News

San Francisco gallery shows hacker Joe Grand’s work as art

The 20-Goto-10 gallery is showing off some of Joe Grand's projects, including the programmable conference badges he made for this year's Defcon conference

Advocates: Gov’t needs to push harder for e-health

Several groups feel that the U.S. government is not doing enough to get healthcare providers to use e-health systems, which would boost efficiency and reduce mistakes

BEA: We’ll let Oracle deadline expire

Oracle had set a Sunday deadline for its $17-per-share acquisition offer; BEA responded with a $21-per-share offer, which Oracle rejected, so BEA is letting the deadline expire

Microsoft E-Learning’s security shortcomings

Travel-tracking Web service courts enterprises

The Dopplr hosted service lets users track the travel schedule and whereabouts of themselves and friends through a Facebook-like visual interface

Microsoft: 88 million copies of Vista shipped

Windows Vista's numbers keep growing despite underwhelming consumers and being snubbed by enterprises

Bangalore outsourcers tries to decongest with new townships

Indian outsourcers are looking at smaller towns where they can set up their facilities to access new staff pools, as well as cut costs

Senate passes seven-year Internet tax moratorium

Senate's Internet tax legislation makes changes to the House bill that are intended to protect e-mail messages and instant messaging from usage taxes

Acer eclipses Lenovo, takes aim at Dell

Acer forecasts strong growth through 2008; reports shipments grew 58 percent year over year in Q3 due in part to its focus on the hot laptop market

Acer complains of labor shortage in China

Companies have started to look outside of China for new factory investments in response to a shortage of skilled labor

Gateway to launch laptop series in Q1

Acer plans to sell products using multiple brands; revitalizing newly acquired Gateway's business with a complete line of notebook PCs is a first step

Oracle calls BEA’s price ‘impossibly high’

Oracle urges BEA Systems to accept its buyout offer of $17 per share, which it says it is 'unwilling to increase'

A business case for green IT

JasperSoft’s next BI release helps users customize reports

JasperSoft's updated open-source BI suite makes it easier for end-users to customize their own BI Web portal to generate more sophisticated reports

AMD tuning out distractions to bring ATI on board

Despite lawsuits against Intel, four straight quarterly losses, and the departure of key execs, AMD is optimistic that a successful merger with ATI will position it for success

Search startups vie for position in mobile market

Startups such as JumpTap and Medio offer mobile operators technologies for presenting self-branded search tools to their users, enabling them to take on Google and Yahoo

Apple’s Leopard pounces on Tokyo

The global launch of Apple's update to the Mac OS X operating system begins to unfold around the world

Scammers get jail time for Microsoft software scheme

The owners and some associates of Samtech Research have been sentenced to five years in prison and more than $25 million in finds for their software-reselling scheme

Microsoft tackles ‘new world of work’ at summit

Speakers cite need to change processes and innovation as the definition of 'being at work' evolves

EMC, Apple, Microsoft shine

Concerns about the overall economy linger, but major IT vendors are reporting solid earnings, boosting investor confidence

Update: Microsoft beats Street, reports strongest Q1 in seven years

Net income for the quarter rose 23 percent over last year as sales of both new and old products pushed Microsoft to its most successful first quarter in seven years

Patent reform debate heats up

In advance of Senate hearing the bill, groups on both sides of Patent Reform Act make their case

Solid-state drives still expensive

Advances in solid-state drives, GPS devices, optical mice, and telephone systems among highlights in newest electronic goods for consumers

Never mind that ‘4G’ stuff, Sprint now says

Sprint had been touting WiMax as its 4G network, but now that WiMax has been certified as a 3G network, Sprint is backing off of previous claims

10 things that should be in Apple’s next Mac Pro

Rumors that Apple is hording Intel's new 45nm Penryn chips has led to speculation about the next Mac desktop; here's a wish list for what the Mac Pro should contain

Microsoft’s OneCare silently changes Automatic Updates

Many Windows XP and Vista users were mystified when their Automatic Updates settings were changed without approval, and a researcher thinks OneCare is to blame

Apps are bringing Ubuntu down

Trend Micro moves into data leak prevention

Trend Micro acquires data leak protection vendor Provilla, making it the latest major security vendor to enter that crowded

Perils lurk on Japan’s mobile superhighway

Japan leads the world with many of the services offered to mobile phone consumers, but switching carriers can still be an exercise in frustration

NEC launches fastest vector supercomputer

NEC challenges IBM, Cray with its new SX-9 supercomputer that boasts a performance of over 100G Flops

EMC profit propelled by VMware’s growth, IPO

Storage maker EMC reports dramatic increase in profits driven by its VMware subsidiary and RSA security business

Update: BEA counters Oracle offer: $21 a share sounds better

BEA declares that its existing assets and future business prospects dictate a significantly higher sale price than Oracle's $17-per-share offer

Red Hat sees Asian governments driving demand for open source

Red Hat's goal of earning 60 percent of its revenue outside the U.S. hinges on Asian governments seeing open source as a way to increase tech innovation in the region

TSMC sees strong growth for chips in 2008, but will cut spending

TSMC says it expects 2008 to be a better year than 2007 for the chip industry, but spending cuts indicate TSMC may be more concerned about the economy than it is letting on

Report: China to use TD-SCDMA during Beijing Olympics

It seems unlikely China will have commercial 3G services ready in time for the Olympics, and will instead put its homegrown TD-SCDMA mobile technology to use

Linux: the Windows gateway drug

Opera improves bookmark synching in new browser beta

Update to the Opera 9.5 browser fixes 'hundreds of bugs' that were in the alpha version and also enhances performance, stability, and usability

SanDisk sues LG, 24 others for patent infringement

SanDisk suit says its patents were infringed in removable flash storage products including MP3 players and USB flash drives, asks to have the products barred from the U.S.

New Intel fab to accelerate 45nm chip production

Intel moves into high-volume production of 45nm chips with the opening of a new fab in Arizona

OLPC experiments with cow-powered laptops … seriously

One Laptop Per Child Project is finalizing the design of a cow-powered generator that can be used as a low-cost energy source in Indian villages

Update: Facebook teams up with RIM

At the CTIA show, Facebook announced that it will add its social networking platform to RIM's BlackBerry devices

Sun to countersue Network Appliance

SCO gets ‘potential’ $36M offer to sell Unix business

JGD Management has offered to buy troubled SCO's Unix business as well as provide money for litigation expenses

Trade agreement could help delete counterfeit chips

The U.S., European Union, and other countries are discussing an agreement that will fight piracy and counterfeiting and protect intellectual property rights

Update: Symantec earnings show lackluster enterprise growth

The security giant's consumer business showed the highest growth at 10 percent year over year, and overall revenue for the quarter rose 13 percent

Update: Facebook chooses Microsoft over Google

Microsoft will purchase a $240 million minority stake in Facebook as well as become its exclusive third-party ad platform

Reporter’s notebook: Solar charger spans continents

The solar-powered Solio works with mobile phones, MP3 players, GPS devices, and digital cameras, but it has broader implications for use in the developing world

Poll: Internet video should be regulated

One-third of respondents to survey of Internet attitudes don't see constitutional issues being raised by government regulation of Internet video

Why Leopard matters, plus more ZFS details

Hounded by spyware charges, DirectRevenue shuts down

DirectRevenue, which was recently doing business as Best Offers, had been sued and fined for its spyware-installing business practices