Why teens are tiring of Facebook

To understand where teens like to spend their virtual time nowadways, just watch them on their smartphones. Their world revolves around Instagram, the application adults mistook for an elevated photography service, and other apps decidely less old-fashioned than Mark Zuckerberg's main kingdom. And therein lies one of Facebook's biggest challenges: With more than 1 billion users worldwide and an unstated...

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Google's European conundrum: When does privacy mean censorship?

Google's New York City headquarters.(Credit:Zack Whittaker/CNET)How Google and other American Internet companies operate in Europe could come down to a link that, depending on what side of the Atlantic Ocean you're on, should or should not be deleted.A case heard Tuesday before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) hinges on a complaint submitted by a Spanish citizen who searched Google for his name...

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Barnes & Noble's earnings slide on declining Nook business

The Nook is having some trouble.(Credit:James Martin/CNET)Barnes & Noble had a rough fiscal third quarter -- the three-month period ended January 26 -- due mainly to its ailing Nook operation.During the period, Barnes & Noble snagged $2.2 billion in revenue, down 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization...

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Lily Cole's social network Impossible starts granting wishes in April

Model Lily Cole attends a photo call to announce the winners of the Gatwick Runway Models competition at Gatwick Airport North Terminal on Aug.6, 2010, in London. (Credit:Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images) A social network based on making wishes and helping others, backed by Lily Cole and Jimmy Wales, is to launch in April -- but first, it's helping Oxbridge students help each other.I caught up...

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Windows 8 $15 upgrade registration ends Thursday

Registration for the Windows 8 $15 upgrade offer expires this Thursday.(Credit:Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)Those of you who recently bought a Windows 7 PC can score Windows 8 for just $15 but you'll have to register before Thursday.To drum up interest in its latest OS, Microsoft cooked up a couple of upgrade deals last year.The first one allowed any user of Windows 7, Vista, or XP to upgrade...

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Android steals U.S. smartphone lead from iOS, says report

Samsung's Galaxy S3 helped Android win more sales in the U.S.(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)Android has pulled ahead of Apple's iOS in U.S. smartphone sales, according to data out today from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.During the three months ending January, Android scored 49.9 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, a 6.4 percent gain from the same period last year. Over the same time, iOS took second place...

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ZTE at MWC 2013: Join us Monday (live blog)

ZTE CEO Shi Lirong during his keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, last year.(Credit:Roger Cheng/CNET)BARCELONA, Spain--Get all the details of ZTE's Mobile World Congress press conference right here. CNET's Brian Bennett, photographer Stephen Shankland, and I will be bringing you the news, photos, and commentary from the event. ZTE is expected to build upon its expanded presence...

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Pentagon grounds entire F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet

A crack in an engine blade has suspended airborne testing on the $396 billion Joint Strike Fighter program.(Credit:Department of Defense)The U.S. Department of Defense has suspended airborne testing of its Joint Strike Fighter because of a crack in an engine turbine blade discovered during routine inspection, the Pentagon said this week.The grounding covers every one of the three versions of the F-35...

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Apple's App Store, iTunes back online after outages

Apple's online services were down for many users yesterday.(Credit:Screenshot by CNET)Apple users unable to access the App Store or iTunes yesterday should find those sites alive and well today.The App Store, iTunes, iCloud, and the Mac App Store were inaccessible to many people throughout yesterday, according to 9to5Mac.Following a series of user complaints via Twitter, Apple eventually acknowledged...

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Saverin: Facebook's rapid growth is its 'biggest risk'

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.(Credit:Facebook)Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin isn't convinced that the social network's fast-growing strategy is a good one.Speaking at a conference in Singapore today, Saverin said that while growth is a "huge asset," it can lead to a very real problem that shouldn't be overlooked."The biggest risk is growing too fast," he said, according to Bloomberg, which...

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Backblaze shares third-gen storage server design

The Backblaze Storage Pod 3.0 contains three rows of 15 hard drives.(Credit:Backblaze)Backblaze, a startup offering online backup service, has released the designs for its newest Storage Pod, a low-budget storage server with 180TB of capacity.It was something of a PR stunt when the company shared its first-gen Storage Pod design back in 2009, but the 67-terabyte system proved useful to organzations...

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Apple pulls Mac Pro from online stores in Europe

Apple's Mac Pro(Credit:Apple)Consumers in Europe looking for a Mac Pro are now out of luck, at least when trying to buy one online.Apple's online stores in the U.K., Italy, Germany, France, and other European countries show all three editions of the Mac Pro as "currently unavailable."The news isn't exactly a surprise. Apple told European retailers and distributors last month that it would stop selling...

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Get a Logitech Harmony 700 universal remote for $59.99

The Logitech Harmony 700.(Credit:Logitech)This is an update of a deal I posted last summer.Juggling is meant for circus folk, not home-theater owners. Yet that's exactly what you're doing if you have more than one device and, ergo, more than one remote.Regular Cheapskate readers know I'm a fan of Logitech's Harmony series of universal remotes. One of the better models, the 700, has a list price of...

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Russian meteorite: The conspiracy theories

A strange time for a military attack?(Credit:CNN; screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)A good hearty conspiracy theory can shine a sharp light on two of humanity's most enduring traits.One, of course, is humanity's boundless imagination. The other is humanity's essential suspicion of humanity.So while you might be deeply immersed in Bill Nye's explanation of the Russian meteorite, those with darker...

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How Apple got serious about style

Humble beginnings -- an early conceptual modular Apple tablet from 1982.(Credit:Harmut Esslinger, Frog Design)When Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger met Steve Jobs in 1982, it sparked a chain of events that monumentally changed Apple's design philosophy forever. It wasn't just a change in how future products would look -- Esslinger ushered in a change of mindset and a unified design language across...

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Uh oh: Nintendo sold 57,000 Wii U units in the U.S. in January

Nintendo's Wii U had a rough January, CNET has learned.Nintendo sold only 57,000 Wii U units in the U.S. in January, a person familiar with NPD's game industry sales data has confirmed to CNET. The leading console maker during the period, Microsoft, sold 281,000 units in January.Gamasutra was first to report that Wii U sales were sluggish in January. That publication's source said only that January...

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Three-deal Thursday: Pogoplug, Klipsch earbuds, and apps

Klipsch earbuds for $15? I'll take two pair, please.(Credit:Woot)Happy Valentine's Day, cheeps! Here's hoping you have a day filled with love, chocolate, and, of course, deals.That's right: deals, plural. I couldn't settle on just one today, so I've rounded up three (well, five, technically) to make your day a little sweeter.1. Pogoplug MobileThe Pogoplug Mobile is a small box that plugs into your...

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A&E brings full-length episodes to iPhone -- for free

A look at A&E's iPhone app.(Credit:A&E)Apple iPhone owners now have the ability to stream full episodes of some of the most popular A&E shows.The network updated its iOS application earlier this week, allowing iPhone owners to watch everything from "Duck Dynasty" to "Storage Wars" and "The First 48." A&E's other networks, Lifetime and The History Channel, have also received updates...

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Samsung's Open Innovation Center aims at startup innovation

Samsung yesterday announced the launch of a new Open Innovation Center in Silicon Valley that aims at connecting the conglomerate with the latest and greatest software ideas.David Eun, Samsung Electronics executive vice president and leader of the Open Innovation Center, announced its opening yesterday at the D: Dive Into Media event. He told All Things Digital's Kara Swisher that while the company's...

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Get a Microsoft Surface RT 32GB tablet for $424

You can grab a Surface RT for as little as $400 (if you don't mind waiting on a partial rebate).(Credit:Microsoft)Microsoft's Surface RT tablet has seen its share of headlines since it debuted in October -- not all of them good. For example, last month a patch prevented some users from accessing the Windows Store, and before that, the 32GB Surface RT was revealed to have only 16GB of available storage.Well,...

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