Daniel Lyons

Every day tens of millions of people log on to Facebook, the popular social-network site, and spend time playing goofy online games. But watch out. Some people playing these games are getting fleeced by scammers, tricked into signing up for products and services they didn't want.

Last month Microsoft rolled out Windows 7 and opened the first of a chain of new retail stores. As usual with such announcements, there's been loads of hoopla and ginned-up excitement.

Why Steve Ballmer is no Bill Gates.

Maybe you've heard about Google Wave. It's the hot new product from Google, the one that's going to change the world and replace e-mail and transform us all into cyborgs with the power to travel into the future and save mankind.

Apple is supposedly working on a tablet computer, and though it doesn't even exist yet, it has already enjoyed more reviews than most products that actually do.

A former Princeton professor and the son of a respected rabbi, Ethan Nadelmann seems an unlikely advocate for legalizing marijuana.

Apple's tablet will reinvent computing.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has decided to pick a fight with Apple over climate change. This started after Apple quit the chamber this week and made it clear that it was doing so because it thinks the people running the chamber are a bunch of imbeciles when it comes to climate change.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has decided to pick a fight with Apple over climate change. This started after Apple quit the chamber this week and made it clear that it was doing so because it thinks the people running the chamber are a bunch of imbeciles when it comes to climate change.

So I went on NPR today and again made the argument for letting newspapers die rather than bailing them out. The link takes you to a transcript of the piece, and a recording.

Clean energy should trump politics.

Nobody in their right mind believes the future of the news business involves paper and ink rather than pixels on a screen. We all know where the news business is headed, and what's more, we've known it for at least a decade.

How else to explain the latest cartoon from the guys at Joy of Tech? Nobody -- not even hardcore fanboys -- is willing to believe that Apple was telling the truth when it told the FCC that it had not rejected Google Voice from the App Store, and was just taking a long time to study the issue.

The name Sennheiser has become a bit of a litmus test. If you know the brand, and think highly of these expensive German headphones, you're probably a) over 40 years old; b) male; and c) a subscriber to Stereophile or The Absolute Sound with an expensive two-channel stereo system.I must confess, I'm one of those people.

The funny thing about medicine is that in some ways it's so advanced, yet in other ways it remains really primitive. Take ear surgery. You know how young docs learn to do it?

Erik Lustig's mom called him recently in a bit of a panic. She'd been in a retail store shopping for a computer and the sales guy asked her whether she wanted a 32-bit computer or a 64-bit computer, and of course he was pushing the 64-bit machine, because it's faster. (And more expensive.) Luckily for Mrs.

Announced today at the TechCrunch50 conference -- Facebook now has 300 million members, after hitting 250 million just a couple months ago, and they're cash flow positive, ahead of schedule.

See here. Supposedly the God Tablet will be out in February, with a 9.6-inch touch screen, processor from P.A. Semi, a chipmaker owned by Apple, and a price between $800 and $1,000. Get your folding chairs and bring blankets. It's cold camping out on a sidewalk in February. (Originally re-reported by AllThingsD.)

It's this new smartphone that Palm just announced─the Pixi. Is this really the best Palm can do? We've already been hearing that sales of the Pre aren't going so well.

Apple is getting a lot of media and online love today, especially as rumors circulate about possible updates to the iPod and iTunes store. But until Steve Jobs and company actually unveil something at today's "It's Only Rock and Roll" media event, I'm going to save my loving for Windows 7, the next version of Microsoft's operating system. It ships Oct. 22, and the buzz is already building around this new OS, and rightfully so.

The operating system upgrade costs only $29, but it's still probably not worth it.

The name Sennheiser has become a bit of a litmus test. If you know the brand, and think highly of these expensive German headphones, you're probably a) over 40 years old; b) male; and c) a subscriber to Stereophile or The Absolute Sound with a home stereo system that costs tens of thousands of dollars.I must confess, I'm one of those people, except that my stereo resides at the low end of the high-end.

Why Goofy Glasses Are In Your Future.

Not really. Now that the deal is complete, the real fight to watch will be between Microsoft and Google.

Why good Web sites shouldn't be free.

The company's strong earnings puts it neck-and-neck with the tech world's other behemoth.

The company's third attempt at a viable rival to Google is proving to be better than anyone expected. 

But it will cost Google plenty. Inside the company's YouTube problem.

Attention, would-be professional bloggers: Amazon now lets anyone create a blog and sell subscriptions to owners of its Kindle e-reader device. But Amazon sets the prices, and Amazon keeps 70 percent of the money.Digital media were supposed to be the greatest thing ever for writers and other creative types—or "content creators," as we're now known.

Love him or hate him, Apple needs its CEO back. Now.