Archive

A trade association including Amazon, Google and Netflix on Monday called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules banning deals by broadband providers for faster delivery of some Internet traffic. The Internet Association, in written testimony submitted to the FCC, called for si...

There's no shortage of utopian visions in the IT industry, but the journey to cloud computing that some folks espouse makes the trip to Shangri-La look like a simple walk in the park. Even in the best circumstances businesses must continue to support legacy applications and systems while they are ad...

Amazon is ramping up its drone delivery project and is hoping for approval to conduct outdoor testing on its own property. The company has petitioned the FAA for an exemption from rules barring it from testing the devices. Amazon last year revealed it was working on a project that would allow it to ...

In the wake of the problem-plagued rollout of the Affordable Care Act, similar government health IT efforts are being closely scrutinized within the administration and by Congress. That's why the DoD recently released the third version of a multibillion dollar proposal for a much-improved military h...

After the Supreme Court appeared to deliver a death blow to Aereo, it has latched onto a part of the Court's decision in an effort to stay alive. The Court determined that Aereo flouted copyright rules by retransmitting programming without a license. Aereo let users watch broadcast TV over the Inter...

The FTC has filed suit against Amazon over billing kids for unauthorized in-app purchases that in many cases they did not know they had made. The suit accuses Amazon of violating Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. The FTC is s...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday mapped out his vision for the company's future, emphasizing cloud and mobile computing, in a letter to all employees. "More recently, we have described ourselves as a 'devices and services' company. While the devices and services description was helpful in sta...

With tensions deepening between Amazon and Hachette, Amazon sent a peace offering to authors caught in the middle of the dispute. While negotiations drag on, authors should receive all of the revenue from their e-book sales, Amazon proposed in a letter to some authors and agents. The letter reported...

We've been hearing all about these amazing new smartwatches. They are the remote control for our smartphones. They make doing regular tasks quicker and easier. They are said to be the most exciting new product since the smartphone. If that's the case, then why have they not taken off yet? Ah, the mi...

The Beijing First Intermediate Court ruled against Apple in a case that pitted it against a Shanghai-based firm and the country's State Intellectual Property Office's Patent Review Committee. The court found that the intellectual property rights of Zhizhen Internet Technology, a company that holds s...

People need to work less than 1 percent of the time they do to fulfill their basic needs -- housing, security and opportunities for their children -- Google cofounder Larry Page suggested recently, reviving a Utopian vision that has long been a staple of sci-fi as well as technologists' vision of th...

Mobile payment app Isis is focusing on rebranding following the emergence of the militant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. ISIS has gained notoriety in recent weeks for its links to violent strikes in Iraq. Not wanting its company to be associated with that group, Isis announced Monday that...

Marie Antoinette may not have been too far off the mark when she intoned the immortal line, "Let them eat cake." When it comes to the right to be forgotten, it seems Europeans want both to have their cake and eat it. They are up in arms over Google's having deleted links to various news stories from...

The years-long PC sales slide will slow somewhat this year, Gartner has predicted. "After declining 9.5 percent in 2013, the global PC market is on pace to contract only 2.9 percent in 2014," Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal said. The company lumps in desktops, notebooks and premium ultramobil...

Google has kicked explicit pornographic advertising from its ad network. The company said it made the AdWords change, which it announced in March and recently brought into effect, "as an effort to continually improve users' experiences with AdWords." Advertising policies were updated to reflect the ...