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The need to improve marketing in the airline industry has never been more apparent. Airlines in the U.S. reported a 6 percent drop in traffic in 2009 versus 2008, while passenger revenue declined by 18 percent. Globally, international scheduled air traffic declined by 3.5 percent in 2009 versus 2008 -- the largest ever post-war decline. Airlines a...

The iPad has captured much of the technology coverage so far this year. It is a poorly named copy of a product that Microsoft launched nearly a decade ago, based on a concept Steve Jobs personally thought was stupid: the tablet computer. Yet Apple has effectively convinced the market that its device is new, different and desirable -- and managed to create a major industry event around it. ...

Apple's new iPad may look like a thin, fragile piece of hardware, but it's apparently strong enough for publishing houses to use as a powerful wedge against Amazon in their negotiations over e-book pricing Hachette Group became the latest publisher to announce it was going to move to the "agency" relationship with retailers, which would result in a...

Google has allegedly requested help from the National Security Agency in tracking down hackers who attacked its infrastructure. The development has raised concerns among privacy advocates The Washington Post broke the story that Google had turned to the NSA on Thursday, citing anonymous sources.

The Department of Justice has advised the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that "significant" copyright and antitrust issues remain in the proposed amended settlement agreement between Google and the Authors Guild. "The amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement," the agency e...

Apple held most of the music industry virtually at knifepoint for years, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you were a consumer who wanted a legal way to get popular music at a fairly reasonable price: a buck a song, 10 an album, no exceptions. It was only about a year ago that iTunes let go of its dollar-store policy and allowed for a little leeway in its pricing. True, that leeway amounted to only a few cents per song, but the point is, for a very long time, it was the distribution channel dictating prices, not the publisher.

When the Symbian Foundation announced the opening up of its namesake smartphone platform on Thursday, it caused a major shift not just in the mobile landscape but also in the FOSS world Announced by Nokia back in 2008, the transition of the leading platform from proprietary code to open source was completed four months ahead of schedule and is the ...

The following is an excerpt from an 12-page special report, exclusive to ECT News Network,that details the impact of the European Committee for Standardization's new electronic invoicing compliance guidelines on companies engaged in global e-business, regardless of where they are based. The complete report is available as a free download to ECT News Network subscribers...

For businesses serving the public, employees are the face of the company. Likewise, the manner in which employees interact with customers shapes their perception of the business and its brand. Ultimately, customer loyalty is built through positive interactions and high-quality customer service that meets the individual's specific needs. Conversely, if needs aren't met and the experience is negative, customers are more likely to take their business elsewhere. ...

Apple's new iPad is apparently going to let me download The DaVinci Code -- either in book or movie form. I like that. If you're going to release a new device and charge me a lot of money for it -- not to mention the costs of using a network of some kind to facilitate all that downloading and streaming -- then please don't get between me and my instant media gratification...

Viruses have long been the bane of the medical world. For centuries, healthcare experts have struggled to treat everything from virus-induced sniffles to lethal epidemics. At the very core of the problem is the constant emergence of new viruses and the continuous flux of old ones. It doesn't help that even the strongest antibiotics are impotent against even the weakest virus. This is why the recent discovery of a new broad spectrum antiviral treatment is nothing to sneeze at...

Amazon has reportedly acquired Touchco, a start up company that focuses on touch-screen technology, according to a report in The New York Times that cites a person briefed on the deal as a source. Amazon does not comment on rumors or speculation, Amazon spokesperson Mary Osako told the E-Commerce Times....

As the United States' private and public sectors increasingly leverage the Internet, the U.S. intelligence community fears that they are severely endangering the country's critical infrastructure. On its own, neither the public nor private sectors can combat this threat, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told Congress this week d...

A well-rounded board is an absolute necessity in these economically trying times. The average board of today usually consists of at least one person who has expertise in the company's business; a high-profile person who brings credibility and gravitas to issues; a financial person who, among other things, can chair the audit committee; and an atto...

In November 2009, IBM announced its acquisition of Guardium, a privately held company based in Waltham, Mass., and the planned integration of Guardium's Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) technology into IBM's Information Management and Business Analytics and Optimization initiatives. Financial terms were not disclosed. ...

Businesses all over the world have made enormous investments in service -- both in people and in technology. The amount of thought dedicated to service is enormous, and the time spent trying to make service divisions more efficient is countless Guess what? Most of this money, time and effort has been wasted....

Enterprises that have merged with or acquired the systems and assets of another company know how difficult it is to combine disparate systems -- platforms, databases and software solutions -- with its existing infrastructure. Mergers can be very disruptive, especially if the companies have standardized on differing platforms, protocols and encryption methods.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin wants to know if Google's current dustup with China has the potential to create more cracks in that country's Great Firewall. So late Tuesday, the Illinois Democrat sent letters to 30 top technology companies -- including Apple, Facebook, Cisco, Verizon and Amazon -- asking them to attend a new round of congressional hearings next month focusing on their current business relationships with China and other "Internet-restricting countries."

Twitter users have come under attack from scammers once again, and the microblogging site has asked several users to reset their passwords. This latest attempt came through torrent file-sharing sites that contained hidden security exploits and backdoors.

President Obama on Monday proposed a dramatically new path that would end NASA's Constellation moon program and shift the agency's focus to developing new technologies for deeper space exploration instead "The truth is that we were not on a path to get back to the moon's surface" in a reasonable time frame, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden explain...