Articles by

Verizon and Motorola launched another touchscreen wireless phone into the market Tuesday. However, unlike other touch screen handsets, the Krave ZN4 is a flip phone with a new spin -- a transparent plastic cover. That design feature provides users with one-touch access to photos, the music player, the phone's messaging center, V Cast Mobile TV and...

Technology market research giant Gartner has slashed its outlook for growth in spending on information technology in 2009 from 5.8 percent to 2.3 percent. Forecasts could decline further if the economy continues to weaken, the firm warned. Total global IT spending could rise just 2.3 percent to US$3.5 trillion as many businesses cut their budgets ...

The third full OpenOffice suite is out in the wild and attracting plenty of attention. OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released Monday -- and already, demand has been high enough to overwhelm the download servers and cause them to crash The software suite, designed as an open source alternative to Microsoft Office, offers everything from word processing and...

Cisco Systems announced on Tuesday the extension of its Application Extension Platform (AXP) as well as a contest for developers to provide new applications The Cisco AXP is an open, Linux-based hardware module for the Cisco Integrated Services Router. Its Linux-based integration environment comes with a downloadable software development kit (SDK)....

The new film "Flash of Genius" may be based on a 1960s case of patent infringement, but its David-vs.-Goliath story involving independent inventors going up against monolithic corporations continues to spin off sequels well into the 21st Century, says a Minneapolis-based patent attorney. And while the movie uses the automotive industry to tell its tale of innovation, obsession and redemption, the new dramas are being played out on the e-commerce and Internet search stages...

For public utilities, the world seems to be taking on a green hue Green, as in trees. Green, as in money....

Even though there is much debate raging over the impact of human activities on our environment, a diverse group of industry leaders, government agencies, environmental groups and others do agree on one thing -- that energy efficiency is the most significant issue facing technology providers and their customers today. This is due to exponential increases in power and cooling costs over the past few years, and to customer demand for concentrated computing that is outpacing the availability of clean, reliable power in numerous locations worldwide. Most estimates say that computers account for approximately 2 percent of worldwide energy usage.

While the communications industry waits for the FCC to fill in the blanks on a white spaces policy, the commissioners are going forward with another plan that would provide free wireless Internet access throughout the U.S Late last Friday, the commission released a report showing test results on claims that opening up a narrow part of the spectrum ...

MySpace has launched a new online display advertising tool for small businesses and individuals called "MyAds." The service is similar to the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based firm's ad platform for large businesses, HyperTargeting, which made its debut in November 2007. Like HyperTargeting, MyAds makes it possible to create ads geared toward specific a...

YouTube and CBS have teamed up to deliver new full-length TV programming delivered via YouTube's new Theater View style, which provides a larger video image. YouTube is testing the new format, so it may see some tweaks in the near future; however, the move represents a significant departure from the short-clip, user-generated content that turned the YouTube brand into an international video sharing powerhouse.

Researchers at the University of Reading in England awarded the 18th annual Loebner Prize Sunday. The competition tests the conversational capabilities of artificial intelligence using text messages, an examination known as the "Turing Test." The winner of the bronze medal -- the highest award given to date -- was Fred Roberts of Hamburg, Germany, ...

A research report is throwing more fuel on the prerelease fire surrounding T-Mobile's G1 phone using Google's Android open source operating system. "Success for Android has Little to Do with User Acceptance," claims the ABI Research headline, and director Kevin Burden writes that Android can help sell a lot of smartphones only if carriers and manufacturers "recognize the value to their own business models of using standard platforms."

For end users, Network Access Control (NAC) should be transparent, as if it's not there. Depending on a company's internal security policies, systems are checked quietly in the background for their level of compliance. NAC checks for current patch levels and functioning, up-to-date antivirus and personal firewall software. Only when something is wrong should users be made aware that their systems aren't in compliance. If something is wrong, typically, users will be prompted to an intranet portal where the system is brought up to appropriate security levels.

The Internet often has the effect of eliminating the middle man and enabling consumers to complete tasks directly. While these changes have occurred swiftly in some markets, they have been evolving more slowly in the legal profession. In fact, the process of finding legal advice is quite similar to how it was before the dotcom boom. A small but growing number of companies are trying to change that by making legal information and documents available over the Web so consumers can help themselves rather than hire a lawyer.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems have become the core platform for both internal and cross-company business processes. By integrating business functions, data and interfaces, they can bring many benefits, process efficiencies, improve customer service and -- if coupled with the right business strategy -- amplify business advantage The main reas...

Crisis breeds change, and given people don't like change, this can result in market shifts in months that otherwise might have taken years. This week, three things happened that I can tie back into this theme. AMD, driven by crisis, provided a strong example of how the U.S. could address its financial crisis by changing what was a going-out-of-business disadvantage into a potential competitive advantage.

The retail marketplace has become intensely competitive, as retailers increasingly compete across traditional segment boundaries, brands expand their direct-to-consumer channels, and consumers exercise their growing power to seek out the best value for their dollar. In addition, consumer expectations are on the rise, as they continue to have rich and immersive experiences elsewhere on the Web. In the e-commerce world, retailers must ensure that they are delivering differentiated and satisfying customer shopping experiences to attract and retain customers...

Part 1 of this two-part series looks at Nintendo's transition from market leader to also-ran at the hands of rivals Sony and Microsoft, as well as Nintendo's plan to regain the top spot with a new take on the controller interface Seven years ago, after the release of the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox, it seemed as though Nintendo, once ...

Semiconductor industry watcher iSuppli lowered its 2008 revenue forecast Thursday from 4 percent growth to 3.5 percent. The research firm expects revenue in the chip industry to top US$280.1 billion, roughly $10 billion more than the industry earned in 2007 "Four percent had been our forecast for a while now. Revising down our forecast to 3.5 perce...

Some five weeks after its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, GeoEye-1, the satellite developed by aerial and geospatial information provider GeoEye, has signaled back to Earth GeoEye-1 snapped the first location the satellite saw when the camera door was opened -- Kutztown University, located midway between Reading and Allentown, ...