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Verizon recently doubled its early termination fees to US$350 for customers who want out of their wireless phone contracts -- a fee much higher than competing carriers charge. However, there's no need to worry; the extra money coming into Verizon not only helps the nation meet its mobile broadband g...

After an exceedingly tough year for businesses in virtually every sector, reports of online sales Cyber Monday offer hope for the turnaround so many people have been waiting for. The Internet has been called by many "the great equalizer." One of the best things about selling online is that virtually...

Google is in talks to acquire Yelp, an online local search and business review provider, in a deal that could be worth more than $500 million, according to unconfirmed accounts. The rumor has credence among tech watchers, as the two companies have flirted with an acquisition in the past. In recent ...

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, key privacy group, has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission arguing that the privacy changes Facebook made a little more than a week ago were unfair and deceptive. "We think this is the most important matter now before the FTC, and the reason...

In an effort to beef up internal controls and data security, service organizations have sought out SAS 70 reports to demonstrate their level of compliance. When businesses choose to outsource critical processes, the SAS 70 helps them assess and select potential providers. This assessment tool can ...

Those following the progress of U.S. broadband initiatives were going to need a bandwidth boost of their own Thursday; there was a lot of new data to digest. Dual announcements captured the attention of industry officials and consumer advocates: Vice President Joe Biden announced the initial list of...

2009 is expected to be the first year when mobile phones start gaining real traction in holiday shopping. Nearly one in five consumers will use a mobile device to assist in their holiday shopping this year, according to Deloitte's most recent Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends Shop...

The European Commission is concluding its latest antitrust case against Microsoft by accepting the company's promise to offer Windows users a choice of Web browsers, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes announced on Wednesday. Specifically, in March Microsoft will issue an update that enables the m...

Wednesday's announcement by the Federal Trade Commission that it is suing Intel over its business practices must have looked like computer-generated deja vu to the technology industry. Those who were around for the Clinton Justice Department's case against Microsoft in the late 1990s are hearing fam...

From Australia to Italy, from Canada to Columbia, and from the U.S. to South Africa, pragmatism is the order of the day for IT departments as they struggle to stretch their 2010 budgets and resources to make much needed infrastructure upgrades in the face of a still uncertain and tight economy. Thos...

Amazon seems to be writing a self-help book of its own. You could call it, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective E-Reader Companies, and the first item on that list would appear to be: Lock in an exclusive deal with one of the most popular business writers ever. Amazon announced on Tuesday that Steph...

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that centers on text-messaging privacy policies for employees in the workplace. The Court could reinforce employees' rights, prompting employers to issue ever more stringent policies on workplace communications, including stepped-up monitoring in ord...

When stumbling around the Web in search of a new toaster or a great deal on a new pair of sneakers, it's not unusual for consumers to come across ominous policy dialogs warning of mismatched or expired SSL certificates. In fact, recent surveys have shown nearly 20 percent, or even more, of popular W...

Oracle has pledged it will not assert copyright claims over MySQL and that it will extend terms and conditions of existing commercial licenses of the database for five years in the hope that the European Commission will approve its $7.4 billion pending acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The EC has ind...

The proposed $30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal deal has entered the labyrinthine process of winning Congressional approval from the antitrust gurus and the Federal Communications Commission. Small cable operators, which apparently still exist, fear that they will be driven out of business by the ...