In an effort to court budget-conscious customers, Amazon has started offering free shipping on small items – including make-up, earplugs, and mobile phone accessories – without any minimum order or membership requirements.

Dubbed Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light, the service covers goods that weigh under 8 ounces (230 grams), measure under 9x6x2 inches, and are priced at less than $10. While orders will be fulfilled via the company’s new shipping hub in Florence, Kentucky, deliveries will take 4-8 business days. Read more »

Apple has lost a trademark case against Solid Group, a Philippine-based tech company behind My|Phone. The Cupertino-based giant had contended that the name is “confusingly similar” to the iPhone, and is “likely to deceive or cause confusion.”

“This is a case of a giant trying to claim more territory than what it is entitled to, to the great prejudice of a local ‘Pinoy Phone’ merchant who has managed to obtain a significant foothold in the mobile phone market through the marketing and sale of innovative products under a very distinctive trademark,” said Nathaniel Arevalo, director of Philippines’ Intellectual Property Office (IPO), adding that there is “absolutely no confusing similarity between My|Phone trademark (of Solid) and the iPhone trademark (of Apple).” Read more »

Microsoft has updated its Skype for iPhone app to version 5.13, bringing web link previews for chat, as well as more ways to manage conversations from Apple Watch.

The updated app now shows you a preview of the content whenever you send or receive a web link, thus making it “much easier to see the cat video or information that’s been shared before you open the link,” the company said in a blog post. Read more »

Foursquare has integrated Uber’s ride-hailing service into its mobile-discovery app, allowing you to request Uber rides from within the app.

From now on, when you look up for a destination on the Foursquare app, you’ll see an Uber button alongside other details regarding that place. Tapping on the button will automatically load the destination’s address into the Uber app, where you’ll be able to select the car type (see image above). Read more »

At the ongoing Computex trade show in Taipei, storage vendor SanDisk has launched what it is claiming to be the world’s smallest USB 3.0 flash drive. Dubbed Ultra Fit USB 3.0, the device has a capacity of 128GB, which can store up to 16 hours of Full HD video, the company claims.

Without its cap, the drive measures 0.75 inch in length, 0.63 inch in width, and 0.35 inch in height, which the company says makes it smaller than a dime. It provides speeds of up to 130MB/s, allowing users to move content up to 10 times faster than with standard USB 2.0 drives, SanDisk claims. Read more »

At the ongoing Computex trade show in Taipei, Asus has unveiled the successor to its Transformer Book T100TA 2-in-1 tablet. Dubbed Transformer Book T100HA, the device will come preloaded with Windows 10, which will be released on July 29.

The 10.1-inch two-in-one device is powered by quad-core Intel Atom Cherry Trail X5 processors, and comes with 4GB RAM. It has 8.45mm-thick chassis that weights 580g, and features a reversible USB Type-C port. The Taiwanese company is claiming 14 hours of battery life for the device. Read more »

Google has announced that it is dropping support for Calendar’s text message (SMS) alerts. The service will not be available starting June 27.

“SMS notifications launched before smartphones were available. Now, in a world with smartphones and notifications, you can get richer, more reliable experiences on your mobile device, even offline,” the Mountain View, California-based company said. Read more »

Just days after Twitter’s live video streaming app Periscope arrived on Android, it has received an update, bringing along several bug fixes as well as video improvements.

The update fixes issues related to account creation and Twitter sharing. It also resolves a problem with Save to Gallery as well as an issue some users were having with deleting their broadcasts or replays. The change-log also says that the updated app “may also include traces of video improvements and stability.” Read more »

Five years ago, the United States National Security Agency (NSA) carried out an unsuccessful attempt to destroy North Korea’s nuclear program with a version of the Stuxnet virus, according to a report from Reuters.

As per the report, the operation took place around the same time as the well-known Stuxnet attack that crippled Iran’s nuclear program. However, the NSA couldn’t access core systems that ran North Korea’s nuclear weapons program due to the country’s secrecy as well as the extreme isolation of its communications network, the report notes. Read more »

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted in February of creating and operating the online drug marketplace, has been sentenced by a US federal judge to life in prison without parole. He was facing a minimum prison sentence of 20 years.

“It was a carefully planned life’s work. It was your opus. You wanted it to be your legacy—and it is,” said Judge Katherine Forrest. “You are no better a person than any other drug dealer.” Read more »

Uber has announced that an upcoming update to its privacy policies will allow the company to ask for access to a rider’s location when the app is running in the background, a move the ride-sharing startup claims will “get people on their way more quickly.”

In addition, the changes – which will come into effect starting July 15 – will also allow Uber to ask for access to your contacts data, something which the company says will enable it to “send special offers to riders’ friends or family.” Read more »

While we already know that TAG Heuer – which is one of Switzerland’s best known watch brands – is working on a smartwatch which is set to be launched in October/November this year, there was no information on what it would be called. However, that was until now, as in a recent interview with Wearable, CEO Jean-Claude Biver revealed that the smartwatch would be called Carrera Wearable 01.

“There is no other choice for Tag Heuer than to have all its DNA, all its watchmaking emotion and flair into the connected watch,” he said. “Somehow, one should not see from a certain distance the difference between a Carrera Heuer 01 and a Carrera Wearable 01.” If you aren’t in the know, the Tag Heuer Carrera – Heuer 01 (see image above) was unveiled at Baselworld in March this year. Read more »

The Inbox email app, which was launched by Google back in October last year and was invite-only, is now open to everyone. The announcement was made by the Mountain View, California-based company in a blog post.

The company has also updated the app with various new features. Chief among them is a feature dubbed Trip Bundles which, as the name suggests, clubs all emails related a trip into a single bundle. It also makes sure that the most important details (like flight times and hotel reservation numbers) are available the instant you open the app. Read more »

Apple has bought augmented reality company Metaio, according to a report from TechCrunch, which obtained legal documents showing transfer of shares from the latter to the former.

Metaio is a German company that was founded back in 2003 and has the likes of Ferrari and Ikea as its clients. Just to give you an idea, the company’s technology lets prospective buyers apply different colours and finishes to cars in the showroom. You can also use it to see how your home will look with new furniture (see video below). Read more »

The Asus ZenWatch, which was unveiled by the company at IFA in September last year and went on sale a couple of months later, is now available for purchase from Best Buy at a discounted price of $180. That’s a saving of around $20 as the smartwatch usually sells for $200.

Specs-wise, the wearable is powered by a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, and sports an AMOLED screen covered in Gorilla Glass 3 and with a 1.63-inch diagonal of a square 320 x 320px resolution. It comes with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, and has an IP55 dust- and water-resistance rating. Read more »