Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.
Another day, another apocalyptic prognostication of computer security doom, this time focusing on the omnipresent USB connection. It's called 'BadUSB', and it's a malware proof-of-concept created by security researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell that exploits a flaw in and resides in the firmware that controls the basic function of USB devices. The researchers claim that it's not a...
The new Qi v1.2 specification will enable wireless charging through even greater spans than before. The current Qi standard is capable of blasting power wirelessly through up to 7mm of space, but the new standard amps that up to 45mm (1.77 inches). This will make it much easier to embed Qi chargers inside of things (like desks, tables, cars, blocks of cheese, etc). Qi 1.2 chargers...
Update: Iliad has confirmed with a press release that it is indeed making the bid for T-Mobile, and has submitted the offer to T-Mo's Board of Directors. Iliad's owners and Board of Directors have unanimously approved the deal, which would see Iliad paying $15 billion in cash for 56.6 percent of T-Mobile, valuing it at $36.20 per share, a 42 percent premium over its current stock price...
Transcend MicroSD cards are on sale today only at Amazon. You can grab a Transcend 32GB MicroSDHC Class 10 (with adapter) for $13.99 (that's 63% off) or a Transcend 64GB MicroSDXC card (also with adapter) for $28.99 (42% off). If you've been wanting to increase the storage space of your smartphone, today might be a good day to make that purchase. Added bonus: they both come in "...
It's not easy to make it as an app developer. That's the key takeaway from the latest State of the Developer Nation report from Vision Mobile, pulling together data from more than 10,000 mobile developers (including some of you) across 137 countries. With that many developers they were able to get a broad view of what's popular and (more importantly) what's successful in making great...
Crushed by a flood of commenters, the FCC has extended the open comment period for their Open Internet proceedings until Friday. When we wrote about the importance of net neutrality back in May, the FCC had opened the door for open comment, and that window was due to close today. But after having been smashed yesterday and today by people like you registering their thoughts with the FCC...
Microsoft has started rolling out Lumia Cyan with Windows Phone 8.1 to Lumia devices. With Windows Phone 8.1, Lumia Cyan owners will get several new features, including a third column in the launcher, Wi-Fi Sense, the new Notification and Action center, and — perhaps most importantly — Cortana. On the Lumia-specific front, Lumia Cyan brings an updated camera experience with a newly...
Bing is pretty great as far as a service goes, but all that greatness can only been seen in its entirety in the United States — but if Microsoft's ambitions for Bing can be followed through, international Bing users will have less to complain about. Microsoft's posted a job listing for Senior Business Development Manager — Bing International with the goal of hiring somebody to drive...
Adobe's flagship Photoshop image editor is in for a big update. Details of the upcoming Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 were revealed today, with some notably cool update coming to everybody's favorite image editor, Photoshop. The CC 2014 version of Photoshop is getting a new Focus Mask tool (you can see it in the video above), which will automatically select the in-focus portion of a photo...
Sprint has signed agreements with 12 carriers to expand the LTE footprint of everybody involved. The dozen carriers, all smaller regional and rural networks, cover 34 million Americans not touched by Sprint's fledgling LTE network. The roaming agreements will expand Sprint's LTE coverage into those areas, as well as giving those carriers access to Sprint's network. The carriers...
Internet Explorer is getting a dev channel! Like Google's Chrome browser, those interested in trying out the latest bleeding-edge features in Internet Explorer will now have a developer version that they can use. The Internet Explorer Developer Channel offers numerous updates to the F12 developer tools, allowing those coding for the web to test their stuff on the latest and greatest...
The eBay app for Windows Phone was today updated to better serve shoppers outside of the United States and Canada. The update to version 1.5.1.20 brings a lot of features that international shoppers are sure to appreciate. The eBay app's last major update came in April with a full-on redesign. The new update is more subtle, and not even something eBay users in the United States would...
![Feedly RSS service crippled by ongoing DDoS attack [update]](https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/w250h188crop/public/field/image/2014/06/nextgen_broken_sync_925_hero.JPG)
Update: It looks like Feedly was able to neutralize the DDoS attack that crippled the news reader service for hours today. "We have neutralized DDoS attack that began at 2:04am PST last night," the company wrote in a blog post, noting that "it might take a few hours for some of the 40 millions feeds we poll to be fully updated." Feedly should work now on the website and through various...
Normally the offer is off the table the instant you walk out the door with your new phone, but for the month of June any customer on Sprint will be able walk back in that door of no return and purchase insurance for their device. The offer doesn't change the price or service at all — it's still $11-a-month for the Ausurion-provided loss/theft/damage replacement, or $13/month for Total...
![Steve Ballmer reported to be bidding $1.8 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers [Updated]](https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/w250h188crop/public/field/image/2013/12/Steve_Ballmer.jpg)
What do Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison, and Magic Johnson have in common? They're all interested in buying the Los Angeles Clippers from embattled owners Shelly and Donald Sterling. The auction, said to be a blind bidding process in which those bidding do not know what their competition has offered, is moving quickly, with the Sterlings looking to unload the NBA franchise after Donald's...
Softbank is making an end-run around concerns about a merger of Sprint and T-Mobile US by instead hitting up T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom. As reported by Japanese news agency Kyodo, Japan-based Softbank has entered into an agreement with Germany-based Deutsche Telekom to buy the latter's ownership stake in US carrier T-Mobile. The US Federal Communications Commission and...
Microsoft is teasing that Cortana will soon be coming to the UK. We're big fans of the Cortana voice assistant that comes built into Windows Phone 8.1, except for that it's currently limited to only the United States. That hasn't stopped people from working their way around the restriction, but Microsoft knows that the 6.8 billion people that live outside the USA might also want access...
The Nokia Lumia 930 has appeared for pre-order across Europe. The high-end Windows Phone device, available from Expansys and other retailers, is priced right around €530, though the price varies from country to country. And unlike some other retailers and regions, most Lumia 930 buyers in Europe will have the option of all four colors — black, white, orange, and green — when it comes to...
Spotify today announced that their serves has suffered breach, providing somebody somewhere unauthorized access to their systems and "internal company data". But in a strange twist, Spotify's internal investigation into the matter turned up evidence of only one user's data having been accessed, and that data did not include anything you might consider sensitive (e.g. password or payment...
While many of us expected that we would be seeing a Surface Mini at yesterday's "small" event from Microsoft, we didn't get that — but that's not to say that there isn't a Surface Mini in Microsoft's research and development labs somewhere. In fact, there was very much one, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former Nokia CEO and now Microsoft EVP of Devices & Services Stephen Elop...