Salesforce.com will next month release its Apex programming language to developers hungry to mash-up web-based business applications with its "platform in the sky" and to reassure investors anxious about growth.

Rumor has it that private equity firms are interested in taking born-again telecom equipment maker 3Com off the market.

The BBC has suspended all phone-in competitions across its television, radio, internet and interactive services following a damning internal inquiry into editorial failures.

Forgotten TechThe ThinkPad is 15 today. Sort of. Launched by IBM and now made by Lenovo, the black-clad laptop family quickly established itself as an icon, in many ways re-establishing Big Blue's reputation as a PC maker after years in the shadow of the clone manufacturers.

The Information Commissioner's Office has set up its own IT forensics department to support its enforcement activities.

Intel told the best possible second quarter story, and few investors listened.

AmAze put itself on the map today with the UK launch of a service providing GPS-integrated route planning and directions, as well as satellite imagery and worldwide maps.

Almost two-thirds of companies don't realise their legal responsibilities regarding their employees and electronic communications, a new survey has revealed.

If you're already annoyed that Japan gets most of the good gadgets first, then Sony's announcement that a TV tuner for the upcoming, slimmed down 'PSP 2' will only appear there is likely to enrage you further still.

Apple is now once again holding third place in the US PC market, sales figures from market watcher IDC have revealed. A return to form? Not quite, since its 5.6 per cent share is well below the double-digit share Apple commanded in the 1980s and early 1990s.

E-commerce sites are putting their future success at risk by failing to offer users the ability to buy through their mobile websites, a new study has revealed.

The first UK retail prices for Microsoft's much anticipated Xbox 360 Elite console have begun to appear, with retailers positioning it at around £50 more than the Elite's Premium predecessor and around £95 cheaper than Sony's PS3.

Could bingo really move out of the smoky back rooms of decrepit church halls and onto the internet? The Daily Mail apparently thought so.

The equivalent of a virtual nuke has just been set off in the field of vulnerability research and disclosure. The identities behind two of the noms de guerre that have elicited some of the most heated vitriol over the last 12 months appear to have been disclosed.

Neteller has reached an agreement with American authorities concerning its financial transactions with American internet gambling customers.

European telcos and ISPs do not have to hand over subscriber information to record labels which are trying to find file sharers.

Since computers became mainstream in the early to mid-nineties, a whole ecosystem has developed around them. The various parts of that ecosystem range from the companies who make computers to the software companies who program for them.

Toshiba Japan today expanded its notebook-battery recall programme, adding half-a-dozen more models to the list of laptops it wants owners to use only on mains power until new batteries can be sent out to them.

Vodafone, O2, and T-Mobile will likely breathe a sigh of relief today after European Union anti-trust authorities decided to close their long-running investigation into alleged excessive charges for international calls.

The winners of the 2006 US National Medals of Technology have been announced. The laureates will be honoured by President Bush in a joint ceremony with the 2005 medallists at the White House on 27 July.

Vodafone stuck to its outlook guns this morning when it released a trading statement that showed data revenue growth far outstripping the increase in dreary old voice.

Software as a Service (SaaS) isn't dead, but it could soon be overtaken by Platform as a Service (PaaS), according to SaaS pioneer Salesforce.com.

SanDisk has ripped open the throttle to speed to market a series of memory cards and more as part of a tie-up with Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati.

Nokia has tacitly admitted the GPS units it builds into a small number of its mobile phones are having problems quickly calculating their locations and has fallen back on data sent over the mobile phone network to mitigate the issue.

Wikipedia moved with its customary lightning speed this morning to bring netizens the very latest in-depth information on steam pipes, one of which yesterday gave New Yorkers a nasty fright:

It's fair to say that it's been an interesting week for mobile phones. To start with, two separate surveys demonstrated the impact mobile phones and smartphones were having on people's working and personal lives.

Hollywood Records is attempting to breathe new life into an ailing musical format, the CD. It has unveiled the CDVU+ format, which it hopes will appeal to those looking for something more than currently offered by the standard 12cm audio disc.

Ask most people where to go for the launch of a 17in dual-core notebook and we're pretty certain that most wouldn't pick supermarket chain Sainsbury's. But this is where Medion has chosen to unveil its MD96327 laptop later this month.

Avnet is to acquire the European enterprise infrastructure division (EID) of HP and IBM distributor Magirus Group.

Claims by an anonymous author that he was paid to create a worm targeting Mac OS X systems are turning into a soap opera-style farce. Infosec Sellout said his 'Rape-OSX' worm uses an undisclosed vulnerability in the mDNSResponder component of Mac OS X to spread.

Motorola has announced its second loss-making quarter, pushing the beleaguered manufacturer into third place behind Nokia and Samsung.

Those of you who didn't have sufficiently deep pockets to bid for the Enigma machine which last year sold on eBay for a cool €55k might be interested in another example that's currently going for $16,200 (€11,700).

It's the most expensive music centre we've seen and we're sure there are countless hardware geeks who could build a box that does the same thing for a fraction of the £3000 Arcam wants, but there's no doubt the FMJ MS250 has the look.

Gaming PC specialist and HP subsidiary Voodoo PC has unveiled its latest laptop offering, a brightly coloured and tattooed 17in beast, understandably named the Envy H:171.

In February, I wrote a Reg Developer article which caused some consternation. The article's message distils down to: Don't write vague use cases, write concrete, specific use cases that leave nothing to the imagination instead. Controversial stuff.

BT is considering speeding up its broadband service by pushing it to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it 50Mb download per second for its customers.

Digicel has accused rival telco Cable & Wireless of engaging in illegal and uncompetitive practices which delayed Digicel's expansion into Caribbean markets and cost the company hundreds of millions of pounds.

Harvard boffins have achieved a significant milestone in their quest to build robot flies which could be used by the government to really bug people.

Tesco is upping the ante in the software market by widening the availability of its own-brand applications off the back of what it described as a hugely successful initial roll-out.

Virus writers are revisiting the tactic of holding data on compromised machines to ransom with a new strain of so-called "ransom-ware" Trojan.

The "new" Dell apparently includes an ample helping of feistiness. The hardware maker has slung an aggressive attack against HP's blade server strategy via the corporate blog.

The FTC inquiry was a just a start. In the coming weeks, Google will also face a pair of congressional investigations into its proposed $3.1bn merger with online ad company DoubleClick - one in the House and one in the Senate.

Citrix Systems saw second quarter revenue rise 21 per cent, driven by growth in product license revenue, online services and technical services.

CommentThe genius of Apple's strategy for its iPhone is to make a defensive move look like an offensive one.

Shortly after they returned home from the war in Iraq, Sprint accused 200 American soldiers of excessive roaming and summarily canceled their wireless service. At least, that's the word from one of these embattled national heroes.

AMD suffered from the same desktop chip syndrome as rival Intel during its second quarter, as the company handed in another loss.

Lax security controls are allowing conmen to host fraudulent websites on servers run by government organisations and private sector firms.

Seagate posted a boost in fourth quarter income thanks to higher revenue and a one-time tax benefit.

SanDisk's second quarter profits sunk 71 per cent as the #1 flash memory manufacturer suffered through declining prices, but promised market stabilization is in the cards.