Articles by Peter Suciu

Video game sales showed their first increase in almost two years last month, NPD Group reported on Thursday Gaming hardware sales weren't so fortunate -- they were down 40 percent compared to August 2012, according NPD's August report on sales in the physical retail sector of the video game industry. Total new physical software sales, however, were...

For players of Microsoft's Halo video game series, the computer AI character known as "Cortana" can do much more than just provide directions and plot advances in the game. Soon, however, Cortana could become part of Windows Phone users' real lives as well Specifically, rumor has it that a Cortana app is in the works and could arrive on Windows Pho...

Hard on the heels of the recent announcement of Apple's iPhone trade-in program, Walmart on Tuesday announced a smartphone trade-in program of its own with up to US$300 in-store credit for the old devices turned in. Specifically, consumers can get an immediate credit of between $50 and $300 for more than 100 mobile devices. An Apple iPhone 5, for...

Sony announced the PlayStation Vita TV for release in Japan at Monday's Sony Computer Entertainment Japan press conference This small set-top box, which measures 6cm x10cm, is designed to serve as a multimedia streaming device that connects to Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 game console. It will allow gamers to play titles from the PS4 remotely via ...

The subscription model has already proven its mettle when it comes to music and movies, but this week Oyster unveiled a new service that applies the concept to books instead. Specifically, the startup on Thursday launched an invitation-only preview of an e-book rental service that's widely being described as the "Netflix of books." Now available vi...

Microsoft will launch its Xbox One video game console on Nov. 22 in 13 countries, the company announced on Wednesday Among the first nations to receive the widely anticipated device are Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the United States. Other markets will follow in early 2...

Viewers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas will be able to watch the US Open tennis tournament and the final episodes of the hit serial-killer drama Dexter on Showtime this week thanks to a new agreement between CBS and Time Warner Cable that ends a monthlong blackout CBS programming, which includes Showtime Anytime and video-on-demand services, r...

With an eye toward the upcoming holiday season, Nintendo on Wednesday announced a US$50 price cut on its Wii U gaming platform and rolled out a brand-new portable gaming system priced at just $129.99 Slated for release on Oct. 12 in red or blue, the new Nintendo 2DS is an entry-level gaming system that plays all Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS games i...

Nissan will be ready to begin selling multiple models of driverless cars by 2020, it announced on Tuesday. The company has been researching the technology for years, it said, in partnership with teams from universities including MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Tokyo....

Facebook on Monday began rolling out a new feature that allows multiple users to upload images to the same online photo album, according to a Mashable report Whereas previously users could upload photos only to albums they had created themselves -- with a maximum of 1,000 photos per album -- the new feature allows up to 50 people to contribute to t...

Google's Chromecast dongle may be built primarily to stream content from the likes of Netflix and YouTube, but that hasn't stopped app developers from expanding its reach. On Sunday, however, one such developer said that a recent Chromecast update had blocked his Android application "Google's latest Chromecast update intentionally breaks AllCast," ...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced on Friday that he will step down from his post some time within the next 12 months, depending on when a successor is chosen. Stocks in the company surged 7 percent in early trading following the news "This is a time of important transformation for Microsoft," Ballmer said in an internal email that was posted on...

The hacker who uncovered a bug on Facebook earlier this week may indeed get a reward for his efforts, but not from the social network itself After it became clear that Facebook would not pay Khalil Shreateh a bug bounty for his discovery, arguing that he had violated the site's Terms of Service, a crowdfunding effort launched on GoFundMe to raise f...

Yahoo topped Google as the most-visited website in the United States in July, Web analytics firm comScore reported on Wednesday Specifically, Yahoo received 196.6 million unique visitors during the month, compared with 192.3 million for Google. This is the first time Yahoo has found itself in the top spot for U.S. Web traffic since May 2011....

Google on Tuesday announced that it is incorporating real-time traffic data from Waze into its popular Google Maps mobile application "Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users," explained Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps. "This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, ro...

Barnes & Noble on Monday announced a suite of free video apps that will let users watch movies and TV shows on a range of devices, including tablets that compete with its own Nook This comes just a month after the retailer announced that it would cease designing and selling its color tablets. Also in July, William Lynch was replaced as CEO and dire...

Barnes & Noble on Monday announced a suite of free video apps that will let users watch movies and TV shows on a range of devices, including tablets that compete with its own Nook This comes just a month after the retailer announced that it would cease designing and selling its color tablets. Also in July, William Lynch was replaced as CEO and dire...

The war of the words between tech giants Microsoft and Google heated up considerably this week when Google blocked a relaunched YouTube app for Windows Phone, causing Microsoft to lash out and question the validity of Google's complaints "It seems to us that Google's reasons for blocking our app are manufactured so that we can't give our users the ...

BlackBerry 10 may have been the primary focus of its embattled maker in recent months, but on Tuesday the company revealed that its hopes for a turnaround don't rest solely on that new technology. Rather, BlackBerry announced the 9720, a handset that not only has the look and feel of its longstanding Curve line of devices but also runs its venerable BlackBerry 7 OS...

BlackBerry on Monday announced the formation of a special committee to explore strategic alternatives to enhance its value and increase scale in order to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployment. Among these options are joint ventures, strategic partnerships and even the sale of BlackBerry to another company....