Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
Google is suing the U.S. government for excluding its products from being considered for a five-year contract worth about $59 million to upgrade the Department of the Interior’s email system.
In a complaint filed on Friday, Google said the government abused its discretion and acted in a manner that was “arbitrary and capricious” by only considering sales proposals with email technology based on Microsoft Corp technology. Get the full story »
Apple Inc. sued Motorola Inc., alleging that the company’s smartphone lineup and the operating software it uses infringe on the iPhone-maker’s intellectual property.
The two lawsuits came after Motorola sued Apple in October for patent infringement and were the latest skirmish in a long-running series of disputes in the fiercely competitive smartphone industry. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that its net income in the latest quarter rose 51 percent, boosted by higher sales of Windows and Office software to businesses.
In last year’s quarter, Microsoft deferred some revenue from Windows sales. Had it not done so, net income would have been only 16 percent higher this year in comparison. Get the full story »
Ray Ozzie at a Microsoft event in 2005. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu/File)
Consumers have turned their backs on Microsoft. A company that once symbolized the future is now living in the past.
Microsoft has been late to the game in crucial modern technologies like mobile, search, media, gaming and tablets. It has even fallen behind in Web browsing, a market it once ruled with an iron fist.
Outgoing Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie called out Microsoft’s lost ground in a blog post over the weekend. Get the full story »
EBay Inc.’s online payments unit PayPal on Tuesday unveiled new software that will let people to use their phones to make payments, as well as a new platform that will make it easier for consumers to pay for digital media, music and games. Get the full story »
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp.’s departing software chief, has asked the company to move on from its roots as a computer-oriented company to imagine a “post-PC world” that relies on wireless devices and the Internet to function.
The call from Ozzie, who announced his retirement from Microsoft last week, is meant to galvanize the company, which has fallen behind Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the rapidly growing phone and tablet computer sector that many now see as key to the future. Get the full story »
Apple's new ultralight MacBook Air laptops will start at $999. (Getty Images)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the thinnest, lightest Mac laptop yet with features borrowed from iPhones and iPads, hoping to grab more market share from Microsoft’s Windows PCs.
The new MacBook Air starts at $999, weighs as little as 2.3 pounds (1 kg), and measures 0.11 inches (0.3 cm) at its thinnest to 0.68 inches (1.7 cm) at the rear. It is designed to replicate the versatility of popular devices like the iPhone and iPad on its venerable computer line, and will incorporate Facetime video chats and an apps store.
Running on flash storage like the iPad rather than hard drives like conventional computers, it can power up instantly and store data twice as fast, executive said. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp said on Monday that chief software architect Ray Ozzie, the man who took over that role from co-founder Bill Gates, would retire and not be replaced.
The move signals a new phase in Microsoft’s shift toward cloud computing, which Ozzie championed, and cements control of the company’s direction under Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Get the full story »
A scene from the Facebook app FarmVille which was found to share private info with marketers. (Facebook)
Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information — in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names — to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to be completely private. The practice breaks Facebook’s rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users’ activities secure. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. issued its biggest-ever security fix Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system for flaws that could let hackers take control of a user’s personal computer.
Microsoft released 16 security patches to address 49 problems it identified in its products.
It said four of the patches were high priority and should be deployed immediately to protect users from potential criminal attacks on the Windows operating systems. The patches are software updates that write over glitches. Get the full story »
Amazon.com Inc. plans to open a software-applications store for smartphones running Google Inc.’s Android operating system, putting it in head-to-head competition with Google’s own digital-app store.
According to an Amazon document for developers viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon would take a 30 percent cut of sales, with the developers keeping the rest. The document includes a stipulation that the apps can’t be offered at a lower price elsewhere. Get the full story »
Goldman Sachs downgraded Microsoft Corp. on Monday to neutral from buy, and lowered its price target on the software giant to $28 from $32.
Among the reasons for the move, the broker cited “increased caution near-term on a more elongated PC refresh cycle” as well as the threat that some of the notebook market could be cannibalized by tablet PCs, where Microsoft Windows doesn’t yet have a presence. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. is ramping up its dividend for the first time in two years as it prepared to borrow billions of dollars. Its board of directors agreed on a quarterly dividend of 16 cents per share, an increase of 3 cents or 23 percent over the prior quarter’s dividend. Get the full story »
Motorola Inc. said Thursday it has acquired a company that develops location-based software for smartphone devices.
Terms of the deal with Aloqa GmbH, which has offices in Munich, Germany and Palo Alto, Calif., were not disclosed. Aloqa makes a mobile phone application that delivers content to a device based on where its owner is located. A person might receive discounts on local businesses or information about nearby events, Motorola said. Get the full story »
JPMorgan Chase’s online banking system appeared to be up and running Thursday morning after a Monday night crash left customers with spotty or no Web access to their accounts for three days.
Chase said its online banking service is operating well today.
“By 5 or 6 o’clock yesterday, things were moving quickly again,” said Chase spokesman Tom Kelly. Get the full story »
