The Federal Communications Commission will soon release a report on the feasibility of opening up unused spectrum, or white spaces, for use with wireless broadband. The FCC engineering report will share results of several years of data collection, including field tests on Broadway in New York City and at FedEx Field in Maryland.
Spending on Enterprise 2.0 messaging and collaboration technologies will take a hit, according to Forrester Research. The research company says cutthroat competition and oversaturation of blogs, wikis, mashups and RSS feeds will curb spending, but predicts growth for mashups. At what point will Forrester have to factor the dragging economy into the slowdown in spending on anything from Enterprise 2.0 to enterprise applications?
When Intel and AMD report their third-quarter earnings in a few day, the two companies, which are the leading suppliers of x86 processors for desktops, notebooks and servers, are expected to offer a glimpse of how the financial crisis and the U.S. credit crunch is likely to impact the entire IT industry. In addition, Intel and AMD are likely to discuss the impact of the new chip manufacturing that formed when AMD sold off its fabs earlier this month.
Apple released a large security update that touches on nearly two dozen Mac applications and features. The release includes updates for Apache, PHP, ClamAV and MySQL.
As the economy gets shakier each day, workers everywhere are concerned about losing their jobs. Here are 10 steps the corporate techie toiling away in the server room or the help desk can take to help keep his or her job.
The mobile gaming market suffered an unexpected slump last year, with many game developers and analysts pointing to telecom operators' lack of investment in marketing.
Microsoft shares more detail about its “Oslo” modeling platform, naming the components and its delivery vehicle. The company will deliver Community Technology Previews (CTPs) of the Oslo technology at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference.
Zoho Mail now works offline courtesy of Google Gears, the latest application development for Zoho's messaging and collaboration software suite. Zoho Writer beat Google Docs to offline access last year, proving that the smaller Zoho is more nimble than the Google Apps empire. Offline access for applications is key at a time when knowledge workers are traveling and unable to secure Web connections to work.
A look at the big news from recent industry shows, like DEMOfall and TechCrunch 5.0, reveals emerging trends that will drive technology innovation next year. Those trends include cloud computing, open mobile platforms and semantic search.
It turns out there are several so-called dirty little secrets that not every vendor will tell you ahead of time about archiving products. There are five categories of these "secrets": scalability, data protection, performance, data migration and energy efficiency. If you're in the market, you need to read this first.
Customers of data archive systems, along with many others within the industry--including evaluators/editors and market analysts--are often unaware of some important limitations on data archiving solutions--in particular, content-addressable storage archives.
The iSuppli research firm is now trimming its worldwide semiconductor revenue forecast for 2008, citing plummeting prices for DRAM memory chips and a possible economic slowdown due to the financial crisis on Wall Street. While revenue from processors might decrease throughout the rest of the year, which could hurt Intel, AMD, Samsung and other companies, iSuppli analysts remain confident that sales of desktops and notebooks could help close the gap and soften the impact of the financial crisis.
Apple issues invitations to an event promising a spotlight on notebooks. New Apple laptops or lower prices on old ones are expected from the maker of the iPod and iPhone, but it may not help Apple's stock.
The work force is fast becoming a mobile one, accessing data, applications, e-mail and schedules officially and unofficially for work and personal uses. Here's a look at the numbers behind the trend as users add mobile devices and applications to their tool belt.
Symantec and Google didn't get Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's memo that SAAS and cloud computing are overhyped. Symantec bought security SAAS provider MessageLabs for a bundle while Google simplified pricing for its security SAAS. Web services security for enterprise applications and messaging and collaboration tools is alive and well.
Security vendors Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, Secure Computing and Sophos have acquired many companies in 2008, consolidating the security market amid an economic downturn. Symantec acquired MessageLabs, SwapDrive, AppStream and Vontu; McAfee acquired Reconnex and Secure Computing; Secure Computing acquired Securify; Sophos acquired Utimaco; CA acquired IDFocus; and Trend Micro acquired Identum and Provilla. Here's a rundown of these significant security acquisitions.
Microsoft plans to release 11 security bulletins, four rated critical, for its October Patch Tuesday. The security bulletins cover multiple Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office Excel.
ABI Research analyst Kevin Burden says smart phones such as the T-Mobile G1 that are based on Google's Android operating system for mobile and wireless devices could push smart phones into standardization. Perhaps, but Apple's iPhone will continue to be a big seller even as Android, Symbian, RIM and other mobile operating systems get their share of the market. Will customers recognize a standard when they see one? I don't believe so, which makes the standardization moot unless the carriers embrace it.
Meet the mobile wannabes. They will not be road warriors but will insist on mobile support from employers. Already, nearly a third of smart phone users expense all or some of their monthly bills for wireless voice services to their employers, while 40 percent expense the cost of their wireless data access to their company. Forrester estimates that by 2012, 73 percent of the work force will be considered mobile.
Micron Technology, one of the world's largest producers of memory chips, is shutting down its NAND flash memory business that it co-owned with Intel. Micron will also cut 15 percent of its worldwide work force. The closing of the NAND flash memory plant comes as Micron, Intel and other chip memory makers are struggling with the falling prices of DRAM and NAND memory.
Sequoia Capital is one of the first venture capital firms to issue a strict advisory warning to both startups and established companies in their portfolios to trim expenses, cut ancillary jobs and contractors and tighten budget belts.
Oracle agrees to buy project portolio management software provider Primavera to better compete with HP, IBM and CA. Ovum analyst David Mitchell says Primavera will help Oracle's prodigious enterprise applications customer base tie up loose ends in their projects.
IBM posted a stronger-than-expected preliminary quarterly profit and stood by its full-year outlook, defying worries that the financial crisis would hurt demand for its computer products and services. IBM shares, which had fallen 5.33 percent to close at $90.55 on the New York Stock Exchange, rose to $96 in after-hours trading. Shares of Dell rose nearly 2 percent, while shares of Oracle and Microsoft rose about 1 percent. Other major technology companies such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard Co were barely changed.
IT organizatoins are looking to reduce costs while increasing productivity, and so are looking to unified communications to meet these goals. New technology and financing options can help companies do just that.
From Symantec to McAfee, IT security companies are still spending money on acquisitions in the face of trouble in the U.S. economy. Symantec's move to buy MessageLabs is just one of several acquisition moves by major security vendors in the past few months, including plays by McAfee and Sophos.
Even in the volatile U.S. macroeconomy, EMC's prospects remain solid. After all, the volume of personal and business data continues to rocket skyward at 60 percent growth per year with little or no chance of a slowdown; all that information has to be stored somewhere. Despite the serious downturn, as the United States is experiencing now, enterprises are hesistant to cut down on storage budgets for that very reason.
EMC didn't get to be the world's largest, most successful data storage company by standing pat. In fact, the huge corporation has swallowed no fewer than 40 other companies -- for their technology and their talent -- in the last five years. Here are some facts you probably didn't know about this remarkable organization.
As Sprint and its partners celebrate the official launch of the first U.S. commercial WiMax network, questions remain about just how you pay for a $5 billion network in a financial market full of turmoil. Sprint thinks its partnerships with Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner will insulate the ambitious project to build a nationwide wireless, IP-based data network.
Hewlett-Packard and Dell, the PC vendor giants, did not announce notebooks to support WiMax on Oct. 8, the day Sprint launched the WiMax network in Baltimore. Acer, Lenovo and other OEMs announced several laptops that support WiMax. HP says it is still testing WiMax, while Dell says its Latitude E line of laptops, launched in August, is already WiMax-enabled.
The day after AMD announced a significant deal that will spin off its manufacturing facilities into a new joint venture company, AMD is defending its licensing agreement with Intel. In the wake of the deal, Intel said it would review its processor licensing agreement with AMD to ensure the deal does not violate any patent agreements. An AMD spokesman said the deal does not impact the chip licensing agreement with Intel.
Yahoo is looking to boost the messaging and collaboration capabilities in Yahoo Calendar by synchronizing it with calendar utilities from Google, Microsoft, AOL, Mozilla and Apple. The application development feat is part of Yahoo's plans to bolt better Web services into a smarter inbox for its millions of Web mail users.
Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba unveil laptop and notebook computers ready to take advantage of the Sprint Nextel WiMax wireless network launched Oct. 8 in Baltimore. The Acer Aspire, Asus, Toshiba Satellite and Lenovo ThinkPad and Lenovo IdeaPad lines will support WiMax capabilities.
Wi-Fi chips in smart phones such as the Apple iPhone and RIM BlackBerry help businesspeople save money on telephone phone bills by letting them use VOIP technology over mobile and wireless devices instead of regular land-line phone service. New VOIP services are springing up to challenge Skype and Vonage.
Touch-screen user interface maker Synaptics says it will provide a custom module for Research In Motion's upcoming touch-screen BlackBerry Storm smart phone. RIM's BlackBerry Storm is expected later in the fall of 2008.
Researchers for the U.S. Department of Energy report developing ultrathin films that can be used to form superconductors. The films could lead to faster, more power-efficient electronics.
Although the Opera 9.6 browser improvements are mostly consumer-oriented, the new release also features improvements for developers. Opera Software officials say compatibility and stability are Opera 9.6's biggest benefits to developers.
Updated: As Sprint rolls out its Xohm 4G network and Intel ramps up its WiMax technology, Lenovo and Acer each plan to roll out a number of notebooks for enterprise and small business buyers that come equipped with this new wireless technology. Lenovo plans to offer five ThinkPad laptops with WiMax, while Acer will roll out two Aspire notebooks for SMBs that have the WiMax technology. While Acer and Lenovo are rushing notebooks into the market, HP and Dell are holding back on WiMax-enabled laptops for now.
Red Hat announces new versions of its open-source service-oriented architecture solutions. The upgrades to Red Hat’s JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform and Operations Network include new enterprise service bus and rules features.
The 20-year-old son of a prominent Tennessee Democrat stands accused of hacking into the e-mail address of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The alleged hacker, David Kernell, was indicted Oct. 8 by a federal grand jury and faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.
Wikipedia creator and Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales shares his philosophy of competition in the search engine market. The comments come as Wikia is taking the step toward augmenting its search results by integrating core Web services from Digg, Twitter and other popular Web sites.
In a survey of what Intel, AMD, Samsung and the rest of the chip industry will spend on processor manufacturing, Gartner found that capital spending will decline 25 percent in 2008 and drop further in 2009. The drop in spending is related to oversupply of DRAM and NAND flash memory but also relates back to the ongoing financial crisis, which is leading to less consumer spending. The picture should become clearer when Intel and AMD report third-quarter financial earnings later in October.
Eclipse and Java are key components of Android, Google's mobile operating system. While it's an OS meant to challenge the likes of Microsoft Windows Mobile and Apple iPhone, Android also promises to be an important development platform.
Symantec has agreed to buy MessageLabs for roughly $695 million. The purchase is aimed at expanding Symantec's software-as-a-service business. Founded in 1999, MessageLabs specializes in Web and messaging security.
Google's YouTube video-sharing site, one of the most popular Web services on the Internet, is rolling out an e-commerce platform. The idea is to enable YouTube and its content partners to make money beyond what the parties make from serving ads on videos airing on YouTube. Apple's iTunes and Amazon.com are the first two launch partners for the YouTube eCommerce Platform, but expect more to sign on as its legend grows.
Unisys, which has tried to add more services and software into its product portfolio, is adding more Intel processors into its midrange ClearPath Dorado 4000 and Libra 4000 server systems. In addition, Unisys is offering an updated version of its high-end ClearPath Dorado 700 Series system, which competes against top systems such as the IBM System z mainframe.
Wikia launches WISE, an API that allows programmers to write widgets to pull content from Twitter, Digg, Creative Commons, Yelp and other sites into Wikia Search results. The application development is designed to improve Wikia Search results, which will improve the user experience for visitors.
RIM's anti-iPhone campaign begins with the introduction of the BlackBerry Storm mobile smart phone, directly aimed at the consumer market and intended to be a serious challenger to the iPhone. Offered exclusively by Verizon Wireless, the Storm features a tactile touch-screen that RIM hopes will trump both the iPhone and T-Mobile's G1 phone, the first ever developed powered by Google's Android software, as the hottest electronic device of the holiday season.
The BlackBerry Storm has some features new to the BlackBerry family and new to mobile smart phones in general, including a tactile touch-screen, a preloaded Facebook for BlackBerry application, and Microsoft Word and PowerPoint editing.
eWEEK takes a look at Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm enterprise user specifications. Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion give the BlackBerry Storm's size, weight, battery life, display, browser, GPS, network support, e-mail integration and software management for the enterprise IT manager tasked with managing the mobile device. These are the official product specifications from Verizon Wireless and RIM.
Adobe releases an advisory with workarounds for Adobe Flash Player to protect users from clickjacking attacks as the company prepares a patch. Security researchers Jeremiah Grossman and Robert Hansen recently raised red flags over clickjacking issues affecting all the major browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari.
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