Catfight! Siri, Meet Iris, Your 8-Hour-Old Android Rival

For all Steve Jobs’ grousing about rivals trying to pinch his thunder, you know what they say: only run-of-the-mill creators borrow—great ones swipe ideas wholesale. That includes Apple’s iPhone 4S-dwelling Siri, by the way, which is just Apple’s take on much older (and, some might say, smarter) natural language chatbots like A.L.I.C.E.

How Google Can Keep the Android Momentum Going

Ben Bajarin is the Director of Consumer Technology Analysis and Research at Creative Strategies, Inc, a technology industry analysis and market intelligence firm located in Silicon Valley.

25 Facebook Profiles You Should Subscribe to Right Now

Facebook’s new subscribe feature has been live for a few weeks. Take a look as we honor our favorites from Facebook, from the savvy digitalists to the up-and-coming social scamps.

DVR, Mobile Video Usage Up More than 30% over Last Year

It looks like all of those people scooping up new iPhones and Androids are embracing video in a big way—a new Nielsen poll reports that 36% more mobile subscribers watched video on their phones this year than last year. Also popular: watching TV without commercials, which would explain the 31% jump in DVR usage over [...]

Two Minute Video: MacBook Air Style, PC Price with the Acer ‘S3′ Ultrabook

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MacBook Air style with a more PC-like pricetag: That’s the promise of Acer’s new S3 ultrabook. At $900, it beats Apple’s lowest-priced 13-inch MacBook Air by a full $400 while measuring up almost identically in weight and thickness. So what’s the catch? No catch! Okay, there’s a catch.

New Gmail Accidentally Revealed in Video

It looks like Gmail is getting a makeover. The brand-new version of Google’s popular, free email service features plenty of user-friendly upgrades: a cleaner design, improved search functions, high-resolution themes and more.

Online Campaign Aims to Stop Congress from Jailing Justin Bieber

An anti-piracy bill currently in Congress could, if passed, put Justin Bieber in jail for five years, according to a new online campaign against the bill. Clearly, this campaign has not considered that the idea may cause all manner of conflict for those who are pro-electronic freedom but anti-Bieber.

BlackBerry: Vision Needed

I don’t mean to be painfully Pollyannaish, but I’m almost glad that RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis didn’t announce any new products or other major news at the keynote during its DevCon conference in San Francisco, which I attended on Tuesday morning. A year ago, at the 2010 edition of the event, he unveiled the PlayBook [...]

Beware User Agreements: Who Actually Owns the Reddit Movie Pitch?

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Warner Bros. had purchased a movie pitch from a writer called James Erwin that had started life as a post on Reddit. Ignoring my cynicism over whether or not social media can ever make good movies or television, there’s one problem: What if Erwin didn’t actually own his idea?

Diabetic? Cloud-Connected Ford Could Someday Save Your Life

Ford’s Microsoft-powered Sync system offers voice-activated control of music and navigation services, but the technology will be expanding to include health and wellness services in the not-too-distant future. On a rainy October day outside MIT’s Media Lab, I hopped in a cloud-connected Ford Explorer  for a demonstration by Ford’s Group and Senior Technical Leader for [...]

Asus: Quad-Core Tablet Incoming, Padfone Still Happening

A wave of quad-core Android tablets is nearly upon us, and Asus wants to be leading the charge.