eWEEK EDITORS

In an effort to catch up to rivals in some areas and better differentiate itself in others, Hitachi Data Systems Corp. is readying a product blitz that includes new backup appliances, IP storage, management software and vertical-oriented bundled services. On the hardware and software agenda are object-based storage and switch-resident software, due later this year, […]

Ah, for the heady days of 1999, when money from the sand hill Road venture crowd flowed like water, and customers flowed like sand from a California beach. Those days are no more, but the real work of company building continues—at least in that fraction of the dot-coms that saved enough cash or generated enough […]

Microsoft Corp. is working on a new user-assistance portal for its Office productivity suite that will build on the companys crash-reporting technology. At WinHEC in New Orleans last week, Microsoft officials hinted that the company is readying an online version of the “Watson” automated crash-reporting technology that debuted in Office XP. In fact, the Redmond, […]

Dell Drops Computer From Its Name Dell Computer Corp. long ago outgrew the college dorm room where founder Michael Dell started his mail-order PC business. The company, now known as Dell Inc., says it has outgrown the name as well. In a filing of its preliminary proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission last […]

Responding to customer demands to administer storage in the context of overall IT infrastructure, Veritas Software Corp. last week announced Service Manager, a far-reaching new master console that wont be complete until 2005. Formerly code-named Global Operations Manager, Service Manager (see screen) is the result of several years work, including more than $600 million in […]

Copier and printer vendor Xerox Corp. is working to evolve with the rolling economy through technology, products and people—in that order. Two years ago, the Stamford, Conn., company placed a bet on color copying and printing and attacked the market with a handful of superfast products. In late 2001, the company overhauled the people side […]

Read this weeks Spencer column.

Wireless News Handset Sales on the Rise, Smart Phones Soar Handset manufacturers enjoyed healthy sales during the first quarter of 2003, according to a report from IDC. Sales of converged voice and data devices were particularly strong. According to IDC, global handset shipments grew by 16.6 percent compared with the year-ago period, reaching 107.6 million […]

Its a sad statement on the state of the PC industry when, as the Windows group is trying to lead the industry with an outreach, the UK division of MSN steals its thunder by leading the industry to the outhouse. Poke fun all you want at the iLoo; rumor has it that over a thousand […]

Internet A California judge cleared eBay in a libel suit that alleged the Web auctioneer was legally responsible for one of its sellers negative comments about a bidder, the company said Monday. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Willhite on April 28 dismissed the libel claim, finding eBay immune under the federal Communications Decency Act […]

Enterprise Storage Intel Makes Advances on Serial ATA Intel this week released the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) v0.95, a next generation specification designed to boost Serial ATA performance. The specification allows for a standard interface to system driver and OS software to use advanced SATA features as command queuing, hot plugging and power management. […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered his pitch for Microsofts rights management strategy to 500,000 customers, partners and other Microsoft watchers his latest executive missive. Ballmer calls rights management Microsofts way of enabling “new opportunities” for customers. But not all MS Watchers are quite so enamored of Redmonds approach.