People were up in arms when Sony announced its “Fresh Start” no bloatware option – because Sony wanted to charge $50 for it.Starting on Saturday, Sony’s Fresh Start software optimization feature will be free, the company announced.Fresh Start is a Sony feature that lets customers buy certain laptops without so-called “bloatware,” trial software that laptop makers often load onto new machines. Sony was asking buyers of the Vaio TZ2000 and Vaio TZ2500 notebooks with the Windows Vista Business OS to pay $49.99

If you’re old, you have a soft spot for Motorola. Plenty of people still remember Motorola vacuum tubes, and all sorts of hobbyists remember buying semiconductors and various electronic components for their projects with the spiky Motorola “M” logo on them. Lots of people are walking around with Motorola phones in their pockets, too — yours truly included. But Motorola is being dragged down by the handset portion of their business, and are planning on splitting the company into two separate publicly traded

If you’re old, you have a soft spot for Motorola. Plenty of people still remember Motorola vacuum tubes, and all sorts of hobbyists remember buying semiconductors and various electronic components for their projects with the spiky Motorola “M” logo on them. Lots of people are walking around with Motorola phones in their pockets, too — yours truly included. But Motorola is being dragged down by the handset portion of their business, and are planning on splitting the company into two separate publicly traded

Microsoft has certainly been on a buying spree of late, and their latest acquisition is an anti-rootkit vendor Komoku.  The purchase price has not been made public at this time, but it is expected that Microsoft will offer Komoku’s technology to their enterprise customers as soon as possible and might open a few doors to security conscious organizations that have thus far shunned Vista.”Komoku’s customers include the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Microsoft security division

Microsoft has certainly been on a buying spree of late, and their latest acquisition is an anti-rootkit vendor Komoku.  The purchase price has not been made public at this time, but it is expected that Microsoft will offer Komoku’s technology to their enterprise customers as soon as possible and might open a few doors to security conscious organizations that have thus far shunned Vista.”Komoku’s customers include the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Microsoft security division

You’ll recall that earlier this month Electronics Arts decided to take its $26 /share offer directly to Take-Two Interactive shareholders, going hostile.Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. told its shareholders not to back Electronic Arts Inc.’s $2 billion takeover offer but said it would begin a review of alternatives that may include a merger.The videogame publisher of the blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto” franchise also adopted a 180-day poison pill that would kick in once an investor acquired a 20% stake in

You’ll recall that earlier this month Electronics Arts decided to take its $26 /share offer directly to Take-Two Interactive shareholders, going hostile.Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. told its shareholders not to back Electronic Arts Inc.’s $2 billion takeover offer but said it would begin a review of alternatives that may include a merger.The videogame publisher of the blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto” franchise also adopted a 180-day poison pill that would kick in once an investor acquired a 20% stake in

DRAM prices have been at incredibly low levels for so long that it’s hard to imagine that they’ll stay this way forever.  So how long will this trend continue?  Apparently a year or more if the analysts are on target:The current DRAM downturn will likely last more than a year and possibly two, said Simon Woo, memory chip analyst at Merrill Lynch, at a conference in Taipei last week.”It’s longer than expected,” he said, comparing it to the DRAM industry crunch of 1997-1998, which lasted nearly two years.This

Windows Vista didn’t have an easy launch, and as a result Microsoft and their partners had to prolong the life of Windows XP until June of this year in an attempt to keep system builders and their customers happy.  One line of reasoning behind this was that Vista would have all of its kinks ironed out by June of this year, and for the most part that task seems to have already been accomplished.  But yet XP looks like it’s still not ready to retire, and the reasons for it are somewhat surprising and

Windows Vista didn’t have an easy launch, and as a result Microsoft and their partners had to prolong the life of Windows XP until June of this year in an attempt to keep system builders and their customers happy.  One line of reasoning behind this was that Vista would have all of its kinks ironed out by June of this year, and for the most part that task seems to have already been accomplished.  But yet XP looks like it’s still not ready to retire, and the reasons for it are somewhat surprising and