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The 404 1,249: Where we get the senior discount (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Ever wondered how Apple employees travel around the Cupertino campus?

- Taking New York's upcoming Citi Bike Share plan for a test ride.

- Why don't cell phones have a dial tone?

- Forget following teens, your new favorite Tweeter is 94 years old.

- Speaking of old people, here's Jeff's dear, old granny with a 404 sticker on her walker.

- Speaking of speaking of old people, here's a soul-cuddling video of an older landlady lip-syncing her favorite song from the 1930s.… Read more

Justice Dept. approves Google's $2.3B sale of Motorola Home

The U.S. Department of Justice has given its blessing to Google's sale of the Motorola Home set-top business to Arris Group for $2.35 billion.

Announced Friday, the department's approval was the last regulatory hurdle that the deal faced. The broadband technology provider, which is expected to use the acquisition to enhance the networking equipment it offers to cable providers, expects the deal to close by Wednesday.

Google inherited the unit when it purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion last year. The unit makes set-top boxes used by cable providers to deliver video, but Google was … Read more

Google reportedly offers search results changes in EU probe

Google has proposed an overhaul of how it displays search results in Europe to allay concerns that the Web giant is abusing its dominant position in the market.

The search behemoth, which was put under the European antitrust spotlight in 2010 after rivals lodged allegations of anticompetitive behavior, submitted a package of concessions with the European Union last week, but details remain under wraps. Critics and competitors have accused Google of promoting its own services in search results over those of its competitors.

In its proposed remedy, Google has offered to "make users clearly aware" when the search … Read more

Apple board member's remarks pique iWatch speculation

Here's another scrap to add to your "Apple's Next Move" file.

Recent remarks from Bill Campbell, an Apple board member and close friend of Steve Jobs, suggest that rumors about an iWatch -- or perhaps even an Apple competitor to Google's high-tech Glass specs -- might be worth heeding.

At an event for Intuit employees this week, Campbell sat down with Intuit CEO Brad Smith for an hourlong chat, discussing, as Businessweek puts it, "things that make a product great, how managers should behave, and some of the recent highs and lows he's … Read more

The 404 1,248: Where we take a staycation in the dead zone (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Electrosensitive community moving to a secluded town in Green Bank, Va.

- Facebook fixes comment threads for Pages and public figure.

- A promising 'Home' for the Facebook obsessed.

- Five ways to get more out of Facebook Home.

- Prepare a digital will for your Google accounts.

- Roger Ebert's Twitter lives on.

- Microsoft exec reportedly leaves job following testy Xbox tweets.… Read more

Bing serves up more malicious sites than Google, report says

Although most search engines have measures in place to protect users against trojans, malicious sites still manage to crop up from time to time -- even in the top search results. An independent testing lab in Germany by the name of AV-Test has just completed an 18-month survey to find out which search engines are the worst offenders.

The lab tested 40 million Web sites (PDF) across seven search engines -- Google and Bing, the world's two most popular search engines; Yandex, Russia's biggest search engine; Blekko; peer-to-peer search engine Faroo; Teoma, better known as Ask.com; and … Read more

Google adds local safety alerts to search results

Alerts from police, firefighters, and other authorities should soon start popping up in your Google search results.

The new initiative comes courtesy of a team-up between Google and Nixle, a San Francisco-based startup.

Nixle allows people to sign up to receive crime alerts, missing person notifications, and other updates from local police and fire departments. The alerts are sent via e-mail or text message to a mobile phone.

Google has tapped Nixle as the first partner to work with the Google Crisis Response Team to expand those safety alerts beyond just e-mail and mobile phones. Local public safety agencies can … Read more

Chromebook Pixel LTE arriving today

The Chromebook Pixel with Wi-Fi might already be available, but the LTE model is coming to some doorsteps today.

Google announced the Chromebook Pixel LTE's availability on its Google+ page yesterday, saying that some of the customers who ordered the device from its Google Play marketplace will start receiving their devices starting today.

Google said on its Chromebook Pixel LTE product page last month that the device would start shipping on April 8. The company is now promising ship times of three to five days on new orders.

The Chromebook Pixel LTE goes for $1,449. The device runs … Read more

How to set up Google's Inactive Account Manager

What happens to your Gmail account, Google Drive documents, Picasa photos, and the other data you have stored with Google when you head to that big cloud drive in the sky? Google introduced a feature today called Inactive Account Manager that lets you tell Google what to do with your data after you're gone, whether you want to share it with family and friends or delete it altogether.

The new Inactive Account Manager can be accessed from the Accounts page. You'll find a link to it under the Account Management section.

After reading the brief introduction to the … Read more