Stories by Jeff Bertolucci

Two die in Foxconn assembly plant explosion

Foxconn Technology Group, manufacturer of popular consumer tech products such as the Apple iPhone, iPod, and iPad, as well as Dell computers, had a large explosion and fire at one of its manufacturing plants in southwestern China Friday night.

Mac malware brouhaha: Are Apple users no longer safe?

Mac users don't have to worry about malware, right? Well, for many years that's been true, although the reasons were always the topic of contentious debate between the Apple faithful and various security researchers, many of whom predicted Mac security breaches would rise as Apple's share of the PC market climbed northward.

Rumor: Apple iPod Nano to get camera, again

The iPod nano may not sell like it used to, but that doesn't mean Apple has stopped tinkering with its tiny music player. A new photo allegedly shows a next-generation iPod nano with a rear-facing camera.

Will iPad 3 go 3D?

Like Jell-O, there's always room for iPad rumors. And the latest gossip concerning Apple's mega-popular tablet is a doozy: the iPad 3 will feature a 3D display, although it's unclear if we're talking about one that won't require those clunky glasses.

10 things killed by the smartphone

Cisco's recent announcement that it was closing its Flip mini-camcorder business got us thinking. It's pretty clear that today's smartphones, with their excellent HD video cameras, are partly to blame for the Flip's demise. But how many other consumer products and services -- digital or analog -- are being killed off by the big, bad smartphone?

Dear Apple, keep your $#!%$&# white iPhone 4

Enough already. I'm sick of hearing about the mythical and mysterious white iPhone 4, the Loch Ness Monster of handsets. After 10 months of speculation, I really don't care. Aside from being white, it has no special attributes that can't be found it its black-clad sibling. Unless, of course, Apple adds solar panels or a teleportation app to the white model, which seems unlikely at this point.

YouTube Live: The makeover continues

Another sign that Google is positioning YouTube to compete with broadcast and cable TV, as well as other video-streaming services like Hulu and Netflix: YouTube Live, a new branch of the hugely popular video-sharing service, debuted on Friday.

What will Apple do with 12 petabytes of storage?

Apple is ordering a heaping helping of data storage -- 12 petabytes, to be exact -- from Isilon Systems, a division of EMC that specializes in scale-out storage. Cupertino plans to use that cavernous space to manage video downloads of its iTunes' customers, an anonymous insider at EMC tells StorageNewsletter.com.

HTC Android tablet: The pen makes it special

HTC has posted a new promotional video for its upcoming Android tablet, which will either be named the Flyer--its moniker in the video--or the smartphone-like Evo View 4G when it arrives this summer.

Yahoo Search Direct takes on Google Instant

Yahoo today unveiled Yahoo Search Direct, a new feature similar to Google Instant that shows search results as you type. The benefit to you: Less typing, fewer clicks, and (hopefully) faster results.

Samsung's MacBook Air challenger ready to ship

You can thank me in advance for not calling the ultra-slim Samsung 9 Series laptop a "MacBook Air killer," which it certainly is not. It is, however, a sleek featherweight of a portable PC, one that gives Apple's attractive Air a run for its money in the look-at-me competition. Unveiled at CES 2011 in January, the Series 9 will go on sale Thursday, March 17.

Netflix dominates video streaming: there will be blood

No wonder everybody's gunning for Netflix. The video-streaming service is more popular than many of us imagined. A new study by market research firm The NPD Group shows that Netflix's share of streamed or downloaded digital movies was a competition-crushing 61 percent between January and February 2011.

Why putting WebOS on multiple HP devices is good

Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker has made it clear: Starting next year, the company's WebOS mobile operating system will run on pretty much every laptop or desktop that HP ships. And that's good news for HP customers -- and end users in general -- who increasingly find themselves juggling more and more data across multiple computing devices.

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