10-Year-old you can now relax: Science has confirmed Super Mario Brothers is hard to beat. The paper by a team of international computer scientists used actual math to come to that pointy-headed conclusion, the Washington Post reports, and focuses on not just the Mario series but also Donkey Kong, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon. The title of the paper? “Classic Nintendo

Facebook announced its largest acquisition yet: Instagram. I can hear hipters whining about how Instagram sold out and are too mainstream… Facebook bought the San Francisco-based service for around $1 billion in cash and shares, and has promised to let it remain independent while also integrating it into the social networking site. AllThingsD has the full release, including Mark Zuckerberg’s

Apple announced plans to spend $45 billion of its $97 billion in cash reserves on a buyback and a dividend program. Of that, $10 billion will go to a buyback authorization—though Business Insider cautions that Apple has merely given itself the option to buy back shares, not actually committed to doing so. The rest of the money will go to

A very angry hipster  is suing Apple for its “misleading and deceptive” advertising of Siri. In real life, the plaintiff alleges, Siri will not help you learn to play guitar, find you a restaurant, or make an appointment with nearly the aplomb depicted in Apple’s commercials. More often “Siri either did not understand what Plaintiff was asking, or, after a

Apple has confirmed that original stock of the new iPad units are sold out. According to Apple executives demand for the new iPad has been “off the charts” which allowed the initial pre-order batch to sell out in record time. While official sales figures for the tablet were not revealed Apple is expected to quickly build more stock to follow

Online rumors are off the charts with news that cable news giant CNN is purchasing Mashable, one of the biggest online destinations for news and tips about social media, the web, and technology. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon said Sunday night in a video from the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference: “A little bird told me that CNN is going to

Everyone is tracking you. Facebook and Google are tracking you. Your cell phone is tracking you. Your cell phone images are being uploaded without your knowledge. And that’s not all, Veronique Greenwood writes in Discover: Many sites you visit are amassing information about you and selling it to advertisers. Inspired by an article in the Atlantic this week, Greenwood downloaded

Let the game begin… Google is challenging hackers to find holes in its Chrome browser—with a nice incentive. The company is offering a total of $1 million in prizes to people who can find bugs or vulnerabilities in Chrome at next week’s CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, reports Wired. Hackers stand to win $60,000 for a “full Chrome exploit” using

A Zimbabwe 17-year-old  was convicted of “criminal insult,” and sentenced to two strokes from a cane after taking a photograph of a woman, posting it on Facebook, and calling her a “typical prostitute.” The teen is the first in his southern African nation to be sentenced because of a derogatory comment on Facebook. According to the Herald newspaper, the boy, 

Before yesterday, Reddit had no official ban on users posting “suggestive or sexual content featuring minors.” Or, you know, what most of us call disgusting child pornography. But a post from administrators last night changed everything. It explained that a ban on such content is now being enacted, despite the concern that the ban will prove to be a “slippery