InsideTech

A radical new day has dawned for the operating system. Today Google finally aired its long awaited Chrome Operating System.  The operating system was detailed at a press conference starting at 1 p.m. EST, and the open source code was posted online just before the start of the presentation.  The new operating system brings a dramatically different look and perspective to ...

Nov. 22 - Feeling frugal this holiday season? It's OK, so are most American consumers, according to numerous surveys. As the shopping season gets into full swing this week, here are some ways to save - and some ways to be safe. First, the savings. Whether it's online or at the mall, there are lots of ways to trim your holiday ...

Nov. 23 - Allyson Robinson relies on the daily conversations she has with her husband through e-mail and Facebook. With Staff Sgt. Douglas Robinson deployed in Iraq, Allyson Robinson said she doesn't know what she'd do if she didn't get to talk with him via the computer. "It's comforting to know I can have the opportunity to communicate with him. ...

Nov. 21 - Don't be surprised while shopping this season to find that some stores no longer accept checks. Diesel, True Religion, Ed Hardy and Lululemon Athletica are among a growing list of stores that don't accept personal checks. Gap Inc. has tested the idea. Austin-based Whole Foods Market is trying it out at a few stores in California and ...

Security is a serious concern now more than ever, with hackers and cybercriminals becoming more organized and looking to profit on a wealth of stolen information.  Typically problems fall into the PICNIC variety - Problem In Chair, Not In Computer - but that does not change the fact that some platforms due to design are more vulnerable to attack. Typically vulnerability ...

Nov. 23 - The holiday season is as much a time for tech as for toys. Electronic gadgets are at the top of many wish lists and account for an ever-growing share of holiday shopping budgets. Fortunately for shoppers, tech gifts don't have to break their budgets. One big trend this year is sharp discounts on products in many of ...

Will Google be our next telephony provider option?

Have you noticed? The holiday bargain hunting has already begun for electronics gizmos. Major retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears and Best Buy are already into the "Black Friday" (day after Thanksgiving) sales frame of mind, in recent weeks offering crazy come-ons like name-brand Windows 7 portable computers for as low as $249, 10 megapixel digital still cameras under $100 and GPS trail ...

Secure Digital (SD) and Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) flash memory cards are commonly used in devices like digital cameras, laptop computers, and camcorders. Their high capacity and low cost can be attributed to die shrinks as the pace of semiconductor technology moves forward. SD cards have a maximum capacity of 4GB, while SDHC cards can go up to 32GB. Although ...

Nov. 24 - As the holiday shopping season looms, those looking for new PCs face a bounty. There are a slew of shiny new systems on store shelves and e-commerce sites, largely thanks to Microsoft's recent release of Windows 7. Knowing that the antidote to Windows Vista was just around the corner, PC makers revamped their lines to take advantage ...

Online shoppers so far in November are spending more than last year but are buying fewer or lower-priced items, according to Dallas-based Chase Paymentech's 2009 . The index, released Monday, is an early indication that consumers are willing to spend this year in moderation. Sales volume is up a healthy 9.2 percent over the same period in 2008 as more shoppers ...

RACHEL METZ SAN FRANCISCO - Laura Fitton's ascent has been staggering: In less than a year, she's become mayor of nine different places in several different states, all without giving any speeches or kissing any babies. Instead, Fitton has gone out. A lot. And that's allowed her to build an empire in the world of a rapidly growing Internet startup called ...

Nov. 18 - Twelve years after a change in rules allowed drug companies to bombard our televisions with prescription drug ads, I still get angry every time one of these noxious commercials appears. No matter what the drug industry claims about their educational value, these spots are nothing more than the handiwork of snake oil salesmen pitching their potions to ...

The over 33.5 million customers at the nation's fourth largest mobile carrier, T-Mobile, may be in for a bit of a surprise.  When completing the monthly ritual of logging in to the T-Mobile website to pay his bill, one customer reportedly came across a controversial sight - topless ladies. The customer, whose name is Andrew, wrote to The Consumerist: I have ...

One of the pleasant surprises of diving back into the world of Windows was exploring Windows Live's apps, which bundle e-mail, file storage, social networking, instant messaging, photo sharing and blogging into one clean, organized online spot. The offerings are more than enough for average computer users, and Windows Live is the closest thing I've used to serving as a one-stop ...

Intel is suing NVIDIA in an effort to get them dropped from chipset licensing on Nehalem boards.  NVIDIA has filed countersuit against Intel.  NVIDIA has even gone as far as to sponsor cartoons lampooning Intel. NVIDIA particularly enraged Intel when it convinced Apple to dump Intel's integrated graphics from its product lineup in favor of NVIDIA designs.   Intel vows it ...

Microsoft has a lot riding on Windows 7 after Vista was poorly adopted by enterprise users and consumers. Windows 7 so far has been doing much better than Vista and is growing rapidly in marketshare in the computer market. Early reports showed that retail box sales of Windows 7 were up a whopping 234% compared to sales of Vista over the ...

In the early days of social networking, the dominant player was MySpace. As time went by, MySpace was joined by other players like Facebook and Twitter. MySpace has since lost the top position in the social networking world to Facebook. In October, traffic numbers for September 2009 for social networking sites came in and Facebook had over 300 million users, pushing ...

Swiss biotech company Novartis discovered that a half dose of its A(H1N1) 2009 unadjuvanted vaccine may help the person receiving the shot to develop a sufficient immune response. The company conducted clinical trials of about 4,000 individuals who were given the Novartis Fluvirin vaccine, which found that many of the adults had immunity from the virus.   Novartis hopes to use similar ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The most power-hungry television sets could soon be banned from store shelves in California as state energy regulators on Wednesday consider a first-in-the nation mandate intended to lower electricity demand. If adopted, the regulations will require televisions sold in California to be more energy efficient beginning in 2011. The requirement would be tougher in 2013, with only ...