Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

A shift in how entertainment is delivered to the home will increase demand for consumer electronics products with wireless networking capabilities and ignite explosive growth for WiFi, according to a study released this week by ABI Research In the report, ABI forecasted that shipments of WiFi-enabled consumer electronic devices will surge from 40 m...

Transaction failures at a company's Web site can have a significant negative impact on the business' brand, according to a survey released Monday by TeaLeaf Technology and Harris Interactive "Transaction failures on a company's Web site create such a bad impression in the eyes of consumers that just one troublesome issue can cause irreparable harm ...

Worldwide shipments of hybrid set-top boxes -- boxes that combine a broadband connection with satellite TV reception -- will reach 50 million by 2011, according to a report from ABI Research During that time frame, hybrids will represent 70 percent of all set-top box shipments in Europe and 45 percent of all those in North America, ABI Principal An...

A proposed treaty that would expand the rights of broadcasters over what they deliver to consumers cleared a significant hurdle last week at a meeting of an international copyright panel The panel -- the Standing Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights (SCCR) of theWorld Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) -- approved the calling of a dipl...

The top 10 fastest growing Web sites in August with back-to-school online advertising campaigns were announced Tuesday by Internet media and marketing research firm Nielsen//NetRatings Topping the list was eBags.com, which showed month-to-month growth of 118 percent, from a unique audience of 582,000 in July to 1.3 million in August....

Webcams have been around for awhile now, but it hasn't been until recently that they've started to become a hit with the instant messaging crowd. The classic videophone may have been a bust, but the marriage of Webcam and IM has started to capture the affection of Net gabbers Apple, as usual, was quick to pick up this vibe and began incorporating v...

Sears and Intel crowned a list of top performing Web sites released Monday by theCustomer Respect Group (CRG), an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their online customers The annual report, now in its fifth year, analyzed the Web sites of all Fortune 100 companies. It ranked them on their performance ...

Web analytics have become a critical part of every company's Web presence, but many businesses are often surprised by how time consuming traffic-crunching programs can be That surprise can be most often pegged to two reasons, according to a report released Wednesday by Forrester Research....

A deal announced Tuesday between social networking Goliath MySpace and digital content manager Snocap will have a marginal impact on Internet music sales, according to some observers of the market Under the deal, Los Angeles-based MySpace and San Francisco-based Snocap will make tools available to artists and record labels among its 100 million mem...

So all this hype about podcasting has tickled your curiosity, but you haven't a clue where to start. Try WildVoice WildVoice, currently in beta, is a Web site designed for creating and hosting podcasts....

It's always been a rule in the technology world that the smaller/lighter/thinner something is, the more you're going to pay for it That's especially true when it comes to "ultra"-portable notebook computers -- mighty machines packed with power and weighing in at around three pounds....

A legal test used to assess the validity of patents threatens the development of free and open source software, according to a civil liberties group The test can be used to create legal obstacles to free and open source (FOSS) collaborations, according to a friends of the court brief filed Wednesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The...

There are two schools of thought when it comes to consumer video editing programs One school believes that most videographers want to create their movies with as little human intervention as possible....

To some observers, it may seem like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped, but next month a group of high-tech companies -- including leading notebook computer makers Dell, Lenovo, Apple and Hewlett-Packard -- will be holding a summit meeting in San Jose, Calif., to get the ball rolling on manufacturing standards for lithium-ion batteries for portable and handheld electronic devices...

To-do lists have been a staple for software writers since the invention of the personal computer. Maybe that's because we all have things to do and never tire of finding better and faster ways to get them done For many of us, a simple pad and paper, or the rudimentary to-do list in a personal digital assistant, will meet our needs, but when our r...

Persuading a company's brass to buy tools to analyze Web traffic is an easy sell these days, but that's not the case when it comes to hiring bodies to interpret the data produced by the tools Those were among the findings in a report released last week by Forrester Research....

To accommodate the increased use of rich media ads by online marketers, Nielsen//NetRatings is modifying its media intelligence service, AdRelevance Among the changes:...

I've been using Picasa since before Google bought it, and have found the feisty program a gem for managing my growing library of digital photos, as well as a handy tool for quick tinkering with snapshots when launching a full-blown image editor would be overkill I always look forward to each iteration of the software because, unlike many programs, ...

As more consumers discover the benefits of wireless networking in their homes, their eyes will start opening to the perks of network storage. That awareness will fuel some beefy growth in the market over the next five years, according to a report released Wednesday by ABI Research The report, written by ABI principal analyst Michael Wolf, predicted...

While returning to school may only be a fleeting thought for most students at this time of year, it's top of mind for the folks charged with keeping university networks free from a host of electronic nasties "Fall is definitely the worst time for viruses and things wrong with computers on the network," Tim Cantin, IT Director for Wellesley College ...