Ed Sutherland

Cingular Wireless is tuning into the hot community video site YouTube by sponsoring its “battle of the bands” competition. In YouTube Underground, a promotion running Oct. 2 through Oct. 18, members of the online video-sharing site vote on videos submitted by independent musicians. Cingular said its sponsorship is a natural extension of its efforts to […]

Online retailer Amazon.com  said it will offer its lauded fulfillment capabilities to lure small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). With nearly one-third of Amazon sales coming from small companies, the retailer said it is offering Fulfillment by Amazon, which includes everything from storing a product to providing customer service. “Fulfillment by Amazon frees online sellers from […]

Motorola has acquired Symbol Technologies , a $3.9 billion deal opening a door into the enterprise for the second-largest wireless handset maker. Motorola will pay $15 for each outstanding share of Symbol stock. Symbol, which makes wireless handheld RFID barcode readers, becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola and a cornerstone of the handset company’s […]

RealNetworks announced a partnership with SanDisk to create a digital music player highlighting the company’s Rhapsody subscription music service. The companies said the Sansa Rhapsody, a version of SanDisk’s e200 Flash-based MP3 player, will include RealNetworks technology and 32 hours of pre-loaded music. The companies refused to disclose pricing for the product, which will be […]

Adobe Systems  unveiled its re-branded online conferencing software today with embedded collaboration features in one of the Web publishing company’s core products, Acrobat. Renaming Macromedia Breeze conferencing software Adobe Connect, the company said Monday it will leverage the ubiquity of PDF files and Flash presentations to enable connections between different work groups, such as artists, […]

UPDATED: Internet Explorer is again the target of an exploit. The latest, prompting an investigation by Microsoft , could allow hackers to take control of some un-patched PCs. The attack code appears just days after Microsoft’s regular monthly patch releases, an increasingly common tactic by malicious hackers. “This vulnerability may allow an attacker to execute […]

A group of mobile carriers has come together to help develop the future of wireless. Sprint Nextel , T-Mobile, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, Orange and KPN want to use the influence of the Next Generations Mobile Networks (NGMN) initiative to shape the development of next-generation wireless networks. “As major players within the industry and […]

A probe by Bill Lockyer, California’s attorney general, into the mounting scandal behind HP’s leak hunt has expanded to Massachusetts. “The California attorney general reached out to us last week,” confirmed Meredith Baumann, press secretary for Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly. Baumann refused to provide details on the Massachusetts connection with the HP case. “This […]

UPDATED: California’s Attorney General backed away from a timeline on filing charges in the fast-moving HP leak scandal. “We won’t be pinned down to a specific date,” Tom Dresslar, spokesperson for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said late today. The caution followed Lockyer’s more aggressive comments Tuesday during the PBS “Newshour with Jim Lehrer.” The […]

UPDATED: Software giant Microsoft released three security bulletins, one of which is aimed at correcting a critical flaw in Microsoft Publisher 2000. The critical patch, MS06-054, cures a security risk posed by a malformed Publisher file. If a user is logged in with administrative rights, attackers could take control of a system, deleting or changing […]

UPDATED: HP’s embattled Patricia Dunn will step down as chairwoman in January, according to the company. HP’s CEO Mark Hurd will succeed her on Jan. 18 and retain his current position. Dunn will remain an HP director. The announcement follows two days of meetings of the HP board of directors on the fate of Dunn, […]

A group of private equity firms reportedly has its sights on Freescale Semiconductors . Freescale would only confirm it is “in discussions with parties relating to a possible business transaction,” according to a statement. The semiconductor maker, which split from Motorola in 2004, is being eyed by the same group involved in other multi-billion-dollar buyouts […]