John Blau

Protection against possible terrorist attacks is the motivator behind Germany's new anti-terror data law. The law allows German security officials to create the largest and most comprehensive pool of personal data ever to be amassed in the country.

One of Europe's largest shoe companies plans to embed wireless chips in shoes sold at hundreds of stores across the continent. Under a deal announced Friday, Checkpoint Systems Inc. will provide Reno GmbH with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and store tagging systems.

It may be too early to talk plug-and-play but IBM Corp. believes it can help businesses of all sizes easily cluster their servers to handle intensive computing workloads.

SAP AG's planned suite of hosted midmarket applications will be available in select markets later this year. The company will offer more details on pricing and functionality after the Cebit trade show in March, according to CEO Henning Kagermann.

As part of a new strategy aimed at growth markets, business software vendor Software AG will focus on SOA (service-oriented architecture) products and services, and plans acquisitions to broaden its product portfolio and market share, company executives announced at a news conference Wednesday.

In a move to strengthen its portfolio of analytic applications, SAP AG has agreed to acquire privately-held Pilot Software Inc., a maker of strategy management software based in Mountain View, California.

Qualcomm Inc. is offering mobile phone makers a choice of technologies to tune into mobile TV services.

Nearly one year after Skype Ltd. stole the headlines at the 3GSM World Congress with its plans to offer a mobile version of its Internet phone, a couple of nimble startups -- and not the Net telephony pioneer itself -- appear to have found a way to make this type of service work, both technically and commercially.