Articles by Fred J. Aun

The strained relationship between the One Laptop Per Child organization and Intel has come to an inglorious end with Intel resigning and OLPC claiming the chipmaker "contributed nothing of value." Intel and OLPC announced in July they would work together "to bring the benefits of technology to the developing world through synergy of their respectiv...

Having unwillingly ceded Web search leadership to Google, Yahoo is not about to also let the growing world of mobile services slip through its fingers The Internet veteran chose the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show to announce a number of mobile initiatives, including a decision to open its mobile platform for developers and publishers....

Amid warnings by its creators that users shouldn't expect much yet, an alpha version of open source-based Wikia Search launched Monday with the goal of eventually becoming a user-regulated challenger to Google and other search engines Created by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, Wikia Search is a for-profit venture that will be funded, in part...

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has created what it calls an "industry milestone:" a 2.5-inch computer hard drive capable of storing a whopping 500 GB of data It also has struck a deal with computer vendor Asus, which will sell a notebook PC equipped with two of the drives....

In an effort to get ahead of the curve with "emerging storage opportunities," IBM purchased XIV, an Israeli storage technology company headed by a big name in the storage industry: Moshe Yanai Big Blue did not disclose the purchase price, but Israel's financial daily Globes reported IBM spent between US$300 million and $350 million. IBM's stock pri...

Joining Nevada and Florida, New Jersey is the latest state to enact legislation that strongly limits the rights of convicted sex offenders to use the Internet A bill, signed Thursday by New Jersey Acting Gov. Richard Codey, allows judges to impose the restrictions and also makes it easier for authorities to monitor the online activity of the offend...

Amazon.com executives and investors had a very merry holiday season as buyers chose the online mall in huge numbers Amazon said the 2007 holiday season, its 13th, was its best ever in terms of sales. While the Seattle-based e-commerce giant did not reveal final sales figures, it noted customers ordered more than 5.4 million items on Dec. 10, its bu...

Yahoo China violated Chinese law by facilitating the illegal download of digital music files, a court in Beijing ruled While Internet freedom advocates questioned the propriety of the decision by the Beijing Higher People's Court, the UK-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which brought the case, praised the ruling....

Oracle beat many Wall Street predictions in its second fiscal quarter, reporting US$1.3 billion in net income and a year-over-year 36 percent increase in stock earnings. The increase in quarterly profit equated to 25 cents per share The Redwood Shores, Calif., software giant raked in $5.3 billion in revenue during the quarter, a 28 percent increase...

Open source software developers who were active in the late 1990s might find themselves yearning for those good old days, when venture capital flowed like wine at Napa Valley party Maybe they forgot the hangover that settled in once the bubble burst....

Palm will rely on "operational rigor" to right itself after a disappointing second fiscal quarter, one where the company lost nearly US$10 million, its CEO said "We've taken actions to align our expenses to the current operating environment and are focusing on core initiatives that will have the greatest impact on achieving our long-term success," ...

Acknowledging improvements are necessary and saying he's the right man for the job, Sprint Nextel has chosen former Embarq CEO Daniel Hesse to be its new president and CEO The 54-year-old Hesse, described in the company's official announcement as being a "wireless industry veteran," replaces former Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee, who resigned in Oct...

Zumobi, a new mobile widget platform and zooming interface based on Microsoft technology, has launched in beta mode after more than a year of development The trial version of the service is available for phones running Windows Mobile 5 and 6. In the second quarter of 2008, Zumobi is planning to offer compatibility with BlackBerry and selected Java ...

China-based software company CDC raked in the most revenue for a third quarter of its history but nevertheless suffered a net loss of more than US$7 million, a situation blamed in part on "pirate" servers allowing people to play its online game Yulgang without authorization The Q3 report by CDC, which provides enterprise software, mobile services a...

Possibly causing worldwide feelings of deja vu, Opera Software has filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC) that says the bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system amounts to unfair monopolization Opera, based in Norway, developed and distributes the Opera Web browser. In the complaint it filed with the EC, the comp...

Hoping to add to its paltry market share in the Google-dominated world of Internet search, Ask.com has added a feature that, at the user's request, supposedly deletes records of their online activity. However, the feature might not deliver as much privacy as it seems The new "AskEraser" is being touted by Ask.com as the first product of its kind, a...

In a deal worth US$117 million, HP is buying NUR Macroprinters, an Israel-based maker of wide-format digital inkjet printers widely used by the commercial graphics industry The deal will enlarge HP's footprint in the world of graphic arts by allowing it to offer more mid-range platforms and technologies based on ultraviolet-curable inkjets, HP said...

Predicting the deal will "revolutionize" home entertainment, Macrovision has agreed to acquire Gemstar-TV Guide for about US$2.8 billion Macrovision, based in Santa Clara, Calif., creates technology designed to thwart people from watching and copying digital material without proper authorization. Gemstar-TV Guide's mainstay is the iconic TV Guide t...

Czech Republic-based IT security vendor Grisoft is buying Exploit Prevention Labs, an Atlanta company formed two years ago by security veterans Bob Bales and Roger Thompson The deal, expected to close Dec. 31, will give users of its software better protection from Web 2.0-savvy cybercriminals than they'd get with products sold by larger companies, ...

Living up to a promise it made investors, Dell announced Tuesday it will return to buying back its stock now that an internal accounting investigation is concluded The stock repurchases will begin this week with the buying back of US$10 billion worth of shares, the Round Rock, Texas, computer giant said. The announcement preceded the company's annu...