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Until recently, a phone was just a phone. Sure, it got cooler when it lost the rotary dial, the cord, the wire and its voice-only restrictions. Still, it was just a phone. Businesses knew that the sound of its ring usually meant money (for what company with silent phones is profitable?) -- but few were prepared for the darn thing to totally rule their bottom line...

Aberdeen research conducted for "B2B TeleServices: The 2009 Buyer's Guide" (November, 2009) has shown the end-user value of deploying external, customer-facing teams to source, nurture and convert the most highly qualified leads on behalf of an internal, B2B-focused field sales organization. Additional findings in "Inside Sales Enablement: Let The...

By now, you should at least be passingly familiar with Python. One of the fastest-growing languages, Python has been gaining popularity for years and has reached a level of maturity that makes it a top choice for enterprise development. Companies from Microsoft to Google have embraced Python and are not only supporting its use, but also investing ...

Even though I had no intention of ever buying a Kin (apparently like everybody else out there), I'm still pissed off at Microsoft for killing their latest attempt at the mobile phone market The Kin One and Two now share a dubious distinction: They got less time than Conan O'Brien to build and develop an audience. True, there wasn't a lot of groundb...

Microsoft is killing off the line of Kin handsets it introduced about six weeks ago. The company has canceled plans to launch the Kin in Europe this fall and has rolled over its Kin development team into its Windows Phone 7 team Microsoft said it will continue selling "current" Kin phones with Verizon Wireless in the United States, though with the ...

Amazon.com plans to acquire online retailer Woot.com, pioneer of the "flash sale" concept. No financial terms were officially disclosed when the deal was announced on Wednesday, though the blog TechCrunch reported that the sale was made for around US$110 million in cash. Woot will operate as an independent subsidiary of Amazon once the deal closes...

Despite predictions to the contrary, Adobe Flash won't be supplanted any time soon as a major video distribution vehicle on the World Wide Web, according to a software engineer at the Net's largest video sharing site, YouTube "[W]hile the

Have you ever considered whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? You might think that there aren't many objective ways by which you can assess your entrepreneurial ability.

The Bilski v. Kappos Supreme Court case was the latest skirmish in the ongoing war over the scope of patents. On the one side are purists who want the patent statute open to new technologies, and on the other are those who wish to see the patent laws more curtailed -- and particularly that the patentability door be closed on certain technologies. In a highly fractionated opinion, the Supreme Court refused to close that door but still left us in limbo...

The facts about today's customers are well established: They know more about your business than ever before, they're talking to their peers and to the wider public about you, they want to be communicated with through the channels of their choosing, and they desire to have a more partner-like relationship with your company ...

Part 1 of this series focuses on development in regard to cloud computing and mobile devices. Part 2 explores how a more social approach might change the process of app development Application development in the cloud requires special data models such as schema-less and sometimes typeless databases, and that could lead to a new battleground in whic...

Cisco on Tuesday unveiled the Cisco Cius, an Android-powered tablet that targets business users ...

Sony has issued a voluntary global recall of 535,000 Vaio notebook computers after reports of a defect in the devices' temperature control software was brought to its attention. The flaw can cause the notebook to overheat, sometimes to an extreme degree The recalled products are from the VPCF11 Series and VPCCW2 Series notebook computers, slightly ...

Hulu, the TV-network-owned site for watching television programs over the Internet, has announced a new paid subscription service that promises to give users greater freedom to watch their favorite shows online Hulu introduced the new service, called "Hulu Plus," Tuesday in a blog post authored by Jason Kilar, the service's CEO. "Starting today, we...

Less than a month after the release of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, many of the smartphone's users recently found their devices rendered completely inoperable. That's because a firmware update released by Sprint this week seems to have gone badly awry for an unknown number of the customers who installed it For those customers, the firmware update has "br...

A few months ago, the Globeandmail.com's Barry McKenna reported that "Canada has earned a dubious distinction as a world hub for illegitimate file-sharing websites and a leader in Internet piracy." In addition, Canada is in the "embarrassing position of harboring five of the top eight remaining unauthorized BitTorrent sites, including the new numb...

Regardless of your take on the iPad as a do-everything replacementdevice for laptops and netbooks, other e-book readers (EBRs) aregaining a substantial foothold. Devices such as the Kindle and theNook provide access to volumes of literature and documents withouthaving to lug a fully-functional computer around ...

Personal computing altered the world forever, and now the digitization of biology is poised to bring about sweeping change. Craig Venter's recent announcement of the first synthetic genome was a huge milestone, but many outside of Silicon Valley remain unaware of the "do-it-yourself biology" movement (DIY bio) This movement consists of smart engine...

Google has begun rolling out Android 2.2 in over-the-air updates to owners of its Nexus One smartphone Android 2.2, also known as "Froyo," has several new features, including a few that target the business market....

Google will no longer redirect mainland China Internet users to its Hong Kong site at Google.com.hk. Instead, it will display a link to the uncensored Hong Kong site on itsGoogle.cn landing page The Hong Kong page also gives mainland users access to such services as music and text translation....