Botnets — autonomous and automated collections of compromised computers that spew spam all around the globe — have become a scourge on the communications infrastructure. As we covered a few days ago, Message Labs, a division of Symantec that tracks over 3.7 billion SMTP connections per day, reports that botnets are responsible for a [...]

  If you are a fan of the BBC, then odds are that you have seen the dark and comical series, “The Worst Week Ever of My Life.” It is the story of Sam Briggs, a man who wants to impress his bride-to-be’s family. And as one would expect, bad luck and hilarity follow him. I [...]

  Thanks to Apple’s iPhone and the iPhone App Store, the mobile Internet has become a breeding ground of innovation. From fantastic smartphones to Internet devices to thousands of tiny apps, mobile has never been this exciting. Knowing that many of you lead busy lives, GigaOM’s network of blogs features five weekly columns that keep you [...]

  Novatel Wireless said this week that it will open up its MiFi router to developers who want to build applications for the popular gadget. This means tech companies can build software that will run on the credit card-sized Wi-Fi router that uses Verizon’s or Sprint’s 3G network as its backhaul to the Internet — and [...]

  If you’ve ever been curious about what would happen when a cloud service fails, then you don’t have to wonder any longer. Earlier today, customers of T-Mobile and Sidekick data services provider Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, lost access to all their data. Some believe that this data wipeout is because of a botched [...]

  The past week was one of the best eBay has seen in a long time. AT&T said it will soon allow VoIP calls over its 3G network, a move that will boost Skype’s allure as eBay moves to sell it. And a federal appeals court dismissed patent claims against the voice, video and messaging application. [...]

  There’s no question that Android is the hottest smartphone platform right now. Handsets running Android are being announced almost every day, and industry analyst Gartner projects phenomenal growth for the OS. Android, which currently claims a mere 2 percent of the smartphone market, will grab a smooth 14 percent of the market by 2012, Gartner [...]

  Not a day goes by when I don’t shake my fist at the computer in frustration; the recent explosion in web-based information has turned search into an activity akin to climbing a mountain. Which is why when I saw Searchtabs, a browser add-on, for the first time, I exhaled in relief. Suddenly, with the snap [...]

  AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple as the U.S. carrier for the iPhone expires next year, and there are signs that the arrangement between the two companies will then end. Such a move would bode very well indeed for the entire Apple ecosystem, from iPhone users to application developers. Apple itself, of course, stands to [...]

  We’d like to say thanks to this week’s GigaOM sponsors:PEER 1: Fully Scalable Hosting SolutionsRackSpace: Experience fanatical supportMozy: Simple, Automatic, Secure Online BackupSoftLayer: SoftLayer delivers on-demand virtual data center services and solutions.

  When Canada’s Silverorange started developing ClusterShot, a web site through which people can upload and sell their photos online, in May of 2008, it was nothing more than a side project members of the 14-person web development firm worked on in the evenings and on weekends. Today the service consumes up to 25 percent of [...]

  Augmented reality — a group of technologies that marry the virtual world with the real one — has been around for decades, and has traditionally required the use of expensive and specialized equipment. But the proliferation of smartphones that have cameras, displays, and even GPS and other sensors on them has enabled a whole host [...]

  Facebook accounted for nearly 60 percent of all U.S. visits to a social network in September, nearly tripling over the same month last year, according to the latest stats from web traffic intelligence company Hitwise. By comparison, MySpace, which took the No. 2 slot, saw U.S. visits to the site plunge to 30.3 [...]

  Updated: Well the wheels of regulatory justice are certainly spinning a lot faster these days. The Federal Communications Commission has decided to investigate Google’s refusal to connect its Google Voice callers to certain numbers in rural areas. The agency has stepped in after AT&T two weeks ago complained that if Google wanted to provide [...]