Amazon rolls out iOS-optimized MP3 store

Watch your back, iTunes: Amazon's now in the game of selling digital music to iOS users. The retail giant has optimized its store to let owners of iPhones and iPod touches browse and purchase from its 22-million song catalog. To sidestep Apple's rules about taking 30 percent of purchases, though, Amazon's store isn't available via a native app, but rather in a Web interface that iOS users can access via Safari atwww.amazon.com/mp3....

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Intel sales, profits slide for 2012, but data center business growing

Intel saw its sales and profits drop in 2012 as the company was hit by slower demand for personal computers and its continued inability to make it big in the smartphone and tablet markets, although its data center business continued to grow. The world's biggest chip maker reported revenue of US$53.3 billion for the year, down 1.2 percent compared with 2011, and posted net income of $11 billion, down 15 percent. Full-year revenue...

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'Make me Asian' app yanked from Google Play amidst racism concerns

An app called "Make me Asian" that added details like narrowed eyes and conical hats to screenshots of users has been pulled from the Google Play store after inciting widespread public outrage, including a Change.org petition that was signed by more than 8,400 supporters. MORE MOBILE: Hottest Android news and rumors for week ending Jan. 18 "Make me Asian," along with the similarly offensive "Make me Indian," which featured...

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Three reasons Facebook Graph Search is good for business

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a plan this week to make all of the Likes, check-ins, and photo tags on Facebook actually mean something with the launch of Graph Search. The service is in early beta, and is not yet widely available, but the concept has some valuable implications for businesses on Facebook. Here are three ways that small and medium businesses can benefit from Facebook Graph Search: 1. Engagement Facebook is...

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Nokia Lumia 820 owners can customize their phone with 3D printers

Nokia is embracing the 3D printing community by releasing files that will let smartphone users create their own custom shells. Owners of its Lumia 820 smartphone will be the first to have the opportunity, the company said in a blog post on Friday. The move is mostly about marketing, as Nokia looks for ways to make its products stand out, according to Malik Saadi, principal analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media. The...

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'Aaron's Law' could have unintended consequences

The suicide of Internet wunderkind Aaron Swartz has prompted a variation on the classic "there-ought-to-be-a-law" response to tragedy. In this case, it's, "There ought to be an amendment to the law," to prevent what critics have called overzealous prosecution and vastly disproportionate sentencing guidelines. The law in this case is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), invoked by federal prosecutors to bring a 13-count...

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Tech hotshots: The rise of the UX expert

Roberto Masiero vividly remembers the moment in 2011 when it became clear to him that designing a mobile application was a considerably different effort than designing a desktop application. As head of the innovation labs for ADP, the $10 billion payroll services firm, he managed the engineering team tasked with creating ADP Mobile, the company's version of its human capital management application for mobile devices. "We...

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EU Commissioner Kroes won't be bullied on net neutrality, says spokesman

Europe's digital agenda commissioner will not succumb to pressure on the issue of net neutrality, her spokesman said via Twitter on Friday. In response to allegations by digital rights organization La Quadrature du Net that Commissioner Neelie Kroes had caved in to telecoms operators and was giving up on net neutrality, her spokesman Ryan Heath tweeted, "anyone thinking @NeelieKroesEU would let herself be bullied...

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Megaupload successor to offer 50GB free storage

A year to the day after his Megaupload sites were shuttered by the U.S. Department of Justice for copyright infringement, Kim Dotcom unveiled plans for a new file-sharing site offering 50GB of free space to members. Dotcom posted the announcement on Twitter this week, saying that he also hopes to transfer all data from his defunct Megaupload site to the new site, Mega. Mega will be listed under the New Zealand-based domain...

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Lands' End, software vendor at contract impasse after 20-year relationship

Lands' End is at legal loggerheads with its longtime payroll software vendor over how much longer the clothier can lawfully use the application, with US$1 million in potential fees hanging in the balance. Lands' End signed a 20-year contract with Genesys Software Systems in January 1993, but the software didn't go live until Oct. 28 of that year, according to its complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court for the Western...

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CA upgrades workload automation software

CA Technologies has released the latest update to its Workload Automation software (WLA) featuring more powerful analytics tools, a streamlined user interface and expanded functionality for managing business processes throughout the enterprise. CA competes with IBM, BMC and others on workload automation. The newest release expands support for SQL Server and has enhancements to the variety of job types that can be...

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Violin Memory buys Gridiron for fast flash storage access

Flash storage vendor Violin Memory has acquired Gridiron Systems for an undisclosed sum and plans to use the company's application acceleration smarts with its flash arrays. Gridiron's operations units have already been integrated into Violin. The two companies are set to formally announce the deal on Monday. Both companies are privately held. Gridiron sells an appliance that slots in between an enterprise's storage and servers...

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Jobs' house burglar gets seven-year sentence

The man who broke into the Palo Alto, California, home of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and stole laptops, iPads and other possessions has been sentenced to seven years in a California state prison. Kariem McFarlin, 35, was arrested in August last year by officers from the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, a Silicon Valley-based high-tech crime unit formed by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. REACT officers...

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5 PC industry omens hidden in Intel's financial statements

Multiply the joy of watching paint dry by the sheer pleasure of watching grass grow, and you'll get a decent idea of how exciting it is to parse the average corporate earnings report. But everything changes when those numbers come from Intel. Don't get me wrong: Intel's Thursday afternoon earning's call was still soul-suckingly boring. But as one of the cornerstones of the old Wintel homogeny, Intel's yearly results and...

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