Carmen Nobel

As the American public responded to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina with unprecedented generosity, the donations not only overwhelmed survivors and aid workers but also nearly overwhelmed the IT infrastructure of the American Red Cross. Upgrading online donation capacity in the wake of a disaster is par for the course at the Washington-based charity and […]

A Silicon Valley networking company this week will relaunch itself with a new name and mission—to help carriers offer wireless multimedia services throughout homes and small offices. Ruckus Wireless Inc., formerly Video54 Technologies Inc., is focused on managing voice, data and video traffic with a series of routers and adapters that employ 802.11g Wi-Fi and […]

Nokia Corp. this week will launch a wireless e-mail access platform that could provide the first real challenge to Research In Motion Ltd.s BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The Nokia Business Center is a behind-the-firewall software platform that lets customers read and delete corporate e-mail on their wireless devices. The main difference between it and RIMs platform […]

Cisco systems inc. last week launched a new wireless access point for corporate customers. The Aironet 1240AG Series Access Point is a dual-band device designed for environments where RF (radio frequency) interference tends to be problematic, such as factory floors and warehouses, said officials at the San Jose, Calif., company. It supports both the 802.11a […]

Aiming for customers who need room to write, Gateway last week introduced a convertible tablet/notebook PC with a 14-inch-wide screen display, adding 25 percent more pixels than previous models. The notebook operates on Microsofts Windows XP Tablet edition as well as Microsofts OneNote file-sharing software. The system runs the Intel 915 chip sets with PCI […]

Tokyo software developer Access Co. Ltd. on Friday announced the acquisition of Palm operating system maker PalmSource Inc. for about $324.3 million in cash. “The PalmSource family of software products, which run on over 39 million devices, and the PalmSource community of approximately 400,000 mobile application developers provide an established worldwide mobile software platform,” said […]

More than a week and a half after Hurricane Katrina struck, wireless carriers were making good headway in restoring service, but the regions landline communications infrastructure, particularly in New Orleans, remained largely in tatters. All the nations major wireless carriers have deployed COWs (cellsites on wheels) and have begun the daunting task of fixing towers. […]

Satellite operator Intelsat last week announced plans to buy rival PanAmSat for $3.2 billion, in a deal that will create the worlds biggest fleet of commercial communications satellites. Using a combined fleet of 53 satellites, the expanded company will cover more than 220 countries and territories, officials said. Joseph Wright, CEO of PanAmSat, is expected […]

Land-line and wireless carriers alike were working to restore phone service to the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina last week, but lack of access to the hardest-hit areas was hampering efforts. By late last week, Cingular Wireless had readied 500 emergency generators and 130,000 gallons of fuel, as well as several fleets of portable cell […]

Meru Networks Inc. has announced a partnership with Juniper Networks Inc. that is largely focused on implementations of voice over wireless LAN. The partnership includes interoperability testing and joint sales engagements, according to Meru officials. “This ties the wireless voice-over-IP focus that we have with the enterprise security focus that they have,” said Ihab Abu-Hakima, […]

Cisco Systems next week will launch a new wireless access point for corporate customers, sources close to the company confirmed on Friday. The Aironet 1240AG Series Access Point is a dual-band device designed for environments where radio frequency interference tends to be problematic, such as factory floors and warehouses. It supports both the 802.11a and […]

Motorola is making good on its plans with Apple on a phone that plays music using iTunes software. Sources who have seen Motorola Inc.s upcoming E790 iTunes phone say that it sounds like an iPod Shuffle and looks like a shiny white version of Motorolas E398 phone. Like the E398, the E790 has stereo speakers […]