life

That seemingly ordinary iPad 2 that Apple is selling for $399 has actually been modified internally in ways that, in some cases, can yield better battery life, according to a report.

Along with the new third-generation iPad, Apple in March began selling a lower-priced, $399 iPad 2.

Among those iPad 3 models is a variant, the "iPad 2,4," that sports a more advanced 32-nanometer version of the dual-core Apple A5 series chip, according to chip review site Anandtech. (The older iPad 2 uses an A5 based on a lagging-edge 45-nanometer manufacturing process.)

And an A5 built on … Read more

NEW YORK -- The next stop on Mike Daisey's career path was supposed to be obscurity.

Instead, the monologist and Apple critic has never been hotter.

Daisey is the monologist who wrote and stars in the one-man show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs." In January, he went on "This American Life" radio show and told a compelling story about how he saw great suffering among the workers who assemble iPads and iPhones in China. Unfortunately, many of the most compelling details of his story were embellished or flat-out fictional.

Critics predicted that … Read more

Facebook decided to use its multi-million-member network to make it easier for people to become organ donors and it seems that so far, it's working.

Since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg made the announcement early today that users can add if they are organ donors to their timelines, the Donate Life California registry has had an 800 percent increase in its organ donor registrations.

"As of 12:30pm today, the Donate Life California registry has increased its online donor sign ups by nearly 800 percent from yesterday thanks to this mornings announcement of the partnership … Read more

GarageBand got a few tweaks, but they are mostly limited to fixing stability issues. Apple says a bug that formerly would crash the app when uploading songs to iCloud, and another that caused an error when logging into SoundCloud with a Facebook account, have been fixed.

iPhoto received mostly bug fixes and enhancements to streamline use as well, but did get a minor interface tweak that will be useful. Now when you publish a journal to iCloud, a new button lets you copy the link to clipboard -- useful for sharing freshly made journals with friends right away.

iMovie received … Read more

There are several places where protective bumpers always belong: cars, children's bowling parties, and electronics cases.

Rubbery corners are a trademark feature in Ballistic's cases for a variety of smartphone makes and models. In its most recent line for the iPhone 4 and 4S, the Ballistic LifeStyle Smooth series, the case-maker brings the silicone inserts to a fairly fitted design for Apple's iconic phone.

How does the $30 case fare? Pretty well, actually. Check out the photos, the pros, and the cons in my full review of the Ballistic LifeStyle Smooth case, which will be available to … Read more

Wayne Brady makes his second appearance on The 404 today to expand on some of the gaming topics we covered back at CES in Vegas, but first he has a few words for his Twitter trolls.

He's daring all of them to show up to his improvisational comedy show at the Gotham Comedy Club here in NY. He's putting on three shows running today through Sunday and would love to face his critics in person, so check it out!

Wayne mentioned that he's always been into video games, so he'll update us on what he's … Read more

Every spring, households around America partake in some form of spring cleaning. Traditionally, the honey-do list is usually only limited to getting junk out of the garage, and getting the cobwebs off the house. This year, add tidying up your iOS device to the list-- it's worth the extra work.

Device storage space As time goes on, it's really easy to accumulate apps. I'm talking about the apps you have downloaded, placed in a folder, and completely forgotten about. Those single-serving apps take up precious space on your device, and over time they can add up to … Read more

The new iPad scores higher in customer satisfaction than did previous models, but it comes with its own unique set of pros and cons.

A full 82 percent of new iPad owners polled by ChangeWave last month said they were very satisified with the tablet, while 16 percent were somewhat satisifed. Only 2 percent were somewhat unsatisfied, while no one was very unsatisfied.

Those results compare with 74 percent of owners of the previous model iPad surveyed in February who were very satisifed and 23 percent somewhat satisifed.

.Among all owners of the new iPad, ChangeWave uncovered a healthy list … Read more

It's always fun to have a first timer on the show with us, and today we welcome Chenda Ngak, CBSNews.com technology and lifestyle blogger. She's a big videogamer and proud geek, so she's the perfect guest to help us talk about the recent backlash against "fake" geek girls.

Speaking of girls, we don't have them on the show very often so it's great to finally get a female perspective on the Reply Girls phenomenon.

If you haven't heard about them before, Reply Girls are a group of a dozen women dressed in low cut tops that post video replies to trending YouTube videos, exploiting their sexuality to earn money via YouTube's revenue-sharing program. While certainly a symbiotic relationship between Reply Girl and the weirdos clicking on them, we'll discuss the real victims in the scam and how YouTube is putting an end to it.… Read more