Cisco is reportedly getting ready to unveil a plan to work with service providers to build ultra-fast broadband networks that could run at 1Gbps, according to published reports. The announcement, expected March 9, mirrors a similar one made by Google Feb. 10, and will come a week before the FCC unveils its National Broadband Plan. - Cisco Systems reportedly is working with several major service providers to develop an ultra-fast broadband network. Ciscos move in some ways mirror that of Google, which on Feb. 10 said it will build broadband networks that run at 1 Gbps (gigabit per second) in several regions around the United S...

The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from the Kennedy Center Feb. 8 on one of NASA's most anticipated missions to the International Space: The delivery of the Tranquility node, the final module of the U.S. portion of the space station. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and many of the space station's life support and environmental control systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, which houses a robotic control station and has seven windows to provide a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. eWEEK takes a look at NASAs latest mission. (All photos courtesy of NASA.) - ...

The Apple iTunes Store received its 10 billionth song download, and a lucky Johnny Cash fan in Georgia winner of the Apple iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs contest has a $10,000 iTunes gift card headed his way. - One lucky Apple iTunes customer and Johnny Cash fan has $10,000 worth of songs in his future. Apple announced Feb. 25 that Louie Sulcer, of Woodstock, Ga., was the winner of its iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs contest, as his purchase of Johnny Cashs “Guess Things Happen That Way” was...

From its executives being charged for privacy violations in Italy, to formal complaints from Microsoft-supported entities in Brussels and Google's joust with China over a hack, Google is facing adversity from many fronts in the first two months of 2010. Moreover, many adversaries want to paint Google as the next Microsoft. This is probably not the start to the year the company envisioned, but Google has to deal with each issue with care lest it suffer additional blows to its image, let alone its business. - News Analysis: When you're the hottest team in town, everyone is gunning for you. No, we're not talking about Major League Baseball's defending world champion New York Yankees, even as we look forward to the 2010 baseball season. We're talking about Google. Through the first two mo...

With the cost of data breaches continuing to go up, the need to properly secure your database has never been clearer. Locking down the database layer, however, is no simply task. There are a number of different aspects that must be considered and steps database administrators should take. In discussions with eWEEK, experts from database security firms Guardium -- now part of IBM -- and Application Security served up some tips for enterprises to keep in mind to secure their data. - ...

SAP says its new SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand software offers analytics and reporting tools to casual business users who otherwise might not have the experience or skills necessary to make use of business intelligence in their daily workflow. SAP has increasingly focused on the small and midsize business segment as a way to increase its enterprise applications revenue stream, a move mirrored by its competitors, such as Oracle. The announcement comes on the heels of a substantial management shakeup at SAP. - SAP has unveiled its SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand platform, a platform for what the company described as quot;casual BI users currently underserved by products on the market. quot; Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer software, users can combine data from multiple sources and proceed to do an...

Microsoft and Panasonic announced an agreement that would give the electronics maker access to Microsofts Extended File Allocation Table technology, which allows consumer electronic devices to manage larger files. In addition, Panasonic also obtained a patent license for FAT32 long file name technology. Microsoft originally launched its exFAT licensing program in December 2009. A more generalized IP licensing program, started in 2003, has seen Microsoft enter into more than 600 licensing agreements with companies ranging from Apple to Hewlett-Packard. - Microsoft and Panasonic announced an intellectual property licensing agreement Feb. 25 that will give the latter access to Microsofts exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) technology. In theory, Panasonic will be able to leverage exFAT, which allows flash memory devices to manage larger files...

In response to a lawsuit filed by Microsoft, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against 277 Internet domains associated with the notorious Waledac botnet. - Microsoft is using the law as a weapon to take down the Waledac botnet. According to the company, a federal judge in Virginia issued a temporary restraining order Feb. 22 to cut off 277 Internet domains associated with Waledac in response to a complaint filed by Microsoft. The legal maneuver...

When it comes time to discuss Microsoft's intentions on the Web, that discussion always turns to Google. How will Microsoft compete against the search juggernaut? What can it do to stop Google's rise in Web advertising? They are valid questions that, so far, Microsoft hasn't been able to adequately address. But there is more to fear on the Web than just Google. Microsoft is slowly, but surely, realizing that the Web is the future of its operation. More and more applications are moving to the Internet. Consumers are even going to the Web. At this point, the company has no choice but to compete online in every space it can to ensure that, going forward, it isn't left behind by Web powerhouses. But as it engages the Web, it's also faced with more competition. And the idea that Google is the only online company that Microsoft needs to worry about is quickly forgotten. Here are 10 Web companies that Microsoft needs to fear most as it continues to move its services online. - ...

iPhone and Android smartphone users have been found to be surprisingly similar when it comes to application downloading habits, says a new report from AdMob. Its survey also found that Android users are predominantly male, and iPod touch users wont be running for president any time soon. - Apple users have been said to be a breed apart, but a Feb. 25 report from AdMob reveals that the behavior of Apple iPhone and Google Android platform users is “remarkably similar” when it comes to mobile applications. AdMob conducted opt-in surveys with consumers using devices that run the ...

Google Feb. 24 said it is advancing six features in its Gmail Labs and retiring five, a sign the company's programmers are dutifully keeping up with user interest or lack thereof in the experimental tools. If nothing else, Google's Gmail team is watching what the 176 million Gmail users are doing in the Webmail app. What will be interesting to see is the interplay of Gmail Labs features with the Gmail-hosted Google Buzz application, which leverages Gmail contacts to build a social network of conversations. Google Buzz already leverages the same keyboard shortcuts and formatting tools as Gmail. - Google Feb. 24 said it is advancing six features in its Gmail Labs and retiring five, a sign the company's programmers are dutifully keeping up with user interest or lack thereof in the experimental tools. Graduates include Search Autocomplete, Go To Label, Forgotten Attachment ...

An LG smartphone running Microsofts newly introduced Windows Phone 7 Series may arrive as early as September, Engadget is reporting. Reporters at its China sister site are said to have received details from LG executives, at a Lunar New Year celebration in Hong Kong. - The first LG smartphone running Microsofts Windows Phone 7 Series may arrive as early as September, according to a report from Engadget. Reportedly, members of its sister site, Engadget Chinese, had a sitdown with LG executives in Hong Kong who indicated that the date likely wouldnt be as l...

A car-sized fuel cell-based power plant, known as the Bloom Energy Server, could power up to 100 U.S. homes and fit in the driveway. - As the green energy movement works to keep momentum in the United States, a Silicon Valley-based startup known as Bloom Energy emerged after nine years of closely guarded research to unveil the Bloom Energy Server, a solid oxide fuel cell technology, which provides distributed ...

Aimed at cost-conscious businesses, Citrix GoToManage is anintegrated web-based platform for controlling unattended IT infrastructure. The company also announced a partnership with Carpathia Hosting. - Citrix Systems online division announced it was entering the IT Management sector with the launch of GoToManage, an integrated web-based platform for monitoring, controlling and supporting attended or unattended IT infrastructure. GoToManage is aimed at small to medium-size busine...

Passlogix offers cost-conscious businesses the open architecture v-GO Universal Authentication Manager (v-GO UAM), an authentication solution that enables Microsoft Windows to accept any identification device for logging on. - Provisioning and authentication process specialist and developer of the v-GO Access Accelerator Suite, Passlogix, announced v-GO Universal Authentication Manager, a strong authentication solution that enables Microsoft Windows to accept any identification device for logon – inclu...

Salesforce.com reported fiscal 2010 revenue of $1.3 billion as it continues to benefit from the rapid expansion of the on-demand enterprise software market. Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff said Salesforce.com's portfolio of cloud sales, service, application development products and its new Chatter business collaboration platform should allow his company to enjoy strong growth for years to come. - st1:* Salesforce.com continued to reap rewards from the rapid growth of the enterprise cloud software business as it reported record full year revenue for fiscal 2010 of $1.3 billion, a 21 percent year-over-year increase. The company's total $1.4 billion run rate made Salesforc...

Analysts at Gartner and IDC say new Intel and AMD processors are fueling a recovery in shipments of x86 servers from the likes of HP, Dell and IBM. Intels “Nehalem EP” Xeons and AMDs “Istanbul” Opterons in 2009 helped kick-start the momentum that rolled into the fourth quarter, and new processors from both chip makers this quarter will continue the growth into 2010. - A week ago, executives with both Hewlett-Packard and Dell, while talking about their latest quarterly financial numbers, pointed to the increase in x86 server sales in the final few months of 2009. HP saw a 27 percent revenue increase in its industry-standard server business in the quarter, whi...

Sometimes you need a little help getting from points A to B, something a number of developers realized when they began designing navigation apps for the iPhone. Many of these apps take advantage of the GPS chipset embedded in the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3G S, which allows for turn-by-turn directions and easy viewing of local points of interest. Other apps, including Google Earth, focus primarily on actual maps as opposed to step-by-step directions. Many of these apps attempt to justify their high costs with that GPS integration and high-quality renderings, as well as a host of secondary features such as lane assistant. For those who dont want to spend quite so much on apps, or dont need that many gee-whiz features, a few of these options are notably cheaper. - ...

Apple could introduce an Explicit category to its App Store, as suggested by developers who saw a tab for adult-themed apps appear briefly as a primary category in the iTunes Connect system. Whether Apple was testing code or yanked the category after news leaked remains to be seen. Apples head of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller indicated in an interview with The New York Times that the company had pulled controversial apps from the App Store in response to complaints. - Apple could be considering an quot;Explicit quot; category for apps sold in its popular App Store, according to online reports. Such a category could potentially allow the company to sidestep outside concerns over some of its third-party developers' products while continuing to collect revenue f...

Parallels Server for Mac/Bare Metal Edition runs virtual machines on an Xserve machine so businesses can standardize on the Apple platform and still run Windows and Linux-based applications if they desire. - Virtualization software maker Parallels said Feb. 24 that it is expanding its product line by adding a new hypervisor specifically designed for Apple's Mac OS X and Xserve server. Parallels Server for Mac/Bare Metal Edition runs virtual machines on an Xserve machine so businesses can standardi...

A posting on the company Website implied that OpenSolaris may soon be end-of-lifed. However, there's no need for app developers and IT managers to worry: Oracle says it is not killing off the freely downloadable community version of Sun's Unix-based Solaris enterprise operating system anytime soon. - Was a posting on the Oracle Website published Feb. 24 titled quot;End of Service Life Status for OpenSolaris Operating System quot; simply unclear on the concept, or was it a hint that Oracle is planning to drop the Sun Microsystems-developed open-source operating system entirely? Industry f...

The BoxTone User Self-Service module aims to let users troubleshoot their own BlackBerry mobile support problems without involving the support desk, but falls short. - BoxTone User Self-Service aims to let users troubleshoot some of their BlackBerry support problems without involving the support desk, although the system's occasionally unhelpful guidance may thwart that lofty goal. The BoxTone USS module is an add-on to BoxTone's mobile ecosystem troublesho...

The P2P Cyber Protection and Informed User Act would prohibit peer-to-peer file-sharing programs from being installed without the informed consent of the authorized computer user. The legislation would also prohibit P2P software that would prevent the authorized user from blocking the installation of a P2P file-sharing program and/or disabling or removing any P2P file-sharing program. - Software developers would be required to clearly inform users when their files are made available to other peer-to-peer users under legislation introduced Feb. 24 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Thune, R-S.D. The legislation comes just one day after the Federal Trade Commission notified...

Pano Logic is rolling out its Zero Client Reference Architecture to show businesses that its desktop virtualization system is the only one with a true zero-client model. Zero client means that the endpoint does not hold anything, that everything from the processor to the data to the memory is housed on a centralized server. - In a crowded desktop virtualization space that seems to have as many definitions as competitors, Pano Logic officials are looking to highlight their products differentiators. Pano Logic on Feb. 24 rolled out the reference architecture for its desktop virtualization offering, which Parmeet Chaddh...

The RTO team of 12 employees will be incorporated immediately into VMware and become part of the company's desktop business unit. VMware and RTO had been in a partnership since last fall, when VMware announced at VMworld that it would integrate RTO's Virtual Profiles management tool into its VMware View platform. - VMware, which continues to expand its market reach outside of the server virtualization sector that it currently dominates, said in a blog post on its Website Feb. 23 that it has acquired software management toolmaker RTO Software. Financial details were not disclosed. The RTO team of 12 e...

Executives responsible for the financial outlook and cost accounting of companies are bullish on profit and increased revenues, but not on hiring new jobs. A majority of CFOs surveyed in one study conclude they have the right amount of workers already. - If you listen to what chief financial officers, chief operating officers and controllers are saying, it's more bad news for the unemployed, according to a new quarterly study by the American Institute of Certified Planning Accountants and the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business...

HP is bringing some of the data center consulting services it offers enterprises to the SMB space, and is packaging the services in such a way to make them easier to get through channel partners. - Hewlett-Packard is looking to give owners of smaller data centers access to the same services available to their larger counterparts. HP on Feb. 24 rolled out a portfolio of new services that bring the vendors enterprise-level offerings to SMBs with data centers of less than 5,000 square feet. ...

Compact, flexible and increasingly stylish (and ubiquitous), USB flash drives are a must-have storage accessory for business and for life, and companies like Hewlett-Packard, Sony and SanDisk are bringing out a range of affordable ones. Rugged construction, low prices and simple interfaces, combined with security enhancements that work to keep your data safe, make USB flash drives a perfect solution to transferring and storing large amounts of data quickly and compactly. Here are 10 of the best that won't bust your budget. - ...

Windows Phone 7 Series may have dominated the Microsoft-related headlines since its Feb. 15 unveiling at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, but that doesn't discount Windows Mobile 6.5 and its online applications store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile. A number of consumers and businesses use Windows Mobile phones for daily activities, from monitoring financial information to editing documents while on the go. The following 12 applications allow Windows Mobile users to perform many business-day tasks, whether they're road warriors who need to keep track of the weather and their expenses, or executives who want to take a look at the latest PowerPoint deck, or developers monitoring their data traffic. And then, of course, there's also an application that's most vital of office functions: checking your Facebook status. - ...

Mobile operating system introductions from Microsoft, Samsung, Intel and Nokia are making for a crowded marketplace that wont last, says a new report from In-Stat, which favors open-source operating systems, such as Googles Android. - Microsoft's introduction of its Windows Phone 7 Series and Samsung's rollout of its Bada platform at the Mobile World Congress 2010 show this month contributed to a crowded mobile operating systems arena, a trend one research firm says can't continue. In a market already seeing the rapid adopti...

Microsoft at its U.S. Public Sector CIO Summit announces a government-focused version of its Business Productivity Online Suite emphasizing security and privacy. Microsoft expects the federal version of BPOS to attain Federal Information Security Management Act certification within the next six months. Microsoft is promoting its cloud-based government offerings at a time when its competitors in the cloud space, including Google and Amazon.com, are also jockeying for federal contracts to provide IT services. - Microsoft announced security and privacy enhancements for its Business Productivity Online Suite, along with a government-focused version of BPOS, Feb. 24 during the eighth annual Microsoft U.S. Public Sector CIO Summit. BPOS Federal has been designed to fulfill the stringent security and privac...

Apple's advertisement for an engineering manager ready to bring the iPhone OS to new platforms has encouraged thoughts of big changes for Apple TV. - Apple appears to have a plan to bring the iPhone OS to new platforms. On the Apple Website, the company has posted a job opening for an engineering manager that states, quot;Apple's Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of i...

Google and Yahoo deny infringing search technology and information integration patents owned by copier maker Xerox and vow to vigorously defend themselves in court. Xerox alleges that products from Google and Yahoo infringe on two patent from 2004 and 2001. Xerox should not expect an easy resolution in these matters; Google and Yahoo own myriad patents and it's likely that they have patented technologies that are similar to the Xerox patents. - Google and Yahoo Feb. 23 denied infringing search technology and information integration patents owned by copier maker Xerox and vowed to vigorously defend themselves in court. Xerox filed suit Feb. 19 alleging that products from Google and Yahoo infringe on two patents: a 2004 patent on a quo...

Leostream 6.3 adds management tools that ease virtual desktop infrastructure implementation - ...

Since Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 Series, which is scheduled to hit store shelves by the end of the year, all the talk surrounds how the software giant will compete against Apple and its iPhone OS. But what about Android? Google's mobile operating system is arguably the best competition for Apple on the market. And in recent months, its sales have grown considerably, thanks to the company's Nexus One smartphone. But continuing to compete in a marketplace where change comes every few months can be difficult. That's why Google needs to continue to improve upon Android OS so it can continue to push the envelope against Apple and now, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series. Here are 10 features that Android either needs or should improve upon to compete more effectively against its competition. - ...

Latest Environmental Working Group data places the BlackBerry Bold 9700 as the device with the highest legal levels of cell phone radiation among popular smartphones, followed by the Motorola Droid, LG Chocolate and Google's HTC Nexus One. - RIM's (Research in Motion) BlackBerry Bold 970 scores the highest among popular smartphones for exposure to the highest legal levels of cell phone radiation, according to the latest 2010 ranking by the (EWG) Environmental Working Group. Following the Bold are the Motorola Droid, LG Chocolate and G...

CA is continuing its aggressive push into cloud computing with the acquisition of 3Tera, whose AppLogic product makes it easier for businesses to configure and deploy applications and virtual servers in a cloud environment. The acquisition follows up on previous purchases of such compa-nies as Oblicore, NetQoS and Cassatt. - CA is continuing to build up its cloud computing capabilities with the acquisition Feb. 24 of 3Tera. CA officials are looking to roll in 3Teras capabilities of building and deploying cloud services with offerings already in CAs portfolio including Spectrum Automation Manager and Service Assurance a...

Microsoft and Eclipsys announced an alliance Feb. 24 that will combine certain Eclipsys health care IT applications with Microsoft's Amalga Unified Intelligence System, which aggregates disparate information for health care organizations. Microsoft's forays into health care IT include not only Amalga, but also its HealthVault, an online depository for patient health care data. Both companies announced that the alliance would more health care organizations existing IT infrastructure more efficient in its information storage and retrieval. - Microsoft and Eclipsys announced an alliance Feb. 24 that will see components of the latters Sunrise Enterprise suite integrated into the former's Amalga Unified Intelligence System, providing health care organizations such as hospitals with increased analytic capabilities on top of unified sto...

While Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently claimed netbooks aren't better at anything before unveiling his company's touch-screen iPad tablet, many in the business world disagree, finding netbooks inexpensive, highly portable alternatives to notebooks. Boasting sharp displays, longer battery life and improved memory and processing power, you may find that netbooks are, in, fact, better than anything. And they all come with keyboards. - ...

Google plans on appealing the convictions of three of its employees in Italian court, after a judge in Milan ruled that the search-engine giant was responsible for a 2006 video clip, posted to Google Video's Italian site, showing three Turin high school students bullying a teenager with Down syndrome. Google is arguing that the Italian legal system holding a neutral hosting platform liable for user content represents a threat to the fundamental concept of a free and open Internet. All three Google employees received prison sentences of up to six months, although reports indicate that those sentences will likely be suspended. - Google plans to appeal the conviction of three of its employees in an Italian privacy-invasion case, according to the companys official blog, which also railed against Judge Oscar Magis Feb. 24 ruling as possibly detrimental to Internet freedom. At issue in the case was whether a 191-second v...

Rumors that Verizon Wireless may be cutting or canceling orders of the panned BlackBerry Storm are gathering, despite a lack of facts or comments from RIM or Verizon. - Verizon Wireless may be planning to discontinue sales of Research In Motions BlackBerry Storm, according to rumors from multiple media sources. TheStreet.com first reported Feb. 22 that investors and analysts were speculating about a report that said orders for the Storm may be cut or canc...

Google told the Federal Communications Commission it reduced a fee charged to buyers of its Nexus One smartphone that canceled their service contract early to clear up concerns and confusion in the market. Google cut the Equipment Recovery Fee, designed to help Google recoup money it owed to T-Mobile in the event of any contract that was terminated within 120 days, to $150 from $350 Feb. 4. Google also said it canceled plans to show software developers its Nexus One in Beijing, owing to the current discord between Google and China over a hack on the search engine's servers. - Google Feb. 23 told the Federal Communications Commission it reduced a fee charged to buyers of its Nexus One smartphone that canceled their service contract early to clear up concerns and confusion in the market. Shortly after Google began selling the Android-based Nexus One from...

Palm shares have fallen to their lowest since March 2009, with some analysts cutting their price targets. Others, however, are still optimistic that Palms assets, and the Verizon Wireless network, can, in the long term, again make Palm a major smartphone contender. - Palm seemed to have done everything right with its comeback kid, the Palm Pre. But despite this, with sales slowing, financial analysts have been downgrading the wireless handset makers stock. Since peaking in September, at $17.75, Palms stock has fallen to nearly half that, closing at $9.1...

MonoDevelop 2.2 may lack some of the features of Visual Studio, but the open source IDE, which finally runs on Windows, doesn't disappoint. MonoDevelop sports a tight GUI, good performance and navigability, and all the features one would expect in a modern code editor. Check out the slide gallery below for a look at the product in action, and be sure to read eWEEK Labs' full review, here. - ...

The latest version of the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, 3.2, has grown better at handling Microsoft Office's XML-based file formats, and demonstrates slow, but promising new developments on the feature add-on front. Check out the slide gallery below for a look at the suite in action, and be sure to read eWEEK Labs' full review, here. - ...

Leostream Connection Broker gains Web view to enable virtual desktop access while easing multivendor VDI implementation tasks. - In a virtual desktop deployment, the connection broker is the component that brings users and back-end resources together. It is a part of VMware, Citrix and Microsoft virtual desktop infrastructure implementations. But what happens in organizations with really large numbers of virtual desktops a...

Leostream Connection Broker gains Web view to enable virtual desktop access while easing multivendor VDI implementation tasks. - In a virtual desktop deployment, the connection broker is the component that brings users and back-end resources together. It is a part of VMware, Citrix and Microsoft virtual desktop infrastructure implementations. But what happens in organizations with really large numbers of virtual desktops a...

The technology is advancing that enables once-powerful and now-weak desktop systems to be repurposed to host virtual desktop systems running modern operating systems. - So-called quot;fat clients quot; are here for the foreseeable future. But is it possible and cost-effective for organizations to transition from far-flung and historically hard-to-maintain desktops to virtual desktops stored in a central data center? The technology is advancing that enables...

The technology is advancing that enables once-powerful and now-weak desktop systems to be repurposed to host virtual desktop systems running modern operating systems. - So-called quot;fat clients quot; are here for the foreseeable future. But is it possible and cost-effective for organizations to transition from far-flung and historically hard-to-maintain desktops to virtual desktops stored in a central data center? The technology is advancing that enables...

Mobile administrators need to think about how to support employee-owned smartphones, and new offerings such as RIM's BES Express could be just the ticket. - Boxtone, a mobile device management vendor, recently announced five enterprise mobility management predictions for the year 2015. Among their prognostications, they recommended that enterprises must prepare for the continued influx of a diverse mix of employee-owned mobile devices, and that IT m...