Articles by Walaika Haskins

Especially as Earth Day 2007 approaches, working to mitigate the effects of global warming and greenhouse gases, as well as protecting the environment, are topics on everyone's lips these days. As scientists, politicians, lobbyists and environmental activists offer arguments and counter arguments on the veracity of each other's claims, there is no dispute that the cost of energy continues a troublesome climb as does the size of the world's landfills...

Gamers around the world have begun limbering up their thumbs and forefingers following the announcement Wednesday that Microsoft and Namco Bandai Games will host the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship. The competition honors the 1980s era video game for the crucial role it played in popularizing video games as well as its longstanding popularity "...

Intel unveiled its mobile strategy Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing Personalization and content are key drivers behind the increased demand for notebook PCs and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), according to Intel executives David Perlmutter and Anand Chandrasekher....

Microsoft released a new Windows Media Player (WMP) plug-in for the Firefox 2.0 open source Web browser Monday via its Port 25 blog. The official plug-in is one of several Microsoft is developing at its Port 25 Open Source Software Lab, according to the company "I am very proud to announce that we have released another official Microsoft plug-in," ...

The gaming world is awash with rumors that Sony may consider bumping up the size of the hard disk drive in its PlayStation 3 (PS3) gaming consoles. The conjecture, now brewing for several weeks, reached a crescendo Tuesday following reports that a Sony spokesperson had addressed the rumor Users who store many games and other content on the PS3 may ...

IBM and Yahoo launched an upgraded version of their free OmniFind enterprise search offering Monday. The new IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition includes some 60 new features and corrects 22 bugs Designed for use by businesses and other organizations, the no-charge application is installed on a server and provides access for a number of users within the ent...

Chinese government departments, including the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, began a six-month campaign Thursday to eliminate pornography and other material from the Internet in China, according to reports from the Xinhua News Agency Some 137 million Chinese use the Internet, second only to the United States. Young Chinese people make up the ...

Sony confirmed Wednesday it has discontinued production of the 20 GB PlayStation 3 in North America. The announcement came after several weeks of speculation stoked by the gaming blog Joystiq, which asserted that electronics retailer Best Buy had classified the 20 GB model as "discontinued." "Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60 GB model from ...

Palm, maker of the Treo smartphone, announced Tuesday it is developing a Linux-based operating system for its line of handheld devices The new operating system will lead to greater stability for its smartphones and also provide increased functionality, according to CEO Ed Colligan....

Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios have chosen a date for the multiplayer beta release of the highly anticipated "Halo 3" video game, created exclusively for the Xbox 360 console "Halo 3" (H3) is the third chapter of the hugely successful "Halo" series and offers gamers the opportunity to "experience Master Chief's greatest battle" as he emb...

Fabrik, a provider of storage and online content-sharing solutions, announced the expansion of its family of Simple Tech SimpleDrive desktop hard drives with the addition of a new line of external storage devices. The drives boast up to 1 terabyte (TB) of storage and also include 2 GB of free online storage through the company's Internet data storage site...

The battle between Nokia and Qualcomm hit a high note Thursday, just days before the licensing agreement between the two combatants is set to expire on Monday Nokia, the No. 1 maker of mobile phone handsets, announced that it had made a US$20 million payment to Qualcomm to cover second quarter 2007 licensing fees. Qualcomm, however, called the amou...

Intel introduced the latest member of its quad-core family of microprocessors Tuesday at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif. The Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5335 and E5345 are the first, the company said, to bring the Intel architecture-based quad-core performance to the embedded market The new arrivals are part of the 11 quad-core produc...

XenSource released a new version of its flagship commercial server virtualization product Monday. XenEnterprise 3.2 brings to business consumers more advanced deployment options for versions of Windows and Linux as well as boosted power and flexibility of Windows guests via SMP (systemic multiprocessing) support "These are good improvements," Gary ...

Mozilla fans can now download the latest version of the Minimo mobile browser to their smartphones. News of the release of Minimo 0.2 came last week as a posting on project leader Doug Turner's blog "DougT's Ramblings." The browser is available via the Mozilla Project's Web page This may, however, be the last Minimo release for a while, according t...

After weeks of speculation in the Linux community, Dell made its open source plans official Wednesday, confirming rumors that it will begin selling select desktops and notebooks with Linux operating systems preinstalled. Dell said the decision was made as a result of feedback from customers on its IdeaStorm Web site "Dell has heard you, and we wil...

After years of hard work and careful design, the big moment has arrived -- you are finally ready to go live with your online retail operation. However, just one look at potential competitors such as Amazon, eBay, Wal-Mart and Target and it's readily apparent that these companies have likely spent millions creating and staffing their respective infrastructures. No wonder they rank among the most popular online shopping sites...

PC industry leader Hewlett-Packard (HP) filed a patent infringement lawsuit Tuesday against up-and-coming rival Acer HP alleges that its Taiwan-based competitor has violated five patents that HP acquired between 1997 and 2003....

Adobe launched its Creative Suite 3 line of products Tuesday. The six new integrated Web design and content creation software packages are the first to leverage tools and technologies the company gained with its US$3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia in 2005 With its six all-new suites and 13 standalone offerings -- as well as completely refurbis...

Researchers at St. Louis University in Missouri on Sunday announced the development of a fuel cell battery powered by liquid sugar at the American Chemistry Society's 233rd national meeting Using nearly anything from natural substances such as tree sap to man-made beverages including soda, the new technology could potentially operate three to four ...