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• Drone backers mostly welcome US regulator's proposed rules

  Supporters of drone technology gave a mostly warm response to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposals that would open U.S. skies to commercial drone flight.

• US aviation regulator proposes opening skies to commercial drones

  The Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation proposed Sunday new regulations that remove many of the barriers to commercial use of drones for applications like photography and surveying, but they don't permit the kind of automated drone use that companies like Amazon.com are eyeing for package delivery.

• FAA seen ready to open skies to commercial drones

  The Federal Aviation Administration will announce on Sunday its long-awaited proposed rules for commercial operation of drones.

• New database promises drone no-fly zone around your house

  A California aviation enthusiast will launch on Tuesday a database that promises to allow people to set up "drone no-fly zones" around their properties.

• MIT randomizes tasks to speed massive multicore processors

  As each new generation of computer processors arrives with a larger number of computing cores, computer scientists grapple with how best to make use of this proliferation of parallel power.

• Conference calls a waste of time? In 1915, this one made history

  These days, making a call across the U.S. is so easy that people often don't even know they're talking coast to coast. But 100 years ago Sunday, it took a hackathon, a new technology and an international exposition to make it happen.

• Google may invest in SpaceX for Internet through satellites

  Google may invest about US$1 billion in SpaceX, a company that aims to use satellites to deliver low-cost Internet to underserved regions of the earth, according to reports.

• Blue LED inventor sees laser lights shining imagery, data

  If you love the lasers of science fiction, rejoice because the future will be full of them, according to Nobel laureate Shuji Nakamura, co-inventor of the blue light-emitting diode (LED).

• Suspected computer glitch forces astronauts to evacuate part of space station

  The astronauts living onboard the International Space Station are safe after evacuating part of the station when they awoke to an alarm going off this morning.

• Computers may soon know you better than your spouse

  How good are you at sizing someone up? Perhaps not as good as a computer, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.

• IBM attributes patent success to global diversity

  For the 22nd year in a row, IBM has produced more US patents than any other company, a success that it attributes, at least in part, to the global diversity of its researchers.

• The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Monday, January 12

  European ministers want tighter watch on Internet content ... Obama will propose faster reporting of corporate hacks ... Alibaba may buy into India e-commerce... and more news for Monday.

• Weather forecasting made (slightly) easier with updated NOAA system

  To better anticipate the next Sandy-size hurricane, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is upgrading the supercomputers it uses for predicting the weather.

• Study: E-readers, tablets can disrupt sleep

  Science may have confirmed what parents of gadget-loving children have long suspected: Using light-emitting gadgets just before bedtime can interfere with sleep.

• IBM detects skin cancer more quickly with visual machine learning

  Skin cancer can be detected more quickly and accurately by using cognitive computing-based visual analytics, researchers at IBM Research have found, in collaboration with New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.