Articles by Rachelle Dragani

A partially redacted letter supposedly sent from AT&T to the FCC has raised new questions about the pending merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, bringing to light the money at stake and whether the merger is necessary, as AT&T claims, to expand wireless broadband coverage Since February, AT&T, the second largest mobile network in the U.S., has been pu...

Google+ challenged its top competitor Facebook on Thursday by adding games to the newly launched social networking site. Google has begun a gradual roll-out of the games, stating they should be fully available to all users soon. Google+ users will have a selection of 16 games to choose from at first, including the popular "Angry Birds," a top-sell...

Facebook launched a new mobile app Tuesday that provides SMS and Facebook message services as well as group chats between phone contacts and Facebook friends. By Wednesday morning, the app topped the list of free apps in the iTunes store The feature is a challenge to traditional messaging and could take on competitors such as Research In Motion's B...

Shoppers for HP's TouchPad tablet were treated to a special bargain over the weekend -- after coupons and promotions, the 16 GB tablet was available for US$299, a $200 drop from its original price The price cut came relatively early in the device's life on the market.The TouchPad debuted in June to a largely chilly response. Many first users liked ...

A war of words continues between executives at tech giants Google and Microsoft as accusations regarding patent bullying fly between the companies The public dispute began Wednesday, when David Drummond, the chief legal officer at Google, posted a company blog missive accusing Microsoft, Apple and Oracle of excluding Google by banding together to b...

Google's chief legal officer went on the offensive Wednesday, posting a company blog entry that attacked Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and other tech companies for securing patents and undertaking legal activity that would block the development of the Android platform The post, penned by David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer for ...

Push Pop Press, a start-up digital publisher, announced recently it's been acquired by Facebook Push Pop, founded by former Apple engineers Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, originally aimed to approach e-books by incorporating new designs, better imaging technology and interactive elements....

Blizzard's "Diablo III" still doesn't have a confirmed release date, but more details about the action role-playing PC game are starting to emerge, including the announcement Monday that the game will feature an in-game auction house using real cash for transactions between players There will be two versions of the auction house used to buy and sel...

AT&T will begin limiting data speeds for the top 5 percent of wireless data users who currently have unlimited data plans, the company announced Friday Many AT&T customers currently operate under a tiered data plan, but customers who had unlimited usage before the tiered plans were initiated about a year ago were able to continue downloading and up...

AT&T will begin limiting data speeds for the top 5 percent of wireless data users who currently have unlimited data plans, the company announced Friday Many AT&T customers currently operate under a tiered data plan, but customers who had unlimited usage before the tiered plans were initiated about a year ago were able to continue downloading and up...

Sprint Nextel stock tumbled as the company came out with its quarterly earnings report Thursday, in which it highlighted improved customer service but also announced a higher-than-expected net loss of US$847 million as well as a loss of 101,000 postpaid subscribers Wall Street analysts weren't surprised to see the company, facing stiff competition ...

Twenty-nine U.S. universities are hoping that Gig U, a project that brings ultra-high-speed Internet access to campuses and the surrounding areas, can spur economic growth and research development to their communities The initiative will arm universities and neighboring hubs with Internet speeds up to 1 Gbps (gigabit per second), enough to download...

Mango, the largest update yet to Microsoft's still-young Windows Phone 7 mobile OS, was released to manufacturers Tuesday in what the software company called an "important milestone" in its fight to gain some ground in the competitive smartphone marketplace The update was first shown off in May and is being viewed as a dramatic upgrade from the bas...

Opponents of the pending US$39 billion merger between wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile are taking legal action with New York-based law firm Bursor & Fisher in a bid to block the deal. Eleven arbitration cases have been filed on behalf of AT&T customers, and the law firm hopes more angry consumers will jump on board with its "Fight the Merger" i...

Opponents of the pending US$39 billion merger between wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile are taking legal action with New York-based law firm Bursor & Fisher in a bid to block the deal. Eleven arbitration cases have been filed on behalf of AT&T customers, and the law firm hopes more angry consumers will jump on board with its "Fight the Merger" i...

Online financial services provider E-Trade responded to pressure from stake holder Citadel Friday, days after the hedge fund sent a letter to the brokerage service demanding a review of strategies, including discussing a sale of the company Citadel requested a vote on a number of its proposals, such as declassifying the Board so that all members ar...

Microsoft revealed its quarterly earnings Thursday, and despite stalled sales of Windows, strong Xbox 360 and Kinect numbers boosted the company's to revenue 8 percent higher than the same period last year, at US$17.37 billion Operating and net incomes also increased by 4 and 30 percent, respectively, on the year, at $6.17 billion and $5.87 billion...

In a continuing effort to streamline product development, Google announced Wednesday the company will be shutting down its Google Labs project The Google Labs initiative was the tech giant's testing facility, where employees and engineers were given creative freedom to tinker with experimental projects that perhaps didn't necessarily fall within th...

Isis, a mobile commerce venture that includes the U.S.' largest wireless providers, announced Tuesday that Visa, MasterCard and American Express will be partnering with the organization The agreement makes Isis, a joint venture between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile and supported by Discover at its start, the only mobile payment product that accepts al...

The world's largest online search engine recently revealed its Google News Badge feature, a system through which readers can earn virtual badges based on their search and reading histories in the U.S. version of Google News. Someone searching for all the latest news on the NFL lockouts, for example, could earn a football badge. A tech analyst cons...