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When you've done product launches for Nokia, regularly use an iPhone, and are now creative director of BlackBerry, perhaps one smartphone just looks like another.

Perhaps, though, when you're the new creative director of BlackBerry, it's best to leave your iPhone at home.

Otherwise, bad things might happen. Like tweeting from it. Or having someone hack it and tweet from it.

As the Verge reports, Keys today offered the profound thought: "Started from the bottom now were here," to all of her Twitter followers.

This obvious spontaneity seems to have been sent from a Twitter … Read more

As Apple and Samsung have proved, everyone has some kind of patent on something -- which means that everyone could, in theory, sue someone else for some other feature that seems blindingly similar to their own feature.

It all comes down to how much money you have, how good your lawyers are, and what moods judges and juries happen to be in.

When Facebook introduced the "Like" button, it seemed so thoroughly obvious that you couldn't believe someone hadn't thought of it before -- a 5-year-old in Bangalore, for example.

Now, a patent company called Rembrandt Social Media has decided it holds the patent for, well, liking things online and a few other aspects of Facebook.… Read more

Can I share a secret with you?

Smartphones really aren't that smart.

They do a small amount of thinking for themselves, but they depend quite a bit on the information you give them about yourself. Yes, they're like IBM's Watson -- or pretty much every Valentine's blind date you've ever had.

However, Google chose last night's Grammys to suggest that its smartphone, the Nexus 4, is just a little smarter than, say, oh, the iPhone 5.

Siri has had her troubles understanding you -- both your voice and the strange way you sometimes think. … Read more

There is a sudden trend for casually obtained sex.

By "casually," I mean effortlessly, entirely without trying or even seeming to try.

The New York Times noticed it, describing how contemporary dating in New York is little more than the booking of an appointment.

Then along came "Bang with Friends," a site that, as a famous British ad campaign once held it, does exactly what it says on the tin. Or at least claims to.

Hot on its stilettos, there appeared Bang With Professionals, a site that decided to refine the casual sexual urges of the … Read more

Perhaps like you, I have spent much of the week calling my local power provider to check on its use of electrical relay devices.

Spurred by the difficult happenings at last Sunday's Super Bowl -- reportedly caused by one of these devices functioning with all the perfection of a Boeing 787 -- I didn't want any of my weekend events spoiled by a sudden power outage.

"Saturday Night Live" took it upon itself last night to explain to those who were still doubtful why an electrical relay failure can be a devastating thing. Especially during the … Read more

My CNET handlers don't waterboard me.

As far as I know, they haven't yet positioned a drone above my house.

However, occasionally I am offered an imposition that it is impossible to refuse. They make that clear.

"Hey, look," an e-mail told me. "Now you can haz your Twitter in LOLCat language. Happeh?"

I thought this a prank. It's Friday afternoon, so I was sure that someone must have opened a six-pack of Beck's Light.

And yet I was led by the nose to Twitter's official, verified Twitter account, where a … Read more

Not everyone is a gamer.

It doesn't make these people old, sad or clueless -- any more than being a gamer makes someone entirely free of the hope of a significant other.

Conan O'Brien seems to like gaming about as much as he appreciates the skills of Jay Leno. And yet it fell upon him to review Halo 4, one of the quintessential joys of the gaming community.

His experience was a little uncomfortable.… Read more

There are those who would dearly love to kiss Jay Leno.

And there are those who would dearly love to smack him in the kisser.

I have no horse in this face.

But I would like to show you Leno kissing a man. This man is Jesse Heiman, who won a difficult lottery in order to be the one who kissed Bar Refaeli in an ad that ran during the Super Bowl.

In this deeply scripted scenario, Leno believes he is about to re-create the GoDaddy ad and kiss Refaeli.

She performs a switch and makes him kiss Heiman, whose (… Read more

I have always found the marriage thing fascinating.

Though I've never managed it myself, I have been best man five times. This has brought me up close to the deep-seated neuroses surrounding the happy day.

What should the happy couple wear? What color should the flowers be? Should there be a vegetarian option? And, of course, most vital, who should be invited?

I had always imagined that those not invited would accept the slight with good grace or permanent spite.

I had also imagined that those who didn't quite make the cut would at least be offered a … Read more