David Needle

Online retail sales on “Cyber Monday” are set to reach a new record, with rivals Amazon.com and Walmart.com set to be the prime beneficiaries, according to industry experts. Shares of Amazon soared (NASDAQ: AMZN) to an all-time high on Monday on optimism over the company’s holiday performance and a statement by Amazon reporting record November […]

Is Apple ramping up testing of a new iPhone? While the typically secretive company hasn’t given any details of its next iPhone, a report in the MacRumors Web site gives some indication of what might be ahead as competitors scramble to match and exceed features of the hot-selling device. The report is based on information […]

What do you do when you’re the number four or five player in search with a single-digit share? Hopefully something different — and compelling. That’s what the folks at Ask.com have in mind. Actually their strategy is both different and a return to the company’s roots when it started out as AskJeeves. “Search and keywords […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, IBM. Guessing which of the five doesn’t belong would seem like a no-brainer, but while IBM isn’t solely focused as a company on social media like the other four, it’s hardly a newcomer; in fact it has some very substantial offerings. “We’re probably the leader in social […]

I’m guessing not many folks at Google are old enough to remember Adam Osborne (though CEO Eric Schmidt is one). Back in the ’80s Osborne’s namesake Osborne Computer Corp. introduced the first popular portable computer. In those days, a 25-pound luggable qualified as portable and the Osborne sold like hotcakes. But It was also one […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google’s plans for its new Chrome OS came into sharper focus at a media briefing today here at the company’s headquarters. While Chrome OS is often portrayed in the media as a potential competitor to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system, Google’s roadmap indicates it’s in no rush to take on Windows […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google today released surprising new details about the Chrome operating system it’s been developing. First off, a final version of the Chrome OS won’t be available until near the end of next year, in time for the holiday shopping season. During a presentation here at the company’s headquarters, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) […]

Yahoo is ready to step up the pace in the race to provide the best real-time news. Today the Web giant rolled out improved search results for news stories, including a tab for Twitter results that includes relevant videos shared by Twitter users. “We’ve been focused on making search more personally relevant for people and […]

VMware’s Bogomil Balkansky (L) and HP’s Jeff Carlat (R)Photos: David Needle SAN FRANCISCO — When Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss asks IT for something, there’s usually no substance behind the request other than it’s trendy. Wednesday’s strip, in which he asks Dilbert to “implement cloud computing so I’ll have something to talk about at the next executive […]

Is the point of a search to get a page of links that leads to more searching, or is it to get specific content in the form an answer you can trust? Startup Factery Labs strongly believes it’s the latter. The company’s FactEngine extracts what it says is the most relevant content from real-time feeds […]

IBM is taking its Lotus Symphony applications on the road, teaming with VMWare and Keepod to offer its productivity suite on a portable USB device. Lotus Symphony is IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) free suite of applications designed to help users create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations and is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats. […]

Click on the graphic for a larger view. Source: Google Google has released a set of templates for its site creation service Google Sites designed to help companies and individuals get more of a running start using the Web site creation service. The search giant launched Google Sites in February, 2008 and has attracted tens of […]