Archive

Pardon the pun, but there's nothing elementary about IBM's Watson Business Unit. IBM's Watson initiative takes cognitive computing to the head of the class. IBM last week announced it was committing $1 billion and 2,000 employees -- as well as its considerable research and development talents and ma...

The Internet of Things is a key driver of accelerated growth of cloud-based alternatives to traditional on-premises systems and software, and as the new year begins to unfold, it is gaining momentum. The idea of the IoT evolved from the more narrowly focused concept of machine-to-machine communicati...

Rdio announced Thursday that its Web users will have free, unlimited access to content, an update that came on the heels of similar news from Spotify. Spotify started offering free streaming music for iOS and Android mobile devices last month, and on Wednesday announced that it was eliminating time ...

Software developers have long been able to protect their innovations by virtue of a favorable provision of U.S. patent law that gives them almost monopoly power to maximize financial returns. The law also enables developers to take action against any other party that comes close to duplicating or im...

A federal appeals court's Tuesday ruling on Net neutrality has sparked dire predictions: Streaming video will cost more; Internet-based multiplayer games could get expensive; and innovation might be stifled. Credo Mobile is gathering names for a petition to Federal Communications Commission chair To...

HP unveiled two new mobile devices Wednesday that are set to launch in India as it attempts to gain traction in the global mobile market. The 6-inch HP Slate6 VoiceTab and the 7-inch HP Slate7 Voice Tab are considered phablets -- that is, hybrids that combine smartphone and tablet features. Both wil...

Microsoft and GoDaddy on Tuesday announced they were partnering to market Microsoft's Office 365 to GoDaddy's 12 million small business users. GoDaddy's small business users can attach Office 365 to a domain name and get access to cloud storage and Microsoft's productivity suite. 24/7 live customer ...

What's up with T-Mobile? It reminds me of that old Rip Van Winkle tale. Rip fell asleep for 20 years, somewhere in the Catskill Mountains, and then woke up with a long, white beard. Except for the facial hair and the length of time, his story sounds a lot like T-Mobile USA's, right? It too has awake...

Charter Communications is pursuing the acquisition of Time Warner Cable, but it seems unable to offer a price the cable giant can accept. Now, with its third offer made and spurned, the dialogue between the two companies has gone public and become somewhat nasty in tone. Charter on Monday offered to...

Net Neutrality received a body slam from a federal appeals court Tuesday, but the door was left open for resuscitating the policy. In a case brought by Verizon against the Federal Communications Commission, the judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the agency...

Google on Monday announced that it has acquired Nest for $3.2 billion. The deal could help Google make significant inroads into the smart home market. Since its 2010 inception, Nest has been developing a line of smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as thermostats that adjust to househo...

Facebook on Monday announced its acquisition of Branch, which it plans to use in a new unit or product called "Facebook Conversations." Branch's model mimics an Internet forum in that the users create "branches" to discuss topics. Links are shared and friends are invited to participate. Participants...

The past couple of years have seen rising interest in and considerable promotion of servers and appliances based on the ARM microprocessor architecture. At first glance, the narrative makes some sense. ARM's native performance and energy efficiency, when multiplied across hundreds or thousands of sy...

The raft of problems connected to the launch of HealthCare.gov appears to have sunk the fortunes of the private contractor paid for running the site. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, charged with overseeing the health insurance marketplace, announced Saturday that it had awarded Accen...

Further proof that the NSA surveillance scandal is impacting the United States IT industry came on Friday with the publication of a study conducted for Canadian Web hosting and cloud services provider Peer1 Hosting. Fully 64 percent of the 300 UK- and Canada-based respondents to the survey hoped to ...