Words U replaces regular words with $10 ones. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET You’ve heard of Words with Friends? Get ready for vocabulary words with friends. Words U for iOS is a messaging app aimed at students or anyone else looking to increase their word power. It’s free, and the English major in me absolutely loves …

Lyft now has a lot more money on its hands. Lyft Ride-hailing service Lyft is now flush with cash as it looks to expand across the US. Lyft has raised $530 million in a new round of funding led by Japan-based e-commerce giant Rakuten. The new round brings Lyft’s total venture investment since its founding in 2012 to more than …

Now playing: Watch this: Motorola Moto E 4G LTE 3:32 While last year’s Moto E failed to impress in the specs department, its price was hard to beat. This year, Motorola is back with another version of its budget-priced Android handset, the Moto E 4G LTE — and not only does the new phone have better hardware, but a brand-new …

Videos shot with 360-degree cameras capture the entire point-of-view around the shooter at once. Joshua Goldman/CNET If you already feel like YouTube — the most-watched video site on the planet — is all around you, then 360-degree videos might make the sensation literal. The Google-owned video site plans to add the ability to upload 360-degree videos, clips shot with special …

Desktops and laptops have seen some gains in 2014, though IDC doesn’t expect that to last. Sarah Tew/CNET Here comes more bad news for the personal-computer market. On the same day Intel cut its quarterly outlook by nearly $1 billion, researcher IDC trimmed its forecast for worldwide PC shipments this year. It now expects a drop of 4.9 percent to …

Intel’s PC business showed improvement in 2014, but is off to a bumpy start in 2015. James Martin/CNET Intel has slashed its quarterly revenue outlook by nearly $1 billion, as business customers are proving reluctant to upgrade from Windows XP — a popular but now 13-year-old operating system. The company said Thursday it now expects to post $12.8 billion in …

The Vaio phone is on sale in Japan. B-Mobile Shortly after ejecting from Sony, the folks at Vaio are going up against their former company with a smartphone to compete with the Sony Xperia line. The Vaio name will no doubt be familiar as the brand name of Sony’s laptops. But as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures, Sony …

Jason Cipriani/CNET Ampere is a free app built for Android devices running Android 4.0.3 and up. WonderHowTo first brought the app to my attention last month, but I’ve just now been able to test it. The goal is to help you troubleshoot suspect wall-warts and USB cables. After installing the free app, launch it and wait until you get a …

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defends his Net neutrality policy at Mobile World Congress 2015. Stephen Shankland/CNET The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday finally spelled out how it will preserve the open Internet, publicly releasing a 400-page PDF that details its new, stricter regulations for broadband services. The agency’s commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the order last month but did not …

Amazon Exclusives is now online for ‘up-and-coming’ products. Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET Amazon is giving its customers a new way to get a “first look” at some fledgling brands and products. The e-commerce titan on Wednesday launched a digital marketplace it’s calling Exclusives. The branded store within the standard Amazon marketplace provides customers with a wide range of accessories, toys, …