The future of tech is here, and it may not be as much fun as you think. To join in, you’ll need to strap a black, 1.5-pound mask to your face so you can have an out-of-body-like experience that might make you vomit. There’s also the chance you’ll trip on the 13-foot-long cord that connects …

Just because you’re new media doesn’t mean you can ignore old media’s rules. That’s the message to Gawker Media after a jury in Florida ruled that Gawker had wrongly published a sex tape of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, born Terry Gene Bollea. Gawker will have to pay him $115 million. At issue were edited portions of a sex tape involving …

So much for Twitter being home to the next Great American Novel. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and CEO, said the San Francisco-based company won’t be expanding the potential length of tweets users post on its service. In an interview with NBC’s “Today” show, Dorsey said the 140-character limit, which dictates how long people’s posts can be, will remain in place …

Sony needs to do two things: Convince you to buy a virtual reality headset, and convince you that the $399 PlayStation VR is the one you need. That may be harder than you think. If you’re reading this story, you’ve probably heard of VR, a technology that uses goggles to strap a screen so close to your face that your …

Julia Cordray made her career helping recruit people for jobs. So it makes sense she’d create an app that helps people manage their online reputation, soliciting and giving recommendations about their character. What she didn’t expect was to be savaged. Headlines across the Internet called her two-year-old company out for creating a creepy, bully-inspiring app. The Washington Post called it …

Magic Leap has an almost magical way of getting money. The secretive startup is working on what it calls “mixed reality” technology. It’s different from the virtual reality we’ve all heard about, which uses goggles to strap a screen to your face and display computer-generated images. In mixed reality, computer-generated images are layered on top of the real world. How …

Facebook is banning private gun sales on its main social network and Instagram too. The Menlo Park, California-based company said Friday that it plans to stop person-to-person firearms sales on its networks. The ban, actually an update to a policy that already prohibits the sale of marijuana, pharmaceuticals, and illegal drugs, does not apply to for-sale posts by licensed gun …

Facebook and Apple’s offices are separated by just 15 miles of highway, a 22-minute drive. But they might as well be worlds apart. Where Apple on Tuesday told investors that iPhone sales growth has stalled, Facebook Wednesday reported booming business selling the ads that run on those phones and other mobile devices. In fact, David Wehner, Facebook’s CFO, said the …

What do Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Satya Nadella have in common with Apple’s Tim Cook? They’re all fascinated with virtual reality. The Oculus Rift is a high-end virtual reality system. Could Apple follow with its own version? Josh Miller/CNET That’s what we learned Tuesday when Cook responded to a question about VR during a conference call to discuss the …

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Twitter should be glowing with pride. It should be, but perhaps the company is nervous instead. That’s because the imitator is Facebook, Twitter’s biggest rival in the war for your social-media attention. Facebook on Wednesday announced a new feature to help the more than 1 billion people who use its service every …