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Amazon, by slashing the price of the Kindle, is hoping to turn its electronic book reader into a device with mass market appeal, one for “serious readers” distinct from Apple’s multi-purpose iPad. Amazon, the pioneer of the e-book business, last week unveiled a 139-dollar wireless-only version of the basic Kindle, less than six weeks after dropping the price of the e-book reader to [...]

How do you build a New Media company in the digital era? Former Googler Jason Liebman thinks his startup, Howcast Media, which hosts one of the largest collections of instructional or “How To” videos on the Web, is the way to go. Launched in February 2008, Howcast.com offers 200,000 videos ranging from the prosaic “How to Paint a Wall” to the piquant “How to Kiss With [...]

At the door to a major computer game expo in Shanghai, visitors are greeted by columns of Chinese girls in white boots and miniskirts, the name of a computer parts maker emblazoned on their chests. A bit farther on, amid the blaring music and pulsing lights, 40 more models in bikini shorts, tiny tanktops and hard hats shill for an online security company, handing out small locks in boxes designed to [...]

Gulf business hub the United Arab Emirates said Sunday it will halt key BlackBerry services that breach laws and raise security concerns, a move Saudi Arabia may follow according to unconfirmed reports. The UAE suspension would kick in on October 11 and last until a legal solution was reached, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said in a statement on its website. It said the decision [...]

Hackers at an infamous DefCon gathering are proving that old-fashioned smooth talk rivals slick software skills when it comes to pulling off attacks on computer networks. A first-ever “social engineering” contest here challenges hackers to call workers at 10 companies including technology titans Google, Apple, Cisco, and Microsoft and get them to reveal too much information to strangers.

Google does not know if the Chinese authorities were behind a disruption in the company’s services on Thursday, chief executive Eric Schmidt said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Schmidt said that although the Chinese government can “arbitrarily decide” the level of service Google can provide in China, the Internet giant does not know if it was responsible for the disruption [...]

Twitter wants to help you build your network. The micro-blogging service began rolling out a new feature Friday called “Suggestions for You” which directs users to other Twitter accounts they may find interesting. “With more than a hundred million users on Twitter, there are sure to be at least dozens of accounts out there that will reflect your interests,” Twitter said on its [...]

Google has agreed to delete all personal WiFi data gathered by its “Street View” mapping service in Hong Kong, in what the city’s privacy commissioner said was a first. The Internet giant is being investigated in a number of countries after the cars, which drive around taking photos for Google’s free online mapping service, mistakenly picked up the private information. After [...]

New mobile phones sold in Europe as of next year should all work off the same universal chargers, the European Commission said on Friday. “It is expected that consumers will be able to use the same, one-size-fits-all charger for mobile phones sold in the EU from the beginning of 2011,” spokesman Dennis Abbott said. A deal between major mobile manufacturers was agreed last year but “excludes [...]

Software security experts warn that mobile phones are tempting targets for hackers in a world where people eagerly invite strange applications onto handsets packed with personal data. Briefings on Thursday at a Black Hat computer security conference were devoted to threats to smartphones, mobile personal computers used for anything from banking and shopping to pinpointing people’s whereabouts. “Right [...]