Technology Industry Archive

FTC asks Supreme Court to enter Rambus case — The Federal Trade Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to involve itself in the case it brought against Rambus Inc. for allegedly lobbying industry groups for a memory standard without revealing that it held key patents in the technology. And positive news in a pre-trial hearing on the patent case Rambus brought against some large...

More...

Nokia gives up Japan — Nokia had a tiny share of Japanese handsets, so it finally decided that discretion is the cheaper part of value and has pulled out of that market. [Source: Reuters] Gartner guesses at dropping cell sales — Analyst firm Garnter expects that global phone sales will not just slow, but contract by low single digits. [Source: Wall Street Journal] Gold to rise?...

More...

Just this week, I was applauding Twitter for rejecting an offer from Facebook. One reason I noted was that Twitter’s SMS text feature makes alerts from twittering (tweeting?) news outlets such as ZDNet even more valuable. Now, that feature seems headed for the history books as wireless carriers impose fee hikes on sites like Twitter that send outbound SMS messages. Today, Twitter said it was...

More...

Societe Generale analyst Richard Nguyen hit SAP with a sell rating on Wednesday citing increased odds of a fourth quarter profit warning and signs that customers are pushing back on the software company’s attempt to upsell them following a maintenance price increase. Nguyen’s report–he downgraded SAP shares from a hold to a sell–come amid some worrisome signs for SAP. Part of that...

More...

Here’s a novel idea for delivering cheaper cell phone service: stop sending customers bills each month that waste so much money and paper and instead, shoot them a quick notice via — what else? — text message. Someone should have thought of that a long time ago, but Pocket Communications gets credit for this lightbulb moment. The company, which provides cellular service in...

More...

There were a few pieces of news in the last few days about Microsoft, ranging from competing with Google for a Verizon deal and Steve Ballmer having to testify in the Vista Capable lawsuit to a new name for Windows Live Search. Although they seem like separate stories, they aren’t because there is one underlying thread: Microsoft’s disastrous plodding when it comes to practical...

More...

Google cutting workforce, costs — Google has confirmed that it’s paring back a contractor force that numbers 10,000, but apparently the plans have been in place for six months and there is no word on how many contractors would get the axe. A likely more recent move is scaling back its holiday party, which has drawn crowds of over 10,000. [Source: CNET, Reuters] Advertise on whatever...

More...

IBM on Monday unveiled a series of cloud computing services including business consulting to determine return on investment, design and implementation and security architecture. Big Blue noted that its services will focus on public, private and hybrid cloud computing set-ups. While the move is a no-brainer for IBM–the company’s services business is massive–it is an indicator that cloud...

More...

A startup on Tuesday will launch in an attempt to fix the current patent mess and defend against so-called patent trolls. The startup–RPX Corp.–is a so-called defensive patent aggregator. RPX–short for Rational Patent–aims to reduce the costs associated with non-practicing entities (NPEs). These NPEs–known as patent trolls to you and me–acquire the rights to patents and then launch...

More...

Apple faces e-discovery bungle — In its court action against Mac cline maker Psystar, a document apparently shows that Apple had no company-wide plan for archiving, saving, and deleting email. That could cause a problem in the face of e-discovery requirements if Apple cannot deliver documents that it is legally required to provide. [Source: Slashdot.org] Sprint loses exec — John...

More...