Datamation Staff

DailyTech: The Mozilla Foundation, the group behind the open source Firefox browser, says it plans to build a new mobile operating system it calls “Boot to Gecko” or “B2G” for short. It will be based on the Android kernel and will focus on providing an ideal environment for HTML5-based Web apps. Observers note that the […]

Idevnews: A survey of enterprise IT managers conducted by Evolven Software finds that 62 percent of those surveyed either have a private cloud project in the works or are planning to start a private cloud project this year. That includes 34 percent of respondents who said that they already had private cloud projects underway. “These […]

Reuters: Five stores in China have been discovered which claim to be “Apple Stores” but have no relationship with the iPhone maker. However, the city of Kunming has ordered two of those stores to close because they do not have the appropriate business permits. “Media should not misunderstand the situation and jump to conclusions. Some […]

CIO: Oracle is releasing a “sneak peak” of new features slated for inclusion in the next version of the MySQL open source database. Those features include full-text search for InnoDB storage engine tables, an increase in the maximum size of InnoDB redo log files to 2TB, faster replication and a new API. The MySQL 5.6 […]

Techworld: In its Java-related patent infringement lawsuit against Google, Oracle asked for $6.1 billion in damages. But the judge in the case, William Alsup, says that’s far too high and recommends that the “starting point” be closer to $100 million. The news wasn’t all good for Google though. The judge also said that advertising revenue […]

Cnet: BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has announced that it will lay off 2,000 employees, or approximately 10 percent of its workforce. Affected employees in North America and some other countries will be notified later this week. The company says the plan “is focused on eliminating redundancies and reallocating resources to focus on areas […]

Bloomberg: According to Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold between 18 million and 21 million Android-based smartphones in the second quarter. That may have been enough to put Samsung ahead of Apple, which sold an estimated 20.3 million iPhones, and Nokia, which sold 16.7 million smartphones. “Samsung’s Android portfolio is selling strongly […]

The Seattle Times: In its fourth fiscal quarter, Microsoft earned $5.9 billion, a 30 percent increase over last year. Sales for the period hit $17.4 billion, an 8 percent increase. Both figures beat analyst expectations. The Windows division saw losses for the quarter, as did the online services division, which includes Bing and MSN. However, […]

eWeek: Google and social networking startup Fridge have both confirmed that the smaller company has been acquired by the tech giant. The Fridge founders and employees will begin working on the Google+ social network, and they will bring with them technology that makes it easier to create private groups within a social network, as well […]

InformationWeek: As part of new CEO Larry Page’s effort to put “more wood behind fewer arrows,” Google will shut down Google Labs. Company senior vice president Bill Coughran blogged, “While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most […]

CBS News: The hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have downloaded more than 1GB worth of data from NATO servers and has posted a few of the documents online. A member of the group known as “Commander X” described the files as “classified NATO procurement and procedure files mostly (though not exclusively) describing NATO secure communications […]

GigaOm: Research firm Verdantix has released a new report sponsored by AT&T which claims that cloud computing could reduce enterprise energy costs by $12.3 billion. In addition, it says the trend could reduce carbon emissions by 85.7 million metric tons per year by 2020. However, it’s worth noting that while most studies sponsored by cloud […]