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Inside Apple's secret plan to kill the cash register

Apple's plans for a Bluetooth 4.0-based iWallet could be the beginning of the end for the venerable cash register.

China approves Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility

Chinese regulatory authorities have approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, paving the way for the deal to close within the week, company officials confirmed Saturday.

Apple files for preliminary injunction against Galaxy Tab 10.1

In the latest move in a complex series of patent-related cases, Apple filed a motion in a U.S. district court late Friday to ban Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.

Android in enterprises 'severely limited' by weak management support from Google

Adoption of Android tablets and smartphones in large businesses has been "severely limited" because of the complexities of managing the various Android models and versions, market research firm Gartner said in an evaluation of 20 mobile device management software vendors.

Cisco's wireless unit shifts emphasis to "mobility"

Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit doesn't actually talk so much about wireless networking these days. Increasingly, its message aimed at IT groups is about the broader concept of "mobility."

HP announces 'world's first' portable multifunction printer

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday announced the OfficeJet 150 Mobile All-in-One portable printer, which the company called the world's first mobile multifunction device that can "print, copy and scan on the go."

Italian court upholds Apple warranty fine

An Italian court has upheld a a!900,000 (US$1.2 million) fine imposed on Apple by Italy's competition authority for allegedly violating consumer protection laws, Italian media reported late Friday.

Facebook buys mobile e-commerce app Karma

The mobile gift-giving app Karma announced Friday it has been acquired by Facebook. The announcement came shortly after the markets closed on Facebook's first day as a publicly traded company.

ITC bans import of infringing Motorola Android devices

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued an import ban Friday on any Android devices from Motorola that infringe one of Microsoft's patents.

Cyber warfare in sights at government training conference

The prospect of cyberwar means the U.S. needs to 'rethink every aspect of defense,' says one summit presenter

Social Networking Security in the Workplace

At any given moment today, on-the-clock employees are updating their social media status, reading feeds and networking on business media sites. Moments can stretch to minutes: A recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that 60 percent of social media users spend at least 30 minutes a day on these sites while at work.

We're not waiting for Android 5 'Jelly Bean,' developers say

Despite the rumors, developers are focused on making apps -- and money -- from today's Android

HP's layoff plans and what they mean

HP is expected to announce a large layoff at its quarterly investors briefing on Wednesday, losing as many as 30,000 employees. But for now, the company isn't talking about its plans.

15 Fun Facebook Facts and Stats on IPO Day

How well do you know the $100 billion social network? From private planes to petabytes, here are some of the most surprising Facebook tidbits.

CIOs Don't Need to Be Business Leaders

Given the complexity of today's applications, it's folly to suggest that the future role of the CIO is less technical and more businesslike, columnist Bernard Golden writes. If anything, it's the opposite -- the business side of the enterprise should embrace technology.

Twitter jumps on Do Not Track bandwagon

Twitter has announced support for "Do Not Track," immediately implementing it to halt online tracking of users who trigger a setting in their browsers.

Apple 'in talks' with China Mobile, could reach 667.2 million

Apple is in talks with China Mobile, according to the carrier's chairman Xi Guohua, although an agreement is yet to be reached.

Facebook IPO stumbles out of the gate

The first hours of Facebook's IPO got off to a shaky start today with the share price wavering around the $40 mark, never gaining the astronomical momentum many had anticipated.

Consumerization trend creates IT worries, worker benefits

Fully 95% of 600 businesses surveyed by Cisco permit the use of employee-owned smartphones and tablets at the office and found productivity gains for workers who use their own hardware.

iPhone 5 rumors for the week ending May 18

Perhaps the Next iPhone won't be called iPhone 5 but the Zombie iPhone, in honor of the new spate of rumors that the late Steve Jobs is still with us in a sense, as the chief designer of the upcoming handset.

Apple lets Jailbreak back into App Store, iTunes Store

The company has now set things straight again and all content on the iTunes Store a including music and apps a now displays the word "jailbreak".

Flashback Mac Trojan earned $14,000 from ad clicks, Symantec

Symantec originally thought that at its peek the Flashback Trojan was generating around $10,000 a day by hijacking ad clicks. Now, new research suggests the developers may only have earned $14,000 during the time that the malware was active.

Anonymous hater claims responsibility for Pirate Bay DDoS attack

A hacker who claims to hate both Anonymous and notorious file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack that the bittorent website has been suffering for the last 24 hours.

Windows 8 Security: What's New

When Windows 8 comes out later this year, the new Start screen and Metro-style apps will likely be the first changes you'll notice, but those aren't the only things that are new. Microsoft is also making some serious security enhancements to help keep your system safer and to improve Windows' ability to combat viruses and malware. It just may be the biggest improvement to Windows security yet.

Academics propose groundbreaking uses for Watson

Three winners of an academic competition at the University of Rochester to create the most innovative and useful applications for IBM's Watson cognitive computing systems were announced yesterday by Big Blue.

Facebook IPO Madness: Own a Piece of the Giant Social Network

Facebook's initial public offering, or IPO, hits Wall Street Friday, and is one of the most highly anticipated tech stock offerings of the past decade. Everyone, it seems, wants to be in on the action. And it's possible to do so--after the big boys get their hands on it first.

Facebook IPO: Why Your Data Is Worth $93 Billion

'If the product is free, you are the product.'

HP may cut 25,000 jobs

HP is looking to cut at least 25,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs and return to growth, according to media reports.

Conmen replace iPhones, laptops with Coke and spuds

Conmen in Manchester have been selling bottles of water, cans of Coke, and even potatoes under the pretence that they are iPhones.

Apple victorious in iphone5.com domain dispute

Apple has apparently won control of the iphone5.com domain, according to changes in a Web record of the URL.

Paging Mr. Phelps: This SSD will self-destruct....

SSD maker RunCore's InVincible SSD can wipe your data using one of two methods: overwriting the entire disk with meaningless code or frying it with voltage.

Social media a boon for businesses, but creates security quagmire

Social media -- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and so forth -- has become a way of life for companies and their employees to interact with the public, but beating back the fraudsters that try to prey on customers, not to mention keeping employees from spilling sensitive data, is becoming a full-time job for many.

iPhone 5 said, again, to have 4-inch display

The next iPhone, which may or not be called iPhone 5, will have a 4-inch screen according to several unidentified sources cited in news stories this week.

Ethernet switching gets specialized

Growth in the Ethernet switch market is now being driven by specialized devices for specific applications, rather than evenly across all customer deployments.

'Thelma & Louise,' 'Beetlejuice' star Geena Davis wins major telecom award

Actress Geena Davis, President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Huawei Chairman Sun Yafang have been named winners of the 2012 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award for their efforts promoting information and communications technology (ICT) to empower women and girls.

iPhone, iPad become apple of cyber criminals' eye

Apple devices -- ever more popular in the workplace -- are about to become more popular with cyber criminals.

Android hackers honing skills in Russia

The malware business growing around Google Android -- now the leading smartphone operating system -- is still in its infancy. Today, many of the apps built to steal money from Android users originate from Russia and China, so criminal gangs there have become cyber-trailblazers.

Will voluntary cyber threat sharing plan cast doubt over CISPA?

The question of whether CISPA is really necessary might arise in the wake of a Department of Defense announcement last week that as many as 1,000 defense contractors -- and possibly thousands more -- may voluntarily join an expanded program of sharing classified information on cyber threats with the federal government.

T-Mobile USA clarifies job cuts will be net 350, not 900

T-Mobile USA clarified its latest restructuring plans and said the changes will result in a net 350 job losses, not 900 as reported earlier.

Cisco mobility bundles target BYOD, mobile virtual desktop

Cisco announced yesterday three pre-tested bundles of products and services designed to cut through the confusing complexity of enterprise mobility.

With Verizon pushing more into data caps, Sprint touts unlimited option

If you're a Verizon customer upset that your next smartphone contract won't include unlimited data, Sprint would like to remind you that you have an alternative.

Anonymous Takes Aim at Indian Government

In retaliation against Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocking some video-sharing and torrent websites like The Pirate Bay under Indian court orders, Anonymous, the "hacktivist" organization, today took down the websites of the ruling Congress Party and the Supreme Court of India. Anonymous, which in the past has been credited with taking down the websites of the MPAA, RIAA, the FBI, the US Department of Justice and child pornographers, took down these sites in what is understood to be DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

For Univ. of Kentucky, SAP's HANA is 'disruptive'

The University of Kentucky says it has reshaped its business intelligence capability by adopting SAP's in-memory system, HANA.

Technology Patent Wars Sign of Robust Innovation

The head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tells a congressional panel that the landmark reform bill signed last September is already yielding significant results, but defends litigation in tech sector as a sign of vigorous innovation.

7 Tips for Establishing a Successful BYOD Policy

If you haven't developed a corporate Bring Your Own Device policy, or if the one you have is out of date, these tips will help you address device security, IT service, application use and other key components of an effective BYOD policy.

Facebook sets IPO share price at $38

With Facebook's long-anticipated IPO expected to hit on Friday morning, the company set its initial share price at $38 today.

Mac-based Flashback click fraud campaign was a bust

The hackers in charge of the Flashback botnet managed to generate $14,000 from their click fraud campaign, but have not been paid, Symantec said today.

New mobile DRAM standard for 4G networks offers 50% performance boost

The specification for next-generation mobile DRAM was published, offering smartphone, tablet and ultra-thin notebook makers a 50% increase in memory performance.

Why Ultrabook Laptops Aren't Just MacBook Air Clones

Ultrabooks are sleek, super-thin laptops that often feature a silver, wedge or tapering design--yes, just like the Apple MacBook Air.

US firms over-reliant on firewalls to defend against DDoS attacks

More than half of US businesses still rely on conventional firewalls or intrusion prevention systems to shield themselves from the scourge of DDoS attacks, a survey by services firm Neustar has found.

Japanese researchers break record for Terahertz Wi-Fi transmission

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan claim to have broken the record for wireless data transmission in the Terahertz band with a data rate 20 times higher than most current Wi-Fi connections.

Google Knowledge Graph: The Birth of a Siri Rival?

On the surface, Google's Knowledge Graph seems like just another search feature, but connect the dots and it could become the brains behind a Siri-like virtual assistant.

T-Mobile debuts four data pricing tiers

T-Mobile USA will debut 4 'No Annual Contract' data service plans on Sunday, while Verizon plans to kill unlimited data plans as users shift to 4G

General Motors pulls Facebook ads

Car giant General Motors has confirmed it will stop advertising on Facebook, after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers' car purchases.

Android malware using real apps as disguise 'wrappers'

Mobile malware stepped up an order of magnitude in volume and sophistication during 2011 and this trend has continued in the first quarter of 2012, according to F-Secure's latest quarterly report.

Spiceworks social network for IT pros hits 2M users

Spiceworks, the social business platform for IT professionals, has announced that it now has 2 million users, representing nearly 30 percent of all IT pros at small and medium-sized businesses worldwide.

Cyber spies exploiting Java, Flash flaws

Such activity is often paid for, or sanctioned by, government agencies

AT&T lights up 4G LTE in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Naples

AT&T Thursday launched its 4G LTE service in, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Naples, Fla., today, which extends its high-speed network implementations to 38 markets.

Mozilla product director says Firefox on Windows RT 'probably not worth it'

Unless Microsoft allows other browser makers to call important APIs in Windows RT, it's "probably not worth it to even bother" building a version of Firefox for the new OS, a Mozilla product director said.

Open-source messaging at (nearly) the speed of light

Felix Ehm, a member of CERN's beams control group, has always had a curious and scientific bent.

The Pirate Bay suffers DDoS attack

The controversial file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has experienced a distributed denial of service attack, according to the site's Facebook page.

HTC phones banned in US after Apple patent win

Apple has succeeded in stopping the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones being shipped into the US, with reports emerging that the devices are being held back at customs.

Apple speaks up in Siri 'false advertising' lawsuit

Apple is hoping to dismiss a set of class-action lawsuits accusing it of falsely advertising Siri. The lawsuit claims the iPhone 4S's voice activated assistant feature doesn't work as advertised.

iOS 6 spotted by developers in usage logs

Developers have discovered that users running iOS 6 have been accessing their apps.

NASDAQ fines Morgan Stanley over coding error in trading software

Morgan Stanley International has been fined APS35,000 by NASDAQ OMX Stockholm after a coding error in its algorithm software caused unusual volatility in the market on 30th November last year.

Ex-Microsoft exec: 'We shouldn't have taken on Apple with Zune'

Microsoft should have "skipped media players completely" and instead produced "the coolest music service for your phones ever."

UK investment banks point to in-memory analytics to tackle big data

Big data is increasingly being seen as a significant problem by the UK's investment banks, where 67 percent believe that in-memory analytics will be the predominant architecture deployed within the next three years to help tackle it.

Doctors warned not to use social media with patients

Doctors are being cautioned by hospitals they work with to avoid interacting with patients on social media, and that they reject any overtures by patients to interact on the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

If Facebook's IPO goes south, social, tech markets could take a hit

With Facebook's initial public offering creating such a frenzy of interest, there's an important question to be considered: What happens if tomorrow or next week or five months from now, this investment goes south?

Comcast ditches flat 250GB bandwidth cap for tiered service approach

Comcast is trying out more flexible ways to implement its bandwidth caps by experimenting with tiered service options.

J*******k: Dirty word disappears from Apple iTunes store

Apple historically has fought iPhone jailbreaking by warning customers that their device warranties will be voided if they muck around with the innards of their Apple products. Now Apple appears to be taking its disapproval of jailbreaking one step further by censoring at least some references to "jailbreak" in its U.S. iTunes store.

NetSuite 'glad to help rival SAP with their ERP'

Zach Nelson, chief executive at NetSuite, has publicly thanked rival SAP for renewing a cloud computing license with his company, instead of using its own software.

UK man jailed for Facebook hack

A man from West Sussex has been sent to jail for 12 months after hacking into a private Facebook account.

How to start a business continuity program

Sometimes you pull the short straw.

Equifax Eyes Are Watching You--Big Data Means Big Brother

As one of three credit bureaus in the United States, Equifax keeps financial data on every adult in America, plus people in 16 other countries. But the company knows much more than just what goes into an old-fashioned credit score.

Pure Storage's next-generation flash array offers high-availability option

Pure Storage today announced the second generation of its all-flash array, which can now be configured for high availability.

Intel launches third generation Core vPro processors

Chip maker Intel today announced the launch of its third generation Intel Core vPro processors, codenamed Ivy Bridge, designed for use in business laptops, desktops and "intelligent systems".

Netgear Adds to Its 802.11ac Lineup

Netgear's first 802.11ac router, the R6300, will go on sale next week for $200, the company announced at a news conference yesterday. Touting the benefits of the next-gen Wi-Fi standard, the company also announced two more 802.11ac products: a lower-end router and a USB adapter for notebooks, both due this summer.

Android 5.0 Will Launch this Fall with Five Nexus Devices: Report

When Android 5.0 "Jelly Bean" launches this fall, it will appear first on several new mobile devices sold by Google itself as part of the "Nexus" line.

GM Will Stop Paying for Ads on Facebook - Because They Don't Work

Just days before Facebook's much anticipated initial public offering, one of the largest advertisers in the U.S. has decided to stop advertising on the platform. General Motors will stop advertising on Facebook because it has determined that paid ads on the site are, well, not effective, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Mobile Phone Sales Sink for First Time in Three Years

Is the bloom off the rosy market for mobile phones?

Verizon to Kill Unlimited Data for All Users, Offer Shared Data Plans

In Verizon's quest to kill unlimited data, even customers with "grandfathered" plans are on the chopping block.

Google's new Knowledge Graph: Three key features

Google today unwrapped the first part of its efforts to overhaul its search engine capabilities to incorporate more semantic search capabilities. Here are three of its key features.

Utah CTO takes fall for data breach

The executive director of Utah's Department of Technology Services has resigned over a data breach two months ago that exposed the Social Security numbers of about 280,000 Medicaid recipients.

Smartphone security is heading for 'apocalypse'

The meteoric rise in the smartphone market is creating a dangerous vulnerability in smartphone security - one that may not be patched until the problem expands into what has been dubbed an "apocalypse."

Microsoft anti-bloatware service to apply to Windows 8 PCs, too

A Microsoft in-store program that scrubs "bloatware" from Windows PCs will also be offered when Windows 8 machines reach the market later this year, a company representative said.

Hospital system pursues identity-management Holy Grail

It's an ideal in identity management: a centralized role-based access control system that supports single-sign-on (SSO) user access to authorized applications tied into the human resources systems for automated provisioning and de-provisioning, and the ability to integrate physical-security identity badges for room access.

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