You Won’t Believe All the Crazy Hardware the NSA Uses for Spying

The NSA’s Sears catalog for spies has been released.

What the NSA Might Have Wanted to Learn From Tracking Your Phone

A mobile phone’s location is a rich trove of useful data, so it’s no wonder that the spy agency experimented with it.

A New Touch for iPhone

Reliable fingerprint technology and a major system overhaul make the iPhone 5s the leader of the smartphone pack.

News Byte

Maxthon Partners With Android Chipmaker to Preload Mobile Browser in Emerging Markets

Maxthon announced today that, via a new partnership with RollTech, the mobile version of its alternative Web browser will be preloaded onto more than 100 million smartphones in 2014. RollTech is a subsidiary of MediaTek, the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer that claims to be the third-largest global supplier of chipsets for Android devices. Maxthon hopes to build inroads with customers in emerging markets where Internet penetration is currently low but improving thanks to the increasing affordability of mobile devices.

Apple Takes Home Three Brand of the Year Awards

Harris Interactive names Apple “Brand of the Year” in tablets, mobile phones and computers.

Tech Spending Will Reach $3.7 Trillion in 2013, Gartner Predicts

Good news, bad news, who knows?

Voices

Microsoft-Nokia Advanced Talks Recently Broke Down

Microsoft Corp. was recently in advanced discussions with Nokia Corp. about a purchase of the Finnish company’s device business, according to people familiar with the matter, in a marriage that could have reshaped the mobile-phone industry.

Voices

Phone Firms Sell Data on Customers

Big phone companies have begun to sell the vast troves of data they gather about their subscribers’ locations, travels and Web-browsing habits.

Financial Crimes Topped State-Sponsored Hacking Incidents in 2012

Hacking for profit, not politics, still dominates.

Amid PC Sales Slide, All Eyes on Intel’s Quarterly Results

Bad, worse or ….?

What LG Will Do With webOS