eWEEK EDITORS

I remember my first visit to an optical laboratory, at the University of Colorado about a dozen years ago. Watching light beams dance across the darkened room as scientists explained how information would soon travel the globe on channels of light, I could hardly envision such a transformation. But optical technology is, after all, based […]

The most natural interface for a wireless phone is voice — or so popular sentiment would suggest. And it may be true, but improvements to both voice recognition technology and content will have to be made before users will choose to ask the phone for information rather than type in commands. For the past several […]

Recently, I got into an eight-ball match straight out of my worst nightmare. I dont know where my game went, but I couldnt have hit a ball with a shotgun. I was so pitiful that my opponent offered advice instead of sarcasm. He said, “When Im in a funk as bad as you are, I […]

Scoff if you will, but John Sprouse, CIO for 3-year-old Prime Advantage Corp., in Chicago, claims his companys 30-person sales team is happily and productively using the CRM application he chose last July. Why is that so remarkable? A shockingly high percentage of customer relationship management deployments—50 percent by some estimates—fail, often because salespeople and […]

Previously static Portable Document Format files are finding a new role on the Internet. An electronic forms suite announced last week by Cardiff Software enables users to fill out, sign, route, submit and approve forms expressed as Adobe Systems Portable Document Format files and then feed the data automatically into back-end systems such as PeopleSofts. […]

Oil industry powerhouse Schlumberger has launched a $6 billion foray into information technology, making observers wonder if its drilling a very deep, dry hole — or on the verge of hitting gushing success in the New Economy. Just five weeks after Schlumberger announced a $5.2 billion bid for information technology (IT) firm Sema, the oil […]

Remember easy money? Remember back when any optical player that had a new twist or small variation on a switch, router, chip or marketing scheme could get funded, go public and watch its stock soar? Not today. Not with tech stocks taking a beating, carriers slowing their build-out plans and venture capitalists tightening their hold […]

Verizon Communications and AT&T are shelling Pennsylvanians with advertising blitzes as the corporate giants battle to influence state regulators over plans to cut Verizon of Pennsylvania in two. Members of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission are expected to vote for a plan Thursday, March 22, that would cleave Verizons Pennsylvania arm into wholesale and retail […]

Mark Floyd, chairman of Efficient Networks, talks with Senior Writer Brian Ploskina about issues facing the integrated access device (IAD) market. In the corporate enterprise, what does an IAD need to do? If youre a business enterprise today, you have your data traffic going over a leased line loop, you have multiple lines coming in […]

Slower than expected cell phone sales toward the end of last year led to unusually high handset inventories and a backup in distribution channels, a phenomenon that is crippling cell phone manufacturers. And that backup of phones in inventory and the supply chain may slow the progress of the wireless industry — which means users […]