Articles by Peter Suciu

The Federal Trade Commission last week charged DirecTV with deceptive advertising practices in a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. DirecTV, which has been in discussions over a potential merger with AT&T, currently has more than 20 million subscribers across the Uni...

Square on Monday introduced two new services for small businesses: instant deposits; and protection for disputed purchases. Square, which six years ago began offering square-shaped mobile credit card readers for smartphones and tablets, has shifted its focus away from point-of-sale operations and toward data collection. The company processes milli...

Autonomous vehicles are on a roll, suggests a new report fromMcKinsey & Co., released last week during the Geneva Motor Show. Acceptance will increase substantially by 2050, accounting for as much of 20 percent of new car sales. The shift to self-driving technologies could reduce auto accidents by as much as 90 percent, the report suggests.

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. Known to its contemporaries as "The Great War," it claimed the lives of more than 10 million soldiers and about seven million civilians in a span of just more than four years -- ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. With these numbers in mind, it's understandable that WWI might be a taboo subject for entertainment purposes...

Google on Monday confirmed that it plans to launch a mobile virtual network operation, or MVNO, later this year. Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai, who heads up operations for Android and Chrome, commented on the undertaking in a Q&A following his keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain Google in essence will provide t...

Volvo last week revealed the latest developments in its Drive Me project, showing off a complete system that could make it possible to integrate self-driving cars into regular traffic with drivers behind the wheel Volvo is making progress toward its goal of releasing 100 self-driving vehicles to consumers on selected roads around Gothenburg -- Swed...

Apple on Monday announced a plan to build two new data centers in Europe -- one in County Galway in Ireland and the other in central Jutland in Denmark. Apple plans to spend US$1.9 billion (1.7 billion euros) on the project -- its largest European investment to date. The new facilities will power its online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri...

Fuel Industries last year sought to find the long-rumored cache of buried E.T. theExtra-Terrestrial video games. The games, made for the Atari 2600, long have been linkedto the video game industry's crash in the early 1980s. ...

Sony on Tuesday announced that its SmartEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1 will be available generally next month in the United States, the UK, Germany and Japan. The smart glasses -- Sony's first -- also will be released in March to business customers in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Sony's SmartEyeglass, priced at US$...

A "Digital Dark Age" could be looming, warned Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. His warning came this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Jose Cerf, who was a manager at for the United States Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA) and fun...

RadioShack Corporation last week announced that it had signed an agreement to transfer between 1,500 and 2,400 of its U.S. company-owned stores to General Wireless, which will, in turn, transition the retail locations into Sprint Mobile storefronts The remaining of RadioShack's 4,000 locations will likely close their doors, signaling the end of the...

Dish Network on Monday officially launched Sling TV, its widely anticipated US$20per month streaming service, and further announced that customers couldsign up for a "Sports Extra" add-on pack for $5 per month. The service, which is available now via a one-week free trial, can beaccessed via Roku devices, and through Android, iOS, Mac and PCdevice...

The first smartphone to be powered by the open source Ubuntu operatingsystem will arrive at retail in Europe beginning on Monday, Feb. 9. The Aquaris E4.5 will be offered to early adopters via a series of "flash sales" across thecontinent. The unlocked phone will retail for 169.90euros, or roughly US$195, without the need for a contract....

It is in the darkest time of the year with the arrival of winter thatperhaps we most appreciate our light bulbs. It isn't just the lightson the holiday decorations that provide that festive glow, but reallythe fact that the light bulb makes our daily modern life possible. Thelight bulb is taken for granted, and until recently it hadn't reallyevolved much in more than a century...

Dish Network on Thursday announced that subscribers to its satelliteTV service can enable Reverse AutoHop for this Sunday's SuperBowl. This feature will enable viewers with the Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR to watch the commercials alone without having to fast-forward through the game To utilize Reverse AutoHop, customers need only have the PrimeTimeAny...

Oculus VR on Monday unveiled a new project at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Oculus Story Studio will produce movies in virtual reality. It presented its first example of the genre on Monday evening -- a 4-minute experience called Lost Oculus, which was founded in 2012 and quickly raised US$2.4 million via crowdfunding and venture c...

Ford Motor on Thursday announced the opening of its Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto, a 25,000 square foot facility that will help it accelerate the company's innovation in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data. This is the latest addition to the automaker's global network of R&D centers, which inclu...

Verizon last week unveiled a new connected-vehicle service at the North American International Auto Show, taking place in Detroit this coming weekend. Verizon Vehicle, which will go live this spring, will be compatible with nearly every vehicle made since 1996. It will be available directly to consumers regardless of their wireless carrier Designed...

2K Games and Firaxis on Monday announced Sid Meier's Starships, an interstellar strategy game of exploration and conquest. It will arrive later this year for the PC, Mac and iPad. Assuming the role of a fleet commander in this space opera, players will be tasked with leading their starships across the universe to save planets from eradication, bui...

The North American International Auto Show, held in Detroit, last week held a preview for industry insiders and the media before opening its doors to the public on the weekend. Automakers from around the world showcased more than 500 cars, ranging from futuristic concepts to vehicles that soon will be hitting the roads The show allowed automakers t...