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T-Mobile has launched a promotion offering credit toward the purchase of its high-end HTC HD2 to anyone willing to trade in an iPhone. The promotion was reported on several blogs including TmoNews, which cited an internal memo describing it. The company reportedly is offering credits from US$100 to $350....

Nothing says "ultra-fast broadband" better than the image of four poodles dressed as the "Wizard of Oz" gang. Or a video of a man dunking himself in a tank full of sharks. Or the sight of thousands of people gathering at night and using glow-sticks to spell out the logo of a certain world-famous search engine company When Google announced in Februa...

In a startling development, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (the Department) is now taking the position that sales of online services are subject to sales tax -- believe it or not -- as sales of canned (i.e., noncustomized) software. In other words, the Department is alleging that there is no meaningful difference between pu...

Most of today's telecom customers -- who use their phone apps to check the menu at a local eatery or text a friend -- are clueless about the origins of electronic media. Only those holding a Medicare card, perhaps, appreciate that in the early days of phone service, the telephone company's customer relationship management only involved the employment of a local switchboard operator to place calls. And the operator knew everyone in town. Social networking consisted of tapping into a "party line" conversation when there were no private landlines -- let alone personal, wireless cellphones...

Last week was one hell of a week. We had the formal launch of the Core Wars between Intel and AMD, and a little product called the "iPad" entered the market. My biggest concern, thanks to the Lifeboat Foundation, was the Hadron Collider and whether I'd even wake up today. (Since you are reading this, I'm assuming we woke up today.) Thank goodness much of the related news had to do with April 1st pranks. ...

For the upcoming March 2010 Aberdeen benchmark report, Multi-Site and Campus-Area Wireless LANs: Advantages of the Centralized Approach, 163 organizations were surveyed regarding their use of multi-site and campus-area ("non-site-contiguous") wireless LANs (WLANs). Certain vertical sectors had an especially strong representation among respondents ...

Verizon Wireless is offering steep discounts on the troubled Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus handheld devices. On its site, it has slashed the prices of these devices from US$250 to $50, and $150 to $30, respectively. It's also offering customers a buy one, get one free deal Wal-Mart customers can get a $50 mail-in rebate for the Pixi Plus which they ...

A new tool developed at the University of Washington has the potential to make all software effectively open source -- in a way Rather than manipulating the software's code, however, the application -- dubbed "Prefab" -- hijacks what it displays and makes it customizable. ...

Many college students have been spending the week on the beaches of Padre Island and other balmy locales, soaking up equal parts sun and alcohol. Meanwhile, the families of America are starting to think about where they'd like to dig their toes in the sand for summer vacations -- if they're not already picturing themselves joining the long, sweaty lines at the nation's major theme parks...

As the population ages, financial institutions and other service providers will have to learn to adapt their marketing approaches to appeal to a sector that has high disposable income and substantial spending power. In some cases, they will also have physical limitations that will impede online activities, including vision loss. Besides the fact t...

You need spend only five minutes with Motorola's Devour smartphone to realize how appropriate its moniker is. It's an information gourmand's delight ...

For anyone thinking that the Google-China dynasty war would be resolved quickly -- and that mutual economic concerns would ultimately force both armies to ratchet down this uniquely 21-century cyberduel -- this was the week for the rudest of awakenings The hacking hits just keep on coming in China. Google announced that its Chinese search service e...

The MeeGo community, formed by Intel and Nokia, on Thursday released the MeeGo distribution infrastructure and operating system base to developers.Images released are Intel Atom-based netbooks; ARM-based Nokia N900; and Intel Atom-based handsets running on the Moorestown chip Over the next few days, the MeeGo community will post more releases.

Amazon has reportedly agreed to new pricing terms with two major publishers on e-books sold for its Kindle Amazon forged new agreements with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins Publishers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The new terms -- which mirror the deals the two companies struck with Apple for the iPad -- will allow most bestsellers to b...

If I were to ask you what you thought were the main causes for business failure, what would your answer be? Lack of working capital; trying economic conditions; severe competition; obsolescence of a product? Actually, if you cited any of the preceding, you probably would be partially correct. I say partially, because there is one indispensable element that can protect a company from failure, and that element is a well-constructed business model. The fact is that one of the leading causes of business failure is a faulty or poorly executed business model.

IBM is joining forces with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to protect the nation's civilian aviation system from the ever-growing threat of cyberattacks. They are working on building a prototype security system capable of protecting the vast amount of information flowing daily through the FAA's computer networks This project will introduce...

After months of planning and testing, the Internet's No. 1 video-sharing site, YouTube, launched a new look and received mixed reviews The redesign eliminates one of the chief irritants to tubesters: clutter.

During this time of economic recovery, it seems that the Internet has remained fairly immune. E-commerce is on track to account for 53 percent of all purchases by 2014, according to recent Forrester Research predictions. This represents positive growth, but when you put it into perspective based on the Internet's overall growth potential, it's only a 10 percent annual increase...

While CRM has always been "social," it's now starting to get "Social" -- in other words, it's starting to tap into the ways customers have seized control of their relationships with the people they buy from through technology, participation and the ability to reach more people -- and more-important people, as they see it -- than they ever could in the past.