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IBM on Thursday introduced a prototype chip dubbed the "Holey Optochip," a wedding of traditional computer chip technology with the use of optical pathways. Able to transmit 1 terabit of data per second (Tbps), the prototype chipset could eventually result in faster downloads of information like apps and streaming video ...

There are currently two different realities we have to wrestle with if we are a customer of either AT&T or Verizon Wireless. Walk into any of their wireless stores, and they will happily tell you everything the wonderful and futuristic 4G phones can do. They'll sweep you off your feet with excitement, and you'll buy, buy, buy. However, when you ge...

A friend of mine bought a car that is, to be honest, a lot more than he really needs. It has all the bells and whistles, wrapped in a lovely paint job and a plush leather interior. Yet every time I ride in it, I discover something that he's overlooked. Yes, Randy -- this would be where you plug in your iPod. Did you know you had a second glove com...

If you were looking at television weather maps during last week's U.S. tornado activity, you were looking at a GIS, or Geographic Information System. Those red and purple splotches racing across the screen represented intensity levels of rotating storm cells. The map itself, the county lines, and the splotches were all data layer elements making up the map.

The hacktivists known as "Anonymous" have retaliated following Tuesday's news of the arrests of LulzSec hackers exposed by their former leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur. Overnight, Anonymous hackers took down more than 25 websites belonging to Panda Security. They also posted email addresses, usernames and passwords of more than a hundred of the fir...

Netflix is reportedly in talks with cable TV providers to bundle its services with cable packages. Although the streaming online media provider wouldn't confirm a Tuesday report quoting insiders, a Netflix spokesperson did not deny talks are ongoing with cable operators "What's revolutionary is evolutionary," Netflix Corporate Communications Vice P...

Samsung's ES8000 -- a so-called smart TV complete with gesture and voice controls as well as a touchpad remote -- is ready to hit shelves Attendants at January's Consumer Electronics Show got a first glimpse at the new line of smart TVs, but the sets weren't available until Tuesday, when Samsung announced pricing and shipping details for the intera...

Google tore down the silos around its app, music, movie and ebook stores Tuesday and melded them into a single outlet called "Google Play." The move emulates Apple's highly successful iTunes model. "Apple has set the standard with the iTunes store where you can get books and music and apps all in one place, so this is a logical thing for Google to ...

How do you e-pledge a sorority? We may soon find out. The world of higher education is changing rapidly, with the number of college students taking face-to-face classes expected to fall from more than 14 million in 2010 to only 4 million in 2015, making it level with the number of online students. Four factors will contribute to this move: ...

You can gauge the success and financial health of almost any company by looking at revenues. At least this is true in the short term. Since revenue is a lagging indicator -- with the exception of monthly recurring revenue (MRR) that subscription companies measure -- it only tells you where you've been, not where you are going We could very profit...

It's no wonder that the Linux desktop operating system is not attracting hordes of new users from Microsoft Windows and the Mac OS X platforms. Linux has almost too many desktop choices, and most of them are far from good One clear exception is the Lightweight X Desktop Environment, or LXDE. I am becoming increasingly enamored with it as the near i...

With much fanfare, the Obama administration recently unveiled a blueprint to improve consumer privacy protections online in the United States This consists of four parts: An online consumer privacy bill of rights, a stakeholder-driven process to specify how those rights apply in specific business contexts, enforcement by the United States Federal T...

Authorities in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom and in Ireland, have arrested five suspected hackers affiliated with Lulz Security, more commonly known as "LulzSec," a group of so-called hacktivists. Among those arrested is Hector Xavier Monsegur, the suspected leader of the group Monsegur, who went by the nickname "Sabu," actual...

Apple's iOS handles HTML5-based games as much as three times better than Google's Android in HTML5, according to a new study from Spaceport. The report specifically measured how many images could be moved around the screen at a time while maintaining a rate of 30 frames per second (FPS). The researchers tested on the latest versions of iOS and And...

Online retailers that have committed to supporting consumers on their mobile phones are bracing themselves for a challenging year. Just as they thought it was a two-horse race for smartphone dominance between Apple and Google -- which enabled them to establish a neat mobile Web and app strategy -- a rejuvenated smartphone market is set to spoil th...

As the U.S. economy shows modest signs of recovering, and with forecasts for the overall information technology market also showing modest growth, vendors can at least count on one big customer to provide a steady stream of revenue for the next year or two: the U.S. government Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel has been promoting th...

Smart Tools, an app from Smart Tools Co., is available for US$2.50 at the Android Market.I was looking for an app that would substitute for the dedicated and expensive rangefinder device that's used for judging long distances while hunting and golfing, when I came across Android Boy's remarkable all-in-one $2.50 Smart Tools. This product has take...

They don't make any noise. They don't vibrate. They don't rely on the many tiny controlled explosions of internal combustion. Electric motorcycles, in short, are completely different beasts from their gasoline cousins "It's the magic carpet ride," Abe Askenazi, chief technology officer for electric motorcycle manufacturer Zero Motorcycles, told Tec...

Yahoo may be readying for a significant change in corporate structure -- and headcount. CEO Scott Thompson is getting ready to restructure the company in a move that will entail layoffs that could number in the thousands, according to a report in All Things D. "The indications are that the layoffs will be massive," David Cadden, a professor of ma...

NASA has become a popular target of hackers. The space agency's computer network was breached 13 times in 2011 -- to the point where suspected Chinese hackers gained "full functional control" of computers used by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory," a government inspector general told congressional investigators The agency spends just US$58 million o...