Articles by Rachelle Dragani

The Ministry of Commerce in China has approved Walmart's bid to buy a controlling stake of Chinese e-commerce company Yihaodian, part of Walmart's bid to increase its global retail presence Prior to the approval, Walmart already possessed a 17.7 percent share in Yihaodian, one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies in China. In February, the r...

German data protection regulators reopened an investigation into Facebook's facial recognition technology Wednesday, claiming the social network failed to comply with official requests to alter its policies to match European regulations The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information wants Facebook to delete the facial data ...

Microsoft's upcoming Surface, the company's first in-house tablet PC, is scheduled to launch later this year. Microsoft hasn't confirmed how much the Surface will cost, but a recent Engadget report pegs its price at US$199, greatly undercutting presumed rival iPad and matching the price of much smaller tablets like the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7 W...

Google has agreed to buy the Frommer's brand of travel publications. John Wiley & Sons, the publishing company that own the Frommer's travel brand, confirmed it will sell all of its travel assets to the Internet giant. The assets have been on sale since March, when the company announced it aimed to shed some of its assets, including travel, culinary, general interest, pets and crafts.

Google is altering its algorithms to disfavor websites that are frequently accused of carrying content that violates copyright regulations The search engine will include a new search signal in its rankings. Starting this week, its algorithms will include the number of copyright removal notices that Google receives. Sites that have multiple notices ...

Newly hired Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is reportedly considering a change in business strategy for the company, beginning with a restructuring plan that would use the revenue from Yahoo's Alibaba sale for long-term investment options rather than an immediate payback to shareholders Yahoo announced in May it would sell half of its 40 percent stake in t...

Nasa's Curiosity rover has begun satisfying the curiosity of mission scientists by sending high-quality images of Mars' surface back to Earth. Although it's only had since Sunday night to collect data, following its touchdown in the Gale Crater, Curiosity has sent a batch of snapshots that are already allowing the NASA team to garner a good deal of information.

Google has announced it's testing a new service that will include relevant information from a user's personal Gmail account when that person types in a query on the company's basic search page Google said the service is meant to further integrate the company's Web presence and its many functions, including e-mail, so that users can have faster, mor...

Amazon and Apple changed some of their security policies this week after tech journalist Mat Honan claimed an identity theft incident involving the two companies allowed a hacker to wipe out much of his personal online data. Both Amazon and Apple put an end to policies that allowed customers to change their account settings over the phone. Previou...

The patent trial pitting Apple against Samsung is into its second week, and the accusations of patent infringement, design prototype leaks and heated examinations don't show signs of stopping The fight's U.S. front is being played out in a San Jose, Calif., courtroom this month. Apple alleges that Samsung copied the design and some features of its ...

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze has submitted a written proposal to buy the electronics retail chain in a deal that would value the company at as much as US$8.8 billion Schulze is currently the company's largest stakeholder with about a 20 percent share of the business. He stepped down as chairman of the company he founded in June amid a scandal i...

Even with the launch of new products, HTC's second quarter fiscal results came in lower than expected, with revenue down on the year and a sober outlook going forward The smartphone maker launched new lines, including the HTC One series, Desire series, EVO 4G LTE and Droid Incredible 4G LTE, as well as a wireless digital content program called "HTC...

AT&T announced plans to buy NextWave Wireless in a US$600 million deal aimed at boosting its spectrum holdings as the company attempts to meet skyrocketing demand from smartphone and other mobile device users If the agreement is approved, AT&T will acquire NextWave's Wireless Communication Services (WCS) and Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) bands, w...

AT&T announced plans to buy NextWave Wireless in a US$600 million deal aimed at boosting its spectrum holdings as the company attempts to meet skyrocketing demand from smartphone and other mobile device users If the agreement is approved, AT&T will acquire NextWave's Wireless Communication Services (WCS) and Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) bands, w...

The mobile payment system Google Wallet now works with all major credit cards and will begin transitioning to a cloud-based model The service allows users to tap their smartphones to pay at a retail checkout location, rather than having to swipe a credit card or shell out cash. It uses near-field communication (NFC) technology that allows a user's ...

As Apple and Samsung continue to fight out their patent dispute in court, Samsung has opted to publicize information that the judge refused to allow jurors to see, according to an AllThingsD report The high-profile trial started Monday in San Jose, Calif., and will determine whether Samsung copied Apple's designs for its smartphone and tablet devic...

Google has opted to delay the launch of its Nexus Q streaming media player. ...

Weeks after Marissa Mayer was hired as the new CEO of Yahoo, her predecessor has stepped down. No, not Scott Thompson. He left in May amid a resume scandal involving a false computer science degree.

Richard Schulze, the founder and ousted chairman of Best Buy, is assembling a team of executives that could help him lead the electronics retail megachain if his attempts to buy back the company are successful, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Best Buy founder and former CEO left his position as chairman in June following a scandal that c...

Google has not deleted the sensitive data it collected from private wireless networks in 2010, according to a report from The Telegraph. Earlier, the company had promised regulators it would dispose of the information The search engine giant originally collected the data while it was mapping areas for its Street View services. While its camera-equi...