collectibles

In a twist on recent revelations about classified U.S. intelligence gathering, thousands of companies are reportedly supplying national security agencies with sensitive information in exchange for classified intelligence.

U.S. Internet and telecommunications companies are providing government agencies with information such as vulnerabilities and equipment specifications rather than customers' private communications, sources tell Bloomberg.

Software makers, Internet security providers, and telecommunications providers, among others, have agreements with the National Security Agency, as well as the CIA, FBI, and U.S. military to provide information that could be used not only to defend the nation's infrastructure but to infiltrate … Read more

With its sleek interface and convenient features, Xee for Mac delivers a worthy alternative to Preview or any other Mac OS X image browser.

At around 3.8MB, this app downloads within a minute. Xee for Mac features a neat and clean, typical interface for image browsers. All options are easily located within a well-organized menu. Previous and Next buttons are on the left upper side as well as options for zooming. Options for automatic orientation and rotation are positioned on the upper-right side. In the Preferences menu the user can view and set up keyboard shortcuts for many options … Read more

Verizon Wireless already sells its customers' mobile data to marketers. Now European enterprise-software giant SAP is taking things a step further by testing a service that will sell data collected by a number of wireless providers.

SAP announced its Consumer Insight 365 mobile service this week at the CTIA 2013 wireless show in Las Vegas. The service will, the company said in a release, pull data from SAP's "extensive partner network" including "over 990 mobile operators;" aggregate and analyze it "without drilling down into user-specific information;" and make results available to subscribers through … Read more

For a long time, Astrid was considered a go-to task management app for Android users. But with its recent acquisition by Yahoo and the news that it will soon be going away, fans of the app will soon be looking for alternatives. With that in mind, I've put together a list of four of my favorite to-do managers for Android. In some ways they may even outdo the popular Astrid, but feel free to tell us in the comments how you think they stack up.

Wunderlist (free) The beauty of Wunderlist lies in its simplicity. It easily syncs across … Read more

When Jonathan Gottfried developed a Twitter app for Google Glass called GlassTweet, he did so because he wanted a way to tweet photos from his Glass headset. Now it's looking as though he's onto something, although no one would characterize his user base as big -- yet.

"There's at least 10 people using GlassTweet," said Gottfried, who is a developer evangelist for Twilio. "The group that's using it is extremely active and vocal," and includes uber-early adopters such as the all-Glass, all-the-time Robert Scoble and LeWeb founder Loic LeMeur.

"I certainly … Read more

You could spend a lot of time and energy fashioning your own Iron Man armor, or you could just throw $8,500 over to Sideshow Collectibles and pick up a full-size suit right off the shelf.

The Tony Stark-size figure is a reproduction of the Iron Man Mark 42 suit from the upcoming "Iron Man 3." It's more than 7 feet tall and is painted with high-gloss automotive paint to give it that Iron Man shine. That's not all, of course. For your investment, you'll also get to enjoy LED light-up eyes, arc reactor, palms, and display base. That makes it a very expensive, but very cool, lamp.… Read more

The rumor was right. Konami today confirmed Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection, slating the comprehensive PlayStation 3-exclusive bundle to arrive this June. The company did not specify a price.

Game designer Hideo Kojima teased the project last week, revealing an image of the game's box art. In addition, the Korean Game Ratings board had published an entry for the bundle.

Read more of "Metal Gear Solid: Legacy Collection confirmed" at GameSpot.

Kids these days. They've never had to lock a floppy disk or dial a rotary telephone. It's a different world, and a survey by TeachHub.com and Clever Girls Collective shows just how much times have changed. The survey of 1,000 kindergarten through 5th graders spawned an infographic just in time to celebrate National Library Week.

Among the not-too-surprising findings, only 14 percent of the kids knew what the save icon represents. I'm actually surprised that that many of them recognized a floppy disk. They must have some old-school parents or an out-of-date uncle who is still rocking a Mac Classic.… Read more