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We are nearing year-end, and that means it's time for my annual year in review. This is not an attempt at a quantitative inventory -- just my assessment of things that happened that will matter in the long run. From my spot, it looks like marketing took a big step toward greater relevance in 2013, the importance of being a partner in an ecosyste...

Microsoft will stop security support for Windows XP this coming April, meaning that more than a few remaining users of the long-standing OS need to come up with an alternative plan. Almost a third of desktop computers still run Windows XP, according to Net Applications. Perhaps even more concerning, more than 15 percent of midsize and large enterp...

Digital Santa, Part 2: Tech Tools of the Trade Flashing strobe lights, streaming LEDs, whining jet engines, a Space Shuttle's roar ... this isn't your grandpa's Santa Claus sleigh....

The Linux Foundation on Tuesday announced the formation of the AllSeen Alliance, a cross-industry consortium working on a standard of interoperability among devices connected to the Internet of Things Alliance members include LG Electronics, Panasonic, Sharp, Silicon Image, Qualcomm, HTC, Cisco, D-Link and Sears Brand Management. LG will incorporat...

Attorneys for Snapchat executives Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy have applied to the California court for a restraining order and order to show cause against cofounder Reggie Brown, who is currently in litigation with the company over his ouster The restraining order would keep Brown from publicizing confidential details about the ongoing case, in ...

More than 5 million students in 167 countries are getting at least one hour of computer coding instruction this week as part of Code.org's Hour of Code initiative, an event designed to promote computer science in educational curricula worldwide ...

Scientists in China will use the country's Tianhe-1A supercomputer to forecast and analyze smog in major cities The Tianhe-1A will be used to create a simulation that will collate data from across more than 100 Chinese cities. Theoretically, this will enable scientists to predict the density of smog, how long it will linger, and where it might go n...

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., plans to soon introduce legislation that will restrict the bulk collection of Americans' cellphone data by United States law enforcement agencies "We need a 4th Amendment for the 21st century," he said. "Disclosure of personal information from wireless devices raises significant legal and privacy concerns, particularly ...

Email Marketing for the Holidays, Part 1: Making the Right Mobile Impression There's no doubt email marketing has become nonnegotiable for retailers during the holiday season, and that's particularly true on the mobile side.

The European Commission has issued a stark warning to Nokia to not become a patent troll The company sold most of its mobile phone business to Microsoft earlier this year for US$7.2 billion but retained its patent portfolio. The EC, the executive arm of the European Union, cleared the acquisition last week. However, the deal has sparked concerns th...

Insurance companies have always been adamant about spotting and controlling risks. That, after all, is the basis for accepting policyholders and placing them into rate categories. Before the Big Data explosion, insurance companies crunched numbers like everybody else, relying on limited information gathering and spreadsheet analysis. Today, howeve...

Small, lightweight and efficient solar panels coupled with lithium batteries are making inroads into the outdoor retail market as a solution for charging mobile devices. ...

Eight major United States high-tech companies have called on governments worldwide to reform surveillance practices Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple and AOL want governments to ensure that data collection by law enforcement and intelligence agencies is bound by rules and focuses on targeted suspects....

The U.S. National Security Agency and British counterpart GCHQ have monitored the activities of online gamers, according to documents published Monday that were leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden The two agencies gained access to the online Xbox Live console network, the documents suggest, as well as deploying real-life agents into the virtual ...

A malware decline and ransomware rise are in the security crystal ball for 2014 There will be less malware spreading through networks next year as hackers focus on obtaining credentials that allow them to access systems under the guise of authentic users....

Microsoft announced last week that it had disrupted the ZeroAccess botnet, which has been around since 2011 It joined forces with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the European Cybercrime Center, and several high-tech companies including A10 Networks....

Ecuador hosted an Internet freedom forum last week, welcoming guests from the pro-transparency community The nation's president, Rafael Correa, is also funding a new research project designed to overhaul traditional copyright laws. To that end, the FLOK Society, based at a public university in Quito, is exploring ways to liberate Ecuador's Internet...

The United States House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Innovation Act, a bipartisan bill seeking to curb frivolous lawsuits by patent trolls, by a vote of 325-91 Bill H.R. 3309, whose chief sponsor is House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, will go before the Senate where another bill, the Patent Transparency and Improvements A...

Moxie Software, a provider of enterprise social software, has updated its Spaces by Moxie suite of applications with new features in its Chat Spaces, Email Spaces and Knowledge Spaces modules. Moxie Software's user base tends to be large B2C companies that have high-volume interactions with their customers, Chief Marketing Officer Tara Sporrer tol...

One of the recurring themes in the technology industry is that very successful companies become arrogant and start taking unnecessary risks or abusing customers -- the two aren't mutually exclusive. That behavior can accomplish what competitors have failed to do: It can kill them. I was in IBM in the 1980s when it exhibited this behavior, and I...