Articles by Keith Regan

Normally a Wall Street darling, eBay finds itself in the rare position of disappointing analysts and investors with its fourth quarter earnings report and its forecast for 2005 -- and this at the same time it faces a rare competitive threat Investors responded by sending eBay shares lower by more than 20 percent in early trading today. Even a two-f...

Two new reports say 2004 was a very good year for personal computer sales as demand for mobile machines drove double-digit growth worldwide The reports, from competing research firms IDC and Gartner, also said the year was especially good for Dell, which continued to rein atop the PC sales charts ahead of main rival Hewlett-Packard....

IBM posted fourth quarter results that beat Wall Street forecasts for sales and profits, with all of its divisions turning in strong performances IBM said profit climbed 12 percent to US$3.1 billion, or $1.81 per share, with income boosted by currency exchange rates. Though revenue was up 7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2004 to $27.67 billion,...

In a hookup that could be a glimpse at a future Web experience that includes as much streaming video as static content, Yahoo and Verizon said they have struck a deal to offer co-branded high-speed Internet service Yahoo will join Microsoft's MSN as a Verizon partner and users of the telecommunication giant's high-speed Internet access services wil...

Intel announced today it is reorganizing its business worldwide, saying it wants to align its internal structure with product platforms while also streamlining operations Santa Clara, California-based Intel said it has formed five separate product groups, including two aimed at emerging opportunities in the digital health care market and in worldwi...

Security researchers say a newly discovered flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser could enable a remote attacker to download malicious content to a computer without triggering the warnings that usually accompany such downloads The lack of warning could enable an attacker to use specially written HTML Web pages to install spyware or oth...

Looking to accelerate the development of mobile technology devices in ways seen previously mainly in spy movies, Motorola said today it would work with sunglass maker Oakley on technology to make wearable communications devices Motorola said it had formed a joint venture with Oakley, which makes a range of products from watches to clothing but is b...

Google remains the top search engine in terms of user experience and satisfaction, but Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN have gained ground in the past year, according to a new report Keynote Systems said its Customer Experience Rankings for the search industry is based both on survey questions and measurements of user experiences as they utilized search s...

On Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts, the team with one of the most potent offenses in the history of the National Football League, will face off against defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, ending a week's worth of hype and predictions As the game unfolds on the field, the owners of both teams can feel certain about one outcome: Their ...

Napster today said its bid to turn what was a legendary brand in the underground music world into a contender in the legitimate online music space gained ground last year, fueled by a year-end spurt of new subscribers Napster said its subscriber base was up 50 percent in the quarter that ended in December and ended 2004 with 270,000 paid subscriber...

Revisiting a tactic that has been hugely successful in the past, especially when it bought home WiFi gear maker Linksys, Cisco Systems said it would acquire wireless local area network (WLAN) switch maker Airespace for US$450 million Cisco said the all-stock purchase of privately held Airespace would augment its existing product offerings in the en...

Longtime Microsoft Chief Financial Officer John Connors is quitting the company to become a partner in a Seattle venture capital firm, ending a 16-year-run with the software giant, much of it spent as the financial spokesperson while the company underwent major changes Microsoft did not immediately name a successor to Connors, 45, who took over the...

Another mobile virus has been spotted by security researchers, again designed to attack Symbian-based smart phones, but this time able to spread by more than one method Like the vast majority of mobile viruses, the Lasco worm, as the threat has been dubbed, is aimed at the Symbian operating system. F-Secure, which is calling the worm Lasco.A, said ...

In their search for ways around anti-spam legislation, some spammers are using unregistered domains to distribute unwanted messages, a tactic experts say is putting additional strain on servers at Internet service providers and on corporate networks Illegal commercial spammers, wary of being tracked and prosecuted under the CAN-SPAM act that took e...

Cable television giant Comcast plans to roll out a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service to all of its customers by the end of 2005, arriving to the party later than some competitors but bringing with it the type of deep pockets and market reach that could speed adoption of the technology Even as companies that were traditionally telephone se...

Telephone service provider Alltel has finalized a deal to buy fellow niche carrier Western Wireless for US$4.4 billion in cash and stock as the merger activity in the wireless field moves into the regional space As part of the deal, Alltel will take on about $1.5 billion in debt that Western Wireless is carrying on its books, boosting the total val...

Bidding to capitalize on the mobile services trend by extending its powerful brand beyond the bounds of the Internet, MapQuest has launched a service that enables users to send the company's maps to cell phones The Send to Phone service will be offered as part of the monthly subscription plan to MapQuest Mobile, which costs US$3.99. With Send to Ph...

The number of malicious code attacks aimed at mobile phones continues to expand, with the latest threat coming from a variant of the Skulls Trojan Security firm F-Secure said the variant, which it has dubbed Skulls.D, targets smart phones using the Symbian operating system and disguises itself as a freeware application, this time as an updated vers...

Reports of the demise of the consolidation trend in the wireless sector might have been premature, as Alltel, whichcurrently ranks sixth in the U.S., is reportedly in talks to buy regional carrier Western Wireless The deal, which has yet to be made official, would be worth an estimated US$4 billion, including the assumption of $2 billion worth of d...

Customers of all major wireless phone carriers continue to be largely unhappy with the service they're getting, but analysts say consumers probably aren't nearly disgruntled enough to slow the growth of the mobile industry Consumer Reports said its annual survey of cell phone users found a majority had experienced recent problems with service, bill...