Stories by Mark Sullivan

Large U.S. tech companies should pay income taxes of about 35 percent on the profits they make (above $18.3 million) from business done in the United States. So says the tax code.

Just because computers are one big exercise in evolutionary progress, that doesn't mean certain computing maxims ever go out of style.

At a press conference this morning at CTIA 2011 in San Diego, Chinese company Huawei outlined its strategy for entering the U.S. mobile market.

Apple has changed the antenna in the new iPhone 4S so that the cellular radio in the phone can choose between two antennas, depending on which one is sending or receiving signal best. These two antennas are part of the stainless steel band that wraps around the sides of the iPhone 4 and the new 4S. On the iPhone 4 this band is split up into several antennas so that one piece does Wi-Fi, another does GPS, another does Bluetooth and still another does cellular.

The spotlight on Day Two of the Google I/O developer event here in San Francisco was firmly on the company's Chrome OS. After six months in which only a prototype was available, laptops running Google's Chrome operating system will finally come to market for consumers, businesses and education.

The LG Optimus Black is a smartly designed Android phone that features a nice-looking display, a simple and clean user interface, and battery life that would make some far-more-expensive smartphones envious.

I chuckled at Apple’s explanation yesterday of its tablet sales coming up short of expectations: “We can’t make them fast enough,” Apple’s COO Tim Cook said during an earnings call with analysts. Were he speaking for any other company, his statement would have smacked of PR bluster, but Cook meant it literally: Apple’s suppliers can’t make the components for the iPad 2 as fast as Apple can sell the device.

By now you've seen all the ads pitching wireless companies' new 4G mobile broadband services and devices. But beyond all the buzzwords and hype, which companies can reliably provide next-generation speed?

I got a guided tour of Microsoft's new IE9 browser here at SWSW, and saw several features that I believe raise the bar for web browsers.

The ZTE V9 tablet was a bit of a letdown after seeing some of the other tablets here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While other companies are rolling out sleek devices running Android Honeycomb, ZTE had on display a number of tablets that looked aimed at tablet buyers on a budget.

Social networking giant Facebook has a history of backtracking. On numerous occasions, the company has made an important move--especially with regard to user privacy--only to reverse its course after a public outcry. This isn't surprising, given Facebook's shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later approach to making strategic changes to its service.

Insurgent smartphone maker LG says its LG Optimus Black Android smartphone is the thinnest in the world. The phone's width measures about 0.36 inches thick, then tapers down to 0.24 inches, which LG says qualifies it as the world's thinnest phone.

With its major competitors talking the talk and walking the walk on 4G, AT&T gave the first signs today that it's feeling pressure to get its own 4G network started and completed in a hurry. Until now, AT&T has talked mainly about continuing on with its HSPA+ network and moving only gradually toward 4G LTE.

Microsoft announced a set of updates to its Bing search engine Wednesday, among them changes to the way search results are presented, enhancements to its "social search" capabilities, and some cool additions to its mobile app for Android and iPhone.

Results from a new Consumer Reports survey puts into real numbers iPhone owners' continuing unhappiness with AT&T's network service, and suggests that a Verizon iPhone would be warmly welcomed by consumers.