Techlife News #167

Mark Zuckerberg wants to add a little more “book” to Facebook. The Facebook founder and CEO announced on his page recently that he has vowed to read a book every other week in 2015, with an emphasis on learning about different beliefs, cultures and technologies. Zuckerberg created a page called “A Year of Books” and urged his friends to join him in the project. As of late Sunday afternoon, it had more than 100,000 likes. “I’m excited for my reading challenge,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I’ve found reading books very intellectually fulfilling. Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I’m looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books.” The first book in his program, Moises Naim’s “The End of Power:…

One of New Jersey’s reality TV stars is about to exchange her designer threads for prison garb. Teresa Giudice, a cast member of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” is scheduled to report to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday morning to begin serving a 15-month sentence for bankruptcy fraud. She and husband Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice pleaded guilty last year and admitted hiding assets from bankruptcy creditors and submitting phony loan applications to get some $5 million in mortgages and construction loans. Joe Giudice also pleaded guilty to failing to pay taxes totaling more than $200,000. At the Giudices’ sentencing in October, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas criticized the couple for not disclosing all their assets as required under their plea agreement, calling it “the same pattern of obstruction, concealment and…

The BlackBerry’s blinking red light used to haunt me. Just when I thought I could relax, enjoy a nice dinner or go for a run, my BlackBerry would start blinking again, signaling a new message. I was an addict. Typing with one hand, hiding the BlackBerry under the dinner table? No problem. Walking down the street while composing messages? Easy. That was four years ago. Today, I’m a loyal iPhone user, having just bought my second phone from Apple. I get my personal and work email on it. I also use it to tweet - maybe too much - and share photos of my travels on Instagram. My airline boarding passes and hotel reservations live on my phone. As a travel reporter, I find it’s an indispensable tool for my work - not…

Hollywood kicked off the New Year on a positive note, with three films vying closely for the weekend box-office title that nevertheless remained with “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” for the third straight week. Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth finale took in $21.9 million for Warner Bros. in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, narrowly edging out the Disney musical “Into the Woods” ($19.1 million) and Angelina Jolie’s World War II tale “Unbroken” ($18.4 million) from Universal. The weekend’s lone new wide-release, the Relativity Media horror sequel “The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death,” landed in fourth place with $15.1 million. The first weekend of 2015 gave Hollywood the chance to begin turning the page on a rough 2014 in which box-office revenue slid 5 percent and attendance dropped…

THERE REALLY IS AN APP FOR EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE January is commonly associated with many things - such as the post-Christmas sales, the returning of unwanted presents and the dreary return to work, to name just a few. However, it's also a time when many of us yearn to escape from it all, and the great news is that these days, ski holidays aren't the preserve of the privileged. Indeed, there are even some great apps to help you to make the most of them. Apps, you say? You heard us right: in a world in which your smartphone or tablet can help you to get fit, tick those pressing matters off the 'to-do' list and catch up with the latest news headlines, it really should go without saying that it can also…

Uber, Facebook, Instagram - sure, they’ve been all the rage, but as 2014 winds down we’re all ready for something fresh. From ride-hailing to photo sharing, here are a few up-and coming apps and startups to watch in in 2015. Which will be the breakout hit of the new year? TELL A STORY Instagram, which is owned by Facebook Inc., now has 300 million users - more than Twitter. Scrolling through its snapshot feeds gives users a quick glimpse into the lives of friends and strangers. (At least the parts that include empty beaches, cappuccinos with perfect foam hearts and smiling babies in clean clothes.) Its simplicity is part of its appeal. But what if you want to tell a longer story? Enter Storehouse, a mobile app that promises to let you share…