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Facebook and Skype reportedly will soon announce a partnership, integrating a number of functions to enhance the user experience: Users will be able to call and SMS Facebook friends from Skype; Skype will integrate Facebook Connect into its system; and users will be able to video chat with Facebook ...

Government information technology procurement has been largely conducted on an independent basis, with each federal agency determining its own needs and acquiring the infrastructure -- both hardware and software -- to meet those needs. However, the procurement landscape may change significantly with...

AOL on Tuesday confirmed it has agreed to acquire technology TechCrunch, following a crescendo of rumors surrounding the possible deal. News of the deal was released on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, a gathering being held in San Francisco through Wednesday. "TechCrunch and its team will be an outstan...

Mobile operators are facing a revenue dilemma these days. The numbers may vary according to which research you read, but the conclusion is the same: Data revenues are not even close to meeting escalating usage patterns. By way of example, AT&T estimates that mobile data traffic grew 50-fold betw...

Six major high-tech firms have agreed to toss out the no-solicitation agreements they had reached concerning competitors' employees. The secret anti-trolling agreements came to a voluntary end on Friday as the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit and ...

Several years ago, I discovered Nirvana: the ability to point and click on a website and have pretty much anything I wanted shipped right to my door, sometimes at a cheaper price than at any store in my city. What bliss! Ah -- in the good ole days of online shopping, we were so happily ignorant. Bac...

Verizon Wireless will introduce a tiered pricing plan for data within the next four to six months, CEO Ivan Seidenberg told investors during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference on Thursday. He also noted Verizon will not reach a deal to handle the Apple iPhone anytime soon. The move comes on t...

The private settlement of HP's lawsuit against Oracle over its hiring of Mark Hurd as co-president after weeks of public wrangling is welcome news to everyone but the corporate attorneys. Still, don't expect the two vendors to just pick up and resume their former close partnership. Their quarrel got...

All mobile software applications are not created equal. Enterprise end-users have a fundamentally different expectation of their mobile apps than they do of their desktop apps. They expect rapid and easy access to secure and accurate information whenever and wherever it's needed. The impact of biome...

The dream of streaming video and audio on the go, without boundaries, is one step closer to reality. The FCC has ruled in favor of releasing "white spaces" -- broadcast frequencies between television channels -- for wireless broadband use. The result could be the emergence of "super WiFi" networks. ...

Blockbuster, the company that once reigned atop the video rental business, announced Thursday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This may be its last chance at surviving in an industry in which consumers increasingly are gravitating toward services that enable instant access to ...

Microsoft has launched a program to reward users of its search engine, Bing. The program awards points for searches conducted with the engine. The points can be later traded for products, services or charitable contributions. Microsoft has been experimenting with this kind of offering for several ye...

I recently spoke at a Windstream meeting and helped them think about the changing industry and what's coming next. Preparing for that speech opened my eyes to how fast this company -- and, in fact, the entire industry sector -- is changing. Windstream and CenturyLink are in the process of transformi...

Netflix said Wednesday that it has launched its video-streaming-only service for Canada, a plan it first publicly revealed last July. At about $7.76 a month for unlimited streaming, the service is more than a dollar cheaper than the most inexpensive U.S. unlimited streaming option, which goes for U...

Twitter was hit by what's called an "onMouseOver" attack this week that affected thousands of users. The attack exploited a security flaw in Twitter, Bob Lord, a member of the site's security team, wrote on the company's blog. Users dubbed the hole the "onMouseOver" flaw because the first attack tur...