Articles by Peter Suciu

Vine users who attempted to find Facebook friends on Friday received an error message stating that Twitter's new mobile app is not authorized to make the request. This is the latest apparent rift between the two social media rivals Earlier this week, Twitter launched Vine, a free iOS app that allows iPhone and iPad users to create and post very sh...

Researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) on Wednesday announced their success at storing data by encoding it to DNA. The system could stand the test of time -- tens of thousands of years, perhaps This method for archiving data could make it possible to store 100 million hours of high-definition video in about a cup of DNA, a...

Research In Motion released a new version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Service mobile device management software on Wednesday. This comes just over a week before the official launch of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system and compatible handsets, and just days after RIM CEO Thorsten Heins suggested the company might abandon the hardware market and sharpen its focus on software...

Publisher Bethesda Softworks and game development studio ZeniMax Online Studios on Tuesday announced that beta signups were open for The Elder Scrolls Online. The long-running video game franchise is going in a new direction, one that will take players back in time -- a thousand years before the time period of the 2011 hit title The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -- and open the world to the masses. ...

CEO Thorsten Heins has suggested that Research In Motion may one day license its BlackBerry operating system and stop producing handset hardware, according to reports circulating Monday of an interview published in German daily Die Welt Whether such a move would help put the embattled company back on track or be the final step in a march to oblivi...

Hybrid and electric vehicles have marketed as the "cars of the future," but consumers just aren't getting in gear with alternative powertrains; neither hybrids nor electrics are rolling down the road in great numbers Although each year sees the introduction of new hybrids at auto shows, the most notable being the North American International Auto S...

Nokia on Friday released a 3D printing kit that will allow users to create their own custom cases for the Lumia 820. The handset, which was unveiled last September, features a removable shell case that lets users change the color of their phone or even enable options such as wireless charging ...

It used to be that the intersection of cars and technology could be found at theannual North American International Auto Show, aka the Detroit Auto Show, which is where the action is this week and next. The show has been known for drawing onlookers to ogle sleek,shiny concept cars with futuristic designs on the outside,and gadgets and applications right out of a Knight Riderepisode on the inside...

PC sales sank in the fourth quarter of 2012 due to increased competition from smartphones and tablet devices, Gartner said in a report released Monday Shipments totaled some 90.3 million units -- a 4.9 percent decline from the fourth quarter a year earlier, the firm found. In the U.S. market, PC shipments fell 2.1 percent from the year prior to 17....

With the holidays in the rear view mirror, many who did too much indulging have begun to notice a bulge that they may want to lose in the new year. It is easy to make and subsequently break new year's resolutions -- but the convergence of technology and fitness could help make it easier to keep them The consumer electronics industry has begun to e...

The original analog NTSC TV standard for sets that graced living rooms for decades was only phased out in 2009 after years of delays, extensions and efforts to reach a standard for digital TV, but already TV manufacturers are looking to the next big thing At this year's International CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, all th...

The 2013 International CES is in full swing, and it's easy to get caught up in all the hoopla over the latest and greatest tech gizmos on display. However, this is a cycle that repeats itself annually, and what's hot in Vegas this week may cool down faster than you can say "OLED." A year ago, OLED (organic light emitting diode) -- the latest develo...

The 2013 International CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) is the must-attend trade show for all things consumer electronics. It is a "must attend" not because it is when many companies will debut new products and introduce new technology, but because so many tech journalists, analysts, insiders and others -- lots of others -- descend on Las Vegas to see those new products and new technologies...

Microsoft could be cutting new inroads into the world of home automation, based on rumors circulating Thursday that it has purchased id8 Group R2 Studios. This acquisition will reportedly bolster Microsoft's Xbox division, which is likely to introduce a next-generation game console later this year R2 Studios was launched in 2011 by entrepreneur Bla...

Zynga has closed down 11 of its social games this week, including PetVille, Mafia Wars 2, Vampire Wars and Mafia Wars Shakedown. Some of the titles were completely shut down, while others were pulled from app stores or simply stopped accepting new players Zynga intends to reallocate resources to more successful titles while working to create new g...

Despite the arrival of a plethora of new tablets and Ultrabooks, plus a new operating system from Microsoft that was expected to drive PC sales, 2012 was a gloomy year for chip manufacturers. As any confident gambler might do when the chips are down, the leading consumer electronics original equipment manufacturers are expected to double down in 2013...

The Chinese government issued a set of new Internet rules on Friday. Internet users must now provide their real names to service providers, and ISPs are required to delete forbidden posts and report such activities to authorities. In other words, the so-called "Great Firewall of China" has been further fortified "This is just another indication t...

A revised version of Video Privacy Protection Act that would allow services such as Netflix to facilitate "frictionless sharing" of a user's viewing history via Facebook or other online services is awaiting President Obama's signature. The U.S. Senate passed the update to the 1988 law late last week; the same legislation cleared the House days ear...

An unavoidable part of the holidays is finding oneself in a less than flattering photo, but in the era of social media those seemingly "private" photos can become "public" all too easily. Often this can prompt a person unwittingly displayed to start beating the privacy drum. This week the cry for privacy came from a Zuckerberg -- namely Randi Zuck...

This story was originally published on Oct. 23, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series Many people know it's a bad idea to open attachments in email received from strangers, but relatively few know they need to take the same precautions when clicking links on social media sites and even VoIP (Voice Over IP) service...