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The mobile age has arrived. In 2011, global shipments of smartphones and tablet devices surpassed shipments of laptops and desktop PCs, laying the groundwork for an era in which consumers are increasingly using mobile technology for everything from airline reservations to vehicle purchases. The mobi...

Amazon shares fell to their lowest point since late March after Goldman Sachs released a research note Thursday citing comScore data suggesting its holiday sales grew roughly 38 percent -- 2 percent off analyst expectations of 40 percent. The numbers imply fourth-quarter revenue of $17.87 billion, b...

Lately, I have been asked by reporters to compare AT&T and Verizon and predict what 2012 will look like for them and their competitors. At this point, all I can say is it's happy holidays at Verizon, but not so much at AT&T. What a difference a year makes. These two companies led the chang...

Lately, I have been asked by reporters to compare AT&T and Verizon and predict what 2012 will look like for them and their competitors. At this point, all I can say is it's happy holidays at Verizon, but not so much at AT&T. What a difference a year makes. These two companies led the chang...

After seven years of a neck-and-neck race for first place in customer satisfaction, Amazon has pulled decisively ahead of Netflix, according to ForeSee's annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index. Amazon moved ahead 2 points to reach the top spot with 88 on the index's 100-point scale. Netflix slid...

GoDaddy, the Internet's largest registrar of domains, would like the world to forget it ever supported the much-maligned Stop Online Piracy Act now before Congress. Namecheap, the second largest registrar, wants to make sure the world never forgets it. In recent days, the domain registering titans h...

Traditionally, online advertising was viewed primarily as a direct-response vehicle. However, the growing use of data to define and deliver audience targeting means it now can have an impact on all levels of the purchasing funnel -- from fostering awareness to reaching consumers at the ideal interse...

The Windows Phone OS is great, but Microsoft's dealings with device makers and carriers is lousy. That's the gist of a blog entry posted recently by Charlie Kindel, a former general manager of Windows Phone, who's explained why he thinks Windows Phone sales have failed to take off. Kindel also laid ...

With the evolution and proliferation of cloud computing, as more and more applications are being migrated to the cloud, many organizations are considering moving their database to the cloud as well. Two main concerns on users' minds are database scalability and availability. How scalable/elastic is ...

It just makes sense that consumers tend to trust the opinions and recommendations of friends before they trust those of advertisers, promoters and retailers. Social shopping sites, which combine features of social networking with online sales, seek to capitalize on the sharing and trust that exist b...

I got interested in personal computing before I became interested in technology, and I used my Mac SE 20 almost entirely as a word processor. I'd tried using PCs, but the arcane command and file structures seemed more of a hindrance than a help to my writing. In contrast, the Mac was a revelation ...

Looks like Yahoo is going to let go of most of its Asian assets -- a large part of its stake in the Alibaba Group of China and its Yahoo Japan affiliate -- and load up on cash. The move may allow the company to retain control of its core assets and perhaps even buy itself a new look. Yahoo's board r...

My Pick of the Week is a brand new category of computers called "Ultrabooks." Think of Apple's thin MacBook Air -- but on Windows. These are a hit with Apple users, so there is no reason they shouldn't be just as popular with the Windows crowd, as long as they run well. I have not used them yet, but...

Everyone seems to be singing the Sue-You-Sue-Me Blues in the smartphone market. Microsoft and Motorola are the latest to join the chorus, both claiming victory in a patent ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The ruling found that Motorola Mobility -- which Google has agreed to acquire...

Facing a deadline from its partner Sprint, LightSquared filed a motion Tuesday asking FCC officials to confirm the company's right to use the airwaves, despite data that suggest its operations could interfere with global-positioning systems. Any interference with GPS devices is a flaw within GPS tec...