Business

Think things are going just 'pretty good' for Apple? That may not be the half of it, considering recent reports that one of the company's major hardware products is exploding in popularity. In fact, the hot 'n heavy item might just surprise you. We ... all know that the iPod and iPhone are ripping apart the competition this holiday season. That's hardly unexpected considering the slick MP3 player's entrenched position in the digital music market and the long, long lineups last summer for just a glimpse of Apple's new communicator. However, the company's Macinstosh line of computers has ... (view more)

Whenever the term "artificial intelligence" comes up, it tends to make some people nervous. It reminds them of the wayward computer, HAL, in the movie "2001 Space Odyssey" or cars that tell you in an annoying tone that your door is open. But, little ... by little, artificial intelligence is creeping into our day-to-day lives. Soon it will be on your desktop. A new product called "Smart Desktop" will shortly be released from Seattle-based Pi Corporation. Designed to work with Microsoft Windows, Smart Desktop will aid the user by attempting to "understand" what they are working ... (view more)

Who's been naughty this year? Microsoft's Santa Claus IM bot, that's who. PC World and Metro UK have recently reported that a program designed to respond to children via Windows Live Messenger could be easily duped into responding to lude and ... suggestive dialogue. (Source: metro.co.uk ) The error was first discovered in an exchange that went something like this: User: eat it Santa: No thank you. I don't eat things! User: eat it Santa: See if you can get someone else to eat it! User: eat it. Santa: You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something ... (view more)

Have you been charged with libel for what you've posted on your blog? If you have, don't expect Google to protect your identity. On Wednesday, the search giant agreed to hand over the Internet Protocol (IP) address of a Blogger user accused of ... posting defamatory comments against three members of the Israeli Shaarei Tikva council currently bidding for re-election. (Source: techcrunch.com ) Shaarei Tikva, which means 'Gates of Hope' in Hebrew, is an Israeli settlement located in the West Bank. The anonymous blogger accused the council members of receiving bribes, committing tax fraud, and ... (view more)

Representatives from Google recently revealed the company's 2008 initiative to research, fund, and supply energy resources to replace coal, a major culprit in global warming. "We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, ... energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers," said Google cofounder Larry Page. "We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal." (Source: Technewsworld.com ) The Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE<C) ... (view more)

Intuit, the maker of well-known products such as Quicken, Quickbooks, and TurboTax, has purchased Homestead Technologies, a provider of small business websites. (Source: www.techcrunch.com ) At face value there's nothing odd about this; Intuit has ... acquired more than 19 companies in the last decade. And yet, all of these previous acquisitions were directly related, in some way, to small business financial needs thereby complementing Intuit's focus on finance functions. Acquiring Homestead is out of character. Does it mean that Intuit has finally run out of room in the financial market? Maybe ... (view more)

Personal DNA profiling now has an official place on the web, thanks to the Google-funded company 23andme . (Source: reuters.com ) Last week, 23andMe launched a web-based service which, for $1,000, will allow users to access and interpret their ... genetic information. The company name refers to the number of chromosomes in the human genome. (Source: nzherald.co.nz ) Users submit their DNA by mail in the form of saliva samples, and can view their results on a personal homepage within the 23andMe site. The results include information about the user's ancestry, inherited personal traits, potential ... (view more)

A report entitled 'Top ten terrible tech products' released by CNET recently ranked Windows Vista number 10. As if Vista needed any more bad publicity, the report cited numerous reasons for the dubious distinction. Some of the reasons given for ... Windows Vista making the list include: Provoking a campaign for its predecessor's reintroduction (i.e. quietly introducing a downgrade-to-previous-edition option for PC makers due to increasing customer demands) deserves to be classified as terrible technology. An operating system that took six years at an ungodly cost to develop that is instantly ... (view more)

Proven internet success story Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of the Hotmail email client bought by Microsoft in 1998 for $400 million, is attempting to repeat his performance with a new venture. He is hoping to make inroads in the word processing market, ... principally attacking Microsoft Office's immense popularity. (Source: cnet.com ) His company, InstaColl, is set to develop a Flash-based Office 2007-like application, which will provide users with a uniquely collaborative experience. This is in keeping with Bhatia's speculation that by the year 2010, software sales on DVDs will plummet in favor of ... (view more)

Intel will soon release a new line of microprocessor chips that many believe will raise the number of high-definition videos available over the Internet. The increased computing power of the chips is expected to transform the current fragmented and ... often blurry clips found on most video streaming sites into high-resolution, full-screen quality movies. Analysts have called the new chips a "major breakthrough" and "the biggest thing to happen to high-definition videos". Some even claim that PC Hi-Def will rival HDTV in the very near future. (Source: iht.com ) As the demand for Internet video ... (view more)