research

My engineer friend, George, got brutally stood up the other day.

"How did you react?" I asked, trying not to contort my face in fear, as he can get emotional.

"Well, I de-friended her on Facebook," he said. "She's dead to me."

It turns out he may be one of the healthy ones. Because Facebook is where all of love's stages are enacted. And one of those stages comes straight after the breakup. It is the stalking stage.

A master's candidate at Western University (which I don't think offers a master's in Love Studies) decided to examine the extent to which former lovers cannot let go, in the socially networked sense. … Read more

Windows Phone is starting to gain some ground, but don't expect it to be an Android threat anytime soon.

New data released today by research firm Strategy Analytics indicates that Windows Phone will secure 4 percent of the U.S. smartphone market this year, up from the 3 percent it nabbed in 2011. The research firm says Microsoft's operating system will be running on 5 million smartphones sold in 2012, compared with 3.5 million last year.

"Nokia, HTC and Samsung have some of the biggest Microsoft smartphone portfolios at present and they will be three main … Read more

Half of all adult cell phone users surveyed by Pew Research use their cell phones while watching TV, a revelation that could drive more interactive advertising for TV viewers.

According to the Pew study, which surveyed 2,254 people in March and April of this year, 52 percent of all cell phone owners said they had used their mobile devices to do a variety of things while watching TV.

What exactly were these folks doing with their cell phones while watching TV? About 38 percent said they used their phones to keep them occupied during commercial breaks. And 23 percent … Read more

It seems that, in this election year, we're all obsessed about the 1 percent.

Today, I would like to discuss the 2 percent. We must decide what to do about them, before it's too late -- both for them and for us.

I am in possession of a devastating piece of research commissioned by a company called Mancx.

This is not an organization dedicated to people who come from Manchester, England, and talk with accents derived from a depressed power drill.

Instead, this is a business question-and-answer site where real people can actually buy and sell information, which … Read more

A jury has found Research In Motion liable for $147.2 million in damages for infringing on patents owned by Mformation Technologies.

Jurors in U.S. District Court in Northern California determined late Friday that RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server -- software that lets companies remotely manage employees' devices -- infringed on Mformation patents and awarded damages of $8 for each of the 18.4 million units sold.

Mformation sued RIM in 2008, accusing the troubled BlackBerry maker of infringing on two patents after being briefed on the technology. RIM declined to license the technology and then modified its software … Read more

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.--If you want to know what the future of airplane design looks like, you might have to make your way out to the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Tucked away inside a nondescript warehouse building at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center here, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, Boeing, and Cranfield Aerospace are working on an entirely new kind of plane, one which they hope could someday revolutionize aviation.

Known as a hybrid wing body, the plane design, which NASA describes as a cross between a conventional plane and a flying wing design, is … Read more

For the first time ever, Android has dominated smartphone sales in several major markets, including the U.S., Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia, according to data released today by market analysis firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

In all of these countries, Google's mobile OS has taken at least half of smartphone sales, with the lowest being in Italy at 49.6 percent and highest in Spain with 84.1 percent. The data is from sales recorded over the last 12 weeks ending on June 10.

"We are seeing much of the Android sales growth being driven … Read more

The work-life balance often seems like a seesaw, with a grossly overfed boss sitting at one end.

There seems little respect either for personal time or even vacation time, because your time isn't your time. It's time you sold to the highest bidder.

So much so that the majority of U.S. employees expect to have to work on vacation. Well, it is paid vacation, isn't it?

I am privileged to have been passed a survey commissioned by TeamViewer. This is a company that is officially responsible for remote access software, but is uncommonly dedicated to commissioning Harris Interactive … Read more

It's funny how a company with nearly 80 million subscribers can be considered to be in a death spiral.

But that's exactly where Research In Motion finds itself. On the heels of a disappointing quarterly loss, a warning of further losses ahead, and the delay of its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform, many are questioning the company's ability to continue to operate. Shareholders voiced their displeasure with the company yesterday even as executives pleaded for patience.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, however, believes people are underestimating the company's odds for a revival. His key argument: that base of … Read more