Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, reviews the messaging features of iOS 8 at Wedensday’s event. James Martin/CNET Apple’s iOS 8 goes live Sept. 17, two days before the company’s new phones go on sale, Apple announced at its launch event Tuesday in Cupertino, Calif. The software is available for download for …

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick defends his company’s aggressive business tactics. D Dipasupil, FilmMagic/Getty Images Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, said it’s not the controversial ride-sharing service’s fault that everyone has a problem with his company. Uber is just misunderstood. “When people start to perceive you as the big guy, you’re not allowed to be scrappy fierce,” he said at the …

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is taking the gaming market more seriously with the largest acquisition in the e-commerce company’s history. James Martin/CNET Amazon, in its efforts to increase its video-streaming offerings, plans to buy live-streaming video game site Twitch for about $970 million in cash, the two companies announced Monday. The deal, the largest cash buy in the e-tailer’s history, …

James Martin/CNET Twitter is going to incorporate a way for users to easily buy things directly from its network later this year, according to a report Friday from Recode. The social network is partnering with Stripe, a payments services company, to integrate a “buy” button into tweets, unnamed sources told Recode. It is expected that the button will let users …

James Martin/CNET It’s a good thing Amazon enjoys the long game. While users are slowly warming up to the retail giant’s new Fire Phone, its growth, in the short term anyway, isn’t keeping up with competitors, according to a study published Tuesday. The slow growth is likely a result of the company only offering the phone through a single carrier, …

Lyft To defend itself from allegations of sabotage, Uber is throwing the blame back at Lyft. On-demand car service Uber released a statement Tuesday, saying its pink mustache-donning competitor has been encouraging the booking and canceling of thousands of rides. On Monday, Lyft accused Uber of the same tactic. Ordering and canceling rides reduces the number of cars available for …

Lyft Line Lyft Lyft has launched a new type of ride sharing, one that stems from the car service’s earliest days. A carpool option called Lyft Line rolled out Wednesday. Lyft Line lets people share a ride — and its costs — with a stranger going the same way. Lyft said riders will save an average of 30 percent to …

Emu Google is buying Emu, a messaging app that adds context to conversations, according to the startup. Emu placed a farewell message on its website on Tuesday, alerting users that it would be shutting down the app on Aug. 25 to transition over to the tech giant. Existing users won’t be able to send, receive or download messages. “We’re super-excited,” …

San Francisco resident and ride sharing enthusiast Kenny Liao poses next to his car, which he uses to give rides as a Sidecar driver. Courtesy of Kenny Liao Sidecar promoted its carpooling option Wednesday, saying that 13,000 passengers have used its app to share a ride with a stranger and split the fare. The peer-to-peer car service said passengers can …

Sprint will no longer make a bid for its competitor T-Mobile, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The nation’s third largest carrier is abandoning its plans to buy T-Mobile, a deal rumored since last year. Additionally, Recode has reported that Sprint will replace CEO Dan Hesse as soon as Wednesday, with board member Marcelo Claure. Claure is CEO of wireless …