If someone told you everyone’s jumping off a cliff, would you do it, too? The latest social media craze to go viral is almost as stupidly dangerous: Telling Siri to say “108,” India’s equivalent of the 9-1-1 emergency call line. That’s because Apple made it easy for people to call emergency services from anywhere in …

Google wants you to know it’s got your back, Android users. The company on Tuesday released its third annual Android Security Year in Review (PDF), a look back at Google’s progress in keeping bad apps away from more than 1.4 billion users of its mobile operating software. “In 2016, we improved our abilities to stop dangerous apps, built new security …

Think “speed” and Indianapolis, and there’s a good chance you’ll conjure up the Indiana city’s famous speedway, which has been hosting motor sports for 108 years. Who knew Indianapolis also took the checkered flag for best mobile network coverage of any US city in the last half of 2016? The next four on the list of cities with the best …

They say that numbers tell the story. If that’s true, then Google’s $15 Cardboard virtual reality viewer plays an oversized role in the virtual reality market. That’s because more than 10 million of the heavy paper viewers have shipped since 2014, and Cardboard apps have been downloaded 160 million times from Google Play. “And 30 of those apps have more …

Budding paparazzi rejoice. A new patent filed Tuesday by Google reveals what could become the newest tool for grabbing candid shots of the Kardashian clan — although that particular use case isn’t mentioned in the document. Instead, Google lists things like “hosting an interactive assistance session,” sending images to social media and sending images and GPS data to an “emergency-handling …

More than 1.7 billion people use Facebook every month, which means lots of people scan see lots of imaginary and made-up stories pretending to be legit at any given time. (We’re looking at you, #PizzaGate conspiracy theorists.) It’s been a problem on the world’s largest social network for at least a year, but made headlines during the 2016 US election …

In an odd twist, Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging app — which won applause last year when it turned on end-to-end encryption by default — is being sued in German court over privacy concerns related to the way it collects and shares data with Facebook. That’s because in August, WhatsApp changed its terms and privacy policy, saying it would coordinate more with …

Ready to go toe-to-toe against the likes of Steph Curry or LeBron James? You could with Take-Two Interactive’s MyPlayer feature of its NBA 2K15 and NBA 2K16 games, which — through the magic of facial scanning — puts your face on one of the virtual players. But if you’re worried about how Take-Two will store and use your biometric data, …

Four times a year, CNET Magazine looks at technology through the lens of how we live. Since tech touches everything we do, we explore it from every angle: its impact on society, the people and companies working on the next big thing, and the gadgets and services making a difference. In 2016, our reporters, editors and photographers covered everything from …

Is the world about to get a smart speaker that features Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant? That’s the question Windows watching are asking after getting a glimpse of a video posted by audio-equipment maker Harman Kardon. The 30-second video doesn’t give much away, preferring to rely on its self-evident title, “Harman Kardon + Cortana: Premium audio meets personal assistant.” That combination …