user

Is the new Gmail app interface dumb, or am I a freak?

I'm a Gmail fanboy. Priority inbox, stars, the archive tool, labels, filters, built-in translation, conversation view, relatively effective spam blocking -- its features have helped me stay one step ahead of the chaos.

But on Friday, when the new Gmail app arrived on my Android phone, I lost some of my faith because of one simple thing: Google deleted the delete button.

In its place was a button that, I eventually figured out after some confused experimentation, toggles messages as read or unread. Deleting a selected e-mail became a two-tap operation: tap the menu button, then tap the delete … Read more

Download the official Windows 8 user guide

If you're new to Windows 8, there's finally a user guide available from Microsoft to help you learn the basics. The PDF document is named the Windows 8 End User Training Brochure. The 36-page user guide goes over basic Windows 8 topics like the Start Screen, touch-screen gestures, and navigating apps. It also touches on more advanced topics as well, like BitLocker, File History, and Windows To Go. Perhaps the most useful sections of the document, however, are the touch, mouse, and keyboard shortcut lists.

The document is short enough that you could print it for quick reference. … Read more

How to migrate a user account to another OS X system

If you are using more than one Mac, or have replaced your Mac with a new one, there are several ways you can migrate your account to the new system.

Conventionally, when you get a new system you are presented with the OS X Setup Assistant, which will guide you through migrating your data from an existing system or a backup.

In addition to Setup Assistant, you can use Apple's Migration Assistant tool at any time to transfer data from one Mac to another. This tool is especially useful for establishing your current user account on another system. Simply … Read more

Apple ordered by German court to change its privacy rules

Apple has to amend its customer privacy policies in Germany following a court ruling issued Tuesday.

The Berlin Regional Court found that 8 of the 15 clauses in Apple's data use policy were invalid because they didn't comply with German law. Specifically, the company is no longer allowed to request "global consent" to use customer data, which gives it carte blanche to use any information. Further, Apple cannot use location-based data to target specific products and services to consumers based on their location.

The court also found that Apple cannot request the names, addresses, e-mail addresses, … Read more

Pandora hits milestone with 200M users

Despite being hit by competitors from all sides, Pandora continues gain users at a steady rate.

The music streaming service announced today that it hit a major milestone by racking up 200 million registered users. It took the company six years to get 100 million users, but less than two years to double that number to 200 million.

"When we launched http://www.pandora.com in 2005, we hoped to create a new way to discover and enjoy music that was completely personalized for each and every listener," Pandora founder Tim Westergren wrote in a blog post today. &… Read more

New Firefox expands 'porn-mode' abilities

Along with an update to the infamous "porn mode" that turns off your browser's ability to record your browsing session, the new Firefox 20 includes usability and back-end changes.

Firefox 20 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) updates now allow you to run a private browsing session in a new window, alongside a standard Firefox browsing window. On Firefox 20 for Android (download), the browser now lets you run private mode tabs next to standard session tabs.

Private browsing on Firefox is analogous to Internet Explorer's InPrivate or Chrome's Incognito. It's a feature that turns … Read more

eBay sets ambitious goal for 2015: $300B in transactions

E-commerce site eBay looks to be moving into high gear.

CEO John Donahoe announced today that by 2015, he expects the company to be handling $300 billion in transactions per year, according to The Wall Street Journal, nearly twice what it did in 2012. That means, for 2015, between $21.5 billion and $23.5 billion in revenue from both eBay and its payments processing unit PayPal. In 2012, the company earned $14 billion in revenue.

According to the Journal, the company also plans to double the number of active users on its site over the next two years -- … Read more

Twitter hit with $50M suit over anti-Semitic tweeter data

The Union of Jewish French Students, UEJF, has doubled down in its battle with Twitter and said it filed a $50 million lawsuit against the social network yesterday.

The cause of the suit? User data for anti-Semitic tweets.

The fracas goes back to October when Twitter was awash in anti-Semitic French-language tweets tied to the hashtag "#unbonjuif" ("a good Jew"). This prompted the student union and other anti-racism groups to ask Twitter to remove both the tweets and the hashtag. The social network complied by deleting the tweets in France that it deemed racist.

While deleting … Read more

YouTube breaks records with 1 billion monthly users

What does 1 billion monthly YouTube users signify? It means that nearly one out of every two people on the Internet worldwide goes to YouTube.

That's a serious amount of people.

Google's video hosting service announced today that for the first time, it's driving these colossal numbers -- more than a billion unique users on the site, every month.

"If YouTube were a country, we'd be the third largest in the world after China and India," YouTube wrote in a blog post today. "Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly 10 Super … Read more

How Samsung might actually get featuritis under control

Editor's note: This article was originally published January 9 during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It was updated March 15 with information about the Galaxy S4.

Samsung has a serious case of featuritis, but it's trying to get better.

The Korean electronics giant has long been known for its push to include more and more features in its products, whether it's new capabilities like NFC in smartphones or software like smart TV apps. Samsung uses such features as a way to differentiate its new gadgets from those of rivals and from its older products, and … Read more