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Last week, I was in San Francisco on a panel moderated by Rackable Systems at LinuxWorld, and not only did I walk away alive, I was impressed by the solid work that was being done at the event and amazed at how well Microsoft was fitting in The new iMacs were announced, and it is becoming increasingly clear that Apple's attention for advancement is...

WiFi is not just for laptops anymore. All sorts of devices now connect to the Internet via WirelessFidelity technology. Smartphones -- think Apple's iPhone, among others -- mobile media players and even gaming machines often come with WiFi features to enhance usability At the same time, more and more hotspots are popping up in hotels, resorts, airp...

The casual gaming industry appears to be passing "Go" and preparing to collect its figurative US$200 with a new partnership announced Friday by Electronic Arts (EA) and Hasbro to create digital versions of many of the classic board games generations have grown up on The agreement grants EA the exclusive worldwide rights to create digital games base...

Google has begun offering users of its various Web services the option of getting more storage, but that additional capacity will come at a cost Google will offer users of Gmail and Picasa, its online photo storage and sharing service, the chance to expand the amount of storage supporting their accounts. Gmail users currently get about 2.8 GB of fr...

More than 1 million gamers have plunked down their US$60 to preorder one of the most anticipated video games this year, "Halo 3," Microsoft announced Thursday. With a little more than one month to go before the game's release Sept. 25 on the Xbox 360, the latest installment in the "Halo" franchise has become the fastest-selling pre-ordered video game in history, the console maker said...

As rock band Pearl Jam performed a set as part of the Lollapalooza music festival this week, AT&T broadcast the performance over the Internet as part of its Blue Room webcast. However, the webcast's audio cut out at a significant point in the band's performance -- the moment that singer Eddie Vedder began singing lyrics that apparently bashed President George W. Bush...

As rock band Pearl Jam performed a set as part of the Lollapalooza music festival this week, AT&T broadcast the performance over the Internet as part of its Blue Room webcast. However, the webcast's audio cut out at a significant point in the band's performance -- the moment that singer Eddie Vedder began singing lyrics that apparently bashed President George W. Bush...

As rock band Pearl Jam performed a set as part of the Lollapalooza music festival this week, AT&T broadcast the performance over the Internet as part of its Blue Room webcast. However, the webcast's audio cut out at a significant point in the band's performance -- the moment that singer Eddie Vedder began singing lyrics that apparently bashed President George W. Bush...

President Bush signed into law Thursday the America Competes Act, designed to boost research and education in math and the sciences through a funding package of about US$42 billion Formally dubbed the "America Creating Opportunities To Meaningfully Promote Excellence In Technology, Education And Science Act" (America COMPETES), the bill aims to bol...

Universal Music Group (UMG) will test selling music free of digital rights management (DRM) technology, and it plans to make the tracks available through RealNetworks' Rhapsody service and other outlets -- but not through the iTunes Music Store Universal becomes the second major record label after EMI to begin offering music without DRM controls th...

Companies that want to take advantage of virtual worlds should think twice about Linden Lab's Second Life and consider better-controlled online worlds, said tech consultancy Gartner "Media hype and enthusiasm for virtual worlds must be tempered with a realistic assessment of the security and risk-management issues" they present to enterprises, Gart...

"Due to exceptionally high volume, requests may be delayed up to 72 hours." That message may be mundane when posted at most Web sites, but when it's posted at an online bank, it's as dangerous as blood in shark-infested waters....

IBM and Linux distributor Novell are strengthening their partnership in order to encourage cross-adoption of their respective platforms and products, especially in the small to medium-sized business space The companies hope to erode market share inroads recently gained by Microsoft and Red Hat with their Exchange software and JBoss application serv...

This week, Dr. Gordon Lithgow, associate professor at the Buck Institute, showed up in San Francisco and spoke to a packed house on aging, new technologies and why interdisciplinary connections are helping to unravel the mysteries of growing old. While politics often slows down progress, computer scientists can play a role in speeding things up In ...

Microsoft, Google and other members of the White Spaces Coalition received a blow last week when the Federal Communications Commission rejected the device they proposed to allow wireless Internet transmissions over unused TV spectrum Known as a "white space device," the technology is intended to tap into unlicensed and unused airwaves, with the pot...

Vonage shares surged higher amid a stock market selloff Thursday after the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) provider -- recently seen teetering on the brink of extinction due to legal issues -- posted better-than-expected earnings Vonage cut its net loss to US$34 million, or 22 cents, in the second quarter, less than half of the losses it posted...

The same week the world learned Microsoft had shaved US$50 off the price of its Xbox 360 next-generation gaming console, the company also rolled out refreshed versions of its Xbox 360 Premium models. Consumers picking up the consoles from now on will receive a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port The news initially came from gamers who ...

New York Times blogger Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of the bestseller Freakonomics, might get more than he bargained for in response to a questionhe posted on Wednesday: "If you were a terrorist, how would you attack?" Posed in the spirit of "public service," Levitt writes, the question is meant to get readers' best ideas "out in the open" so that te...

Blockbuster will buy film download site Movielink, a bid by the largest video and DVD rental chain to assure it remains a key player in distribution of movies even when DVDs become less prevalent Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Blockbuster has been known to have been in talks with Movielink for some time, however, with a slew of publis...

John Schappert, who helped create and grow the "Madden NFL" franchise of video games, has taken a position with Microsoft's Live interactive entertainment division Schappert moves to Microsoft from Electronic Arts, following in the footsteps of his former boss at EA, Don Mattrick, who will now be his supervisor at Microsoft. He leaves his EA positi...