Articles by

I visited two of the greatest cities in the United States last week. First, I was in San Francisco where Intel made a credible attempt to show that it intends to stay the market leader despite anything rival AMD has done. Then I went to New York to talk to folks about Hewlett-Packard's congressional hearings and to attend one of the most impressive HP product launches that firm has had in awhile...

A shift in how entertainment is delivered to the home will increase demand for consumer electronics products with wireless networking capabilities and ignite explosive growth for WiFi, according to a study released this week by ABI Research In the report, ABI forecasted that shipments of WiFi-enabled consumer electronic devices will surge from 40 m...

When Oracle bought Berkeley DB provider Sleepycat Software early this year, some feared the open source database maker's product -- and the entire open source database market -- might be at risk. Now, however, Oracle is winning praise for a hands-off approach that has resulted in its first update to the database, Berkeley DB v4.5, made available this week...

Yahoo scored another victory in its battle with Google Thursday when Hewlett-Packard said it would pre-install the Web portal's search engine tools on its desktop and notebook computers The deal gives Yahoo access to prime real estate inside the machines from the world's No. 2 PC maker by volume, and comes close to matching an earlier deal struck b...

Lyris Technologies said China-based Alibaba will use its e-mail marketing solution to handle messaging to both Chinese and international members who use the site to import and export goods Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company operating in China today, will use ListManager to manage its communications with members who live in 200 countries and te...

In a move to compete with rival Dell, HP on Thursday announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VoodooPC, a manufacturer of high-performance gaming computer systems Following the close of the transaction, HP will form a separate business unit within its personal systems group focused on the gaming industry. HP plans to maintain Voodo...

Hewlett-Packard's CEO and former Chairman were grilled by members of Congress Thursday on their part in the now infamous investigation into boardroom leaks at the computer maker, but the company may have escaped the embarrassing public grilling without any further damage to its corporate reputation In fact, HP shares moved higher Friday morning, af...

As the defective laptop battery problem reaches pandemic proportions -- with Toshiba,Fujitsu,Lenovo and IBM among the latest manufacturers to recall their products for fear they might start a fire -- Dell has expanded the recall it initiated on Aug. 15, adding more products to the list Sony, for its part, has said it will initiate a globalreplaceme...

Microsoft has confirmed pricing and delivery details for its upcoming Zune MP3 music player. The software giant on Thursday revealed its 30 GB Zune digital media player will cost US$249.99. The so-called iPod killer will be available to U.S. customers on Nov. 14, just in time for the holidays Microsoft will launch the Zune Marketplace -- which comp...

The U.S. dollar is still the world's dominant currency. But, there are rumblings that could foretell a great weakening of the dollar and a loss of its hegemony For example, the European Union is currently gathering both members and economic power. Its combined gross domestic product now exceeds that of the U.S. And, since January 1, 2002, the Europ...

American Greetings bought BlueMountain.com more than five years ago, scooping up one of the pioneers in the online greeting cards field to build out its own e-cards business At the time, BlueMountain had built a strong following on the Web, using an artsy approach to cards designs and messages that resonated with its target audience....

As a rule, manufacturers have been blissfully unconcerned with some of the finer points of CRM functionality and process. This is not to say they are indifferent to their customers' needs. Rather, the low adoption rates of CRM technology in this sector have been more reflective of manufacturers' business operations, which traditionally have not required much input from customers beyond their initial specifications. Indeed, until recently, most manufacturing operations could not respond to last minute changes in customer demands or requirements...

Black Duck Software got its feet wet during the SCO uproar, when the Unix firm's legal onslaught against IBM and others sharpened concern over intellectual property rights connected to the use of software code. New issues have arisen since then, however, coinciding with the increased adoption of open source applications and the growing number of licenses governing their use. Black Duck recently released protexIP 4.0, a new version of its development software analysis system, in response to the broadening range of compliance challenges...

This week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced that his mouse brain-mapping project has finally been completed. This major undertaking arrives in tandem with other advances in medical technologies that will soon force political leaders to face difficult policy questions Mapping a mouse's brain is significant not only because mice share 90 pe...

Time-shifting device maker Sling Media on Thursday launched three new versions of its Slingbox remote TV appliances. The new models boast speeds up to 400 percent faster than earlier versions, with support for high-definition TV as well as a variety of other TV setups Sling Media peddles consumer electronics that allow consumers to watch television...

Like many in the technology industry and legal community, IBM is wondering when the US$5 billion lawsuit the SCO Group has filed against it -- for alleged breach of contract and the incorporation of SCO code in Linux -- is going to end SCO, a Utah-based company that was once a major player in the Unix server market, sued IBM in 2003 claiming that t...

In the latest sign that marketplace demand for branded mobile services is not as strong as once believed, ESPN said it would shut down the Mobile ESPN service and turn its attention to licensing its content to existing carriers Mobile ESPN launched early this year as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). It went live behind a strong marketing p...

The boardroom investigation scandal at Hewlett-Packard claimed another high-profile resignation Thursday, with General Counsel Ann O. Baskins quitting, a move announced just hours before CEO Mark Hurd and other executives were due to testify before Congress HP announced Baskins' resignation in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (S...

Microsoft on Thursday got the gaming world's attention with a blockbuster announcement: "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Fran Walsh and Microsoft Game Studios are partnering to develop two new interactive entertainment series exclusively for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live The first series will be a collaborati...

AOL's privacy policy and how it is interpreted by the courts and federal government will be in the spotlight as two separate actions against the company move forward In the latest reaction to AOL's erroneous posting of some of its members' search term data this past August, two unnamed California residents and Kasadore Ramkissoon of Richmond County...