Nicholas Kolakowski

Verizon Wireless is offering Microsoft’s previously defunct Kin One and Kin Two phones via its Website, confirming earlier reports. Having retrieved the devices from the dustbin of history, Verizon plans to market them as feature phones. The Kin One (now branded the KIN ONEm) will retail for $19.99, and the Kin Two (now the KIN […]

About 58 percent of Oracle customers are dissatisfied with their cost of support, according to a new study published by research firm Computer Economics. Some 42 percent of those customers reported dissatisfaction with the quality of Oracle’s support. The 109 respondents included customers of Oracle’s E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards, Siebel and Hyperion applications […]

Microsoft is apparently “very worried about making sure there is a stable Yahoo,” according to anonymous sources speaking to AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher. If true, those comments would highlight the interdependency between the two companies’ search and advertising businesses, where there is a considerable amount of overlap. According to Swisher, “a number of private equity firms […]

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had some kind words for the iPhone in a recent interview with a Dutch newspaper, while also suggesting that Google Android smartphones would eventually eclipse it in market share.“When it comes to quality, iPhone is leading,” De Telegraaf quotes Wozniak as saying in its Nov. 18 article. However, he added, “Android […]

Barnes & Noble reported Nov. 16 that shipments of its Nook Color e-reader have begun ahead of schedule, with the first units arriving to customers this week. The bookseller claims only a limited number of the full-color devices will be available in stores and that customers ordering this week can expect theirs to ship “on […]

Microsoft Lync 2010 Offers Collaboration, VOIP, Video Conferencing by Nicholas Kolakowski Lync Activity Feed Lync’s Activity Feed displays your contacts, their current status messages and their availability. From here, you can perform all of Lync’s various functions, including searching for contacts or starting communication. Application Sharing Lync users can share documents and PowerPoint presentations with […]

Microsoft formally launched Lync 2010, the rebranding of its Office Communications software suite, with a New York City event Nov. 17. In addition to providing business users with a software platform for enterprise telephony, instant messaging, and video and audio conferencing, Lync can also interface with Microsoft products such as Windows Live Messenger and its […]

Facebook’s revamped messaging platform deepens the social-networking giant’s ties with Microsoft, and positions both companies to attack their mutual competitor-Google-from slightly different angles. The new Facebook Messages blends text, SMS, e-mail and Facebook chat into a unified communications platform diametrically opposed to Google’s Gmail; at the same time, Facebook Messages’ increased integration with Microsoft Office […]

Apple is offering the Beatles’ 13 studio albums through its iTunes service, alongside extras such as the “Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964” concert film. The famed band’s absence from Apple’s music service was long considered a glaring omission. Apple Corps, which publishes the Beatles’ work, had long resisted delivering the Fab Four’s work in […]

Windows Phone 7 apparently sees any microSD cards inserted into the smartphone as a “permanent modification,” rewriting the removable memory in ways that make it useless to any other type of device. One of the inaugural Windows Phone 7 smartphones, the Samsung Focus on AT&T, includes a microSD slot for expandable memory. A subset of […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told investors Nov. 15 that breaking up the company would weaken its ability to compete against the likes of Apple and Google. Some shareholders have been suggesting Microsoft break into smaller independent units as a way of boosting its stock price, which remains largely stagnant. During a question-and-answer session at Microsoft’s […]

Hewlett-Packard claims its HP Slate 500 tablet PC, equipped with Microsoft’s Windows 7, is on backorder due to “extraordinary demand.” But questions remain about how many tablets HP meant to produce. A note on HP’s Website indicates that the HP Slate 500, which is targeted at enterprise users, will ship to customers in six weeks. […]