a Google Nexus One, and despite his enduring cell phone hatred, he calls it 'a winner.' In a weekend blog post

Job Postings Hint at Amazon's Plans for the Kindle
It looks as if color screens and Wi-Fi might be the next additions to Amazon’s Kindle. Emmanuel Dunand/ Jeff Bezos holding a Kindle DX. Last week, Brad Stone and I reported that Amazon had acquired the New York based multi-touch screen company Touchco

Google's Next Venture: Universal Translator
Google wants to pioneer the first smartphone technology to translate foreign languages almost instantly, the search giant told British daily The Times. The technology will be able to convert spoken words into a different language in real time, and could

Facebook under fire again over redesign
Social networking site Facebook is once again under attack after starting to roll out changes to its homepage Facebook changes have once again irritated users of the social networking site When Facebook changed the newsfeed on its homepage last October,

Facebook under fire again over redesign
When Facebook changed the newsfeed on its homepage last October, the new layout was greeted by a wave of protest from users. Some 1.75 million Facebook members joined the group ''Change Facebook back to normal!'' and an additional 1,280,000 members

Google vs. Microsoft marketing
Google gets it. Microsoft does not. There are many reasons to take this position, but the two companies' outdoor advertising in London is enough for me. Google's adsfocus on real people doing real things with the company's technology. Microsoft's...well,

Star Trek Online for PC | Game review
Star Trek Online ? missions are too focused on combat After a protracted beta test, Star Trek Online finally makes it out of space dock. So is it set to live long and prosper? Initial impressions are promising, with Cryptic's usual flair for deep

Google goes deep for the Super Bowl
Google scored big with its first-ever Super Bowl ad yesterday -- proving once again high tech's influence over Super Sunday. The big event has passed, now it's time for Monday morning quarterbacking and second-guessing key decisions. I'm not talking

Google (Voice) solves universal translation soonish
Babel fishing for compliments Google has managed to get some decent press by announcing that, in a few years, it might be able to translate speech - something iPhone owners can already do. The Times picked up the story, and breathlessly reports that such

Google doppelg
Why is Google routing the world through 'Googol'? Sometime in the middle of October, Google silently launched a new net domain - a barely-disguised doppelgänger to the familiar google.com - and according to the latest stats from the site watchers at

Torvalds gives thumbs-up to Google's Nexus One
Nexus One , Linus Torvalds , Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel programming project, has said not only that he likes the Nexus One, but that the Google phone is good enough to convert him into a mobile-phone believer. 'I generally hate phones —