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Twitter-controlled mobile botnets and mobile ransomware are a few examples of what's in store for Internet users in the coming months and years, according to the second-quarter McAfee Threats Report. In general, mobile tech has emerged as a major vector for hack attacks, with many that might once have been aimed at PCs now focused on other devices...

The great patent showdown expected to eventually take place between Apple and Google in some courtroom, somewhere, may never happen. The two companies are in talks on a range of intellectual property issues, according to an exclusive report by Reuters that specifically cites the issues the two companies have with each other over mobile patents To ...

Increasingly, CRM vendors -- and their customers -- are recognizing the value of applying mobile technologies to the self-service piece of a CRM operations. In response, more and more vendors are rolling out new applications for companies that wish to target this emerging, but rapidly growing, demand point. These applications range in functionalit...

Oracle acted swiftly last week to close a zero-day vulnerability in its Java technology, but given Java's track record, that patch is just one hit in a long game of wackamole played with hackers A number of security companies discovered the vulnerability over the weekend of Aug. 25. They noticed that a popular and notorious root kit, Blackhole, was...

This story was originally published on May 3, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series The educational e-book market has grown fiercer in the last few years, raising the question of where the end game will leave educational institutions in their attempts to reduce student churn, increase productivity and radically re...

This story was originally published on Jun. 1, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series Engaging the customer has always been fundamental to doing good business. It's just that now that engagement often starts in digital, social media realms....

This story was originally published on Jun. 7, 2012, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series There's a lot of opportunity for CRM vendors seeking to reach small businesses.While there are 15 million seats of CRM in action today, there are a lot more than15 million customer-facing workers out there, and the vast majority o...

The Windows 8 launch in October promises to be like no other launch. I think it will drive home several points that many of us don't seem to understand, like the fact that we both whine there isn't enough innovation and run for the hills when someone innovates in a mature market. I think Microsoft will change a lot after this launch, and as a result, the PC ecosystem will be dramatically different next year. ...

There has been a lot of hype about mobile payments, especially last year, with executives proclaiming adoption to be a rapidly growing trend. While we know that consumers are using their mobile devices to access information on the Internet, are they actually using them to shop? The idea of purchasing while on the go or simply waving a smartphone...

Speeding Up Your PC, Part 4: Managing Drivers One of the most dreaded words for any computer user is "malware." Rogue software andinfected files can implant bits of code that log keystrokes, spy on activities, slow downsearches and snatch financial information....

Twitter is rolling out new ad-targeting capabilities that will allow marketers to identify and send messages to consumers based on their interests or likes. So, a consumer who has indicated an interest in gardening would be shown ads for gardening and outdoor-living products There are two different ways Twitter will segment and narrow down its 140 ...

Whether it's on a piece of paper in a typewriter or a word processor on the desktop, writers typically begin with a blank white page. This white page has been the look of books for... ever. And beginning next week, Amazon's new Kindle should be presenting words -- perhaps jumping off the page to engage the reader -- on a similar "Paperwhite" display...

Sony on Thursday showed off an 84-inch TV set with 4K resolution technology at the IFA consumer show in Germany The Sony set adheres to the 4K UHDTV standard, which is 3,840 by 2,160 pixels. It offers four times the number of pixels found in the 1080p HDTV standard, which measures 1,920 x 1,080....

What is the best way to market cloud IT services to the federal government? Any way you can....

Blackbaud has enhanced its CRM app for nonprofits with completely redesigned prospect and research capabilities. It is the company's second major release this year, Tiffany Crumpton, senior marketing manager for CRM solutions, told CRM Buyer However, neither release -- the previous 2.93 or this newest iteration, version 2.94 -- incorporated featur...

SwitchPro Widget, an app from Droid Shogun, is available for US$0.99 at Google Play.If you're a regular reader of this column, you may remember that I recently took a lookat Cloud TV's HD Widgets, an app for creating your own elegant, translucent widgets toreplace ugly stock widgets that appear to permeate today's Android phones -- Motorola,I'm re...

Speeding Up Your PC, Part 3: Getting Crucial Updates Driver software manages the communications between a computer and its system components and peripherals, such as printers, graphic and sound cards, motherboards, game controllers, Bluetooth devices, and other hardware....

Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers and Simon & Schuster have agreed to pay a total of more than US$69million to consumers to resolve antitrust claims of alleged unlawfulconspiracy to fix the prices of electronic books. The three companiesfurther agreed to change the way their e-books will be priced The three publishers settled with 55 at...

It has been clear for some time that consumers are using multiple devices to access the same content. Sometimes they will access a particular piece or type of content only from a mobile device -- say, a website optimized for mobile news while commuting to work on public transportation. Sometimes they will shift from screen to screen as circumstanc...

Samsung has announced the first smartphone running Windows Phone 8, presenting the handset at the IFA consumer electronics show in Germany ...