Andy Patrizio

After a 2009 most PC vendors would like to forget — except perhaps Acer, which passed Dell to become the world’s second-ranked vendor behind HP — PC sales will begin to improve this year thanks to steep discounts and improving global economic conditions, according to market researcher IDC. IDC’s) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker projects the […]

Software giant Oracle, now a hardware company as well thanks to its purchase of Sun Microsystems, reports earnings on Thursday after the close of trading, and at least one analyst believes there will be no major surprises. That’s good or not so good, depending on your perspective. It could be argued that Oracle’s (NASDAQ: ORCL) […]

IBM has teamed with eMeter to provide ready-made systems for public utilities to implement an IBM-managed smart grid to help improve their power usage and efficiency. The program is specifically targeted at mid-sized electric, gas and water utilities as part of IBM’s smarter-planet strategy. A smart grid uses two-way digital technology to deliver electricity to […]

Apple has notified developers that it is ready to take submissions for iPad applications to be sold on its own App Store. Developers were informed that if they want to have their app run through the approval process and ready for the April 3 launch day, they must get their app in by 5 pm […]

Google doesn’t get embarrassed too often, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just dealt it a loss of face by rejecting its application for a trademark for the Nexus One smartphone. The PTO decided on March 9 to decline Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) request on the grounds it could cause confusion with the mark […]

Apple opened up its online store for preorders of the iPad at 5:30 am Friday morning, and other than a brief service outage, the first day of orders has gone smoothly. Customers are limited to only two pre-orders per person. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is taking orders for both the Wi-Fi and 3G models, although only […]

ALSO SEE: Ten Challenges Facing Cloud Computing SANTA CLARA, Calif. – At last year’s IDC Directions show, Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst for the firm, said that cloud computing was just on the verge of “crossing the chasm,” that popular meme taken from a 1991 book of the same name that refers […]

Datacenter builds and expansion will grow at a respectable rate in 2010 and into 2011, with around one-third of large firms surveyed planning to make expansions this year and 83 percent planning to expand their datacenter facilities in the next 12 to 24 months. Digital Reality Trust, which builds and leases datacenters, conducted the survey […]

Intel is aiming to tackle the small-business server market with its first server platform based on the Atom processor. Unveiled here today at the CeBit trade show in Germany, Intel’s new take on the Atom — the processor most widely associated with the popular netbook form factor — relies on coupling the CPU with a […]

SAN FRANCISCO — With enterprise data growing at an overall rate of 60 percent per year, it’s time to take a closer look at that information and determine its economic value. Because if we don’t, the bad guys certainly will. That was the warning from Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) CEO Enrique Salem, speaking here at the RSA […]