Continuing its revamp of the Google+ social network that began in March, Google announced on Wednesday the addition of 41 new features and a redesign of the service, which it claims has 190 million active users. The changes focus on three areas -- the Google+ stream, photos, and the Hangouts feature. Among other things, Google+ will automatically add hashtags to posts, identify and rank related conversation ...

Google Maps, already the de facto standard for online and mobile maps, is breaking new ground with added capabilities announced on Wednesday at the Google I/O Conference in San Francisco. Maps will get 3D views, speech recognition, enhanced voice search capabilities and will leverage artificial intelligence, among other things. Google Maps for mobile is also being enhanced. The company is also added to Goog ...

You probably used some form of technology to book your room. You're Instagramming like a maniac. You've brought along your favorite travel gadgets. So it's only fitting that modern hotels jump on the tech bandwagon themselves. We started taking note of some ways that technology is making your hotel stay even easier; herewith some of our favorite tech-savvy accommodations across the country. 1. Check In Easi ...

Google announced on Monday that it was consolidating the storage allowances for its various products. It will now provide 15 GB of free storage space for use across Drive, Gmail and Google+ Photos. Before, Google gave users 10 GB for Gmail and 5 GB to be used for Drive and Google+ Photos. Google is also updating its Google Drive storage page with pie charts displaying how those 15 GB are being allocated. Us ...

Amazon is rumored to be developing two high-end smartphones, as well as an audio-streaming device, broadening its range of branded hardware products well beyond its current Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets and its expected -- though as yet unconfirmed -- TV set-top box. The big surprise in the latest rumor is that one of the smartphones might actually support 3D video, using retina-tracking technolo ...

Well it's spring storm season in many parts of the world, so it should come as no great surprise that we've had some storms here in the Linux blogosphere as well. Just in the last few weeks we've had the bank that decided Windows was cheaper; we've had the shockingly FUD-filled FOSS survey; and we've had less-than-entirely-flattering words said about Linux's waistline, to name just a few examples. Stormy de ...

Fake emails are sent by criminals in order to get your money, or to take advantage of your computer's processing power and Internet connection to launch Web-clogging Denial of Service attacks on other networks. This practice, aka "phishing," works by embedding dummy Trojan software on your PC, or by getting you to visit fake websites to enter personal details, or by capturing personal details directly from ...

YouTube viewers curious about what other users are watching across the country can now find out, thanks to a new feature from the streaming video site that displays data about what is being shared and viewed throughout the U.S. The new YouTube Trends Map, which made its debut this week, is an interactive graphic map of the country that displays which videos are the most popular in major markets nationwide. ...

Announced by TiVo this week, the DVR company is planning on discontinuing the free version of TiVo Desktop for PC on June 5, 2013. For those unfamiliar with the software, TiVo Desktop for PC allows users to connect to their TiVo hardware over the home’s Wi-Fi network and transfer content between the two devices. Basically, users can transfer any video content currently stored on their TiVo and watch it on a ...

Have you forgotten or lost your Facebook password? Relax. You can now turn to friends for help. Facebook on Thursday rolled out Trusted Contacts account recovery, a feature it has tested with a limited number of people as the Trusted Friends capability since 2011. Users can select three to five trusted contacts from their security settings at any time. These contacts should be available via phone or in pers ...