Datamation Staff

All Things D: New data from comScore shows that iOS and Android are continuing to extend their lead over all other mobile operating systems. According to the report, just over half of the 104 million smartphones in the U.S. run Google’s Android; that’s a 17 percent year-over-year increase. Apple’s iPhone accounts for 30 percent of […]

ZDNet: The Anonymous hacktivist group now has a Chinese branch, and those Chinese hackers have launched a major assault on their government’s websites. The group attacked 485 such sites, defacing some and leaking login credentials and other data related to others. The group posted a message explaining the reason for the attacks to Pastebin. In […]

Daily Tech: Yahoo recently sued Facebook for infringing on 10 to 20 of its patents, and now Facebook has countersued, alleging that Yahoo infringes on 10 Facebook patents. More specifically, it claims that Yahoo violates five patents related to advertising, one patent related to media tagging and four patents related to photo sharing, which occurs […]

Computerworld: A team of academic researchers have completed a study which found that IT spending can have a bigger impact on profitability than investments in R&D and marketing. However, some types of IT investments were more profitable than others. For example, cost cutting systems did not lead to greater profits because a firm’s competitors were […]

CNNMoney: Today, Yahoo said it will lay off 2,000 employees, or approximately 14 percent of its total workforce. According to the company, the job cuts will save Yahoo $375 million per year. New CEO Scott Thompson called the cuts “an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo — smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better […]

All Things D: RIM has unveiled an update to BlackBerry Mobile Fusion that allows the server software to manage iOS and Android devices as well as smartphones made by RIM. “For businesses and government, managing a mix of mobile devices on any scale is chaotic,” said RIM VP Alan Panezic. “Organizations face pressure to allow […]

ZDNet: The Linux Foundation has released its list of which companies contributed the most to Linux kernel development in 2011, and it includes a surprising name. According to the foundation, “[For] the first time, Microsoft appears on list of companies that are contributing to the Linux kernel. Ranking at number 17, the company that once […]

Computerworld: For the second day in a row, Dell has announced that it is purchasing an enterprise software firm. This time, Dell will buy Clerity Solutions, which offers technology for transitioning legacy mainframe applications to modern distributed or cloud-based environments. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition. Clerity’s 70 employees will […]

PCMag: Prompted by complaints from Microsoft and Apple, the European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Motorola’s patent licensing practices. “The Commission will assess whether Motorola has abusively, and in contravention of commitments it gave to standard setting organizations, used certain of its standard essential patents to distort competition in the Internal Market in […]

InfoWorld: For the first time in four years, IBM has announced a major upgrade to its flagship DB2 database software for Linux, Unix and Windows systems. According to the company, DB2 10 can cut storage space requirements up to 90 percent, and it also offers faster performance. New features include support for RDF semantic data […]

Cnet: According to a new report from Canaccord Genuity, the top two smartphone makers, Apple and Samsung, account for 90 percent of all profits in their industry. Apple alone accounted for 80 percent of handset manufacturer profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. The firm predicts that Apple and Samsung could extend their domination of […]

SlashGear: The latest data from Net Applications shows that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser gained market share in March for the first time since September 2011; it closed out the month with 53.8 percent of the market. Meanwhile, Google’s Chrome continued its three-month slide, ending at 18.6. Mozilla’s Firefox also dropped slightly; its 20.6 percent market […]