Federal agency launches app to aid rail-crossing safety

Less than a month after a fiery train derailment in Rosedale, the Federal Railroad Administration Tuesday launched a smartphone mobile application to provide safety information about more than 200,000 highway-rail grade crossings.

'Tweet' is now an official word in the Oxford English Dictionary

In the latest sign that social media is changing the way we speak and behave, the Oxford English Dictionary announced the inclusion of the definition of the word "tweet" in its latest update.

Five things you need to know for Tuesday

Brazil is a hotbed of protests this morning as a thousands have taken to streets of Rio and other major cities to decry poor public services and widespread corruption.

Things to know for Monday

Surveillance and censorship and Jay-Z are on the Internet's collective brain today. Welcome to your post-weekend trends reporrt for Monday, June 17, 2013.

Five things you need to know for Friday

Today, the Man of Steel (a.k.a. Superman) takes on that what has been a fearsome adversary for the 75-year-old hero -- the Hollywood box office. This weekend theater goers will determine whether Superman will again return to the top of the hero heap now crowded by the likes of Thor, Iron Man and Spider-Man.

Microsoft and Best Buy create store within a store

Microsoft Corp. and Best Buy Co. are teaming up to create a store within a store.

Five things you need to know for Thursday

Doppler radar was never so trendy. With a massive storm system en route to the East Coast, thousands are searching for information on what thundering beast means for their flood prone basement or that rickety tree in the backyard.

Competition is heating up in mobile payment system industry

Forget ka-ching. Its all tap-tap these days.

#Finally: Hashtags come to Facebook

Hashtags, a feature that has been seemingly available for years on every single social network but the largest one, has finally arrived on Facebook.

New APG supercomputers can do a quadrillion operations in a second

Aberdeen Proving Ground continues to make computing history, as it formally unveiled a new supercomputer system Monday, one of only five such Army facilities in the country to have the sophisticated equipment.

Five things you need to know for Wednesday

The revelations about the NSA spying are a week old now but interest hasn't waned online as unlikely allies like 4Chan and the ACLU are joining to protest the once secret government program.

Pictures: The evolution of Apple

Five things you need to know for Tuesday

Between the E3 video game conference -- which the upcoming PS4 featured prominently -- and Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference tech nerd stories are owning the Internet this morning.

Mac Pro gets bold, new look [Video]

Edward Snowden reveals his reasoning, another GoT batch ends, and 3D printing goes mainstream

American citizens from both ends of the political spectrum are rallying behind a former Marylander who has come forward as the NSA whistleblower. Also, if you're bored by that whole "active citizenship" thing, you can watch Game of Thrones and then print yourself a plastic battle axe. Welcome to your post-weekend trend report for June 10, 2013.

Apple unveils iTunes Radio, Mavericks OS X, cylinder-shaped Mac Pro

Apple Inc unveiled a music streaming service called iTunes Radio and new mobile software on Monday, in the biggest re-design of its operating system since the original iPhone was introduced in 2007.

From PGP to the NSA, a recent history of government snooping

From pen registers and PGP to facebook, a look at government snooping through the years From a 1970s criminal case setting precedent on phone record collection to the Navy roots of the Tor Project and the National Security Agency's 2005 wiretapping debacle, the history of United States government surveillance over the last few decades has had a strong Maryland flavor. In recognition of this week's data-collection scandal, here's a far-from complete list highlighting some notable events: jQuery(function(){setTimeout(function(){currentTimeline.api.onCardActivate(function(){try{doActualUpdate();updateOmniture(window.location.hash.split('#').pop()) }catch(e){meaninglessplaceholder='';}});},5000);});function updateOmniture(e){if(e=="undefined"||e==null)e=0;if(s){var t="www.baltimoresun.com:Baltimore Sun:news:photos:darkroom:",n="timeline"+e;s.prop31=t+document.title;s.prop37=t+document.title+" - "+n;s.hier1="Baltimore Sun:news:photos:darkroom";s.hier2="news:photos:darkroom";s.hier4="news:photos:darkroom";void s.t()}}.timeline_setter{width:85%;margin:0 auto;padding:10px;position:relative;height:100%;background-color:white;}.TS-item{z-index:1;position:absolute;border:1px solid #EBEBEB;-webkit-border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;border-radius:3px;padding:10px;background:#F7F7F7;color:#333;min-width:150px;}.TS-item_user_html{padding-bottom:5px;}.TS-item_label{font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:12px;line-height:16px;height:85%;display:block;}.TS-item_year{font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:bold;font-size:16px;padding-top:10px;float:left;clear:left;display:block;width:150px;}.TS-item_year_text{float:left;}.TS-...

Five things you need to know for Friday

More details are surfacing about the Fort Meade-based NSA snooping on Americans -- this time via tech giants like Facebook and Google. So it's good thing we can the edge off with National Doughnut Day. Chains like Dunkin' Donuts are handing out the fried calorie bombs for free all day today and the Internet is understandably fascinated.

Apple to begin iPhone trade-ins this month

Apple Inc. is lauching its first iPhone trade-in program this month, allowing users to turn in their old models for the newest iPhone, according to a Bloomberg report.

Five things you need to know for Thursday

The web is buzzing this morning with the news that Fort Meade's National Security Agency has been snooping into the phone records of millions of American Verizon customers.

More than half of American adults now have smartphones, survey says

A report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center says 56% of all American adults now own a smartphone while more than a third still use conventional cellphones. It also found nearly 10% of U.S. adults don't own a mobile phone at all.

Adware is biggest threat to smartphone security in U.S., report says

Nine out of every thousand smartphones in the U.S. likely have annoying or dangerous ad software installed on the device, according to an  analysis out Wednesday by mobile security provider Lookout. The company said its report is the first one to break down the existence of malicious software in phones by country.

Five things you need to know for Wednesday

Atttention hecklers, Michelle Obama will not suffer your mayhem and foolishness. At a fundraiser last night, the first lady turned the tables on a gay-rights protester by offering the heckler the mic and threating the leave the stage.

'SpongeBob,' 'Dora the Explorer' head to Amazon Prime

Amazon.com Inc. has reached an expanded multi-year agreement with Viacom that will bring hundreds of the media company's television shows to Amazon's Prime Instant Video service.

Microsoft said to be slicing tablet software's cost to spur sales

Microsoft has had a hard time competing in the tablet market, but the company reportedly plans to begin charging less for its Windows software for small tablets in order to spur sales.

Five things you need to know this morning

Fueled by dramatic images from Taksim Square, the anti-goverment protests in Turkey are increasingly becoming a cause célèbre among the Internet set with Reddit in particular featuring lots of content on the unrest.

BBB of Greater Maryland warns of fake websites

The Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland is warning against online fraud by scammers pretending to be a legitimate business website.

Things you need to know for Monday

Good morning, Baltimore. There's a leaker in jail next door, Game of Thrones is a fantasy, and Turkey's flirting with anarchy. Welcome to your post-weekend trends report for June 3, 2013.

Cyber attack fatigue leads to talk of hacking back [Photos]

Some companies are considering adopting the standards of the Wild West to fight back against online bandits.

LinkedIn becoming more like other social networks

Looking to become a destination that people visit more regularly, LinkedIn has begun rolling out a new feature that lets individuals and companies post photos, documents and presentations in status updates.