Articles by

There's no doubt about it, Microsoft is a behemoth. It has permeated the computer industry and has an enormous amount of clout. So, what's to rain on Microsoft's parade? Actually, a threat is emerging that can do considerable damage to this powerful software company. The threat is free software....

During the last downturn nearly every enterprise software vendor stayed alive for a quarter or more due to their support and maintenance revenue streams. Today, support and maintenance comprises the majority of revenue for many CRM vendors, both public and private Existing customers are carrying the financial load of the CRM industry today. With ...

R. Hewitt Pate, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, said this week that he is leaving his post. This gives the Bush administration an opportunity to appoint someone who will ignore empty political grandstanding and make forward-looking decisions on two recent telecom mergers Both the SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI mergers will need a no...

Eyeing enhancements to its instant messaging (IM) platform as it vies for users with AOL and Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN unit has purchased a firm that provides alerts through IM Microsoft did not disclose the purchase price for MessageCast, a privately held firm whose broadcast messaging system works with really simple syndication (RSS) to provide cont...

IBM announced today that it has added a new 4 Gpbs storage system to its midrange lineup. Big Blue said the newest member of its TotalStorage family, the DS4800, is one of the fastest midrange disk systems in the market today The Storage Performance Council tested the DS4800 and reports the device sets a new standard for midrange storage server pe...

With help from wireless carrier Cingular, Sony has widened both the reach and variety of wireless technology in its latest, ultra-lightweight Vaio T-Series notebook PC, which allows users to connect laptops to the Internet almost anywhere there is cellular wireless coverage through Cingular's EDGE Network The new Vaio T-Series, aimed at enterprise ...

The Mozilla Foundation has readied security patches to thwart what security firm Secunia reported earlier this week as two "extremely critical" flaws in its Firefox browser Secunia said the vulnerabilities could be exploited by malicious people who wish to take control of victims' computers. Firefox executives are hoping the firm will downgrade th...

Hoping to elevate mobile Web browsing from its current status as a "second class experience," a massive technology consortium has promised to turn its focus to making Internet browsing from a hand-held device more convenient The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a group of some 350 technologies companies around the world, launched the Mobile Web Ini...

Microsoft announced today that Philips Electronics has agreed to use its software for playing digital audio and video on its semiconductors and consumer electronics products. Analysts called the deal a significant win for Microsoft Under the terms of the non-exclusive deal, Philips said it will support Microsoft Windows Media digital content format...

On April 27, President George Bush signed a copyright bill that aims to legalize technology that allows users to automatically skip over or mute objectionable content in movie DVDs Contained in DVD players and other devices, the filtering technology allows parents to prevent their children from seeing scenes involving sex, violence or foul language...

The adolescent crowd is especially enamored with two items: music and cell phones. Naturally, therefore, handset manufacturers and carriers have begun to find ways to integrate the two. A few devices that integrate static music selections or FM radio signals into cell phones have already started to make their way from research and development laboratories to store shelves, and a slew of others are expected to follow...

Almost a year after the theft and distribution of Cisco source code integral to much of the Internet's infrastructure, a Swedish teenager is suspected of stealing the software and using university computers to crack U.S. government systems and Web sites. The individual's attacks are said to have included numerous other online properties as well that may number in the thousands...

In a cooperative effort with Microsoft, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly filed a lawsuit today against an Internet spam ring operating near Boston. The group is allegedly responsible for sending hundreds of millions of unwanted, deceptive spam messages each month in violation of both federal and state law The Massachusetts attorney general...

America Online is stepping into the free Web mail game today with the second beta of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) version 5.9 The mail service will be linked to AIM and features a whopping 2 GB of storage. Also included are spam filters, antivirus protection and the ability to drag-and-drop messages into folders. AOL will charge for ads that run alo...

Yahoo has added a subscription service to its digital music offerings as the portal bids to use its vast resources, name recognition and experience in e-commerce to shake up what is rapidly becoming one of the most crowded niches in online business Yahoo Music Unlimited, as the service is known, opened in beta form with a basic price of US$6.99 a m...

Novell yesterday announced it has acquired Immunix and its AppAmror software, a host-based security application designed for Linux. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed AppArmor is used to protect both the Linux operating system and applications from external or internal attacks, viruses, and malicious applications. Novell is making AppAr...

Consumers and enterprise IT managers have to become more vigilant about spyware and adware infections to stay ahead of new threats. However, greater awareness of security issues since last year has tipped the scales slightly against intruders That's a lesson to be learned from an analysis of data collected since January by Webroot Software, which m...

Anonymizer, a leading provider of Internet privacy and security products, plans tomorrow to release Anonymizer Total Privacy Suite, the first comprehensive identity protection product that works with Firefox, Mozilla's popular open-source Web browser The new software, available for online purchase for US$59.95, safeguards Firefox users from spyware...

Bidding to boost its standing among security companies by acquiring one of the fastest growing forms of computer menace, Trend Micro said today it would buy a privately held anti-spyware firm in a deal worth about US$15 million Trend Micro, which is based in Tokyo, Japan, said it would buy InterMute of Braintree, Mass., and would have a product to...

Motorola Labs announced today what it called a "breakthrough" in high-definition TV technology, but analysts were more skeptical about its significance The research arm of Motorola Inc. has built a 5-inch color video display prototype using its own carbon nanotube (CNT) technology. The company said CNT could be used to create higher quality, large,...