Archive

In an effort to catch up with their data-swamped online counterparts, brick-and-mortar retailers are turning to a new tool to help them better monitor shoppers and maximize sales: shoppers' cell phones. Approaches include tracking shoppers as they move about the store using their phones' connection ...

No one expects a free lunch. So when people use a free webmail service, many assume they will be bombarded with advertising. Why? Obviously, because the webmail services make money by commercializing the content of the webmail! Actually when you sign up for free webmail, and click "I Accept," or som...

The TV industry has been quick to move into the app market, and these offerings may foster a new era for television services. The term "app" was initially coined for small applications that run on mobile devices and fulfill a particular purpose, but apps are now common to several platforms, notably ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to jump into a software patent case that could resolve the muddled situation that has been vexing IT companies, legal experts and federal judges for years. Specifically, the Supreme Court said earlier this month that it would rule on Alice Corp. Pty. v. CLS Bank In...

As most security and compliance pros already know, PCI 3.0 is now officially out. The specific changes it includes have already been covered in quite a bit of detail elsewhere in the industry press, so I won't cover them all again here. However, one area that is often less discussed is how to use th...

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington and the Securities and Exchange Commission have lodged criminal and civil enforcement actions against a former senior portfolio manager at Microsoft and his friend, alleging insider trading. They also accuse the two of planning to u...

BlackBerry has announced dismal quarterly results, but its new CEO, John Chen, still believes there's cause for optimism as the company strides into a new future. The firm posted a loss of $4.4 billion, compared with a profit of $9 million in the same quarter last year, on revenue of $1.19 billion. ...

Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are selling close to 70 million shares of Class A common stock, which carries one vote per share, in advance of the company's being listed on the S&P 500 index. Facebook will use its proceeds from the sale of 27 million shares for working capital and other genera...

As the 2013 International CES approached a year ago, it was clear that a showdown between OLED and 4K -- or UltraHD -- was brewing in the TV display market. A year later, that showdown is fully under way, but with a notable twist. Specifically, Panasonic's announcement in late October that it would ...

Delta Air Lines this week announced that it will ban in-flight cellphone calls amid growing opposition to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's proposal to allow them. Delta employees, particularly flight crews, are opposed to on-board cellphone calls, CEO Richard Anderson said in a memo to t...

Amazon is charting a new course as it prepares to expand its Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform to China. The company will start inviting select businesses there to take advantage of the platform as part of a limited preview. Amazon will extend invitations to both China-based and multinati...

Target has disclosed that 40 million customer accounts might have been accessed by hackers between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15. Customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the three-digit security codes on the backs of cards were compromised when they were swiped through machine...

Facebook this week announced the rollout of video ads in the mobile and desktop News Feeds of some of its members. The video will begin playing in silent mode when it appears onscreen. Clicking or tapping on it will turn on the sound. Users who don't want to watch the videos can scroll or swipe past...

It looks like 2014 will be a very exciting year as the wireless industry continues to transform not only itself but other industries as well. Have you noticed how things are changing, thanks to the wireless industry, smartphones and all those apps? We will see wave after wave of change. Over the nex...

China has delivered Bitcoin the second half of a one-two punch that could be the beginning of the end for the virtual currency. BTC China, China's largest Bitcoin exchange, on Wednesday said it could no longer accept deposits of renminbi -- the local currency -- to purchase bitcoin. BTC China's anno...