Articles by Rachelle Dragani

Adobe will pair hardware devices with its creative software suite next year when it launches a cloud pen and a digital ruler that work with tablets. The company plans to release its Mighty digital pen, a thin-tipped stylus designed to help digital artists have more control over their creativity while drawing on a tablet screen. The pressure-sensi...

Tumblr has teamed up with social analytics company DataSift to provide users with information about consumer engagement and sentiment. As of Monday, DataSift subscribers gained access to both historic and real-time data about what consumers were posting about their brands in Tumblr's 5.5 billion monthly global interactions.

Google has acquired Bump -- a move that could fundamentally change the way people and devices interact, suggested Bump cofounder and CEO David Lieb. Bump's mobile file-sharing app allows users to exchange files such as contact information or photos with a tap, or "bump," of their phones or other devices ...

NASA has confirmed that after 36 years of journeying, Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space Voyager 1 has been traveling for about a year through a transitional plasma region in the space between the influence of Earth's sun and other stars.

Gogo on Wednesday announced plans to roll out faster and more reliable in-flight Internet access to passengers, allowing them to stream digital entertainment while cruising miles above Earth The new Ground to Orbit service will use satellites for reception and Gogo's ground-based cellular network for the return link....

Twitter this week announced its acquisition of mobile advertising exchange MoPub, a move to support advertisers' efforts to optimize their ad buys. MoPub helps advertisers and publishers buy, manage and maximize performance of a variety of ads, especially those on mobile platforms.

Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have found a way to trigger the self-assembly of tiny water-filled gel-like cubes into larger structures, a discovery that could lead to practical applications in tissue engineering. ...

Facebook on Monday began rolling out new tools designed to help news organizations uncover the real-time conversations people are having across the social network. The company released two APIs -- Public Feed and Keyword Insights -- to a handful of online publications.

PayPal introduced a new version of its mobile app on Thursday, unveiling features designed to make it easier for users to pay restaurant bills or take advantage of location-based deals while on the go. The updated app lets users access full menus from approved restaurants and order ahead of time to cut down on wait times. At launch, that feature w...

A multitasking 3D video game that helped some older adults show neurological activity similar to much younger adults could lead researchers to a better understanding of the plasticity of the older brain. Researchers from the University of California San Francisco recently tested a 3D-driving game on a group of adults. During the game, players used...

Amazon on Wednesday introduced a new version of its Kindle Paperwhite dedicated e-reader, on the heels of its Tuesday announcement of Kindle MatchBook, a new service that lets customers buy deeply discounted electronic versions of print books they've purchased from the company. The Paperwhite's display is its distinguishing feature -- it appears m...

Bionym on Tuesday unveiled the Nymi, a wristband designed to replace the need for passwords and locks by using individuals' unique heartbeats to authenticate a range of devices. To activate the Nymi, a user simply touches an embedded biosensor sitting atop the thin wristband. The touch generates the user's unique electrocardiogram reading for auth...

JumpStarter aims to use its new JumpStartFund platform to help Elon Musk's Hyperloop project draw the attention and investments it needs to get off the ground Musk's design for a high-speed transportation system that could transport people between San Francisco and Los Angeles in a little more than half an hour has drawn interest from the science a...

Mixamo on Wednesday launched Face Plus, a new tool that lets developers and filmmakers convert human facial expressions recorded by a webcam into high-fidelity 3D animation to enliven their digital characters. Face Plus works with any ordinary webcam, making it possible to produce short scenes, commercials or games that feature animated characters...

Twitter has hired Nathan Hubbard as its first head of commerce, with the goal of adding an online shopping component to its offerings. Twitter plans to provide partners with tools to more effectively offer their goods and services, perhaps then taking a commission on any transactions completed through the site.

The number of U.S. households connected to the Internet has risen, but 20 percent of households nationwide still don't have broadband access, according to a study released Monday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Seventy percent of U.S. homes have an Internet connection, the study found, while 10 percent rely solely on connectivity via ...

MakerBot last week unveiled its Digitizer desktop 3D scanner, a US$1,400 device that promises to accelerate the growth of 3D printing. ...

Hewlett-Packard announced some changes to its executive lineup on Wednesday -- the same day it posted a quarterly earnings report that fell short of analyst expectations. Revenue for HP's third fiscal quarter was US$27.2 billion, the company reported, down 8 percent from the $29.7 billion it posted a year earlier. HP earned about 86 cents per shar...

The makers of the Zurmo CRM platform have released a new version of the technology, a refresh focused on third-party app integrations that allow users to streamline their various Web applications with the Zurmo software. Launched on Tuesday, Zurmo 2.2 comes equipped with Google Apps integration, allowing users to synchronize information about cont...

Twitter on Monday unveiled a new feature that adds related headlines to embedded tweets, an addition that will help to tell the "story behind the tweet," the company said "Starting today, you will see a new 'Related headlines' section on the permalink page of tweets that have been embedded on websites," explained Brian Wallerstein, a software engin...