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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it would not hear an appeal by Amazon and Overstock.com challenging a New York law that requires e-commerce companies to collect taxes from shoppers in the state even if the retailers don't have facilities there. The decision is the latest twist in an incre...

My regular job involves writing and talking almost exclusively about business IT, but every once in a while I like to consider how personal technology impacts my day-to-day life. Three acquisitions have come my way in the past couple of months: the Nexus 5; the Mohu Curve 30; and a 2013 Toyota RAV4 ...

Akamai Technologies is buying Prolexic, which offers protection against distributed denial of service attacks. The deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2014, will cost Akamai about $370 million in cash plus the assumption of outstanding unvested options to purchase Prolexic stock. "...

Sony's PlayStation 4 may have had a weeklong head start in building sales momentum, but on Black Friday, Microsoft's competing Xbox One appears to have edged out its rival -- at least in the United States. The new Xbox One -- along with the previous-generation Xbox 360 -- together accounted for 61 p...

More than 131 million shoppers -- or 54.8 percent of the shopping population -- are planning to hit the online deals this Cyber Monday. That is one finding of a National Retail Federation survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics over the weekend. For comparison, the corresponding figure ...

2014 may be the year when tablets muscle into dominance in the computer marketplace. Next year, tablets will account for almost 50 percent of total client personal computer shipments globally, according to estimates by Canalys. Desktops, notebooks and tablets having a diagonal screen size of at leas...

For e-commerce companies, the time has finally arrived. After months of extensive preparations, the holidays are here and the top business priority is to drive conversions. Many of these companies have applied valuable lessons from 2012 and previous years by implementing basic Web performance-optimi...

Shopping for groceries might not be top of mind for many rail commuters -- at least, not until they see one of Peapod's virtual supermarkets in a train station. Peapod, which has long been at the forefront of online grocery sales, has pushed its virtual offerings into the real world, and its strateg...

The United States National Security Agency reportedly has seeded 50,000 networks worldwide with malware designed to steal sensitive information. The report -- the latest in a series of published disclosures based on documents released by Snowden -- is likely to fuel the controversy raging around cyb...

Retailers have been trying for years to expand Black Friday shopping with extended hours and prolonged sales, and this year that trend appears to be reaching new heights, with some stores even planning to be open early on Thanksgiving Day. That's not a universal rule, however. Glenview, Ill.-based A...

In his first meeting with investors since taking the helm, CEO Brian Krzanich presented a road map for the company's future. Intel will make a stronger push into mobile devices, expand its foundry business to build processors for other chip makers, and move into additional new markets. "Obviously, s...

Red costume, white beard, ruddy cheeks, cheery voice and smiling, twinkly-eyed charm -- all are indispensable tools for any self-respecting Santa Claus. Nowadays, however, there's a lot more than mere lovable magic going on in the business of being Mr. Claus. Modern Santa has gone high-tech, and tod...

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced Thursday that the commission is considering changing its rules regarding the use of cellphones and mobile broadband in airplanes. It is possible for the latest electronic gadgets and broadband to be used safely during flights, he noted, and the time is right for th...

Samsung Electronics must pay Apple $290 million in damages for infringing five of its patents, a federal jury in California decided on Thursday. The sum may not make a huge mark -- or even a moderate one -- on Samsung's balance sheet, but the verdict gives Apple one more victory against its rival as...

A bit more than six months ago, EMC and VMware celebrated the launch of Pivotal, a new company led by former VMware CEO Paul Maritz. Pivotal's team included IP and personnel from EMC's Greenplum and Pivotal Labs organizations, and VMware's vFabric, Cloud Foundry and Cetas organizations. A considerab...