David Needle

The ambitious One Laptop Per Child program announced big staff cut backs amid what its founder Nicholas Negroponte called “streamlining” and “refocusing on our mission.” In a blog post at the OLPC site, Negroponte said fifty percent of his staff was being laid off and the remaining 32 staffers can expect salary reductions. “While we […]

SAN FRANCISCO — What’s Macworld without Apple? That was the question that the long-running tech trade show’s organizers sought to answer this week, which marked the last time the event could count Apple as a participant and its chief exhibitor. Representatives from show producer IDG Word Expo were joined by several hundred of the Macfaithful, […]

Click on the graphic for a larger view. Source: Intel SAN FRANCISCO — Classroom computing just got more flexible. Chip giant Intel plans to release details of its latest Classmate PC at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this Friday. The “convertible” model features a standard (8.9-inch) display that can be turned to a tablet mode for […]

Sony Electronics’ new social networking site Sony has come up with a novel way to get users involved in its new community Web site — help name it. In conjunction with this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony Electronics unveiled a beta testing version of a new interactive community site. The as-yet-unnamed […]

You still can’t take it all with you, but a new iPhone service makes it easy to access your PC or Mac files from the cloud. Released today at Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, Soonr automatically backs up PC or Mac files to a “personal cloud” of online storage. Soonr said its like-named service […]

The problem is getting worse. Every year, research firm Basex calculates the cost of information overload and the numbers keep going up by a staggering amount. For 2008, Basex estimates information overload cost the U.S. economy $900 billion in lost productivity. For 2006, that figure was $588 billion. “We’re continuing to generate more content, and […]

Wal-Mart Stores has announced it will start selling Apple’s iPhone this Sunday, but the popular cell phones that can surf the Web will not be priced as low as some anticipated. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) plans to sell the black 8-gigabyte iPhone 3G model, which also holds about 2,000 songs, for $197. The 16-gigabyte model, in […]

If cash is king, Google employees may be feeling a bit less royal this holiday season. The search giant eschewed its usual holiday gift of cash to full-time staffers in favor of a new “Dream” phone, the same handset sold by T-Mobile as the G1 that’s based on Google’s Android software. But a knowledgeable source […]

Acer Aspire One netbookSource: Acer Experts and PC industry insiders have long wondered whether bare-bones netbooks were too cheap for manufacturers’ own good. But don’t tell that to Acer. The Taiwanese PC maker and Best Buy dropped the price on the company’s Aspire One netbook to $299.99, as part of a holiday promotion that runs […]

Trying to forget 2008 even happened? You’re not alone. Caught in the fallout from turmoil in the banking industry, the tech sector is reeling from dried-up credit, a timid investment community and a steep drop-off in enterprise and consumer spending. But don’t be too glad to see 2008 go. After all, it had its bright […]

HP may have plans to compete with Apple in the smartphone market, but that doesn’t mean it can ignore the iPhone. Today, HP (NYSE: HPQ) announced iPrint Photo, a free application now available on Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch. iPrint Photo is designed to let customers easily print photos wherever there’s […]

Warner Music Group ordered YouTube on Saturday to remove all music videos by its artists from the popular online video-sharing site after contract negotiations broke down. The order could affect hundreds of thousands of videos clips, as it covers Warner Music’s recorded artists as well as the rights for songs published by its Warner/Chappell unit, […]