Archive

What is the real value of intellectual property in the U.S.? Let's estimate this using the most inclusive definition of intellectual property: patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, customer lists, business know-how, and other secret sauce. An oft-cited statistic is the relationship of inte...

Google announced this week the launch of the Google Compute Engine, an Infrastructure as a Service product that lets users run Linux Virtual Machines on Google's servers. It promises to provide resources to businesses and other organizations that need intensive, short-term computing power to solve h...

Research In Motion reported quarterly results that fell below investors' already meager expectations Thursday, adding that it plans thousands of further layoffs as well as another delay to the release of its BlackBerry 10 platform. RIM announced a $518 million net loss on the quarter, or about 99 ce...

Microsoft's rollout of Windows 8 represents a new era for operating systems and for Microsoft in general. It also represents the probable end of the Windows desktop OS that most consumers now know, according to a report from Gartner, although the firm expects its demise to be long-unfolding. "The re...

Qualcomm has taken the unusual step of restructuring its organization in order to better protect its patent portfolio. There are other reasons for the move as well, the company said Thursday, including the ability to more quickly deliver products to customers. However, it emphasized the patent prote...

All businesses can't afford pricey website designers, which is why Shanti Sosienski was inspired to start DIY Websites Now, a company that teaches people how to build their own. "Basically, we are a collective of designers, programmers and project managers who saw the need to service those potential...

Google's new Nexus 7 is the company's first attempt to push its line of Nexus Android devices into the tablet realm. However, instead of launching a head-on attack on tablets like the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Google has designed the new Nexus as a smaller slate measuring seven inc...

In what could prove to be the final lights out for near-defunct LTE mobile network startup LightSquared, the SEC on Wednesday filed charges against hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, along with his Harbinger Capital Partners fund and its former CEO Peter Jenson. The charges include misappropriation ...

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is exploring a private takeover of the electronics retail chain, according to a recent report. Schulze is the largest company shareholder with about a 20 percent stake in Best Buy. He has reportedly conducted discussions with Wall Street banks to determine the best s...

Airbnb, an online site that lets people list and book rooms in private homes, has relaunched with social discovery features and new visuals. In particular, the site is touting a new product called "Wish Lists." As the name suggests, Wish Lists allow users to plan dream trips with better access to vi...

Most don't realize it yet, but Microsoft is completely reinventing itself right before our eyes. It is expanding from software to hardware and even to the cloud, starting with tablets and wireless smartphones. It is fundamentally transforming the company we have all known and used for decades. This ...

Samsung Electronics was dealt a legal blow on Tuesday, as a judge ordered it to halt sales of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer while it considers whether the device's design is so similar to Apple's iPad that it constitutes patent infringement. Samsung has already filed an appeal of the California fe...

Facebook's initial public offering in May was a disaster. The question now is how much of the fiasco can be laid at the feet of Nasdaq and how much, if at all, on the IPO process itself? Or for that matter, on Facebook. Those questions were points of debate at a Tuesday hearing of the U.S. House Ove...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested dozens of alleged cybercriminals in an international sting to crack down on Internet fraudsters. The arrests were the result of a two-year global sting operation conducted by the FBI and designed to nab hackers in "carding" crimes, in which perpe...

Cellphones have become a primary way for people in the U.S. to access the Web, according to a recent survey released by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Seventeen percent of of cellphone owners surveyed said they surfed the Web primarily with their phones rather than c...