What you should know about Tumblr

Yahoo's purchase of hot blogging platform Tumblr, which it announced Monday, was big news for the hundreds of millions of folks who already post to the site or check in to follow those who do.

'Toilet of the future' solves big issues

What you should know about Tumblr

Yahoo's purchase of hot blogging platform Tumblr, which it announced Monday, was big news for the hundreds of millions of folks who already post to the site or check in to follow those who do.

The etiquette of Google Glass

In recent weeks, Google Glass has been distributed to its first group of beta testers outside Google and in the real world. As the pool of new smart-glass wearers grows, they are feeling out the etiquette of using the new technology.

Google+: One tool to bind them all

For two years, Google has pushed its Google+ as more than a social network or cool video-chatting tool. This week, it is working to hammer home that point with a spate of new features.

Meet your robot bartender

Crowd control took on a whole new meaning last night as a room full of partygoers in San Francisco were given power over a cocktail-making robot controlled by their smartphones.

Tech tools tell you you're drunk

Even if they don't admit it, most people know when they're hammered.

'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars'?

Photon torpedoes and proton torpedoes. Warp speed and hyperspace.

Recharge your cellphone in 20 seconds

A tiny device that can recharge cell phone batteries in as little as 30 seconds won 18-year-old Eesha Khare a major science award that will help fund her college education at Harvard University.

The real-world etiquette for Google Glass

In recent weeks, Google Glass has been distributed to its first group of beta testers outside Google and in the real world. As the pool of new smart-glass wearers grows, they are feeling out the etiquette of using the new technology.

'Toilet of the future' solves global issues

Kepler or not, we'll find life in space

Meg Urry says loss of the planet-finding Kepler satellite would be huge for NASA, which is furiously trying to fix it--but one way or another, it's a matter of time before we find signs of life on other worlds

Google+: One tool to bind them all

For two years, Google has pushed its Google+ as more than a social network or cool video-chatting tool. This week, it is working to hammer home that point with a spate of new features.

Yes, it's a cocktail-making robot bartender

Crowd control took on a whole new meaning last night as a room full of partygoers in San Francisco were given power over a cocktail-making robot controlled by their smartphones.

Tech tools tell you you're drunk

Even if they don't admit it, most people know when they're hammered.

Whose tech is better: 'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars'?

Photon torpedoes and proton torpedoes. Warp speed and hyperspace.

Meet the Rules of the Internet

Hello! Welcome to the Internet. It's a big place, so let me show you around.

Why disc drives are an endangered species

Could the phrase "burn a disc" soon be interred in the computing graveyard, resting peacefully alongside 8-bit graphics and the chirping, buzzing hum of a dial-up modem? Some of the most influential computer makers in the world say yes.

Netiquette: Saying farewell

So many folks manage to lose their netiquette heads when they scramble, legs flailing and akimbo, toward the denouement of events and life chapters. So here is the ultimate (get it?) digital-etiquette guide to a polite big finish.

10 smartphone habits to avoid

How annoying and rude and antisocial have we all become with our smartphones? We're embarrassing ourselves all over the place. Please stop.

Five texts you should never send

We're texting more than ever, and, like society, the texts themselves are getting worse and worse. Read on to learn just how terrible silent cell phone users are these days.

An open letter to texting-mad teenagers

Put your phone down for a second, teen texters -- there are some things you've got to hear.

Meet the real Robocop

Take a pair of hi-fi speakers, an old radio, a couple of DVD players and countless other household appliances, apply some ingenuity and what do you get? If you're Mark Haygood, an ex-cop turned robot maker, you get HEX -- a four foot, three-inch tall humanoid robot.

Gamma-ray burst riddle

On April 27, NASA satellites detected a strong signal from the brightest gamma-ray burst in decades. Because this was relatively close, it was thousands of times brighter than the typical gamma-ray bursts that are seen by Swift every few days. Scientists are now scrambling to learn more.

Designs to define the future

From digital tattoos to mind reading headphones, in what areas will the next major technology breakthroughs occur? We spoke to a host of design and tech experts -- from academics to magazine editors -- searching for the shape of things to come.

Photos: Big acquisitions in the tech world

Yahoo announced it bought the blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion on Monday, May 20. Like other acquisitions where an older media giant snatches up the tool all the cool kids are using, Yahoo says it hopes to tap into a younger audience.

10 fun facts about Mark Zuckerberg

Tuesday is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's birthday. He's 29. If that seems insanely young for a billionaire, remember that he co-founded Facebook when he was a teenager.

We the Geeks: a nerdy Constitution

Light-up wheels turn bike into 'Tron Cycle'

Anyone that bikes dreams of riding a Tron Light Cycle. Revolights, a set of wheel-mounted LEDs, now makes that dream a little closer to reality, and a new built-in version is helping that system become even more lightweight and simple than the original bolt-on setup.

Is Yahoo about to buy Tumblr?

In a deal that would vault Yahoo into the premiere league of social media, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is said to be closing in on a $1 billion acquisition deal with David Karp, the CEO of New York-based Tumblr.