Stories by Nancy Weil

Microsoft, Intel, Google legal news prevails

It was a week where competition regulators danced with IT industry behemoths: the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel, while the European Commission gave approval to Microsoft's proposed browser "ballot screen" and pushed the proposed Oracle-Sun Microsystems deal forward. Meanwhile, a French court slapped down Google for what it saw as a copyright grab in a book-scanning case.

10 predictions for 2010

No doubt, a leading IT story in 2010 will be the role that sector will play in the expected economic recovery, as well as how IT markets themselves recover. OK, so that's a no-brainer to predict, but we're latching on to some more specific details in that regard, and we've found a limb or three to walk out on as well. In no particular order we present the 2010 edition of our annual predictions.

Top quotes of the year

As the year draws to a close, we thought about the memorable quotes related to IT and offer, in no particular order, 15 that stuck with us.

Report: IBM, Sun deal said to be close

IBM and Sun Microsystems are close to a deal under which IBM will acquire Sun Microsystems for about US$9.50 per share, The New York Times reported in its online edition Thursday afternoon.

Kundra takes leave, Google raises privacy flags

Well, at least the issue is not unpaid taxes this time -- but Vivek Kundra, the brand-new, first-ever federal CIO after just a few days on the job is already on a leave of absence after the office of the Washington, D.C., CTO was raided by federal agents. Kundra had been the District's CTO before President Barack Obama appointed him the nation's CIO. In other news, Google peeved privacy advocates by announcing a behavioral advertising program and separately saying it is testing a new service that will transcribe voice-mail messages and make them searchable.

Human error caused Google search bug

Human error caused a glitch that returned the message "this site may harm your computer" for all Google search results for about an hour Saturday morning, the company said, but the mistake was Google's and not StopBadware.org's.

'09 IT predictions -- the economy dominates

Well, we blew it a year ago on the prediction that last month's US presidential election would lead to historic turnout -- it didn't quite hit that mark -- and unprecedented problems with e-voting systems. The problems, it turns out, were for the most part precedented. On the positive side, we nailed the result, forecasting the election of Barack Obama. Not inclined to rest on that laurel (and a few others we also accurately foretold), we've set forth again to find out what industry analysts are forecasting for 2009, and we've talked to sources as well as to our geekiest friends and colleagues to come up with our own set of predictions for 2009.

E-commerce sales show 'relative strength' over holidays

Amazon.com had its best holiday sales season ever, providing a scarce optimistic report as online sales from November and December were tallied. U.S. online sales over the holiday period showed "relative strength" but were still down and online shopping in the U.K. was markedly off compared to a year ago, according to final reports of the season.

IBM labs promises five innovations

The ability to "talk" to the Web, information collection and retrieval systems that alleviate forgetfulness, and solar technology built into asphalt, windows and even paint are among the advances IBM sees emerging from its research labs in the next five years.

Bill Gates' big mouth

As Bill prepares to hand over the reins of Microsoft at the end of the month, here are some of his more notable comments, assembled from the Microsoft press site and the IDG News Service which, every day for almost two decades, has covered the man who revolutionised IT.

The quotable Bill Gates

Some of the most oft-repeated comments attributed to Bill Gates through the years were not uttered by Bill Gates. Take for instance "640K ought to be enough for anybody," which he supposedly said in 1981 to note that the 640K bytes of memory in IBM's PC was a significant breakthrough. Or his alleged comment that if General Motors "had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving [US]$25 cars that got 1,000 miles per gallon."

EBay settles patent dispute with MercExchange

EBay has settled a patent dispute with MercExchange that in 2006 was heard by the US Supreme Court, which sided with the online auction house in what is considered to be an important ruling on intellectual property.

2008 IT forecasts: XP lives and the greening of tech

The predictable flood of 2008 IT prognostications has rolled in over the past few weeks and we have listened to analysts, vendors, consultants and our geek friends, accepting some forecasts and rejecting others. Turns out we did pretty well culling the wheat from the chaff last year and gazing ahead, though maybe we weren't bold enough in our declarations. So, this year we'll stretch a little and predict:

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