Stories by Mikael Ricknäs

Elastra has announced the availability of its Cloud Server platform, which lets enterprises build public-private computing clouds, it said on Tuesday.

In the face of mounting threats from hackers, MasterCard will use mobile phones to improve security for online transactions, the company said on Monday.

Cisco has raised its bid for Norwegian video conferencing vendor Tandberg to 19 billion Norwegian Kroner (US$3.4 billion), up from $3.0 billion, but says it will raise its price no further.

Google is hoping to make Web pages download up to twice as quickly using SPDY, a new application-layer protocol it's experimenting with, the company said in a blog post.

Qualcomm put the spotlight on the smartbook concept at an analyst meeting in New York on Thursday, showing off a Lenovo-made device based on the Snapdragon chipset that company CEO Paul Jacobs said would be formally launched at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

Despite increased profit in the first half of its fiscal year, Vodafone has decided to double its planned cost reductions, the operator said on Tuesday.

Samsung is opening up its cheaper smartphones to third-party application developers with the launch of a new software platform it is calling Bada. The first phone running the software will go on sale during the first half of next year, with more products to follow later in the year, the company said on Tuesday.

Intel's Atom processor, which is used in netbooks, helped PC microprocessor makers sell record numbers of chips during the third quarter, although the overall value of the market fell, according to market researcher IDC.

JDA Software Group on Friday announced plans to acquire supply-chain management competitor i2 Technologies for a net purchase price of approximately US$396 million.

Norwegian ISP Telenor doesn't have to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, according to a ruling from the district court for Asker and Bærum on Friday.

Sony Ericsson's first Android-based smartphone, the Xperia X10, comes with a unique user interface that's designed to improve handling and organization of communications and multimedia content. But one analyst said the interface still needs work, particularly when it comes to speed and responsiveness, before the phone hits the market.

Amazon Payments has introduced a new way to pay at Amazon.com and a number of other web retailers. The service is called PayPhrase and lets users enter a phase and personal identification number to speed up the checkout process, it said on Thursday.

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay should be closed, and if it isn't, two of the founders will each have to pay a fine of 500,000 Swedish kronor (US$71,500), according to a verdict in the Stockholm District Court on Wednesday.

Operators Clearwire International, Tatung InfoComm and VMAX have for the first time demonstrated mobile WiMax global roaming, the WiMax Forum said on Monday.

VMware has added support for Windows 7 and expanded the ability to handle virtual processors in Workstation 7, the new version of its platform for running multiple OSes simultaneously on a PC.