Corporate and legal

Andy Lees, Microsoft's vice president of corporate strategy and development and a rising star within the company, has stepped down from the post just months after getting it, according to a new report.

Lees won't be leaving Microsoft altogether, but will go on sabbatical to return to his family in the U.K., All Things Digital is reporting. When he returns, Lees will have a new position within Microsoft. What that position will be, however, is unknown at this point.

Prior to being promoted to vice president to head up corporate development and strategy, Lees led Microsoft's … Read more

Acer is looking at wearable technology as its next big opportunity, a high-level executive told tech Web site Pocket-Lint.

The wearable technology market could be worth billions of dollars to the industry, ST Liew, president of the smartphone business group at Acer, told Pocket-Lint in an interview. He teased some wearable tech product to emerge in 2014.

Acer is just the latest company to look into wearable tech, a burgeoning market that is starting to see interest from major players. From Google Glass to the Nike Fuelband, the category has begun to pick up steam. The products are often seen … Read more

New York lawmakers are the latest to crackdown on 3D-printed guns.

Both a member of the New York city council and a state assemblywoman have introduced two different pieces of legislation that would either regulate or ban the manufacture of 3D-printed guns, according to New York Daily News.

The bill for New York City was introduced by Council Member Lewis Fidler on Wednesday. This bill aims to make it illegal for people to produce any part of a firearm using a 3D printer unless they are licensed gunsmiths. Also, each weapon must be registered with the police within a 72-hour … Read more

Symantec could let go of as many as 1,700 employees starting as soon as today, according to a report.

The security solutions provider is cutting roughly 8 percent of its global work force in two phases, with about 1,000 positions going first, this month, and another 700 people receiving pink slips in July, AllThingsD reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

The layoffs shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as Symantec first talked about the reorganization strategy in January amid its fiscal third-quarter earnings announcement.

The big target here is middle management.

Symantec's most recent quarterly earnings report … Read more

Apple and Samsung have taken some steps in the right direction when it comes to curbing smartphone theft, but they -- and the industry -- can do much more.

That's according to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who issued a statement after Thursday's smartphone summit.

The law enforcement officials earlier kicked off the day with a press conference, when they announced their intent to push the handset industry to install a "kill switch" in their products that would render the device useless if stolen. Executives from Apple, Samsung, … Read more

NEW YORK -- Megan Boken was on her phone checking in with her family as she got into her car when the line went silent.

The 23-year-old former volleyball star was back at her alma mater, St. Louis University, as part of an alumni-student game. A popular and likeable person, her parents assumed she ran into an old friend and got distracted.

Boken, however, had been shot twice and killed in a robbery. The only item missing: her phone.

Boken's father, Paul, and sister, Annie Palazzolo, shared the details of Megan's death, which occurred in August last year, … Read more

Twitter has started letting its entire user base get a glimpse of a subset of their account analytics.

First noted a week ago, and reported on this morning by The Next Web, the analytics provide a partial view into some of the activity related to users' accounts. In the past, Twitter has provided analytics just to its advertising clients.

Average users seem to be able to see information about their total number of followers, as well as a graph showing the growth of that number since signup, and other tidbits such as the top 10 Twitter users that an account'… Read more

NEW YORK -- A high-level Apple executive admitted his company's deal with publishers caused some e-book prices to rise, giving weight to the government's accusation that Apple's machinations hurt consumers.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, who took the stand Thursday in district court in lower Manhattan, also said Apple considered splitting the market with Amazon in a setup where Apple would control the music market, while Amazon would monopolize books.

Cue's testimony marks a pivotal point in the trial, in which the Justice Department is attempting to prove that … Read more

Google should be investigated by the U.K. tax authority HM Revenue and Customes over its tax affairs, according to a parliamentary watchdog.

The search giant came under heavy criticism from the U.K. Public Accounts Committee today for only paying $16 million in tax to HMRC on turnover of $18 billion between 2006 and 2011.

Google achieved this by basing its operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in Ireland, which has a corporation tax rate of 12.5 percent, less than half the 28 percent rate in the U.K. It then reduced its Irish tax liabilities … Read more