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Japan game market shrank 21% in first half

Martyn Williams — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Japan's computer gaming market shrank by 21% in the first six months of the current financial year, due mainly to sharply lower sales of game consoles and handhelds, according to data released on Tuesday.

US online ad growth slows in 2008's first half

2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

U.S. online advertising, the motor that fuels most Internet companies large and small, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace, has seen its growth lose significant speed in the first half of this year.

AMD to spin off chip fabs to raise funds

2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Advanced Micro Devices plans to split into two companies, one to design chips and one to make them, while two investment funds owned by the government of Abu Dhabi will contribute new capital, it said Tuesday. AMD hopes the move will give it the resources it needs to compete effectively with Intel, which dominates the microprocessor industry.

F5 adds support for iPhones over its SSL VPN tunnels

Tim Greene — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

F5 Networks has issued a new version of its FirePass software so it can apply group access policies to mobile devices as the log-in to SSL VPNs.

AMD break-up: two voices from Europe

2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

The financial world seems to be falling apart, but Advanced Micro Devices has just landed several billion dollars from two Abu Dhabi investment groups to fund "Asset Smart," a plan to spin off its chip manufacturing operations into a new company, tentatively called "The Foundry Co."

BT offers mega-Ethernet with new WAN

2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

The latest benefit of BT's hugely-hyped 21CN communications system has arrived in the form of 'Etherflow,' a way for businesses to hitch their WANs to an Ethernet-based network.

HP, Tandberg team for soup-to-nuts telepresence

Tim Greene — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

HP and Tandberg are uniting to provide a single source for telepresence gear as well as installation and monitoring.

Will Apple be forced to make more money?

Scott Bradner — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Apple-AT&T iPhone agreement has gotten the court’s attention.

Famitsu publisher's Tokyo Game Show picks

Martyn Williams — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

The Tokyo Game Show is a big event in the calendar for anyone in the gaming industry and for Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain, the company that publishes Japan's leading game magazine 'Famitsu', it represents a chance to gauge development at each company and gather clues to future market developments.

Massive Welsh data center to fire up early next year

2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

An ambitious project is under way in Wales to build one of the most advanced and secure data centers in Europe.

Report: AMD to spin-off manufacturing

Martyn Williams — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Advanced Micro Devices is preparing a to spin off its manufacturing operations to a joint venture in an attempt to cut costs, according to an online report from The Wall Street Journal.

Oracle and SAP fail to settle TomorrowNow lawsuit

James Niccolai — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Oracle and SAP held settlement talks Monday in their TomorrowNow lawsuit but failed to reach an agreement that would end the case, an SAP spokeswoman said.

Pramati developing enterprise collaboration widgets

John Ribeiro — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Pramati Technologies will release new software widgets for the enterprise by January that will allow users to collaborate from within the business applications that they are using.

Symantec updates DLP endpoint, antispam gateway

Ellen Messmer — 2008-10-07T00:00:00Z

Symantec plans to release updated versions of its antispam gateway and data-loss-prevention agent.

Cisco unveils surveillance camera for SMBs

Jim Duffy — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Cisco's Linksys unit this week unveiled a wireless Internet surveillance camera for small and midsize businesses.

Report: SEC investigating false Jobs heart attack rumor

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

A false report of a Steve Jobs' heart attack that caused Apple's stock to momentarily plunge on Friday has piqued the interest of the Securities & Exchange Commission, according to reports.

Data breach target: You

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Heard about a competitor's security being breached? Then you're probably next. In fact, you may already be owned.

One in three iPhone 3G customers ditch their carriers

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

If the iPhone 3G was enough impetus to get you to drop your wireless provider like it was hot, then this news probably won't surprise you. According to figures from market-research firm NPD Group, almost one-in-three iPhone 3G customers were defectors from other mobile operators. The report also says iPhone 3G also topped sales in the smartphone category.

Video game execs prefer Obama to McCain

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

This has completely nothing to do with games, but it's relevant nonetheless.

Will the bailout have any impact on executive pay?

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

The proposed $700 billion federal bailout of the financial services industry that the House and Senate passed and President Bush signed this week has shined a spotlight on executive pay.

Mac security focus: Firewalls

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Firewalls monitor and regulate the data moving on and off your computer or network. They can keep criminals out while allowing legitimate network traffic in. Mac OS X comes with not one but two firewalls of its own. However, those two aren't always enough.

O.J. Simpson guilty verdict could lead to malicious spam

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Users should be on guard for spam touting the guilty verdict of former professional football star O.J. Simpson, a security company warned Monday.

Ford's chip-in-a-key puts brakes on teen drivers

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Ford Motor Co. Monday unveiled a new car key that holds a computer chip that can help parents keep tabs and a restraining virtual hand on their teen drivers.

Shell blames IT contractor for benefits fraud

Robert McMillan — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Shell Oil is warning employees that a contractor used their personal information to run an unemployment-insurance-claim scam in Texas.

Open-source resource for government launches online

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

The Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa has launched the online Government Open Source Software Resource Center.

IPO dry spell could hurt tech start-ups

Jon Brodkin — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

There were zero venture capital-backed IPOs in the second quarter of 2008 - the first time that's happened in 30 years.

Toshiba's first fuel cell coming in a few months

Martyn Williams — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Toshiba is close to launching its first commercial direct-methanol fuel-cell device, which promises a faster way to recharge portable electronics products.

T-Mobile says Android presales stronger than expected

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

T-Mobile on Monday said preorders for the first Android phone have been three times greater than it expected and that it won't promise to ship any more phones in time for the Oct. 22 launch.

Browser surf wars

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari... We rate the Big 5 of the browser brigade to help you decide which should be your window to the cyber-world.

Creating better vision

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

As Sankara Nethralaya took on more applications to meet patient needs, its network went on a blink, leaving the hospital blind for hours. When the problem moved from being an irritant to life-threatening, it knew only a network management system could save it.

Right on track

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Bound by complex labor laws, the largest employer in the world was desperate to automate the process of monitoring and assigning duties to millions of staffers.

End-to-end application management - the network perspective

Dennis Drogseth — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

What if your executive team needed to develop a true "end-to-end" application management strategy? What would it look like?

Higher education goes back to school on communication technologies

John Cox — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Changes in communication technologies are forcing higher education to make big, expensive, and potentially risky decisions, according to two campus CIOs speaking at this week's fall seminar for ACUTA, an association of higher education IT professionals.

Acceptable risk in changing economic times

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

You know the game "chicken"? That describes what it feels like as companies push for more growth and innovation in a time of increasing economic uncertainty. Today's business landscape is like a volcanic field, with eruptions taking place left and right. Rising fuel and commodities costs have changed the equation for many businesses. The effects ripple from suppliers through layers of the value chain to businesses that might not initially have thought they were at risk.

Your own virtualization flight test

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center wasn't shooting for the stars when it turned to virtualization to meet its storage needs. IPAC's cash-strapped effort to record images of our universe -- up to 30 million objects captured each night and 42 billion records over the life of the project -- required big storage capabilities, and the engineers needed them fast and at a low cost.

Virtual headaches

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

There's an age-old choice in IT -- whether to adopt a "best of breed" strategy for the power and flexibility it can bring, or go with a single vendor for accountability and simplicity. J. Craig Venter Institute Inc. (JCVI) believes in best of breed. The genomic research company runs Linux, Unix, Windows and Mac OS in its data center. For storage, it draws on technology from EMC, NetApp, Isilon, DataDomain and Symantec.

Porn filters on in-flight Wi-Fi may be just the start

Stephen Lawson — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

A reported decision by Delta Air Lines to block "inappropriate" Web sites from its planned in-flight Wi-Fi service could be just the tip of the iceberg for airlines' control of Internet use.

Militants send terror messages in India by 'wardriving'

Agam Shah — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Citizens need to be vigilant and patch poorly secured wireless networks, the Indian police said Monday after announcing the arrest of technology-savvy members of a militant group that exploited insecure wireless networks to send messages.

GoDaddy hosts Exchange to offer first desktop mail service

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Web domain and hosting provider GoDaddy Monday unveiled its first desktop mail offering based on a partnership with Microsoft to host Exchange Server 2007.

Project releases version 2.0 of open source .Net

John Fontana — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

The Mono Project, which develops an open source implementation of the .Net Framework, released the long-awaited 2.0 version on Monday.

The virtual mindset

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

As companies are diving deeper into virtualized storage projects, IT managers are getting a better understanding of the staff skills they need to make those projects succeed. The exact talents required depend on the type of storage implementation, but most employers say they're in the market for two kinds of IT worker: technicians with vendor-specific SAN or NAS knowledge, and systems administrators and IT architects who understand the complexities and interdependencies among applications, operating systems and I/O, all of which affect storage requirements.

10 steps to loading dock security

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

It's the stuff of CSO nightmares. Early on the morning of Sept. 2, while most folks were home sleeping off the hot dogs, thieves used bolt cutters to break into an Alltel Communications warehouse and four of its loading docks in Fort Smith, Ark. Sources say they escaped with an estimated US$10 million worth of cell phones, not a bad haul for their Labor Day efforts.

Microsoft lays out SQL Server road map

John Fontana — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Microsoft Monday laid out its road map for SQL Server and a complement of business intelligence and data warehousing add-ons.

Patriot SSD balances performance and capacity

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Although still not mainstream, solid state drives (SSD) are slowly becoming a more practical means of storage. We've already covered Intel's impressive 80GB X25-M SSD. Now, Patriot Memory has introduced its new Extreme Performance Warp series SSD. I looked at the 128GB drive.

Career watch

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader

Razer ProClick Mobile laptop mouse

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Razer Pro Solutions, best known for gaming mice such as the DeathAdder, has added a new wireless portable mouse to its lineup, the ProClick Mobile. The ProClick Mobile takes Razer's excellent high-precision 1,200 dpi optical resolution technology, and packages it into a smaller wireless body. The ProClick Mobile is available in four colors--while I'd call them black, white, pink, and red, Razer's marketing department has named them Naughty, Nice, Sugar, and Spice.

Gas station finders for the iPhone

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Given the iPhone's ability to locate itself (precisely, for an iPhone 3G, and roughly, for a first-generation iPhone or iPod touch), it's not surprising that a number of location-aware programs have sprung up in the App Store--you can find programs that will track your iPhone via its GPS chip, show you where your friends are, and tell you which businesses and places of interest are in your immediate neighborhood, such as Yelp.

SAP warns on Q3 earnings, cites economy

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

Turmoil in the world's stock markets over the past several weeks and resulting concern among customers caused "a very sudden and unexpected drop in business activity" at the end of SAP's third fiscal quarter, the company said Monday.

HP puts more automation into SOA governance

Jon Brodkin — 2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

HP updates SOA governance suite with new features that automate the service life cycle, create reusable business processes and control unauthorized services.

Yar'Adua tasks ICT ministers with lessening digital divide

2008-10-06T00:00:00Z

In his opening remarks at the Commonwealth ICT Summit in Abuja this week, Nigerian President Alhaji Umara Musa Yar'Adua tasked Commonwealth ministers of ICT with lessening the digital divide.