Research In Motion on Thursday announced that its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has become the first tablet device to be certified for use by the U.S. government. The company’s slate has received FIPS 140-2 certification according to RIM, and it is currently the only media tablet to have been awarded this certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology at this point. FIPS certification is required in order for a device to be considered for use by the U.S. government. “RIM is please...

The Guardian has posted the full text of what is reportedly a LulzSec IRC chat room log from May 31st to June 4th. LulzSec — the notorious hacking group responsible for recent attacks on Sony, the CIA’s website, and the U.S. Senate — has fired back claiming that the room’s sole purpose is for recruiting new members. The Guardian reported that LulzSec’s members include hackers “Kayla,” “Topiary” — who runs the group’s Twitter feed and writers the press rele...

New details emerged recently in the battle between Microsoft, Google, and the U.S. government’s choice of default software. Here’s the rub: Google filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in November 2010 alleging that the Department of Interior didn’t give its Google Apps Premier a fair shake before choosing to use Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal for all of its employees. That’s the tip of the iceberg, as the story gets a bit more complicated. See, in o...

It seems there are some benefits to working for the man. In 2004, a company then known simply as Nextel began investigating whether they could assess ETF’s to government contracts that ended before their pre-determined termination date. At the time, Nextel’s VP of marketing issued a public statement hypothesizing that “the government will never, never accept such penalty amounts”. Uh, ok. After a lengthy process, Sprint-Nextel has now, according to the Associated Press, “ultimate...