Matthew Hicks

About

Matt Hicks covers the fast-changing developments in Internet technologies. His coverage includes the growing field of Web conferencing software and services. With over eight years as a business and technology journalist, Matt has gained insight into the market strategies of IT vendors as well as the needs of enterprise IT managers. Along with Web conferencing, he follows search engines, Web browsers, speech technology and the Internet domain-naming system.

Social Networking Companies Garner Funding

Social networking got a boost on Wednesday—at least financially—as two burgeoning companies in the space gained additional funding. LinkedIn Ltd., of Mountain View, Calif., announced that it has secured $4.7 million in financing, while Palo Alto, Calif.-based Spoke Software Inc., according a posting on its blog, has secured an additional $10 million in funding. Social […]

Can Comdex Redefine Itself?

When Comdex Las Vegas 2003 opens next week, gone will be the massage tables, the luxury cars and the consumer trinkets and gadgets that once dotted the trade show floor disguised as enterprise IT. This year, Comdexs organizers are promising to focus solely on business IT in a markedly downsized show being billed as “year […]

Eolas Remains Confident in Face of Patent Re-examination

The Web browser patent behind a $521 million verdict against Microsoft Corp. is undergoing a reexamination, the United States Patent and Trademark Office confirmed on Wednesday. Eolas lawyer as well as the patent-holder, the University of California, however, remained confident in the patents claims and the eventual outcome of the reexamination. The patent office on […]

Patent Office to Reconsider Eolas Claims

The Web browser patent behind a $521 million verdict against Microsoft Corp. appears to be headed toward a reexamination. The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 30 ordered a reexamination patent No. 5,838,906, which is a basis of Eolas Technologies Inc.s patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft, according to a Weblog column published late […]

OmniPage Update Adds Speech Features

ScanSoft Inc. on Tuesday released a new version of its OmniPage optical character recognition software that incorporates new speech technologies and improves the accuracy of converting scanned documents into electronic ones. With OmniPage Pro 14 Office, ScanSoft has incorporated its automatic speech recognition technology into the product. It allows a user to speak commands in […]

Microsoft Raises Bar in Lindows.com Dispute

Microsoft Corp. is seeking the rejection of consumer claims filed through a Lindows.com Inc. Web site in a California antitrust lawsuit settlement, arguing the claims dont meet the requirements of the settlement agreement. The Redmond, Wash., software maker filed a motion earlier this month asking San Francisco Superior Court Judge Paul H. Alvarado to resolve […]

Microsoft Updates Windows Media Player for Macs

Microsoft Corp., about two weeks after Apple Computer Inc. released the Panther release of its Mac OS X, quietly unveiled a new version of its Windows Media Player for Mac users. Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X, made available for download in English on Friday, includes an updated user interface to match the […]

Survey: Biggest Databases Approach 30 Terabytes

Led by a surge in the amount of data being analyzed in data warehouses, the worlds largest databases are pushing new heights as they double and triple in size, according to a survey being released on Tuesday. For the first time in database consulting company Winter Corp.s five surveys of the largest and most heavily-used […]

Latitude Advances Flash-PowerPoint Integration

Latitude Communications Inc. on Friday launched a new version of a rich-media content creation tool that it acquired in April in a prelude to the further integration of Flash capabilities into its overall Web conferencing platform. MeetingPlace iCreate 2.0, the first release of the software since Latitude acquired software maker Wanadu Inc., allows users to […]

Microsoft Fixes Office 2003 Bug

Two weeks after launching its Office 2003, Microsoft Corp. has released its first update to the productivity suite. The Office 2003 Critical Update, dated Tuesday on the companys support site, fixes a problem that can cause the loss of graphic content in certain Word 2003, PowerPoint 2003 and Excel 2003 documents. According to the warning, […]