You may have heard that New York City has a brand new bike share program. Some New Yorkers have of course worried about crowding the streets…and putting tourists, of all people, behind the controls of a complex machine. But similar programs in cities like Montreal, Boston, and Washington D.C. have been hailed as successes. So we set out to check the tech of these bikes with the help of Ted Mann, who reports on transportation for the Wall Street Journal. He had a fancy key — which riders need unless they’re swiping their credit card.

While the debate continues over domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the U.S., Germany is considering using drones to stop graffiti artists in their tracks. And which computer sounds are on their way out and which are on their way in?

Ever heard of Internet blimps? Google may be working on a program to deliver wireless Internet to Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia with the help of high-altitude inflatables. In some cases, a lack of infrastructure can actually allow for innovation. We talk to Dayo Olopade, who is writing a book on this topic called ‘The Bright Continent: How African Ideas Are Changing the World’. She says in some African countries, the lack of banking options has led to an explosion of mobile payments, where money moves easily from cellphone to cellphone.

Like the operating system options on your computer, there are really just a few big players in the mobile operating system market. Android and Apple’s iOS take up the lion’s share, followed by the Windows phone operating system and the one Blackberry uses. So is there room for one more? We’re about to find out. Firefox, the popular open source web browser owned by Mozilla, is getting ready to launch its own operating system for smartphones. Mozilla plans to offer Firefox OS starting in July. But not in Western Europe, the U.S., or China. Instead the company will focus on countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Less competition, maybe. But also, more potential customers.

In a few weeks, Apple will unveil new software for the company’s devices. Though we don’t know exactly what will be announced, the rumor mill is already a churning. And if you’re spending this Memorial Day in somebody else’s house that you rented online, you might have used vacation website Airbnb — but not in state of New York…not for long at least.

It sounds like something out of a comic book, and until recently, Google’s X Lab was kind of a secret compound — or at least a place that wasn’t broadcasting its experiments to the public. But that is changing. Google Glass, the company’s web streaming spectacles, were born there. The Bay Area facility was recently visited by Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel. Tyrangiel says the labs are a place where scientists can think big ideas with a lot of freedom.

Scientists may be fretting over global climate change or when the next asteroid will strike Earth’s surface, and the threat of mass extinction such events would bring. But a catastrophic event doesn’t necessarily spell the end for civilization. In fact, Annalee Newitz, author of the new book Scatter, Adapt and Remember, says that with the right mindset and proper preparation, humans have the capacity to thrive in a post-mass extinction world.

Part of the promise of new technology is that it can help protect us when things go terribly wrong — through prevention and appropriate reaction. San Francisco-based company Recovers is sending a group of employees to Moore, Oklahoma in the wake of Monday’s tornado. They’ll use tech skills and experience from other disasters to help.

Private security firm Mandiant says hacking attacks that originate in China have resumed after an apparent three-month hiatus. One form of hacking that is getting a lot of attention is something called spear phishing. Recently an organization calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army used spear phishing to attack several media organizations. And Microsoft will announce the latest Xbox gaming console. CNET’s Lindsey Turrentine says it’s about time.