Archive

Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group are partnering to launch Vevo, a music video vehicle featuring UMG's videos. The site will launch in the coming months. Few details have been provided about the launch; however, both companies will share in the revenues, and additional deals with other musi...

One of the misconceptions of the Software-as-a-Service and broader cloud computing market is that these new Web-based services will "disintermediate" the channel because of their simpler, more user-friendly solutions, and direct sales and delivery business models. While there is no question that the...

Cisco has announced its intention to acquire Tidal Software for $105 million in cash and retention-based bonuses. The privately held company makes intelligent application management and automation software. Cisco says that the company's line will enhance its data center product and service delivery ...

With his groundbreaking, immersive computer games, Will Wright allowed all of us to build our own virtual worlds and populate them with characters and creatures of our own designs. Now he gets a similar opportunity to fashion the next stage of his career -- and quite possibly that of interactive ent...

Nintendo made headlines in the gaming industry this week with the U.S. release of a new device, the highly anticipated Nintendo DSi portable gaming system. The third iteration of the top-selling on-the-go video game machine features two built-in cameras and recorded sounds that users can alter. The ...

Consumers have come to accept that songs can be purchased a la carte for 99 US cents via the Internet. That is a result, of course, of Apple's revolutionary introduction of the iPod music player and the iTunes music store several years ago. Before then, consumers had few options for downloading musi...

It's tax time again, and the online scammers are crawling out of the woodwork. Their goals are to intercept personal information about taxpayers nationwide, and in some ways, they may be benefiting from the IRS' push for people to electronically file their returns. Some scammers are "phishing" taxpa...

It's been nearly a decade since the Internet bubble burst in 2001, and the intervening years have seen the rise of powerhouse companies such as Google, MySpace and Facebook, which have helped broaden the scope of what was once referred to as the "Information Superhighway." The Internet was once limi...

Is the Associated Press trying to shoehorn a 21st-century technology into a 20th-century business model? Or is it merely trying to protect content that allows Google and others to rake in money while it is left holding the lost-revenue bag? The answers to those questions may end up coming from a cou...

Traditionally, IT product marketing emphasizes immediate and short-term technical performance. This week's/month's/year's hot new products are compared side-by-side with those of competitors, benchmark benefits are extolled and shortcomings magnified. However, a confluence of global events is making...

As the ongoing global economic crisis continues to impact the technology sector, many employees who once thought their jobs were secure are being given pink slips and shown the door. Giants like Microsoft, IBM and Sun Microsystems have cut tens of thousands of jobs in just the first quarter of 2009,...

Sun Microsystems has rejected IBM's offer to acquire it for $7 billion, a move that took the tech industry by surprise and sent Sun stock plummeting. Speculation is rampant as to why Sun Microsystems spurned the offer -- a move critics view as downright foolish in this economy -- as well as what th...

Is Google close to making a bid for Twitter? Reportedly, yes, though neither company has made official announcements. Google declined to discuss the issue. "We don't comment on rumor or speculation," Google spokesperson Rachel Nearnberg told the E-Commerce Times. Twitter cofounder Biz Stone ducked t...

Job insecurity combined with financial fear-mongering has consumers slashing their budgets. Cell phone and premium TV services look like easy items to eliminate. Typically, however, those services tie users to contracts as well as three ugly words: early termination fees. Can customers break those c...

AT&T has announced plans to sell wireless broadband laptops starting at $50 plus the cost of a monthly wireless plan. The mini-laptops will come with built-in 3G wireless capability and are part of a limited trial at retail locations in Atlanta and Philadelphia. Mini-laptops are lightweight comp...