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Buying Linux-powered laptops should be easy, especially on big-name manufacturers' websites. But it isn't. You must employ workarounds to succeed or spend caches of money! That is why downloading free Linux distributions and installing the operating system onto existing computers is a typical avenue for adopting Linux. Some computer manufacturers s...

Cutting the cord has too long been an item on my to-do list. For those not yet familiar with the term, "cutting the cord" refers to the process of terminating a cable or satellite TV subscription and getting shows and movies by some other means. I finally did it and spent days afterward chiding myself for not making the change a long time ago This ...

An intense knack for technology throughout middle school and high school, where he repaired classmates' phones and gaming devices, set the stage for entrepreneurial success for Adam Zinker, founder and CEO of The Perfect Part. That passion -- and a family loan of $4,000 seed money -- drove his technology logistics company over the last nine years to become the sixth-largest eBay company in North America...

A new mobile processor announced by Qualcomm Technologies Monday is expected to spawn a wave of economically priced 5G smartphones Phones with the Snapdragon 480 5G Mobile Platform will be in the $125 to $250 price range, Qualcomm President Cristiano R. Amon predicted on Twitter in September....

I had a delightful conversation last week with Thomas Wieberneit, Marshall Lager, and Ralf Korb on CRMKonvos. These CRM Gurus and I were talking about the future of CRM and some of my recent research when the topic of value pricing came up I didn't have a strong opinion about value pricing, in fact I haven't thought about it a lot. It's the idea th...

I'm writing this just before New Year's Day, and like many of you, I'm hoping to reach my one remaining goal for 2020, which is to be alive in 2021. I'm looking forward to putting 2020 behind me, and while the pandemic has been painful, it has caused things to accelerate in several areas impressively rapidly. Two of those areas are robotics and artificial intelligence, which we'll see adapted broadly this decade, with a considerable bump in 2021...

Final rules governing unmanned aircraft, commonly known as drones, were released Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration, a move expected to open the door for delivery of consumer packages by air The rules establish minimum standards for safety so drones can fly over populated areas and at night, under certain conditions....

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is making good on a resolution to strengthen its enforcement of security deficiencies occurring in e-commerce transactions. The agency's recent action involving allegations of improper activities by teleconferencing provider Zoom Video Communications is a notable example In a settlement with Zoom, the FTC imposed s...

Eight of the top 10 states for mobile Internet coverage are in the Northeast, according to an analysis released by a consumer product and services comparison website The best mobile Internet coverage, though, isn't in a state at all but in the District of Columbia, WhistleOut revealed in its analysis....

Much of my time these last few weeks has been spent looking at schools and companies that tried and often failed to pivot to remote work and education One of the biggest problems has been connectivity. Our infrastructure just wasn't set up to suddenly shift massive amounts of traffic from companies to homes. Exacerbating this has been cable networ...

A report that Apple is readying its own self-driving car for release in 2024 is being met with a healthy dose of skepticism by some analysts The new vehicle for consumers would include breakthrough battery technology developed by Apple that would "radically" reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle's driving range, Reuters reported Mon...

Walmart on Monday raised the bar for service by an online retailer with its announcement of free home pickup of customer returns Called "Carrier Pickup by Fedex," the program allows items bought at Walmart's online store to be returned with a minimum of hassle by scheduling a home pickup from the store and printing a return label for the item....

Every year I look back at all of the Products of the Week I've selected during the year and pick the one that made the most significant impression on me to crown the Product of the Year This year the election and pandemic kept our lives pretty messed up, and to keep working we relied heavily on our laptops, cloud services, networking gear, and our ...

Illinois consumer Matthew Hufnus says that on September 26, he received a number of text messages on his cellphone from a company named DoNotPay, Inc., attempting to solicit his business Taken together, the messages read: "Hey there, it's Jen from DoNotPay -- we know it's a lot to ask for your payment details upfront, we really do. But here's a sta...

Cosmetics companies traditionally have relied on in-person retail sales to attract new customers and maintain existing clientele. The pandemic, however, has upended the cosmetics industry, bringing new challenges as well as a host of opportunities for companies that are agile and creative enough to take advantage. The E-Commerce Times spoke with e...

A demand for a massive amount of data from nine technology companies -- including Facebook and Twitter -- has been made by the Federal Trade Commission in what could be a prelude to regulation on the handling of data by the industry The demand made Monday by the FTC seeks to obtain information on how many users the companies have, how active the us...

Not long ago, I made the case that for most users file-level encryption is adequately secure and much higher-performing than full-disk encryption. I received a lot less pushback than anticipated for expressing this heterodox view -- by which I mean I actually got none. Quite to the contrary, some readers sent messages and comments expressing curiosity and eagerness to try file-level encryption.

The Big Three makers of video gaming hardware on Monday announced a united front to make online gaming safe for all their players "All players deserve to have fantastic social gaming experiences in settings where respect and safety are mutual," Dave McCarthy, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Xbox operations, wrote at the Xbox news website....

Two new Web browsing alternatives widen the field of browser choices for Linux users. The recent introduction of Microsoft Edge for Linux and the Dec. 8 release of Vivaldi version 3.5 offers the freedom to experience a Google-free vehicle to navigate the Internet I reviewed much earlier versions of Vivaldi several years ago. At that time, I was sea...

Qualcomm recently took an in-depth look back at the history of the mobile phone, which it was mostly responsible for creating. This turned out to be a personal retrospect because my family owned an electronics company in the 1960s, which was when I used my first mobile phone in my father's Studebaker Avanti At the time, I thought it was the most am...