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In a move that further complicates the rapidly changing digital music world, alt-rock group Radiohead plans to make its next album available for direct download from its Web site without a fixed price Users can give what they think is a fair amount, Radiohead said, in exchange for the digital download version of the group's seventh album, "In Rainb...

Microsoft took the wraps off its latest entrant in the online business applications market Monday, announcing the creation and upcoming beta of its Microsoft Office Live Workspace. The software maker also revealed details about its "software services strategy and road map" for businesses "This new era of connected computing is about empowering peop...

Sony will launch its first organic light emitting diode (OLED) TV this December in Japan, the company announced Monday The 11-inch "XEL-1," which Sony calls the world's first such device, sports a screen just 3 millimeters thick and will sell for 200,000 yen (US$1,736). There is no North American release date planned at this time, Sony spokesperson...

eBay shook up the top management of its Skype peer-to-peer communications unit Monday, removing its cofounder as CEO and saying it will take a US$1.43 billion charge in the coming quarter to cover the cost of incentives in the original acquisition deal and to reflect lower overall value for the unit Niklas Zennstrom, Skype's cofounder, will give up...

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, has agreed to buy navigation specialist Navteq, a deal that Nokia says will help it expand its business into location-based Internet services The Finnish phone giant will pay US$8.1 billion for the Chicago-based company, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. Nokia's offer of $78 per share repres...

While many sectors of the business community are accepting Web 2.0 usage with open arms, enterprise IT departments are not prepared to deal with the consequences posed by related threats, according to recent research IT professionals also largely lack risk awareness, user training and consistent policies related to Web 2.0 threats, according to a s...

Digital photo frame products surfaced briefly during 1999 to 2001 and created significant market buzz, but not meaningful sales. Subsequently, two out of the six vendors, Digi-Frame and Weave Innovations, went out of business; Sony and Kodak exited the market; and VideoChip scaled back and changed focus Only Ceiva Logic survived, though it spent th...

OK, we clearly can't talk about the events of last week without mentioning the huge surprise "Halo 3" was in terms of popularity and execution. I was having doubts prior to the launch, but those doubts are dead now Competition for Apple is heating up. The Palm Centro has a number of advantages over the iPhone, led by a vastly lower price and vastl...

Before the space shuttle Columbia's disastrous mission in 2003, NASA did not fully recognize the safety risk posed by the shuttle's protective foam. Following that tragedy, however, NASA buckled down and set to work, trying to come up with solutions Part 1 of this two-part feature looks at the details of the space shuttle's external tank and therma...

Microsoft has given its Windows XP operating system -- originally set to disappear from store shelves in January 2008, one year after the release of Windows Vista -- a reprieve "There are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista," said Mike Nash, corporate vice president, Windows management. "So we're respondin...

After a summertime lull, the private equity buyout trend returned to the tech sector Friday with networking systems maker 3Com agreeing to be bought by Bain Capital, with a minority stake going to China's largest networking company Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com -- which was at the forefront of the computer networking movement in the 1970s, shortly ...

Palm staked its claim in the low end of the smartphone market Thursday with a new device priced at US$99.99 with a two-year plan and rebates The new Centro features voice, text, instant messaging, e-mail, Web, contact and calendar capabilities, along with a full-color touch screen and full keyboard. Due in mid-October, the device will be exclusive ...

As of this writing, the financial markets are in turmoil due to extremely high delinquencies on so-called sub-prime mortgages. These are the mortgages made in the last few years by aggressive mortgage banking companies that were able to "bundle" the risky debts into packages and then sell them to mutual funds and other institutional investors The o...

SpiralFrog.com, a free music download site that launched on Sept. 17, allows registered users to download more than 800,000 songs and videos. As long as downloaders keep renewing their free monthly site registration, they can continue to play the song and video files on their PC. Users can also copy the downloaded files to two other devices Downloa...

MontaVista Software this week released two new versions of its Linux software, one for mobile platforms and another for embedded Linux installations The new MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0, an operating system used mainly in smartphones, has support for SE Linux (Security-Enhanced Linux)....

America's "third screen" -- that is, the mobile market -- is at a crossroads. The direction it will go is anyone's guess, but IDC is advocating that Internet powerhouse Google should take a leading role in determining its path Conditions are ripe for a strong player like Google to transform the third screen, which is drawing viewers for entertainme...

Microsoft has given its Live Search service an extreme makeover. In addition to improving the way Live Search makes queries and presents search results, the company has added channels for entertainment, shopping, and health searches The renovation -- the biggest update for the platform since it hit the Web nearly three years ago -- could help Micro...

Microsoft, along with several partners, has launched a bundle of new methods for connecting household PCs to the living room entertainment center Collectively called "Extenders for Microsoft Windows Media Center," the solutions are WiFi hardware devices that deliver video, high-definition TV, music, movies and photos from a broadband-connected PC t...

The Oracle v. SAP intellectual property infringement lawsuit moved a step forward Tuesday, as Judge Martin Jenkins of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California assigned a trial date and made other procedural decisions in the first case management conference between the two parties Following a second case management conference i...

Gamers have made "Halo 3" the biggest launch in entertainment history by scooping up enough units to bring in an estimated US$170 million in its first 24 hours on store shelves, Microsoft announced Thursday Moving that amount of product puts the Xbox 360 title ahead of smash hit movie releases and blockbuster book launches, such as "Spider-Man 3" a...