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Even as Apple suffers the continuing pains of its iPhone 4 "Antennagate" brouhaha, it appears at least one competing device is now facing problems of its own: Motorola and Verizon on Tuesday acknowledged faulty screens on some Droid X handsets and offered affected consumers a free replacement device "We are aware of a very small number of Droid X u...

Facebook, one of the most popular sites on the Web -- now claiming 500 million users -- also has the dubious distinction of being one of the lowest-ranked in terms of customer satisfaction. Facebook scored a paltry 64 on the 100-point scale of the 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business Report. That puts it in the bottom 5 percent of all measured private sector companies, drawing the same level of consumer scorn as airline and cable companies. Indeed, its ranking is so low, even the IRS scored higher, the survey said.

These days Apple reminds me a lot of the inscription found on the James Farley Post Office in New York City: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." If Apple had a credo, the aphorism on its Cupertino headquarters might read: "Neither antenna problems or dropped c...

Last time, we explored how we can make IT more sustainable by improving data center energy use. Managing energy use is the most well-understood form of sustainability we have, but it is largely an internal form of sustainability practice. If we intend to make our businesses sustainable -- i.e., able to function for a long time despite changes in the economy -- then we also need to consider sustainability in customer-facing business processes. That's where treating the customer as a renewable resource comes in, and it is the subject of today's article. If you are wondering, the third leg of sustainability practice in business is sustainable products, and it will be discussed later...

The more I delve into open source photo apps for Linux, the harder thechoice becomes to use just one photo management solution. I keepfinding photo managers that outdo my previous picks ...

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, a consortium of cable, entertainment and technology companies, has announced more details about a concept that would ultimately give consumers the ability to legally access the digital content of a slew of providers for use on multiple devices -- from smartphones to personal computers to Web-enabled television sets.

A Windows Shell flaw for which Microsoft released a security advisory Friday could lead to widespread attacks, security experts fear The vulnerability attacks through Windows shortcuts, icons for which are displayed on users' computer screens....

Amazon has announced a dramatic upswing in e-book sales. For the first half of 2010 it sold three times as many Kindle books as it did in the first half of 2009. For the full second quarter, it reported sales of 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books sold. Over the past month, it sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books. Amazon ...

Branding is often undervalued. The mantra at many companies is "leads and sales, leads and sales," with most marketing investments going toward lead generation activities. In addition, marketers often believe that branding results are difficult to measure. The Internet has relegated these notions to the garbage bin. With a comprehensive online pre...

Seven months after Avaya closed its acquisition of Nortel and simultaneously released a road map for integrating the two product lines, Avaya has delivered on that plan. It is releasing a cornucopia of new and enhanced products that largely follow the promises Avaya made in January, Drew Kraus, an analyst with Gartner told CRM Buyer. "I think they...

Rackspace Hosting on Monday announced the launch of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform designed to foster technology standards and cloud interoperability. NASA is collaborating on the project....

Just a few weeks ago, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center learned a hard lesson. If you didn't see the news reports, the N.Y.-based healthcare provider notified over 130,000 individuals that their records -- including diagnostic information, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and other information of use to identity thieves -- was potentially lost. ...

Facebook is expected to announce sometime this week that it has topped half a billion users. That's 500 million globally. For a website that began life in the humble environs of a college dorm room, it's quite a milestone. However, many of those users are concerned about how their information is being used, as Facebook has learned repeatedly as it has made changes along the way...

Motorola will sell the majority of its network equipment business to Nokia Siemens Networks in a US$1.2 billion deal that is generally seen as a positive move for both companies as they pursue their respective business strategies. Motorola gets a much-needed infusion of cash, plus the freedom to focus on its now-successful handset business. The tr...

Microsoft has put its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system out for technical preview "Starting today, thousands of prototype phones from Asus, LG and Samsung are making their way into the hands of developers over the next few weeks," Terry Myerson, corporate vice president, Windows phone engineering, announced on the Windows Phone blog Sunday....

Threats to computer and network security increase with each passing day and come from a growing number of sources. No computer or network is immune from attack. A recent concern is the susceptibility of the power grid and other national infrastructure to a systematic, organized attack on the United States from other nations or terrorist organizations. ...

Just how secure is your website? How tough is your webhosting provider's backbone? How vulnerable are you to cyberattacks like those that played havoc with Facebook and other sites in the past -- the victims of a rogue blogger? While no site is absolutely safe from assault, it pays to be vigilant and to determine the strength of your webhosting...

Businesses will probably always have customers who want to place their orders by fax. When there are manual tasks involved in processing those orders, they can present a serious problem because companies may fall short in meeting expectations of the customers who place them. There is a fundamental conflict between the level of service that customers expect and the costs of meeting those expectations with orders received via fax...

There is a growing consensus that China will replace the U.S. as the world's leading superpower in this century, just as the U.S. replaced Great Britain in last one. In the last century, it was the difference between world commerce and manufacturing capacity that mattered; now, the shift could actually be tied to technological advancement in areas like transportation and electrical power. ...

At a hastily called press conference on Friday, Apple chairman and CEO Steve Jobs offered free cases to all iPhone 4 users to make amends for widespread complaints about the design of the smartphone's antenna, which causes it to lose signal strength when the phone is held a certain way without a case Users who have already bought Apple's cases, cal...