Articles by Rachelle Dragani

Computer source code isn't a physical object under federal stolen property laws, according to a federal court of appeals that overturned the conviction of a former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov, the programmer, was wrongly convicted under the National Stolen Property Act and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, according to a decision fr...

Verizon customers ready for a handset upgrade will have to pay a $30 fee starting on April 22, the company announced Wednesday. The cost will be in addition to the price of the new phone and a two-year contract.

The Federal Communications Commission and five major U.S. wireless providers have announced an initiative to create a database of stolen mobile phones in an effort to combat smartphone theft AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint and Nex-Tech Wireless, carriers that together provide service to about 90 percent of wireless customers in the U.S., s...

Google can claim the title as the most popular tech brand over competitors Apple, Facebook and Twitter, according to a new poll from ABC and The Washington Post. Eighty-two percent of Americans said they have an overall favorable opinion of the search engine giant. Apple didn't come in far behind -- 74 percent of those polled said they see it favo...

Sony will lay off 10,000 workers, or about 6 percent of its global workforce, as part of an overall corporate restructuring plan, according to a report from Japan's Nikkei newspaper The cutbacks are set to take place over the next two fiscal years, according to the report. It's unclear when the Japanese company will start slashing jobs or which div...

Twitter has taken its battle against spammers to the courtroom. It's sued groups it says are responsible for dumping fast numbers of junk tweets into its network The suit goes after five of what Twitter called the network's "most aggressive tool providers and spammers." Defendants include the makers of apps like TweetBuddy and TweetAdder. Both inte...

Google CEO Larry Page issued a public dispatch on the state of the company Thursday, enthusiastically promoting the Android platform and next-generation search techniques. Page took over as CEO of the company about a year ago. His open letter Thursday, a "2012 Update From the CEO," revealed few surprises about what's in store for the company, but ...

Facebook accused Yahoo of violating 10 of its patents Tuesday, a response to a similar suit Yahoo filed just under a month ago. The two Internet competitors are embroiled in a patent duel that started last month, when Yahoo sued Facebook for 10 counts of patent infringement. The litigation came at a particularly delicate time for Facebook -- it's ...

Research In Motion has been accused of infringing six patents owned by Dutch semiconductor company NXP NXP claims in a lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in Florida that the BlackBerry maker has infringed on patents pertaining to data transmission, GPS receivers on mobile phones, and circuit design and manufacturing. NXP claims that the BlackBerry...

Online text depository Pastebin has decided to more closely monitor its site to quickly remove potentially sensitive information, according to a report from the BBC The site is intended as a way for Internet users to post large amounts of data outside of somewhere such as a comment forum or a blog post, where huge amounts of text would appear to be...

Amazon is becoming a major challenger in the overall app marketplace, according to a new report from Flurry. Flurry looked at some of the top-ranked apps across three major app sources: Apple's App Store, Amazon's Appstore and Google Play. Together, the stores brought in 11 million daily active users. The study found that iTunes was the top earner...

Google has launched a new tool called "Account Activity," designed to give users a detailed glimpse into their Web usage across all Google sites and services. Account Activity is a personalized, detailed monthly report on Web activity with Google search, Gmail accounts, YouTube and social network Google+. It also indicates location and device info...

The Federal Trade Commission this week urged Congress to impose new regulations on companies that collect consumer data related to their Internet browsing habits. Under the policy the FTC suggests, data brokers, or the holders of personal consumer information, must allow consumers access to that information. The commission also suggested that the ...

Nokia's Lumia 900 will make its U.S. launch on April 8, at which point AT&T will begin selling the phone for a relatively modest US$99 ...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission released a report Monday calling for greater privacy protections for online users, including increased transparency regarding the data companies collect from consumers. The report also addressed Do Not Track systems, which allow consumers to opt out of online behavior tracking mechanisms While encouraging online co...

Research In Motion will soon give software developers prototype devices that run an early version of the BlackBerry 10 platform. RIM is hosting a BlackBerry 10 event in Orlando in May to coincide with its annual BlackBerry World user conference. There, a limited number of developers will have the chance to tinker with the product....

Sales of Apple's iPhone are beating out those of Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones in RIM's home turf of Canada, according to data from Bloomberg and IDC. RIM shipped 2.08 million BlackBerry devices in Canada over 2011, compared to the 2.85 million iPhones that Apple shipped during the year. It's the first time the Ontario-based company'...

Facebook has reportedly purchased 750 patents from IBM in an effort to build its portfolio for better defense against patent suits The social network giant, which plans to kick off an IPO in a matter of weeks, is in an especially vulnerable position against intellectual property suits. Earlier in the month, Yahoo sued Facebook for infringing on 10 ...

Executives from Verizon and Comcast went before a U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee Wednesday to defend Verizon's plan to purchase US$3.6 billion worth of spectrum from cable industry joint venture SpectrumCo. They were met with opposition from other wireless providers and consumer advocacy groups Verizon announced a plan last December to acquire ...

Oracle released its fiscal third-quarter earnings Tuesday, coming out ahead of Wall Street expectations in regard to profits and new license sales The database software maker saw revenue rise 2.2 percent from a year ago, going from US$8.81 billion to $9.04 billion. It posted adjusted earnings at 62 cents per share, up from 54 cents one year before...