David Needle

Is Apple readying a significant upgrade to the iPod Touch? Rumors to that have been circulating for months — namely, that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will release a new iPod Touch with a built-in camera and microphone, bringing more of the standard iPhone’s features to the device. The rumor mill picked up again this week following […]

If you the think the future of application distribution for mobile devices is all about who can build the best App Store, Google begs to differ. Google’s vice president of engineering, Vic Gundotra, recently touted the advantages of applications delivered through the browser as opposed to a separate online storefront. “We believe the Web has […]

[Standard and Poor’s ](http://www.standardandpoors.com)announced that Red Hat would join the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on Friday. Red Hat replaces lender CIT Group, which had a market capitalization below $275 million, ranking it 500th in the index. The market seemed to like the S&P news. In after hours trading Friday, Red Hat […]

Why ‘limit’ yourself to the hundreds of millions of users on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networks? A new iPhone application extends the boundaries of established social networks by letting you go beyond the typical network of friends and friends-of-friends to connect with people with similar interests. flyChat launched today for the iPhone as […]

Google has expanded the template gallery it launched a year ago by giving users the option to make their own creations available to other Google Docs users. The Gallery Page now includes a new “Submit a Template” button in the upper right of the screen. Google Docs templates can be documents, presentations, spreadsheets or forms. […]

Salesforce and Google Apps are probably the best known software as a service (SaaS) applications, but another early player, Zoho, has been rapidly expanding its innovative lineup of applications beyond the scope of the market leaders. This week Microsoft confirmed its plans to offer [free cloud-based, lightweight versions ](/software/article.php/3829386/Office+2010+Debut+Free+Online+Edition+Near.htm)of its Office 2010 apps next year. […]

SAN FRANCISCO — For many, “Google it” has become the popular and commonly understood equivalent of telling someone to do an Internet search. With that kind of consumer awareness and a dominant market share, you’d think the search giant has no worries. Not quite true. “‘I can’t find my friend’s band’s Web page. You guys […]

The latest comScore search rankings show Microsoft’s Bing search engine is making a little headway in its battle with market leaders Google and Yahoo based on results for June. But the report by comScore indicates Microsoft made a slight gain at Yahoo’s expense, not Google’s, for figures that cover search queries in the U.S. Google’s […]

Telecom provider Telcentris has unwrapped the latest version of its VoxOx universal communications service, sporting a new interface and features designed to corral the many different communication services consumers use into a single user interface. “We’re addressing the communications mayhem, the insanity that’s out there today. People are overwhelmed,” Kevin Hertz, CTO and co-founder of […]

Google has released a migration tool for companies interested in moving from IBM’s Lotus Notes to the search giant’s Google Apps Premier suite of cloud-based applications. Notes has also long been a target of Microsoft looking to woo customers to its Exchange e-mail service, but this is the first time Google has publicly gone after […]

Guess the sixth largest property on the Web, according to the latest comScore rankings. Facebook? Wrong. eBay? Nope. Those two Internet giants trail Ask Networks, which includes Ask.com, an early player in search that’s still very much in the game. The latest comScore rankings for May of this year, show Ask with over 74 million […]

From left: Panel moderator Ben Stein and HP’s Bruce DahlgrenPhotos: David Needle SAN FRANCISCO — It says something about the corporate customers’ concerns about energy and costs savings when the biggest maker of printers pushes a plan to do more with less. At an event here in San Francisco, HP (NYSE: HPQ) today rolled out […]