We have all been in a situation where we need our phones for one reason or another and the area lacks enough signal for a connection. If you are in an emergency, that lack of a signal can be life threatening. A new device called the GoTenna has debuted that promises to be able to keep you in touch even in areas where cellular signal strength is weak or not available.

The GoTenna is a small 2-ounce wand that can be connected to a backpack or belt loop that is able to connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth low energy. Once connected and powered on, users of GoTenna are able to send messages and GPS coordinates to other people who are also connected by a GoTenna.

High-resolution offline maps are offered by the company allowing users to reference transmitted location data. GoTenna isn't able to give high-speed data or voice capability, so there is no surfing the web or using Facebook with the device. It creates a low frequency radio wave network for iOS and Android devices that is good for about a mile in a dense urban area or about 9 miles in outdoor conditions. Pre-orders are underway now with a pair of the devices selling for $149 before going to $299 per pair later.

Following tragic news that Malaysia Airlines MH17 was shot down in Ukrainian airspace on Thursday morning, details of the incident continue to flood out. The Boeing 777 had 298 people aboard and went down near Torez, located in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. The airplane was traveling almost 33,000 feet and was at cruising altitude before being struck by a surface-to-air missile.

It's still unknown what type of surface-to-air missile brought the craft down, but there are only limited options. It seems likely that the powerful Buk missile is responsible; a missile that is 16 feet long and weighs about 1,500 pounds, equipped with a 154-pound warhead - and includes a maximum speed of 2,684 mph. Even if it was fired towards MH17 from a distance of 30 miles, it still would make impact within just 40 seconds, military experts note.

Almost 200 bodies have been recovered, but the crash scene is so large, it's unknown how long it will take to recover the remaining victims.

It's not uncommon to walk into a restaurant and see customers using their smartphones, taking photos of the dinner party and of their food, or communicating via phone, text, or email. However, there is some concern that heavy smartphone use can be a disruption that interferes with how the restaurant runs smoothly.

Some chefs and restaurant managers have complained that smartphones and social media "ruin the dining experience," and some establishments have banned patrons from using phones while at the table. However, being so heavy handed could drive patrons to other restaurants, because banning smartphone use seems a bit over the top, restaurant industry experts warn.

Restaurants need to find a way to ensure they are able to cater to customers, while also ensuring service runs smoothly. As Patrick Duxbury, TAO Downtown restaurant general manager noted: "Those pictures go up on social media, some of them instantly on Instagram and Facebook, and it gets out there."

EXCLUSIVE - We just received photos that appear to be of Apple's upcoming iPhone 6 smartphone from a source who will remain anonymous.

The quality of the photos aren't great, but as far as we can tell, they appear to be accurate images of Apple's soon-to-be-released new 4.7-inch smartphone. If rumors are correct and based on historic data, Apple is set to launch the iPhone 6 in September to major countries around the world.

Additionally, if rumors are correct, this is the smaller version of the iPhone 6, Apple also plans to release a larger 5.5-inch model.

The highest ranking official of the United Nations humans rights department says former NSA contractor Edward Snowden should be celebrated and not hunted. The U.S. and British governments relying on mass surveillance is a "dangerous habit" with very little oversight, even following Snowden's whistleblowing activities.

Snowden is facing espionage charges in the United States, accused of theft of government property, wilful communication of classified communications and unauthorized communication of national defese information. If Snowden did return to the United States, he noted he's not necessarily afraid of a possible trip to Guantanamo Bay - but wants to face a jury trial - something that the federal government probably wouldn't agree to.

"Those who disclose human rights violations should be protected: we need them," said Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights, during a recent press conference. "I see some of it here in the case of Snowden, because his revelations go to the core of what we are saying about the need for transparency, the need for consultation. We owe a great deal to him for revealing this kind of information."

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden wants professionals to utilize data protection and encryption to communicate, and is reportedly working on some type of "encryption tools" to help protect sources. Remaining in Russia, with his asylum status extended, it's mainly unknown what the American has been doing with his spare time.

Snowden also is working on funding for the project, which will be used to keep communications between journalists and their anonymous sources secure from government spying.

"Journalists have to be particularly conscious about any sort of network signaling, any sort of connection, any sort of license-plate reading device that they pass on their way to a meeting point, any place they use their credit card, any place they take their phone, any email contact they have with the source because that very first contact, before encrypted communications are established, is enough to give it all away," Snowden recently said in an interview.

Intel is facing troubles with its schedule of its 14nm manufacturing process, however the chipmaker said that this won't affect 10nm fabrication's schedule. Intel may be under the pressure to reassure its investors as its postponed its 14nm processor production plans that was supposed to roll out from its Fab 42 plant in Arizona, USA. 10nm is scheduled for mass-production for 2016.

Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich said during its quarterly conference call with financial analysts and investors,"We have done no changes or shift to our 10nm schedule, but we will not really talk about 10nm schedules until next year". However, Intel didn't reveal details about the production of these chips.

This might be the reason why Intel may show-off its first 10nm wafer during the upcoming Intel Developer Forum 2014. The demonstration of these wafers should reinvigorate investor's faith in Intel's schedule and in its tick-tock strategy, despite 14nm delays. It is also rumoured that Taiwan-based semi-conductor maker TSMC is also making plans to fabricate 10nm chips, which may also pressure Intel to go ahead of schedule with its 10nm roadmap.

Sony made an announcement to remaster its renowned PlayStation 3 titles for PlayStation 4, starting off with The Last of Us. As we reported earlier, the game will run at 1080p resolution with variable framerate to up to 60 FPS. Despite many titles like The Last of US being a hit, many gamers who never owned a PS3 were hesitant to purchase it at the time when the release of next-generation gaming consoles was very close. According to Sony Computer Entertainment, this should help them make the jump, including the current Nintendo Wii owners.

During an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment's boss Andrew house, he said that many of the older PlayStation titles will be released for PlayStation 4 to attract a new audience who are currently using Nintendo Wii. He said,"Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously".

According to SCE, many players have skipped the purchase of PlayStation 3 for Nintendo Wii, and therefore couldn't get their hands-on playing many exclusive titles. According to him, remastering PlayStation 3 titles for the current gen PlayStation 4 will encourage Wii owners to make a switch.

Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner, has said that his company faces a tough future, where he has said that Microsoft operating systems (in whichever form) only power a small amount of devices across the world.

During a presentation at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), Turner said: "The reality is the world's shifted, the world's evolved. We now measure ourselves in the total device space. And in the total device space we have a 14% share of devices, total worldwide devices". The new figures come from Gartner, which estimated that Windows share of the shipped devices market in 2013 was just 14%, and would decrease this year to 13.7%.

It's not all doom and gloom for Microsoft, which is under fresh control and direction, with Turner saying: "We have a much bigger opportunity than we've ever had in the past to grow our mutual businesses, but we have to rethink how we look at our businesses". The numbers are quite a shock considering Microsoft's operating systems power smartphones, tablets, desktop and notebook PCs, and a bunch of other devices such as 2-in-1 devices and much more.

A new form of malware dubbed 'ScarePakage' is targeting U.S. smartphone owners and can render devices inoperable, according to security firm Lookout. The mobile ransomware tricks users by claiming it's from the FBI, saying phone owners are being investigated for alleged crimes. Once a device is compromised, the ransomware demands "several hundred dollars" or the device will remain under control of ScarePakage.

The ScarePakage ransomware doesn't need root administrator access, and has been designed to be overly intrusive. It runs a Java TimerTask every 10 milliseconds to prevent any other applications or processes to shut down, and stops hijacked devices from going into sleep mode.

"Mobile ransomware in and of itself is a fairly new tactic from malware authors and this is one of the first we've seen targeting the U.S. specifically," said Jeremy Linden, Lookout Senior Security Product Manager, in a statement to TweakTown. "That said, we are less concerned about ScarePakage distributes itself and more concerned about how difficult to remove it is. Once the application has device administrator permissions, it is very hard to regain control of the device."