Google Bets on Mobile Advertising with AdMob Purchase
Google is somewhat new to the mobile operating system and mobile device markets, but one market it understands, arguably better than any other entity, is online advertising. So, there is reason to raise an eyebrow when Google throws down $750 million to purchase a company like AdMob that is focused on mobile advertising.
Apple posts Wireless Keyboard Update 2.0
If you're using an Apple Wireless Keyboard with OS X 10.5.8 or later, you'll want to install the Wireless Keyboard Update 2.0 from Apple. Released on Monday, the firmware update allows you, as Apple puts it in the release notes, to "take advantage of your 2009 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard's special features." The release notes are less detailed about what those features might be, but a pretty good guess might be the keyboard's function keys, which offer one-touch access to OS X capabilities including Exposé and Dashboard.
Reliance Life Sciences Launches Info Database
Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) develops business opportunities in the domains of medical, plant and industrial biotechnology. But with new research happening every day it was getting hard for biologists to keep track of genome sequences like evolutionary history of organisms, their biological function, and their chemical structure, etcetera.
The Smithsonian's quest for IT's Ruby Slippers
The National Museum of American History continues its effort to determine what IT devices have played or will play an important role in the flow of history even as the facility still lacks a separate large IT exhibit.
Charles Cecil working on a Minesweeper adventure for charity
Broken Sword creator Charles Cecil has revealed his next project, a full-blown point-and-click adventure game based on the freeware game Minesweeper.
Firefox at 5: What We Love and Hate About You
Mozilla's Firefox Web browser turned five years old today, and as I took it for a celebratory spin (I'm a recent Chrome convert), it was easy to notice how similar all the major browsers have become in terms of basic functionality. For instance, it's harder to choose one browser over another for the way it treats tabs and windows, as Firefox now lets you drag tabs into separate windows. Nor will privacy nuts find that they can't go incognito in their browser of choice.
Motorola Droid: Updates Already On the Way?
Well, that didn't take long: Just three days after the Droid dropped, and we already have our first leaked-document-style rumor. What is this, the iPhone or something?
Server Consolidation Results in Savings for Rayon
The Indian Rayon unit of the Aditya Birla Nuvo group is the second largest producer of viscose filament yarn (VFY) in India, in terms of its market share. With the distinction of constituting 50 percent of VFY exports from India, the company has consistently raised the bar.
Microsoft Exchange set; SharePoint, OCS to follow
Microsoft Monday shipped the final release of Exchange 2010, ushering in not so much the latest version of its messaging server but the first updated piece of its unified communications and collaboration platform.
Veterans agency looks beyond EMC for multi-million storage deal
With a 75-year retention requirement and 5 petabytes of data, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs faces major challenges when it comes to storing data in its primary data center in Austin, Texas.
Handhelds Helped Gati Deliver Real Time Reports
When Gati launched in 1989, it was a small cargo management company. But over the years it's evolved into a consumer 'superbrand.' But with this growth came challenges to the brand. It sought to be a trusted: if Gati said it would be delivered, it would be. The evidence? A scrap of paper called a POD (proof of delivery).
Advertising Made Easy with Media Management Portal
FMCG major Marico boasts of a wide array of products in the hair care, skin care and wellness space. To fight for mind space in such a highly competitive and fragmented market, the company, like all other companies in the sector, resorts to advertising.
Tethering to iPhone still coming, AT&T says; no date set
AT&T today reiterated its plans to offer tethering on the iPhone, but again gave no date when that might happen -- more than a year after the carrier first said tethering would be coming "soon."
Cisco crafting telepresence Rosetta Stone
At its big collaboration event this week, Cisco is wheeling out what it describes as the Rosetta Stone of high-def videoconferencing to address one of the biggest problems facing the technology – interoperability.
EU issues objections to Oracle's Sun acquisition
The European Commission has issued its formal "statement of objections" over Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Sun said in a regulatory filing Monday.
Sprint to lay off more than 2,000
Sprint Nextel expects to lay off as many as 2,500 people by year’s end, on the heels of reporting that it lost 545,000 customers in its third quarter.
Exchange 2010 Launch: Week Round Up
Exchange 2010 formally launched today, promising new features that will improve productivity and reduce storage and voicemail costs. But are the new features worth the complexity of upgrading? CIO.com's Shane O'Neill rounds up Exchange 2010 stories from the past week.
Airtel Gets Consistency With Delivery Platform
With various services under its fold - from the ubiquitous mobile to the rather new IPTV - Bharti Airtel had to find a way to ensure consistency of its services across platforms. Consistency of user experience in an extremely competitive telecom sector was essential.
Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6.2
On Monday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.2, the latest update to its Mac OS X operating system. As you might surmise, it contains a number of fixes and feature enhancements for the newest big cat. Apple, as always, recommends 10.6.2 for all users running Snow Leopard.
EA acquires casual gaming pro Playfish for $300 million
EA formally announced the acquisition of social games developer Playfish today for an estimated $300 million, with another $100 million incentive promised if the London-based startup meets certain expectations before 2012.
Excitebike, Electroplankton on Wii/DSiWare today
This week's Wii and DSi downloadable lineup brings two excellent Nintendo creations in two extremely different forms. While it's possible that the different distribution methods may work, one of the games may just continue to suffer in anonymity as a result.
Verizon keeps needling AT&T with three new Christmas ads
Three new TV ads from Verizon Wireless escalated the battle with AT&T over fast 3G wireless coverage, this time with a sarcastic Christmas theme.
Microsoft brings Silverlight to Facebook
The two companies' latest collaboration combines Web, client, and social technologies for building apps and services for the social networking site
Pre-order MAG and get exclusive beta access
Game retailer Gamestop is currently running a pre-order offer for Sony's upcoming online 256-player shooter MAG that will allow immediate access to the beta test of the game that is currently running. In order to take advantage of the offer you must have a PlayStation Network account (of course) as the game is online only. Gamestop's pre-order offer also includes an exclusive in-game character skin (pointing to an inevitable downloadable content program for the final release, no doubt.)
How to snag an early Bayonetta demo on Xbox 360
If you want to check out the Bayonetta demo before anyone else, here's how to do it. Starting on Monday (11/9) Sega will be giving early download codes to the first 40,000 users to complete a free Sega Pass registration. The offer opens on Monday, and will close next Friday. The codes will be sent out on November 16. Bookmark this page and make sure to log in first thing Monday
Another World, entirely in Javascript
Game developer Gil Megidish states that he has "some kind of obsession with this game." Another World, released as Out of This World in North America, was a beautifully animated sci-fi adventure game first released in 1991 for the Commodore Amiga. Over the years Megidish has been a big part of the teams responsible for porting the game to other platforms, and he worked directly on the PC and 3DO versions, as well as the PSP, PS2, and Game Boy Advance iterations. His latest project is a browser-based interpretation of the game written entirely in Javascript. All the game requires to run is a modern web browser such as Safari, Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome. Though the project is not complete (and Megidish currently has no plans of completing it) it serves as an excellent proof of concept for what can be achieved with browser games now.
Migrate to Windows 7--Slowly, Part 6: iTunes
In Part 5 of my series on how to migrate to Windows 7 a little bit at a time, you learned a simple way to sync your Firefox and/or Internet Explorer bookmarks.
Drowning in Passwords: Tips to Stay Safe and Sane
Another day, another password: Thanks to Web-based apps, we're all acquiring passwords at quite a clip. How do you remember them all while staying secure? Here are some helpful tools and strategies -- that don't involve writing your passwords on sticky notes.
Security pros seek hacking, forensics skills
The Computing Technology Industry Association of 1,500 IT workers found that majority intend to pursue security and related certifications in the coming years.
Firefox flaws account for 44% of all browser bugs
Firefox accounted for almost half of all browser vulnerabilities in the first six months of 2009, a Web security company claimed today.
Internet battlefield program marshals NATO forces
Getting military forces from different nations to work together in Afghanistan is no easy task, but before multinational troops with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization arrive there, officers and others are often trained through an online Battle Labs computer simulation via the Internet.
Cisco warns UC users of limited support for Windows 7
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is warning customers of its unified communications products that support for Windows 7 won’t be forthcoming until the product’s 8.0 release scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. About a dozen more UC products will not support Windows 7 until version 8.5, in the third quarter of 2010 and at that time, only the 32-bit version of Windows 7 will be supported. http://www.networkworld.com/community/taxonomy/term/7678
New Epicor program seeks to hold down ERP project costs
Epicor on Monday announced a new program aimed at containing the cost of ERP (enterprise resource planning) projects, which are notorious for running late and over budget.
Mobile users get faster WAN links
Riverbed Technology is upgrading its mobile WAN optimization software so laptops send traffic more efficiently when they tap into branch office Riverbed appliances.
Business use of Twitter, Facebook exploding
A survey of 200 companies worldwide found that use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter for business use has exploded in recent months.
Apple rejects app because of politician caricatures
You a fan of Mad Libs? Try this one on for size: Apple on [day] rejected an iPhone app devoted to [phrase] for [ridiculous reason].
Dell, HP customers rage at Windows 7 upgrade delays
Dell and HP customers are angry that they have not yet received the Windows 7 upgrades promised them when they purchased new PCs earlier this year, according to messages on the companies' support forums.
Fox News takes on Google
Will the Internet kill newspapers, and is Google holding the pistol? That's this morning's big theme here in Cringeland. But before I get into that, I'd like to make a modest proposal.
Shazam rolls out paid Encore app, changes free app
Nothing in life is ever free--or perhaps it's best said that nothing's free forever. Shazam, makers of the free iPhone app that single-handedly ruins song-guessing quiz games, has unveiled a new $5 app for the iPhone: Shazam Encore.
Google AdMob buyout latest in long line of acquisitions
In light of Google's announced plan this week to buy mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million, it seems like a good time to take a spin back through Google’s more notable buyouts over the years. Wikipedia lists more than 50 of them, and given Google’s sometimes mysterious ways, there are no doubt a few that didn’t make the public list.