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DNA may contain the building blocks of life, but IBM believes it can also provide the foundation for cheaper construction of the next generation of superfast, energy-efficient microprocessors. Scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., have announced they have developed a way to use synthetic DNA as a "skeleton" for the creat...

It is surprising -- albeit perhaps inevitable -- that the Obama Administration, which so ably navigated the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies during its presidential campaign, has stumbled using those same tools now that it is in office. The White House has received a large number of complaints from people who say that they have received unsolicit...

Five years ago, megadeals were all the rage in the business process outsourcing (BPO) world. Global players such as IBM, Accenture, ACS and CSC were racking up billion-dollar multiyear contracts, mainly for accounting, human resource and procurement functions. Now that's changing. "What we can say in BPO is that we have seen a slowdown in deal sig...

Regardless of what I wrote last week, which focused on Apple's problems coming out of the Red Hat event, Apple is on a roll. It's expected to gain substantial share this quarter because Snow Leopard will make it into the quarter and Windows 7 won't. However, in October, Microsoft is planning to come back with a rush, and next year will bring its not-so-secret weapon: the Apple-targeting Microsoft store. ...

It wasn't all that long ago that the talk about cellphones and driving was all talk. That is, consumers, driving-safety advocates, and lawmakers debated whether using a hands-free device was enough to make talking on a cellphone safe, or whether talking on the newly ubiquitous devices while behind the wheel should be banned outright However, the st...

It turns out that the video game entertainment category is not recession-proof after all, judging from the NPD Group's most recent monthly report. Retail sales games in July -- the fifth straight month to register a decline -- plummeted to US$848.8 million, a 29 percent drop compared to this time last year. That was far worse than the 15 percent decline analysts had expected.

Microsoft has officially launched its war against the iPod touch, announcing that the new Zune HD is available for pre-order online at various sites ...

A Toronto company aptly named "i4i" is getting its revenge on Microsoft by kicking it square in the monkeymaker. i4i has sued Redmond, claiming that Microsoft Word infringes on its patents. Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas -- where else? -- has given Microsoft two months to halt sales of the offending software. It's also ordered Microsoft to give i4i a US$240 million payout.

In 2004, KnowledgeTree CEO Daniel Chalef had no idea his interest in developing an open sourcedocument management product would thrust his South African company into prominence.That's the time a government agency there approached him to help the Medical Research Council retain control of its documents and track sharedaccess That South African counc...

Cybersecurity is a shambles in the U.S., but nobody seems able to do anything about it, and things appear to be going from bad to worse. Both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama have promised to appoint a cybersecurity czar -- or "cybersecurity coordinator," as the current administration calls the position -- but still there is none Early in August...

Sony said Thursday it will sell digital books only in the ePub format by the end of the year It will also replace its proprietary digital rights management software with technology from Adobe, which is widely used in the e-publishing industry....

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two businessworlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a businessin today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as abusiness owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is forstartup business owners to find financial backers. He is the founder and chairman of...

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two businessworlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a businessin today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as abusiness owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is forstartup business owners to find financial backers. He is the founder and chairman of...

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two businessworlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a businessin today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as abusiness owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is forstartup business owners to find financial backers. He is the founder and chairman of...

For the second time in less than a week, Twitter has been hit by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack Unlike the first attack last week, the latest cyberassault, which started on Tuesday, has been confined to Twitter so far -- Facebook has apparently not been affected....

In the U.S., consumers are accustomed to paying for merchandise with checks, credit cards and debit cards. Online shopping and banking transactions are dependent on electronic money transfers between vendors and their customers' financial institutions That experience, however, is not universal. Consumers in Europe and Asia are used to different typ...

Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas has issued an injunction against the sale of Microsoft Word after a jury found that Microsoft had infringed on a patent held by a Toronto-based company The plantiff, i4i, sued Microsoft in 2007, alleging that Microsoft Word unlawfully infringed on its patents based on XML, DOCX and DO...

Nokia and Microsoft on Wednesday announced they are teaming up to create and offer mobile enterprise applications in a bid to tap the fast-growing mobile apps market Apps could constitute the next gold rush for the mobile industry, and carriers and smartphone vendors are both battling for a share of what could be a very lucrative market....

Facebook is trying out a new look in its high-growth markets outside the United States. The version features a stripped-down interface designed to open quickly and be simpler to use, according to the company Word of the project leaked Tuesday when some users received invitations to help test "Facebook Lite," but were unable to access the lite.faceb...

Though it's only mid-summer, retailers are knee-deep in finalizing their holiday plans. This season, they are under extraordinary pressure to generate as much revenue as possible from their online stores, which -- for many -- is their best performing channel. With only a few short months before retailers' scheduled e-commerce site freezes, now is the right time to explore the innovative, quick-to-implement projects that will drive incremental revenue during this critical sales season. ...