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Amid talk that U.S. adoption of broadband Internet access is about to slow down, Yahoo has forged an alliance with British Telecom (BT) to launch a co-branded broadband service in the United Kingdom. The two companies will jointly market BT Yahoo! Broadband, and BT will drop its dial-up offering, wh...

According to Giga/Forrester analyst Stacey Quandt, tech-oriented organizations, such as the Johnson Space Center and the U.S. Census Bureau, have begun using the Linux operating system on their desktop computers, and several insurance and financial services firms also are evaluating it. Has Linux fi...

They seem ubiquitous wherever consumer electronics, hardware and software are sold: the offers for rebates plastered on packaging, store displays and cash register receipts. It seems like a great deal, this offer of money back, especially when all the consumer has to do is send in a receipt and UPC ...

EBay has announced it will plunk down $150 million to buy the remaining two-thirds of Chinese e-commerce site EachNet, which, like eBay, sells a wide range of items in both auction and fixed-price formats. The news propelled eBay stock past the $100 mark once again, with shares up more than a dollar...

The dot-com boom propelled few firms higher than Cisco Systems. Sparked by the proliferation of Internet-related companies, demand for its networking gear and switches skyrocketed. On the downside, the crash, which hit telecoms and dot-coms hard, did not spare Cisco. However, despite a rough 2001, t...

Oracle's unsolicited and, it seems, unwelcome bid to buy PeopleSoft has been called a lot of things since it was announced, from disruptive to atrocious and just about everything in between. But the one thing it is above all is refreshing. Oracle's move is a cold-water-to-the-face reminder that busi...

Yahoo has fired the latest volley in the enterprise instant messaging turf war, saying it will work with WebEx Communications and BEA Systems to extend the capabilities of its Enterprise Messenger product. Specifically, Yahoo said it plans to add the ability to launch WebEx virtual conferences from ...

Despite a relatively strong first quarter, sales of personal computers will grow more slowly than expected this year and next -- 6.3 percent in 2003 and 10.3 percent in 2004 -- according to a report from IDC. Because of price pressures, the total value of PCs shipped actually will decline more than ...

Apple Computer has accomplished a raft of goals since Steve Jobs returned to its helm in 1997. But there is one hurdle that Apple, with all its creativity, has not been able to leap. The company's share of the desktop computer market continues to hover at between 3 and 5 percent, the same as it was ...

Given the pace of business today, instant messaging seems like a natural fit for the global enterprise, enabling far-flung employees and contract workers to communicate in real-time throughout the workday. However, many businesses are balking for a simple reason: IM and other peer-to-peer applicatio...

Oracle Corp. has shocked the software world by announcing that it will set out to buy all outstanding shares of PeopleSoft. The $5.1 billion takeover bid comes just days after PeopleSoft announced its own planned acquisition of J.D. Edwards. It is difficult to determine whether or not Oracle saw tha...

With an enormous volume of code comes the need to keep it current, and Microsoft has been relentless in this task, issuing scores of updates and patches every day. In fact, staying on top of Windows updates has become a tricky endeavor for those in charge of maintaining hundreds or thousands of mac...

IBM and the rise of Linux are the two main competitive threats to Microsoft, CEO Steve Ballmer told employees in a widely circulated e-mail message. In what amounted to a state-of-the-company note, Ballmer also said Microsoft will delay the release of its Longhorn software platform if necessary in o...

A new report by Technology Futures of Austin, Texas, states that in 2003, the proportion of American households using broadband of some kind -- DSL, cable or wireless -- will surpass 20 percent. At this crucial juncture in the evolution of the Internet, it might be worth reminding lawmakers who are ...

In a bid to boost its often-mocked Trustworthy Computing initiative, Microsoft has reached an agreement to work with VeriSign to make Microsoft products more secure. The company also said it will train a new generation of security experts to master its software by adding a security certification to ...