The largest U.S. satellite video provider, DirecTV, is one of the companies contemplating making a bid for online video website Hulu, according to a source familiar with the situation. The person acknowledged that other parties were involved, adding that DirecTV was “one of many” suitors. Media reports have previously identified Time Warner Cable Inc as another company weighing a potential stake in the company. Representatives of DirecTV and Time Warner Cable declined to comment on... 

Social networking services Facebook Inc and Twitter are being added to Google Glass, the wearable computer made by the Internet search company. Google Inc announced on Thursday a half-dozen apps specially designed to work on its Glass devices. News network CNN, fashion magazine Elle, as well as online apps Tumblr and Evernote were among the half-dozen new apps for Glass unveiled during Google’s annual developer conference in San Francisco. Google Glass is a stamp-sized electronic screen... 

Google’s Android OS has more than 900 million users, the company said on Wednesday at its I/O event began in San Francisco. Google also announced several APIs that will let developers add more capabilities to their Android apps, including in the areas of location and improving battery life. “It’s been an amazing year for Android developers,” said Android and Chrome vice president Sundar Pichai. Google has sent more money to developers through their Play Store sales in the... 

A year before Google’s futuristic-looking, computerized eyeglasses are expected to hit the market, they have been banned yet again. A Caesars Palace casino spokesman told Computerworld that people wearing the Google Glass technology won’t be allowed in the casino. “Gaming regulations prohibit the use of computers or recording devices by persons who are gambling,” said Gary Thompson, a spokesman for Caesars, in an email. “Therefore, individuals wearing Google Glass... 

Amazon.com has updated its mobile app store to include support for its Chinese customers, a potential signal that the U.S. company may be preparing to sell its Kindle e-readers and tablets in the country. The update effectively launches a new version of Amazon’s app store built in the Chinese language. The store comes in the form of an Android app, and the company has been promoting it since this past weekend. The arrival of the new store comes just months after Amazon launched its Kindle... 

Acer has placed its bet in the tablet wars on low pricing, unveiling a $169 Android tablet with a 7.9-inch screen. The Iconia A1 is full-featured, has an “accessible” price and will raise the stakes in the tablet wars, said Jim Wong, president of Acer, during a speech at a press event in New York on Friday morning. The tablet offers more than eight hours of battery life and an IPS display, also found on iPads. The tablet also has a quad-core processor, which is likely based on an ARM... 

Twitter apparently is working on an app for the Google Glass augmented reality eyewear, a leak on its social network has revealed. Eagle-eyed Twitlio developer Jonathan Gottfried noticed the apparent confirmation of a Twitter app for Google Glass, having seen someone tweeting a picture from the source “Twitter for Glass” . Is @mogroothmuddler beta testing an official Twitter for Glass app? Certainly looks like it. twitter.com/jonmarkgo/stat… — Jonathan Gottfried (@jonmarkgo) April... 

LG Electronics has started taking pre-orders for its 55-inch curved OLED TV in South Korea, with deliveries to begin next month. The TV vendors are under pressure to come up with new reasons for consumers to buy new sets, as global LCD TV shipments declined for the first time ever in 2012, according to NPD DisplaySearch. Along with developments such as smart TVs and 4K resolution, LG is hoping the curved screen will differentiate its products from the competition and help build its brand. LG has... 

Hewlett-Packard on Friday began shipping its $169.99 Slate 7 tablet with Android 4.1, which suggests the company’s re-entry into the consumer tablet market after the TouchPad failure in 2011. The tablet became available first in the U.S. through its website. The tablet is also available for order on the company’s U.K. website, and is scheduled to ship on May 1. The Slate 7 weighs 370 grams, offers five hours of battery life on video playback, and is the company’s first tablet... 

After conquering the low end of the tablet market with the Kindle Fire, Amazon may be preparing to invade the living room with a television set-top box. Citing three unnamed sources, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Amazon is planning to launch the set-top box this fall. However, the report doesn’t say how much the box will cost or how it will stand out from other devices like Apple TV and Roku. It’s obvious why Amazon would want to launch its own TV box. Existing set-top boxes and... 

Samsung is making an aggressive sales play in the U.S. market by moving into thousands of third-party retail outlets where dedicated staff will sell and provide advice on the company’s smartphones,tablets and entertainment products. Samsung has established “pop-up” stores in the past and had a full-scale outlet in New York that was ultimately shut down. A part of the new expansion plan includes retailer Best Buy, which on Monday announced that it would establish a special zone... 

Google’s Eric Schmidt said the technology giant’s wearable computer, Glass, is about a year from reaching the market. “We’ve just started distributing it to the first developers,” Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, told a BBC reporter. “It’s fair to say there will be thousands in use over the months and there will be changes made based on feedback. But it’s fair to say it’s a year-ish away.” Schmidt also told the BBC that Glass,... 

Amazon.com Inc has managed to snag more than a fifth of the market for digital music downloads, helped by the launch of its own tablet computers and aggressive pricing, according to an industry study released on Tuesday. AmazonMP3, the online retailer’s digital music business, had 22 percent of the market for music downloads in the United States in last year’s fourth quarter, research firm the NPD Group said in its Annual Music Study. That compares with 15 percent in 2011, 13 percent... 

Microsoft is developing designs for a touch-enabled smart watch, joining a number of other large competitors like Samsung Electronics and Apple who are said to be working on similar devices, according to a recent report. Executives at suppliers to Microsoft told The Wall Street Journal that the company was sourcing components for the prototype of what could potentially be a “watch-style device.” Microsoft has, for example, requested 1.5-inch displays from component makers for the prototype,... 

Products based on a USB specification that will double the data transfer rates between host devices and peripherals will make it to market in late 2014, the USB Implementers Forum said on Thursday. The standards-setting organization is working on a new specification that will enable data transfers at a rate of 10Gbps (bits per second), which is twice the speed of the current USB 3.0 protocol. The speed boost will enable PCs to move gigabytes of data in a matter of seconds to connected peripherals...