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For all its graphics firepower and blockbuster action, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" couldn't blow up the perception that the video game industry is still reeling from the recession's aftershocks. Industry market-watchers NPD Group released November sales figures Thursday, showing continued year-...

Plenty of industry observers are already issuing their predictions for 2010, but I think it is worth taking a look back at the past year's events to see how quickly the Software as a Service and cloud computing marketplace is evolving. So, following are 10 events that I consider bellwethers of the r...

Despite plunging revenues due to the resistance of European regulators to its pending acquisition by Oracle, Sun Microsystems has rolled out enhancements to three key products in its Java platform. The upgrades focus on providing more flexibility to developers. Much of the new functionality has like...

The Hollywood trade newspaper Variety is putting its Web site behind a "pay wall" starting Thursday -- reserving its online content for paid subscribers and hoping its advertisers will stick around despite the smaller Internet audience. Variety plans to shut off free access gradually, asking one in ...

Breaking development news from iPhone or BlackBerry rarely goes unnoticed. The recent announcement of new developer-friendly tools for the BlackBerry platform at the RIM Developer Conference was no exception, generating interest and debate over what it all means in the battle of the smartphones. Whi...

Vevo, an online music video site seeded with close to 15,000 videos from 5,000 artists, has launched. Unlike other online video sites -- Joost, for example -- Vevo is launching with impressive backers: Google and Universal Music Group, its original founders; Sony Music Entertainment, which joined la...

For every traditional media publisher who tries to place Google at the scene of the crime -- the death of newspapers -- the search giant offers up a new alibi. The latest defense exhibit is Wednesday's announcement of Google "Living Stories," an online experiment that organizes news around a specifi...

With the release of beta versions of its Chrome browser for the Mac and Linux platforms, Google looks to be laying the groundwork for becoming a major player in the next wave of computing. The Web browser one uses is being increasingly viewed as the next application platform, and getting the Chrome ...

For years, IT departments have had full control over their own infrastructure -- for better and worse -- and are naturally uncomfortable with anything that prevents them from being the sole resource for their own infrastructure. They have been trained to maintain tight control because of the comple...

Five leading American publishers, including Time and Conde Nast, officially unveiled what is, effectively, an online digital newsstand on Tuesday. The announcement ended months of speculation about the project. The five will offer a service from which readers can buy subscriptions to their publicati...

A trend is not a fad. A fad comes and goes quickly, while trends have staying power. Great ideas become trends when they are widely adopted beyond their original driving force. Such is the case with the marketing trend of direct digital marketing -- relevant digital marketing communications that are...

Yahoo has joined the growing number of companies updating their privacy policies with new tools to better manage the data that is collected about consumers. The company has launched a beta tool called "Ad Interest Manager" that shows users what interests Yahoo thinks they have based on their online ...

Selling wireless and media products online is a complex challenge that often falls short of the expectations of seasoned online shoppers and results in a frustrating user experience. Wireless and cable operators, wireless resellers and handset manufacturers try to mirror online shopping with their o...

Verizon Wireless and AT&T may have settled their differences over Verizon's advertising messages in the courtroom, but there is little sign Verizon is pulling its punches elsewhere. With its latest ad, though, Verizon may have toed over a line by invoking gender stereotypes. The ad depicts the i...

Comcast just bought itself a nice little present for the holidays: NBC Universal. The cable network will have a controlling stake in NBC once the deal is flattened out, and in return, it's giving General Electric $6.5 billion along with $7.25 billion worth of programming. If everything passes muster...