Wi-Fi testing finds compatibility problems
How's this for the future of wireless applications? At least one in every four Wi-Fi products examined by the Wi-Fi Alliance failed its certification test, which is a sure path to interoperability and performance problems. Although the Wi-Fi Alliance has certified over 1,000 products in the last few years, the high percentage of products that don't get a passing grade is enough to make you want to look for the Wi-Fi Alliance seal of approval or stick with a single vendor.
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Five Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing 
By JOHN MARKOFF
A global consortium of technology companies is about to campaign Hollywood and the recording industry to convince them that it has found a way to protect digital content.

XML startups partner with larger players
Makers of specialized XML hardware devices for Web services software, are signing on with industry heavyweights to extend their sales reach and add credibility.

FOR YUM!, THE WHOLE WORLD IS FAT CITY

With more outlets than McDonald's, the outfit behind Pizza Hut,

KFC, and Taco Bell is now also on a roll in China, as execs explain http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2003/nf20031211_5852_db008.htm?c=bwinsiderdec12&n=link11&t=email

Accenture Makes A Market On EBay 
Leigh Gallagher
The consulting firm has found a new gig: helping big business unload excess inventory online.

When Boise Cascade Corporation shareholders meet Tuesday to vote on the company's proposed acquisition of OfficeMax Inc., many of them will be paying more attention to the forest than the trees. Even though the acquisition is expected to be approved in Tuesday's vote, a number of analysts and investors nevertheless are griping that the excitement is short-sighted, overlooking myriad risks involved in integrating the two companies.

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Companies and Communities
Win-Win Partners

at ZDNet  - Jul 29 6:21 PM

IBM has accused Microsoft of conspiring with SCO in an attempt to derail Linux.

MySQL Preps for LinuxWorld with Veritas, SGI Pacts  

at Internet News  - Jul 31 4:49 AM

By Clint Boulton Open-source database maker MySQL AB Wednesday said it has inked Linux-oriented deals with Veritas, SGI and others to wrap its software with major products from those companies.

TI Buys 11a/g Radio Maker  

at Internet News  - Jul 31 9:23 AM

'In the wireless LAN space, we didn't have our own radio,' says Yoram Solomon, director of business development and strategy planning at TI. 'We had some internal research, but no radio. So we worked with partners.

Q&A: Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems  

at Internet News  - Aug 01 10:45 AM

By Erin Joyce As the open source faithful prepare to descend upon the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco the first week in August, Sun Microsystems (Quote, Company Info) is fine-tuning its own Linux message, and alliances.

Advocates form open-source trade group  

at ZDNet  - Aug 06 8:04 AM

The CCIA, which whose members include Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Yahoo, has been an active critic of Microsoft, challenging its court settlement with the government and supporting open standards.

Intel, SAS Take Business Intelligence Mobile  

at Internet News  - Sep 29 8:58 AM

By Clint Boulton Intel (Quote, Chart) has agreed to work with SAS Institute to bundle business intelligence software with wireless computing capabilities on mobile machines such as laptops.

Swiss joins BA's Oneworld alliance  

at Independent  - Sep 23 12:44 PM

Before the inclusion of Swiss, the Oneworld partners, which include American Airlines, Iberia, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Aer Lingus, controlled 49 per cent of Heathrow's slots. Now the figure is 51 per cent.

Fewer alliances a red flag for Siebel?  

at ZDNet  - Aug 06 1:26 PM

At the same time, economic circumstances have compelled the San Mateo, Calif.-based company to reduce the number of employees dedicated to managing partnerships.

Gateway Taps IBM for Tech Support 

at Internet News  - Aug 04 9:35 AM

By boston.internet.com Staff Looking to expand beyond PCs, Gateway (Quote, Company Info) has siged a new pact to provide its business customers with technical support from IBM's (Quote, Company Info) services arm.

GM Says More Talks Set with Fiat  

at Reuters  - Aug 08 1:33 PM

GM Says More Talks Set with Fiat Fri August 8, 2003 04:21 PM ET DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. GM.N said on Friday it was planning talks with Fiat SpA FIA.MI over the status of its agreement with the troubled Fiat Auto unit.

Microsoft rivals plan pro-Linux lobbying  

at Seattle Times  - Aug 08 8:50 PM

The association has spent the past few months developing the group, to be called the Open Source and Industry Alliance, said spokesman Gregory Minchak

Allies gear up for mobile fight 

at ZDNet  - Jul 29 12:38 PM

Three chipmakers and a giant mobile phone group teamed up on Tuesday in a likely bid to prevent Microsoft and Intel from dominating mobile devices as they do PCs.

SuSE in Tech Pact with Sybase Firm  

at Internet News  - Aug 12 6:55 AM

By SV.internet.com Staff German Linux distributor SuSE Monday said it has struck a technology alliance with iAnywhere Solutions a subsidiary of Sybase (Quote, Company Info).

Yahoo! Banks on Financial Partners  

at Internet News  - Aug 12 2:10 PM

By Roy Mark Yahoo! moved Tuesday to expand and extend its financial services in separate deals with Bank One (Quote, Company Info) and Nationwide Advantage Mortgage Company (NAMC), the mortgage affiliate of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

MSN, eBay expand e-commerce alliance  

at CNET  - Jul 10 10:38 AM

The expanded alliance would allow Microsoft's MSN customers to receive direct links to eBay for items related to their search queries from the MSN home page and its different sections.

AT&T Wireless Adds Samsung Phones to Lineup 

at Internet News  - Aug 18 8:39 AM

By Erin Joyce AT&T Wireless (Quote, Company Info) has joined with phone and electronics giant Samsung in their first joint offering of data, imaging, text messaging and other next-generation services on Samsung's latest v206 phones.

3 airlines are happy to work together  

at IHT  - Aug 19 10:26 PM

3 airlines are happy to work together Joe Sharkey NYT Wednesday, August 20, 2003 More than 4,800 people, a record, attended the National Business Travel Association annual convention in Dallas last week.

Tech giants launch phone alliance  

at BBC  - Jul 29 4:31 AM

The new Mobile Industry Processor Alliance was unveiled by two chipmakers: Texas Instruments, which leads the world in supplying the chips at the core of mobile phones, and France's STMicro, which specialises in audio/video chips.

BellSouth, DirecTV to Bundle Services  

at Reuters  - Aug 27 3:11 AM

BellSouth clients will receive discounted rates for the combined services throughout a nine-state region and will receive one bill, the company said.

Wireless Alliance Countering Wintel Threat  

at Internet News  - Jul 29 2:24 PM

By Michael Singer A group of tech companies Tuesday forged an alliance to make sure Microsoft and Intel can't corner the mobile and phone market the same way they have with PCs.

United Airlines, Air China announce pact  

at Seattle Post Intelligencer  - Aug 28 11:28 AM

United flies 3,300 flights daily around the world. The announcement comes at a crucial time for airlines that have China routes.

TI and ST expand alliance  

at IHT  - Jul 29 8:35 PM

The new plan will not charge for short calls to home, and the handset rental will be cut by a third for other members of a household who sign up after the primary user.

Mobile Alliance Unvelis GPRS Wireless Products  

at 3G  - Aug 03 10:00 PM

The new alliance will initially span the European territories of its members and reach over 170 million existing customers, across 15 countries.

Maxtor, EqualLogic forge storage alliance  

at CNET  - Sep 23 3:08 PM

Adding momentum to a new disk-drive interface technology, Maxtor and storage-device maker EqualLogic said Tuesday that they are teaming up to develop storage products using the serial-attached SCSI interface.

Soured Siebert, Intuit Alliance Leads to Suit  

at Internet News  - Sep 18 2:02 PM

By Chris NerneyIt's getting harder for IT pros to enjoy time off when their networks can come under a crushing attack at any time

U.S.-China Space Alliance Urged  

at Wired News  - Sep 17 12:13 PM

The United States should work on joint space projects with China, which is preparing to send its first person into space, the China chief of U.S. aerospace company Boeing said.

Samsung, Sony Mulling LCD Panel Venture  

at Reuters  - Sep 21 7:52 PM

InformationTechnology Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. ADR Sony Corporation SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Japan's Sony Corp said on Monday they were considering a joint venture for liquid crystal display

Standards Group to Ratify Upgraded Security Schema  

at Internet News  - Sep 21 8:31 AM

By Clint Boulton E-business standards consortium OASIS will announce Monday that it has ratified Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 1.1 as a standard, a source familiar with the group's plans confirmed.

Big Blue, GE Interlogix Team on Building Security  

at Internet News  - Sep 19 6:00 AM

The deal calls for GE Interlogix to integrate its own security software with IBM's enterprise management and application server software.

Krispy Kreme holes up at Wal-Mart  

at USA Today  - Sep 20 3:02 AM

It also has 1,508 discount stores and 53 Neighborhood Markets grocery stores.

RosettaNet, PRC to Open China Affiliate  

at Internet News  - Sep 17 8:45 AM

On Wednesday, the RosettaNet members said they would promote adoption and implementation of its e-business standards within China's high technology industry and multinational companies.

Microsoft adopts latest Wi-Fi standard  

at ZDNet  - Sep 17 4:09 AM

In October, retailers will begin selling the $139 Xbox Wireless Adapter MN-740, used to connect Xbox gaming consoles to a network.

Identrus Joins Liberty Alliance  

at Internet News  - Sep 06 12:13 AM

InformationTechnology

Vodafone teams up to put football fans in picture  

at Guardian Unlimited  - Sep 18 3:18 AM

Vodafone has forged a three-year alliance with the Uefa Champions League to prov

PalmSource, PalmGear Strike Alliance  

at Internet News  - Sep 04 9:42 AM

InformationTechnology

Sun, Hitachi renew storage alliance  

at ZDNet  - Aug 24 9:07 PM

The alliance lets Sun resell data center-class storage systems designed by Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), the wholly owned storage subsidiary of Japanese computing giant Hitachi, under its Sun StorEdge brand.

Dixons' alliance with AOL threatens Freeserve  

at Guardian Unlimited  - Sep 02 1:15 AM

Annie LawsonTuesday September 2, 2003The Guardian AOL is preparing to join forces with Dixons in a £100m alliance to promote the internet portal in the retailer's 1,100 stores.

Motorola, Microsoft team up on cell phones  

at Houston Chronicle  - Sep 15 3:38 PM

Users can manage personal information and synchronize their e-mail, calendar and contacts, browse the Web, download and listen to digital music and view video clips.

Aventis, Regeneron Sign $510 Mln Deal  

at Reuters  - Sep 08 1:42 PM

The alliance is the latest in a series of cancer-drug partnerships by the Strasbourg, France, company, which is seeking to buy in experimental compounds to boost its new drug pipeline.

AOL, Reuters wired for IM  

at ZDNet  - Sep 09 9:31 AM

Reuters reported that under the strategic alliance, users of its messaging software would be able to view and communicate with individuals logged onto any of AOL's IM systems, including its AOL, AIM and ICQ services.

HP, Red Flag partner on corporate Linux  

at ZDNet  - Sep 03 7:43 PM

Hewlett-Packard and a Chinese company have teamed to develop and market Linux software to companies in China--and later globally.

China blocks foreign software

By CNETAsia Staff
Special to CNET News.com
August 18, 2003, 8:56 AM PT
A new policy from China's governing body states that all government ministries must buy only locally produced software at the next upgrade cycle.

TheftBusters: Coalition to Combat Online ID Fraud  

at Internet News  - Sep 03 8:40 AM

By Ryan Naraine With the rapid growth of online identity theft eroding consumer confidence in the e-commerce sector, heavyweight tech firms, including Microsoft, Amazon.com, Verisign and eBay are teaming up to counter the growing scourge.

Federated identity, PingID and standards cartels 
Speaking at Digital ID World, General Motors chief technology officer Tony Scott detailed the difficult path to delivering a federated identity network. Start-up Ping Identity is hoping to ameliorate the technical and social challenges of forming those federated networks. Meanwhile the political maneuvering over Web service federation and security standards wages on.
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Big Blue, EMC leapfrog standards with alliance 
Was it impatience with slow moving storage standards, or could it have been a desire to conquer and divide the storage market before those standards emerge? In a surprise move, storage heavyweights (and fierce competitors) EMC and IBM have announced an alliance that, among other things, optimizes interoperability between EMC's storage and IBM's mainframes.
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 See also: Groups address storage industry needs

P2P firms book allies--librarians

Wi-Fi Alliance to turn cell phones into hotspot hunters 
How many city blocks have you circled looking for a Wi-Fi hotspot? Well, circle no more. The Wi-Fi Alliance has established a service that helps Wi-Fi users in need of a hotspot pinpoint the closest one. All they need is a WAP-enabled cell phone and a good memory for the service's URL. Finally, a good reason for WAP.
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RIAA Foes Know How to Sue, Too  

at Wired News  - Aug 28 11:36 AM

An alliance of online music broadcasters sued the recording industry in federal court Wednesday, saying that major record labels have unlawfully inflated webcasting royalty rates to keep independent operators out of the

Motorola to pull out of Symbian 

at BBC  - Aug 29 12:18 AM

US cellphone and chip giant Motorola is pulling out of the Symbian mobile phone software alliance. The US company is in talks to sell its share to Nokia, the world's biggest mobile manufacturer, and to Psion, the former handheld computer maker.

Overture a better buy than expected?

The McKinsey Quarterly Interview: J. P. Morgan Chase
Tying the knot: IT systems in a merger
When charged with combining the IT systems of two financial giants, Thomas B. Ketchum and John W. Schmidlin went for more than scale benefits: they transformed the system by applying business oversight and a whole new level of outsourcing.