SAN FRANCISCO -- Amid growing international concern over U.S. control of the Internet, the federal government plans to relinquish control of policy making for the Web to the “global Internet community.”

The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday that it has asked the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers to bring together interested groups from around the world to come up with a plan to transition oversight of the Web.

Governments have complained that the United States had too much influence over the Internet, particularly in light of revelations of online surveillance by the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, last month suggested establishing “a clear timeline” for global control of ICANN, which is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit.

ICANN said it will kick off the process of transitioning to a new oversight body at an international meeting scheduled for March 24 in...

Some Apple users in England are bloody upset after the company changed the voice of their version of Siri.

When the Cupertino tech giant released the iOS 7.1 update for iPhones and iPads earlier this week, it introduced a new female voice option for British users. However, the male voice was changed, to the displeasure of numerous users.

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Users who want to hear the difference between old British Siri, new male British Siri and female British Siri, can check out them out in this YouTube video.

The change to male British Siri led one user to post a eulogy titled "In Loving Memory of British Siri" for the old version on the Apple sub-reddit.

"In all seriousness, the new British Siri sucks. The old one was so much fun, and I genuinely do regret updating for that alone," the user wrote. 

Several other users have posted on Twitter, voicing their wish for Apple to bring old British Siri back.

Apple users have taken to Twitter and the company's website's forums to report weaker battery life after installing an update for their iPhones and iPads that was released this week.

The Cupertino tech giant released iOS 7.1 on Monday, the first major update for iOS 7, which was released last September. The update had been installed by nearly 18% of Apple iOS devices in the U.S. and Canada by Thursday, according to online ad firm Chitika.

The update brought with it new features, bug fixes and a few interface design changes. But many users have also said that the update is causing their device's batteries to drain faster than before.

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On the Apple Support Communities forums, one thread regarding the problem has received numerous complaints.

"My iPhone 5S has been draining like crazy since the iOS 7.1 Update," one user said.

And on Twitter, several users have posted about their device's weaker batteries.

Apple likely won't unveil iOS 8 until this summer, but already, details about the upcoming iPhone and iPad operating system are beginning to come out.

9to5Mac, which is known for its impressive track record of Apple scoops, this week released numerous reports explaining Apple's plans for the eighth version of its mobile operating system.

For starters, Apple plans to make iOS 8 much faster than iOS 7, a version of the operating system in which the company focused primarily on a mass redesign.

Along with speed, the Messages app may be changed to auto-delete conversations after a certain amount of inactivity, such as a month or a year. This feature would be introduced as a way to automatically free up storage for users.

9to5Mac reported that Apple may also simplify the Notification Center in iOS 8 by removing the "Missed" section of the feature and only retaining the sections titled "Today" and "Notifications."

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Al...

Apple appears to be the latest entity to jump on the selfie bandwagon, adding a new section to its App Store dedicated solely to apps that are ideal for taking the self-portrait-style pictures.

The Cupertino, Calif., tech company appears to have added a featured section, titled "Sharing Selfies," Thursday afternoon. The section is used to promote various apps, including Snapchat, Frontback, Everyday and Picr.

The section can be found in both the mobile and desktop versions of the Apple App Store for iOS devices.

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Selfies, or photos that smartphone users take of themselves, have been all the rage over the last year.

The term was selected as Oxford Dictionary's word of the year in 2013, it was the star of the Oscars this month thanks to some help from Ellen DeGeneres, and users around the world are taking them nonstop, even in the face of near-tragedy.

Apple's addition of a selfie section is simply the latest...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to his social network Thursday to say he has called President Obama about the operations taken by the U.S. government.

"I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future," Zuckerberg said in a post. "Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform."

Zuckerberg's post comes a few days after a report that alleged the National Security Agency has previously posed as Facebook so that it could infect users' computers with malware. The NSA has called these claims false.

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In his post, the Facebook co-founder said his company has worked for years to create a secure environment, but never did he imagine that protection was needed from the government.

"I've been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government," he said. "When our engineers work...

Last month, Facebook created "Look Back" videos for its users as way to celebrate 10 years of the social network, and on Thursday, the company said that more than 720 million videos were created.

The Menlo Park tech giant released a blog explaining the engineering behind the massive project. Facebook said the "Look Back" videos were a last-second project that staffers volunteered to work on and had less than one month to complete. Each video showed users a recap of their time on the social network.

"Only a handful people at Facebook knew of the concept, and we had only a faint idea of how we would make more than a billion videos in 25 days," the company said. 

To ensure the company could handle creating the videos without disrupting the social network's normal functions, Facebook estimated that it would need as many as 25 petabytes of disk space. One petabyte is equal to about 1,000 terabytes, or 1,000,000 gigabytes. 

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Google on Thursday made waves in the world of cloud storage by slashing the prices for its Drive service.

The tech giant said it will now offer users 100 gigabytes of space for $1.99 per month, 1 terabyte for $9.99 per month and 10 TB for $99.99 per month. Previously, Google Drive charged $4.99 per month for 100 GB and $49.99 per month for the 1-TB plan.

"How big is a terabyte anyway? Well, that’s enough storage for you to take a selfie twice a day for the next 200 years and still have room left over for… shall we say… less important things," Google said in a blog post announcing the change.

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Besides the new prices, Google said it will continue to offer users 15 GB of free storage in Drive.

So how do Google's new prices compare to other top players in the cloud storage market? Here's how the prices for Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and Box break down:

OneDrive:Microsoft offers users 7 GB of...

Google introduced a change to its search engine this week that removes one of the design elements it still carried from the '90s: underlined hyperlinks.

To give Google Search a cleaner look, the Mountain View, Calif., tech giant has increased the font size of result titles, evened out line heights, and most importantly, removed the underlines.

"This improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look," said Jon Wiley, lead designer for Google Search, in a Google+ post.

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The new look was introduced as a way to make the Web version of Google Search resemble the underline-free look introduced last year in mobile versions of the service.

User opinion on the design change is split. Some like no underlines, saying it gives a cleaner look to search results, while others already miss the retro look.

Here are a few users who don't like the change:

Samsung's Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is a powerful tablet with a huge screen rivaling that of laptops. But don’t think of it as replacing your laptop anytime soon.

The South Korean tech giant has packed the Galaxy Note Pro with an enormous 12.2-inch screen and numerous software features meant to let users perform the same types of tasks that they could on a computer, such as running one app on top of another at the same time.

Samsung says it made the tablet so users can be productive and look professional holding it. The tablet features Samsung’s stitched faux-leather back cover that the company has begun to use on many of its products. Though it sounds tacky and looks bad in pictures, the faux leather gives the tablet a business look and makes it comfortable to hold.

Samsung is hoping this approach will help it gain a larger foothold in the tablet market.

VIDEO: Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2

The Galaxy Note Pro includes several tools a pro user might want: dual...

Starting next month, United Airlines will let users watch hundreds of movies and TV shows free on their laptops and Apple iOS mobile devices.

The airline said customers with compatible devices will be able to watch more than 150 movies and nearly 200 TV shows without having to pay any fees.

To watch the free content, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users will have to download the latest version of the United app. The airline said laptop owners will have to download and install a browser plug-in to watch certain types of content. Users will be able to download the app and plug-in at any time during their flight without having to purchase United Wi-Fi, the airline said.

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"Just click on what you’d like to watch. You can start, stop, rewind, pause and switch your movie or TV show anytime," United Airlines said in a statement. "It’s that simple."

Users of Android and other mobile operating systems will not be able to watch the content....