Google is reportedly in talks to acquire Waze, a popular Silicon Valley mapping startup that gets its information by crowdsourcing from users.

Waze, which has managed to grab a loyal following in a market filled with giants that include Apple, Google and Nokia, is also talking with other suitors, including Facebook, according to Bloomberg. Waze is hoping to become the next startup purchased for more than $1 billion, but according to the report, no company has come close to sealing the deal.

The startup managed to certify its place in the mapping market late last year, after Apple released iOS 6 and simultaneously removed the longstanding Google Maps app while also introducing its own Apple Maps app, which was extremely unpopular with users. It took Google months to roll out another Google Maps app for iOS, and in the meantime, users flocked to other services. Waze became one of the top choices.

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Users on Waze can help each other find the best...

Google’s computers will scan images that a user uploads to his or her Google+ account and figure out what’s in the photo. When that user is signed in and searches Google with a query such as "my photos of grass," images the user has uploaded that contain grass will pop up at the top of normal search results.

The user doesn’t need to tag or describe pictures beforehand for the search feature to work. Google seems to be able to recognize people in pictures too, provided that the person is a friend on Google+ and has a profile picture.

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In my testing, the feature was perfect when it recognized a query. But it couldn’t pick up that a lightning bolt on a white helmet should have come up in a search for “my photos of San Diego Chargers.”

The ability to easily...

A mobile app that analyzes photos of urine samples is facing scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In what’s believed to be the first letter of its kind, the FDA wrote to Biosense Technologies on Tuesday that the Mountain View, Calif., company needs regulatory approval for its app because the urine test strips it relies on are approved for visual inspection, but not for automated analysis.

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Available on Apple devices, the uChek app can be used by people with diabetes and other medical conditions to track their health. Users dip test strips into their urine. Once the strips change color, the user snaps a photo and the app determines the levels of various substances in the body. The app’s key innovation is a color mat that’s placed under the strip when taking the picture. The mat serves as a baseline for the analyzer, allowing it to normalize for different lighting conditions. But the strips made by Siemens and Bayer are...

Sony will begin selling smaller, less-expensive versions of its new XBR 4K Ultra HD TVs.

The Japanese tech company was one of the first to roll out 4K Ultra HD sets late last year. That technology is supposed to offer quadruple the resolution of current HD TVs and an even more crystal-clear image than before.

Sony's first foray with the new TV technology was an 84-inch set it began selling in November for $25,000. But starting Thursday evening the company's new 55-inch and 65-inch models will go on sale at Santa Monica's Video & Audio Center. The two models cost $4,999 and $6,999, respectively, and will be available at other retail stores this weekend.

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Although the 55-inch and 65-inch 4K Ultra HD TV models are much more expensive than regular HD TVs, Sony's model marks a significant price drop for the 4K Ultra HD technology. Sony's rivals, Samsung and LG, also sell sets, but theirs are only available in models larger than 80 inches with price...

Apple’s newest iMac has at least 3,000 times more processing power than the company’s first computer model, but the older version could end up being 300 times as expensive.

One of the six original Apple computers that still works will be shown off to potential bidders Friday before going up for auction Saturday in Cologne, Germany.

Last year the same German auction house sold one of the other six working Apple I’s for $640,000 and a New York auction house sold one for $374,500. On its website, Auction Team Breker estimates that the computer being auctioned this weekend will go for $260,000 to $400,000.

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The value of vintage Apple productshas recently skyrocketed. An Apple I, designed and hand-built by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, might have fetched a few thousand dollars a couple of years ago. The German auction includes a series of other oldies, including an Apple Lisa-1 that Breker estimates could reach a bid price of $40,...

Samsung announced this week that it has sold 10 million Galaxy S4 phones. Currently in either black or white, the phone manufacturer plans to sell the smartphone in more colors, such as blue, red, purple and brown, later this year. An HTC executive told the Wall Street Journal its device had been purchased 5 million times, but that production remains behind schedule because of parts shortages.

The One had been expected to hit the market ahead of the Galaxy S4. Instead, the phones came out at nearly the same time because of delays by HTC suppliers.

The One still isn’t available for Verizon Wireless. The Galaxy S4 became available for Verizon customers Thursday.

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Reviewers generally credited the One with having top-of-the-line hardware and the S4 with containing innovative software...

Repairing the iPhone 5 costs far more than fixing its predecessors because of Apple’s tight control over the parts that make up its newest phone, according to a new report.

In some cases, just repairing an iPhone 5 screen can cost $30 more than the entire phone that's been purchased for $200 with a two-year service contract.

Normally, users can turn to third-party shops to fix their iPhones. But many phone shops are not willing to repair the latest iPhone because of the high costs of parts, Marketwatch reported. The repair firms that do work on the iPhone are charging as much as Apple, or even more, to fix the phone.

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Apple’s $99 warranty plan remains the cheapest option to fix an iPhone 5 screen. The company charges a $49 fee each time to fix up to two incidents of accidental damage during the two-year warranty term. Apple is rumored to be planning changes to the warranty that would make repairing phones a default step instead of...

Even as hospitals struggle with keeping patient information secure in the digital world, more and more are finding that some patients are willing to publicly share intimate moments.

UCLA’s Health System became the latest healthcare provider to turn to social media to invite the public into an operating room.

Since 6:24 a.m. Thursday, the @UCLAHealth Twitter account has been using Vine and Instagram to chronicle the implant of a brain pacemaker. The device counteracts Parkinson’s disease, according to UCLA Health’s Facebook page. In one Vine, Dr. Nader Pouratian said it’s the 500th time that the operation has been done at UCLA.

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The event marks yet another achievement for the 5-month-old Vine application, Twitter’s service for posting short videos to the Web. It’s quickly becoming Twitter’s answer to Facebook’s photo-sharing service Instagram. The patient is expected to awake during the surgery and play his...

Ling, most recently the chief operating officer at Badoo, has joined the venture capital firm to invest in Internet companies, he said in an interview Thursday.

Khosla has been cleaning up on talent lately. Keith Rabois, the former chief operating officer at Square, recently joined the firm.

Rabois, one of Silicon Valley's best known and most accomplished executives and investors, resigned from Square after accusations of an improper relationship with a colleague emerged. He denied the allegations and no lawsuit has been filed.

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Ling and Rabois share a common trait: They are seasoned executives who have been inside fast-growing companies and have for years invested in them too, earning them a strong reputation as go-to advisers among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Ling has an impressive track...

Coming up on the one-year anniversary of its ridesharing service, Lyft is celebrating with a new round of funding worth $60 million.

The service launched last June in San Francisco, but has been growing and expanding to more cities. In January, it launched in Los Angeles, and most recently, it launched in Chicago earlier this month. Lyft also operates in Seattle.

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But now with the funding, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Lyft may be able to expand to more cities and add more drivers faster than before. The company's chief...

Twitter has rolled out a two-step verification, a feature users can turn on to give themselves more protection against would-be hackers.

The verification method makes it harder for hackers to take over Twitter accounts that don't belong to them by requiring that users enter their password as well as a special code that is sent to their phone when they try to log in. The code does not generate until the user attempts to log in, and it changes each time they do. You can see how the feature works in the video above.

The feature comes after a number of news organizations, most notably the Associated Press, fell victim to hackers who took over their account to send out tweets with false information. If news sites turn on the new feature, it should make it more difficult for hackers to compromise accounts, the company said.

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To enable the feature, users should head to their account settings and scroll down until they find a new option that reads...