Every debate seems destined to have a break-out meme. In the first round, it was Big Bird. This time it was Mitt Romney's binder full of women, which instantly became a trending hashtag, Twitter handle, a Facebook group and a Tumblr. (Talking about his effort to hire women for his cabinet, Romney said "And I brought us… FULL STORY

Filed under: Social Media

The Microsoft Surface tablet picture has abruptly come into focus. Tuesday morning this Redmond giant filled in the blanks on the new tablet's pricing, availability and specs. FULL STORY

Filed under: Gaming & Gadgets

Battery maker A123 Systems, a one-time darling of the U.S. electric car industry and recipient of millions in government funding, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Weak PC sales finally caught up to Intel, dragging the chipmaking giant's sales and profits lower in the third quarter. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Tech giant IBM posted third-quarter earnings Tuesday in line with expectations, though shares sunk in after-hours trading as the company reported a dip in sales. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Apple announced Tuesday that it has scheduled an event for Oct. 23, at which it is widely expected to introduce a smaller version of the iPad, dubbed the "iPad mini." FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled pricing for its Surface tablet, which will go on sale on Oct. 26. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

The doodles that spice up Google's plain white home page keep getting more elaborate. FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

Facebook has spent $140,000 "friending" Republicans this year. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

It's only October, but companies like Amazon are already thinking about the holidays. The online retailer is the latest to announce its seasonal hiring plan, and it's significant: 50,000 jobs in the United States FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Amazon and Apple have informed some e-book buyers that they'll receive credits for future book purchases, as part of a recent settlement three major publishers signed to settle a price-fixing lawsuit. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

It was cute for a while. We had some fun. And a few Americans even learned to locate South Korea on a map. (I think it's near Pittsburgh.) FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

"Saturday Night Live" has added a little perspective to users' gripes about the new iPhone. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

Sprint Nextel on Monday said that it has agreed to sell a majority of the company to Japanese tech giant SoftBank. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

By creating personalized shopping experiences around themselves, millennials are upending the traditional consumer-brand hierarchy, leaving brands and retailers scrambling to reclaim their influence. FULL STORY

When he wasn't laughing, Joe Biden sounded like a belligerent old man. FULL STORY

Filed under: Social Media

It is hard enough to make one good video game. Trying to make two at the same time is a challenge not many developers try to tackle. But the creators of a recently released, turn-based strategy game hope that by blending two differing styles of play in one title they will find a pot of gold at the end of the double rai… FULL STORY

Filed under: Gaming & Gadgets

With fallout still swirling from Apple's decision to replace Google Maps with its own mobile mapping, Google on Thursday announced the biggest upgrade ever to its Street View tool. FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

Sprint Nextel's seven-year nightmare may soon be over. The nation's third-largest wireless carrier confirmed Thursday that it is in talks with Japanese technology giant Softbank to sell at least part of the company. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Facebook's close relationship with Zynga means the social network has raked in tons of money from the success of games like FarmVille. But that partnership has a flip side: Bad news for Zynga also means bad news for Facebook. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

In an agreement that the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) calls "a model for the streaming video industry," Netflix has agreed to caption all of its shows by the year 2014. FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

Google is one of a growing number of companies to offer a "bug bounty" to hackers who can find security issues in its products -- and on Wednesday, a teenager scored the top $60,000 prize for uncovering a vulnerability in the Chrome browser. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Shipments of personal computers are on pace to fall this year for the first time since the dot-com bust of 2001, according to a new forecast from IHS iSuppli. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

To the amusement of Mitt Romney's critics, a Google Image search for the phrase "completely wrong" on Wednesday returned a page nearly full of images of the Republican presidential candidate. FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

Maybe this iPhone 5 "purple haze" issue isn't such a big deal after all. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

EBay is pulling its old clunky site into the modern age with a major redesign and new features inspired by its younger, buzzier tech rivals. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Microsoft is undergoing a "significant shift" in the way it does business, moving away from software as its sole focus and toward making hardware, online services and apps work together seamlessly across multiple screens and gadgets. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Nearly nine out of 10 registered U.S. voters own a cell phone -- almost half of which are smartphones. And many voters are using cell phones to get and share election information or news. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

The way we watch TV is changing. People want to decide when, where and on what screen they watch their favorite shows. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

The long-running rumor that Apple might release a smaller, less costly version of the iPad is building. There's widespread speculation that Apple might announce this device as early as October 17 -- just in time for the holiday-buying season. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

Part of the enduring appeal of YouTube is the sheer random nature of it all -- the way videos of a South Korean pop song or a doped-up kid after a dentist visit can go from obscure to internationally known in a matter of days. FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

Moderating a discussion on the future of broadband, Mashable editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff tossed a provocative question to the audience: "By quick show of hands, how many out there think that broadband is a luxury?" FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Stop us if you've heard this before: Tech geeks are the new rock stars. Silicon Valley is a "hotbed of innovation." And some people who work in tech aren't nerdy. FULL STORY

Filed under: Innovation

Jack Dorsey is back to just one full-time job. Twitter's once-exiled co-founder, who returned in mid-2011 to revitalize Twitter's user experience, has stepped down from his operational role at the company. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz

Facebook is agreeing to pay up to $10 each to users who appeared in the social-networking site's "Sponsored Stories" advertising program without their permission. FULL STORY

Filed under: Social Media

Savvy Internet users know that all the great stuff they get from the Internet us for "free"?the searches, the social networks, the games, even the news?isn't really free. It's an exchange, where companies are able to take user data, sell it to advertisers, and make money that allows them to give themselves a paycheck w… FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

Ever wish that you remembered every day of your life? Cesar Kuriyama did. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

There is a very simple question that Little Bird, a service that launches today in private beta, attempts to answer: What community are you interested in? With that as a starting point, the service chugs through Twitter streams, blog posts and LinkedIn pages to find the most influential people, companies and reading ma… FULL STORY

Filed under: Social Media

Being a highly productive, contributing member of society demands effort and commitment. It requires sacrifice and a passion for teamwork. FULL STORY

Filed under: Web

In an entertainment environment where sequels often do better than the original, it could be considered risky for a gaming company to do something different. However, one team thinks it's the perfect environment to showcase new ideas and stories, not more of the same. FULL STORY

Filed under: Gaming & Gadgets

It was a busy week for Facebook, which hit a major milestone, made fashion news and made some users uneasy about privacy again. FULL STORY

Filed under: Social Media

If you're like Derek Smith, you spend a lot of time on your smartphone. Then again, maybe nobody is quite like Derek Smith. FULL STORY

Filed under: Mobile

Many of Steve Jobs' most inspiring and quotable lines come from his famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, when he told assembled graduates, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." FULL STORY

Filed under: Innovation

When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer in his California home a year ago today, the world rushed to eulogize him in glowing terms: Genius. Visionary. A modern-day Thomas Edison. FULL STORY

Filed under: Innovation

Two of China's largest telecom companies disputed the findings of a critical congressional report Monday, saying their products are safe for use in the U.S. FULL STORY

Filed under: Tech Biz