Larry Magid

When you go to download Skout on an iPhone, the tagline is "flirt, friend, chat," and you're invited to "join the fastest growing FREE social scene with millions of guys and girls waiting to meet you!" Skout's iPhone icon is a heart. And, thanks to the phone's location awareness, you...

MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Photo: Apple, Inc)

I have to admit I was tempted by the 15-inch Macbook Pro with retina display. Not only is it thinner and lighter than previous MacBook Pros, its screen is nothing less than stunning if...

Whether Verizon's new data plan is good or bad depends on how many devices you use and how much data you consume as well as how gabby you are.

The good news is that you can now share buckets of data across devices and there are no limits on voice...

I attended Google's mapping press conference last week and, today, attended Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference, where I witnessed a demo of Apple's new map app for the iPhone and iPad.

Although I haven't looked at them side-by-side, the demos were pretty similar. Both companies are using fleets of airplanes...

Two years ago -- long before there was much public discussion about Facebook admitting children under 13 -- I had the opportunity to interview Mark Zuckerberg. But, before I did, I asked a group of educators, Internet safety advocates and youth risk experts to suggest questions. Two experts suggested I...

All of the pre-IPO hype and post-IPO letdown completely misses the point when it comes to Facebook. Although Wall Street may see it differently, Facebook's main task is not about making a quick buck. It's about slowly and methodically building a sustainable business that's both financially profitable and socially useful,...

I was an Android user for years and still have several Android devices. But last October I bought an iPhone 4S and I'm glad I did. I remember the exact date I bought it, because it was the last time Apple updated the iPhone. Unlike Android devices, there is only...

There has been a lot of debate and handwringing over whether the Internet and social media have redefined "privacy," but while the Internet makes it easier to share, it doesn't force us to share. It's a matter of making choices and balancing the benefits of sharing with the risks, whether...

I recently attended Imagine K12's "demo day" where a group of startups in the education space pitched their companies to potential funders.

As I sat and listened to these mostly young entrepreneurs, I wondered which ones might disrupt education just as technology has changed other industries such as...

When Consumer Reports writes about home appliances it tells you their strengths and weaknesses, but I've never seen any dire warnings about how you can lose your hand if you stick it in a garbage disposal. Even when they review cars, they don't fill their articles with awful statistics about...

Google last week announced its long-awaited Google Drive, which lets you store files on it servers, sync them to other PCs or Macs, and open them on Android devices and -- soon -- on iPhones and iPads.

It's similar to services such as Dropbox, SugarSync and Trend Micro's SafeSync, but...

I've been testing Samsung's new 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 tablet (my full review is at TabTimes) and, in some ways, I like it better than the iPad. Sure, the newest iPad's Retina screen (ironically, made by Samsung) is more dazzling and the iPad has a faster processor, a bigger screen...

My favorite chapter in Carol Realini's new book Bankrupt: Why Banking Is Broken and How It Can Be Transformed, is where she invokes the holiday classic, It's a Wonderful Life, comparing George Bailey, played by James Stewart, to banker and...

As far as I can tell, the app "Girls Around Me" wasn't violating any laws. But it was high on the creepy scale when, according to reports, women's identity, photographs and location were being revealed to strangers, even though the women never opted into the service. Although the developer, Moscow-based...

The Federal Trade Commission's final report on digital privacy contains some very welcome recommendations.

The recently released report, "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change," looks at challenges consumers face in "today's world of smart phones, smart grids, and smart cars," as "companies are collecting, storing,...

Facebook is more than a social network. It's also a platform that allows independent developers to create applications, or "apps" that greatly expand what the service can offer. Games, including social games like Words with Friends, are very popular, but there are also education apps, photo sharing apps, apps to...

The telephone as we know it -- or at least as we adults knew it -- may soon be a thing of the past. I'm not talking about smartphones -- they're really not phones, but pocket-sized personal computers with an optional voice function -- but I do wonder whether the...

It seems that just about everyone is talking about the Kony 2012 video that's received more than 70 million views since it was posted last week.  It's part of a campaign by the non-profit group Invisible Children to bring awareness to the evil deeds of rebel leader Joseph Kony who's Lord's Resistance...

Some people are worried that on March 1, Google will begin consolidating information across its many products. That means that any information you enter in one product, say YouTube, can be combined with information from other Google services including search, Gmail or Google's new Google+ social networking site. In its...

When it comes to social media privacy, there is some good news from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. It...