John Blau

Germany's mammoth military IT project, called "Herkules," has been dealt yet another blow. T-Systems International GmbH, the IT services subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, has dropped out of a group bidding on the

As competition intensifies in the market for smart phone operating systems, PalmSource Inc. is looking at ways to carve out a piece of market share. Earlier this month, the company acquired China MobileSoft Ltd. (CMS) in a move aimed not only at gaining additional smart phone expertise but also Linux know-how. At the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, PalmSource unveiled four new applications that draw on its recent CMS acquisition. IDG News Service interviewed David Nagel, president and chief executive officer of PalmSource, shortly before the start of the wireless conference and exhibition, which runs through Thursday.

SAP AG acquired Norwegian software company iLytix Systems AS earlier this month in a move aimed at introducing a new business intelligence (BI) tool to its small business product suite, Business One. The tool, XL Reporter, enables Business One users to export data to Microsoft Corp.'s Excel program without having to reformat each report. It also allows them to create new financial and business reports or modify existing ones, schedule reports for automatic delivery, and create "what if" scenarios quickly with new point-and-click and drag-and-drop features.

One day after Oracle Corp. announced its first initiative as a newly merged company, rival German business software vendor SAP AG has responded with a new maintenance and migration service aimed at its customers running PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards applications.

A Brazilian virus writer has unleashed a new mobile phone virus, called Lasco.A, that is capable of spreading both through the short-range wireless Bluetooth technology and by attaching itself to files, according to the Finnish antivirus company F-Secure Corp.

Consumers and small businesses in the U.K. can now take advantage of the same inexpensive Internet telephone service that Vonage Holdings Corp. offers its customers in North America.

Users are beginning to show interest in new third-generation (3G) higher-speed mobile phones after operators, particularly in Europe, spent lavishly to market the new service in the run-up to the crucial holiday buying season.

The German subsidiary of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has contacted distributors and resellers of its products in Germany and said it has found no evidence of falsely labeled, or "re-marked," microprocessors entering the country from Taiwan.