Articles by Walaika Haskins

It was another mixed bag of news for the gaming industry over the past week. Financial papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service revealed that while 2007 and 2008 were strong years for the U.S. gaming industry, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the industry's trade association, did not fare as well Sony reached a milestone with its...

By 2010, the amount of data added annually to computer systems worldwide will swell to 988 exabytes, according to an 2007 EMC-sponsored report from IDC. A 2008 update on the report found that in 2007, the digital universe measured 281 billion gigabytes -- 281 exabytes -- an increase 10 percent greater than analysts had predicted a year earlier Whil...

Gmail users worldwide went without Web mail service for several hours early Tuesday morning. Google's monitoring system indicated that service went down around 9:30 am GMT -- 4:30 a.m. on the U.S.'s East Coast and 1:30 a.m. in the Pacific time zone "If you've tried to access your Gmail account today, you are probably aware by now that we're having ...

Would an enterprise be more likely to deploy a virtual solution if it were free? That is the question Citrix has asked with the unveiling of a new version of its XenServer virtualization platform that the company will offer free of charge at the end of March The software, available to any user for unlimited production deployment, will include new f...

Cable operators Time Warner and Comcast are reportedly in talks with the owners of major cable television networks to organize a plan that will bring a large amount of cable programming online and made accessible only to the providers' subscribers The cable companies have met with Viacom, Time Warner, General Electric (parent company to NBC Univer...

IBM and Internet service provider International Broadband Electric Communications announced plans Wednesday to begin deploying broadband over power line (BPL) networks in Alabama, Indiana, Michigan and Virginia. The two companies are establishing the BPL networks for nearly 200,000 rural residents currently served by seven electrical cooperatives.

The gaming industry was the recipient of news both good and bad this past week. On the up side, the monthly NPD Group sales report for January indicated gaming continues to be relatively recession-resistant. Gamers also have something to cheer now that Nintendo has announced the U.S. release date for its Nintendo DSi handheld gaming machine Activis...

Facing an outcry from its subscribers, Facebook has backtracked and replaced its new terms of service (TOS) agreement instituted Feb. 4 with the previous version. Mark Zuckerberg, the social network's chief executive officer, announced the change in a blog post on the company's site Tuesday night "A couple of weeks ago, we revised our terms of use ...

What may have seemed to Facebook execs like a run-of-the-mill revision to the company's Terms of Service (TOS) agreement grew into controversy over the weekend, and on Monday CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to scramble to reassure users that the content that they post -- photos, videos and text -- belongs to and is controlled by them, not the social networking Web site...

After weeks of combating the relentless spread of the Conficker worm -- also known as "Downadup" -- Microsoft announced a US$250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hackers behind the troublesome malware In addition to posting the reward, Microsoft revealed Thursday that it has formed a partnership with technology...

Just days after Amazon released the second edition of its Kindle e-book reader, a potential challenger has emerged from the north and appears set to enter the market. Shortcovers plans to bring e-books to a variety of smartphones and handheld devices, ridding readers of the need to carry an additional dedicated e-book reader. Expected to launch by...

Deciphering a utility bill can be just as difficult for some consumers as reading and understanding the U.S. tax code. The scant details included in the monthly statements provide little or no detailed information about how much electricity consumers' appliances consume on a daily basis. So Google is developing an application that will shed light into the murky sphere of electrical usage...

AMD announced the release of its latest round of Phenom II microprocessors Monday. The five new additions include both triple-core processors and quad-cores that are part of AMD's "Dragon" platform line of desktop PC chips announced last month Among AMD's offerings are three quad-core and two triple-core processors, marking first time the chipmaker...

Electronic Arts (EA) announced Thursday plans to release new installments of its "Battlefield" (BF) video game franchise this year. Developed by Dice, the game publisher will launch three new versions of the World War II-era game The first title, "Battlefield 1943," will be released during the summer of 2009 via the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Mar...

Hardware maker Asus and navigation system manufacturer Garmin announced a "strategic alliance" Wednesday that will result in a line of cobranded mobile phones. Each company will bring their specialty -- mobile telephony and navigation, respectively -- to the table for the line of location-centric Garmin-Asus Nuvifone models, several of which are e...

Yahoo introduced a new feature Wednesday designed to help make online research easier. Dubbed "Search Pad," the new companion search tool will enable users to keep track of Web sites and take notes when conducting online research Currently in beta, Search Pad will allow students, information workers and Internet surfers on a mission to do away wit...

Not content to essentially dominate online book sales -- not to mention a slew of other merchandise categories -- Amazon.com launched a new game download service Tuesday. Aimed at casual gamers, the e-tailer's new Game Downloads store offers users more than 600 downloadable PC games, all priced for less than US$10....

Google unearthed the latest version of its Earth mapping tool Monday at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Google Earth 5.0 adds a number of new features to the geo-mapping service, perhaps the most significant of which is providing some definition to the world's great bodies of water with Google Ocean Although the application had...

Global sales of semiconductors dropped by 2.8 percent in 2008, according to a sales report released Monday by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). It is the first decline in worldwide sales since 2001, the organization said Total sales for 2008 were US$248.6 billion, down from $255.6 billion in 2007. The SIA attributes the slowdown in sale...

Nortel Networks on Thursday announced that it has discontinued its mobile WiMax joint agreement with Alvarion. Nortel characterized the move as an effort to refocus its business, better manage its investments and strengthen its broader carrier business to better position itself for competitiveness.