Spotlight Features

If you had the option to pick your own price for a computer game that only runs on your Linux rig, would you pay to play? Not if you are a typical Linux gamer. At least, that's the popular perception of fans of free and open source software. Linux is available freely. So why pay for a game -- or any...

Consumers are savvier than ever. They're also much less likely to be swayed by traditional, in-your-face advertising and commercials. They want, instead, to be entertained and engaged by marketers. In short, consumers just want to have fun. Marketers and e-commerce retailers are, therefore, looking ...

For thousands of years, auctions remained largely unchanged -- until 1995, when a computer programmer posted a single item online. The result: A broken laser pointer found a home, and Pierre Omidyar founded eBay. Unlike its slow-to-change offline predecessor, the online auction has gone through som...

If you use Linux instead of Microsoft Windows, its free availability may well be a deciding factor. But the fact that virus and malware contamination are less likely to take down your Linux computers is no doubt an essential influencing factor as well. But does using a more popular Linux distro like...

London's burning, and it may lead to a clampdown on social media in the UK. UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday suggested censoring social media in response to the violence. Mobs reportedly communicating in part through BlackBerry Messenger, and later social media sites, wreaked havoc throug...

It just makes sense that consumers tend to trust the opinions and recommendations of friends before they trust those of advertisers, promoters and retailers. Social shopping sites, which combine features of social networking with online sales, seek to capitalize on the sharing and trust that exist b...

The number of attacks on Android devices has been rising over the past few months. The malware has exotic names such as "Zitmo," "DroidDreamLight," "Hong Tou Tou," "DroidKungFu," "YZHCSMS," "Geinimi" and "Plankton." In January 2010, Google removed more than 50 fake banking apps from the Android mark...

Broadband service providers in the United States are celebrating the results of the Federal Communications Commission's findings on the contentious question of broadband speeds in the country. The FCC has found that actual sustained download speeds are much closer to the speeds advertised by ISPs th...

When ICE identifies a site that is violating copyright and/or intellectual property laws, it obtains a warrant from a United States court granting it the authority to seize the URL. At that point, ICE takes down the streams and throws up an intimidating warning that is overlaid on a red background w...

Visual product configuration software is increasingly allowing consumers to design their own products, from shoes to tattoos, before purchasing them. The ability to design-before-you-buy gives consumers a sense of power and independence -- and it's also just a lot of fun. "People enjoy the build pro...