Consumer content

When the world's most famous companies are run by boys who seem to have only slight familiarity with shaving, it's easy for grown-ups to give up.

Somehow, this newfangled digital world has created an entirely new species of human -- one that ultimately wants to eradicate all species that are currently thought of as human.

Who can even lift an eyebrow, therefore, at new research that suggests parents are largely clueless about their kids' activities on laptops, phones, Facebook, and all the other places to which kids choose to disappear?

A new study from McAfee, touchingly called Digital Deceptions, … Read more

Smartphone shipments will finally outshine those of feature phones this year, says research firm IDC.

Smartphones are expected to carve off a 52.2 percent slice of all mobile phones shipped in 2013, leaving feature phones with a 47.8 percent share, IDC said Tuesday. Smartphone shipments are projected to hit 958.8 million this year, a 32.7 percent jump from the 722.5 million units shipped in 2012.

The gap between shipments of smartphones and feature phones will continue to expand, IDC said, as demand for mobile data increases in both developed and developing countries. Emerging markets will … Read more

The famous Halo game series is making its first assault onto Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in July.

Known as Halo: Spartan Assault, the $6.99 app is the latest in the Halo franchise, but was designed exclusively for Microsoft's PC and mobile operating systems. As such, people can play the game on a touch-screen device by tapping and swiping their fingers or on a computer by using a traditional mouse and keyboard.

"With Halo: Spartan Assault, we wanted to take Halo out of the living room and create a brand new experience that was built specifically … Read more

Many Turkish Internet users are staying connected to Facebook and Twitter despite reported government censorship of the two sites.

To get past the blockade of the two popular social networks, Turkish citizens have been using VPN software such as Hotspot Shield, which opens a tunnel through the Internet so the connection can't be detected. This past weekend, more than 120,000 people in Turkey downloaded the software, according to the Guardian, a huge leap from the 10,000 new users seen on an average day.

On Saturday, blog site TechCrunch said a number of sources told it that both … Read more

Amazon and Viacom have inked a deal that will deliver "thousands of episodes" of popular shows to the e-retail giant's streaming-video service.

According to the companies, they have signed a multiyear deal that will bring hundreds of shows from Nick Jr., MTV, and Comedy Central, including "Tosh.0," "The Backyardigans," and others, to Amazon's Prime Instant Video streaming service. The shows will be available exclusively on Prime Instant Video.

All of the shows are available to customers in the U.S. Lovefilm, Amazon's streaming service in the U.K. and Germany, … Read more

Windows 8.1 will have a couple of tricks up its sleeve for people who use fingerprint readers.

One of Monday's sessions at Microsoft's TechEd conference highlighted the support that Windows 8.1 will offer for fingerprint recognition, as described by The Verge. Prior versions of Windows handled fingerprint readers through third-party software. But Windows 8.1 will be the first edition of Windows to natively support the technology.

Users will be able to log into their PCs via a Microsoft Account, purchase apps, and open different programs with a swipe of the finger. They'll even be … Read more

Last week we learned that porn is being developed for Google Glass, finally giving me reason to be creeped out about the new technology, even if it is still in the development phase and not yet ready for prime time.

The folks at Google (X) got in touch over the weekend to point me to the developer policies for the Glass platform that specifically prohibit "content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material."

Then today, the first pornographic and super not-safe-for-work app for Glass officially dropped. Even its name is NSFW, but let's just … Read more

Feedly, the feed reader whose developers are trying to pick up where Google Reader left off, announced Monday that the service will get faster, work on Windows 8, and function without a browser extension.

The Web service, also available as an app for iOS and Android, lets people read Web sites via their RSS and Atom feeds. It's a technology that's popular among those with voracious information appetites, but it hasn't made it to the mainstream. In March Google announced that it's killing its Google Reader site on July 1.

Google's table scraps are a … Read more

Revenue generated by online advertising hit a new record in the U.S. last quarter.

Total first-quarter sales hit $9.6 billion, up 15.6 percent from the $8.3 billion seen in the first quarter of 2012, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The latest numbers reflect an ongoing shift to Internet advertising on the part of marketers as revenue continues to grow by double digits.

"Consumers are turning to interactive media in droves to look for the latest information, to connect with their social networks, and simply to be entertained," IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg … Read more