Software | featured news

Look out, Android: three challengers are gunning for your app cash. Firefox OS, Tizen, and Ubuntu Touch have all made their debuts at mobile industry shindig Mobile World Congress this week. And in my opinion, Samsung and the mobile industry are backing the wrong horses.

Hackers targeted dozens of computer systems at government agencies across Europe in a series of attacks that exploited a recently discovered security flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's software, security researchers reported on Wednesday.

Software and tech hardware companies have to protect their secrets and shield their upcoming products from the prying eyes of competition right up to the day they choose to announce. In a multi-billion dollar industry like gaming, market players take this kind of thing seriously. Very seriously. An Australian hacker was visited by a handful of law enforcement officials this week on allegations that he’s been stealing intel about the not-yet-released new Xbox, a Microsoft product.

The New York Police Department has teamed up with Microsoft to create futuristic-sounding computer technology that could help officers fight crime in real time....

Duolingo taps into crowdsourcing to teach a language and translate the Web... His free Duolingo app and website invite users to learn one of six languages for free. The gamelike interface is ad-free and encourages users to compete with friends. But here's the thing: After about 45 minutes of instruction, the program begins asking users to translate random sentences into their new language. Von Ahn plans to sell the sentences to sites that want their material translated on the Web. He expects that half of the service to be up and running later this year.

Mac computers have stopped running programs written using the Java programming language in their browsers, as Apple blocked it because of security problems.

After lengthy delays, Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled its first two phones with the new BlackBerry 10 system. The Q10 will have a physical keyboard, while the Z10 has only a touch-screen keyboard. RIM also announced a company name change to BlackBerry to maintain a single brand.

The long-awaited smartphone has been designed to retain, and bring back, the corporate users that once propelled RIM to success.

Microsoft launches its new Office software suite which attempts to make its core productivity software easier to use on touch-screen PCs.

The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company....