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The latest blast of indignation against Google's much maligned social networking tool, Buzz, has arrived in the form of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Eva Hibnick, a Florida resident, in a San Jose federal court. The complaint alleges privacy violations and seeks class action status. Buzz violated several laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse...

As botnets go, the Kneber botnet, which has hit about 75,000 PCs in roughly 2,500 companies worldwide, is fairly minuscule. However, it's disproportionately dangerous because it's aimed at very specific targets -- corporations and government departments -- whose PCs store critically important information, such as Social Security numbers and corpor...

As organizations enter 2010, it is no longer sufficient to simply provide mobile devices to employees and expect concrete business value to somehow magically appear. With the emergence of new mobile platforms, the infiltration of individual-liable devices into the workplace and the rapid growth of mobile applications, IT and operations departments...

Although service is gaining in importance as the economy is forcing customer retention to the fore, sales has long been the dominant leg of the CRM stool. Many CRM efforts were spearheaded by sales, and in many organizations, the SFA functions of CRM software remain the only features that actually get used That said, sales pros continue to voice pr...

With the latest iteration of its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft aims to narrow the gap between its OS, the iPhone OS and Android. Built to focus on consumers, Windows Phone 7 Series -- or WinPho7 -- was designed from the ground up. "We made a very big decision to re-examine everything because the industries surrounding ...

Microsoft has forged deals with LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook to connect their networks through its popular email and personal information manager, Outlook The company introduced Outlook Social Connector when it rolled out a beta of Microsoft Office 2010 last November. The OSC connects emails, contact information and networking sites within the Ou...

Just as Skype devotees use the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service to talk to friends and family anywhere in the world, Verizon Wireless used Skype Tuesday to send a loud message of its own to Apple, AT&T and the rest of the competition: We can play the VoIP game too Beginning in March, Verizon said, the wireless carrier will offer a full s...

Earlier this week, Cyber ShockWave, a simulated cyberattack on America, once again showed that the U.S.'s cybersecurity is not up to the task of protecting the country's infrastructure. Under the hypothetical scenario cooked up by Cyber ShockWave's planners, the attack was launched through smartphones, which are becoming increasingly plausible as ...

Just a week after the launch of Google Buzz, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Tuesday filed a complaint with the FTC charging that the new service violates federal consumer protection law "This is a significant breach of consumers' expectations of privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, the group's executive director. "Google should not b...

The database market will see lots of activity during the 2010-2011 time frame as nearly 60 percent of organizations move to upgrade or expand existing and legacy networks. That statistic comes from new ITIC survey data, which polled 450 organizations worldwide. Not surprisingly, the survey shows that longtime market leaders Oracle, IBM, Microsoft ...

I almost never attend a webinar unless I am speaking. When I need to know something, I usually get a one-on-one with a CEO or other leader of a company. They're very gracious with their time, and the tutelage helps me as an analyst, though often I don't run out and write something about my experience. Part of the reason for my reticence is that...

To be really useful, a note-taking program needs more than the ability to simply put letters on the screen. It requires adatabase mentality with a quick and simple user interface. NoteCaseManager is designed with all thefeatures needed to be a true digital note-processing system ...

Research In Motion released details about several anticipated new offerings for its BlackBerry device at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. They include a new WebKit-based browser, a free version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, and an assortment of new apps RIM executives at the trade show emphasized the new BlackBerry browser's ease ...

A newly formed international consortium has claimed it can be the glue that unites a fragmented mobile applications market. However, if the Wholesale Applications Community can't deliver on its promise of an open platform that will let developers write apps for all devices -- save perhaps Apple's iPhone -- then that "glue" could simply result in a stickier situation in the mobile space...

Smartphone manufacturing giant HTC on Tuesday unveiled three new smartphones and announced upgrades to its Sense user interface at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. ...

With the demonstration of its newest mobile platform Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft vastly extended its mobile platform and at the same took it in a new direction, at least from a naming and branding perspective. It's dubbed the new platform "Windows Phone 7 Series." ...

Recent IT industry events have created a field day for those who think the news tend to come in "threes": During a 5-plus hours long event highlighting the conclusion of its Sun Microsystems deal, Oracle discussed plans for the company's hardware division and said it would continue investing in Sun's Sparc- and X64-based systems and storage hardwar...

Ken Jones, cofounder and executive director of Maximo Nivel, an executive language center, knew his company needed a CRM tool as early as 2006. His company was growing fast and using a variety of tools to meet CRM needs, including Outlook. Unfortunately, like many small business owners, Jones was unaware of any CRM options available Philippa Kennea...

Google has updated the beta version of its Chrome for Linux with a variety of fixes designed to make the browser more reliable, the company announced Thursday. Version 5.0.307.7 of Chrome for Linux addresses several bugs that were problematic in the previous version. One fix, for example, changes an out of memory (OOM) killer mechanism so that it ...

Most of us are probably familiar with safe deposit boxes -- you know, the secure storage areas that banks and post offices provide to keep things like jewelry and important documents secure. Even if you've never rented one yourself, chances are you're probably familiar with the concept: a safe place where you can put important and one-of-a-kind items so that they'll be protected should the unexpected occur in your home (like a fire, theft or flood).