Technology news in brief

US patent awarded for rich-media applications

A tiny San Francisco website development company has been awarded a US patent covering the use of rich-media applications on the internet, which could signal the beginning of a big patent battle involving most of the internet's main development technologies. The patent has been awarded to Neil Balthaser and the Balthaser Online company he runs.

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Cost is key factor in Wan outsourcing decisions

Cost is the biggest concern for companies when considering whether to outsource their wide area network (Wan). A survey conducted by ICM Research on behalf of Vanco, the virtual network operator, found that 74% of companies already outsource part or all of their Wan. This outsourcing level increased from 71% last year, said ICM. It added that 76% of companies said low costs over the lifetime of the contract were the major factor in making their next outsourcing decision.

Lack of skills to impact on RFID adoption

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology adoption rates will suffer because of a lack of skills in the field, according to a study from the US-based Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). The study claims that three-quarters of users think there is an insufficiently skilled workforce to design and deploy RFID technologies.

Sun releases updated RFID Java software

Sun Microsystems has issued a new version of its radio frequency identification Java software to make it easier for firms to develop and manage RFID networks. Sun Java System RFID Software 3.0 will also help users manage higher volumes of data and can be integrated with other enterprise systems more easily, said Sun. The software is compatible with the open-source Sun Solaris 10 Operating System, as well as the Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms.