Ed Oswald

Google continues to control the search query market by a considerable margin, as Americans increasingly turn to search for their Web needs, data from Comscore indicated Tuesday. Google garnered 42.7 percent of all searches, a figure that is up 6.3 percent in the past year, and a half percent in the last month.

Yahoo came in second with 28 percent, up 0.4 percent from last month although down 2.6 percent from last year. MSN is the third-ranked search engine, down 0.3 percent from last month, and down 3.3 percent year over year. Time Warner's AOL came in fourth with 7.6 percent of the market, down 1.4 percent from the year previous, while Ask.com finished fifth with 5.9 percent, down slightly from last month, but up 0.4 percent from March 2005. Overall, search queries are up 15 percent year over year, and 10 percent from February.

Continue reading →

Seagate on Tuesday announced its first 3.5-inch hard disk drives to use perpendicular storage technology. The new offerings join the company's preexisting line of Cheetah drives that sport some of the fastest data transfer rates of any hard disk available.

The drives will sport data transfer rates of 73 to 125 mbps, 30 percent faster than their predecessor. Capacities of 73GB, 147GB and 300GB would be available on one, two, and four platters, respectively. Seagate is betting on perpendicular technology as a way to fit more disk capacity into a standard-sized drive.

Continue reading →

Kodak will soon offer CDs and DVDs that would be able to safely store data for up to three centuries. To be sold under the Preservation brand name and manufactured by KMP Media of Rochester, N.Y., the discs feature a 24-karat gold reflective layer. This layer would better protect against heat, humidity, bright light and the effects of rough handling, which the current silver reflective layer is easily tarnished by.

For this reason, today's burned CDs and DVDs last less than five years in most cases. The Kodak Preservation DVD-R would be able to store data for up to 80 to 100 years, while the CD-R could last as long as 300 years. Kodak and KMP say the discs would be especially useful in the archival market, such as storing business, military, government and financial data, as well as medical and dental x-rays.

Continue reading →

While some may have had to pay quite a bit back to Uncle Sam this year, not many will owe as much as security software firm Symantec. The company disclosed late Monday that it had received notice from the Internal Revenue Service saying it owes up to $1 billion in back taxes and penalties.

The $900 million in taxes plus interest and penalties are mostly due to back taxes owed by Veritas, a company Symantec purchased for $10 billion in July 2005. Veritas owed taxes for the 2000 and 2001 tax years, a fact that was discovered after an audit.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has been rebuffed a second time in its attempts to subpoena competitors in order to fight its antitrust case with the European Union. A U.S. District Court judge in Boston said Monday that allowing Microsoft to obtain documents from Novell would undermine European Union law.

The decision follows another in late March, where the company's subpoenas against Sun and Oracle in California were also rejected. A District Judge In New York is still deciding a similar request involving IBM.

Continue reading →

The New York Police Department has begun installing wireless cameras across New York City in a bid to curb violence in the city and also fight terrorism. By the project's completion, nearly 500 cameras will be installed at a cost of nearly $9 million.

The initiative is modeled after a similar one in London that is used to watch the city's financial district. New York City hopes to install hundreds more, however it is awaiting on $81.5 million worth of requested funds to be provided through grants from the federal government.

Continue reading →

Major League Gaming, the world's largest professional video gaming organization, said Monday it had signed a programming deal with USA Network to produce seven one-hour episodes featuring competitions between its members.

The episodes would air during the holiday season, typically a key period in video game and console sales. It is the first time that fans would be able to watch tournaments on a regular basis, said the group. While networks like G4 may have done similar programming, usually those shows are relegated to the highlights.

Continue reading →

Some states are lagging far behind in emergency response capabilities that would allow first responders to locate a caller via their cell phone, data suggests. Even worse, at least two states have practically no coverage at all.

As mobile phones become more ubiquitous, the need for dependable emergency service via those devices increases as well. About a third of emergency calls are made from cell phones these days, double the number made in 1995.

Continue reading →

AOL is the target of fresh criticism this week after it was discovered the company was bouncing e-mails from the Web site of a political action group opposing its certified e-mail program. However, a spokesperson for AOL says the problem resulted from a "technical glitch."

A group of organizations including group MoveOn.org are protesting the Internet service provider's move to use Goodmail's Certified Mail technology.

Continue reading →

In a decision that could have implications for the entire digital video recorder industry, TiVo on Thursday won a patent infringement case against EchoStar Communications. A jury awarded the DVR manufacturer $73 million and found that EchoStar willfully infringed on TiVo's patent.

The patent covers how TiVo is able to play one television show while recording another, in addition to various DVR functions including the pausing of live television. EchoStar, which is accused of using TiVo's technology in its recorders for the DISH Network satellite TV service, vowed to appeal the decision.

Continue reading →

A new report out by market research firm Forrester suggests that Apple could double its market share through defections from the Windows platform alone. The firm said that much of this has to do with customers' deep distrust of Microsoft.

Apple, along with TiVo, was the only company whose brand trust increased in the last two years. Consumers trust technology brands like Bose, Dell, Sony, Panasonic, and Hewlett-Packard the most, while Toshiba, Hitachi, Gateway, and LG joined Microsoft at the bottom.

Continue reading →

Those suspected of using PayPal to avoid the Internal Revenue Service will soon risk having their accounts searched by the agency thanks to a recent court ruling. A U.S. District Court judge in San Jose, Calif., has ruled that under certain conditions it would be legal to access an individual's PayPal account.

While the ruling was handed down in February, the Justice Department said it had decided not to disclose it publicly until a press briefing earlier in the week.

Continue reading →

Google may be working towards providing a method for users to make searches on the Web simply by speaking commands, according to a recent patent filing. Although filed in February 2001, the voice search patent was approved and published on Tuesday.

According to the patent abstract, Google's system would use voice recognition technology to build keywords that are entered into the search engine. "The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user," the filing states.

Continue reading →

The city of Portland, Oregon announced Wednesday that Mountain View, Calif., based MetroFi had been awarded a contract to build a public Wi-Fi network in the city. The startup beat out two competitors, including EarthLink.

The Portland contract will mark the first time that EarthLink has lost a bid to build a municipal wireless network.

Continue reading →

Sprint unveiled a new service Thursday that will allow parents to track their children via cell phones in an attempt to attract more families to the carrier. Parents would be able to see the location of their children via a map on either a computer or a cell phone.

Accuracy of the reading would vary from as little as two yards to as many as several hundred yards, according to Sprint.

Continue reading →