Open source became big business in 2009[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:10:00 PST ]Open source has always been an important sideshow for software vendors, but in 2009 it became the main event thanks to Google.

Microsoft, Intel to cede tablet market to Apple?[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 10:04:00 PST ]If the Apple tablet emerges as expected, this could be another market that Cupertino takes from right under the PC companies' noses.

Kindle is most gifted Amazon item, ever[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:19:00 PST ]Statement on holiday sales declares the Kindle king; On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, more books for the e-reader sold than physical copies.

Police to put drunk drivers' names on Twitter[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:17:00 PST ]Montgomery County, Texas, decides that the best way to deter those who want to drink and drive over the festive period is to out them on the microblog.

Google makes its home page a Chrome page[ Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:40:00 PST ]Without apparent notice or fanfare, Google adorns its home page with a very visible ad for Chrome.

Flexing the boundaries of flash memory[ Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:50:00 PST ]Flash memory is already a part of our daily computing lives. A breakthrough in flexible material may open many new market opportunities.

AT&T ceases online iPhone sales in NY area[ Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:45:00 PST ]Customers with metropolitan New York ZIP code trying to buy an iPhone on the wireless carrier's Web site are greeted with a message saying no phones are available. Is data congestion or credit card fraud to blame?

Escaped convict continues to update Facebook[ Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:15:00 PST ]Craig "Lazie" Lynch has been on the run from a U.K. prison since September. However, he continues to taunt police by updating his Facebook status. Now he is threatening to quit.

Roller coaster year for video games[ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:56:31 EST ]In January, sales were up 13 percent over the year before, reported industry analyst the NPD Group, and that trend continued in February, with a 10 percent boost over 2008.

Mall of America tweets parking info[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:19:39 EST ]One of the messiest aspects of the holiday season is fighting the holiday traffic, especially during the last-minute shopping rush. But the Mall of America, the mammoth shopping center outside Minneapolis-St. Paul, is turning to technology to ease the parking pain.

BlackBerry users hit by outages[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:32:35 EST ]Service outages plagued BlackBerry customers across North America on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, leaving them without e-mail and Internet for more than eight hours.

Jailbreak fugitive updates Facebook page[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:11:13 EST ]British police have appealed for information about the whereabouts of an escaped prisoner who has been telling the world via Facebook about his life as a fugitive.

DDoS attack hobbles sites, including Amazon[ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:00:42 EST ]An attack directed at the DNS provider for some of the Internet's larger e-commerce companies -- including Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Expedia -- took several Internet shopping sites offline Wednesday evening, two days before Christmas.

Micro-blogs in China: Tweeting through the Great Firewall[ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:03:52 EST ]A handful of homegrown micro-blogging sites emerged about the same time Twitter started to gain a small, yet steadily growing, share of Chinese Internet users, beginning about 2007, around a year after Twitter was launched in the U.S. in 2006.

Recycle yule into Christmas alt-fuel[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:36:46 EST ]For all the joy of Christmas morning, there's certainly a lot of waste involved.

Boeing's 787, as innovative inside as outside[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:39:28 EST ]Oh sure, Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner is made of composite materials and it's super fuel efficient, but unless you own an airline, the only thing you care about is how comfortable it is. Boeing knows this, and has striven to give passengers an experience unlike any other airplane.

Training day for astronaut mom[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:41:21 EST ]Gearing up for blast off on a Russian Soyuz rocket is a tricky balancing act for Cady Coleman, who can spend one evening cooking dinner and picking up toys and the next preparing to orbit the Earth at 17,000 mph.

Ford brings Wi-Fi to the highway[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:26:11 EST ]Ford is making its cars into mobile Wi-Fi hot spots. The next generation of the Sync in-car entertainment and information system will use a USB mobile broadband modem to establish a secure wireless connection.

Snowflakes on Christmas cards drawn wrong[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:09:13 GMT ]In pop culture depictions, snowflakes are usually drawn inaccurately, an expert now says. Snowflakes are six-cornered, rather than the four-, five- and eight-cornered crystals typically depicted in children's books, Christmas cards and even in an ad for a science magazine.

Decrepit stars locate the fountain of youth[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:46:23 GMT ]Mysterious old stars that look oddly young found the fountain of youth via two means, new research finds. Some rely on vampirism to suck the life out of a companion star, while others are rejuvenated in cosmic collisions.

Why bees always have a safe landing[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:12:52 GMT ]Whether landing on a picnic table, underneath a flower petal, or on a wall of a hive, bees always manage to touch down without crashing or tumbling.

BlackBerry users suffer second outage in a week[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:26:15 GMT ]BlackBerry e-mail service in North America was restored for some users Wednesday morning following its second outage in less than a week.

Netbook decision: Windows XP or 7 Starter?[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:47:31 GMT ]Some critics think Microsoft's previous operating system, Windows Home XP, remains a better choice for netbooks than Windows 7 Starter. Both versions are being sold on netbooks.

Cool gifts for shutterbugs[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:47:07 GMT ]From a practical gift of a spare battery to a lavish new camera lens, these are add-ons that any shutterbug would love.

10 best video games of 2009[ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:28:02 GMT ]The last year has been a difficult one for the game industry. And yet, 2009 has still managed to deliver a bumper crop of truly excellent and even inspiring games.

Cosmic Log: Pick the weirdest wonders[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:38:43 GMT ]Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Which of the past year's scientific discoveries were the weirdest? Cast your official ballot for the 2010 Weird Science Awards.

Wondering about the ‘Star of Wonder’[ Tue, 9 Dec 2008 20:38:43 GMT ]What could the Christmas Star have been? Astronomers say the most likely candidate was actually a series of planetary conjunctions that peaked on June 17 in the year 2 B.C.

Take spectacular holiday photos[ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:00:10 GMT ]A little planning and preparation can help you take holiday photos that you will be happy to share with family and friends now and over the years to come.

Flixster/Rotten Tomatoes/MySpace mystery solved[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:59:00 PST ]A complex, potential deal centers on News Corp.'s Rotten Tomatoes merging with Flixster, a social-networking site for movies. The resulting company's content could then be threaded throughout News Corp.'s MySpace.

How tech touched the '00s[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:46:00 PST ]Among the multitude of end-of-decade lists, the Associated Press rounds up 50 lifestyle trends. Whether it's surprising or not, tech-related items make up nearly half.

FCC member berates Verizon for termination fees[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:39:00 PST ]Commissioner Mignon Clyburn says in an open letter that she find Verizon's defense of its early termination fees to be "unsatisfying and, in some cases, troubling."

Ford sees bump in hybrid sales[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:59:00 PST ]Carmaker says its hybrid sales are up 67 percent this year, despite an 11 percent slump industrywide.

The 10 best new Firefox add-ons of 2009[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 PST ]2009 felt like a rebuilding year for Firefox add-ons, with two new frameworks created to help guide the future of extensions. But that doesn't mean there weren't any cool debuts. Check out list of the best new add-ons from the past 12 months.

Top-rated reviews of the week (photos)[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:00:00 PST ]Here are a few of CNET's favorite items from the past week, including the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700, Asus Eee PC 1005PE Netbook, and the Mitsubishi LT-46249.

Open source became big business in 2009[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:10:00 PST ]Open source has always been an important sideshow for software vendors, but in 2009 it became the main event thanks to Google.

Microsoft, Intel to cede tablet market to Apple?[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 10:04:00 PST ]If the Apple tablet emerges as expected, this could be another market that Cupertino takes from right under the PC companies' noses.

Kindle is most gifted Amazon item, ever[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:19:00 PST ]Statement on holiday sales declares the Kindle king; On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, more books for the e-reader sold than physical copies.

Police to put drunk drivers' names on Twitter[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:17:00 PST ]Montgomery County, Texas, decides that the best way to deter those who want to drink and drive over the festive period is to out them on the microblog.

Roller coaster year for video games[ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:56:31 EST ]In January, sales were up 13 percent over the year before, reported industry analyst the NPD Group, and that trend continued in February, with a 10 percent boost over 2008.

Mall of America tweets parking info[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:19:39 EST ]One of the messiest aspects of the holiday season is fighting the holiday traffic, especially during the last-minute shopping rush. But the Mall of America, the mammoth shopping center outside Minneapolis-St. Paul, is turning to technology to ease the parking pain.

BlackBerry users hit by outages[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:32:35 EST ]Service outages plagued BlackBerry customers across North America on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, leaving them without e-mail and Internet for more than eight hours.

Jailbreak fugitive updates Facebook page[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:11:13 EST ]British police have appealed for information about the whereabouts of an escaped prisoner who has been telling the world via Facebook about his life as a fugitive.

DDoS attack hobbles sites, including Amazon[ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:00:42 EST ]An attack directed at the DNS provider for some of the Internet's larger e-commerce companies -- including Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Expedia -- took several Internet shopping sites offline Wednesday evening, two days before Christmas.

Micro-blogs in China: Tweeting through the Great Firewall[ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:03:52 EST ]A handful of homegrown micro-blogging sites emerged about the same time Twitter started to gain a small, yet steadily growing, share of Chinese Internet users, beginning about 2007, around a year after Twitter was launched in the U.S. in 2006.

Recycle yule into Christmas alt-fuel[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:36:46 EST ]For all the joy of Christmas morning, there's certainly a lot of waste involved.

Boeing's 787, as innovative inside as outside[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:39:28 EST ]Oh sure, Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner is made of composite materials and it's super fuel efficient, but unless you own an airline, the only thing you care about is how comfortable it is. Boeing knows this, and has striven to give passengers an experience unlike any other airplane.

Training day for astronaut mom[ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:41:21 EST ]Gearing up for blast off on a Russian Soyuz rocket is a tricky balancing act for Cady Coleman, who can spend one evening cooking dinner and picking up toys and the next preparing to orbit the Earth at 17,000 mph.

Ford brings Wi-Fi to the highway[ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:26:11 EST ]Ford is making its cars into mobile Wi-Fi hot spots. The next generation of the Sync in-car entertainment and information system will use a USB mobile broadband modem to establish a secure wireless connection.

Snowflakes on Christmas cards drawn wrong[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:09:13 GMT ]In pop culture depictions, snowflakes are usually drawn inaccurately, an expert now says. Snowflakes are six-cornered, rather than the four-, five- and eight-cornered crystals typically depicted in children's books, Christmas cards and even in an ad for a science magazine.

Decrepit stars locate the fountain of youth[ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:46:23 GMT ]Mysterious old stars that look oddly young found the fountain of youth via two means, new research finds. Some rely on vampirism to suck the life out of a companion star, while others are rejuvenated in cosmic collisions.