update

News Corp. axes The Daily.

The Daily, which was an ambitious tablet-only news publication backed by News Corp., is shutting its doors December 15. Launched back in February 2011, The Daily was an interactive newspaper stylized for consumption on the iPad. Best of all, a year's subscription went for only $40 and offered a wide variety of sections. While there will be no more issues of The Daily, its brand will live on other channels within News Corp.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the first text message. On December 3, 1992, SMS pioneer Matti Makkonen successfully sent … Read more

Microsoft might have a new Xbox for the 2013 holiday season.

A new report from Bloomberg suggests that Microsoft might be readying the successor to the Xbox 360 for the 2013 holiday season. We here at CNET have been speculating the company might do the big unveiling at E3 2013 next summer and then set up a release shortly after. Some of the rumored features of the next Xbox -- aside from an obvious bump in performance -- are a Blu-ray drive and a more precise version of Kinect.

Industry site Telecoms.com has discovered some information about the iPhone 5'… Read more

Early this morning, Syria went offline.

Some more scary news is coming out of Syria early this morning. Apparently the entire country has gone dark, completely vanishing from the Internet over the course of just a few minutes. According to Renesys, a company that operates a real-time Internet-monitoring grid, all of Syria's IP connectivity has become unreachable.

Today Google has announced the acquisition of Incentive Targeting, a maker of coupon programs that tailor to users' behaviors and likes. The company has worked with retailers to design trackable coupons that help gauge their performance and usefulness.

CNET has a review of the Jawbone Up … Read more

Windows Phone 7.8 -- the update for Windows Phone 7.x that adds tile multisizing support -- is going to roll out to "as many devices as possible" by early 2013.

That's the latest timing I had heard from some of my contacts, and is now officially acknowledged by the Softies, as noted in a November 28 Windows Phone blog post.

The post, authored by Windows Phone chief Terry Myerson, noted that Windows Phone 7.8 is starting to roll out now on new, lower-priced phones in many countries around the world.

But it's … Read more

It used to be that if you wanted to post a review of a book, game, or app in the Google Play store, you could do so as an anonymous user. Now, however, any review you write will be publicly linked to your Google+ name and picture.

Google Play users need to sign in -- or join up -- with a Google+ account to post a review. Of course, this can't be done retrospectively, so your name on previous reviews appears as "A Google User."

The integration of Google+ profiles and Google Play means that users can … Read more