Instagram is keeping up its push to be a friendlier social network. In a post Tuesday, co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom said the photo-sharing social network will let users turn off comments on any of their posts. The feature, available for only a few accounts right now, will arrive “in the coming weeks,” he said. …

DirecTV Now, AT&T’s new set of skinny-bundle channel packages, goes live Wednesday. We discuss the benefits of the new plans, including a $5 monthly HBO add-on, as well as competitors like PlayStation Vue and Sling TV. Also, we delve into rumors that Amazon is planning a new Echo-like speaker with a touchscreen, plus the latest on Cyber Monday’s record online …

Black Friday 2016’s reign as the biggest US online sales day ever didn’t last long. Three days to be exact. That’s because Cyber Monday hit $3.45 billion in online sales, up 12 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest statistics from Adobe Digital Insights. The day edged out Black Friday by roughly $110 million. Jill Stein is already …

On a Friday this month in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, I chatted with a handful of people about what it was like for them to buy T-shirts, toothpaste or TVs on their phones. I got an earful. “It’s difficult to move around and look for other options,” Munaf Tinwala, a 42-year-old chemical engineer from Long Island, told me. “It’s just …

Despite years of work from tech and payments companies, shopping on your phone is still a lousy experience. For this podcast, we discuss some of the problems with mobile shopping and the efforts to fix these issues. Also, Alfred Ng talks about his first week with Snapchat Spectacles, after waiting in line for six hours to buy them. The 3:59 …

Hugh Milstein wishes Amazon had rolled out its Brand Central fraud-fighting tools last month. Back then, DigitalFusion, his 25-employee digital photography business in Culver City, California, was selling high-quality space art on the e-retailer’s site. The posters got great reviews, including a shout-out from Star Trek‘s George Takei. Then, a rash of knockoffs showed up on Amazon, undercutting Milstein’s prices …

Snapchat is coming to Wall Street. The social company reportedly filed for an initial public offering that values it at as much as $25 billion. The filing and that price illustrate just how significant Snapchat, and its parent company Snap Inc., have become since its founding just five years ago. Also on the show, San Francisco tightened its rules on …

Amazon filed two lawsuits against sellers of allegedly counterfeit products, part of a broader crackdown on fakes sold through the internet retailer. The lawsuits, filed in a Washington state court on Monday, allege more than 20 companies and individuals were involved in selling knockoff exercise and furniture moving equipment. The suits follow a handful of lawsuits that crack down on …

Snap Inc.’s first piece of hardware goes on sale today. But, following the company’s nontraditional style, the Spectacles glasses can only be purchased at vending machines that will pop up in new locations around the US every day. That means Snap, formerly known as Snapchat, may only be treating Spectacles as an experiment for now. Also on the show, we …

Now playing: Watch this: Snapchat ‘World Lenses’ warp your reality 1:11 Ready to see the world through Snapchat’s eyes? Snap Inc. on Tuesday updated its iOS and Android apps to include World Lenses, a series of augmented-reality filters you can use with your back-facing camera. The new filters include a winter wonderland, butterfly garden and clouds that puke rainbows, helping …