NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook’s recent effort to force people to adopt its standalone mobile messaging app has privacy-concerned users up in arms. Many of them believe the app is especially invasive.

One blog from the Huffington Post published in December has gone viral, making the rounds on the social network recently because it claims the app gives Facebook “direct control over your mobile device” and allows Facebook to call phone numbers without a users’ intervention and send text messages without confirmation, but none of that is accurate. read more »

At the end of June, the Senate Intelligence Committee introduced the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014, the latest variation of cybersecurity laws. Similar bills have failed to pass over the last four years, and in my opinion, rightfully so because of very reasonable concerns that they were overly broad in their power to potentially discard privacy and trample individual rights.  read more »

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Before Ralf Groene helped devise the look and feel of Microsoft’s Surface tablet, he designed food — or “food concepts,” he says, for people on the go. Among them: dried noodles that come wrapped around a pair of chopsticks; a tubular meal that can be pulled with two fingers from a car cup holder base; and a fork that squeezes out sauce. read more »

Belfair-based Boxlight brought home one of the Best of Show awards from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference for the company’s new P8 DeskBoard. The DeskBoard is a portable, height- and tilt-adjustable desk surface made interactive via an attached ultrashort-throw projector.

It is designed for schools that need mobile, customized interactivity as the DeskBoard can be used as an interactive screen or desk, with the ability to raise, lower, tilt and move from classroom to classroom.  read more »

By Terri Gleich / For KPBJ 

When Chris Gonzales graduated from the University of Washington with a computer science degree, he wasn’t qualified for his current job as a software developer at Unity Technologies.

To teach himself the computer code that is the foundation for every website and software program, he spent hours watching YouTube videos and visiting bookstores where he would page through manuals he couldn’t afford to buy. read more »

On July 5 and 6, our first GAMCON (Gaming, Anime and Music Convention — www.gamconvention.com/) is coming to the Kitsap Conference Center at Harborside in Bremerton. This local incarnation is similar to those which enjoy huge success in other parts of the country. West Sound Technology Association (WSTA) is a premier Kickstarter backer of this event, thanks to a generous donation on its behalf by Professional Options, a longtime WSTA supporter and sponsor. read more »

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon, a company of seemingly boundless ambition, appears to be venturing into yet another market: smartphones.

The corporate juggernaut that started out with books and soon moved into music, video, cloud computing and Kindle e-readers is hosting a launch event Wednesday in Seattle, and media reports indicate the product will be an Amazon phone — perhaps one with multiple cameras that can produce 3-D photos. read more »

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK — To appreciate Microsoft’s latest tablet computer, you need to accept the notion that one device can do it all. read more »

With all the different threats to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of critical information on computers and on the Internet, it can seem a bit overwhelming to figure out what you can do to protect your personal and business data. Some people have a false sense of security, while others are so fearful that they think the solution is to stay offline. read more »