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Google may be planning to launch an ambitious brick-and-mortar retail operation to show off its consumer products. The latest rumor emerged over the weekend in 9to5Google, which cited "an extremely reliable source." Google will open standalone retail stores across the U.S. in time for the holidays, according to the post, to showcase its Nexus tabl...

Oracle is not letting go of its Java patent infringement beef against Google despite its sound drubbing last spring when U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled that programming APIs were not subject to copyright protection. Last week, Oracle took the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit The high-visibility copyr...

I liked what Sage did last week in agreeing to sell off some non-core assets to partners, and I am most interested in the decision to sell ACT! (Venerable ACT! if you ask me) and SalesLogix. The move reduced Sage's bullpen of CRM solutions from three to one -- and that's the right number for this market Buying and owning three CRM applications migh...

Fedora 18, dubbed "the Spherical Cow," was finally released on Jan. 15 after seven postponements that stretched two months beyond its scheduled six-month release cycle. Despite some noteworthy improvements overall to the operating system, I found little about Fedora 18 to justify adopting it over other Linux distros or upgrading to it from an earlier version...

Here's a look at some of the must-have apps for your kitchen. Apps in this genre bring interactivity, crowdsourcing and reverse searching to the table....

The Twitter accounts for fast-food chain Burger King and automaker Jeep were taken over by hackers this week, prompting calls for stronger authentication practices while forcing marketing professionals to once again confront the shadowy regions of social media Burger King was the first brand to report problems Monday; its gold crown logo was replac...

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei reportedly said at a briefing on Tuesday that China's military was not involved in any recent cyberhacking. His comments were apparently in response to allegations published by The New York Times on Monday, gleaned from a new report by Mandiant Among many other findings in the report is the existence ...

Patent laws remain in the crosshairs, despite the passage and near final implementation of the infamous America Invents Act of 2011. The Supreme Court is again hearing a case that has far-reaching implications for future innovation in self-replicating systems in fields such as nanotechnology, cell and DNA lines, new medical treatments and others. The case being heard Tuesday is Bowman v. Monsanto...

HTC launched its newest smartphone Tuesday, sporting a revamped interface and new entertainment features ...

Iceland's credentials as a progressive country are beyond reproach. The prime minister is openly gay, for starters, plus the recently rewritten constitution includes input from citizens who joined the discussion via social media Even so, Iceland is considering a ban of online pornography. Not because the country is suddenly conservative, but becau...

Business IT solution development generally follows specific trends and overlapping eras. The first, calculation, occurred as digital products and services wholly replaced the adding machines and other mechanical business devices. The vendors that produced them -- including Burroughs, Sperry and IBM -- became some of early IT's biggest players The s...

Surprisingly, many customer service organizations have yet to put their toes in the water when it comes to social media engagement. In fact, fewer than half of them actively respond to consumer complaints via Twitter and other social media channels, according to Gleanster research For companies that do actively engage in social media for customer s...

While it's a nasty pill to swallow for old-line security folks, the perimeter isn't what it used to be. The days when a company could hide behind its firewall and feel secure are gone Pockets of resistance to that notion still exist, but the message is getting through to security pros. "It's a painful message to receive if you're someone in traditi...

This story was originally published on Nov. 28, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Electronic communications are reshaping personal life, and may right now be causing the rapid demise of print....

This story was originally published on Nov. 28, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Today, few people are using an IBM desktop computer -- and if they are, the machine could be close to 20 years old. However, back in 1995 when IBM bought Lotus Notes, it was the world's largest software company and still made p...

This story was originally published on Dec. 10, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. When Double Cola wanted to encourage its customers to keep coming back for more of its vintage fizzy drink, it started a rewards program. Using tried-and-true loyalty methods, the company offered customers the opportunity to tu...

I watched in horror last week as Tesla's CEO Elon Musk attempted to turn a New York Times reporter into the next Ralph Nader and kill his company. It brought back memories of the ChevroletCorvair that died as a result of GM's decision to fight what turned out to be false allegations instead ofjust making the car better. Sadly, even though they mad...

A blazing meteor streaked across the skies of Russia on Thursday, leaving a large smoke trail in its wake before blowing up over the remote town of Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains. More than 1,000 people reported injuries, and windows across the region were shattered by a deafening sonic boom ...

Facebook's policy of requiring that users post profiles under their real names was upheld by a German court on Thursday. The decision reversed last year's Independent Center for Privacy Protection (ULD) ruling that Facebook had to permit the use of pseudonyms in Germany. The ULD -- the privacy regulator for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein -...

Facebook is allowing users with a little extra money to promote the status updates, photos or videos of a friend on the social network, according to multiple media reports The world's largest social network uses certain algorithms to determine which posts get the most traction on Facebook. Users are more likely to see status updates from people the...