eWEEK EDITORS

AT&T has cut the cord, letting go cherished dreams and schemes, in hopes of salvaging shareholder value. With its cable unit up for grabs, AT&T bids farewell to Dan Somers, CEO of the Broadband unit, who guided AT&T in its plan to reinvent itself as a high-speed network operator. Replacing him is William Schleyer, a […]

With prospects for a blue Christmas more apparent by the day, some multichannel merchants see a chance to salvage the season with incentives designed to pad the fourth-quarter fall and provide payoffs in more prosperous times. The trick is to steer in-store customers to Web sites, where a long-term relationship can take root. Using incentives […]

When it comes to obtaining financial services on the Web, consumers have embraced brokerages and banks, but not insurers. Despite its relatively poor showing — less than 1 percent of all consumer insurance is sold on the Web — the insurance industry hasnt given up. In fact, insurers are rolling out a spate of offerings […]

The wireless industry should quickly address the issue of spam, or irresponsible companies such as Acacia National Mortgage are going to annoy wireless data users enough to make them turn off their cell phones entirely. Acacia made headlines earlier this year for sending unwanted text messages to wireless data customers. The messages were meant to […]

Well-publicized security breaches in the wireless local area networking standard have plagued the market, but leading vendors insist the problems are surmountable. Concern about wireless LAN security swelled when researchers at the University of California at Berkeley published a report detailing weaknesses of the wired equivalent privacy (WEP) algorithm built into the wireless LAN standard. […]

Music to My Ears Bill Gates and Steve Jobs might not agree on whos got the best computer operating system on the market, but they do share one belief: music sells. For the launch of Windows XP, its new OS, Microsoft not only paid $15 million to use Madonnas song Ray of Light. It also […]

While health care companies have already spent millions of dollars to comply with a new federal law mandating privacy for online medical records, a key decision in January could multiply the total bill by rendering many existing communication networks obsolete. The deadline to comply with the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 is […]

To many security experts, its an epidemic waiting to happen. While most I-managers today have their hands full securing wired networks, their companies have been spending billions of dollars on wireless. By the end of this year, businesses will have spent $37 billion on wireless communications services, and 47 percent of the U.S. work force […]

Qwest Communications International has made a $100 million commitment to migrate its old circuit-switched network to next-generation packet-switched gear, but it may be a while before the economics make sense and the other big carriers follow. When Ma Bell was carved up in 1984, Qwest, then U S West, was left with a sprawling region […]

Despite Bill Gates assertion that Windows XP, PCs and related gear will generate $100 billion in sales during the upcoming holiday season, PC industry big shots do not see restoration of double-digit growth any time soon. That $100 billion has to include everything down to the plastic insulation on power cords. PC industry CEOs, speaking […]

Cash is still king. And cash-rich companies are using their money to enter new markets, retire debt and assure investors that they can outlast the current recession. The king of cash is — no surprise — Microsoft. The software giant currently has about $36.2 billion in cash and short-term investments. Microsoft is using part of […]

New Powers President George W. Bush signed into law an antiterrorism bill that gives law enforcement authorities sweeping new powers to conduct surveillance on Internet communications, including e-mail and Web surfing. A late change requires judges to oversee how authorities use an e-mail snooping device called Carnivore. Attorney General John Ashcroft said authorities will begin […]