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Amazon last week announced that it had increased to more than 100 the number of Dash buttons Prime users can install in their homes to replenish supplies of common household goods. Dash buttons, which essentially are free for Amazon Prime members, are connected devices that link to a customer's acco...

Foxconn has agreed to purchase a controlling stake in Sharp -- about 66 percent -- for roughly $3.5 billion, the companies announced Wednesday. Foxconn has committed to restoring Sharp's profitability and improving operations, according to the companies. "I am confident that we will unlock Sharp's t...

Amazon has carved another notch in its belt, adding one more customer to what it has called a "tiny fraction of cases" of people guilty of making too many returns. The company banned Greg Nelson, a computer programmer, from shopping at the site because he returned 37 of 343 items purchased, accordin...

Sony last week announced it would begin taking preorders for a cost-shaving virtual reality bundle. Priced at $499, the PlayStation VR bundle includes everything needed except the PlayStation 4 console. It contains a VR headset, cables, stereo headphones, a PlayStation camera, two PlayStation Move m...

Instagram on Tuesday announced plans to dump chronological posts in favor of algorithmic recommendations. Users miss about 70 percent of the content that flows through their feeds, which the company attributed to its growth and its system for ordering content. The new algorithm, which will begin rol...

Intel on Wednesday announced its intent to acquire Replay Technologies, the company known for elevating the NBA All-Star Weekend with cutting-edge 3D graphics. Replay develops and maintains what it calls "freeD" -- that is, free dimensional -- technology. Sports fans may have noticed the Matrix-esqu...

With its reputation preceding it, Peeple on Monday launched on the iTunes App Store. The goal of the app is to help people better understand each other, according to the company. It was designed for people who need to display their reputation to others, including freelancers, business owners, employ...

Facebook has yanked the drapery off its Canvas, inviting marketers to splash it with their best promotions. The new platform will provide brands with a new medium for storytelling, and it will return ad pages up to 10 times faster than mobile Web pages do, the company proclaimed. It's a big screen a...

Facebook has been using artificial intelligence to sharpen its focus on the roughly 10 percent of the world that has been overlooked by the Internet revolution, the company announced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress. The work has been led by the Connectivity Lab, Facebook's research and developme...

Facebook has been preparing to push personalized ads through its Messenger app, according to a report last week. The company will allow brands to send their own marketing materials through the popular chat app, suggests a leaked document apparently intended for Facebook's advertising partners. The c...

Jana on Thursday announced it has raised $57 million in Series C funding, enabling it to continue its plans to connect developing countries to the Web. Verizon Ventures led the funding round, with backing from Spark Capital and Publicis Groupe. The backing will give Jana -- which provides free, unre...

Groupon's stock slipped a little on Wednesday, following Tuesday's dramatic 40 percent spike on the news that Alibaba had purchased about a 5 percent stake in the company. Alibaba last week disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had bought about 33 million shares o...

The Pirate Bay may be vying to become the world's largest streaming site. It recently began testing a plug-in that turns browsers into torrent-streaming clients. Having returned from its latest exile, The Pirate Bay now is using the Torrents Time plugin to deliver an illegal answer to Netflix. Users...

LinkedIn last week lost about $11 billion in market valuation after it provided a 2016 revenue forecast that fell short of analysts' expectations. The company's stock fell by as much as 44 percent Friday afternoon, with shares hitting a three-year-low of $108. LinkedIn generated $862 million in reve...

Facebook celebrated its 12th birthday on Thursday by congratulating its users on how far they've carried the social network. The company earlier this week held a more intimate celebration of its anniversary at its main campus in Menlo Park, California. That event included 18 members of the Facebook ...

Nintendo is looking into virtual reality, 20 years after its failed Virtual Boy console, suggest reports that surfaced Tuesday. Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima reportedly described VR as "interesting technology" during an earnings call to discuss the company's Q3 financial report. Two decades h...

Windows 10 last month had more user share than Windows XP and Windows 8, according to data released by NetMarketShare. It held 11.85 percent of the global OS market, though Windows 7 was still No. 1 with 52.47 percent. Though adoption has slowed, the NetMarketShare numbers helped validate Microsoft'...

Amazon has held licensing talks with music industry executives in connection with its goal to launch rival to Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming music services, according to a news report Wednesday. It apparently is targeting a fall launch. Amazon already offers 1 million tracks through its Pr...

Their fears confirmed, investors were bearish on Apple Wednesday, the day after the company reported its slowest-growth quarter ever. The company's shares closed the day at $93.44, down 6.55 percent. In its Q1 earnings report, Apple prepared investors for what may come next: its weakest quarter for ...

Sony on Tuesday announced plans to merge its PlayStation operations in a new company to be headquartered in the U.S. Sony Interactive Entertainment will open for business on April 1, starting with $2 million in operating capital. The new California-based firm will merge the operations of Japan-based...