Datamation Staff

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Apple Inc is investigating media reports that one or more of the company’s iPhones have exploded in Europe, a European Commission spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The spokeswoman for the EU executive, which oversees the safety of consumer products sold in the 27-country bloc, said Apple had described the reported incidents as isolated. […]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp is looking to the building blocks of our bodies — DNA — to be the structure of next-generation microchips. As chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs. Artificial DNA nanostructures, or “DNA origami” may provide a cheap framework on […]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook’s vision of becoming a “utility” that offers activities to keep people online for hours could set it on a collision course with the Web’s giants. In recent days, the No.1 social networking company revamped its search engine and bought a start-up that some call a rival to hot micro-blogging service […]

Tech Comics: “Einstein and Twitter” Next Cartoon: “Parenting Post 2.0” Next Cartoon: “Parenting Post 2.0” The creator of the Geek and Poke cartoon series is Oliver Widder. Previous tech cartoons by the talented Oliver Widder: • Tech Comics: “The Art of Programming” • Tech Comics: “Twitter in the History of Communication” • Tech Comics: “Social […]

BANGALORE (Reuters) – A U.S. federal court has ordered Microsoft Corp to stop selling some versions of its widely used Word software in the United States in two months, ruling in favor of a small Canadian firm that accused the software giant of violating its patents. A U.S. district court in Texas ruled in favor […]

What tech skills are in demand? One measure comes from eLance, a global online workplace of contract jobs. The company’s monthly Top 100 Online Work Index for August, set for official release Tuesday, shows a big jump in several tech-related positions. The Index ranks skills in demand by eLance clients. Graphic Design comes in at […]

AMD is playing catch-up in two markets. On the CPU side, it’s chasing Intel, which has about four times its market share according to IDC. On the GPU side, nVidia leads with about 28 percent share vs. AMD’s 18 percent, according to graphics market watcher Jon Peddie Research. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) remains a partner of […]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sony Corp will begin selling this month the cheapest digital book reader for the United States, heating up the competition with Amazon.com Inc in the small but fast-growing market for electronic readers. Sony plans to start selling its 5-inch-screen Reader Pocket Edition at $199 — which it called a breakthrough price […]

Ten to 25 percent of broadband networks are likely infected by bots, and bots cause 90 percent of spam, according to the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), a coalition of security companies, bandwidth providers, and other interested parties. MAAWG has issued a report on the problem as well as advice for IT managers, titled “Messaging […]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp said on Wednesday it no longer expects netbooks to appeal to first-time computer buyers, but sees continued sales of the ultra-portable laptops as a secondary machine or a durable option for kids. “I don’t think first-time buyers are going to buy netbooks,” Sean Maloney, Intel’s general manager of sales […]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – There must be better ways to be awakened than by construction workers at the crack of dawn, your kids bouncing up and down on your chest — or a very, very loud buzz. From traditional electronics devices to Apple Inc’s iPhone, many products are looking for that “better way” — and increasingly […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc inked a 10-year Web search deal to better compete against market leader Google Inc but stopped short of combining their display advertising businesses. Shares of Yahoo, which had risen in recent weeks in anticipation of this deal, fell more than 7 percent in premarket trading, while […]