Technology

SAN JOSE -- The Winklevoss twins, who transformed a lucrative Facebook payout into a venture capital fund, say it's now time for Bitcoin companies to work with governments rather than against them.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin Harvard graduates famously portrayed in the 2010 film "The Social Network," showed up at the Bitcoin 2013 conference to talk up the future of what is the Internet's favorite alternative currency -- as long as it escapes a government crackdown.

"I don't think anyone wants a fight -- I think everyone here wants to build Bitcoin, … Read more

A single iPhone may not provide enough light to shoot a dark scene. But a handful of them remotely controlled might just do the trick. At least, that's the idea behind a patent filed by Apple.

Published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent application dubbed simply "Illumination system" describes a method whereby multiple iPhones or other mobile devices team up to act as camera flashes. The primary device could be a camera or a smartphone. The secondary devices could be smartphones, tablets, or other gadgets with their own built-in flash or a … Read more

Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car company Tesla Motors, has left a fledgling political action group founded by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, after the group bankrolled ads that angered environmentalists and others.

Musk and former PayPal colleague David Sacks -- founder of Yammer, which helps companies set up in-house social networks -- left FWD.us on Friday, according to various reports.

The launch of FWD.us last month was accompanied by a Zuckerberg-penned opinion piece in the Washington Post that spelled out the group's goals, including: changes to U.S. immigration law, with an eye toward attracting and keeping talented … Read more

Apple receives so many police demands to decrypt seized iPhones that it has created a "waiting list" to handle the deluge of requests, CNET has learned.

Court documents show that federal agents were so stymied by the encrypted iPhone 4S of a Kentucky man accused of distributing crack cocaine that they turned to Apple for decryption help last year.

An agent at the ATF, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, "contacted Apple to obtain assistance in unlocking the device," U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell wrote in a recent opinion. But, she wrote, … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don't need a search warrant to review Americans' e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal.

Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they're not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail. The IRS, on the other hand, publicly said last month that it would abandon a controversial policy that claimed it could get warrantless access … Read more

The iPhone could one day come with buttons and controls that blend right into the background, effectively making them invisible.

Granted to Apple on Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed "Disappearing button or slider" describes how various controls on the iPhone and other devices would normally stay hidden and fully appear only when needed.

A button would be made of the same material as the housing of the phone, so it would blend in seamlessly. But it could be selectively backlit through small holes to pinpoint its location, or the backlight itself … Read more

President Obama has picked Nicole Wong, Twitter's legal director, to be the White House's first chief privacy officer, CNET has learned.

Wong previously was a vice president and deputy general counsel at Google at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, where she managed a team of lawyers that worked with the company's engineers to review products before they launched. The reviews included privacy, copyright, and removal requests, which earned her a nickname of "The Decider" -- as recounted in a 2008 New York Times Magazine article.

A person familiar with the situation told CNET that the … Read more

Update: The Senate late today passed the bill, sending it to the House.

The U.S. Senate is planning to vote Monday to levy new taxes on mobile app developers, cloud computing services, music and movie downloads, and even people selling collections of WordPress themes.

Senators who are backing the legislation known as S.743 describe it as a way to force out-of-state retailers to collect taxes on physical shipments. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., claims his bill will "put local and Main Street retailers on a level playing field with their out-of-state and online counterparts."

What Enzi and … Read more

Aereo is trying to cut CBS off at the legal pass.

The TV streaming service has filed a complaint against CBS (CNET's parent company), to prevent it from filing yet another lawsuit against it. Aereo allows people to watch and record live network broadcasts via the Web, a feature that has gotten it into trouble with CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC. The networks have argued that Aereo's $12-per-month service is illegal because it distributes their shows without compensating them in return.

Both sides have been battling it out in court, and so far the rulings have favored Aereo. … Read more