Carmen Nobel

Enterprise networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. leapt into the home video equipment market with the acquisition last week of cable set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta Inc. for $6.9 billion. Because Cisco will assume some outstanding options, the all-cash deal is actually worth about $5.3 billion. Cisco officials said the deal will let the company serve both […]

The worlds largest home improvement retailer used to be a victim of its own merchandisers—not under siege exactly, but certainly out of control. Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. sells thousands of products from hundreds of manufacturers in more than 1,900 stores across the country. The problem was that by 2001, there were 342 service organizations responsible […]

When cell phones with cameras in them hit the scene a few years ago, carriers were thrilled at the opportunity for a new revenue stream. But corporate customers balked at the devices. They were so concerned about security issues that carriers asked the phone makers to start making two versions of their high-end handsets—one with […]

While there has been much industry hype about phones that can roam among wireless LANs and cellular networks, veterans in the space are working to boost the quality of plain old voice over Wi-Fi. “Im convinced that the market we serve today is a single-mode world,” said John Elms, CEO of SpectraLink Corp., of Boulder, […]

Cisco Systems Inc. officially entered the wireless mesh networking space last week, lagging behind its smaller competitors but adding significant validation to a nascent market. As expected, the networking company launched the Aironet 1500 Series access point. Designed for outdoor deployments, the 1500 Series can automatically set up and operate within a mesh network. It […]

Cisco Systems Inc. officially entered the wireless mesh networking space on Tuesday, lagging behind its competitors technologically but adding significant validation to a nascent market. As expected, the networking giant launched the Aironet 1500 Series access point. Designed for outdoor deployments on rooftops or poles, the 1500 Series can automatically set itself up to operate […]

Qualcomm last week sued Nokia for alleged patent infringement in the United States, a week after Nokia joined several other companies in accusing Qualcomm of unfair business practices in Europe. Qualcomm charged that Nokia cell phones infringe on 11 Qualcomm patents related to GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks. In the suit, Qualcomm demanded […]

Search engine giant Google Inc. on Thursday sent a letter to the mayor of its home city of Mountain View, Calif., proposing to bring free Wi-Fi service to the city. “Google is in a unique position to offer free access to the Internet, since we have the ability to subsidize and earn revenue indirectly when […]

Sybase Inc. subsidiary iAnywhere on Tuesday announced version 8.0 of the Advantage Database Server, which Sybase acquired through its purchase of mobile and database management software maker Extended Systems Inc. last month. New features in the software include the addition of SQL scripting; the ability to replicate data changes across multiple servers using asynchronous push […]

Good Technology Inc. on Monday introduced a new set of software and services designed to bolster the security of Goodlink, a mobile computing platform that competes against Research in Motion Ltd.s BlackBerry platform. Good Mobile Defense includes several tools that help IT administrators control handheld devices in the field, especially if they are lost or […]