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It was exactly five years ago Monday that Mozilla released version 1.0 of its open source Firefox Web browser, and fans around the globe marked the occasion with a multitude of special events held as part of the "Light the World with Firefox" campaign Celebration ideas were plentiful at the Spread Firefox Web site, while photos of the results were ...

It seems like it was just yesterday that talking on a mobile phone made you cool. You were obviously important, walking around with the confidence that you could be reached at all times. Well, times have certainly changed. Roughly half the planet's population (over 4.1 billion people) now pay for what was once limited to a select few, according to a recent United Nations survey.

Microsoft on Monday announced the worldwide release of Exchange Server 2010 Exchange Server 2010 is at the heart of Microsoft's unified communications push. The idea behind unified communications is to let users contact other people based on their availability and communicate with them in the best possible way. This could be e-mail, VoIP (Voice ove...

Cisco has introduced new technologies to its collaboration platform -- a product portfolio that encompasses its telepresence, unified communications and WebEx solutions. Among the additions are new hosted email offerings and integration with enterprise social software. The enhancements leverage real-time and asynchronous collaboration applications in both video and voice-based communications.

It's not so much a war of words, but a war over words, between News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and search giant Google. Murdoch fired another broadside over the weekend by announcing his intention to eventually close off News Corp. content to Google's search technologies. In an interview with Sky News Australia, Murdoch said his company would b...

After a flaw was uncovered in some of its handset chargers that could expose consumers to a shock hazard, Finnish mobile giant Nokia on Monday announced a recall program through which it is offering a free exchange The problem affects a limited number of chargers of certain model types manufactured by Chinese third-party supplier BYD Electronic, No...

Business users whose lives revolve around their mobile phones won't be disappointed with Samsung's Intrepid smartphone. The handset, which uses Sprint's 3G network (EV-DO Rev.A) domestically and also connects to 3G networks abroad, is packed with features aimed at the pinstripe crowd ...

The FBI official in charge of major cybercrime investigations told a international gathering of computer security experts last week that financial services companies have suffered massive thefts due to hackers "The financial services sector has seen losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars in actual cash removed through the infrastructure," FB...

Contact center operations are constantly under scrutiny. They're complex, they're expensive to run, and employee retention and training can be problematic, to say the least Contact center managers have a never-ending desire to streamline operations to keep spending in check. If they're not focusing on finding new outsourcing options for cutting fro...

Last week, two troubling trends were in evidence. The scarier one is that it appears the Obama administration is in the process of putting in place a secret antipiracy provision that has little to do with antipiracy and everything to do with killing properties like Google's YouTube. It is truly frightening, and people are already planning civil unrest to stop it. ...

While recent reports don't predict a major recovery for retailers this holiday season, the outlook for e-commerce sites is slightly more optimistic: 2009 will post an 18 percent increase in online holiday shopping over last year, according to Information Resources. For many consumers, though, the convenience of online shopping comes with a hefty price: their identity. ...

Amid the frenzy Friday surrounding the launch of Verizon Wireless's Motorola Droid smartphone, another Verizon Android handset also made its (much quieter) debut -- the HTC Droid Eris. ...

Sales of Microsoft's Windows 7 boxed software over the first three days of its release have vastly surpassed those of its predecessor, Vista, for the same time period, according new figures from the NPD Group. Specifically, NPD's weekly tracking service is reporting that Windows 7 software sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher for those three ...

Today is the day of the Droid. The Motorola smartphone touches down today in what's shaping up to be one of the biggest handset launches in recent memory. Of course Verizon is going all-in as far as advertising is concerned, but there's more to the Droid's story than a marketing campaign. First, there's Motorola. Droid is it's big jump back into t...

This holiday season's biggest entertainment blockbuster likely will be a sequel to a popular franchise, with jarring depictions of war and an intricate story of good versus evil. It could easily rake in more than last year's record US$155 million opening weekend for "The Dark Knight." But this blockbuster is not a movie....

This week, I headed southwest as I continued making the rounds of travel-planning Web sites for the E-Commerce Times My first impression of Southwest Airlines' Web site was that its online presence faithfully reflected its corporate persona: It looked to be a roll-up-your sleeves, no nonsense outfit....

The chastening effect of the recession has many financial services firms taking a cautious view of future CRM investments. One reason is that these firms are husbanding their resources. Another is a growing awareness that investments in CRM by the financial sector have not been all that successful -- or, at least, the results are a mixed bag. Fina...

If I had my way, I would encourage Verizon Wireless to invest in both hologram technology and more "Star Wars" film rights. That would allow the carrier to hire an Alec Guinness lookalike who could pop up in 3-D visions in Verizon stores across the country, wave his hand over racks full of Motorola's new smartphone, and in full Obi-Wan Kenobi drag intone the words, "these are the Droids you're looking for."

It started as an act of Web site defacement by some anti-capitalist zealots, attacking one of Canada's largest multinational corporations. You know the kind -- they've got their fingers in all kinds of business pies, from airplane parts to media content to their own very popular brand of hand sanitizer. So they were ripe for some cyber-sabotage, judging from the overheated invective that appeared scrawled all over the corporate Web site...

Verizon Wireless is stoking the excitement around its upcoming Motorola Droid smartphone, which it will officially put on sale on Friday. The buzz on the Droid isn't driven entirely by a marketing team, though. The phone's hardware has received many positive reviews, and it will be the first phone to ship with an updated version of the Android ope...