In two months, Microsoft will return the Start Menu to the world. Windows 10 is arriving for download on July 29 — and it’s a free download for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. (But if you’re on Windows 7, you have one year to claim your free download. After July of 2016, Windows 7 …

Foursquare integrates Uber’s ride-hailing service into its app. Button People can hire an Uber ride in more places that just the Uber app itself. Apps for Weather.com, United Airlines and Starbucks already point users to the ride-hailing service. Now people will see Uber show up in the Foursquare app as well. Foursquare and Uber announced Monday that they’re integrating their …

James Martin/CNET Intel has agreed to buy fellow chipmaker Altera for about $16.7 billion — Intel’s largest acquisition ever — a move that could provide a boost in its data-server and Internet of Things businesses. Intel said Monday that it will pay $54 in cash per Altera share and that it expects to close the deal in six to nine …

Apple is just one of the retailers that will stop offering two-year contracts for AT&T. James Martin/CNET AT&T is slowly saying farewell to the idea of service contracts and smartphone subsidies. The nation’s second-largest wireless carrier on Monday began its push to get its retail partners and authorized third-party retailers to switch to only offering Next, its program that requires …

Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET It’s not unusual for an angry driver to let loose colorful invective upon driving over a pothole. But in Panama City, the potholes themselves are talking — and sharing their gripes on Twitter. “I feel terrible. I just caused tire damage to an old lady’s car ,” a pothole recently tweeted on the account El …

Pebble Time Timeline view Jason Cipriani/CNET Pebble is giving its own apps, as well as apps from developers, the chance to publish information to a new Timeline feature on the Pebble Time smartwatch and keep you in the loop. It’s a neat feature once you find a balance of content and information that works for you. The Timeline can be …

Apple bought headphone maker Beats last year for $3 billion and acquired the company’s subscription streaming music service in the deal. Apple The new Beats Music may look different from the old Beats Music, but it will feel just the same to your wallet. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that Apple’s subscription streaming service will have …

Sarah Tew/CNET It’s the birth of your first child. You look down at those adorable eyes and you begin to melt. What if there was a way to stop time at this very moment? That’s the idea behind a line of watches from What Watch, a new startup out of Switzerland. You can’t track your daily activity and you won’t …

Google Photos offers useful but basic editing tools, a change from the more sophisticated options it previously offered to browser-based photo adjustments. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET As Google launched its new photo service last week, it also dropped a sophisticated tool that had significantly advanced online photo-editing technology. Google debuted the earlier online photo-editing tool in 2013 as part of …

BlackBerry’s design patent D685,775 covers the look of its keyboard, including the sculpted keys. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET BlackBerry got its way against an iPhone keyboard maker accused of patent infringement. A settlement reached in the US District Court for Northern California puts an end to two January lawsuits filed by BlackBerry against Typo, a company that created a keyboard …