Chromebooks were a hot commodity in the second quarter of this year, with shipments increasing 75 percent compared to the same period in 2020. Some 11.9 million of the laptops were shipped during the April-June quarter, or 13 percent of all notebooks, according to Canalys, a global market research company. HP led the pack in shipments with 4.3 million units.

In addition to its condemnation of China, the White House announced that the U.S. Justice Department has filed charges against four Ministry of State Security hackers allegedly engaged in a multiyear campaign targeting foreign governments and entities in key sectors, including maritime, aviation, defense, education and healthcare in a least a dozen countries.

For both tuned-in sellers and aggressive aggregates, business on Amazon is booming. Aggregators acquired more Amazon marketplace sellers in the last three months than the last two years, noted Ryan Gnesin, CEO of Elevate Brands, one of the most active Amazon seller aggregate organizations.

Amazon is on the brink of a possible breakup, and marketers should be ready to seize the opportunity. It's difficult to imagine life without Amazon -- as we know it. But with ongoing antitrust probes by Congress, there's a real possibility that Amazon's e-commerce dominance may soon end. Let's examine what a breakup of Amazon could look like -- and why it's likely a win for brand marketers.

The U.S. technology industry is guardedly supporting a massive legislative package designed to address a range of issues affecting the sector, including a federal commitment to add billions of dollars to government technology research and development programs. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., characterized the legislation as "a landmark bill to out-compete China in key emerging technology areas critical to our national security."

Cancel culture and politics aside, one of the more brutal threats lurking in the shadows of the internet is the slander industry. All too often, unsuspecting people become victims of websites that promote slanderous, often unverified information about individuals. This false and vilifying information lives on the internet forever and can sully an otherwise spotless reputation.

HP this month announced the release of its Sustainable Bond Framework, which will be used to issue bonds to help the company finance projects for a more sustainable future. Let's talk about this move to sustainability. We'll then look at the product of the week -- a mobile workstation which appears to be the lightest so far released into the market.

With Covid, increased numbers of people have been working remotely, and many will continue to do so post-pandemic. This has fundamentally altered how work is done; not only by company staff, but by HR professionals. This societal shift, combined with the continued emergence of new digital technologies, means that the field of human resources is in the midst of radical evolution.

The U.S. government is moving at a brisk pace to launch information technology projects authorized by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Federal information technology providers are looking for the chance to participate in contracts flowing from the $1 billion allocated by the plan to the government's Technology Modernization Fund.

Remote work appears to be here to stay. More than 25 million work-from-home jobs could be created in non-technology industries in the coming years, according to a report from Upwork. Professional services are involved in essentially every part of the economy, which means that there is widespread potential for remote freelancing, even in companies where most people need to be in person every day.

A definitive merger agreement has been announced for Amazon to acquire MGM for $8.45 billion. MGM will bring to Amazon's table more than 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows. All totaled, MGM productions over the years won more than 180 Oscars and 100 Emmy awards. MGM will continue to operate as a label under the Amazon brand.

A Russian-language dark web marketplace called Hydra that is known to facilitate the illegal sale of narcotics has seen cryptocurrency transactions soar over the last five years. According to a report by Flashpoint and Chainalysis, Hydra's crypto business began accelerating in 2017 after its chief competitor was shut down by Russian law enforcement authorities.

Across all businesses, the entire C-suite leadership team is looking to validate an experience management program by asking one question: what is the financial impact of my CX investment? Making a business case to the financial leaders of your company means that you have to be prepared to answer any value-based questions they might throw your way.

Twitter is adding some new powerful features to its repertoire that users will be able to access for a price. The new premium offering, called Twitter Blue, will allow users to "undo" tweets, as well as create collections of their favorite tweets, according to independent researcher Jane Manchun Wong.

For anyone that still believes that Apple can be more than an incredibly profitable company; but one you can also be proud of for how it treats its people and customers, incoming VP of worldwide communications Stella Low could be the critical remedy for what ails the firm. Let's talk about Apple this week. Then we'll close with the product of the week: the HP Elite Folio Notebook.

The big questions about reopening the global economy and what new moves portend are coming in for analysis. It's not yet clear what the new normal is -- and there are more than a few straws in the wind that suggest that fixing one problem might cause another. This entire discussion before us isn't really about the new normal. Instead, it's about trying to ask the right questions that will get us there.

Last month's ruling by the Supreme Court in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. ended 10 years of tortuous litigation. While the Court definitively addressed the dispute between the two high tech giants, it put aside answering one critical infringement factor. Still, the ruling appeared to reduce the legal leverage available to software developers who seek copyright protection.

The software industry fueled jobs and GDP growth in the United States in 2020, according to a report by Software.org: the BSA Foundation. The software industry supported more than 15.8 million jobs in 2020. While the largest concentrations of software jobs remain in traditional tech hubs, such as Washington and California, other states have experienced greater job growth.

A survey of more than 200 CEOs maintains that poor digital marketing practices and meaningless metrics are "putting the board to sleep." According to the study, 62 percent of the CEOs believe that too much of marketing budgets is wasted on activities that don't deliver meaningful results, while nearly as many -- 60 percent -- think that the marketing potential of social media has been exaggerated.

U.S. senators heading antitrust issues have flagged Apple's new AirTag effort as potentially anticompetitive after Tile CEO CJ Prober started complaining because Apple could put his company out of business. Let's talk about Apple, vendor lock-in, and antitrust. Then we'll close with the product of the week, the new AMD-powered Surface Laptop in beautiful black.

This year's revised federal tax code plus new Covid-19 initiatives provide additional incentives for startup companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. If you received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, you may qualify to have that indebtedness forgiven; and other tax incentives this year provide new deductions to lower your tax bill.

With an increasing amount of workers turning to part-time, freelance, and contract work for a variety of reasons, a growing number of businesses are now based on the gig economy model. The E-Commerce Times spoke with several experts familiar with the ins and outs of the gig economy to find out what's evolving and changing in this burgeoning field.

Startup information security firm Intrigue has announced a US$2 million seed round led by LiveOak Venture Partners for a new attack service management platform that helps secure enterprise networks. The Intrigue tools scan all public, exposed attack surfaces inside and outside a company. The seed funding will also support the security and developer communities contributing to Intrigue Core.

Microsoft has announced it is purchasing Nuance Communications, a natural language to computer processing company, in a deal valued at $19.7 billion. "Nuance's popular healthcare-focused products and services will provide Microsoft an instant revenue stream and relationships with existing Nuance customers," noted Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT.

Engaging in disaster recovery requires a company to think about many things, but despite the long checklists that are created to accomplish DR, there are some areas that frequently get overlooked in business continuity and disaster recovery planning. With this in mind, it is imperative to address all areas of concern before a disaster strikes, not during or after the event.

Major information technology providers opposed to the broadening of class action litigation related to consumer protections have taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The companies are hoping the court will strike down a lower court ruling which makes it easier for consumers to file class action suits. The tech companies may not have to wait too long for a decision.

Pat Gelsinger's Intel is looking like the very different company it needs to be. It is more collaborative than combative, more strategic than tactical, with a far more effective plan than it has had since Andy Grove left the firm. Let's talk about how Gelsinger presents Intel as an execution and partnering powerhouse, and we'll close with the product of the week, a new set of headphones from Lenovo.

A cadre of tech giants have created the Rust Foundation. This is neither the first nor largest contribution to an open-source project by private tech vendors. Still, the creation of this new body marks another noteworthy instance in which proprietary software companies took the initiative to found and steward a nonprofit project. It's not groundbreaking, but it doesn't happen every day.

Nvidia is in the process of working through regulatory approvals to buy Arm from SoftBank -- a technology holding company with mixed success husbanding its acquisitions. Let's explore this acquisition, the most significant regulatory hurdles the effort needs to overcome, and what might result once the two firms are one. We'll close with the product of the week: Nvidia's GeForce Now.

Those familiar with open source know that it works and comes with many benefits. A testament to the rising adoption of open source is the recent moves by software giants such as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle into the open-source community. This corporate migration to open source is continuing as many organizations, both large and small, turn to open source in tough economic times.