Bob Brewin

The U.S. Defense Department continues to beef up wireless communications systems in Baghdad and has awarded a US$15.8 million contract to the federal markets division of Motorola Inc. for a radio system in the Iraqi capital for the Baghdad Police Force.

A nationwide collaborative of hospitals, federal health care agencies and health care industry IT vendors that's backed by the New York-based Markle Foundation Thursday released the results of their efforts to use information systems to improve patient care, lower costs and protect privacy.

The U.S. Defense Department has awarded a US$15.8 million contract to the federal markets division of Motorola Inc. for a radio system in the Iraqi capital for the Baghdad Police Force.

After going nearly a year without a CEO, Identrus LLC this week said it has hired a chief executive who's charged with resurrecting the developer of digital certificate technology and expanding the use of its Web-based services for certifying the authenticity of business-to-business transactions.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) has approved a new and final draft standard for 802.11g wireless LANs (WLANs) that will have a true throughput for Internet-type connections of between 10Mbps and 20Mbps, far lower than 54Mbps raw data rate initially billed for the standard.

General Motors Corp. will offer small and midsize truck-fleet buyers a packaged wireless data and fleet-tracking system based on software from Gearworks Inc. and data phones from Nextel Communications Inc.

The Air Force Materiel Command's logistics center at Hill Air Force Base has deployed a wireless parts-tracking system that will save US$15 million a year by cutting the time a part remains in the repair pipeline from 24 hours to two, according to Mike Neri, the base's IT director.

The battle for the enterprise wireless LAN market continues in the run-up to the Networld+Interop conference next week, and between now and the start of N+I, seven companies are slated to introduce WLAN systems that put the management of dumb access points (AP) at the core of the network.