communities

Robotics students build automated locker for special-needs peer

Pinckney Community High School in Pinckney, Mich., is the site of a robotics experiment gone very, very right. Junior Nick Torrance has muscular dystrophy. He uses a wheelchair to get around, but the muscle disease makes it difficult to handle simple activities, like opening up his locker.

The high school already has a top-notch robotics class. Seniors Micah Stuhldreher and Wyatt Smrcka won the 2012 SkillsUSA national robotics competition, so they were a natural choice to tackle the locker door problem with a robotics solution.… Read more

Facebook's Zuckerberg gives a boatload of cash to charity

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he let go of nearly $500 million today by donating it to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

This nonprofit foundation focuses on grant giving to serve the community in the San Francisco peninsula. Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post today that he, his wife, Priscilla Chan, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation will work together to "look for areas in education and health to focus on."

The hefty sum of cash comes as a gift of 18 million Facebook shares, which is valued at more than $498 million, based on the social … Read more

T-Mobile to sell iPhone in 2013

Thursday's CNET Update completes the set:

T-Mobile USA Chief Executive John Legere confirmed that the carrier will be selling the iPhone next year. Expect T-Mobile to target AT&T and offer competitive pricing with new Value Plans.

Also in today's tech news roundup:

- Apple CEO Tim Cook said some Mac production will move to the U.S. in 2013. He also hinted that Apple is working on a new television concept.

- Google+ is adding Communities. These groups can be public or private for people with similar interests to start hangouts and plan events.

- Facebook … Read more

Surf, tweet, and post safe with Cellframe Antivirus Free Global Community Edition

Free antivirus solutions are common these days, and why not? They offer similar levels of protection because they're either based on the same antivirus engine and definitions or comparable ones. User scans and cloud-based reporting make for slim apps, fast scans, frequent updates, and early detection of new threats. With all that, antivirus freeware needs an angle to connect with users. For Cellframe, that means social media. Cellframe Antivirus Free Global Community Edition is a long tweet of a name for a free full-system antivirus and anti-spyware solution focused on social media and specifically on Facebook and Twitter. Cloud-based … Read more

Habbo silenced after accusations of improper behavior

Habbo, an online community targeted at teens, is under fire for being unable to stop users from engaging in sexually explicit virtual interactions or using derogatory language, according to a post from online magazine The Kernel.

The controversy, which sent the site into a "global mute" that stopped users from communicating, was sparked by a news broadcast in the U.K.'s Channel 4 News about "shocking lapses in moderation of a hugely popular online game used by young teenagers, including interactions of an explicit sexual nature."

The incident has caused one of Habbo's top … Read more

iTunes users griping about Apple's security questions

A handful of iTunes users aren't too happy about the security questions being thrown at them to verify their accounts.

Apple recently ramped up stricter security measures for iTunes and iOS users in an attempt to prevent accounts from being abused or compromised. Beyond just entering a password, some users are now being asked to choose three security questions and a backup e-mail address when they try to download content.

But it's the selection of questions themselves that appear to be upsetting some of the Apple faithful, according to The Register.

Users are being asked to choose from … Read more

Sergey Brin offers $1 million to charity -- if tech titans match

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, have committed to giving $1 million to a Bay Area charity, but only if the organization can get other Silicon Valley titans to pony up another million.

In an interview with CNET last week, Tipping Point Community CEO Daniel Lurie, whose charity distributes donations to dozens of nonprofits throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, said that Brin and Wojcicki have agreed to the gift, assuming Tipping Point can find matching funds from others in the technology world.

Lurie said that Brin and Wojcicki have been long-time supporters of Tipping … Read more

CNET's live event: A good time to start a business? (video)

We hosted a panel last week at CNET's San Francisco headquarters with three top investors who shared their take on booming tech startup world and, more importantly, what they're looking for among the throngs of people trying to create next big thing.

So is the opportunity big now for budding entrepreneurs?

"Hell, yeah," said the Dave McClure of 500 Startups (beginning around 1:45).

George Zachary, with the VC firm Charles River Partners, said the "tension in the air is definitely higher" as his inbox is filling up faster and faster with eager pitches … Read more

Another sign Facebook IPO's getting close

Facebook's upcoming monster-size IPO has led to plenty of speculation -- about demand for the stock, about what it will mean for Facebook, about how it might drive up the valuations of the zillions of startups hoping to ride the Facebook exuberance wave.

And, more to the point, about just when exactly it will happen.

For all you tea-leaf readers out there, clues abound, and I'm here to offer up some fresh ones. Check out the video clip below from a panel I hosted here at CNET headquarters last night with three big startup investors: Dave McClure of … Read more

Check out tonight's CNET panel with top Silicon Valley investors

Our live stream is over. Thanks for watching. Check CNET tomorrow for clips from the live event.

Join me tonight as I talk tech startups with three of Silicon Valley's most respected investors and overall startup advocates -- Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Naval Ravikant of AngelList, and George Zachary of Charles River partners

You can read more about the event here. If you want to understand who gets funded and why, come back to this post tonight at 7 p.m. PT, where we'll be streaming it all live.

And if you are in San Francisco, we … Read more