Technology

IBM has reportedly banned the use of the iPhone 4S voice recognition service Siri, but not because it's annoying or pointless. It's a security risk.

Possibly, anyway.

IBM Chief Information Officer Jeanette Horan said earlier this week that destination for outgoing search inquiries made using Siri could be a concern.

When people ask Siri a question the data is sent to Apple's facility in Maiden, N.C. After that, no one knows what the company does with the date.

This alarms IBM, as Apple could be storing their information on their servers.

Apple doesn't sayow long data is stored or who can access it, but Horan has made it pretty clear that the company is "extraordinarily conservative."

Edward Wrenbeck, Apple's Siri developer, downplayed concerns, saying "People already do these things on mobile devices. Maybe Siri makes their lives easier, but it's not exactly opening up a new avenue that wasn't there before."

Well, except for cellphones getting racist or telling off Zooey Deschanel.

Call it the most disappointing $16 billion raised in investment history.

Facebook stock is off to a rocky start after its highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO), jumping more than 10 percent in the first few minutes of trading before sellers swept into the market and that gain evaporated.

“The stock is trading right at the IPO price,” one expert told the L.A. Times. “They didn’t want that in a million years. A traditional IPO is up 10% or 15%.”

The stock most recently hovered at about $40, only $2 above what shares were priced at late Thursday. Shares touched $38 multiple times during trading.

Investors also had to deal with a nearly three-hour delay for the stock to open. The Nasdaq kept the stock halted as it processed a crush of buy and sell orders.

The inauspicious opening after the Facebook IPO suggests that retail investors paid close attention to reports of soft financials and big selling by insiders.

Still, Facebook raised $16 billion in what will go down as the third-largest public offering in U.S. history and the biggest ever for a technology company.

Could be worse, right? Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the Nasdaq opening bell from company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Eduardo Saverin, one of the company's co-founders, made news this week by giving up U.S. citizenship as a means of limiting his tax liability.

We love Zooey Deschanel.

Let's just put that out there right now. She's a terrific actress whose New Girl quotes amuse us endlessly, an underrated singer and a very cool person.

Her new iPhone ad, though, is ripe for parody. You've likely seen it 200 times at this point and wondered why you'd ask Siri any of that stuff.

Well, here's how Siri wishes she could respond ...

Zooey Deschanel iPhone Ad Parody

Follow the link for two other great iPhone ad parodies, one in which Siri gets racist and another in which she gets caught up in a marital spat:

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Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire Facebook co-founder portrayed by Andrew Garfield in The Social Network, is no longer an American citizen.

Saverin, 30, renounced the U.S. citizenship he gained as a teenager in advance of the company's impending IPO, a move met with criticism.

He's accused of trying to skip out on taxes with the move, though the Brazilian-born resident of Singapore has done nothing illegal at any point.

Eduardo Saverin co-founded Facebook at age 21, was forced out two years later, sued CEO Mark Zuckerberg and ultimately settled out of court.

He was given a share of the company that left him phenomenally wealthy.

His stake, 4 percent of the company, will most likely be worth more than $3 billion when Facebook goes public Friday. Hence his exit now.

Saverin joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities when residing in lower-tax nations.

Said Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, in an e-mailed statement:

“Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time.”

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Controversy over Mark Zuckerberg's hoodie abated Friday as he turned investors' attention to more important matters at a presentation in Palo Alto, Calif.

Chief among them? Improving Facebook's mobile application.

About 200 investors showed up at an IPO presentation to quiz Zuckerberg about generating revenue from mobile users, crucial for long-term fiscal growth.

Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, said overall advertising is gaining steam, with most marketers increasing their spending with Facebook.

The executives, who appeared on stage alongside CFO David Ebersman, highlighted social ads as an important tool for Facebook to tackle mobile challenges.

The ads, incorporating information about Facebook users' friends who "like" certain products, are better-suited to the smaller screens of smartphones.

More than half of Facebook's users currently use it from phones.

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What can we expect from the forthcoming, invariably awesome iPhone 5?

The next version of Apple's revolutionary device hasn't even been unveiled yet, but that hasn't stopped experts (and consumers) from speculating on what features it might have, and more importantly, when it'll go on sale!

Here's what is known and rumored about the iPhone 5 thus far:

Colors! Apple has filed patents involving carbon fiber, which could also provide more strength to the phone's body and a potential new added benefit: color.

Durability! Apple acquired rights to use a product from a company called Liquid Metal Technologies, which could offer the frame more elastic properties.

In other words, your piece will break less easily when you drop it on the street.

Bigger Design: Many new Android phones sport 4-4.5 inch screens, so Apple is feeling the pressure to increase screen size from its current 3.5.

Rumors also project a 20 percent thinner iPhone 5, decreasing from the 9.3mm iPhone 4S to a sleeker 7.4mm, plus a new dock connector.

Processor: The new iPad sported the faster A5X processor, some predict an even faster A6 processor with a gig of RAM in the new iPhone.

The inclusion of LTE, a faster processor and a bigger screen all mean a greater drain on the battery, which would likely be addressed as well.

Timing: Every year Apple hosts a developer conference in San Francisco in June, however, analysts are betting on October for a new release.

Steve Jobs hologram: Too soon? Sorry. We were just watching Tupac perform at Coachella and thinking about Steve dispensing wisdom on cue.

A racist Siri. Just kidding again. But you gotta see that parody.

This is probably not what Geraldo Rivera meant when he bashed hoodies.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly not impressed investors with his business savvy this week, and his signature sweatshirt has become emblematic of some long-held criticisms plaguing the online wunderkind.

In New York to woo investors for Facebook's IPO, Zuckerberg hasn't won over fans, fueling long-held rumors that for all his technical, innovative brilliance, Mark is an aloof, awkward guy who can't get it together for the suits.

He shows up late for meetings or not at all. And when he does make it, his laid-back outfits (see hoodie above) haven't helped, coming off as shlubby.

"Mark and his signature hoodie: He’s actually showing investors he doesn’t care that much; he’s just going to be him," Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Securities said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

"I think that’s a mark of immaturity. I think that he has to realize he’s bringing investors in as a new constituency right now, and I think he’s got to show them the respect that they deserve because he’s asking them for money."

Hoodies seem to have a lot of "meaning" these days, as we know, but this is a new spin. What do you think? Should Zuck wear 'em to meetings?

Looks like there may be a few bugs in the newest version of the iOS.

People have complained that Siri rarely does what you actually want and that she can have a difficult time with nuances of different languages.

We had no idea Siri was a closet racist, however, until just now.

In a parody from Funny or Die, the virtual iPhone assistant offers advice to an African-American gentleman based solely on racial stereotypes.

Racist Siri

This is the second funniest spoof on the iPhone after last winter's nuclear marital Siri argument. When in doubt ... call your parole officer.

Other than that ... swag, swag, swag, swag, swag.

Targeting major tech companies including Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft for use of coal derived power, Greenpeace has issued a new report entitled How Clean is Your Cloud?

Given the energy-intensive nature of maintaining the cloud, access to significant amounts of electricity is a key factor in decisions about where to build these data centers.

Since electricity plays a critical role in the cost structure of companies that use the cloud, there have been dramatic strides made in improving the energy efficiency.

However, despite significant improvements in efficiency, the growth in cloud computing far outstrips these energy savings, and coal is still the cheapest power source.

Not to mention the dirtiest.

The study covers 14 Internet giants, but singles out Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft as the biggest offenders. Apple derives the most data center power (55%) from coal.

Apple is building a 20-megawatt solar farm and 5-megawatt fuel cell facility at its new data center in Maiden, N.C., but Greenpeace downplays their significance.

Greenpeace takes Apple to task for its decision to locate its data center in North Carolina, which reportedly maintains one of the dirtiest power grids in the U.S.

While Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft take the brunt of Greenpeace's criticism, Yahoo and Google receive high marks for their policies prioritizing renewable energy.

Facebook also receives high marks for its recent commitment to renewable energy, including its latest data center in Sweden that is 100% renewable powered.

Facebook has just agreed to a staggering $1 billion acquisition of Instagram - the popular mobile photo editing and sharing site - according to reports.

Twitter exploded with people marveling at the astronomical sale price, joking about hipster filters, and comparing previous photo site acquisitions.

The big question on everyone's minds is why. For Facebook, the short answer is because they can, and it's all about staying current. Instagram is in.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom insisted that "Instagram is not going away."

Instagram lets users stylize photos, such as this one of Selena Gomez, on the go.

"We'll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network," Systrom said. "We will continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience for users."

The app will remain in the App Store and on Google Play and users will still be able to share on social networks other than Facebook, he said.

Elsewhere, another 10-figure tech sale was in the works. Rumors surrounding AOL's desire to sell off its patent portfolio have floated for weeks.

Monday, those rumors turned into a very real $1.056B deal with Microsoft.