Nicholas Kolakowski

Apple’s iPhone 4S is apparently drawing high customer satisfaction ratings, according to a new survey from ChangeWave Research, a division of analyst firm The 451 Group. The November survey included a relatively small sample size-some 215 iPhone 4S owners-but nonetheless offers some decisive numbers: about 77 percent of respondents were “very satisfied” with their device, […]

Microsoft, Nokia, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Research In Motion are just a few of the companies denying their smartphones and services are loaded with Carrier IQ, the company whose smartphone diagnostics software is accused of monitoring users’ activity without their explicit consent. IT pro Trevor Eckhart conducted a very public test, with video, demonstrating what […]

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is experiencing an uptick in users, according to analysis Website StatCounter. Through the end of November, the combined versions of Internet Explorer held some 50.66 percent of the U.S. browser market, followed by Firefox at 20.09 percent, Google Chrome at 17.3 percent, Apple’s Safari at 10.76 percent, and Opera at 0.43 percent. […]

Microsoft owned 7.3 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in the third quarter, according to new data from Nielsen. The research firm includes both Windows Phone and the older, largely discontinued Windows Mobile in its tally. That number trails RIM/BlackBerry at 17.8 percent, Apple’s iPhone at 28.3 percent, and Google Android at 42.8 percent. Interestingly, […]

Microsoft has streamlined SkyDrive’s ability to share and access Office documents, in yet another sign of the company’s increasingly cloud-centric posture. Under the new streamlined process, SkyDrive users will have the ability to post documents to networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook, send a link that allows the recipient to access and edit an item, […]

Is it truly too late for Windows 8 tablets? The question seems asinine, considering how said tablets won’t hit the market for several quarters. Nonetheless, it’s also one drawing a fair amount of media attention, in the wake of a Forrester analyst suggesting the devices may indeed arrive on the market too late to carve […]

Lenovo could be on the verge of toppling Dell as the second-largest global PC brand, according to a new research note from IHS. That would place the Chinese manufacturer behind Hewlett-Packard, which continues to reign as the world’s largest despite some well-publicized recent troubles. According to the firm, Lenovo’s global PC shipments rose 14.5 percent […]

Microsoft will bring a tablet-friendly version of Office to the iPad sometime in 2012, according to The Daily. The publication cites unnamed sources for the information, and adds that a new edition of Office for Mac OS X Lion is also in development for a release date in 2012. Despite competing in a number of […]

Research In Motion has long touted enterprise-level security and management as a selling point of its BlackBerry devices, a key differentiator from the Apple iPhones and Google Android smartphones flooding both the business and consumer market. Now, it seems, RIM has decided to extend its branded management capabilities to platforms beyond BlackBerry, in what could […]

Microsoft plans on entering the tablet market in a big way with its upcoming Windows 8 operating system, which the company is optimizing for touch screens in addition to traditional keyboards and mice. However, some well-entrenched tablet foes could give it considerable difficulty, according to an analyst. “For tablets … Windows really isn’t a fast […]

How do you ensure your non-iPad tablet sells out in a matter of days? Answer: enormous price cuts. In time for the holiday shopping season, retailer Best Buy decided to cut the price of Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet to $199 and $299, respectively, for the 16GB and 32GB models. That apparently led to a […]

Amazon claims the Kindle Fire has become its bestselling product. The 7-inch tablet was made available for preorder Sept. 28, with the first units shipping Nov. 14. That being said, the company maintained its traditional reluctance to part with actual sales data, although it did acknowledge in a Nov. 28 press release that “customers purchased […]