A press release stating that Samsung had agreed to acquire Fingerprint Cards is “incorrect,” the Swedish maker of fingerprint ID sensors said Friday. “The previous press release was not sent by Fingerprint Cards AB. Trading in the share has been suspended,” Fingerprint Cards said in a statement. “What has happened will be reported to the …

Is Apple’s A7 chip twice as fast at processing and graphics, as Apple promised when announcing the new iPhone 5S? At least for Ben Weiss, the answer is yes — but his app is unusually well suited to take advantage of the new processor’s features. The app in question is Iter9’s new Frax app for generating lavishly detailed fractal imagery …

Mozilla announced on Wednesday it’s finished Firefox OS 1.1, filling in a large number of missing features, improving performance, and securing some new commitments from carriers that are helping back the browser-based operating system for mobile phones. Firefox 1.0 debuted earlier this year for the first generation of mobile phones, generally low-end models targeted at feature-phone owners who wanted to …

It looks like Google’s Hangouts app could soon absorb new communications abilities with integration of text and picture messaging, according to screenshots and a report that surfaced Monday. Hangouts originally debuted as a video chat tool for Google+, but Google built into it the instant-messaging ability that formerly shipped in the Google Talk app for Android. Now it’s possible that …

Some folks really like to take advantage of Android’s customizability, as evidenced by the 48,763 (and counting) different home screens that people have uploaded to the MyColorscreen site. Now the company has begun trying to make an app business out of the idea. On Thursday, it launched Themer, an app that can replace the standard Android home screen. With the …

Adobe has begun welcoming beta testers of its Ginger app for creating video presentations. Adobe Systems Adobe Systems has begun letting people test Ginger, its new iPad app for creating video presentations, but only in secret. “Ginger is now in beta, and you’re invited to join the Ginger prerelease program, which will give you exclusive access to Ginger before it’s …

In 1983, intrigued by an article on fractals, I wrote a program to display the Mandelbrot set on my family’s TRS-80 Color Computer. It had a maximum screen resolution of 256×192 when plugged into our TV, had 16KB of memory after we soldered on new memory chips, and ground through the calculations so slowly that I had to wait for …

It’s not yet clear how broadly Google Fiber plans to bring its 1Gbps data-transfer speeds to broadband subscribers around the world. But it is clear that high-speed fiber links are becoming a point of competition as French service provider Free announced gigabit broadband service. The company’s high-speed service is available to customers linked to its fiber-optic network, Free announced (PDF). …

What’s standing in the way of your bank, employer, or favorite museum creating that app you want on your mobile device? The fact that there are so many devices, according to a quarterly survey by Appcelerator. “The survey’s top reported obstacle to mobile app delivery is building for multiple devices and platforms,” Appcelerator said Tuesday after surveying IT executives, development …

Adobe Systems, in an apparent effort to tap into the computer industry’s move to mobile devices, is involved with a tablet software project called Ginger to help people create compelling presentations and sales pitches. “A great story, well told, can change the world, but showing a great story is hard. You have to be a writer, an artist, an animator, …