DIGITAL LIFE

For those enterprising individuals who enjoy tinkering with their tech, you should know DMCA protections are set to expire for jailbreaking iPhones, and that means it could become illegal. Jailbreaking any device (iPhones included) would be copyright infringement under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that was passed in the U.S. in 1998. In 2010, an exemption was issued for smartphones under the act, and that allowed for legal jailbreaks. The exemption was only for two years, and in just a co...

Samsung has been busy updating many of their top smartphones in the new year, and one of them is the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket on AT&T. The new HD version showed up at CES 2012, and the main difference is the improved display that now comes on the 4G LTE-enabled device. But both are fast, thin, full-featured devices like most of Samsung's pricier phones. The S2 Skyrocket HD improves on the original's 800x480 pixels and introduces a true HD 1280x720 version of the Super AMOLED display.

California lawmakers are already drawing up plans for spending revenue generated from wealth tied to selling shares in Facebook, which took its first step toward its highly anticipated initial public offering on Wednesday.

Germany's OHB AG confirmed it won a 250 million euro ($330 million) contract to build eight satellites for the European Union's Galileo navigation system.

Investors jumped on Facebook's regulatory filings on Wednesday for a glimpse into the company's inner workings ahead of one of the hottest initial public offerings in recent history. But there are also potential downsides.

He may have derided Android devices in real life but in the afterlife Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs is glad he can use one -- or at least that's the story a Jobs look-alike tells in a recent TV commercial for a Taiwanese electronics company's new product.

As Facebook hurtles toward one of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history, its honeymoon with investors may already be over.

Facebook aims to connect all two billion Internet users. So far it has captured 845 million of them. Of the rest, nearly 60 percent live in Asia and hooking them is going to be a daunting challenge.

Even though Apple doesn't like to reveal anything about its new releases before an official announcement, legions of fans want to know what they can look forward to when Apple upgrades the iPad 2 to the iPad 3 (or iPad 2S). That's because $500 is enough money to get people to think hard about buying the iPad 2 this close to an iPad 3 launch.

Two of the biggest most expensive smartphones in the world face off in the battle of the Samsung Galaxy Note and Motorola Droid Razr Maxx. Both devices are unique full featured Android-powered devices costing $300 on contract. Both should get the Android 4.0 update in the next two months, although there is no timetable set as to when exactly that may happen.

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer probe has detected particles of neon and oxygen that did not originate in our solar system, and this tells us a bit more about what our galaxy is made of, NASA said in a release Jan. 31. The probe, called IBEX for short, is meant to study the mysterious boundaries of our solar system, the edge of the sun's atmosphere called the heliosphere.

Rolltop is a mind-blowing concept design that uses a flexible OLED screen to combine laptop, tablet and monitor into one easy to carry, fun product. It's pretty far out, but that's what we love about it. Should such a concept be possible today, it would no doubt be prohibitively expensive, but that is what smart concept designs are all about. It's a portable device that literally rolls up like a sushi roll, and clips to a handy strap to sling over your shoulder.

Apple's iPhone 4S has been extremely popular since its debut, so popular in fact, the Chinese debut in January 2012 nearly caused a riot when the six licensed Apple stores sold out of the devices. Still, it does cost $200, so if you're not quite ready to spend that much, you should consider the iPhone 4. The difference may not be enough for you to decide to spend the extra $100, but at least you can factor that in to your next smartphone purchase.

Amazon.com Inc's shares slid 12 percent in early trade on fears that heavy spending would hurt the retailer's profits even as revenue growth falls short of Wall Street expectations.

A potentially deadlier form of the bird flu virus poses one of the gravest known threats to humans and justifies an unprecedented call to censor the research that produced it, a top U.S. biosecurity official said on Tuesday.

The health impact of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday.

Russia blamed radiation on Tuesday for a computer glitch that doomed its Mars moon mission, but space industry experts cast doubt on the findings of an investigation into the crash of what was to be Moscow's first deep space mission in two decades.

South Korea's LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.2 TV maker, swung to a profit in the fourth quarter as its latest smartphone model helped its ailing handset unit post a small profit after six consecutive quarterly losses.

Apple Inc has hired Dixons Chief Executive John Browett, who revived the British electronics retailer by emphasizing customer service, to lead the iPad maker's global retail expansion.

Facebook is expected to submit paperwork to regulators on Wednesday morning for a $5 billion initial public offering and has selected Morgan Stanley and four other bookrunners to handle the mega-IPO, sources close to the deal told IFR.

Sony Corp named Vice President Kazuo Hirai as president and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer who will step down from day-to-day management in a long-expected change for a company struggling to regain its driving force in consumer electronics.

There are countless iPhone charging docks in all manners of shapes and sizes. However, all of them cannot be compared to the Possession Book Charging Dock in terms of novelty.

Even as the protests against Apple's workers mistreatment practice are surging incessantly, there are still thousands of Chinese job seekers who are lining up in front of the gates of Foxconn, the company's major product manufacturer in China, hoping that they will be hired to work on iPhone 5 production.

Internet search engine giant Google has sent a 13-page letter to eight members of the House of Representatives to defend its privacy policy consolidation, after the Congress members expressed their concerns about the change.

The protests against Apple's worker mistreatment practice are surging wave upon wave. A recent online petition demands the tech giant to take further steps in protecting workers and make its next iPhone the first ethical iPhone.

Iconic rock musician Neil Young shared a passion for great sounding music with Apple founder Steve Jobs, but Young expressed his dismay at Apple's seemingly disinterested stance on high-definition music since Jobs died. Jobs had wanted to improve the quality of music available on iTunes, but Apple has not made any overtures to that affect since Jobs' death, Young said during an interview at News Corp.'s D: Dive into Media conference Jan. 31.

Apple's iPad 2 and Acer's Iconia Tab A200 are both 10-inch tablets, but the Iconia Tab is $150 less than than the iPad. The A200 lacks a rear-facing camera and has no HDMI port for plugging into an HDTV, but that may not equal a $150 difference. It's a bit thicker than iPad, and some users have complained about poor sound quality, so add those up, and the A200 comes off as a discount tablet, but a decent one for sure. It's even scheduled to get the Android 4.0 update.

Using the iOS 5.0.1 Untethered Jailbreak on your Apple devices could become illegal if the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) grace period expires in two weeks. In fact, any jail-breaking of devices would become illegal if the two-year long grace period expires, but it only opens up jail-breakers to potential lawsuits. It would not be a criminal act, but if you are the type of person who enjoys flashing custom ROMs on your gear, here is the latest.

A company called Flurry looked at Android tablet sales over the holiday season in 2011, and found the Asus Transformer lost out to the Kindle Fire in the best selling Android tablet category. Flurry looked at which tablets spent the most time in a series of apps the company is involved in, and determined the Amazon Kindle Fire was the top dog in the rapidly growing Android tablet space. The previous leader was the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and in just a few months, the Kindle Fire knocked it out of th...