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Part 1 of this three-part series looked at the growth of 3-D movies and electronic distribution. Part 2 focuses on the technology found in the projection booth of a high-end 3-D movie theater 3-D has been given a really big job -- coax audiences young and old(er) alike away from their big screen home TVs, their PCs and their video games and back in...

Ever since she found out her niece was reading her Web site, Jen Singer began making sure the majority of her content was G-rated -- appropriate for a general audience "Even though MommaSaid.net is a Web site for mothers, it appears that it's popular with quite a few tween girls, too," she told the E-Commerce Times. "Besides, some moms read and wat...

Microsoft first talked about pay-as-you-go computing years ago, but a recent patent publication suggests the software giant is moving ahead with an alternative strategy for expanding PC access around the world The application, filed on Dec. 25 with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, provides a glimpse of what could be Microsoft's vision of the fut...

Picture yet another Windows vs. Mac ad, with the dweeby PC guy and the ultracool Mac dude engaging in their usual schtick. Now picture a Jimmy Carter-esque peacemaker parachuting into the shot, getting the two to shake hands, and you'll understand the rationale behind HP's new class of MediaSmart home servers HP is touting the Windows and Mac compa...

Online retail giant Amazon.com announced Friday that it had the strongest holiday shopping season in its history Customers ordered more than 6.3 million items worldwide on its peak shopping day, Dec. 15, which works out to about 72.9 items ordered per second, Amazon said....

A small networking company is suing three tech titans for patent infringement. Cygnus Systems has filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Arizona, alleging that Microsoft, Google and Apple have all violated a patent Cygnus received in March 2008 on the use of document preview icon, or so-called thumbnail, technology. The patent is described as a...

The first beta version of Windows 7 has made a surprise public appearance. The operating system (OS) appears to be available on the Internet via file-sharing utilities like BitTorrent -- apparently without the approval of Microsoft. Microsoft released pre-beta code of the OS to developers at its recent Professional Developers Conference held at th...

Wanted: Movie theater projectionists with IT experience in network systems and client/server environments to operate digital cinema systems. Qualifications and requirements: systems analysis capabilities, a thorough working knowledge of e-business applications deployment, including implementation of a variety of IT systems in a computing and business environment. Please, no calls from people with obsolete traditional projectionist skills like "building" movies by physically splicing ads, trailers, PSAs and print reels into one large band of celluloid film stock and then threading it through an opto-mechanical projector while fixing presentation problems like static wraps, mis-frames, sound problems, etc. Successful candidates will be required to wear glasses on the job and must love the smell of popcorn...

As e-commerce gets more sophisticated and consumer expectations continue to rise, many retailers are considering prettying up their existing Web sites with improved graphics or new features in order to make them more attractive to consumers. While such enhancements can make your site more appealing in the near term, they won't change the makeup of your online store...

This summer, Bob Lyons was tapped to lead Avaya's contact center division. The new general manager and vice president of customer service applications -- a relatively new position at Avaya -- joined the company at a crucial time. It was in the midst of reorganizing its operations around three business units: the contact center, unified communications, and small and mid-sized business applications...

People don't like to change; particularly as we get older, we take comfort in the status quo and start avoiding things that are new and different. As we get older we gain more power and this generally places the most conservative people in positions of authority. Let's look at four companies this week and how they are likely to change in 2009/2010...

The game has changed for retail. In an era of increasingly competitive online business, failing corporate giants and consumer fear over the state of the economy, it's clear that small online retailers will face an uphill battle over the next several months. The good news is, e-commerce may be the one bright light in an increasingly dismal world of retail, and there are simple steps retailers can take to improve their profits online.

It is no secret that "retail therapy" -- whether in the form of shopping at a designer boutique, visiting a favorite online retailer, or even purchasing a preferred brand of shampoo from the grocery store -- can evoke feelings of happiness and well-being. A fascinating new study by marketing guru Martin Lindstrom reveals that the brain actually receives an emotional boost from such experiences, and that the boost intensifies when consumers interface with so-called "strong" brands...

The traditional process for sourcing creative work contains significant risk for the buyer along with the potential for wonderful reward in the form of great design. The typical risks are threefold: first, finding and working with the right designer for your project; second, the inherent limitations in choosing design concepts; and third, the problem of committing to buy something you have not yet seen.

One day, when I go on to the "Great Reward," my hope is that my epitaph will include something about how much I love music. I'm a music fan, but not a stodgy one who will only listen to my tunes on the finest of equipment. Rather, I've always wanted to create my own music. A permissive childhood left me with a smattering of music lessons on variou...

This story was originally published on Aug. 29, 2008, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series "Smart" shopping carts have been around for a while, but until recently, they haven't managed to gain much traction.

This story was originally published on Sept. 18, 2008, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Physicists tell us that only a small percentage of the universe can be seen directly. In fact, the vast majority of the universe is what they call "dark" -- composed of matter and energy that we know is there but that we can't...

This story was originally published on Aug. 15, 2008, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series Every blogger should know the story of Heather B. Armstrong, nee Hamilton. In February 2002 she was fired from her job for blogging about her job. Blogs were relatively new at that time, and they were on few employers' radars. Ha...

This story was originally published on Sept. 25, 2008, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series After more than a decade in the software privacy and antipiracy space, Keith Beeman, general manager, Worldwide Anti-Piracy, Small and Midmarket, Solutions & Partners for Microsoft, says he has been able to gain a first-hand vie...

This story was originally published on Sept. 25, 2008, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series After more than a decade in the software privacy and antipiracy space, Keith Beeman, general manager, Worldwide Anti-Piracy, Small and Midmarket, Solutions & Partners for Microsoft, says he has been able to gain a first-hand vie...