Tech Buzz

Last week was disappointing. I was expecting, as were others, much more out of Apple at its developer's conference, where the subtext was that with Steve Jobs not looking so well and with a lot of executives in his age group stepping down, is it time to imagine an Apple without him? Going beyond di...

On Tuesday, government officials in India rejected an offer to participate in a much-hyped project to distribute laptops costing US$100 each to the world's impoverished children. A closer look reveals this scheme to be little more than open source evangelism in the Third World. The laptop project i...

Now that it has cooled off in California, or at least it had until my wife saw our power bill for the month of July, it seems like it might be a good time to talk conservation, and touch on some of the technologies that can be used to reduce our use of fossil fuels as well as keep our power bills fr...

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission released a key draft decision that redraws telecom laws in a forward-thinking way. If commissioners can hear above the cawing of activist groups, consumers will benefit greatly. The Uniform Regulatory Framework, an ambitious effort by the CPUC to...

Last week was one to write home about, particularly between AMD and Intel. The AMD folks effectively created a distraction during Intel's biggest launch since the original Pentium 13 years ago -- and Intel actually helped them do it. In addition, Microsoft met with a broad cross section of analysts ...

Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the end of the ancient federal excise tax on long-distance telephone bills. Consumers should be wary of this seemingly positive development, as cash-strapped bureaucrats now press forward with plans for new technology taxes, threatening innovation.

This is becoming an interesting summer. As we cook under the effects of "mythical" global warming, tech vendors have been busy getting ready for the second half of the year. I've had a chance to review the multi-vendor FlexGo announcement and think there is a broader play here then we initially real...

As the country gears up for the November elections and online communities start to buzz, it's instructive to look back at the way image myths were created, even with the openness of the Internet. The Howard Dean campaign is one example. During the 2004 election, the Dean campaign was credited with ...

Of all the weeks for me to pick to take a vacation, last week was probably the worst. There was so much going on that my "vacation" became busier than a normal work week. Microsoft, for one, was the subject of some positive buzz as news bubbled up around its so-called "iPod killer." On the negative ...

This week, European Commission regulators fined Microsoft about US$356 million, adding to the $630.7 million the company has already been forced to pay. Noncompliance with a mandate to disclose technology documents is the official reason for the fine, yet the deadline for such compliance has not yet...