Nicholas Kolakowski

Mozilla is developing Firefox Home, an iPhone application intended to provide easy access to a user’s Firefox browsing history, bookmarks and tabs-yet another step in the organization’s attempts to extend pieces of its browser franchise far and wide. “We have been working on an application for the iPhone based on the Firefox Sync (formerly Weave […]

Apple will officially launch the iPad in the United Kingdom May 28, with some devices reportedly delivered early. Apple’s U.K. Website suggests, however, that those now preordering an iPad will need to wait until June for their purchase to ship. According to the Telegraph.co.uk, some British reported receiving their preordered iPads a day ahead of […]

Oracle is looking to buy certain assets of eServGlobal, which provides prepaid charging solutions for the communications industry. The deal, announced May 26 and expected to close in the second half of 2010, centers on eServGlobal’s Universal Service Platform (USP), which includes a network-services platform and messaging gateway in addition to a prepaid charging application. […]

Apple’s forays into the music industry are apparently under examination by the U. S. Department of Justice, suggests a May 25 report in the New York Times, with agency staffers reportedly questioning “major music labels and Internet music companies.” The article quotes unnamed sources as suggesting that any investigation was nascent and focuses primarily on […]

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos indicated during an annual shareholders’ meeting that the online retailer’s Kindle e-reader would compete against the Apple iPad by focusing on the e-reader experience. Although the Kindle remains a strong seller, it faces increased competition from Apple’s tablet device as well as from rival e-readers such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook. […]

Microsoft’s shake-up of its Entertainment and Devices Division has raised questions about the company’s efforts in the consumer segment, particularly in the area of smartphones, where it faces strong competition from rivals such as Google and Apple. Although Microsoft has cast the recently announced departures of two top E&D executives as being motivated by personal […]

Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices (E&D) Division seems to be in the midst of a massive shake-up, with the company announcing the departures of Robbie Bach, the unit’s president, and J Allard, its senior vice president of Design and Development. Although rumors of Allard’s leaving preceded the official announcement, the Bach departure-characterized by Microsoft as a […]

Apple’s 16GB iPhone 3GS now retails for $97 at Wal-Mart stores with a two-year contract, a massive price reduction in the weeks before a next-generation iPhone is expected to make its official debut at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The deal, which does not extend to the 32GB version of the popular smartphone, is available only […]

Apple touts its iPad as the sort of device you can take anywhere, but there’s at least one place on earth where the tablets are unwelcome: New York City’s Yankee Stadium. The ban at Yankee Stadium is especially ironic given the complex’s tech-friendly features, including stadium-wide WiFi and, according to the Associated Press, players’ lockers […]

Microsoft suffered a setback May 24 in its long-running patent-infringement dispute with Alcatel-Lucent, when the Supreme Court declined to hear the software giant’s appeal. A previous ruling, delivered by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, had upheld the verdict against Microsoft but overturned a $358 million judgment. “We are pleased, but not surprised, […]

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will give the June 7 keynote address at the company’s 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where he could potentially announce the upcoming next-generation iPhone. The WWDC, which runs from June 7 to June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, provides technical sessions and labs for developers interested in creating programs for […]

Yahoo and Nokia announced a partnership May 24 in which Nokia will become the global provider of Yahoo’s map and navigation services, while Yahoo becomes the global provider of Nokia’s Ovi e-mail and messenger services. The deal is designed to play to the strengths of both companies, with Yahoo compensating for a weakness in maps […]