Technology

Credit: Reuters/David Gray A man looks at his iPad while sitting in a cafe in central Beijing June 6, 2012. The cost of getting new users through paid-for click-through ads on mobile phone apps and Facebook is skyrocketing.

With the speed of innovation in the tech industry, we can't know every piece of technology that will fill our everyday lives in five years, but we can predict what will leave it. As smartphones begin to render low-end cameras obsolete, and Netflix continues to upend the DVD and Blu-ray market, it's clear the technology landscape will look dramatically different in the near future.

The suite of Microsoft Office apps for iPad have only been in the Apple App Store for 24 hours and are already dominating the download charts. The three freemium apps - which are free to download but require a subscription ($99) to edit documents and perform other functions - are occupying the top consecutive spots of the App Store's free downloads.

An invitation to see a "future restaurant" covered in highfalutin tech concepts was shaping up to be a highlight of our week. According to Recruit Advanced Technology Lab's teaser, it was going to encompass smartglasses, augmented reality, gesture interfaces, customer face identification, avatars, seamless wireless payments and more, all hosted at Eggcellent, a Tokyo restaurant that...

How many times have you read that procrastination is just a characteristic of a lazy person? That people try to be "busy" rather than "productive"? That only happy-go-lucky hippies get to take a brain break from life? For a few people, this may be true.

Smart glasses are expected to gain a lot of momentum as "wearable computing" takes root in the consumer market. A lot of the details, like how to protect privacy in a world full of smart glasses, still have to be worked out.

On the hunt for some of the better new apps to arrive for iOS over the past month? Your search is over. Here's 17 of the best to hit the App Store in March.

The digital revolution is going into a decline, Tim Waterstone told the Oxford literary festival. Well, it's an attention-grabbing statement, ideally suited to our culture of assertive headlines, but it's probably not true. That's not to say that the rapid growth of digital will necessarily continue, either, certainly not in markets that are already saturated with handheld devices.

April Fools' Day jokes are by and large disappointing - Google aside - but there is some hope outside of Mountain View. Here's what companies other than Google did that was actually interesting. Tumblr - Tumblr Pro Tumblr pranked a lot of its young userbase after it added a button to allow users to upgrade to 'Tumblr Pro' on its microblogging service.

Mimecast's cloud-based enterprise email service is now available to Mac users via a native app that gives users full access to the firm's renowned cloud email security, archiving and continuity service.

This post has been brought to you by Namecheap: Register your domains hassle-free. In the digital age of online banking, dating and brand building, your domain is quite literally the "main" show. It holds the information to whatever goods, services, thoughts - or even just pictures of cats - you're pedaling these days.

It's about time you upgraded your grocery list from the old pen-and-paper format. There are dozens of available apps designed specifically to help you get the most out of your trips to the supermarket. From easy list-making to virtual coupon clipping, you can find ways to save, shop and stay super organized.

StoreDot 30 sec Smartphone charging demo

The TechCrunch wrecking ball is smashing into Boston as startups in the city are coming off their best quarter in years. Boston-based startups managed to haul in over $1.2 billion in venture financing in 142 deals for the quarter, marking the strongest fundraising environment for Boston tech startups since 2009.

There's a security flaw in one of the basic encryption tools used by a huge number of websites, and it probably affects you. Just to be safe, you should probably change your passwords. All of them.

App bundles generally provide great value - but do you download more desktop, or mobile apps nowadays? Probably the latter. So, StackSocial has put together its first ever iOS bundle, featuring apps like Parallels Access and Scanner Pro. The best part? You get to choose the apps you actually want.

Microsoft today announced major updates to the Windows Dev Center and Windows Phone Dev Center, with the former rolling out "later this week" and the latter arriving "later today." While Microsoft says many of the enhancements address feedback from developers, the big additions are support for universal Windows apps and Windows Phone 8.1 apps.

Tomorrow, April 15, Google Glass will finally go on sale to the public. Granted, you'll have just one day to buy it, and supplies will be limited. That's the kind of sales tactic any company would use to pressure you into buying a shiny, new toy you don't really need.

With more than 1 billion active mobile users, Facebook has the kind of scale to make any e-payments service jealous, but it could be years before the company gets that other important feature to running a viable financial business: trust.

Four months ago we covered Notegraphy, an Instagram-inspired editing app for creating notes with beautiful typography. At the time it was only available for iOS and Web, but that's now changed with the introduction of an Android version. Similar to its previous apps, you can use Notegraphy on Android to browse and apply a variety of different templates, referred to as Styles.

LaCie, the French computer storage company acquired by SeaGate in 2012, has revealed that its customers may have had their details stolen in an attack that lasted a whole year. The FBI alerted the company to indications that a hacker had used malware to copy credit card details and passwords from its online store.

Walk through this year's New York international Auto Show, and it's clear that the current crop of cars are rapidly catching up with the concept vehicles of the future. But one audacious 3D-printed car on display at the event, a Ford Gran Torino, looks like it just arrived from the underworld or an alien planet - and we doubt automakers will ever catch up to this kind of design.

Twitter Inc. said its new mobile-advertising product will be able to reach more than 1 billion devices, rivaling the number of users on Facebook Inc. The ads, aimed at software makers seeking to encourage downloads of their applications, will be carried both on Twitter and outside the microblogging service, the company said in a blog post today.

SAN DIEGO - Karl Deisseroth is having a very early breakfast before the day gets going at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Thirty thousand people who study the brain are here at the Convention Center, a small city's worth of badge-wearing, networking, lecture-attending scientists.

Source: Google via YouTube and NASA are developing smart robots designed to fly around the International Space Station and eventually take over some menial tasks from astronauts with the aid of custom-built smartphones. Since 2006, three colorful, volleyball-sized robots have been slowly floating around a 10-foot by 10-foot by 10-foot space inside the ISS.