Tag archive: Ontario

One of the insurers that covered Sony during the four week PlayStation Network outage told a New York court that it shouldn't be responsible for claims that occur in cyberspace. The issue is whether Sony suffered damages in the real-world for attacks that occurred in the virtual space. Zurich American is also suing co-insurers ACE Ltd, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and AIG to get a better understanding of shared responsibility covering… Read More

Chipmaker AMD has decided to retire the ATI brand name for its graphics products, effectively ending the separate identity AMD has maintained for its graphics operations since acquiring ATI way back in 2006. Although AMD has no made any official announcements, the company plans to make the transition official when it launches its “Fusion” platform later this year, which will mark the first products since AMD's acquisition to… Read More

Research in Motion's bid to take over encryption technology developer Certicom now appears to be a done deal, with competing bidder VeriSign notifying Certicom that it would not top RIM's latest offer of $3 CDN per share, or about $106 million USD. RIM has been moving to acquire Certicom for some time to augment its mobile products with enhanced security, including elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) technologies, which, on a… Read More

In late 2008, BlackBerry maker RIM was all set to take over Canadian security software firm Certicom…but right at the end of the year things suddenly got strange with Certicom claiming RIM's bid to take over the company was too low. Now, VeriSign has swooped in and inked its own takeover deal for Certicom, in a transaction valued at about $73 million…or, really, about $40 million once Certicom's cash-on-hand and… Read More

Earlier this month, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced it had finally reached a deal to take over Ontario security firm Certicom in a transaction valued at about $52 million. The two companies have been talking about the acquisition for nearly two years…but now it appears Certicom isn't too happy with the deal. Certicom's board has recommended its shareholders reject RIM's bid for the company as… Read More

In a ruling which could have significant implications for workplace privacy policies, a federal circuit court has ruled (PDF) that employees have a reasonable right to privacy for messages they receive that aren't stored by the employer or someone the employer pays to store messages. To peer into such messages, companies would need a warrant or the employee's permission—and that may set of a flurry of writing as company… Read More

Success breeds problems, as Facebook keeps finding out. The latest fire to flare up in its cyber kingdom is in Canada, where a privacy advocacy group, The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has filed a complaint with the country’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner, alleging 22 breaches of privacy law by the social networking site, the BBC reports. At its heart, the complaint claims that the company collects data on… Read More

Fans of old-school technology retailing may rejoice: the CompUSA brand may be changing, but it's not going away. As word broke in late 2007 that the venerable computer retailer CompUSA would be closing its remaining retail stores and, essentially, holding a fire sale on anything left on the shelves, some technology enthusiasts rejoices (whoo hoo! Longer lines at Best Buy, Fry's, and Circuit City!) but others lamented the loss of… Read More

OK, way back in the day, there were three things that bugged me about the so-called “revolutionary” animated arcade game Dragon's Lair. First, it was the first video game I'd ever seen that cost $.50 a play, and that pretty much put me off the whole console genre for the remainder of my life. If I can't get 10 minutes of entertainment for a quarter, I ain't interested. Second, there were always a bunch of… Read More

Police in the Canadian city of Hamilton, in the southern portion of Ontario, did something unique to try to identify a murder suspect: the uploaded a one-minute, 12 second surveillance video clip to the popular video sharing site YouTube and asked the user community for help in identifying the suspect. So far as anyone knows, this is the first time a law enforcement agency has ysed a video sharing Web site as a tool in an active… Read More

The words “MySpace” and “genocide” don't often appear in the same sentence—usually it's just “stalking” or “school bomb threat”—but today social networking giant MySpace announced a partnership with humanitarian organization Oxfam and nearly two dozen bands to raise awareness of—and funds for—the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. The… Read More

In a move that sounds somewhat odd, Syntax-Brillian will be partnering with Solar Link Technologies, a company wholly owned by Taiwan-based Pro Chen Group to have their LCoS and LCD TV lines assembled here in the states – and in California of all places. Scheduled to begin assembly in August 2006 Olevia 3,5 and 7 series LCD TVs will be the first lines down the belt, followed by the LCoS product lines in September.… Read More

The president of Ontario's Lakehead University has made a personal policy decision not to expand the school's limited Wi-Fi offerings, citing concerns about the health effects of magnetic fields. According to a transcript of remarks at an open meeting in November 2005, university president Fred Gilbert stated: “The decision is mine, and it was made on the basis that the jury is still out on the impact that electromagnetic… Read More

Computing accessories maker Belkin has announced four new cases for Apple's latest fifth-generation video-capable iPods, including one with a new “kickstand” feature to prop up the iPod on a surface while watching videos. The new cases will be available in North America in early December with suggested prices of $19.99 to $29.99. The cases include: Kickstand Case for 5G iPod ($29.99) is a fine-grain leather case… Read More

Wi-Fi service provider Boingo Wireless today extended the number of hotspots their user base can roam to. A deal with Opti-Fi Networks adds wireless networks at 30 North American airports. This agreement, Boingo said, allows for high speed wireless Internet access at American and Canadian airports including "Albany, NY, International Airport; Edmonton, Alberta, International Airport; Hamilton, Ontario, International Airport; Jackson Hole,… Read More