Archive

For employees at Motorola Mobility, there were probably better ways to start the business week. On Monday, Google announced that it was cutting about 4,000 jobs at its mobile phone business division, and that it will close or consolidate about one-third of its 90 locations around the world. This rep...

IBM reportedly has expressed interest in acquiring the heart of Research In Motion's operations -- its enterprise services unit. This is not the first indication of a company's interest in acquiring part of the ailing BlackBerry maker, and RIM's executives have said they would consider "all options"...

Google is altering its algorithms to disfavor websites that are frequently accused of carrying content that violates copyright regulations. The search engine will include a new search signal in its rankings. Starting this week, its algorithms will include the number of copyright removal notices that...

You'd think that Microsoft was all but dead, judging by some of the industry scuttlebutt. Microsoft's tactical and strategic technology and business missteps are well publicized and dissected ad infinitum. Less well documented are Microsoft's strengths -- from both a consumer and enterprise perspect...

The ETA has announced the formation of the Mobile Payments Committee, a task force that includes representatives from the four main U.S. carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile -- as well as Google, Isis, PayPal, Verifone and Intuit. The purpose of the committee is to develop a cohesive b...

Newly hired Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is reportedly considering a change in business strategy for the company, beginning with a restructuring plan that would use the revenue from Yahoo's Alibaba sale for long-term investment options rather than an immediate payback to shareholders. Yahoo announced in ...

New online book publisher StoryBundle is taking a leap of faith with its customer base: Readers get to decide how much to pay. StoryBundle, which launched this week, offers readers five e-books written by independent authors in one bundle. The bundles are grouped according to genre. First out of th...

Now that Software as a Service and the broader cloud computing concept have gained widespread recognition and acceptance, it will be interesting to see whether online marketplaces will become a preferred method for acquiring these on-demand resources. Given the proliferation of SaaS/cloud providers...

Ouya looked to kickstart funding of its Android-based game console, and the effort has resulted in more than nine times the amount it sought. Ouya had asked to backers to pledge $950,000 through the Kickstarter website, and the total climbed to nearly $8.6 million as of Thursday, the day the campaig...

HP dropped a bombshell on the investment community: The tech conglomerate said it was taking a goodwill charge, or write-down of $8 billion. It didn't say for what exactly -- just that it stems from the recent trading values of HP's stock, coupled with market conditions and business trends within th...

Facebook announced Tuesday that it is testing a new ad program for mobile apps in a limited beta. The system is aimed at iOS and Android developers who want to grow the audience for their apps, according to Facebook engineer Vijaye Raji. Anyone who clicks on an ad for an app will be sent to the App ...

Once again, reports that troubled smartphone maker Research In Motion may enter a deal with burgeoning smartphone rival Samsung are making the rounds. Shareholders appeared to welcome the news, sending RIM's stocks soaring to close up 3.3 percent at $7.56. RIM may be trying to revive discussions wit...

As both Verizon and AT&T rapidly build out their 4G LTE networks in preparation for Apple's launch of the next iPhone this fall, Sprint Nextel is in a very distant third place. The big question is can it keep up? The answer depends on a number of items, including what its customers want most. Do...

Starbucks has selected Square to process mobile payments at its approximately 7,000 stores nationwide in the United States, in a move that could shake up the nascent mobile payments market in the country. The coffee company had introduced the first mobile payment via iPhone app in 2009. It took mobi...

Amazon and Apple changed some of their security policies this week after tech journalist Mat Honan claimed an identity theft incident involving the two companies allowed a hacker to wipe out much of his personal online data. Both Amazon and Apple put an end to policies that allowed customers to cha...