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Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car company Tesla Motors, has left a fledgling political action group founded by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, after the group bankrolled ads that angered environmentalists and others.

Musk and former PayPal colleague David Sacks -- founder of Yammer, which helps companies set up in-house social networks -- left FWD.us on Friday, according to various reports.

The launch of FWD.us last month was accompanied by a Zuckerberg-penned opinion piece in the Washington Post that spelled out the group's goals, including: changes to U.S. immigration law, with an eye toward attracting and keeping talented … Read more

Last month, Sen. Mark Udall and a handful of other privacy-focused politicians persuaded the IRS to promise to cease warrantless searches of Americans' private correspondence.

Now Udall, a Colorado Democrat, is taking aim at the Justice Department, which has claimed the right to conduct warrantless searches of Americans' e-mail, Facebook chats, and other private communications.

"I am extremely concerned that the Justice Department and FBI are justifying warrantless searches of Americans' electronic communications based on a loophole in an outdated law that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled was unconstitutional," Udall said in … Read more

It's been well-chronicled that when Instagram was sold to Facebook last year, it spurned similar interest from Twitter, probably leading to bad blood between the two companies and a tit-for-tat series of feature shutdowns and one-upmanship.

But a new Vanity Fair story by AllThingsD co-founder Kara Swisher spells out in detail just how disappointed Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was upon learning that he'd lost out on the opportunity not just to buy Instagram, but to acquire the talents of the photo app's co-founder, Kevin Systrom, a friend.

Social-gaming company Zynga staked its claim with FarmVille. And now -- when Zynga has been reaping more than sowing -- the company will rely on that same title to restore its ailing operation.

In a Reuters interview published Monday, Pincus said his company is relying on FarmVille 2 to rebuild. The company's revenue jumped to $1.2 billion in 2012, but losses continue to pile up.

A key component to the turnaround plan is to give FarmVille players the same experience on mobile as on desktop.

"The ideal is to make that one seamless experience between Web and … Read more

First announced in October 2012, version 1.2.1 of the Canon EOS 5D Mark III firmware will allow users to output a clean HDMI feed. One of the key disadvantages up until now for the Mark III has been the extra information that is output alongside the Live View image when using HDMI out, which made the footage unusable for actual recording purposes.

The update allows users to record uncompressed (YCbCr 4:2:2, 8 bit) video to an external recorder or display it on an external monitor during filming. This puts the Mark III in line with several … Read more

I feel kind of sorry for any geek looking to propose to a partner these days. The bar keeps getting set higher and higher. We've had a 4-hour video game proposal, an elaborate "Harry Potter" Quidditch proposal, and a physics paper proposal. Now a romantic guy figured out how to have the engagement ring flown in for his proposal, adding a bit of "Air Wolf" excitement to the proceedings.

As do many successful proposals, Jason's proposal to Christina began with a ruse. He lured her to Alamo Square park in San Francisco under the pretense of doing a photo shoot. He got her to talk to the camera and share her wishes for the baby they'll be having together. All was perfectly normal until a strange whirring noise came from the sky.… Read more

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer describes her scheme for fueling company growth as a kind of chain reaction. It goes like this: great people leads to great products and increased ubiquity, which drives user growth and higher engagement, leading to higher advertiser spending and ultimately more revenue.

That chain reaction underlies almost every business offering free services dependent on advertising to pay the bills. Like Mayer, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is seeking ways to get his chain reaction into a higher gear. Last year, Facebook generated more than $5 billion in revenue, but spent more than $4.5 billion to produce … Read more

They're a smug, self-centered, self-righteous lot at Facebook.

Which is why Facebook Home, the tool that turns your Android into a Windows Phone, was designed specifically for them.

They can stare at their phones all day, bathing in the joys of those closest to them. Well, those closest to them in a virtual sense.

They can also ignore the catatonia-inspiring monotone that regularly emerges from their CEO's mouth.

Please, you know I'm never mean. I am merely describing the new commercial for Facebook Home on AT&T, a quite stellar act of self-deprecation.… Read more

You may have seen this great collection of mugshots from 1920s Australia floating around the Internet. A couple of years ago, they were exhibited at the Sydney Justice & Police Museum, and they caused quite a stir thanks to the rather stylish look of the arrestees.

They caught the attention of Canadian CG artist Jason Mark, aka Jempix. Although Gotham is generally a little more '40s noir than 1920s Prohibition, Mark has done a fantastic job of blending the villains of Gotham with the slyly amused and sullen villains of those photographs. … Read more