Articles by Rachelle Dragani

Until Dec. 31, buyers of Research In Motion's PlayBook tablet will be able to get a free unit if they buy two tablets The deal is open to anyone who buys a PlayBook from an authorized reseller. In addition to the extra tablet, RIM is also throwing in the choice of a free accessory -- a leather sleeve, a charging pod or a high-speed HDMI cable. RIM ...

HP has made up its mind: New CEO Meg Whitman announced Thursday the PC business is sticking around, at least in the short term The company had been pondering whether to continue selling personal computers. Earlier this year, under the leadership of then-CEO Leo Apotheker, HP said strategic options such as a sale or spin-off were on the table for th...

The creators of a new social network are challenging users to ditch Facebook and other networks to "unthink" and de-clutter with their new, completely user-controlled and private network Unthink.com, launched Tuesday in beta, hopes to capitalize on growing discontent among social network users for support....

IBM named Virginia Rometty as the company's first-ever female CEO Tuesday as Sam Palmisano stepped down from his nearly decade-long tenure. Since Palmisano took over in 2002, the CEO oversaw a transition that included selling its PC business, buying PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and making more than US$25 billion worth of software acquisitions...

Unexpectedly high customer losses for Q3 sent Netflix stock into a tailspin in after-hours trading Monday, driving share prices down more than 30 percent overnight. The online video and DVD-by-mail provider also projected a net loss for the quarter ahead as it attempts to expand into new overseas markets After a price reshuffling in July, the compa...

New research concerning ISPs' BitTorrent throttling habits indicates Comcast took the FCC's 2008 slap on the wrist seriously, dramatically reducing its practice of slowing BitTorrent data. Other ISPs such as Clearwire, Canada's Rogers Communications and some overseas providers were found to be throttling BitTorrent users to a greater degree The rep...

Microsoft beat sales estimates Thursday when it announced record-setting revenue levels in its fiscal first quarter, thanks in part to strong sales in the cloud-based business operations, which overcame slow growth in the PC and mobile markets. The software giant posted net income of US$5.74 billion and earnings of 68 cents per share. That's up fr...

Malware that appears to be similar to the highly toxic Stuxnet worm was made public Tuesday by security firm Symantec. Duqu, named for the "~DQ" file names it creates, appears to work as a remote access data-collecting program that uses some of the same infecting techniques as Stuxnet, the malware discovered about a year ago infiltrating global co...

Akamai's stock surged 10 percent Wednesday after sources told Business Insider that Google was aiming to buy the struggling content delivery network company Later, a BusinessWeek report cast doubt on the rumors, citing anonymous sources who said no such deal is being planned.

Sprint isn't just the newest U.S. carrier of Apple's iPhone -- it's also going to be the only one in the country to offer an unlimited data plan for new users The wireless provider will join AT&T and Verizon in carrying both the iPhone 4 and the recently announced iPhone 4S, an upgraded version that runs faster, has more memory and has new features...

Recent corporate shake-ups at Yahoo and anonymous insider reports to various media outlets added fuel to the fiery rumors that Microsoft is eyeing an acquisition of the search engine Though Microsoft reportedly denied assertions that it was looking into buying Yahoo, the search engine's stock value jumped 10 percent on the rumors that a purchase wa...

Verizon and Microsoft are teaming up to bring new FiOS TV-powered entertainment offerings to the Xbox 360 gaming console, a move that highlights the rapid expansion of diverse content across multiple platforms The deal will use Verizon's FiOS TV application to allow Xbox Live Gold members to watch live TV from participating partners through their v...

A recently revealed U.S. Department of Justice document has provided details about what kind of usage information is retained by the nation's largest mobile phone providers, as well as how long they retain it. In some cases, information is stored for many years....

Motorola and Verizon Wireless on Wednesday got around to delivering what's been promised to owners of the Xoom tablet for several months: 4G LTE. When the Motorola Xoom first went on sale early in 2011, buyers were told that they'd eventually be able to send their 3G-wireless-equipped tablets to a workshop where they'd be upgraded with faster 4G w...

Two of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, Intel and IBM, announced a shared investment Tuesday of US$4.4 billion to develop cutting-edge chip technology in the state of New York The partnership, a continuation of a decade-long project, has two main goals. First, the industry aims to increase the size of a wafer to 450 millimeters, al...

Nearly a year after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules were approved, the controversial measures were published Friday and are set to go into effect Nov. 20 The heavily debated measures were approved in December of 2010....

Leo Apotheker's short stint as CEO of tech giant HP came to an end Thursday as the board ousted the executive it appointed just one year ago and installed former eBay CEO Meg Whitman in his place From her first day in office, Whitman will have a lot on her plate. Once a clear tech leader, HP has struggled to keep up with competition, especially in ...

In a scene reminiscent of Microsoft Cofounder Bill Gates' appearance before a Senate hearing on market dominance years ago, Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt took the stand Wednesday to persuade U.S. Congressional leaders that the search engine giant is not violating antitrust principles. Schmidt faced Senate officials, led by Sen. Herb ...

The U.S. Department of Justice expanded its online gambling crackdown Tuesday when it filed a civil suit against the owners of the website Full Tilt Poker for defrauding thousands of members out of more than US$300 million in what it called a "global Ponzi scheme." The suit alleges that Full Tilt co-owners Christopher Ferguson and Howard Lederer, w...

The U.S. Department of Justice received the support of seven state attorneys general Friday in its opposition to the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile The merger, announced in March and now facing an antitrust lawsuit from the DoJ, would combine the second and fourth largest wireless providers in the nation. It's a move that AT&T claims wou...