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Recession? What recession?
In the best of times (and especially in the worst of times) nothing feels more liberating than an insanely indulgent purchase. Why spend, say, $150 to obtain a smartphone when you could pay 10 times that amount for a diamond-studded handset with a personal concierge? Or put down $700 for Nokia's new N97 smartphone? Sure, times are tough, but if your company is actually making money, what better way is there to reward yourself than with another overpriced, gilded gadget?
Here's a list of wildly overpriced cell phones you'll want to take out a second mortgage for.
Intel is the dominant microprocessor vendor in the world, holding an almost 80 percent share of the world's chip market, according to research firm iSuppli. The company's chips run in most PCs and servers today, and in recent years—thanks in large part to Intel's intense rivalry with Advanced Micro Devices—processors have become smaller, more powerful and more feature-rich. Gone are the days when upgrading chips meant simply cranking up the clock speed. For example, now Intel, AMD and other chips makers—including Sun Microsystems and IBM—are rapidly growing the number of processing cores on each chip. Intel and AMD each have chips with six cores, and both are planning to aggressively grow those numbers in the near future. The processors also now offer such features as power management, on-board virtualization capabilities and increased memory bandwidth, all of which were highlighted in Intel's launch of its "Nehalem" architecture and AMD's rollout of its "Istanbul" Opteron chip. On its Web site, Intel recently offered a high-level glimpse of what goes into the making of a CPU. Here are some of the slides from the graphics presentation, which show only the most important steps among the hundreds that are needed to build a processor.Intel's full presentation can be viewed here.
The DXi7500, Quantum's flagship disk-based backup and data deduplication solution, offers a robust feature set and high-quality construction and architecture for the enterprise disk backup market. With solid throughput and deduplication performance, the DXi7500 can serve as the centerpiece of an enterprise's VTL or NAS-based disk backup infrastructure.
Click through the slideshow for a closer look at the DXi7500, and a peek inside Quantum's Colorado Springs, Colo., assembly facility.
Also, be sure to check out eWEEK Labs' full review of the product, here.
NEW YORK—T-Mobile's new phone, the MyTouch 3G, is a direct follow-up to its T-Mobile G1 smartphone, and like the T-Mobile G1 also features the Google Android mobile operating system. Users can download multiple applications from Android Market and customize menus and other elements to fit their personal style. In addition, several Google features such as Google Maps and YouTube have been preinstalled on the MyTouch 3G smartphone.
Gmail Labs was launched in June 2008 to let Google's Gmail team throw some new experimental tools against the Google wall and see what sticks. In a year's time, the team has thrown out roughly two dozen features to improve user experience, with the idea that some of the features wouldn't make the final cut. In July 2009, Google closed the book on right-side labels, triggering a minor furor from users who loved the feature. In the blog post explaining the reason for removing right-side labels, the Gmail Labs team hinted that it will retire other features. Gmail is now no longer a beta, so Google will likely look more seriously at what tools it intends to keep, with consumers and business users in mind. eWEEK looks at five Gmail Labs tools that users won't be able to live without, followed by five tools we believe the team can jettison.
VirtualBox, Sun's open-source, cross-platform desktop virtualization product, now boasts support for multiple guest processors. Starting with Version 3.0, which began shipping on June 30, Sun's virtualization tool can expose up to 32 virtual processors to its guest instances. The rest of the changes in VirtualBox 3.0 are primarily bug fixes and tweaks. Even so, the "non-free" workstation products from VMware and Parallels will seem a little less shiny now that VirtualBox is sporting its SMP chops.
Anyone can dress up the office with Ikea lamps and funky furniture, but if you want to truly stand out you have to find the objects and accessories no one else is going to have. Sure, an office desk crafted from an airplane wing may not be your style, but for the tech geek who wants it all, eWEEK presents 10 cool ways to customize your cube, including unusual iPhone docking stations, flying alarm clocks and even an ejection seat.
The moon? Been there, done that.
Count former astronaut Buzz Aldrin among those who think NASA is off target with its current plans to reach the moon by 2020. Aldrin calls the new race to the moon a "glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago." Instead of the moon, Aldrin envisions an ambitious manned space flight plan that targets a 2025 manned landing on the Martian moon Phobos.
Here's an eWEEK look at Buzz Aldrin's Martian mission.
Since Apple launched the App Store in July 2008, users have downloaded more than 1 billion iPhone apps with a variety of uses (or non-uses, if you consider all the games and procrastination tools currently on the market for the device). Companies such as Google, Salesforce.com and Oracle have even introduced enterprise apps for the consumer-centric devices, aiming to solidify their hold on the ever-expanding mobile market.
One of the most vital areas of peoples' lives, of course, is health care, and to that end, several iPhone apps have rolled out that allow both patients and physicians to monitor care, keep track of treatments or even see the amount of sleep they're getting. The following apps—all available from the iTunes App Store—aspire to put health care IT in the palm of one's hand.
Nokia's Symbian-powered, touch-screen-enabled N97 smartphone is packed with features-perhaps to a fault. In my tests of the device, I found that the N97's apparent kitchen-sink design philosophy yielded an ungainly user experience, albeit one that improved as I became accustomed to the N97's quirks.
Click on for a peek at the N97, and read our full review of the device.
NEW YORK—At Pepcom's recent Digital Experience event, a wide variety of IT companies arrived to show off their latest digital cameras, netbooks, smartphones and other devices designed to make both regular and business life a bit more flashy and efficient.
Whether new smartphones from Nokia, a vehicle visor mount from BlackBerry, new mini-notebooks or netbooks from Lenovo, or backup hard-drives from Hewlett-Packard, a variety of gizmos made an appearance. Devices also ranged from pure entertainment to pure functionality, such as ultra-armored phones designed to be nearly as invulnerable as rugged laptops.
eWEEK offers a look at some of the latest and greatest of these gadgets.
In mid-May, Facebook moved its main offices from downtown Palo Alto, Calif., to a more "rural" setting on California Avenue just off the Stanford University campus, in a 45-year-old two-story building once used by research engineers at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent. It isn't the prettiest, best-equipped building in Silicon Valley, but it is quite functional for what the 800-employee social networking company is looking for. "And we got it for cheap," CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg told eWEEK. "Look, we don't need a fancy-looking place to impress everybody. We just need a good, comfortable space for our engineers and creative people to collaborate and make new things that our subscribers can find useful." The new headquarters is about a mile from the restaurants and social life of downtown, but Facebook managers have provided some good stay-at-home features: a cafeteria that's open all day long, a basketball court, a ping-pong room, a video games room and plenty of lounge-type furniture to make everyone feel right at home. Here are some highlights from the recent Facebook open house.
On the surface it may look like not much has changed in the new version of the Mozilla Web browser, but Firefox 3.5 is actually a very significant improvement, fixing many of the key flaws of previous versions of Firefox and adding some nice new capabilities under the hood. Among the welcome new features are greatly improved speed and stability, a private browsing feature and location-aware capabilities. Also, Firefox 3.5 includes a very good implementation of the forthcoming HTML 5 standard, which allows for cutting-edge interaction in Web pages and makes video as much a part of the browser and the Web as images and text are.
Real-time search is one of the hottest mini Web trends out there, promising new ways to help users tease out current information they want from the digital information glut. The ability to seek out what everyone is discussing or looking for in the moment captures the imagination. Twitter's search capability does this for its tweets, but some find it insufficient. While Facebook is just beginning to help users surface the latest information and Google is thinking about this area, several startups have come to the fore to help Web searchers tease out bits on specific topics. Here is a beginner's list of newcomers intent on helping you ferret information out of the noise.
The iPhone 3G S adds a welcome speed boost when using the device, killing off the periods of lag commonly experienced with older iPhone hardware. On the software side, not much is added over the iPhone 3.0 features available for older units. Specifically, voice commands, video recording, compass-based orientation and ostensibly enhanced Bluetooth capabilities are among the other additions.
Billed by Nokia as "the world's most advanced mobile computer," the N97 bundles a number of smartphone advances into one compact package, including a touch-screen, a slide-out keyboard, massive amounts of memory capable of performing tasks from e-mail to games, and a video camera.
The device is Nokia's first to include a personalized home screen, where users can customize which widgets are displayed whenever they turn on their phone. These widgets, accessible through Nokia's Ovi Store, include not only social-networking apps such as Facebook and newswire services such as Associated Press and Bloomberg, but also productivity tools and games.
At a recent show in New York City, eWEEK took a detailed look at the Nokia N97 smartphone and offers this look at the new, $699 mobile device.
The ThinkPad T400s is an evolution in a line of workhorse laptops. The new ThinkPad comes in well under 4 pounds and just under an inch thick. The ThinkPad T400s runs cool and comes equipped with useful controls that road warriors will appreciate, ranging from easy-to-access mute keys for VOIP applications to an improved touch-pad.
The Verizon MiFi 2200 is mobile broadband in and Wi-Fi out, for as many as five devices/users.
It would be hard to top NASA's May expedition to the Hubble Space Telescope. In June, NASA didn't. Stymied by a mysterious hydrogen gas leak, the space shuttle Endeavour's large-scale construction mission to the International Space Station was scratched. Computer glitches plagued systems from the Hubble to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA took solace, though, in successfully launching a satellite mapping mission to the moon. eWEEK takes a look back at the hits and misses for NASA this June.By Roy Mark
Just as department stores whisk us through the holidays, PC makers—before summer has barely insinuated itself—are talking about going "back to school" and offering new laptops for students of all ages.
On June 23, Dell introduced the work-play Inspiron 14 laptop, Toshiba rolled out five new additions to its Satellite laptop series and Gateway introduced its first netbook, the LT3100. The following day Hewlett-Packard introduced the Mini 5101 netbook and ProBook 4310s notebook, and Gateway offered two new tower desktops, followed, on June 25 by two notebooks.
When September eventually does come around, there'll be no excuses for being unprepared. eWEEK takes a look at new offerings from Dell, Gateway, HP and Toshiba.By Michelle Maisto
The third release of Sun's OpenSolaris, Version 2009.06, demonstrates continued progress toward turning a friendlier Solaris face to the world, with noticeable gains made in the areas of package management and creation. What's more, Solaris 2009.06 builds on Sun's work with virtualization
and resource management with a new network virtualization framework called Crossbow.
It's no secret Google makes more than 95 percent of its money from the ads paired with its world-leading search engine. While Google is doing a lot of things to stay ahead of Microsoft Bing, Yahoo and others in search, the company would like to find and exploit new revenue streams. Web services focused on collaboration, real-time communications and mobile computing are other green fields Google is hoping to tap to become more than the “one-trick pony” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has accused the company of being. As EWEEK takes a visual stroll through existing and forthcoming Google products and features, we ask you which one you think will be a game changer for the company. Will search continue to drive the Google engine, or will a dark horse ride out of nowhere to help Google broaden its money stream? By Clint Boulton
Enterprise apps used to change at a glacial pace. Companies were scared to mess with their financial systems, inventory management and customer database for fear of messing up something that was developed 10 years (or more) earlier. But the economic meltdown taught business executives that what worked in 1999 did not work in 2009. Here are 10 new applications that will become part of the enterprise application portfolio.
Recently, i/o Data Centers adopted an ICE Cube containerized data center at its newest co-location facility. This is a classic example of where such mobile facilities can be used. SGI is one of several big-name OEMs that have rolled out mobile data centers as an option for businesses looking to quickly add to their compute capacity or as a way to temporarily boost their computing power. The idea of mobile data centers took off several years ago when Sun introduced its Project Blackbox. Since then, SGI, Verari Sytems, IBM, HP and Dell all have rolled out similar offerings. Industry analysts say that the market is still in its infancy and has been hampered by the global recession, which has rolled back IT data center projects. However, they expect that once the economy begins to grow again, mobile data centers will have a solid niche.By Jeffrey Burt
Announced as a major new way for people to use the Web, the Opera Unite alpha that is now part of the Opera 10 beta is essentially an embedded Web server within the browser. As such, it offers some intriguing possibilities for sharing content, services and applications directly between systems, as opposed to having to use cloud-based services. But the Unite alpha comes with many questions and potential problems, not the least of which is the security risk of installing a Web server on user PCs. Here's a look at some of the features and capabilities in Opera Unite.
Lenovo has released a new thin-and-light business laptop called the ThinkPad T400s. The new ThinkPad T400s combines some of the design features found in the high-end ThinkPad X300 series along with the everyday enterprise options of the more conventional ThinkPad T400 series. The result is a laptop that weighs less than four pounds and is less than 1 inch thick. While the ThinkPad X300 series carries a hefty price tag, Lenovo decided to offer the T400s at a more reasonable starting price of $1,599. Other features found in the ThinkPad T400s include an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, DDR3 memory, a solid state drive option, and options for Wi-Fi, WiMax and WWAN. The Lenovo ThinkPad 400s goes on sale June 23.
The Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers was released June 23 at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany. Sitting atop the list--again--was IBM's Roadrunner system, which runs at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The IBM BladeCenter system took the top spot a year ago and has held on since. Also for the second year in a row, Cray's XT5 Jaguar supercomputer, which runs at the DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, came in a close second. According to the Top500 organization, which compiles the list every June and November, two new entries into the top 10 come from Germany. Those two are the only systems in the top 10 not from the United States, which is still the top consumer of HPC (high-performance computing) systems in the world, with 291 of the top 500 systems running in this country. Along with IBM and Cray, Sun Microsystems and SGI also have systems listed in the top 10.
Microsoft made the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials—code-named Morro—available for download June 23 for the first 75,000 visitors who want it at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials
Focused solely on security, this free successor to Microsoft Windows Live OneCare does not include some of the non-security features users remember from OneCare.
What Security Essentials does have is anti-malware capabilities including rootkit removal and detection. Though not aimed at competing with more comprehensive offerings from companies such as McAfee and Symantec, Microsoft officials have stated that the product will help extend basic protections to users without security suites.
So without further ado, eWEEK offers a quick look at Morro, Microsoft’s latest play in the security space. By Brian Prince
At the 2009 JavaOne conference, Sun Microsystems gave the first public demonstration of its Java Store—a new distribution channel for developers to directly connect with the more than 800 million desktop Java technology users, Sun says. The Java Store is a consumer-facing storefront for the discovery and purchase of Java and JavaFX applications. Sun is aiming high with the Java Store, which it released as a beta for developers at JavaOne. The company is first targeting the desktop, but will later enable Java-based applications for smartphones and other devices to be sold through the store. More information on the Java Store can be found at http://store.java.com.
From discriminatory taxes against the Internet to singling out Web operations for unfair treatment to efforts to "fix" social networking sites, the states are seemingly working night and day to conjure up laws that would impact the Internet in more bad ways than good. To highlight some of the really bad boys of Internet regulation, the advocacy group NetChoice has created the iAWFUL (Internet Advocates Watchlist for Ugly Laws) list. eWEEK takes a look at the iAWFUL top 10 list.
Were you the type of kid who liked to take a thing apart just to see how it worked? The team at RapidRepair surely was. As soon as the iPhone 3G S went on sale at the Orange Boutique in Paris at midnight, RapidRepair CEO Aaron Vronko got his hands on the new smartphone and he ran it over to the Brico Mac store where he promptly began to pull apart the perfectly assembled device piece by piece. This slideshow details the disassembly, in all its gory detail, and offers a look at the iPhone 3G S from the inside out. As of June 19, the iPhone 3G S is available at Apple and AT&T retail and online stores, as well as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. [Photos courtesy of RapidRepair]
Mobile carriers and manufacturers have together created one heck of a summer blockbuster season. The industry's biggest heavyweights-Apple, Palm, Research In Motion and Nokia among them-have all delivered new, feature-packed smartphones that would make a gift-that-keeps-on-giving for any tech-savvy dad this Father's Day. While mugs and T-shirts are great, nothing says #1 Dad like 3G and a touch-screen.
Father's Day is here and nothing beats the latest and greatest digital camera for a last-minute gift. The current trend in digital cameras suggests slimmer is better; even digital SLRs are becoming lightweight and compact. While no one wants to be carrying something huge in the age of Mastercard-size cell phones, you don't have to sacrifice aptitude for area. So for this Father's Day, here are 11 digital cameras, from versatile pocket-size powerhouses to sophisticated SLRs, that might make an ideal gift.By Nathan Eddy
DreamWorks SKG, one of the world's busiest and most successful digital animation studios, is continually pouring out terabytes of creative video from its several hundred animators for use in two to three animated movies that it releases each year. Keeping all that content safe, organized and easily accessible for artists and production staff has always been a huge challenge, yet DreamWorks staffs only three full-time IT storage professionals. How do they do this? The answer: Everything that can be automated is automated. The studio uses a mix of Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, and Ibrix storage arrays and powerful dual-core Intel "Woodcrest"-powered workstations that have been supplied by HP for the last eight years. This slide show offers some insight into the studio's daily production, and we have a complete story on this topic here at eWEEK.
On Day 2 of tests with the Apple iPhone 3.0 update, eWEEK Labs is finding more and more to like. In this update, Spotlight search is finally in the base operating system, and the effect has been transformational. In addition, refinements made to everyday apps—including the ability to use e-mail in landscape mode—keep the iPhone at the top of the list of mobile devices that deserve attention from enterprise users. There are trade-offs for some of the new features, however, including significant battery drain to enable MobileMe to locate and—if directed—remotely wipe a lost iPhone.
By Cameron Sturdevant
eWEEK Labs recently put the HP Mini 1000 Model 1151NR netbook bundled with Verizon's mobile broadband service through its paces. The Verizon service works reasonably well, but it is clearly a newer technology in need of refinement and more consistent performance. The 1151NR, one of the nicer netbooks we've tested, is among a handful to come bundled with built-in broadband.
By John Dodge
Mellmo's RoamBi app uses the iPhone to turn dull data into eye candy, but it won't really be sweet until the BlackBerry and other mobile platforms are supported. RoamBi imports boring table-based data and presents the most important bits in easy-to-digest visual charts. With a nod to visual presentation expert and Yale Professor Emeritus Edward Tufte, RoamBi designers have crafted some neat tricks to get the most important data onto the iPhone screen. RoamBi is available through the Apple App Store.
By Cameron Sturdevant
The no-cost Apple iPhone 3.0 software makes both first- and second-generation iPhones even more tempting for enterprise road warriors. As the Apple iPhone gains enterprise-class features including remote data wipe, the need for more centralized management-beyond a reliance on individual iTunes accounts and MobileMe subscription services-grows. In this slideshow, eWEEK Labs tests out the iPhone 3.0 software's new find and remote wipe features.
By Cameron Sturdevant
Long known as a maker of tools for professional designers and Web developers building more consumer-oriented applications, Adobe can now attest that it is making inroads into the enterprise and showing no signs of letting up. Adobe technology such as LiveCycle is helping the company find its way into many enterprise environments, such as health care IT and government IT. Meanwhile, Adobe has found ways to push its core technology, such as PDF and Flash, and including Adobe AIR and Flex, into the enterprise to deliver RIAs (rich Internet applications) and more. Adobe's presence in the enterprise puts it into even greater competition with Microsoft, which has a foothold in enterprise departmental systems. The two companies are locking horns on several fronts, from design tools to development tools, to RIA platforms, to productivity and collaboration software.
Online data backup is gaining popularity as enterprise customers gradually get comfortable with the idea of keeping valuable backup files offsite at a trusted server. Providers such as Seagate EVault, Iron Mountain Digital, EMC Decho/Mozy, Carbonite and IBM Blue Cloud have improved their services and are among those gaining credibility. However, user confidence in the cloud storage industry took a hit when The Linkup, a cloud computing data storage service, closed its virtual doors on Aug. 8, 2008, leaving about 20,000 paying subscribers with no access to the files they had paid the company to store and protect for them. Here are some key points to make if you are considering moving your backup to a cloud service.
Source: IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services
Dot Hill Systems' 4G-bit Fibre Channel SAN uses 2.5-inch drives to deliver robust features and stellar performance in eWEEK Labs tests.
June 5 marked the seventh anniversary of the release of the first Mozilla Web browser. (The Mozilla open-source project itself turned 10 early in 2008.) In its early days, Mozilla was a hopeless competitor to Microsoft's then-dominant Internet Explorer, which had more than 96 percent of the market at the time. Few people held much hope that Mozilla's open-source browser would do much to stem IE's dominance, let alone that it would last. But, seven years later, the Mozilla browser's descendants have more than 20 percent of the browser market and continue to push the envelope when it comes to Web technology. Here's a look back at some of the key Mozilla releases over the past seven years.
Dell is concentrating on serving both the high-performance computing markets and SMBs that are cramped for data center space with its newest line of servers, which include smaller chassis in addition to power features such as Intel Xeon 5500 series processors and expanded memory.
Dell's new PowerEdge T410 and R410 servers are available starting June 17, starting at a price point of $999, while the PowerEdge T710 server "will be available in the coming weeks," according to the company. Dell is pairing its new hardware with consulting services and preconfigured architectures designed to make the process of setting up a data center simpler for both SMBs and the enterprise. The following slides highlight some of the features available with the new PowerEdge T410, T710 and R410.
Web browser maker Opera is attracting attention from high-tech watchers and Web programmers for Unite, a Web services platform that looks to cut out third-party servers from the computing equation. The software comes as Web browser rivals Mozilla, Google, Microsoft and several other prominent players are trying to improve users' Web surfing experiences by extending their Web browsers using a mashup of open standards and proprietary technologies.By Clint Boulton
Rationalizing hardware, consolidating facilities and better managing energy costs are among the ways IT administrators can reduce their data center costs, according to a report from industry research firm Gartner. While all seven suggestions put forth by Gartner are common-sense steps that have been discussed to some extent for years, the global recession is putting even more pressure on IT managers to find ways to do more while trimming expenses, according to Gartner analyst Rakesh Kumar. By taking the necessary steps, enterprises can find significant savings in their data centers. For example, Kumar said, removing a single x86 server can save more than $400 a year in energy costs alone. The recommendations are part of a study by Gartner titled "How to Cut Your Data Center Costs" that the research firm announced June 11.
By Jeffrey Burt
Each month, eWEEK editors name new or newly updated enterprise-class products that we think should be on IT professionals' radars—products and services that promise to create efficiencies as well as competitive advantage. Here are the products we're watching this month.
By Debra Donston
The mobile workplace of today requires many business professionals to carry their office around with them. Notebooks, smartphones and netbooks offer ways to stay connected to your colleagues and your data. In terms of sheer portability and accessibility, however, nothing beats USB-based storage systems. Whether it's a flash-based stick you can slip in your pocket or a 500GB external hard drive, these devices hold the data you need-at a price any business can afford.By Nathan Eddy
Fedora 11, the latest release of Red Hat's community-oriented Linux OS, can serve in a full gamut of Linux roles on the server and desktop. And, as usual, Fedora 11 gives users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux an early look at what's to come in their operating system of choice. In my review of Fedora 11, I took note of the distribution's improvements around virtualization, where Fedora boasts improved facilities for creating, accessing and managing virtual machines across multiple hosts.
By Jason Brooks
The Palm Pre smartphone is the latest device to undergo the teardown service of research and advisory firm iSuppli, which disassembles devices in order to offer a closer look at the choices the manufacturer has made and what this could mean for customers. In the Palm Pre, iSuppli found components from Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Sony and Samsung Electronics primarily.
"With the Pre, Palm has made some surprising choices not only in the phone's features, but also in its design and component selection," wrote iSuppli's Andrew Rassweiler, a director and principal analyst, in a statement on the teardown. (Photos courtesy of iSuppli.)
With the popularity of Apple’s iPhone on the market, IT managers need to think about how to secure the iPhone when it comes into their networks. Smart policy is the name of the game. With that in mind, The Center for Internet Security recently released a security benchmark for the iPhone to help both administrators and end-users better secure data stored on the device.
In a document entitled the "CIS Security Configuration Benchmark for Apple iPhone," CIS included 20 recommendations on subjects such as system settings and instructions on creating strong passwords. The advice, which applies to those who have not yet upgraded to iPhone 3GS, was created based on input from a diverse set of experts from the worlds of IT security, software developers and other fields.
eWEEK has selected some of the recommendations and included how to set your iPhone to be more secure.
In previous versions of Apple Safari, the Web browser was a capable if somewhat basic and utilitarian tool for surfing the Web. But with the release of Safari 4, Apple has gone in a very new direction, creating one of the most attractive and interactive browsers on the market today. Borrowing liberally from Apple’s iTunes, Safari 4 provides visually attractive site tracking and searching tools that help users scan through their favorite sites. Along with its excellent standards support and other strong browser features, Apple’s Safari 4 has gained considerable ground on its browser competitors.
Even before the Palm Pre made its debut on June 6, tech critics from major publications offered generally positive reviews of the device. Specifically, many cited the appealing design, easy-to-use multitouch interface, and the Palm OS.
At the same time, some reviews pointed out the relatively weak battery life and sparse App Catalogue as weak points for the device and its ecosystem. Palm, along with Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, are in the position of playing catch-up against the Apple iPhone and its App Store, which features tens of thousands of applications and counting.
However, while the initial applications offered for the Palm Pre may not be extensive in number, they certainly are useful for both the enterprise and general users. eWEEK lists some of the first ones being offered for the Palm Pre.
Red Hat officials claim the community's eleventh release of its open-source Linux distribution includes the broadest feature set to date; spotlights developments in software management and sound; improves key virtualization components; and introduces Fedora Community, a portal project now in beta. The beta test of the portal focuses on software package maintainers; community members will have an opportunity to comment and improve Fedora Community as it develops throughout this year, according to Red Hat officials.
Opera has long been one of the most innovative browsers on the Web, introducing many of the features—such as tabbed browsing—now found in other browsers. While the beta of Opera 10 may not appear to be as innovative as some past versions, it does include several new features that will probably be found in competing browsers in years to come: a very good tabbed browsing interface, improvements to the innovative Speed Dial tab launch and features to boost browser performance on slow connections.
Simply put, the Palm Pre is a beautiful smartphone, with clean lines, intuitive controls and a lovely screen. But the real star is Palm's long-awaited WebOS operating system, which offers easy-to-grasp controls that help the user move among simultaneously active applications. WebOS also seamlessly blends e-mail, contact and calendar data from multiple sources, and presents an intriguing development environment. While the Pre is mostly a success, significantly subpar battery life presents a major roadblock to adoption.
About 6,000 people—5,200 Apple community developers and about 800 analysts and media types—crowded into Moscone West in downtown San Francisco June 8 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to witness the launch of Apple's new iPhone 3G S (S is for speed) and several new notebook computers. Most attendees were hoping that Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs would be making his first public appearance since October 2008, but he was not here on Day 1 of the weeklong event. Following are some snapshots of the new-product presentation by Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet, and Senior Vice President of iPhone Software Scott Forstall.
The Mono project has recently released Version 2.0 of its IDE, MonoDevelop. MonoDevelop is a full IDE for developing C# programs under the Mono run-time. If you’ve worked with Visual Studio, you will see many similarities in MonoDevelop. If you’re new to MonoDevelop and haven’t worked in Visual Studio, you’ll find the learning curve is not very steep.
VMware's vSphere 4 takes ESX and VirtualCenter, now called vCenter Server, ahead of the pack by adding new network and performance functions. The network changes now provide a virtual switch that can encompass multiple ESX host systems and will also support third-party wares from vendors including Cisco. You must be able to measure to manage, and VMware has made several simple changes that bring virtual and physical performance metrics to the fore so that IT managers can make informed decisions about how to position virtual machines and application workloads.
Alioscopy's autostereoscopic 3D, now being used in selected display advertising deployments, is best viewed from a distance of 10 to 30 feet. The moving images consist of an unlimited number of layers; they are rendered on a regular high-resolution screen from eight different horizontal points of view and photographed in a half-circle at equidistant intervals, using the Alioscopy technology. The next several pages show how these images look on the screen, or as best we can show you in plain old 2D.
Illuminate's iLuminate 4.0 offers a new take on building data warehouses, eschewing typical relational or column-based storage models for what the company describes as a correlation database model. In my tests of iLuminate, I was impressed by the way the product enabled me to load a healthy-sized data set into the engine and, without any other organization or optimization, begin drilling arbitrarily through the data using Illuminate's analysis tool, iCorrelate. See my full review here.
The Android 1.5 firmware upgrade for the T-Mobile G1 with Google (dubbed Cupcake) is now available to T-Mobile customers for over-the-air upgrade. The new version packs in a few new features--such as stereo Bluetooth and voice search--and provides some nice polish devicewide. However, Android 1.5 leaves a few first-generation problems unaddressed.
By Andrew Garcia
Nearly every major handset vendor, such as Nokia, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, has been getting into the game of going green. Sony Ericsson's two newest handsets, the C109 and the Naite, pack green features and recycled plastic parts - but there's more under the eco-friendly packaging as well. The two models are part of Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart environmental program.
eWEEK offers a quick, first look at these two eco-friendly handsets and offers a peak at the devices' features.By Nathan Eddy
On June 6, the Palm Pre will go on sale nationwide. For certain, the Palm Pre will be for use on the Sprint 3G network, will be available at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack and select Wal-Mart locations, and it will cost $199 after a mail-in $100 rebate and with a two-year contract. There are a lot more unanswered details, however, as the Pre has been the source of months' worth of rumors, hyperbole, hypotheses and what-ifs. Below are the top 10 questions eWEEK is looking forward to having answered, once the Palm Pre arrives and settles in.
Freescale Semiconductor is embracing the netbook market, or, as it calls them, "smartbooks"—devices that are cloud-computing centric, have long battery life, are perpetually online and feature Freescale's i.MX515 processor technology. Freescale recently approached the Savannah College of Art and Design and challenged its students to rethink the form factor. Below are a few of Freescale's favorite prototype designs, which are on display at the Computex 2009 show in Taipei, Taiwan.
While Amazon.com's Kindle 2 and large-format Kindle DX are dominating e-reader media coverage, casual users of mobile e-reader devices and business-focused users alike have a few other options. iRex Technologies offers two large-screen models, one boasting a 10.1-inch diagonal display, and Plastic Logic plans to debut an ultrathin, 8.5-inch reader aimed at business professionals.
The Apple Xserve running the Mac OS X Server operating system is among the first servers we've seen at eWEEK Labs running the new Intel Xeon 5500 family of "Nehalem" processors. The hardware/operating system combo works well, and IT shops that have concentrations of Mac users should put the device high on their evaluation list for the ease of integration for services such as Time Machine backup, iChat, and other group collaboration and productivity tools. The appliancelike fit and finish of the Xserve/OS X Server combo eliminates the driver and firmware headaches often associated with running other operating systems, including Windows and Linux, on the wide variety of available hardware for those OSes.
With the June 1 launch of its new search engine, Bing, Microsoft is attempting to claim more market share in the competitive search-engine arena, where it sits in third place behind Google and Yahoo. According to a ComScore report, Microsoft held 8.2 percent of the U.S. core search engine market in April 2009, behind Google with 64.2 percent and Yahoo with 20.4 percent. In addition to traditional search, with its pages of hyperlinks, Bing also allows users to drill down into specific search categories, such as Videos, Shopping, News, Maps and Travel. With this step, Microsoft says it wants Bing to provide intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, with an initial focus on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business. Or to put it another way, Microsoft is hoping that Bing presents such utility to users that the company can increase its search market share and related financials. The following eWEEK product gallery shows just what Bing is capable of doing.
At its Google I/O developer conference on May 28, Google demonstrated Google Wave, a new mode of communication out of the team that brought Google Maps to the world. Google Wave is a combination of e-mail, instant messaging, photo sharing and a lot more. In a blog post, Lars Rasmussen, a software engineering manager at Google and half of the core team whose original ideas led to both Google Maps and the new Wave technology, said his brother Jens convinced him that the future of communication should be the next concept for the team to conquer after maps.
After rolling out on May 26 with a few glitches, Nokia’s Ovi Store, from which users can download applications for the company’s ecosystem of mobile devices, seems to be running smoothly. As of the end of 2008, Nokia held the No. 1 position in smartphones worldwide, with 40.8 percent market share, followed by Research In Motion with 19.5 percent and Apple with 10.7 percent. At the Nokia Developer Summit 2009 in Monte Carlo, the company announced that the store would launch more than 1,000 applications ready for download onto some 50 Nokia mobile devices.
President Barack Obama has made cyber-security a priority since he took office in January. A month into his presidency, Obama appointed Melissa Hathaway to lead a review of the United States' cyber-security posture as acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security councils. On May 29, the administration released the report.
But the report comes after news of several hacking incidents targeting both the government and the nation's infrastructure made their way into the public eye during the past few months.
What are some of the major stories about hacks targeting U.S. government agencies and infrastructure in the past few years? eWEEK provides a short list of some of the better-known examples of hackers penetrating America's defenses in recent history.
Go back 12 years, and the Web browser found on the majority of business systems was Netscape Navigator. Six or seven years ago, nearly all corporate Web users relied on Microsoft Internet Explorer. But during the last few years—due to security problems, limited updates and improvements in competing browsers—IE has given up much of its stranglehold on the enterprise browser market. Indeed, many business users today run multiple browsers on their systems. But what makes a browser good for the enterprise? Security? Administration features? Performance? In this slide show, eWEEK Labs looks at some of the more enterprise-friendly features found in the latest versions of IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.
Application security has to start during the development process. That means fixing vulnerable code before applications are ever pushed out to the public. Much has been written about the secure software development lifecycle—now it’s time to test security pros and developers alike. Can you find the vulnerabilities in the code?
Sorry—there is no prize involved, just a minor brainteaser for those of you who design applications or are charged with assessing their security. The code on the slides was provided by Veracode and Qualys.
The space shuttle Atlantis' recently completed mission to the Hubble marked man's last trip to the iconic space telescope. Over five spacewalks to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments, Atlantis' payload included the Wide Field Camera 3, fine guidance sensor and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Thanks to the crew efforts, the operational life of the Hubble Space Telescope was extended by at least five years. Here is eWEEK's day-by-day look at the mission. (All photos courtesy of NASA)
Microsoft has a long history of catering to developers, going back to the origins of the company when Bill Gates noted that winning the hearts and minds of developers would be essential for Microsoft's success. As evidenced by the focus on application development at the recent Microsoft TechEd North America 2009 conference and the overwhelming response to the company's May 18 release of Beta 1 of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, Microsoft remains close to the pulse of the developer community. By Darryl K. Taft
This summer Hewlett-Packard will make three new additions to its popular Mini netbook family: the Mini 110 XP Edition, the Mini 110 Mobile Internet (Mi) Edition and the Mini 1101. These netbooks, which HP imagines as second computers, include a sync application, weigh a little more than 2 pounds, have 10.1-inch screens (diagonally) and offer a choice of Intel Atom processors. News of the devices comes on the heels of netbook announcements from competitors Lenovo and Asus.
Concrete5 is the latest incarnation of a formerly commercial CMS that is now open source. This fifth version includes many features that the Web developer will find useful. Out of the box, the software is usable, although limited. For fully customized sites, the Web developer will want to be well-versed in PHP programming. Click here to read a review of Concrete5.
HP LeftHand P4300 4.8TB SAS Starter SAN Solution lays a firm iSCSI SAN foundation for midsize to larger organizations.
Read the full review here.
With the release of Chrome 2.0, Google unleashes the latest version of its browser. However, users looking for new features will be hard-pressed to find them in this release. In fact, Chrome 2.0 is more like a point release. Most of the new features focus on improved speed and the addition of capabilities (such as full-screen mode) long found in competing browsers. For eWEEK Labs' full review of Google Chrome 2.0, click here.
By Jim Rapoza
Lenovo has introduced four new PCs that will be available this summer: the IdeaPad U350 laptop, the G550 laptop, the IdeaCentre C300 desktop and the IdeaPad S12--Lenovo's first 12-inch netbook. The devices are very much representative of the times, offering low prices and low-voltage processors, and putting an emphasis on design. A Lenovo spokesperson described the devices as complementing already existing Lenovo products and emphasized that the commonality between them is that "they offer stylish design at prices you don't usually get stylish design for."
By Michelle Maisto
CTOs, CIOs and data center managers evaluating various brands of servers for purchase now have another important factor to consider: whether or not each server has passed the qualifications to wear the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star label showing it to be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. To earn the EPA's Energy Star label, servers must have accurate power-supply management capabilities, virtualization functionality, and energy-efficiency benchmarks and standards for measuring and reporting energy use. But there are other important criteria that we outline for you in this slide show.
In the rapidly changing world of technology, it's not uncommon for one product to hang around for a year or two, only to be replaced by another newer, flashier offering—one with more bells and whistles—that relegates its predecessor to the trash heap of history. However, over the past two-plus decades, there are some products—from the likes of IBM, Intel, Apple, Sun Microsystems and AMD—that have pushed the industry forward and left a lasting imprint. For example, there's the first PC, the first significant x86 chip, the first workstation and the first mainframe, not to mention Microsoft's Windows DOS operating system. Most of these technologies are no longer in use, but their DNA can be found in today's products, while others are still pushing on. By no means a comprehensive list, this is just a few of the products that, while some of them may be gone, they shouldn't be forgotten.
In a May 5 research note from Citigroup Global Markets, analysts stated that the likelihood of Apple creating an iPhone for Verizon Wireless ultimately comes down to economics.
"After considering a number of factors, we believe Apple could offer its iPhone platform on additional carriers by 2011 to sustain solid unit volumes in the U.S. market, and we believe Verizon is a leading contender to offer its first iPhone between late-2010 and 2011," the analysts wrote in their report.
eWEEK has assembled a list of the Top 10 reasons why Apple should bring its iPhone to Verizon’s network and why AT&T’s exclusive relationship with Apple could come to an end within the next two years.
The space shuttle Atlantis just released the 19-year-old Hubble, repairing and updating the venerable space telescope. NASA hopes the facelift will keep Hubble chugging along and taking additional pictures for five more years. Let's hope so because most of the first 19 years of Hubble's view into the galaxies have been nothing less than spectacular. eWEEK looks back at almost two decades of high-tech star gazing and picks its 19 most favorite Hubble images, one for each year of man's look into deep space. The images include close-up shots of Mars and Neptune, what Saturn’s rings look like, and the remnants of far-away supernovas.
Each month, eWEEK editors name new or newly updated enterprise-class products that we think should be on IT professionals' radars—products and services that promise to create efficiencies as well as competitive advantage. This month, eWEEK recommends checking out Nexsan Technologies' Nexsan iSeries, AutoPilot M6 from Nastel, Seapine Software's Surround SCM 2009, Lumigent Technologies' AppGRC for PeopleSoft Financial Management, Lenovo's ThinkStation S20 and D20 workstations, v-Go Shared Accounts Manager from Passlogix, Damballa's Failsafe 3.0, St. Bernard's iPrism Web Filter with Anonymizer, and ActiveVOS 6.2.
Before Wolfram Alpha's release, some pundits declared that the online answer engine had the potential to be a Google killer. While the site, developed by Stephen Wolfram, does scour the Web for information, it offers up structured answers to factual queries, as opposed to offering a list of hyperlinked Web pages.
Anyone searching online for images of favorite celebrities or top vacation spots would be completely out of luck. But for those who need to make complex calculations on the fly or pull numerical data based on physics or speed, Wolfram Alpha presents a venue for doing so without necessarily having to sort through the dozens of possibly questionable Web sites that a traditional search engine would offer up.
The site, which was built with Wolfram Research's 20-years-in-the-making Mathematica processing system, contains over 10 trillion pieces of data, 50,000 algorithms and models, and linguistic capabilities for over 1,000 domains. Wolfram Alpha's core code base exceeds 5 million lines of symbolic Mathematica code, according to the site.
Summer vacation may be around the corner, but Dell has its eye on going back to school. Its new Latitude 2100 netbook was designed with elementary and junior-high classrooms in mind, and consequently it features such options as a rubber exterior and an antimicrobial keyboard, as well as a soon-to-arrive rolling media cart, for managing a classroom’s worth of devices. Aiming for such a specialized niche may prove a smart move for Dell, as the Obama administration puts a new emphasis on education and educational funding, and Dell competitors such as Acer, Lenovo and MSI all have new netbooks on the market.
Nokia introduces three new Internet-ready phones for emerging markets May 18. The 2730, Nokia's least-expensive 3G phone to date, will begin shipping in the third quarter with a price equivalent to approximately $108, before taxes and subsidies. The clamshell-style 2720 will also ship in the third quarter, for the equivalent of approximately $75. And a second fold phone, the colorful 7020, will ship in the fourth quarter for approximately $124. All three phones feature Nokia Life Tools, Ovi Mail for personal e-mail and strong battery life.
eWEEK Labs provides (almost) everything you need to know now about Windows 7, Microsoft's update to its client operating system—and what some are seeing as its Vista do-over. For the Labs' review of Windows 7 RC 1, click here.
Apple's stylish and popular iPhone maybe not directly target working professionals the same way RIM's BlackBerry devices or the upcoming Palm Pre smartphone might, but Apple's App Store, where business owners can find hundreds of free and low-cost applications, can turn you into a mobile office.
In these economic times, businesses of all sizes are looking to trim dollars, especially in the IT department, and Apple and its developer community have tried to address these issues with a series of low-cost and free apps that can keep a business with a budget going.
eWEEK has compiled a comprehensive list of 10 must-have Apple App Store applications, including some free apps from Skype, Salesforce.com and Intuit, that can help save your company time and money.By Nathan Eddy
Following hard on the heels of its major Version 3.0 milestone, the OpenOffice.org team is back with Version 3.1 of its popular, cross-platform-friendly productivity suite. Between the work that the OpenOffice.org team has done to make its suite compatible with Office's traditional binary and newer, XML-based formats and the work that Microsoft has done to make Office 2007 compatible with OOo's OpenDocument format, these rival suites can coexist more peacefully than ever. I tested OpenOffice.org 3.1 on both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux systems, and found Version 3.1 a worthwhile upgrade, particularly for those who work with charts and graphics within their documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Version 10.3 of the Bomgar B200 remote support appliance speeds access to support representatives and increases the amount of detail shown for Mac systems. A click-to-chat button that can be permanently installed on end-user systems makes it possible to immediately chat with a remote support representative without first downloading the entire software component that enables remote keyboard-video-mouse sharing. Users with a basic procedural question can be quickly dealt with over chat instead of engaging in a longer, more involved full remote control session.
Microsoft Virtual Earth, which offers three-dimensional aerial imagery drawn from satellites and aerial photos, is pairing with General Motors subsidiary OnStar to enhance OnStar's GPS location service. With the 3D-boosted imagery in place, emergency responders will theoretically have an easier time locating vehicles in distress.
The IT industry has increasingly focused on the automobile as a potential arena for its latest hardware and software, with companies such as Intel and Microsoft developing car-specific programs, microprocessors and devices that deliver everything from entertainment to communications. In addition, many IT company executives, such as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have invested in experimental vehicles that utilize electric, alternative-fuel or hybrid engines.
Prism has been available as an alpha project within Mozilla Labs for more than a year now, but Mozilla recently launched it as an official beta and encouraged users to try it out. After taking the beta for a spin, eWEEK Labs found that Prism makes it possible to take any Website or Web application and make it behave as a desktop application. For example, users can convert Facebook or Gmail to desktop applications with Prism and have them run in streamlined browser windows, launch them from the desktop or Quick Start tabs, or even have them start up when the operating system launches. Prism runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems.
NEW YORK—Dell hosted what it called an "urban meet-up" here May 12 to showcase the PC maker's latest and greatest computers. On display on this trip was Dell's high-end Adamo laptop, which got the tech world talking when Dell first discussed the ultrathin and stylish laptop at the 2009 International CES.
Dell also had several of its Inspiron and Studio models on display, including the new Inspiron Mini 10v, a lower-cost version of its netbook line with a starting price of $299. Dell also plans to offer a special antenna and built-in tuner for its Inspiron Mini lineup that will allow users to tune in to local broadcast television.
Dell has worked overtime to shed its image as unimaginative "box maker" and, like Hewlett-Packard, Acer and especially Apple, has tried to add some life to PC design, especially with laptops such as its Adamo and the Studio line, which are aimed specifically at consumers.
Here, eWEEK offers a guided tour of some of Dell's latest desktop and laptop offerings.
The evening of May 8, 2009, turned out to be a time of smiles and handshakes, remembrances of times gone by and glimpses of legendary IT pioneers at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Drs. Gordon Moore and Jay Last, two of the founders of Fairchild Semiconductory in 1957 and each a true icon in the IT world, spoke to a capacity audience and offered insight about how the integrated circuit—which 50 years later runs the business world—came to be. The event, which commemorated the publication of Robert Noyce's 1959 paper describing the first working silicon-based processor, attracted several hundred people and closed out a week's worth of events commemorating the anniversary of the single most important component in computing—the data processor.
Following are some photo highlights of the event.
There are pieces of malware that make a big splash such as Conficker and then those such as Coreflood that for a variety of reasons do a better job of flying under the radar. In the end, the long-term success of a piece of malware to a large extent depends on it being able to avoid both detection and sustained scrutiny by the security community. Doing so can allow attackers to build mammoth botnets to the tune of hundreds of thousands of zombie computers - or, in the case of Conficker, millions.
The usual endgame for the hackers, of course, is to turn the mountains of stolen data into money. After discussions with some security vendors and researchers, eWEEK has compiled a short list of some of the stealthier and more persistent pieces of malware out there today.By Brian Prince
Lenovo is refreshing its line of IdeaPad netbooks with a new mini-notebook called the IdeaPad S10-2, which offers a bigger keyboard. While Lenovo took some criticism with the keyboard size of its original S10 netbook, the PC vendor has taken time to expand the size of the S10-2’s keyboard. The IdeaPad S10-2 keyboard is 90 percent of the size of a typical, full-sized laptop.
In addition to a 10.1-inch display, Lenovo looked to slim down the S10-2 to less than an inch thick. Lenovo also equipped the new netbook with software that allows for greater energy efficiency and up to 30 percent more battery life compared to the older S10 mini-notebook.
The Lenovo S10-2, which the company plans to release May 12, also offers an array of standard netbook features, including an Intel Atom N270 processor—1.6GHz—and 802.11 b/g wireless technologies. The S10-2 netbook also includes a 160GB hard disk drive. Lenovo, in an effort to make its netbooks more eye pleasing, offers an array of different colors, including white and pink.(Photographs courtesy of Lenovo.)
3Com was a major player in the enterprise networking space until about five years ago, when officials decided to focus their attention on smaller and midsize companies. However, during that time, through a partnership with Huawei Technologies, 3Com had a stake in H3C, an enterprise networking business in China. In 2006, 3Com bought out Huawei for $882 million, gaining sole control over H3C. Now 3Com is ready to grow H3C beyond the Chinese market, and is looking to challenge dominant player Cisco Systems in the United States, Europe, Latin America and elsewhere. 3Com is announcing May 11 that it not only is bringing H3C's entire line of networking products global, but also adding new offerings, including new enterprise-level switches and a new management software product, Intelligent Management Center. 3Com officials say that China is the only market where Cisco faces a real market share challenge in H3C, and that they want to expand that competition worldwide.
The popular online classified site Craigslist is under a ton of pressure from law enforcement, state's Attorneys General and public perception that its Website makes it too easy for prostitution, life-threatening fetishism and the dark side of human behavior to take root. From the recent Philip Markoff case in New England dubbed by tabloids as the "Craigslist Killer" to a Minnesota woman's death after answering an ad for a nanny, as well as many other cases, Craigslist is getting a bad rep. Is Craigslist really at fault? Or is it being abused by troubled individuals? Does having sections on the site like "Erotic Services" catering to fetishists and those looking for anonymous sexual activity open Craigslist up to legal and law enforcement scrutiny? Or is the site protected by laws for Internet Service Providers? Whatever the outcome, Craigslist is certainly headed for a legal battle that will pit free speech advocates and classified publishers against those who want to shut down Craigslist.
Socialtext takes nearly all of the most talked-about features of Web 2.0 and social networking, including Twitter-style microblogging, traditional blogging and collaborative wikis, and combines them into a SAAS offering that is designed to make these tools attractive for business use.
By Jim Rapoza
While it can be difficult to identify appropriate uses of Twitter for serious business, many companies do recognize the value of the capabilities the microblogging service provides. Socialcast is essentially a Twitter for businesses that has some nice touches for specific types of messages and for keeping co-workers up-to-date on status, projects and important company information.
By Jim Rapoza
Amazingly, research indicates that the average U.S. company, at any given time, faces more than 300 lawsuits. A company's annual costs to produce documents in the discovery phase are estimated to be $2.5 million to $4 million per year for every billion dollars in sales, according to a survey by information governance researcher Cohasset Associates. Litigation-hold restrictions put on an IT department during discovery potentially can cripple an enterprise's workflow. In addition, companies are struggling with the fast turnaround required by the 2006 e-discovery amendments to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the sanctions that could take effect should they miss a court deadline.
The situation has become so problematic that legal groups fear that lawsuits are too often being settled out of court-not on the merits of the case, but because companies don't have the time, process, technology or money for e-discovery help.
Like Apple is fond of saying in its iPhone commercials: "There's an app for that!" Our primary source is Galina Datskovsky of CA, senior vice president and general manager of the Information Governance business unit at CA.
Following are Datskovsky's suggestions of 10 best practices that organizations can follow to proactively prepare themselves for e-discovery and litigation.
For the most part, Huddle is a classic online collaboration system in the same vein as Microsoft Office SharePoint and Basecamp. Huddle does do a good job of providing collaborative workspaces and simple project management capabilities, and has worked to integrate with social networks such as LinkedIn.
By Jim Rapoza
The Citrix Receiver for iPhone uses the Citrix XenApp infrastructure to neatly deliver Windows applications to the small screen. Users of Apple's iPhone can tap the freely available Citrix tool to access data in the field and do some document editing. Although I found that the app is most useful when the iPhone is connected to a Wi-Fi network, it is possible to use it through the 3G cellular connection. If the AT&T Edge network is your primary connection, the Citrix Receiver likely won't be a satisfactory option for accessing enterprise applications in the field.
By Cameron Sturdevant
IBM has developed the mainframe computer for nearly 50 years despite repeated predictions that the model was outmoded, first by the long-defunct minicomputer and later by desktop computer and microcomputer servers. But the mainframe has continued to remain relevant for corporate applications that require massive computing capacity and serve up data for cloud computing, the Internet and mobile applications.By Darryl K. Taft
IBM, long known for its mainframe capabilities, has not given up on the platform. In fact, IBM is working to make the mainframe even better for new workloads that include cloud computing, massive transactions, management of enterprise mobile solutions and a host of others. This slide show takes you through decades of IBM mainframe technology. The slides in this deck show early IBM data processing machines to the latest z10, which is a cornerstone of what IBM views as the New Enterprise Data Center.By Darryl K. Taft
The 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope is in desperate need of repair, with outdated and failing batteries, busted gyroscopes, and spotty electrical and communications systems. The Atlantis shuttle launched May 11 on its last flight with the mission of giving the Hubble a much-needed systems overhaul and installing a new, more powerful wide-field camera and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. The seven-man crew is expected to arrive at the Hubble May 13 and, if all goes well, Hubble's life will be extended to at least 2014. Here's an eWEEK day-to-day look at the first mission to Hubble since 2002.
With its miSAN D, Cybernetics goes to great lengths to establish the right balance of price and features for the price-conscious iSCSI SAN shopper. Whereas other SAN manufacturers pack innumerable features into their products, Cybernetics focuses on providing only those features you're likely to use. These include volume snapshots, internal RAID, full device redundancy and device-to-device replication. The company adds a few valuable features above and beyond that, such as integrated agent-less backup and complimentary tech support.
More than 50 Lenovo Think-brand PCs are headed for tornado alley, powering an $11.9 million tornado field research project by the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR). The project will begin on May 8 in Norman, Okla., and include more than 100 scientists, span 500,000 square miles across seven states, and use 40 specially designed vehicles, 70 pieces of weather equipment and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops, ThinkCentre desktops, ThinkVision monitors and IdeaPad netbooks. Dr. Joshua Wurman, president of CSWR, said it's the largest tornado research project ever undertaken.By Michelle Maisto
NEW YORK - Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle DX, a larger-screened version of the online retailer's eReader device, at a presentation in New York City on May 6. In addition to displaying volumes from Amazon's 275,000 eBook library, the Kindle DX, which now boasts a 9.7-inch display, is also designed for the best possible read of personal and business documents, such as PDFs, as well as must-reads such as The New York Times.
The Kindle DX offers a number of technological refinements on the Kindle and Kindle 2, Amazon's previous eReaders. In addition to being able to adjust font size, for example, users can now also choose the number of words per line of text. Bezos demonstrated how the larger grayscale screen, which includes an auto-rotation feature, can be used for everything from textbooks to sheet music to graphics-intensive enterprise documents to nautical charts.By Nicholas Kolakowski
Google Labs serves as the testing ground for many of the search engine giant's more experimental features. Whether for search, e-mail or other uses, many of these applications tend to be quirky: for example, Gmail Labs, which contains experimental products for the company's cloud-based e-mail service, has Mail Goggles, which prevents e-mails from being sent until a user had solved a series of math questions designed to stump all but the most sober individuals.
Products of Google Labs occasionally end up, either in whole or in part, integrated into Google's larger ecosystem of products. Even if they never reach that point, however, some Labs experiments can still prove useful, even to enterprise users. The following applications go beyond the peculiar or unconventional to be actually useful in a business context. (Mail Goggles, of course, is not on this list.)
All these applications are accessible through Googlelabs.com. The Gmail Labs applications require a Gmail account to use.By Nicholas Kolakowski
Microsoft made the Windows 7 Release Candidate available to Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet subscribers on April 30, and the Windows 7 RC will be generally available May 5. The near-final build shows many changes, the majority being spit and polish, from the Windows 7 Beta 1 released in early January. The company has been pushing for Windows 7, due for final release later this year, to succeed in all the ways that its last operating system, Vista, did not.
Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server fills a small niche, letting companies fully utilize their managed BlackBerry environment with Google Apps e-mail services rather than platforms such as Microsoft Exchange Server or IBM Lotus Notes. With the Connector in place, users can utilize BlackBerry's native client applications for e-mail, calendar and contacts for push e-mail and (almost) full synchronization between devices and the cloud.
By Andrew Garcia
Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and other companies came together for EcoFocus, a demo event for the latest green technologies held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York, on the night of April 29.
For many IT companies, green is the next big thing: With laptop makers tinkering with the power consumption of their key offerings in order to leave a smaller carbon footprint, and new organizations such as Tesla Motors trying to use green IT in traditional industries such as the automotive industry, it seems as if everyone sees environmentally friendly technology as the wave of the future.
Many of the companies that unveiled wares at EcoFocus decided to focus on the conservation side of green IT, building devices that sip energy while still providing a necessary level of function.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate code was made available on April 30 to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. There are many changes to the operating system. Here, I've highlighted some of the most important improvements in the implementation of Hyper-V. For example, running guest systems can be configured on the fly to add or remove virtual hard drives. I tested using the newly released Windows 7 Build 7100 along with the RC build of Windows Server 2008 R2. Changes in User Account Controls, PowerShell and AppLocker are all significant enough that IT managers should brush off their study skills and buckle down with the newest version of Microsoft's server operating system. Also look for changes in Group Policy, Active Directory, remote desktop services and deployment services. Even features that didn't change much in functionality usually have a new address; I spent a fair amount of time during my testing just poking through the user interface, looking for familiar landmarks that had been buried in new locations.
By Cameron Sturdevant
The popular Flip mini-camcorders provide a small and inexpensive solution for those looking for an easy way to capture video specifically for sharing on the Internet. Pure Digital Technologies has regularly updated its Flip line, and, with the release of the $199.99 Flip UltraHD, it provides a high-quality camcorder that can capture up to 2 hours of high-quality video. In tests, the quality of the HD video from the Flip UltraHD was good, and, with a greater storage capacity, the Flip UltraHD is a better option than the $229.99 Flip MinoHD, whose main benefit is a slimmer form factor.
By Jim Rapoza
The N97 will be available for purchase in June. Meanwhile, Nokia has teamed with Aptana to deliver tools for building applications using the Nokia Web Runtime.
As Nokia prepares to launch its Ovi Store mobile application marketplace, the company also is delivering a new mobile device optimized to run applications available on the Ovi Store.
According to Nokia: "The Nokia N97 is a S60 5th Edition mobile computer with a large 3.5-inch, bright nHD (640 by 360 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratio) TFT color display with resistive touch-screen and tactile feedback. The device provides excellent user experience for Internet and entertainment by combining QWERTY keyboard with touch UI and Home screen functionality. Use the N97 to connect to mobile broadband using WLAN or HSDPA (3.5G). Find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps."
With Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro, enterprise IT has a new choice in the thin and light notebook category. The system offers unparalleled battery life, and its long-lasting charge may lessen the worry mobile users have about built-in batteries. The chassis is well-crafted and should stand up to mobile use, although the all-aluminum body will quickly pick up visible dings. The face of the 17-inch MacBook Pro provides plenty of space for the large trackpad and ample wrist-rest room. The full-sized keyboard is easy to access and provides good typing action.
By Cameron Sturdevant
Microsoft's Office 2007 Service Pack 2 is now available, boasting a set of compelling file format support enhancements alongside the typical service pack fare of bug fixes and performance tweaks. Most dramatically, Office 2007 SP2 adds full support for Office's archrival OpenDocument formats, as well as built-in capabilities for publishing documents to Adobe's PDF and Microsoft's own XPS formats. To download SP2, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b444bf18-79ea-46c6-8a81-9db49b4ab6e5'target By Jason Brooks
As Nokia puts its best foot forward for developers by promoting its Ovi suite of services as an overall platform, the company also is preparing to formally launch its Ovi Store of applications for Nokia smartphones. At the Nokia Developer Summit 2009, Nokia emphasized why developers should look to the Nokia platform for monetization and brand broadening opportunities. Nokia's Ovi Store will be much like the popular Apple App Store, which is a marketplace for applications for the iPhone. However, Nokia officials claim that unlike Apple, Nokia, with its strength in the smartphone space, can make developers more successful more quickly than other platforms. Nokia will not formally launch its Ovi Store until May. However, developers are lining up to deliver applications on the Ovi Store to tap Nokia's market-leading position in the smartphone and device space.
The release candidate of Windows 7 (Build 7100) features many small enhancements over the beta released last January. The new operating system's security features and the Aero Glass interface have undergone much tweaking and tuning. The biggest late-arriving feature to the OS—the virtualization-based Windows XP Mode—remains missing; that code will be available separately via download at a later time.
By Andrew Garcia
Whether or not it will evolve into a true pandemic, or merely a panic, the swine flu has dominated the news for the past several days. Social-networking tools, including Twitter, have been tracing the spread of the disease in near real time, while Google Flu Trends, a Web service provided by Google.org, and Wikipedia have also been keeping continual tabs.
The swine flu outbreak has so far killed dozens of people in Mexico, and cases have been reported in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and Israel. While social-networking tools have been vital in tracing its spread, some pundits have argued that sites such as Twitter only pour gasoline on the fires of panic, potentially leading to dangerous consequences. But the rapid dissemination of information across Web 2.0 could also potentially help at least some people better educate themselves about the pathogen.By Nicholas Kolakowski
ProBook, Hewlett-Packard's new lineup of professional notebooks, presents cost-conscious buyers with a number of options. These include processor choices from Intel or AMD and operating system choices of Microsoft Windows Vista, FreeDOS or Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11. On the 14- and 15.6-inch models, HP also lets users choose between Glossy Noir and Merlot for laptop colors. HP Mobile Broadband and a 2-megapixel Web cam are also options.
In addition to focusing on features for business users and prices that will appeal to SMBs, HP kept an eye on design. "It's got a very streamlined, clean look and feel. You don't see a lot of buttons," says an HP representative.
This ProBook lineup is called the s-series; a line of Compaq notebooks, once they need refreshing, will join the ProBook family as their own series.
The number of Apps downloaded from Apple's online App Store recently passed the 1 billion mark, some nine months after the App Store was rolled out in July 2008. Currently with 17 million users in 80 countries, the iPhone is a huge part of Apple's overall strategy; Apple shipped about 3.7 million iPhones during the first quarter of 2009, driving strong quarterly results. Over 25,000 applications are currently on offer in the App Store, ranging from enterprise-focused Apps from Salesforce.com, SAP and other companies to fun applications such as Koi Pond, eBay Mobile and Kindle for iPhone.
The following Apps are some of the most notable to have appeared in the App Store since its creation—either because they are among the most downloaded, were one of the first (or the billionth), or simply because they remain supremely useful to IT administrators and the general public alike.
The realities of the smartphone economy are changing: No more must one shell out over $500 to access e-mail, surf the Web or whittle away downtime playing video games (you know who you are). Indeed, as the worldwide financial crisis impacts businesses large and small, companies such as Samsung, BlackBerry maker RIM, LG, Motorola and Palm are offering great deals on smartphones, though some deals must be made online and a two-year contract is often required.
eWEEK looks at 12 low-cost smartphones that are on the market now and can easily fit within a tight budget, and, yes, there is a way for you or your company to get your hands on an inexpensive Apple iPhone 3G.
Cisco is aggressively pushing for a larger part of the data center space with its UCS (Unified Computing System) strategy, an initiative aimed at unifying the server, storage and networking tiers into a single, cohesive fabric, underpinned by virtualization technology. Launched March 16, the campaign pits Cisco against other data center stalwarts, including IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard with its Adaptive Infrastructure approach, and Sun, which April 13 launched its Open Network Systems initiative. Cisco is looking to leverage its strengths in networking, new blade servers powered by Intel's Xeon 5500 series processors and partnerships with such companies as EMC, NetApp and VMware to offer enterprises a unified data center fabric to meet the growing demand for performance and scalability while driving down costs around acquisition, management, power and cooling. Cisco has come under criticism from the likes of HP and Sun, who say that the networking giant's approach doesn't scale, isn't open and is expensive. However, Cisco officials answered that criticism and outlined key components of their strategy during an hour-long Internet presentation April 16 here.
Because hard drive capacities continue to spiral upward and prices continue a flat or downward trend, great value is now available in desktop adjunct storage products—whether for small business or for personal offices. Cisco Systems, which is embarking on a new Unified Computing System strategy, recently entered a market that has been dominated by such familiar names as Iomega, Seagate Technology, Maxtor, Buffalo Technology and Hammer Storage in recent years. There are any number of smaller companies, based mainly in the Far East, that are also playing in this sector.
This eWEEK slide show offers a taste of what's new and available now in data storage for the home or the home office. Enjoy.
With the economic recession in full swing, people are trying to save money any way they can—even foregoing purchasing their books and DVDs online in favor of swapping them through Web forums such as Bookins.com and Titletrader.com.
Craigslist has also become a refuge for people looking to acquire reading and viewing material without necessarily having to shell out cash. Unlike Craigslist, though, many of these bartering sites are deepening their features and interface, adding elements that make them more akin to Netflix or Amazon than an online bulletin board.
However, many of the most-popular titles on Amazon and other "traditional" online book and DVD sellers continue to be the most popular items for these bartering sites, as evidenced by the Top 10 books and DVDs on Bookins.com. The first five images are the most popular books and the next five are the most popular movies.
In the wake of the April 20 news that Oracle is swallowing Sun Microsystems for a net of $5.6 billion, talk on the street of subsequent mergers & acquisitions activity has begun to heat up.
For some reasons, these deals sometimes come in waves, but the economy is the most significant factor. "We believe there is going to be more M&A activity in technology because valuations are depressed, and it is going to be difficult for many companies to grow in this economy. What will be interesting is how the transactions evolve," Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Brian Babineau told eWEEK.
We've talked to industry vendors, channel folks and analysts, and we have aggregated their opinions here.
More than 450 exhibitors are showing their stuff at this year's RSA Conference in San Francisco. eWEEK Labs' Cameron Sturdevant has been scouring the expo floor to find the most compelling products for the enterprise. This year, virtualization security tools were an area of focus, but old standbys-still very much needed in our Windows XP/physical server world-are garnering attention. Read on for Cameron's picks for the 10 most interesting products at the show and visit https://cm.rsaconference.com/US09/catalog/exhibitorCatalog.do for a complete catalog.
By Cameron Sturdevant
LABS IMAGE GALLERY: Ubuntu 9.04 is the latest release in the line of popular Linux-based operating systems from Canonical and the Ubuntu community. This release, also known as the Jaunty Jackalope, is fairly modest in terms of new features, but it sets out to tackle new territories on the netbook and cloud fronts. Jaunty is a great fit for desktops and notebooks, and can perform well in server implementations as well. Click here for eWEEK Labs' full review.
By Jason Brooks
CentOS, the popular community-supported clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, hit Version 5.3 in March, packed with the improvements around virtualization, application development, security and storage that first appeared when RHEL 5.3 began shipping in January. What's more, CentOS 5.3 may be had without any subscription fees, which explains the growing popularity of CentOS as an operating system option for many hosting providers and cloud computing vendors. Join eWEEK Labs for a peek at CentOS 5.3, and check out our full review of the distribution here.
ActiveVOS is an all-in-one, standards-based solution for designing, building, managing, deploying and maintaining services-based applications. New in ActiveVOS 6.1, available now, are productivity enhancements, any-order BPM (business process management) development, automatic generation of BPEL activities, improved data manipulation, support for Eclipse 3.4, exception management capabilities and process monitors. For a trial, go to http://www.activevos.com/download-trial.php. Version 6.2 will be available at the end of April.
"Green computing" has been tossed around by marketers with as little regard for the real meaning as "organic." At its most earnest, however, green computing represents a growing, and very necessary, trend toward more energy-efficient devices, more eco-minded packaging materials and more thoughtful product end-of-life practices. The latter point has been a focus for enterprises, in part, because of legal mandates protecting the data on unwanted devices. The other aspect of the end-of-life practices, however, is ensuring that materials are responsibly recycled, and more enterprises are turning to vendors, such as Redemtech, that offer both security and recycling assurances.
IDC reports that asset recovery and disposition of corporate IT assets has "grown from an obscure niche sector to a fully recognized industry." Further, the research firm is finding that the current economy is bringing enterprises to place new value on green technology.
eWEEK takes a look at what companies such as Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Nokia are doing to ensure that their PCs, handsets and packaging meet new standards for green and recycling.
By Michelle Maisto
Cemaphore Systems' MailShadow allows for Microsoft Exchange Server or another e-mail system to be synchronized in real time with an off-site, cloud-based alternative. This provides a backup of critical e-mail, calendar and contact information, and gives users the ability to access the information from anywhere the Internet reaches. However, MailShadow doesn't really have much of a user interface. About the only way to know it's actually working is to check your router's activity lights, look at both of your e-mail accounts and try to determine if you see any signs of messages synchronizing.
BlackBerry App World, Research In Motion's answer to Apple's App Store, went live in early April. eWEEK Labs tried out App World on a BlackBerry Curve 8900 for T-Mobile and found the store functional, with an expanding database of paid and free mobile applications. However, the use of PayPal as the sole outlet for payment services could limit App World's appeal.
By Andrew Garcia
Oracle is a big company with many products; Sun is a big company with many products. With Oracle's acquisition of Sun, there are many synergies between the two companies' product lines, but lots of overlap as well. Which product categories will benefit from the company combo, and which will get crowded enough that products get killed? eWEEK Labs looked at the overlap and synergies in the areas of database, virtualization, operating systems and identity management.
The no-cost Sun xVM VirtualBox tool is a good system for putting multiple virtual machines on a desktop or notebook system for developers and other IT pros. New in this version is the ability to export and import virtual appliances that are built to the Open Virtualization Format specification, networking features that make it easier to configure guests to communicate with each other while limiting contact with the outside world, and graphics enhancements and access to 3D hardware acceleration. As a challenger to VMware's Workstation (and to the no-cost VMware Server product), the new version of VirtualBox is an even more tempting alternative for cash-strapped IT users. However, the tool does lack the management capabilities and finesse of kingpin VMware's offerings.
Each month, eWEEK editors name new or newly updated enterprise-class products that we think should be on IT professionals' radars—products and services that promise to create efficiencies as well as competitive advantage. This month, eWEEK recommends checking out Courion Compliance Manager for SharePoint; Imperva SecureShare Standard Edition; InfoBright Analytic Database; HP Dynamic Power Capping; NetScout Sniffer Global; SpectorSoft Spector 360 6.2; AVIcode's Client Side Monitoring add-on for Intercept Studio; Proofpoint's Proofpoint Shield; Varonis' DatAdvantage and DataPrivilege 4.0; Optenet’s HostSecure; Expert Choice’s TeamTime; and SteelEye Technology's SteelEye DataKeeper.
With the latest move in the burgeoning data center convergence space, HP is rolling out its BladeSystem Matrix, which pulls together server, storage, network and management software into a single package, tied together by an enhanced Virtual Connect technology. With virtualization becoming more commonplace in the data center, enterprises are looking for ways to take advantage of the technology while reducing the complexity and overall operating costs. HP and other vendors, including Cisco, Dell, IBM and Sun, are jockeying for position in the space with solutions designed to bring together server, storage and networking to give businesses a more agile, flexible and cost-effective data center environment. HP's BladeSystem Matrix, combined with the Matrix Orchestration Environment—or MOE—increases data center performance and flexibility while reducing costs, HP officials said. In addition, HP is unveiling new storage offerings, some of which come from its acquisition last year of LeftHand Networks, as well as the enhancements to the Virtual Connect networking technology. HP also is rolling out a service to help enterprises plan and design their virtual environments.
After eBay purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, the electronic pay services co-founder Elon Musk reached deep into his new, fat wallet and pointed to the stars for his next project, founding an aerospace company called SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies). Musk's goal was to take private enterprise into space and six years later, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to design, build and operate a resupply program to the International Space Station. Under the contract, SpaceX will fill the gap in American spaceflight to the International Space Station when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. An eWEEK look at Musk's private space venture.
HTC has released the Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2 smartphones to Singapore and Southeast Asia markets. The smartphones are updates to the Touch Diamond, released in the United States on April 10, and the Touch Pro, which arrived on the Sprint network in October 2008.
Among the updated features are HTC’s TouchFLO 3D technology, which integrates with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 to offer a more consistent experience across applications and menus; a people-centric approach to communication, which gathers together all the correspondence with a contact; and HTC Push Internet technology, which offers quicker rendering of a user’s favorite Web pages.
Both HTC smartphones received increased battery life, higher-resolution cameras and larger VGA touch-screens. The HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2 are slated for availability in North America later this year, said a spokesman for the company.
In the early 1970s, the slide rule was standard equipment for students, engineers and scientists. The personal computer was still a twinkle in the eyes of the visionaries. Then, in 1972, Hewlett-Packard introduced the world's first scientific pocket calculator—the HP-35—and delivered portable "computing power" into the hands of users. An instant hit among scientists and engineers, the HP-35 soon displaced slide rules and marked the birthplace of HP's innovative and highly successful heritage in the handheld calculator market.
On the next several pages are some of the major innovations in the portable calculator world that were contributed by HP. It all started on a direct request from William Hewlett himself, with the only qualification being that "it fits in my shirt pocket." Dave Cochran, the original HP-35 product manager, said on April 14 that he sometimes wanted to tell Mr. Hewlett's tailor "to enlarge his pockets and not tell him."
The 2009 New York Auto Show showed that, when it comes to cars, green is indeed the new black. A number of cars on display were either electric or hybrid, or else gasoline-powered vehicles specially modified to be more efficient than ever on the road. Honda, GM, BMW Group and others all rolled out alternative-fuel or hybrid vehicles with the performance specs approaching those of traditional cars.
The IT industry has a large role to play in all of this, of course. Intel, Microsoft and others have been developing platforms and microprocessors designed to bring everything from mobile devices to media-intensive entertainment options into the average driver’s car. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are investors in Tesla Motors, the company behind the all-electric Tesla Roadster and Tesla Model S, while former eBay President Jeff Skoll has also made investments in electric vehicles.
The following vehicles from the New York Auto Show represent some of the next big technological steps that auto-makers are taking toward producing the ultra-efficient cars of the future.
At an event held at its Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, N.Y., IBM announced a new consulting practice, the IBM Business Analytics and Optimization Services line.
The new organization will draw on the company's deep expertise in vertical industries, research, mathematics and information management to help clients both improve the speed and quality of business decisions while better understanding the consequences and business outcomes of those decisions.
IBM officials at the event said this marks the first launch of a new service line by IBM Global Business Services since it was formed in 2002 following the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. The new service also will draw on IBM's vast Information Management portfolio, including technologies from the company's acquisitions of Cognos and iLog, as well as the expertise of IBM's vaunted mathematics department.
Apple's iPhone Apps have seen a nearly exponential rate of proliferation since the launch of the App Store in July 2008, with many of the smartphone applications aimed at helping users with small, routine tasks (or procrastinate with several games of Pong). Big-name companies such as Google, Salesforce.com and Oracle have all created software designed to let users engage with their products even while on the road.
However, as the iPhone and the iPod Touch become increasingly integrated into the enterprise life, a number of application vendors and developers have started designing Apps that add mobile functionality to IT administration. Even if out of the office, IT administrators can use the following Apps—all available from the iTunes App Store—to access and manage their systems remotely. By Nicholas Kolakowski
With the first beta of Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft showcases some very welcome improvements in its messaging and collaboration platform. Exchange Server 2010 offers features that will help businesses share server data, and administrators and end users can now seamlessly go between internal and hosted e-mail servers. This beta of Exchange Server 2010 also provides some very nice new features for those who rely heavily on the Web-based Outlook Web Access client. Most notably, the Exchange Web client now essentially functions the same on Firefox and Safari as it does on Internet Explorer.
Ever try to draw a picture of malware?
eWEEK never has, but artists Alex Dragulescu and Julian Hodgson both have. Using digital imagery, the duo has crafted a showcase of art depicting three-dimensional images of virus code. The pictures will be displayed at an art show hosted April 22 by Symantec as part of this year's RSA conference in San Francisco.
To bring the malware to life, the artists used a special application to analyze virus code that uses the code's values to create a 3D image. From there, the image is transferred to modeling software, where it is positioned and lit to best capture the aesthetics of the model. The final image is then rendered for presentation.
There will be a total of 20 pictures on display, including six new additions to the threat art collection as well as a new visual synopsis collection depicting the services of Symantec's MessageLabs. Here is a sneak peek at some of the sights visitors can expect. (All photos courtesy of MessageLabs, now part of Symantec.)
Sun Microsystems unveiled a number of new servers powered by Intel's new quad-core Nehalem EP processors, also known as the Xeon 5500 series. The new Sun servers are a key part of a wider data center strategy announced by Sun called Open Network Systems, which incorporates not only the new Intel Xeon architecture, but also new and enhanced networking, storage and Solaris technologies designed to take a holistic view of the data center. The new data center strategy is Sun's entry into a burgeoning competition that includes such tech heavyweights as HP and Cisco, all of whom are looking to offer enterprises a way of looking at their data centers as an integrated, agile and efficient pool of computing technologies, rather than devices relegated into server, storage and networking silos. Key to Sun's offering are such moves as the integration of Flash-based SSDs (solid-state disks) and OpenStorage platforms, integrated networking, highly energy-efficient systems, and a Solaris operating system that has been optimized to take advantage of the myriad new offerings in the Intel Nehalem architecture.
Green is the new black, particularly in the auto industry, where every company from Tesla Motors to Honda and GM seems determined to produce alternative-fuel vehicles with the performance specs of a traditional gasoline-powered engine. While the technology behind these next-generation vehicles has improved in recent years, it remains to be seen how quickly consumers will surrender their traditional gas-guzzlers for transportation that runs on electricity and hydrogen.
In its heyday, the Srizbi botnet was arguably the largest botnet in the world. At one point in charge of an army of infected computers numbering some 450,000, the botnet was at the top of the food chain when it came to spam capacity. But following the shutdown of the McColo in November 2008, Srizbi was crippled, paving the way for other botnets to rise in its place.
Courtesy of Cisco Systems, eWEEK is taking a look at the rise and fall of Srizbi, and what the botnet’s controllers may now be doing to evade security vendors.
Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 covers a lot of ground, offering organizations a menu of server roles that range from hosting traditional LAMP-type workloads to taking on Microsoft .NET applications and acting as both a host and a guest for server virtualization tasks. While eWEEK Labs found that SLES 11's feature ambitions result in a product that's stretched thin in some places, we found SLES 11 an apt building block for many organizations' server platform needs. Following is a tour of SLES 11 based on eWEEK Labs' tests. Read my review here.
Thanks to the Internet, the days of humdrum, big-box office supplies are over. Small Web-based design companies and perennial start-up office supplier IKEA are raising the design level on everything from USB sticks to office furniture. Sure, they may be a bit pricier, but doesn't everybody really want their office to have a little character? Here's a look at some clever (and functional) gadgets and design statements that will give your office a personal touch.By Nathan Eddy
Just about everyone has to work with PDF files to some degree. You have to be able to read them on just about any device, and the ability to write them is common in most organizations. Adobe is the first name that comes to mind when you think about working with PDFs, but security problems with Adobe's Acrobat and Reader programs have been fairly common and are actively exploited in the wild. One thing you can do to protect yourself is to switch away from Adobe products. eWEEK Labs put several "viewer" alternatives to the test to see how they stack up to the Adobe platform.
JERSEY CITY, N.J.—At an event at the Liberty Science Center here, Acer showed off more than 20 new PCs, including netbooks and mininotebooks, thin and light Aspire Timeline laptops, and all-in-one PCs running Microsoft Windows 7, which allows users to take advantage of multitouch screen technology.
The April 7 launch will have an impact on all three lines within the Acer Group: Acer, Gateway and eMachines. Through aggressive pricing and focusing on technology such as laptops and netbooks that offer up to 8 hours of battery life, Acer is looking to challenge the world's two leading PC vendors —Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
One of the more innovative PCs on display April 7 was the Acer AspireRevo, a new type of small-footprint nettop that uses Intel's Atom processors and the Nvidia Ion platform to provide graphics. Other PCs on display included the Acer Aspire Timeline series, Acer's All-in-One offering and new Aspire One netbooks.
Everyone is asking to do more with less, but there are certain tasks such as database administration (DBA) that can only be done by highly specialized individuals. Whether it be Oracle, Microsoft's SQL, Sun's MySQL or other open-source up-and-comers, good DBAs are always in need and are consistently costly. Enter remote DBA services. Nervous about security? Have questions on what these services entail?
We put these questions to task to a provider of remote DBA services based in New York City—Bluewolf—which boasts DBA savings to the tune of 40 percent compared to internal DBA. The following gallery, answered by Rick Boccard, director of Remote Database Administation for Bluewolf, breaks down what you need to know when evaluating remote DBA services.
The Apple iWork '09 productivity suite-which includes Keynote (presentations), Pages (word processing) and Numbers (spreadsheet)-was released at Macworld in January. On March 26, Apple released Update 1 for iWork '09, which is described by the company as a recommended update. eWEEK Labs' Cameron Sturdevant has been cutting over to the Macintosh platform since the conference, including using iWork for day-to-day work. The following screens illustrate some of the new features in iWork, many of which enhance the presentation of information on the screen. That said, the feature Sturdevant welcomes most is the ability to send a file via e-mail from any of the suite's apps—a complicated process in the previous version of the product. Otherwise, the enhancements to iWork '09 are evolutionary changes that enhance the visual representation of data and clear up clutter.
MoMA, or the Mono Migration Analyzer tool, helps users port Microsoft .NET programs to Mono with the ultimate goal of porting Windows software to Linux. In this slide show, eWEEK Labs explores MoMA, testing it on some popular .NET software.
MLB.com, the official Website of Major League Baseball, is using Adobe's Flash Platform to stream games to viewers. Adobe and MLB.com announced a two-year agreement in November for MLB.com to use Flash to deliver all of its live and on-demand Web video offerings beginning this season, which officially started April 6 for most teams.
Adobe Flash Media Server software is the video streaming engine behind the games, enabling fans to view live games from their desktops by taking advantage of Flash technology. MLB.com enables fans to view games through its subscription service, MLB.TV.
For the 2008 season, MLB.com used Microsoft's Silverlight to stream games to viewers, but decided to go exclusive with Adobe's Flash beginning with the 2009 season. Microsoft has taken exception to Adobe's claims of ubiquity and also cited many sports events that have been or will be streamed using Silverlight, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2009 NCAA men's basketball tournament, the Masters Golf tournament and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Palm just can’t seem to stop showing off its hot new smartphone, the Pre, and the company’s stellar application platform, the WebOS. While there is no word yet when the Pre will hit store shelves, journalists, bloggers, gadget heads and Palm fans are chomping at the bit to get their hands on this handheld. eWEEK’s Stephen Wellman logged some time with the Pre at the 2009 CTIA show in Las Vegas, and has an in-depth look at Palm’s device, a gadget many claim will be this year’s iPhone killer. The handset might also look to give BlackBerry maker RIM a run for its money as well.
Many of the most interesting devices displayed at CTIA Wireless 2009 in Las Vegas had been announced previously at Mobile World Congress but were new to eWEEK Labs' eyes and hands. Here’s a collection of some of the most interesting devices and demonstrations I saw on the show floor, including the HTC Snap and HTC TouchPro, the Nokia E55 and Nokia E71x, and the Garmin-Asus nuviphone G60 and Garmin-Asus nuviphone M20.
CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas, which ended April 3, was somewhat mellower than usual thanks to the recession; an estimated 20,000 people attended. Normally 30,000 to 40,000 wireless-gadget lovers show up.
Budget cuts left major-league names such as Dell, Lenovo, MSI, Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard and even IBM out of the picture this year. As a result, only Korea's Samsung and Taiwan's MCI were there to show off their latest netbooks, the hottest segment in the portable computer business at the moment.
Samsung unveiled its N310 and N120 netbooks, and MSI offered a first look at its new Wind netbook. Click on to see photos and descriptions of these impressive new notebook PCs.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is a big improvement over previous versions, but it has few features that outshine those in competing Web browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. However, there is one area in which the Microsoft browser has a very big advantage-namely, in its ability to give companies, ISPs, Websites and software developers the option to create customized and easily deployable versions of IE 8. The Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8 (or IEAK 8) provides fine-grain control over how IE 8 is installed, what options and settings it will have, and how security is set. This makes it possible, for example, for a business to deliver an employee browser that has the right security settings and that points to company Web resources right out of the gate.
Mobile handsets are always attention-grabbers, and both manufacturers and carriers used the opportunity of the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas to show off new releases from Nokia, Samsung, LG and Kyocera. For those who didn't get a hands-on look at the show, eWEEK has gathered a few of them here.
Many of the handsets were geared toward consumers rather than enterprise users, and focused on texting and instant messaging. ABI Research recently released a report predicting that handset shipments would drop by 8 percent in 2009. Analyst Kevin Burden, author of the report, told eWEEK, "In these economic times, people are staying focused on the practical functionalities they need most."
In regard to AT&T's introduction of six phones it will soon make available—the Nokia E71x, the Samsung Propel Pro, the Samsung Impression, the Samsung Magnet and the LG Xenon and LG Neon—Burden noted that the carrier was "simplifying the message and [focusing] on the applications that resonate most with users: voice, messaging and e-mail."
Neil Mawston, a director with Strategy Analytics, additionally commented, "High-tier smartphones from the likes of RIM and Apple continue to sell well in the United States, but there is naturally always scope for operators to promote less-expensive models and open up the market to wider adoption."
Intel and General Electric plan on investing $250 million over the next five years in a joint partnership to develop health care IT technologies, including the Intel Health Guide, a box that allows users to check both their recent health history and communicate with their health care provider.
In a presentation in New York, both companies predicted that the market for telehealth and home health monitoring will reach $7.7 billion by 2012, as the United States faces a growing number of citizens over the age of 65. To service that core group, Intel and GE will explore technologies in areas including fall prevention, medication compliance, sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease.
Both Intel CEO Paul Otellini and General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt see increased health care IT investment as a key factor in lowering the United States’ overall health care costs, which present an increasing burden on the U.S. economy.
Samsung announced a slew of new handsets at the 2009 CTIA conference in Las Vegas, including the touch screen Finesse and Instinct s30, which offers visual voicemail. Like many other handset makers, Samsung is focusing on touch screen capability and Internet connectivity. Advanced Bluetooth capability and GPS-enabled features are also highlighted, as is a focus on media accessibility and playability. The Instinct has updated features including built-in instant messaging, an improved Web browsing experience using either the default browser or Opera Mini 4.2 and 16GB of external memory.
Samsung also debuted a Mobile Internet Device (MID), the Wi-Max-enabled Mondi, which features a 4.3-inch full touch screen with Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface and a four-row, full QWERTY keyboard with an optical mouse slides out from behind the length of the rectangular screen. The Mondi runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, and comes preloaded with Opera 9.5 and the Route66 GPS application for turn-by-turn directions.
HTC released its latest smartphone—the Snap—April 1 at CTIA's wireless 2009 show in Las Vegas, joining an increasingly crowded field that includes the Apple iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry series, T-Mobile's G1 with Google's Android platform and the soon-to-be released Palm Pre.
HTC is promoting the Snap as a smartphone loaded with "everything consumers need without overwhelming them with things they don't need."
In other words, it’s all about the apps and the design. The 3G Snap offers a full QWERTY tactile keyboard designed with extra-large domed keys and an e-mail feature that allows users to bring up e-mail just from the user's personal favorites. A first look at HTC's Snap smartphone.
Skype continues to extend its smartphone mobile platform reach with the latest iteration for the Apple iPhone. Skype for iPhone users can conduct chats, control presence and edit profile information, as well as place Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls. However, calls can be placed only when connected via Wi-Fi; EDGE or 3G users have to settle just for chat and presence.
Top-tier server OEMs Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM announce refreshes of their x86 server offerings based on Intel's Xeon 5500 series processors for two-socket systems. Code-named Nehalem EP and announced March 30, the new chips are the latest rollouts by Intel of its Nehalem processor microarchitecture, with such features as an integrated memory controller, the QuickPath chip-to-chip interconnect and Turbo Boost, which lets businesses dynamically increase the clock speed of individual cores. The features focus on boosting performance while keeping operating costs down. Dell, HP and IBM are using Nehalem as a base for enhancements to their hardware aimed at providing high-performance computing for businesses in economically difficult times. Smaller OEMs are also rolling out new and upgraded systems based on the quad-core Intel Xeon 5500 series. Analysts and customers alike applaud the features offered in Nehalem and in the OEMs' new servers, but analysts are split on how quickly businesses will adopt the new systems, given the state of the global economy.
In what Intel officials called the most significant processor rollout since the Pentium Pro in 1995, the chip maker March 30 unveiled the Xeon 5500 series—code-named Nehalem EP—for two-socket servers. The chip was designed to meet the demands of data center administrators under pressure to keep operating expenses down even as workloads increase. The 45-nanometer, quad-core Xeon 5500 series offers enhancements to improve performance and efficiency, such as an integrated memory controller, triple the memory bandwidth of previous Xeon chips, a chip-to-chip interconnect, greater virtualization capabilities, and the ability to dynamically adjust to workloads and conditions. Intel officials say the Xeon 5500 series set 30 performance records and the performance increase was attained within the same power and thermal envelopes as previous chips.
All the major storage companies are jumping into the enterprise and consumer solid-state disk waters in 2009. The latest news: Western Digital, the world's second-largest HDD maker behind Seagate Technology, announced on March 30 that it had acquired SiliconSystems for $65 million in cash. That will help put WD back in the SSD world market race. SiliconSystems is a major supplier of embedded SSDs to the network-communications, industrial, embedded computing, medical, military and aerospace markets.
On March 25, Dell launched its second generation of EqualLogic storage arrays, including optional SSDs. EMC was the first of the large systems companies to start using optional SSDs in its Symmetrix arrays in early 2008; now SSDs are available in all three of the company's product lines: Symmetrix, Clariion and Celerra. Seagate and Iomega are expected to be marketing SSDs products later in 2009.
Fusion-io, SanDisk and Kingston Technology with Migo Software also have interesting new products coming out. eWEEK has gathered the latest information on solid state drives to give you a better understanding of what's out there right now.
Cameras in cell phones are nothing new but the quality of cell phone cameras is another story.
While there are still plenty of non-flash, fuzzy, low-megapixel cameras mounted in cell phones, a new generation of phones from Motorola, Samsung, Nokia and Sony Ericsson are sporting flash, autofocus, multiple shooting modes and high megapixel counts.
Smartphones, while still the hottest part of the overall mobile handset market, proved to be not quite so bright when it comes to cameras with Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry being simply nothing more than middle-of-the-pack picks. Here, eWEEK offers you a brief snap shot of some of the best cell phone and handset cameras that are out there right now. eWEEK also looks to find which cell cameras you should avoid.
One of the main attractions of Linux-based netbooks is their ability to boot up almost instantly and provide quick access to Web browsers and other core applications. But what if you could give the same kind of instant-on functionality to Windows notebooks (especially older ones)? That's the idea behind Xandros Presto, which was launched at Demo in early March. Presto installs on top of Microsoft Windows and lets users choose to quickly boot into the lightweight Linux Presto OS instead of Windows. In Presto, users can access Web browsers, instant messaging, Skype and many other applications, while still being able to access the files and folders located in the underlying Windows system. Currently a beta, Presto has some hiccups, but looks promising as a way of providing instant access to the apps we use the most.
Many Facebook users have been tagged by the "25 Things About Me" meme. A few years ago, a similar "five things" tagging moved through the blogosphere. eWEEK editors would tag Microsoft if we realistically expected a response. So we've done our own research and here present our list of 25 things you didn't know about Microsoft. The list is by no means comprehensive (how could it be?), but it is eclectic.
The Internet Archive, one of the fastest-growing digital libraries in the world, has migrated its massive amount of content into a new Sun Microsystems-built portable data center loaded with 60 Sun X4500 Thumper arrays that each have 48TB of storage capacity. Sun staged a launch event at its Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters on March 25.
"It's amazing to think that the whole Web collection, which is about 2PB compressed and from 4PB to 5PB uncompressed, can live in a 20-foot-by-8-foot-by-8-foot shipping container, which, from our standpoint, is a computer," Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive, told eWEEK.
The archive, which employs the equivalent of only three system administrators, goes back to 1996 and stores more than 150 billion Web pages, Kahle said. It is accessed 500 times per second. Archive.org also houses the Wayback Machine, 1 million books, 100,000 movies and about 200,000 audio recordings, Kahle said. "It is a full-on library. This technology we see as another step toward a manageable system for dealing with enormous amounts of information safely."
The latest release of Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, SLED 11, is probably the most Microsoft-friendly Linux desktop ever, with support for various Microsoft formats and protocols that extend the functionality of Linux desktop regulars such as OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox and Evolution. These additions, combined with Novell's enterprise-friendly support plans, might just convince companies that the time is right to make a move from Windows.
SLED 11 has a great deal in common with the OpenSUSE 11.1 release that eWEEK Labs reviewed Feb. 17, but the biggest difference between SLED 11 and so-called community-oriented Linux options such as OpenSUSE and Ubuntu is the relatively limited selection of software packages available for SLED. eWEEK Labs Executive Editor Jason Brooks takes a look.
Dell announced on March 25 that its three new workstations would feature Intel Xeon 5500 processors based on 45-nm microarchitecture code-named Nehalem.
The Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 workstations offer new features such as DDR3 memory instead of DDR2. Dell becomes the second PC maker, after Lenovo, to offer workstations with the Intel Xeon processor. The Nehalem microarchitecture backing the processors scales from two up to eight processing cores and includes features such as virtualization capacities and an integrated memory controller.
Dell intends the systems for use by professionals in processing-power-heavy professions such as engineering, biosciences, risk analysis and media. The three workstations will be available through all Dell sales channels starting on March 26.
Lenovo has released a pair of new workstations, the ThinkStation S20 and D20, which the PC maker is touting as so-called personal supercomputers for oil and gas workers, CAD designers and digital animators, and those working with scientific applications and other areas that deal with large amount of raw data. With these two new workstations, Lenovo is also looking to make some headway in the market against the likes of Dell and Hewlett-Packard, which have dominated this small but important part of the PC market.
The Lenovo ThinkStation S20 and D20 are also some of the first PCs to offer Intel Xeon processors that are based on the newer microarchitecture code-named Nehalem that chip maker Intel released in late 2008. For example, the ThinkStation S20 comes with a choice of dual- and quad-core Xeon processors, including the four-core Xeon W3570, which runs at 3.2GHz, and the two-core Xeon W3505 running at 2.5GHz.
In addition, the two ThinkStations offer a choice of Nvidia and ATI graphics cards.Photos Courtesy of Lenovo
By Scott Ferguson
Apple's iPhone apps, which have been increasing in number at a near-exponential rate, have shown their utility within the enterprise context. Whether allowing users to read reports, analyze business metrics or approve supply requests while on the road, enterprise applications—many of them developed by Citrix Systems, Oracle, Google and other top application vendors—have helped streamline mobile workplace life.
Given that a big part of workplace life involves its financial aspects, it's no surprise that many companies—Bloomberg, PayPal, Salesforce.com—have decided to work the mobile-functionality vein a little more and produce a series of financial applications. Whether recording expenses, executing financial transactions while on the road, or following the dips and rises of the stock market, these programs can help users with processes that ensure that their enterprise's financial house is in order.
These applications, which eWEEK gathered from around the Web, are all available for download from Apple's iTunes App Store. Many of these apps are also free.
The Lantronix ManageLinx solution aims to give businesses a secure and easy way to manage the various remote devices on their networks, and in many ways does just that. For enterprises looking to support remote servers or devices in branch offices, the ManageLinx tool offers a safe and simple solution. ManageLinx was relatively easy to set up and configure, and was able to support a variety of remote devices, from Windows and Linux workstations to various pieces of test equipment, and did so using disparate protocols, including Telnet, HTTP and HTTPS, to access the devices. However, there were some hurdles. The management GUI was at times confusing and also could be flaky occasionally. In addition, ManageLinx stumbled when trying to view streaming video. In the right situations, combining ManageLinx with other Lantronix products offers a comprehensive secure remote device management solution.
By Matthew D. Sarrel
Dell, Panasonic, Motion Computing and General Dynamics Itronix are all competing for attention in the growing rugged computing space - which, in addition to laptops, convertible notebooks, UMPCs, tablets and smartphones, now even includes a rugged digital pen.
The desire for mobility is increasing, laptop shipments are exceeding desktops for the first time and government funds are poised to encourage development in industries—including construction and health care—that are benefiting from rugged mobile devices.
eWEEK is featuring just a handful of the products that have recently debuted or been updated. With competition increasing as more vendors join the space, durability is being improved, battery life is being extended—often through Intel technology—screens are becoming easier to read in all lighting conditions, and prices and weights are being whittled down.Michelle Maisto
Cutting the cable on cable TV did not mean forgoing broadcast television altogether, according to eWEEK Labs analyst Cameron Sturdevant. Using a relatively small, moderately priced Philips Silver Sensor antenna (similar to a Terk HDTV i antenna) and aiming information from antennaweb.org, he is receiving high-definition TV programming that is clear and crisp. He's using a Tivo Series 2 standard definition DVR to capture this over-the-air programming, and will be using this Tivo unit until his three-year contract expires in October. At that point Sturdevant will most likely build a DVR with the help of my chief entertainment technology adviser and fellow eWEEK Labs analyst Andrew Garcia, along with the always helpful advice of ExtremeTech HDTV editor Robert Heron. Sturdevant says that getting over-the-air programming was the least exciting part of the cable-cutting project. Commercial broadcasting is laden with commercials. Even with his Tivo "machete," it's pretty thick going to watch recorded programs. Because the Tivo Series 2 lacks an HDMI port, Sturdevant had to use component cabling to connect the device to the TV. This was the home equivalent of running a trans-Atlantic cable and created the typical cable management struggle of finding enough holes in the back of the entertainment unit to get the ganglion of connectors to the TV above. Bringing broadcast TV online also meant adding another remote to the collection. Faced with a choice of living with a feral pack of remotes and sanity, he's decided to evaluate a Logitech Harmony universal remote control. He borrowed a Harmony H659 from Heron and will make a buying decision sometime later this month.
By Cameron Sturdevant
For the past few years, eWEEK Labs Executive Editor Jason Brooks has been crowning Ubuntu Linux the desktop Linux champ, both in the reviews he's written and in his own choice of desktop OS at work and home. The biggest reason for Brooks' Ubuntu inclination is application availability. If there's a piece of Linux-supporting software that you want to run, there's a good chance that it's been packaged up in a ready-to-install format for Ubuntu Linux. What's more, of all the operating systems he's used or reviewed, Ubuntu offers the best set of tools for acquiring, installing, updating and removing applications. Click on for a tour of the Ubuntu software management tools that Brooks uses to run and maintain everything from Canonical-supported packages to unpackaged, compile-yourself software to those odd but unavoidable Windows-only applications.
Salesforce.com marked its 10th anniversary on March 16, 2009. This year also happens to be eWEEK's 25th anniversary. An anniversary is always a good time to look back and reflect, so eWEEK Editor Debra Donston has been going through the hundreds of back issues of our publication. It was interesting to see—in covers—the evolution of CRM, what we now think of as SAAS and cloud computing, and Salesforce.com itself.
When rumors and speculation began to spread that IBM had offered nearly $7 billion to acquire Sun Microsystems, the reports filtered quickly through a tech world more accustomed to bad news from the ever-shrinking economy. While it's not clear what an IBM and Sun merger would look like, it's reasonable to assume that some well-known IT products might disappear all together if Sun and IBM combine their various storage, server and software lines.
While IBM could dominate this new partnership, many Sun products such as its StorageTek tape systems could not only survive but thrive under this new partnership.
While the jury is still out on what could be one of the biggest tech stories of the year, the writers and editors of eWEEK have compiled a list of the products that will and will not survive an IBM, Sun merger.
By eWEEK Editors
Nearly three years after shipping Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft has updated its flagship Web browser with the release of IE 8. Based on tests of this final release and the previous RC and beta code, it's clear that IE 8 is possibly the best Web browser that Microsoft has released since IE 5. For anyone currently using IE 7, IE 8 is a must-upgrade, as it improves greatly on that version and includes many features that improve the usability and the security of the Web browser. However, while IE 8 is a big improvement over previous versions of IE, it may not be enough to pull over users of other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari.
By Jim Rapoza
Microsoft will release its Internet Explorer 8 browser for download on March 19. Microsoft said security, ease of use, and improvements in RSS, Cascading Style Sheets and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) support are key priorities for Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft officially released IE 8 at its MIX09 conference in Las Vegas, and while eWEEK has found the nine most significant features of the new browser, Microsoft has said there are up to 500 additional add-ons for IE 8 in the way of accelerators, Web slices and visual search.
Ten years ago March 16, Salesforce.com started its life in a small apartment in San Francisco. The hosted CRM service—which would become a milestone proof point for software as a service—has grown to include the Apex development language, Visualforce, the AppExchange platform and the Force.com “platform as a service.” The following screen shots illustrate the service’s evolution through the last decade.
By Debra Donston
CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple on March 17 previewed its much-anticipated iPhone OS 3.0 software and announced the immediate availability of a beta software release to registered developers. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release includes an updated software development kit featuring more than 1,000 new APIs (application programming interfaces), including in-app purchases; peer-to-peer connections; an app interface for accessories; access to the iPod music library; a new Maps API and push notifications.While the Apple iPhone OS 3 is in beta right now, the company plans to roll out the full version by the summer. The software development kit or SDK is available for developers right now. Apple also officially announced that its App Store now contains 25,000 apps for the iPhone.By Chris Preimesberger
Serena decided to move its email systems from Microsoft Exchange to Google Gmail for two reasons: One to save the company money and another to practice the cloud computing story that the company preaches. The overall migration only took six hours. While the change from a industry standard such as Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps and Gmail can been seen as a leap of faith, Serena's methods of changing over offer a useful guide to how other business might also switch. eWEEK walks you through the internal process that Serena used to make the switch to Google Gmail.
Slides courtesy of Serena Software
For work or for play, a high-performance custom PC is often an irresistible piece of eye candy, with enough computing power to launch a space shuttle. Well, perhaps not that powerful, but custom system builders like Falcon Northwest Computer Systems, based in Medford, Ore., and Richmond, Va.-based Velocity Micro offer features like liquid cooling, individual system performance tuning and HyperClocking.Even companies such as Dell, which bought custom PC builder Alienware in 2006, and BMW, known best in the computer world for the advanced monitoring systems it builds into its luxury cars, are getting into the custom PC game. So even if you don't have the wherewithal to drop $7,000 on a monster gaming PC, here is a look at what's out in the market.By Nathan Eddy
Dell released March 17 the Adamo, a laptop it says that, at its thickest point, is thinner than any other laptop on the market. Adamo is also modern, light, and made with a craftsmanship and attention to detail that Dell hopes will draw a new generation of users to its devices. Adamo, Dell said, is the flagship product in a new Adamo line "created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies."
Adamo is a dramatic foray into an arena Apple has long dominated - with its streamlined, 5.5-pound MacBook Pro - and Lenovo has also settled into - with its thin and light ThinkPad x300 and x301 laptops. During an economic time when hardware purchases are falling, it remains to be seen whether a looker like Adamo is enough to get customers buying again.By Michelle Maisto
The General Dynamics Itronix GD8000 rugged notebook is the newest offering from a partnership with deep roots to utility, first-responder and military customers. Understanding that its notebooks were being dropped from bucket trucks and used in the rain, GDI exceeded the requirements of industry standards for drop testing and water resistance. The GD8000 can withstand more falls than its predecessor, and withstand longer exposure to wind and rain.
Screen size has also been increased, and GDI's DynaVue technology makes it visible in direct sunlight. Inside a magnesium housing, the GD8000 additionally offers all the features of an enterprise business device, including Wi-Fi, WLAN and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as integrated Gobi 2000 for connectivity to EV-DO and UMTS cellular networks. Additional features include fingerprint, smartcard and password security, plus a Trusted Platform Module 1.2 cryptoprcessor and optional embedded Computrace software. The notebook is also EnergyStar and EPEAT certified, and pricing begins at $3,800
By Michelle Maisto
A recent apartment move provided eWEEK Labs analyst Cameron Sturdevant with an opportunity to cut the cable on cable TV. He used Roku, Netflix, Amazon, Tivo and Apple to free himself. He still uses high-speed cable and pays a premium price NOT to have cable TV bundled with the service. It was a battle royale to get the cable provider to even admit it had an Internet-only plan. Even with the premium price, over the year he'll still save money and have the pleasure of purposely watching plotted content. He'll also be using an over-the-air HD TV. He will publish a segment on that next week. Thanks to his Tivo, Sturdevant also will be able to record these broadcast programs. He's documented his journey on how to cut the cable, and welcomes your suggestions for improvements. Sturdevant did have to make some compromises. He ended up with multiple remote controls and also has a not-hideous-but-very-noticeable antenna in his living room. Even so, he's not going back to cable TV.
Plantronics' Savi Office Unified Communications headsets bridge the distinction between the audio from the desktop phone and from the PC. Leveraging DECT 6.0 for wider indoor range and reduced interference, the Savi Office products deliver high-definition audio wirelessly for PC-based media consumption or communications using the phone and the PC. Plantronics offers two different ear pieces (the WO100 and WO200) that work with the same base station (via detachable docking components). With the included Microsoft Windows application, PerSono, users can control device and application behavior when switching the headset between devices. Users can also bridge media between communication channels, as they can easily play PC audio clips to callers on the phone or bridge calls between the desktop phone and VOIP applications such as Skype or Office Communicator.
eWEEK Labs peeks into its crystal ball and sees a pretty cloud-y future for databases. This will allow companies faster and cheaper database storage and access, but will necessitate a new generation of business intelligence and reporting tools. In addition, Facebook may just redefine the way data is stored and administered, while Google and Amazon are changing the way we think about relational data.
It's the second of three Friday 13ths this year. Last month, we looked at "Microsoft's 10 Unlucky Breaks." Now it's Microsoft's "Lucky" Friday the 13th. The company's rise through the 1980s and 1990s is really a series of lucky breaks combined with business savvy and execution on the vision of one PC on every desk. We've picked 10, which are presented in order of descending importance, with No. 1 being most significant and No. 10 the least.
Citrix GoView, which debuted at DEMO 09, is an easy-to-use Web-based service for recording browsing sessions and application training, and then sharing those recordings with colleagues and clients. The GoView beta has many shortcomings, not the least of which is that it is Windows-only when it comes to making recordings and is lacking in capabilities such as decent editing tools. But GoView has a lot of potential for those needing training and demo videos useful for walking employees and clients through processes and new applications, but not needing the complexity and price of traditional applications in these areas, such as Adobe Captivate. Currently GoView, which is in a closed beta, is free to use.
Apple’s family of portable digital music players is always evolving. The Apple iPod has come a long way from the deck-of-cards-thick 5GB model that debuted way back in 2001. Over time, Apple made the iPod slimmer and more colorful, adding new models like the Nano and iPod Shuffle. The newest member of the iPod family, the Touch, debuted in 2007 with new features such as touch-screen technology and a Safari Web browser, complementing its Wi-Fi capability.
Never inclined to sit idly, however, Apple has now moved from touch to talk with the latest version of the iPod Shuffle. Originally introduced in 2005, it was the first iPod to store data using flash memory and the smallest device produced by Apple.
The latest version measures just 1.8 inches tall by 0.3 inches thin and offers 4GB of storage—enough for 1,000 songs. It also employs a feature called VoiceOver to inform you of the title or the artist of the song you're listening to, the names of your playlists, and when your battery needs changing.
When eWEEK Labs analyst Cameron Sturdevant tried using an Apple Mac Mini as his main work computer, one drawback turned out to be Entourage, Microsoft's 9-year-old e-mail client for Apple Mac OS X. Sturdevant needs an e-mail and calendaring system that fits into his fast-flowing work stream, but he finds that Entourage offers fewer capabilities and some operations are easier and quicker in Microsoft Outlook 2007. Here are seven things that drove our analyst back to Outlook 2007 and three features that almost got him to stay with Entourage for Mac OS X.
GFI builds on its vulnerability assessment heritage with LANguard 9.0, a network vulnerability and patch management tool that can tell whether the system being scanned is physical or virtual and, with one click, can launch a remote desktop connection to scanned Microsoft Windows clients. The tool is crucial for network security consultants and a solid choice for SMBs, though larger enterprises will probably want to find something more scalable. Patch management comes through tight integration with Microsoft's Windows Software Update Services, a free tool used to deploy updates to various versions of Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP, and other Microsoft applications.
The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook has a decent keyboard and some features that aren't standard for systems in this category, including a WWAN slot and a 15-pin monitor jack. The IdeaPad S10, with its bright, crisp display, could change the minds of people who think a netbook could never compete with a full-size notebook for everyday computing tasks. eWEEK Labs' testing of the IdeaPad S10 was performed by John Dodge.
The HP Mini netbook's keyboard makes it the "Cadillac" of its category. Not that the HP Mini's keyboard can compete with those of full-sized notebooks, but it's relatively easy to use. The model shown here, the Atom-based HP Mini 1030R Home, weighs 2.38 pounds and will easily slip into a large pocketbook. Testing performed by John Dodge.
Dell introduced its newest "fully rugged" laptop, the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR, on March 10. The device, designed to fulfill military standards for ruggedness and retailing for $4,299 and up, is encased in a blend of the same type of high-end polymers used in military applications. It is designed to survive, among other things, a 4-foot drop while powered down, extreme hot and cold temperatures, and various types of impacts.
In addition, the laptop features a screen designed to be both blunt force-resistant and more visible in daylight.
Dell competes against Panasonic’s Toughbook and other manufacturers in the fully rugged notebook category, which has great potential to expand as President Obama's stimulus plan increases nationwide infrastructure spending. In addition to military use, industries ranging from construction to telecom to oil prospecting all have use for a near-invulnerable laptop for their field workers.
The recession is putting pressure on IT administrators to cut costs at the same time that demands from the business side continue to grow. Using mostly free software and a collection of out-of-date hardware lying around, eWEEK Labs built a flexible (albeit somewhat underpowered) virtual machine testbed. Below, we offer the steps we took to build an OpenFiler iSCSI NAS server and a VMware ESXi bare metal virtualization instance, plus the settings to get the two working together.
The recession is putting pressure on IT administrators to cut costs at the same time that demands from the business side continue to grow. Using mostly free software and a collection of out-of-date hardware lying around, eWEEK Labs built a flexible (albeit somewhat underpowered) virtual machine testbed. Below, we offer the steps we took to build an OpenFiler iSCSI NAS server and a VMware ESXi bare metal virtualization instance, plus the settings to get the two working together.
The recession is putting pressure on IT administrators to cut costs at the same time that demands from the business side continue to grow. Using mostly free software and a collection of out-of-date hardware lying around, eWEEK Labs built a flexible (albeit somewhat underpowered) virtual machine testbed. Below, we offer the steps we took to build an OpenFiler iSCSI NAS server and a VMware ESXi bare metal virtualization instance, plus the settings to get the two working together.
The recession is putting pressure on IT administrators to cut costs at the same time that demands from the business side continue to grow. Using mostly free software and a collection of out-of-date hardware lying around, eWEEK Labs built a flexible (albeit somewhat underpowered) virtual machine testbed. Below, we offer the steps we took to build an OpenFiler iSCSI NAS server and a VMware ESXi bare metal virtualization instance, plus the settings to get the two working together.
The recession is putting pressure on IT administrators to cut costs at the same time that demands from the business side continue to grow. Using mostly free software and a collection of out-of-date hardware lying around, eWEEK Labs built a flexible (albeit somewhat underpowered) virtual machine testbed. Below, we offer the steps we took to build an OpenFiler iSCSI NAS server and a VMware ESXi bare metal virtualization instance, plus the settings to get the two working together.
Oracle on March 9 announced the release of Oracle Sourcing On Demand, a software-as-a-service solution designed to make the enterprise’s supply-chain management more efficient and cost-effective. Based on Oracle Sourcing and Oracle Sourcing Optimization, both a part of Oracle’s E-Business Suite Release 12, the software is priced at $850 per user/month, with an initial startup fee of $5,000.
Kace's systems management tool is now also a virtual appliance that can manage both virtual and physical desktops and servers. The product, which takes some effort to install, is a good management tool in virtualized data centers, particularly for SMEs. It is also certified in a VMware program as product-ready.
With the economic crisis affecting business at the enterprise and midmarket level, saving money has never been more important. Innovative computer maker Asus is trying to help businesses do just that, offering a range of netbooks and innovative PC products designed to make your business mobile—and stylish.
At this year's CeBIT convention in Hannover, Germany, Asus debuted a slew of sleek, sophisticated products, many running on Intel’s Atom line of processors. While details on pricing were sketchy for many models, Asus usually keeps its netbooks around $500 to $600. As the market for netbooks grows, Asus, the inventor of the netbook, is working to keep its Eee PC line as the top performing netbook family in the marketplace.
Features like touch-screen technology, swiveling screens and thin, lightweight designs that don’t sacrifice size for feature sets ensure Asus can still turn heads despite stiff competition from heavyweights like Dell and HP, among others. Here's a look at some of the products Asus unveiled this week at CeBIT.
Microsoft has rolled out the release candidate of Windows Vista SP2. Beginning to end, installation of Microsoft's Windows Vista SP2 RC takes just under half an hour on a fresh Vista Ultimate VM, assuming the computer has the requisite components preinstalled and enough hard drive space to complete the job.
Apple's iPhone apps—also available for the iPod Touch—have exponentially increased in number since the July 2008 opening of the App Store. While many of the available smartphone applications are designed for personal use, such as games, a growing crowd of developers and top application vendors such as Citrix Systems, Oracle and Google are releasing software for the enterprise. These programs allow mobile and wireless device users to read reports on their Web site traffic, view real-time business performance info and even note GPS positions while hopelessly lost on a sales trip. Except for Google Gmail, all these applications are available for download from the iTunes App Store.
Listen as eWEEK Chief Technology Analyst Jim Rapoza walks you through installation of the NoScript Firefox extension. NoScript uses whitelist-based, pre-emptive script blocking to prevent exploitation of security vulnerabilities. The extension works with Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other Mozilla-based browsers, and allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plug-ins to be executed only by trusted Web sites.
Security experts provide perspective on the insider threat and strategies for mitigating it, including automation, acceptable-use policies, traffic inspection, security training and auditing. The goal: to make it easy for users to do the right thing—and difficult or impossible to do the wrong thing.
There's a netbook with touch-pad capabilities, a Web-based application that automatically pulls in Web links and data relevant to content on a Web site, a security Web service, and a tool that converts enterprise applications for use in the cloud. eWEEK Labs choose these as being among the 10 top products at Demo, which ran March 2 to 4. The list also includes a video monitoring system, a disaster recovery service and an app for flirting via cell phone.
On March 3, Amazon.com quietly released the Kindle for iPhone
application through the Apple App Store. Like Kindle devices, Apple iPhones can now download e-books from Amazon.com over the air. Kindle for iPhone arguably could be called the killer application for the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. This move by Amazon.com to incorporate the iPhone comes a few weeks after Amazon.com released its Kindle 2 electronic book reader at an event in New York.
What company but Apple would be so audacious as to introduce new desktops—iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro—during a recession and when PC sales are declining? Gartner forecasts a 32 percent year-over-year decline in desktop PC shipments during 2009. The desktop is a dying category, but not one Apple is yet ready to abandon. The new Macs were available starting March 3.
HANNOVER, Germany—This isn't your father's—or even your fatherland's—CeBIT. This isn't at all like 2001, when about 850,000 people crowded the 28 pavilions, attendees crammed into buses and journalists ran for consecutive press conferences. There are no parking delays, there's plenty of space to wander around and there's no problem finding buses or shuttles. The weather was brisk but sunny most of the day on March 3. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany toured the grounds early in the day, causing the biggest stir by far with the crowd. Fewer than a half-million people are expected to be here for the four-day event, about half the attendance of eight years ago. However, there are 4,300 companies on the grounds and plenty of innovative products on view at this still-huge expo. We selected several interesting notebooks and other products for this slide show. Enjoy!
Debuting at Demo the week of March 2, the Touch Book, by Always Innovating, is one of the more innovative netbook designs to date, combining the features of a netbook and a touch-pad.
Ferrari, which started in 1947 as the racing division of Fiat, builds and sells about 6,000 automobiles each year and designs and creates several hundred custom-made racing vehicles each Formula One season. Ferrari needs massive amounts of computing power 24/7 to handle the intense pressure of super-high-quality design, engineering and testing, and to maintain the international standard the company has achieved for over two generations.
See the accompanying story for details about American Power Conversion's involvement in the design of the building and power management structure of this world-class facility. Racing requires more than simply gassing up a fast car, jumping in and speeding off to the checkered flag.
Intel provided a first look at some of the developing technologies in its R&D pipeline during a Feb. 25 presentation in New York. The devices on display focused on everything from green IT, to savings energy within data centers and PCs, to health care, to retail-shopping management. Intel says that many of these technologies, although currently in workable proof-of-concept form, are years away from being rolled out in a final form.
In commemoration of Black History Month in February, eWEEK introduces some of the most prominent black executives and technologists in the IT industry. These men and women have made names for themselves in some of the world's largest IT companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Xerox and Google. In addition to some of the African-Americans who have made serious contributions at big-name IT companies, eWEEK has also taken some time to consider black entrepreneurs who have started smaller businesses and who have paved the way to developing new types of technology.
Debian GNU/Linux 5.0, which is also known by the "Toy Story"-inspired name "Lenny," sports the same excellent software management tools and broad processor architecture support that marked previous Debian releases. While more modest than the "Etch" release that preceded it, eWEEK Labs found in Lenny an apt standard bearer for the noncommercial Linux community.
Since February 1984, eWEEK (previously PC Week) has provided news, views and reviews for enterprise IT professionals. Following is our history told in cover headlines.
While previous versions of Apple's Safari Web browser had stripped-down and basic interfaces, the first beta of Safari 4 shows that the browser is taking a major leap in interface capabilities, addressing longstanding shortcomings and adding some unique iTunes-style site management and browsing features.
With Azure, Microsoft is taking on Amazon.com, Google and others in the increasingly competitive space of cloud computing platforms. The Azure offering includes a software development kit that ships with a starter sample to get developers more comfortable with the Microsoft technology. Here, eWEEK Labs tries it out.
The 2U Lenovo ThinkServer RD120 is aimed at businesses that have dispersed branch offices. While the hardware is well-designed and energy-efficient, Lenovo's complete management platform is an important feature of the server, allowing businesses to centrally configure the system, and then easily install and run it in the remote location.
NASA is set to light the match to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, scanning Earth's surface for elusive carbon dioxide "sinks" in Earth's atmosphere. The OCO is NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most significant human-produced greenhouse gas and the principal human-produced driver of climate change. eWEEK offers a NASA mission primer.
Lenovo, in a bid to compete against the Panasonic Toughbook and Dell Latitude laptop lines, subjected eight of its ThinkPad models to tough tests for pressure, humidity, temperature, dust and vibration. The ThinkPad X200, X301, X200s, X200 Tablet, T400, T500, R400 and SL300 laptops have passed the tests and been designated by Lenovo for use in field and vehicle semiruggedized computing environments. In addition, certain ThinkPad notebooks have been equipped with an air-bag-style protection system for the hard drive, while the ThinkPad T400 laptop now comes with an optional 680-nit high brightness panel for increased screen visibility even in bright light and other harsh environmental conditions.
InstallFree takes its name seriously and requires no installed components to practice its brand of application virtualization, a key differentiator from app virtualization offerings from such competitors as Microsoft, Citrix Systems, Novell, VMware and Symantec.
Microsoft has announced that it will be opening its own retail stores, a la the Apple Store. eWEEK imagines what you may find when you walk through the doors.
With Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Asus and other companies all plunging into the low-cost laptop space, Dell steps up its game with the Inspiron Mini 10, the next PC in the Dell Mini line. The Mini 10 utilizes Intel's Atom processor, already seen in a number of notebooks and other PCs, including the Panasonic Toughbook and the Lenovo H200 desktop. With a number of other features such as a built-in Webcam, the Dell Mini 10 positions itself as a low-cost way for both consumers and enterprise employees to stay connected even in transit.
New products that enterprise IT managers should keep on their radars include PBwiki Document Management, Sentilla Energy Manager, Confio Igniter Suite PI, Enterprise Compliance Manager 8.0, SOA Portfolio Manager, Live Blog for Traction TeamPage and Bomgar 10.2.
BARCELONA, Spain—Although the souring economic situation has been reflected in a subdued exposition, there are still plenty of sights to see at Mobile World Congress, with larger-than-life exhibit pavilions and cutting-edge technology filling every square foot of Barcelona's historic convention complex, Fira. eWEEK sets out to find what is new and different at this year's MWC, including what is happening with the Google Android OS, LG electronics' solar power attempts, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's talk with other high-profile executives from Nokia and AT&T.
BARCELONA, Spain—Mobile World Congress certainly isn't lacking in sophisticated handsets in 2009. From Samsung's green technology Blue Earth handset to Sony Ericsson's 12-megapixel camera phone to LG's 3G combined phone and wristwatch, plus offerings from Nokia, tech junkies and business professionals alike have lots of new technology to look at. eWEEK has compiled the latest and greatest from Spain; here's our list.
Since the first combination cell phone and PDA device emerged from the primordial ooze, manufacturers have been trying to perfect the genetic code of the smartphone. Join eWEEK Labs on a tour of the devices through which the smartphones on display at the GSMA Mobile World Congress Feb. 16 to 19 can trace their lineage.
The HTC Corporation's long-awaited update—and possible Apple iPhone killer—to the Touch Diamond, the Touch Diamond2, certainly didn't disappoint when it was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona on Monday. Neither did the company's updated QWERTY slider, the Touch Pro2. The HTC Touch Diamond2 smartphone included a number of features for business users, including the use of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. However, the Touch Diamond2 is not available in the United States yet.
BARCELONA, Spain—The 2009 Mobile World Congress opened with a slew of announcements from handset makers looking to make the biggest impact. At the first day of the conference, that title arguably went to the HTC Touch Diamond2 smartphone, as it made a big impression on the crowd. However, new models from stalwart vendors such as Nokia, LG and Samsung kept the competitive level up. Here are 10 smartphones worth checking out.
Supercomputing technology vendor Appro is rolling out its energy-efficient GreenBlade System, an offering that consolidates server, storage, network, power and management capabilities into a single package. Powered by AMD quad-core Opteron processors, the modular design is aimed at letting companies scale up their computing performance while driving down costs.
Windows Mobile 6.5, due in the second half of 2009, brings some welcome changes to Microsoft's mobile interface. According to a quick look at the alpha version, Windows Mobile 6.5 is now designed for finger manipulation, the updated UI appears to obviate the need for a stylus. Plus, it will offer a full Web browser with built-in Flash support.
eWEEK editors keep you up-to-date on important IT topics. Compiled by Debra Donston.
Absolutely not, at least not yet. It takes more than a RIM BlackBerry, knowledge of Facebook, the ability to power on an Apple MacBook and an Internet connection. Knowing a good thing when they saw it, many a president has seized upon the day's innovative opportunities in science and technology. Presidents throughout history have grabbed that moment and some were even right, including today's birthday boys: Washington and Lincoln. An eWEEK random sampling of presidents and innovation.
It's Friday the 13th, the unluckiest day of the year. How has Microsoft's luck been over the past 34 years? The company's rise through the 1980s and 1990s was really a series of lucky breaks combined with business savvy and execution on the vision of one PC on every desk. But Microsoft's luck started running out in the mid-1990s. We've selected 10 unlucky breaks based on the scope of their impact on the company, counting up to No. 1.
Read an expanded version of this list at Microsoft Watch.
With the recession ravaging enterprise spending plans, IT administrators are trying to figure out how to make their PC dollars go farther. Component makers are coming out with cheaper products, and OEMs are working hard to make systems that are cheaper to buy, more energy-efficient and easier to manage, all with an eye to reducing overall PC costs. Many IT managers are reusing or repurposing aging desktops and laptops, but if you have some money to spend on refreshing older systems, here are 10 good options.
The elegantly designed XioTech Emprise 7000 SAN solution focuses on preserving and duty cycling physical drives to boost availability and decrease service costs. It also has the added benefit of the Virtual View management software, which vastly simplifies management of virtual machine storage.
eWEEK editors recommend that IT pros keep CNG-Online, the ShorePhone IP 230g, Engate Hosted Anti-Botnet Security, Emulex LightPulse CNAs, Intelligent IT Search, Data Integration Suite 4.0 and Capacity Analyzer 3.0 on their radars.
Novell's OpenSUSE, one of the Linux world's most prominent distributions, hit Version 11.1 late in 2008, sporting a renewed focus on community involvement. Check out this slide show to see if the latest version of OpenSUSE has what it takes to win mind share from Canonical's Ubuntu and Red Hat's Fedora Linux distributions, and stay tuned for eWEEK Labs' full review of OpenSUSE 11.1.
Dell this week revamped its tablet lineup with the new Latitude XT2 tablet PC that offers a range of new features, including new multitouch capabilities. In addition, the Dell Latitude XT2 tablet offers more battery life, the choice of two different ultra low-volt Intel Core 2 Duo processors, DDR3 memory, a solid state drive option and a starting price of $2,399. The Latitude XT2 tablet builds on Dell's previous tablet offering - the Latitude XT - which help bring Dell into the tablet market for the first time in 2007.
After collapsing in August 2007, the St. Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis was rebuilt three months ahead of schedule using Bentley's 3-D infrastructure technology.
Unison Server and Desktop unified communications offerings provide an adequate UC experience for businesses with basic needs, but it falls short for those enterprises with more advanced UC plans. The products offer integrated VOIP, IM, presence, e-mail and calendaring, and all for free, though there's a catch: Users need to be willing to look at some ads.
Automation upgrades, green IT initiatives and system performance measurement tools won't get cut; big capital projects and network tools that require a lot of manual control will be out as we roll along in 2009.
CA has updated its GRC Manager tool with new features meant to help companies unify their risk management, security and compliance efforts. eWEEK takes a first look at the reporting capabilities and features that CA says will allow enterprises to take a more comprehensive approach in dealing with security risks in the enterprise.
Adobe Creative Suite 4, the latest version of Adobe's massive and dominant graphics and rich media development suite, has undergone some significant changes, including a new interface and improved integration between the individual components.
eWEEK has a behind-the-scenes look at the launch of the new Amazon Kindle 2 electronic reader at an exclusive event in New York City that features author Stephen King reading from his new novella called "Ur," which is available with the new Kindle device. On Feb. 9, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the release of the Kindle 2 electronic reader at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, demonstrating the device's improved functionality over its predecessor. The Amazon Kindle 2 features a 6-inch gray-scale screen and can store 1,500 books, or 1.4GB of data. For enterprise users, Kindle 2 has the ability to convert Word and PDF documents, which can then be wirelessly e-mailed to the device.
As IBM's president and chief operating officer and then CEO, Sam Palmisano has carried out the company's growth strategy focusing on faster-growing, higher-profit operations. Despite recent layoffs, the IT infrastructure and enterprise applications company continues to be a bellwether in the technology industry. Here's a look at some of Palmisano's big moves and what they've done for IBM.
Amazon released the beta version of the online database product as part of its Amazon Web Services. SimpleDB offers businesses using cloud-based applications a place to store simple data. While not useful for all Web-based data storage, SimpleDB can work well in environments where users need to quickly look up data.
By Jeff Cogswell
Seeking a way to stand out in a search-engine competition that includes Microsoft and Google, Yahoo began bucket-testing a new search feature, Search Pad, that allows users to manage the information they gather while researching online. Yahoo hopes that the feature, which allows URLs and text to be collected and managed via a "pad" that opens in a separate business window, will attract users who might otherwise use Google or Microsoft for deeper research. eWEEK has broken down some of the most distinctive aspects of Search Pad.
On Feb. 3, Fujitsu along with AT&T began offering 3G broadband technology with a number of Fujitsu's LifeBook laptops as well as some LifeBook tablets. Fujitsu joins Lenovo with offering 3G broadband technology built into the notebooks themselves. In October, Lenovo began offering 3G broadband with several of its ThinkPad notebooks. eWEEK has compiled a list of some of the Fujitsu LifeBook laptops that now offer AT&T's 3G broadband technology.
Small business owners often depend on their road warrior salespeople to meet with clients, assess new business opportunities and troubleshoot at a moment's notice. Whether your customer base takes you to the heart of Manhattan or the big skies of Montana, having a GPS (Global Positioning System) device in the car can save you time and headaches. New technology that assesses traffic in real time can also save you from burning gas on a backed-up highway, and the cost of owning a system is probably less than you think. Here are seven GPSes, including systems from TomTom and Garmin, to guide your small business by.
A top-flight, well-equipped data center utilizes a historic former school building for 21st-century, Internet-level colocation services, yet it melds perfectly into downtown.
OpenSolaris 2008.11, the second major release of Sun Microsystems' freely licensed, Solaris-based operating system, hit the Web late in 2008 packed with feature enhancements intended to illustrate that Sun isn't about to cede the platform stage to Linux. Click on for a walk-through of the most newcomer-friendly Solaris release to date.
eWEEK editors keep you up-to-date on important IT topics.
eWEEK editors name the new hardware, software and services enterprise IT managers should have on their radars.
A rivalry with VMware Fusion pushes increased processor and RAM capacity in Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0. The virtualization software from Parallels can recognize up to eight CPU cores for use in a virtual machine.
The current mantra "Doing More with Less" is clearly borne out in a Ziff Davis Enterprise research study, which asks IT decision-makers how their data center upgrades are affecting business performance.
Go to a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace, and you're bound to find someone you know. You may also encounter links to malware or phishing scams, as social networking sites remain a growing attack vector. eWEEK has looked at some of the latest security issues and high-profile attacks when it comes to Facebook and other social networking sites, as well as things to look for when you're cruising the Web. eWEEK is also offering some advice about what user can do in case they come across a Koobface worm or some other piece of malware.
At Microsoft's recent SOA and Business Process Conference, Steven Martin, senior director of Developer Platforms and Tools at Microsoft, hosted a discussion that looked to debunk some of the leading myths about service-oriented architecture. eWEEK Senior Editor Darryl Taft shares a look at what Microsoft had to say about SOA and its future. Microsoft also discussed how it developed the technology with IBM, how businesses can implement SOA and how SOA does not stop at the firewall.
Sure, the notebook is the most obvious option for businesspeople that need to bring their office wherever they go, but netbooks-smaller, less expensive and more portable notebooks-are becoming an ever-more popular alternative. While Asus pioneered the netbook field with its Eee PC, it seems now that every PC vendors has its own version of these mini-notebooks that use some variant of the Intel Atom processor. Here are five netbooks from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Sony and Micro-Star that will make your business or enterprise consider slimming down.
Upgrades in the Panasonic Toughbook 30 rugged notebook ($3,649) and the Panasonic Toughbook 19 convertible tablet notebook ($3,749) aim to improve the ultrasturdy laptops' memory capabilities, security and battery life. In addition, Panasonic boosted the screen visibility to help appeal to the company's core audience of users, including field workers and first responders, who are frequently outdoors. Panasonic is also using Intel's vPro technology, which gives IT departments a better way to manage and secure a fleet of laptops.
With the release of Release Candidate 1 of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft's Web browser nears its final release. eWEEK Labs finds that while IE 8 has some unique new features, most of the browser's features already are available in competing browsers.
eWEEK takes a look back at the Macintosh desktop and notebook platform.
BigFix offers an outstanding patch management solution that includes helpful software inventory capabilities, such as licensing, metering and cost analysis. The only real sticking point is the awkward installation process.
With JavaFX 1.0, Sun hopes to entice Web and graphics professionals and bring Java fully into the modern world of rich Internet applications, a space currently dominated by Adobe AIR and Microsoft's Silverlight platform.
At Lotusphere 2008, IBM previewed a number of collaboration software projects in its Innovation Labs. IBM continued that theme at Lotusphere 2009, where it became clear that IBM researchers are working on more granular collaboration projects that could end up as new products with IBM Lotus or feature subsets. Take a walk with eWEEK as we scan what's new in IBM's Innovation Labs.
Dabble DB, a Web-based database application from Smallthought Systems, provides a structured database environment while enabling users to do the ad hoc data crunching they normally do in a spreadsheet.
Lotusphere attempted a hipper, more Web 2.0 and SAAS spin in 2009, with IBM sending out the Blue Man Group performance artists and Dan Aykroyd to underscore the theme of collaboration. IBM also trotted out Research In Motion's co-CEO Jim Balsillie to talk up RIM's support of Lotus software on the BlackBerry and unveiled LotusLive Engage, formerly code-named Bluehouse, and Alloy, formerly code-named Atlantic. Engage will be the first of many LotusLive offerings.
eWEEK editors name the new hardware, software and services enterprise IT managers should have on their radars.
eWEEK editors keep you up-to-date on important IT topics.
Analysts, industry insiders and customers are all on the same page: Virtualization in all its forms will help the next 12 months become IT's year of pursuing efficiency. In data storage, disk capacity will be at a premium and companies will work to make best use of existing hardware and software.
With more than 1 million business customers using Google Apps, Google decides to broaden its cloud computing ecosystem by letting other businesses resell its Google Apps Premier Edition suite of messaging and collaboration applications. Now vendors will be able to resell GAPE for $40 per user, per year, a 20 percent discount from Google's usual fee. GAPE includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sites and other apps. Google hopes its reseller program will interest customers looking to test SAAS as an alternative to on-premises applications from Microsoft and IBM.
A year after Google launched its Google App Engine--challenging such established players as Amazon Web Services--eWEEK Labs takes a look at some of the applications that have been built on the Web-based platform. While none of the tools were as powerful as those from Facebook or Twitter, what applications are there show promise for Google App Engine.
Announced at the CES show in Las Vegas by CEO Steve Ballmer, the beta version of Microsoft's highly anticipated new operating system, Windows 7, was released Jan. 9. The successor to Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft officials say the goal is to release Windows 7 in January 2010.
ForeScout's full-featured NAC technology includes IPS and firewall functionality and proves easy to use in the right environment. The CounterACT 100 does a decent job of providing full support for the most commonly used enterprise-class Ethernet switches, including those from Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Extreme Networks and Foundry Networks.
With a developer's release that is basically a pre-beta, Google is providing an early look at some of the features and capabilities that will be in Version 2.0 of its Chrome Web browser.
IT managers are facing a dilemma during this recession, despite impending budget cuts. Even with mandated budget-cutting, enterprises still expect their IT shops to maintain service levels they have been accustomed to. So how do you maintain or improve service levels, yet continue to run a business efficiently? One way is to utilize Master Data Management software that can accelerate cost reductions and at the same time streamline business processes.
While most of the buzz surrounding this year's International CES expo has been about the latest and greatest in high-definition televisions, laptops, handheld devices and audio equipment, new developments in data storage have also found a place at the show. Toshiba, Intel, Seagate, SanDisk and other vendors detailed at the show the latest in data storage, including significant advances in hard disk drives and NAND-based solid-state drives.
We live in a 24-hour global business world now, where your office has to be everywhere and anywhere opportunity might be. That means having a durable, portable PC is near essential for any small to midsize business owner. Here's a look at five notebooks that deliver a potent combination of performance and portability.
At the 2009 International CES in Las Vegas, mobility remained one of the hottest topics, and vendors littered the showroom floor with the latest in notebooks, netbooks, mini-notebooks and ultraportable laptops. eWEEK took a look at some of the latest offerings from Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Asus, Acer and Sony. While CES usually focuses on consumer electronics, there were several enterprise and SMB offerings on the showroom floor, including the HP Mini 2140 and the Toshiba Portege R600.
At the 2009 International CES expo in Las Vegas, the showcase floor was jammed-packed with cell phones and smartphones for both consumers and business users. The biggest news in the smartphone market came from Palm, which announced a smartphone called Pre that the company hopes will address the market Apple created with the iPhone. In addition to the Palm Pre, Research In Motion, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Motorola and Samsung all had their own lines of cell phones and smartphones ready for onlookers.
At the 2009 International CES in Las Vegas, Palm rolled out the Palm Pre smart phone as the answer to the Apple iPhone, the RIM BlackBerry Storm and other touch-screen devices that have invaded the market in the past year. The Palm Pre offers a slide-out keyboard in addition to its multitouch screen capabilities. In addition, the Palm Pre offers its operating system called Web OS, which can leverage several industry-standard technologies. Palm has lined up Sprint as the first carrier to sell the Pre and Palm executives said the Palm Pre smart phone will go on sale during the first half of this year.
Following Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm entry into the U.S. smartphone market, T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve 8900 is the thinnest and lightest QWERTY device of the burgeoning BlackBerry line of smartphones. The BlackBerry Curve 8900 expands on the features and functionality found in the original BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry Bold.
Apple's Macworld Conference & Expo keynote kicks off without CEO Steve Jobs. Instead, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, gives the address. Coming in to the event, rumors abounded about red iPhones, upgraded iMacs and a new Mac Mini. But Schiller unveils 2009 versions of iLife and iWork, the new iWork.com service, a massively upgraded 17-inch MacBook Pro, and conversion of the iTunes Store to all DRM-free tracks.
Hewlett-Packard is launching a series of new consumer laptops at CES Jan. 8 to 11. The HP Pavilion dv2 is the first notebook computer to use Advanced Micro Devices' new platform for ultraportable, lightweight laptops, code-named Yukon. HP is also launching another AMD-based notebook, the HP Pavilion dv3. In addition to these AMD-based PCs, HP is planning to unveil its Mini 2140 Notebook, which uses the Intel Atom N270 processor, as well as a massive gaming desktop, the Voodoo DNA 802 PC.
By boosting its online video capabilities, the National Hockey League hopes to both improve the online experience for fans and increase interest in all NHL online content and products. eWEEK Labs takes a look at what the NHL is doing.
Data Domain leads a growing list of enterprise IT vendors getting into the data deduplication space. With its OpenStorage solution, Data Domain is keeping ahead of competitors such as IBM, EMC and NetApp. Data Domain OST is an impressive data deduplication offering, and the company promises more improvements in the future, including a more functional Web GUI.
eWEEK editors name the new hardware, software and services
enterprise IT managers should have on their radars.
eWEEK editors keep you up-to-date on important IT topics.
Rather than make predictions about what Microsoft might do next year, we take the bolder approach of giving unsolicited advice, whether or not it's wanted. The list of recommendations is in order of importance, from least to most, from 10 to 1. For those people wanting even more, there is a fuller list at Microsoft Watch.
Darryl Taft lists the top 10 application development products for 2008.
For 2009, Wall Street is nervous that the global economic crisis will invade the Apple orchard and kill the crop. But 2008 brought a bountiful harvest, the biggest since Steve Jobs returned to Apple in late 1996. We pick the three most important events from each month.
For a fuller chronology, please visit Apple Watch.
The global economic crisis may darken 2009 skies, but it was all sunshine and cloud computing for Microsoft this year. We pick the three most important events from each month. For a fuller chronology for each month, please visit Microsoft Watch.
The economy may have slowed, but the security needs of businesses did not. From Symantec to McAfee to Sophos, security vendors have not been shy about putting new products out on the market to help companies fight malware, data breaches and unauthorized intrusion. Here are a few of the products from security vendors that hit the market in 2008 and were aimed at enterprises.
Following are seven storage technologies you must have on your radar, why they're important and how they could backfire.
by Dave Greenfield
Sun Microsystems' xVM VirtualBox 2.1 is commercial-grade, no-cost, open-source desktop virtualization software that rivals VMware Workstation. The latest version includes support for hardware virtualization (Intel VT-x and AMD-V) on Mac OS X hosts, among other enhancements.
Designed for small businesses looking for a flexible and affordable wireless LAN system, Bandspeed's AirMaestro gives administrators centralized control over all access points in a WLAN without requiring a centralized controller. Featuring three radios, Bandspeed's AirMaestro 3100AG access points can simultaneously advertise networks in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band, while providing WLAN and spectrum analysis monitoring.
When it comes to emerging technologies, 2008 was a very good year. Here's a look back at some of the new products and technologies of 2008 that proved to be innovative and exciting.
At the CES expo in January, Lenovo will roll out its latest workstation laptop. The ThinkPad W700ds mobile workstation offers a unique configuration that supports two displays. In addition to the 17-inch display that Lenovo used with the original ThinkPad W700 workstation, Lenovo engineers were able to incorporate a second, 10.6-inch LCD display into the laptop, creating a dual-display setup for photographers, graphic artists and application developers. Lenovo is offering the option to order the workstation laptop with a lower-cost Intel Core 2 Quad processor running at 2.26GHz.
At the 2009 CES expo, Intel will officially roll out an updated version of its Classmate PC reference design that adds several new capabilities. The most significant additions to the Classmate PC design are a convertible tablet and touch-screen options. In addition, Intel is now offering its own Atom processors with the Classmate PC instead of a low-power Celeron chip used in previous designs. While the Intel Classmate PC is considered akin to a number of "netbooks" and mini-notebooks that have been developed in the past year, it primarily competes against the One Laptop Per Child PC that has been developed for the education market and school children.
Not only do LCD flat-screen monitors use less energy than CRT monitors, but they are also lighter and take up less desk space. Although typically more expensive than CRT monitors, many LCDs offer features such as rotating displays, which allow you to view images and documents in portrait and landscape mode. Plummeting prices have made LCD monitors even more affordable to SMBs (small and midsize businesses).
Just remember not to confuse LCD with flat-screen monitors. All LCDs are flat screen, but a few CRTs have flat picture tubes and are advertised as being flat screen. Here are five LCD monitors that will brighten your office.
No longer a beta, the Google Chrome Web browser can now be compared directly with other shipping browsers. Though it comes with many interesting new features, Google Chrome lacks some basic capabilities—especially in the area of customization—that are standard in other browsers.
Looking back over some of the news highlights in the green IT sector, companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and a number of others really took the lead in efforts to update data centers and save electrical resources. Many analysts and industry observers expect this green IT momentum to increase throughout 2009. Here are the top eight green IT highlights of the year, as reported by eWEEK.
Microsoft Visual Studio now supports jQuery. Or is it the other way around? JavaScript application developers who use jQuery can now have full control over their jQuery code using Visual Studio 2008's latest version of IntelliSense.
In any given year, plenty of new desktops, notebooks and IT infrastructure products enter the market. While some fail and others thrive, the end of the year is always a good time to take a look back at some of the more interesting developments of the past 12 months and offer some perspective. While no list is complete, eWEEK glanced back at 2008 and found some of the more interesting desktops and notebooks, processors, and server systems that came to the IT hardware market this year. Intel, AMD, IBM, Dell, Nvidia, Apple, Asus and Lenovo all make an appearance.
eWEEK is taking the final month of the year to honor these new Web products or services released in 2008. Honorable mentions go to any company that has enabled offline access to normally Web-based apps, such as Google Apps' Docs. While not new products, offline access is crucial to the consumers and workers who depend on them while on the go. For this slide show, Apps from Google rule, with nods to Yahoo and startups.
eWEEK Labs picks the biggest tech missteps of the year.
eWEEK Labs has been testing Fedora 10, the latest version of the community-supported Linux-based operating system that serves as a technology proving ground for future Red Hat software products. Here is a rundown on upgrading from Fedora 9 to the current version using the distribution's handy preupgrade tool.
VMware launched its "Virtual Appliance Marketplace" Nov. 7, 2006, offering prebuilt, ready-to-run enterprise software applications packaged with an operating system for download on a trial basis. Of the more than 300 virtual appliances, 39 are currently "certified production-ready" as part of a VMware program that promotes products that are ready for production. Although only under way for a month, products are getting rated. Here are the top five so far.
Eighty-nine percent of storage survey respondents report that they will either maintain or increase their storage purchasing in 2009. There is reason for most of the storage business to remain confident looking ahead to next year -- despite the free falls in other sectors of the economy.
The BlackBerry Bold, the new smartphone available now for the AT&T network, offers an outstanding video display for a small screen and good audio quality. The Bold's revamped interface theme and the full browser failed to impress, though.
Requirements for servers vary, depending on the server application and the needs of your business. Absolute CPU speed is not as critical for a server as it is for a desktop, but you may want to consider other server specifications, like choosing a tower, rack-mounted or blade server. The size of your business, as well as cost, will factor into the decision, but new developments, such as green technology advancements, could save your SMB money in the long term. Here's a look at five servers that could, ahem, serve your business well.
Sun Microsystems is offering a total of seven server systems, including two blade servers, that support Advanced Micro Devices’ quad-core Opteron processor that had been developed under the code name "Shanghai." In addition to two revamped blade servers, Sun is offering five rack-mount server systems that support between two and eight AMD processors. Sun plans to release all seven systems Dec. 9, and several other systems based on AMD processors will follow in 2009.
With the release of the first alpha of Opera 10, the alternative browser showcases a new browser engine and improved standards support.
ContentWatch's ContentProtect offers everything except a firewall in an easy-to-manage appliance, with very good content filtering, traffic shaping and anti-malware features.
For the small business owner on the go, accessing e-mail, the Web and a host of other applications from a mobile phone is essential. Wading into the smartphone market place can be a little overwhelming: Deciding which smartphone works best with your server for e-mail pushing, how much battery life you might need and, of course, the "cool" factor everyone craves, even when they say they don’t. When choosing a smartphone, you need to keep in mind what kind of e-mail you need to access: BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows Enterprise, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), POP (Post Office Protocol), which includes Gmail or any others. Thankfully, most smartphones today can handle multiple e-mail systems, but not all do. Others desire sleek Web browsers or strong multimedia capabilities. Some people, myself included, wouldn’t even consider a smartphone that offers only a mini-USB portal for headphones (more on that later). In the end, it often comes down to personal aesthetics and impressions, but here’s a list of five smartphones than any SMB owner would be interested in.
IBM recently showed eWEEK a demonstration of Blue Spruce, the company's project for enabling collaboration via AJAX-based mashups, including streaming audio and video. The Blue Spruce technology is what you'd get if you rolled IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte and IBM enterprise mashups into one platform to let multiple users collaborate through a Web browser at the same time. See the specifications in this presentation from IBM's Emerging Internet Technologies division.
Ubuntu Linux is one of the most popular Linux-based desktop operating systems available, a distinction due, in large measure, to Ubuntu's excellent software management facilities. One area in which the system demonstrates its software dexterity is in its support for in-place upgrades between versions. Click on for a walk-through of our experience upgrading Ubuntu 8.04 to the latest release, Ubuntu 8.10, called Intrepid Ibex.
Released to manufacturing on Oct. 21, the Microsoft SC VMM 2008 can now manage VMware ESX servers. SC VMM 2008 can now also create new virtual machines on Windows Server 2008 systems and will automatically turn on the Hyper-V role if it is not already active on the target hardware.
Want to protect that new laptop or desktop from malware, spam and other cyber-attacks? A software security suite could be the perfect gift. Brian Prince lists some security gift ideas for this holiday season.
eWEEK stopped by Pepcom's latest holiday showcase in New York recently to check out some of the new technologies that will be available as the 2008 holiday shopping season arrives. While Pepcom is geared toward consumers, eWEEK found 10 laptops—along with a desktop model—that enterprises should keep in mind. The PCs included Hewlett-Packard's new multitouch laptop and new low-cost notebooks or netbooks, a Dell desktop that features Intel's new Core i7 processor, and a number of Asustek Computer's ultraportable notebook offerings.
eWEEK Labs names the products that provide lots of practical bang for very few bucks.
Folks needing something to do during the Thanksgiving week slowdown can kick back with their desktops and laptops and check out the following social, search and productivity Web services: Glue, Plista, Zenbe, Hulu, Blist, EtherPad, DotSpots, Mobspin, Socialcast and Searchme.
As the 2008 holiday season approaches, there are a number of laptops and desktops that have just hit the market and might make a compelling gift this December. In addition to Apple with its new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway and other vendors have new notebooks ready for the consumer market this holiday season. For those interested in a more conventional desktop, Dell is offering the $949 XPS Studio, which uses the new Intel Core i7 processor.
What could be more practical for anybody with a personal computer than the gift of personal data storage? Capacities keep going up, as does the number of value-added and optional features. Prices keep coming down, much to the joy of buyers and the chagrin of storage executives.
Take full advantage while prices are down; since most things in business are cyclical, they undoubtedly will start heading back up at some point. Here are some relatively inexpensive storage hardware and software packages for consumers and small businesses.
MetaGeek's Wi-Spy DBx and Chanalyzer 3.2 beta are great tools for those looking to troubleshoot WLAN interference quickly, easily and inexpensively.
The CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 for desktop security offers upgrades to the user interface; security updates and alerts; anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-phishing protection; firewall settings; parental controls; data backup and recovery; and data migration, as well as a smaller install size.
Research In Motion, the mobile and wireless device vendor known best for its often-imitated Chiclet-style thumb keyboards, has produced its first touch-screen device, the BlackBerry Storm. The BlackBerry Storm's most striking feature is its nifty SurePress touch-screen, which
combines the flexibility of software-based input with the tactile response of physical buttons. Click on for some pictures of the Storm smartphone that we've taken during our tests so far, and then read our review of the device.
Xobni, maker of a plug-in that helps users add social contacts to their Microsoft Outlook in-boxes, has now added support for Yahoo, Facebook and Hoover's. There is also new integration with the Skype VOIP application. Xobni was reportedly targeted for acquisition by Microsoft earlier in 2008, although the deal didn't take place. In the meantime, check out these slides of the Xobni integrations to decide if they're right for you.
At its Adobe MAX 2008 conference, Adobe advances the Flash platform and delivers Adobe Flash Catalyst, a professional interaction design tool, and the Adobe "Cocomo" platform-as-a-service solution for adding real-time social capabilities into RIAs (rich Internet applications).
VMware Workstation 6.5 is an evolutionary advance in one of the best virtualization tools available for developers.
The new Google Mobile App for iPhone brings voice search to Apple's smartphone, allowing the user to trigger searches for localized results just by putting the iPhone to his or her ear.
Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, formally released Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online from public beta to all business customers and industry partners in San Francisco Nov. 17. The SAAS productivity and collaboration suites are aimed for the heart of Google Apps, signaling another front in the cloud-computing war. Here is a taste of the user interface for Microsoft Online Services, as well as the administration centers for Exchange Online and SharePoint Online.
With the ProLiant DL185 G5, HP also introduces a major update to management software that improves usability over earlier versions of HP Storage Server Management Console. The ProLiant DL185 G5 can be configured as either an NAS or iSCSI SAN device. Take a look.
The Agito Networks RoamAnywhere Mobility Router lets Windows Mobile- or Symbian-based smart phones integrate directly with the corporate PBX, allowing users to have a single telephone profile no matter where they are or what type of network they are connected to.
Follow Dan Russell, a member of the Search Quality team doing user experience research for Google, as he explains how the search engine giant conducts field studies to improve the user experience. In tests that recall your Psychology 101 lab days, humans are the rats searching for the various kinds of informational cheese. Russell says Google determined the old advanced search engine was a turn-off, so Google refreshed it. The experiment also revives the argument about whether Google is making us stupid or not. Check out these slides. What do you think?
Software pirates are winning the battle against vendors on the high seas of the Internet. Such activity costs the software industry billions of dollars. V.i. Laboratories, which specializes in anti-piracy technology for software, took eWEEK on a brief tour of the piracy underworld. Here is a look at a piece of the software pirate economy.
Microsoft officially launches on Nov. 13 new and revamped Windows Live services that will start rolling out over the coming weeks and, internationally, into 2009.
The Linc Volt, Neil Young and Java creator James Gosling's entry into the X Automotive Prize competition, is a classic 1959 Lincoln Continental Mk IV that has been repowered with a new series-hybrid system and now runs on electricity produced by a natural-gas generator. Java technology powers sensors that monitor performance elements of the Linc Volt and display the results on a touch-screen panel as the hybrid car travels down the road.
Google Site Search is a hosted solution that provides public businesses with Google's search functionality. Now the software is getting faster with On-demand Indexing, which lets users refresh search results for Web sites with one click of a button. Google hopes Site Search will help it differentiate itself from rivals such as Microsoft subsidiary Fast, Mercado Software and Endeca.
AMD’s 45-nm quad-core Opteron processor, formerly known as "Shanghai," contains some notable advances over its predecessor, the 60-nm Barcelona. The AMD Shanghai is the first AMD chip built on the company's 45-nanometer manufacturing process, and chips in this series will have higher clock speeds, larger Level 3 cache sizes and better power efficiency compared with the previous generation of 65-nm Opteron processors. The first of these 45-nm Opteron processors is slated for two- and four-way systems. New 45-nm processors for single-socket servers and desktops will follow in 2009.
SQL Anywhere gives programmers full relational database access through SQL on a mobile device running Windows Mobile.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison may be skeptical about cloud computing and SAAS, but his application developers love software gadgets, especially to give salespeople more insight into their clients. That's where Oracle's new CRM Gadgets for Sales comes in. Check out screenshots of these five mini-applications that enable users to access data even while offline.
With its extensive application platform, Facebook has given masses of computer users something other than FreeCell with which to wile away their work hours. Recently, Facebook's more buttoned-down social networking neighbor, LinkedIn, acquired its own apps platform. eWEEK Labs took a peek at LinkedIn's app offerings to judge whether they prove themselves any more productive.
Google's Gmail group adds voice and video chat to the popular Web mail application. No telling whether Gmail chat with the new tool will give Skype a run for its money, but the free plug-in is available for Webcam users beginning Nov. 11. The tool is Google's latest move to make Gmail more of a unified communications and collaboration application.
Mindjet has been selling its MindManager visual collaboration software for a while, but the Mindjet Player offers a new twist: the ability to take mind maps and share them with other users. Meanwhile, MindManager 8 features new Web services functionality, an embedded browser and task management features.
DeepDyve, the deep Web search engine formerly known as Infovell, has a new user interface. The search engine is also going live for consumers who want to sift through the hidden information they can't find with Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. DeepDyve lets users search for medical journals, patent documents, Wikipedia articles and now IT, clean environment and energy information.
Sun on Nov. 10 announces its first storage appliance, which can be used in a small IT system—or, using a larger former factor, in a large data center. Code-named Amber Road, the rack-mounted Sun Storage 7000 line consists of three products: the Sun Storage 7110 (2TB maximum capacity), the Sun Storage 7210 and the Sun Storage 7410 (up to 288TB). All of them use the open-source ZFS file system and the DTrace system analysis tool and can be up and running in about 5 minutes, Sun claims. Amber Road has been in development for about two years. Pricing starts at about $11,000 for the 2TB version.
Visual Studio Team System 2010's Lab Management solution will deliver features that enable software development teams to deliver higher-quality applications as well as create tighter integration across development and testing teams throughout the application life cycle.
Microsoft's application whitelisting-enabling Software Restriction Policy feature may fall short of options from third-party whitelisting vendors, but SRP works well and comes free with your Windows license. What's more, Microsoft will ship an overhauled and much-improved version of SRP with Windows 7, under the name AppLocker. eWEEK Labs takes a look at SRP as it is in XP, and offers a peek at Windows 7's new AppLocker feature.
Released to manufacturing on Oct. 21, the Microsoft SC VMM 2008 can now manage VMware ESX servers. SC VMM 2008 can also create new virtual machines on Windows Server 2008 systems and will automatically turn on the Hyper-V role if it is not already active on the target hardware.
SAN FRANCISCO—The world of Web 2.0, forged by the millions of users flocking to popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Digg, is proving to be a fertile breeding ground for spammers, vandals and hackers who want to exploit the trust implicit in this ecosystem. These malcontents are either looking to throw a stick in the hub of a Web site's progress or make some extra cash. At the Web 2.0 Summit here Nov. 5, Google's Matt Cutts discusses how companies can recognize this activity to protect themselves and their communities.
The Apple iPhone has taken the consumer world by storm, leading to a number of growth opportunities for application developers. The 451 Group's Raven Zachary, who has been tracking the smart phone's progress since it launched in 2007, leads a presentation on what factors are driving iPhone growth at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
SkyRecon's StormShield is an unrivaled endpoint security policy management and enforcement tool that adds top-notch anti-malware capabilities, yet installation, configuration, overall GUI and help/wizard/support shortcomings are reasons for caution.
Fujitsu, which is known for its innovative but pricey notebooks, released three laptops Nov. 3 that look to expand the company's PC portfolio. The notebooks include the LifeBook U820, a compact mini-notebook that uses an Intel Atom processor, has a 5.6-inch display and weighs about 1.3 pounds; the LifeBook N7010, with a 16-inch display; and the LifeBook P1630, a convertible tablet with an 8.9-inch touch-screen.
Things to do in Denver during election week? Here's one: Defrag. A few hundred attendees flocked to the Mile High City Nov. 3 for the Defrag conference. Professor William Duggan, an associate professor of management at Columbia Business School, discussed the concepts behind his book, 'Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement.' Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Apple and Google are all examples of people and entities that took existing ideas and
revolutionized markets, Duggan says.
Anticipating the release of the first processors based on Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture, the first comprehensive reviews of these chips were published on Tom's Hardware, ExtremeTech and other Web sites Nov. 3. The first of these Nehalem-based processors, called the Intel Core i7, will feature four processing cores. Intel will release three versions of the Intel Core i7, which will have clock speeds beginning at 2.66GHz and a starting price of $285. These Intel Core i7 processors will be released by the end of November.
Among the new features in the Gordano Messaging Suite are an AJAX-based Webmail client and improved application integration.
With a new Eclipse-based Notes Desktop client and increased built-in capabilities such as a productivity suite, Lotus Notes keeps pace as an enterprise-class collaboration and messaging platform.
Qt Creator, the integrated development environment for the Qt cross-platform development platform, is now available as a technology preview. Here are some screen shots.
Lenovo on Oct. 29 unveiled the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e Netbook and the Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 and M58p desktops with Lenovo Power Manager. Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 and M58p desktops are available in Tower, Small Form Factor and Ultra Small Form Factor configurations. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 and M58p desktops come with Lenovo Power Manager, a Lenovo ThinkVantage technology that allows users to control electricity consumption remotely, a first for the Lenovo ThinkCentre PC line. The Lenovo IdeaPad S10e Netbook is designed specifically for the K-12 education vertical.
IBM researchers have developed a prototype USB device designed to protect online banking transactions. Named the Zone Trusted Information Channel, the device plugs into a PC USB port and creates a direct, secure channel to a bank's online transaction server, bypassing the PC, which could be infected by malware or susceptible to hacker attacks.
The device is about the size of a memory stick. It runs the commonly used TLS/SSL [Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer] protocol. The ZTIC hardware consists conceptually at a minimum of a processing unit, volatile and persistent memory, a small display, at least two control buttons—OK and Cancel—and an optional smart-card reader. The software is minimally configured with a complete TLS engine, an HTTP parser for analyzing the data exchanged between client and server, custom system software implementing the USB mass storage device profile, and a networking proxy for running on a PC.
As part of a strategic companywide shift toward embracing Web-based solutions, Microsoft announced plans to deliver Office Web applications, lightweight versions of Office, delivered through browsers.
Dell is looking to offer consumers a new type of ultraportable notebook with the Inspiron Mini 12. While the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 uses Intel's Atom processors, Dell included a 12.1-inch display and other features, such as an 80GB hard disk drive, that offer a more robust laptop configuration compared with other so-called "netbooks" that companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Acer have been bringing into the market since the start of 2008. The Dell Inspiron Mini 12 does come at a higher price. When the notebook comes to U.S. retailers in November, the Mini 12 will cost about $600.
Vello makes conference calling simple, creating a system that doesn't require callers to know a PIN or dial-in number. Unfortunately, Vello's billing is a mess.
Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems are offering a jointly developed enterprise server system called the Enterprise M3000. This rack-mount server uses the newer, quad-core SPARC64 VII processors and is designed to handle database workloads and other transaction-heavy applications. The system also offers businesses up to 32GB of main memory and support for four 146GB SAS drives. The M3000 is available from Sun and Fujitsu in November for a starting price of $15,000.
Today at its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft gave the public its first peek at the Windows client release that’s supposed to make up for Vista. Based on our early tests of the new client, we’re impressed with Seven's speed and polish.
Google continued its momentum in tailoring its applications for
Apple's iPhone with the adaptation of its Google Earth application
for the iPhone and Apple's iPod Touch. Google Earth, used by consumers
and businesses that require geographical visualization, maps the Earth
via the superimposition of images from satellites and aerial
photography. One wonders when Google Earth for the G1 will be available.
In the meantime, check out these Google Earth pictures rendered via the
iPhone.
Adobe Flash Player 10 introduces new expressive features and visual performance improvements, such as 3-D effects and more, that enable interactive designers and developers to build rich Web experiences.
At T-Mobile's special presale in San Francisco—held 11 hours before the rest of the country would get a crack at it—anxious consumers lined up to be the first owners of the new Android-based G1 with Google smart phone.
Granular power measurement is the starting point for creating a green IT data center. The Raritan Dominion PX provides the data needed to control utility costs. Competitors from APC, Avocent and ServerTech mean IT managers have plenty of options to get power control products at a price that contributes to rapid ROI.
The RightScale Platform makes it easier for programmers to deploy and manage their environments on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Using the RightScale configuration and management dashboard, developers can control servers and images on Amazon.com's cloud computing platform from the comfort of a laptop.
On Oct. 21, Sun Microsystems rolled out four new storage and server blade systems to help boots its enterprise storage and server portfolio. The new Sun blades include a storage blade-the Sun Blade 6000-that supports eight SAS drives and as much as 1.2TB of data storage. The offerings also include the Sun Blade T6340, which is based on Sun's UltraSPARC T2 Plus chip, and the Sun Blade X6240, which uses two quad-core AMD Opteron processors.
OpenOffice.org Base is a desktop database application that can be used to perform the standard tasks of creating and manipulating tables, queries, forms and reports. Base, which recently underwent a Version 3.0 bump alongside the rest of OpenOffice.org, corresponds roughly to Microsoft Access, but the gap between Base and Access is broader than the gaps between the OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office suites' other rival applications.
While much of the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla., focused on cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization, the showroom floor proved that notebooks and smart phones remain hot commodities even as the U.S. economy continues to slow down. Dell, Panasonic, Lenovo and several other PC vendors were showing off the latest and greatest in enterprise mobility. Meanwhile, RIM's BlackBerry Storm—the anti-iPhone—and a host of Palm Trios were on display and drawing significant amounts of interest from people on the showroom floor.
The Linux world's three most influential community distributions, Fedora, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu, are each undergoing beta testing toward a late fall release. eWEEK Labs takes a look at some of what's new in this Linux OS trio.
At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla., Hewlett-Packard officially debuted its Performance Optimized Data Center. This mobile data center offers large-scale, mobile computing power for those companies interested in creating a remote disaster recovery site or increasing their compute capacity for Web 2.0 applications and high-performance computing. HP is preparing the POD to compete against similar offerings from IBM and Sun Microsystems.
The T-Mobile G1 with Google, the first phone running the Android operating system, packs together a well-designed user interface with a flotilla of Google services.
Apple unveils eight new Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops with new features such as LED screens, aluminum shells and a switch from Intel processors to Nvidia integrated graphics processors.
Software-as-a-service video provider Brightcove launched a new platform Oct. 14, as Web video is at its zenith. Brightcove 3 lets users tailor the look and feel of the Flash-based video player to the needs of their brand and Web site. Customers may also change the bit rate of the video streams.
Microsoft`s Silverlight has been utilized on some large stages, including the 2008 Olympics and the Democratic National Convention in Denver
The 20 percent rule. Those who follow Google know this stands for the one day a week Google programmers get to spend on a project of their own design. While many of these projects are used internally, some also get spun out into the general public once Google recognizes their potential to help the company gain more influence over the Internet landscape. eWEEK profiles eight key 20 percent projects in this slide show.
Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Unveil the SPARC Enterprise T5440 by Scott Ferguson
Opera Software's Opera 9.6 Web Browser release includes new features for optimized e-mail, RSS for the Opera 9.6 Web browser's built-in e-mail and messaging client. Opera Software's Opera 9.6 Web Browser offers low-bandwidth option for slow connections, a magazine style preview of RSS fields and custom search engine settings and typed browser history available in any Opera desktop browser.
On Oct. 8, Sprint rolled out its Xohm WiMax network in Baltimore and Lenovo jumped on the bandwagon earlier with five ThinkPad notebooks that are WiMax-enabled and offer the new Intel Centrino 2 mobile platform. Later in 2008, Lenovo plans to offer more ThinkPad that are WiMax-enabled, but here's a look at ThinkPads Lenovo is shipping now that can access WiMax.
Verizon Wireless unveils the BlackBerry Storm, Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion's answer to the AT&T-Apple iPhone and T-Mobile-Google G1, in London Oct. 8. First images of Verizon Wireless' RIM BlackBerry Storm mobile handheld smart phone show the touch-screen face, applications, camera and size.
The Mono Project, an effort to deliver an open-source implementation of the .NET Framework, released Mono 2.0 on Oct. 7. Mono Project founder Miguel de Icaza says Mono 2.0 is an open-source, cross-platform .NET development framework. Mono 2.0 provides all the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, as well as other operating systems. The Mono 2.0 release is compatible with the desktop and server components of Version 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET Framework and features MoMA, the Mono Migration Analyzer, an analytical tool for .NET-to-Linux migrations.
As the United States hurtles toward its Election Day on Nov. 4, Google, Yahoo and Twitter are among the Internet companies providing Web services that bring Democrats and Republicans together in a public forum to tweet or make it easier for the individuals from both parties to find election information. eWEEK composes a slide show of what the three vendors have done in this area.
Lotus Symphony 1.1 is a freely-available office productivity suite from IBM that brings together a trio of word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications under a Big Blue label. Symphony's interface is new, based on Eclipse, but its internals are old, based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.4; the result is a fairly good productivity suite with an interface that's much fresher-and a feature set that's more stale-than those that grace the OpenOffice.org 3.0 release I recently tested.
Nine years after Sun Microsystems bought StarOffice, the resulting OpenOffice.org project is ready to roll out its 3.0 release. Enhanced format compatibility and features keep the suite ahead of sibling products such as Lotus Symphony and inch OpenOffice.org nearer to parity with Microsoft Office.
Ask.com, which has struggled to position its search engine in an era dominated by Google, retools its question-and-answer results using semantic search technologies, which look to extract the meaning behind search queries to provide more valuable results. Meanwhile, startup Hakia is trying to lure more users to its own semantic search site with an option to search what it calls credible Web sites, which are vetted by librarians and informational professionals.
Google’s new mobile OS is both intriguing and easy to develop for.
Product review walk-through.
While the number of commodity computers that Google has built is a closely guarded secret, the company maintains that the machines, and the dozens of data centers all over the world that house them, are necessary to help organize the world's information through Google's search and other Internet applications. eWEEK looks at Google's method for maximizing computing power while conserving energy in this slide show.
After Skype launched the first beta of Skype 4.0 for Windows June 18, several users complained about the default full-screen view, lost instant messages and the loss of group contacts capabilities. Skype listened to feedback from 50,000 users and made some changes to improve the popular VOIP platform for customers. The changes roll out Oct. 1 for users; eWEEK has a preview of some screenshots ahead of the launch.
Screenshots of the new features in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010, code-named Rosario, illustrate its improved software ALM (application lifecycle management) features. Microsoft VSTS 2010 features improved layer diagrams and validation errors; Microsoft Visual Studio Manual Test Runner to show test steps automatically inserted into the defect and the debug log and system information being attached to the defect; a Generate Sequence Diagram function depicting the call chain; and a Microsoft Visual Studio Test Plan Activity Center to manage the state of various test runs.
Lenovo laptops, Lenovo "netbook" ultra-mobile personal computers, Seagate portable storage drives, TDK TransitEdge USB flash drives and more help you get an early start on the gadgets for your holiday gift list.
Fresh off a rash of smart-phone testing, eWEEK Labs analysts break away from the confines of reality to sketch out their ideal smart phone.
A large database of vetted apps and an easy-to-use policy editor are the powers behind the application whitelisting throne in Bit9's Parity. Parity groups computers together for easier management and enforcement of security policies and provides flexible reporting.
CA HIPS combines application whitelisting with host-based security firewall, IPS and operating system protections.
NEW YORK—T-Mobile and Google launched the G1 smart phone Sept. 23. The G1, loaded with a slideout keyboard, trackball and touchscreen wowed some members and disappointed others who looked at the device as a newer version of the Sidekick. Here are pictures from the event, including the surprise guests Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, pictures from the demo, and live floor shots.
T-Mobile, Google, HTC and partners introduced the G1 in New York Sept. 23. The sleek gadget will be available Oct. 22 for $179 for a two-year service plan. Key functionality includes one-click search, access to Google Maps Street View with a compass feature, and the ability to use Google Talk, AOL, Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft Live Messenger. T-Mobile provided attendees with some official pics of the G1, which you can see here.
The Web 2.0 Expo, co-produced by TechWeb and O'Reilly Media, is a conference and tradeshow for the rapidly growing ranks of designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers and business strategists who are building the next-generation Web. Web 2.0 Expo features the most innovative and successful Internet industry figures and companies providing attendees with examples of business models, development paradigms and design strategies to enable mainstream businesses and new arrivals to the Web 2.0 world to take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities.
Oracle database administrators might claim to fear data breaches and talk big about security features, but not all employ the strongest data leak prevention practices. A survey of 316 Oracle database users by the Independent Oracle Users Group offers a window into the security concerns of Oracle database administrators and the database security and data leak prevention tactics in use. The Oracle OpenWorld user conference Sept. 21 to 25 shines a light on Oracle database security features and practices.
What's in store from major consumer-class anti-virus suite vendors in 2009? By eWEEK Labs
These slides, courtesy of the Mobile Roar blog, highlight the attributes of the T-Mobile-Google Dream phone, which is based on the Linux operating system. Rumors that the Dream would be bigger than the iPhone proved to be true, as this smart phone, complete with a slideout keyboard, offers an almost tablet-like experience.
By eWEEK Staff
The Nokia E71 is a slim, feature-packed smart phone with an excellent thumb keyboard and enough battery life to last a full workday.
Can you trust your data to the cloud? These nine online storage and backup providers would say yes. Click on for a peek at each of these providers.
From virtual desktops to offline patch management, here are the top 10 products that caught our eye at VMworld.
By Cameron Sturdevant
During the last several months there has been a surge in new browser releases and innovation in Web browsing that hasn’t been seen since the heyday of the 1990s browser wars. From Firefox to Internet Explorer to Opera to Safari to the newest player, Google Chrome, Web browsers are competing to be the best platform for the next-generation Web operating system.
But what are some of the key new features and capabilities that this latest wave of Web browsers is introducing? In this gallery of screen shots, you'll see some of these new capabilities and how the competing players are implementing them.
By Jim Rapoza
Expert System positions Cogito Semantic Advertiser as an
alternative to Google's AdSense search keyword ad management tool. Expert System applies semantic technologies to its contextual ad formula, discerning greater meaning from the text in an article to provide more relevant ads.
eWEEK Labs tests Shavlik NetChk Protect 6.5, the first tool we've used that enables offline virtual machine patching.
By Cameron Sturdevant
This week, Polycom will unveil its brand-new, state-of-the-art Executive Briefing Center and technology showcase in Santa Clara, Calif. eWEEK Labs got a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility during construction and tried out some of Polycom's telepresence technologies in the multiroom facility.
Being a database professional isn't easy, but it can pay well. So says a survey of 503 members of the Independent Oracle Users Group conducted by Unisphere Research. Those surveyed included database administrators and IT managers as well as database developers and analysts. As the IOUG survey shows, certification and experience can go a long way toward making that extra buck.
More than 1,700 attendees descended on the San Francisco Design Center Councourse Sept. 8 to see 52 companies present at TechCrunch50. Forged by TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington and serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis (Mahalo, WebLogs to name a couple), TechCrunch50 is intended as a more startup-friendly show than Demo, the classic startup showcase it intends to slay. Calacanis said he intends TechCrunch shows to carry the free, easy vibe of the Sundance Film Festival. With that in mind, here are some scenes from TechCrunch50.
With its latest two devices–the Treo 800w for the Sprint network and the unlocked, 3G Treo Pro for GSM providers–Palm has rejoined the modern smart phone community, packing in features such as 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity and integrated GPS found in most current-generation smart phones. Palm is aiming both devices at corporate customers–both run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and will work out of the box with Microsoft’s back-end mobile management systems–but the Palm Treo in particular, with its surprisingly sleek and attractive form factor, could be a big hit with consumers as well.
Can Google equal or surpass the $17.6 billion or so it earned in online advertising in 2007? That remains to be seen, as do several other things as Google hurtles forward in high-tech for the last four months of the year. In 2007, the company added some more irons to the fire with Android and OpenSocial, both of which should bear some fruit this year. But it's also lost key team members to rival Facebook. Here's what we'd like to see from Google before the New Year.
HHD, or hybrid hard drive, disk storage is a technology that will generally give way to the simpler, more efficient SSD, or solid-state drive, form factor. Want proof? Seagate Technology, Western Digital, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Micron Technology, SanDisk and LSI Logic are well into flash development as the next generation of processors begins to take shape. Some companies are working on advanced solid-state technologies such as Spansion and Virident Systems' EcoRAM. NAND flash memory forms the core of the removable USB storage devices known as USB flash drives and the Apple iPod and Apple iPhone. EMC, Dell and Sun Microsystems are among the first systems vendors to come out with optional solid-state drives for servers and storage arrays. Here's why SSD storage will kill HHD storage.
SAAS, or cloud computing, on-demand applications or whatever you want to call it, is increasingly important in the enterprise. One software-as-a-service company, Innotas, provides an on-demand Project Portfolio Management package specifically designed for IT organizations. Customers include Forbes, Hamilton Beach and Simon & Schuster, as well as financial services, health care, retail, technology, telecommunications and energy organizations. Innotas CTO, founder and SAAS evangelist Demian Entrekin shares with eWEEK his thoughts on what lies ahead for SAAS as it continues to grow into a major marketing, sales and administration tool for enterprise business.
Recent releases of browsers have users jumping through hoops to view self-signed SSL certificates.
Microsoft's Windows is the undisputed king of the desktop, and, for a long time now, it's seemed as though Windows would reign forever more. However, with customer uptake of Vista still limp—even with the magical Service Pack 1 milestone months behind us—it's time to ask if any of Windows' client OSes has what it takes to capture a bigger chunk of the mainstream desktop. Here are some of the contenders.
Google isn't supposed to go down. Yet Google Gmail and Google Apps went down for 15 hours Aug. 6 and 7. And on Aug. 11, Gmail went down for 2 hours. Users made their discontent known in discussion boards and blogs, raising the broader question: If they can't rely on Google as their Web platform, who can they rely on?
The shakiness of the macroeconomy plus general problems with travel arrangements caused many usual attendees to sit out this year's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. More than 7,500 people signed up, but about half that actually showed up, some estimates said. But there was no lack of enthusiasm for new product releases—especially in the data center, mobile and cloud computing sectors. Those who stayed home missed a lot of good new products and plenty of good networking opportunities.
Intel's Larrabee processor is Intel's first multicore processor and first stand-alone graphics card. Larrabee is also a swipe at graphics chip makers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, whose powerful graphics chips are starting to look like a threat to Silicon Valley's king of silicon chips. Intel Larrabee will have numerous x86 processor cores (Intel won't reveal how many processor cores) and support for OpenGL and DirectX, allowing it to run existing games and software requiring high-end graphics.
Mobile phone vendors Motorola, NEC and Panasonic unveil seven new Linux-based smart phones for the LiMo Foundation. Review a sneak peek of all seven LiMo Linux smart phones in this eWEEK slide show.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg irked some media members by dodging questions about social network monetization and OpenSocial during a question-and-answer session at Facebook's F8 Conference July 23. However, he tempered the artful dodging with thoughtful answers to some questions. Here are some of the top Zuckerberg quotes from F8.
After struggling to bring new desktop and server processors onto the market, Advanced Micro Devices is looking to focus on two key areas that have served the company well in the past: laptops and gaming PCs. eWEEK got a sneak peak at some of the notebooks and gaming systems built around AMD's new mobile platform and ATI graphics line, which should help AMD compete against Intel.
By Scott Ferguson
Last year, Facebook changed the social networking game by unveiling its Facebook Platform, which allowed programmers to build fun applications such as Slide and SuperPoke that occupy the time of Facebook's more than 90 million users. At this year's F8 Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the next step with Facebook Connect, a service that lets users move their Facebook data to third-party Web sites. The following images capture the essence of the event at the San Francisco Design Center on July 23.
As Apple's iPhone continues to evolve with the new 3G version, many consumers and business users are looking for Web applications that will help them more efficiently complete tasks. There are more than 2,000 Web apps for the iPhone, so to help you whittle through some of them here is eWEEK's list of 10 of the most useful applications.
Centralized configuration tools have been one of the largest roadblocks to iPhone adoption in the enterprise, but Apple's betting that its newly released iPhone Configuration Web Utility will ably fill this gap.
Virtualization can certainly be a boon for enterprises, but not without the right organizational and technical approach to security. Here are some basic steps you can take to proactively secure your virtual-server environment, culled from analysts and security pros.
Now that Microsoft's Hyper-V has been released to manufacturing and will be ready for distribution via Microsoft Update starting July 8, the race to turn the hypervisor into a commodity has begun in earnest. eWEEK Labs will publish a full review of Hyper-V in the near future. Until then, here's a first look.
The Spencer F. Katt cartoon became a weekly feature in PC WEEK (now eWEEK) in September 1994. Bill Gates quickly became a natural satirical target. Here's just a small sampling of Gates' appearances. Thanks, Bill. It's been a fun ride.
eWEEK Labs picks the 10 best and 10 worst Microsoft products (so far).
Although all of the data storage markets (disk, tape, online, personal, business, and so on) continue to grow at astounding rates, none is growing as quickly as the very specialized video storage sector, where heavy digital lifting abounds. Companies such as Isilon, BlueArc, Spinnaker/NetApp, IBRIX, Hewlett-Packard, Sun StorageTek, Thomson/Grass Valley, ProMax Systems, G-Tech, Pinnacle and MedeaVideo use either Linux clusters or their own homemade operating systems to move huge amounts of raw digital film data from the artist to the producer--and often several times back and forth until the scene is completed. Here are 10 of the most amazing numbers involving this busy sector.
Salesforce.com's community application allows companies to more effectively tap into the mind share of customers and staff.
Oracle's latest CRM platform provides keen insight into data.
The Enterprise 2.0 show, held in Boston in June, featured a number of interesting presentations, including talks from FedEx technologists, CIA agents and a Google product manager. These experts also gathered for a panel on the state of enterprise 2.0 today. Join us on this tour through the conference, which hosted more than 1,200 attendees.
The Enterprise 2.0 show in Boston June 9 to 12 served as both a launching pad for new products and a showcase for technologies that haven't gotten a lot of attention yet. eWEEK surveyed the demonstration pavilion and found a number of cool technologies that could help businesses share and manage information among employees, partners and customers. Take the tour and enjoy the screenshots as you plot your course through the world of blogs, wikis and RSS feeds.
When considering alternatives to Microsoft's Office productivity suite, one of the most important issues to evaluate is how well Office rivals can handle Microsoft's ubiquitous binary file formats. eWEEK Labs used Adobe Acrobat 9's Compare Documents feature to help measure OpenOffice.org's handling of Microsoft Office formats.
Mr. C hears from an anonymous IT guy in the trenches who tells it like it is
Hyper-V, Microsoft’s virtualization option for Windows Server 2008, has taken another step toward final release. Released for download by Microsoft on May 20, Release Candidate 1 adds support for Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 and Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 for both x86 and x64. Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will be available in a future update, according to the release notes for the LIC (Linux Integration Components) add-on software. During tests of RC1, I bolted on LIC and installed SUSE, along with Windows Server 2000 SP4, to get a look at the new capabilities.
Employees can pose security threats to your enterprise IT infrastructure through mobile devices such as smart phones and laptops, as well as the various networks and applications with which their unsecured devices are liable to interact. Enterprise IT administrators, network administrators, and enterprise security workers and consultants should be aware of these security risks.
You’ve heard the stories about a stolen or lost laptop putting the personal data of hundreds or even thousands of people at risk. You know that mobile systems are a breeding ground for worms and viruses. You know you should take precautions so that bad luck or carelessness doesn’t put the identity of others in the wrong hands—and your company’s good name in the mud. But where to start? Here are 10 reasons why your company’s laptops are at risk, and 10 ways to close the gaps.
Succeeding at the art of telecommuting requires extra vigilance on the part of remote employees--making it abundantly clear that you're not only in the loop, but you'd like to stay in it. Here are some suggestions for making your presence felt in the office, no matter where you happen to be working.
IT security, mobile security, NAC or network access control, all continue to be major issues, despite predictions to the contrary. Security vendors and analysts have been accused of stoking fears with their predictions of future threats because not all of them have been borne out, but NAC, mobile security and IT security in general continue to raise concerns. Hindsight, however, is 20/20, so we at eWEEK are taking a look at some popular security predictions from the past few years that have not panned out.
On May 21, eWEEK was on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Google’s newest data center, a sprawling complex situated on 225 acres of rolling peaks and valleys in Lenoir, N.C., part of Caldwell County. The data center cost $600 million to build, and Google employs hundreds of state natives to run it. Lenoir and Caldwell County officials are hoping the data center will boost the county's economy, which suffered when 250,000 furniture factory workers lost their jobs from 2000 to 2002. (No, Google reps didn't let anyone inside, although eWEEK tried.)
The New Mexico state bird is the roadrunner, which helps explain the name that IBM bestowed upon the supercomputer it plans to install at New Mexico-based Los Alamos National Laboratory in August. The name is also an allusion to the roadrunner's speed: IBM engineers say they believe that the high-performance supercomputer will become the first to break the petaflop mark—1 quadrillion calculations per second—when the Top 500 Supercomputer Sites list is updated in June. eWEEK took a look at Roadrunner in IBM's Poughkeepsie, N.Y., facility.
Google just wrapped its Android Developer Challenge, with judges awarding $25,000 for each of the 50 best applications created. No one can be sure whether these apps will catch fire and gain traction when Android handsets hit the market later in 2008, but here is a sample of what to expect.
Microsoft's decision to step away from its attempt to acquire Yahoo won't be the end of the saga. Here are some lessons learned and some speculation about the future.
Ruckus Wireless' ZoneFlex Smart WLAN is well worth a look for small businesses considering a move to a controller-based architecture.
It could have been the deal of the century. It could have given Microsoft the online search and ad chops it doesn't have, not to mention firmer footing in the cloud. But it was not to be (at least not yet), as Microsoft withdrew its offer for Yahoo amid much waiting, threatening and gnashing of teeth all around. Here is how the dance to the denouement played out.
The Web 2.0 Expo is traditionally a breeding ground for new technology demonstrations and this year's event in San Francisco was no exception. Here are six of the more memorable technologies, most of which are social and collaborative in nature, demonstrated on the Moscone West show floor April 23 through April 25. You'll notice half of them are online collaboration tools that would look great as part of larger feature sets at Cisco Systems, IBM or Microsoft, which begs the question: Which will remain independent one year from now?
The Computer and Communications Industry Association grades the presidential candidates on voting records—are they friend or foe of Silicon Valley?
AMD reported its sixth straight quarterly loss April 17 and continued 2008 on a sour note, but management promises the company will turn things around—both financially and technologically—by the second half of the year. eWEEK's Scott Ferguson examined the chip maker recently and found 10 major ailments the company needs to cure immediately if it is to fulfill management's promise.
If others follow in IBM's footsteps with storage acquisitions, these are the companies that could be on the list.
eWEEK's Ryan Naraine puts together a list of 10 free must-have consumer security utilities to help keep hackers at bay.
Here's a look at the technologies Gartner analysts voted most likely to succeed—at changing the face of business.
Facebook is a wildly popular social network, with more than 68 million users and counting. But is Facebook chewing up too much of corporate employees' time? Are employees risking their companies' intellectual property by using Facebook? During a debate at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2008 on April 7, Gartner analyst Nikos Drakos argued that Facebook should be banned, while Gartner's Ray Valdes defended the social network.
In early April, CEO Michael Dell offered a blueprint of how his
company plans to pull itself out of its current situation and return to
the profitability and innovation of years past. To achieve this, the
company is moving away from older markets and entering new ones. eWEEK
took a look at what is working for the Round Rock, Texas, company
and what is not.
Editors from eWEEK, CIO Insight and Baseline put their heads together to name the 100 people who are having the most influence on IT—the people who are shaping the future of the way we use technology. Read on for a look at Nos. 1-25 on the list.
One of the best parts of CTIA’s trade show is seeing what’s new in wireless technology. New gadgets are all over the show, of course, but there’s usually a press event or two where the companies get to strut their stuff. These events are closed to the public, so we get to see some cool things long before they show up in stores or even press releases. Most of the photos here came from PepCom’s Mobile Focus, although we did visit Motorola before the event to beat the crowds.
LAS VEGAS—The kickoff keynote speakers at the CTIA show held here ranged from the routine to the visionary. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced that he was thrilled with the recent results of the 700MHz auction. Microsoft and Sprint announced new products and Sir Richard Branson announced his plans to colonize Mars. One way or another, all in a day's work at CTIA.
The March 25 announcement that Yahoo was joining forces with Google and MySpace to forge the OpenSocial Foundation was hardly a surprise, given Yahoo's tendency toward open standards. OpenSocial includes APIs that let developers write applications that will work on any social site that supports the effort. Facebook has already declined to participate, and Microsoft seems to be in a holding pattern on the OpenSocial spec. What exactly does this mean? Would a Microsoft purchase of Yahoo complicate matters for the OpenSocial Foundation? Could Google and Microsoft get along together in OpenSocial? eWEEK offers a hypothetical scenario of how the social Web could play out in a chess game between rivals Google and Microsoft during the next few years.
Some technology advancements are indeed hard to fathom, but don't believe everything you see on April 1.
Lenovo's leading-edge ThinkPad X300 packs power savings into a petite but pricey three-pound chassis.
The influence of the open-source model on software development is increasing. Here, eWEEK names 15 people driving this IT revolution.
In the interest of making the sale, vendors sometimes do things that only hurt them—or the customer—in the end.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies to IT as well as to life in general. That said, there are many products in the enterprise that are starting to show their age. And, if they aren’t now, they will be with technologies such as IPv6 and unified communications coming down the pike, not to mention rising energy costs. Here’s a list of products that deserve a hard once-over.
Celebrate St. Patrick's Day by building a green PC!
The Fabulous Feline's continuing adventures. Kattoons from 2008 to the present.
Just how do you protect your database? Here are eight tips to
consider when you are looking to lock down the structured data in your
enterprise.
With the advent of CRM (customer relationship management) as a
development platform—think solutions from Salesforce.com, Microsoft
and SugarCRM—customers and partners have begun to develop some
interesting applications, moving way beyond the confines of sales,
support and marketing. Here are some prime examples.
The job of developing a database is not easy, which is why more
people don't/can't do it. That said, even the experts make mistakes in
the process. After soliciting input from analysts and some
professionals in the field, eWEEK has compiled a list of some of the
more common database design mistakes and a few general tips for
avoiding them.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has made it perfectly clear he doesn't like
the idea that Microsoft will buy Yahoo. That’s no surprise, since Yahoo
happens to rank No. 1 in online display advertising and No. 2 in
top-line search, according to comScore. So, Google: Do something about
it! What better way to answer the biggest threat to your Web presence
than by buying Apple, a union that could prove not only to be a slam
dunk among consumers but would also provide a killer device and app
combination on which mobile advertising could be situated? Not so fast,
though: There are a handful of land mines to watch out for.
Code Green’s CI-750 is a basic DLP (data loss prevention) appliance
for organizations that want to ease a branch office or small workgroup
(of as many as 250 networked users) into DLP. The CI-750’s big brother,
the CI-1500, supports as many as 25,000 users, but it’s hard to imagine
handling reports and policy notifications for that large a group
considering the sluggish Web interface provided with both products.
eWEEK Labs took Version 5 of the CI-750 for a test run. Here’s what we
saw.
IBM on March 10 pledged to spend $1 billion on UCC (unified communications and collaboration) technologies, which to this point for Big Blue includes splicing corporate instant messaging software with VOIP (voice over IP) software to get Lotus Sametime. The investment will be in technology, products and services to help IBM fortify its position in the market versus Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel and others. eWEEK attended a small press briefing in Somers, N.Y., and found the following.
By Clint Boulton
In a survey conducted by Ziff Davis Enterprise Editorial Research for eWEEK, respondents indicated that they have been underwhelmed by Microsoft Windows Vista. And, it seems the future of Windows is ... XP?
By Debra Donston
The Irish may be known for many things, but one of the things they don’t get enough credit for is their acumen in IT. But it turns out that Ireland has a number of indigenous companies that leverage the country's growing base of network specialists and application developers focused on specific vertical markets, such as financial software or e-learning systems. Following are 20 Irish technology companies you should know.
By Mike Vizard
The Ides of March—March 15—has signified impending doom ever since a blind seer warned Julius Caesar to watch his back on that fateful day. (And you know what happened to Julius Ceasar. Et tu?) eWEEK reporters and editors recently played seer themselves, and here name the companies that seem headed for their own doomsday.
Microsoft Research used its TechFest event at the Redmond campus on March 4 to show off just a few of the hundreds of projects currently under development in its labs around the world. These projects include new technologies for search, interaction, collaboration and social networking.
eWEEK provides an evaluation shortlist of virtual world platforms. For more on doing business in the virtual world, click here.
By Dave Greenfield
As at any major trade show, much of the business that happened at CeBIT took place at social events rather than on the show floor. As it happens, CeBIT is a very social place, and eWEEK was on scene.
By Wayne Rash
You can always depend on the world's largest computer and
electronics show to deliver on the products you want. Unfortunately,
these products sometimes never see the United States, but they're still
cool, and most of them eventually make it. (For more on these cool products, check out Wayne Rash's blog.)
When evaluating a SAAS (software as a service) solution, smart shoppers will
push vendors to lay their cards on the table with regard to system availability,
customization and support. The chief technology officer of Intacct, a provider
of on-demand financial applications, suggests asking the following questions
when evaluating SAAS offerings.
Many emerging technologies have smoothly evolved from the consumer to the business space. But what of virtual worlds such as Second Life? Is there a business case for doing business in the virtual world? Following are some examples of potential workspaces in the metaverse.
By Dave Greenfield
The analysts over at Gartner recently said now is the time to cut the IT budget, and they provided six steps for getting the job done. The six steps play off advice offered by the company last fall that said CIOs should prepare two budgets: one that reflects the numbers handed down from company execs and another one held in reserve should the economy deteriorate. Well, it looks like the economy is deteriorating. Before you chop your budget without being asked, consider my six better budget-cutting tips.
By Eric Lundquist. Illustrated by Brian Moore.
In October 2006, Google quietly acquired hosted wiki provider JotSpot. Rumors abounded that the JotSpot assets had been devoured and that the team had been blown up and moved around Google. In November, Google Product Manager and former JotSpot Vice President Scott Johnston told a meeting of the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce in Michigan about a project called Google Sites, which would let users collaborate on projects. Today, meet Google Sites--the JotSpot wiki retooled and reincarnated as Google's wiki. Johnston told eWEEK that most of the foundation code in Sites is from JotSpot, but, as you can see in this slide show, he and his team have reworked the user interface to appear more Google-like.
By Clint Boulton
The Toshiba Portege's R500-S5003 is thin and light, but its solid-state drive does little to push performance.
By Tiffany Maleshefski
Several technologies are poised to shake up the data center. Gartner Research
Vice President Carl Claunch provided eWEEK with a list of 10 technologies to
watch. They are all relatively immature today, Claunch said, but will mature
enough for widespread use in the next 18 to 36 months. In many cases, he said, maturity
will occur only for a subset of each technology or for well-defined
applications, with full maturity for more general use lagging beyond the
three-year window.
The 10 technologies that follow should be considered in conjunction
with many proven, fully mature technologies, as well as others that did not
make this list but can also provide value for many companies.
Windows Live SkyDrive,
Microsoft's free online file management and sharing service, offers 5GB
of storage. Users get password-protected "anywhere access" to their
information, which can be shared with others. This anywhere, anytime
access to files is key to Microsoft's Windows Live vision—the powerful
integration between Web services and client software—going forward.
eWEEK Labs puts the newest version of Chandler, an open-source personal information manager, through its paces.
In honor of the 80th Annual Academy Awards, eWEEK presents its own version of the
Oscars--The eWEEK Technology in Film Awards.
Data center sprawl can be a massive headache, which is why IBM has created the 3-D Data Center application. The software—which provides a 3-D replica of servers and racks, as well as networking, power and cooling equipment—allows IT experts to use virtual reality technology to manage data center resources, regardless of where they are. Need to power down an IBM rack server in India from your office in California? No problem. Put your IT avatar in the application, find the right server with a couple of mouse clicks, and shut down that system. Read on for more details.
Since the ink dried on Microsoft's original $44.6 billion purchase offer for Yahoo on Jan. 31, Yahoo has been turning every which way for help, wheeling and dealing to avoid becoming the rival software giant's lunch. Here are some scenarios—some of which are rumors roiling in the media—that Yahoo and Microsoft could explore as they hurtle toward the hostile takeover stage.
With President's Day upon us in an election year, now might be a good time to reflect on what the next president of the United States should do about IT (regardless of who wins).
By Mike Vizard
In my story about managing virtualization, I recommend some ways that IT managers can tame existing server sprawl. This sprawl can be avoided altogether at companies just beginning or planning a server virtualization if the following steps are taken.
By Cameron Sturdevant
Yahoo's bachelorhood is coming to an end. We play
matchmaker, pointing our Cupid's arrows at potential suitors.
According to recent Gartner Group and Environmental Protection Agency reports,
the power demands of data centers in the United States have grown by five or
more times in the last seven years and are expected to double again by 2011. At
the moment, the EPA estimates that data centers account for 1.5 percent of all
the power used in the United States—roughly equal to all television use in the
nation and more than the entire state of Mississippi uses on a daily
basis.
It's also a fact that companies spend much more on power to run a
server during its lifetime than they do in capital expense to purchase
it. So it behooves enterprises large and small to be aware of these power
and cooling needs when building or refurbishing a data center.
Here are 10 characteristics of green data centers.
Here’s what we’re loving right now.
It's never easy to come up with a definitive list of IT professionals with the most influence on the way we secure desktops, networks and mobile devices. And limiting the list to 15 hackers is a near-impossible task, but, in my mind, these are the folks who stand out today as stirring the imagination and forcing us to rethink our approach to security in an always-on world.
The Zimbra AJAX Web client, which was released Feb. 5, now includes the Zimbra desktop, which allows users of existing POP and IMAP e-mail servers to collaborate and work both online and offline.
It was difficult to winnow down the list of top influencers at Microsoft. Here are some who are on the rise and poised to take one of the Top 25 positions in the future.
Printers, obviously, cost money, and so does printing, so it's only reasonable to try to cut costs. Unfortunately, the strategies that many offices use to keep costs down are actually counterproductive. Here are 10 things you may be doing to save money that could actually be costing money instead.
By M. David Stone
How much do cell phone undercounts really matter? Who gets their political pointers on MySpace? And which political candidate has supporters text in their contact info? Some of the answers may surprise you.
by Roy Mark
When evaluating a new laptop platform for your organization, keep the following criteria in mind.
By Tiffany Maleshefski
A tour through Windows Server 2008 shows the server operating system to be leaner and more secure than ever before.
Microsoft made waves when it announced it was offering $44.6 billion for Yahoo. A tempting offer if ever there was one, especially since it is much higher than Yahoo is valued at. But there are also some very good reasons why Yahoo should just say no.
By eWEEK Staff
Among Microsoft's 70,000-plus employees, there are many influential people. Twenty-five is too small a number to capture the best of the best among a large group of creative people. But Microsoft corporate culture also is very staid and insular, with a top-heavy power structure. Therefore, for this list, I focused more on operational influencers, although there are some thought leaders included.
By Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Watch
Some of the people on this list are little-known co-founders playing second banana to more famous names. Others have broken new ground or developed much-heralded technologies without winning much fame for themselves. You should know them, and, more importantly, you should know what they do.
By Michael Hickins
Social search. Unified Communications. Collaboration. Social networking. Demo 2008 is a hotbed for many new technologies. With 77 presenters in two days, the companies and their products can blur together. Here are 10 products that stood out—they're cool and have the potential for impact in their respective markets.
The Super Bowl has become known as much for the ads that debut during the games as for action on the field. The tech industry has had its share of “super” ads, some of which debuted during the Super Bowl and some of which could have. Here are my picks for the 10 most super tech ads.
By Debra Donston
eWEEK takes a look at the state of the database field and what DBAs can anticipate in 2008.
The U.S. economy appears to be hovering on the edge of a downturn. Unlike the downturn in 2001, however, this one will not be tech-driven, but rather the result—in large part—of the housing market crisis impacting the rest of the economy. This is little reassurance to IT professionals, many still bearing scars from the dot-com bust. And should the economy go into a full-blown recession, what IT skills will be at greatest risk? Will IT departments be leveled, as they were during the dot-com bust? eWEEK asked experts in the field to rate the security—and insecurity—of different facets of the IT department.
By Deb Perleman
eWEEK Labs visited Cisco's engineering labs in January for a first-hand look at the step-by-step process of converting two Catalyst 6500 switch chassis into one virtual chassis using the latest Virtual Switching Supervisor blade and Virtual Switching System 1440 software.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Mozilla browser, the most successful open-source product created from a previous commercial product. For this anniversary, we're taking a look back at some of the key moments in Mozilla's history.
By Jim Rapoza
DCX provides high-speed, high-density server and storage networking. By Cameron Sturdevant
IBM Lotusphere 2008 is the setting for the introduction of new collaboration technologies, but it also affords IBM the opportunity to show off software from its research labs around the world. Here are 10 new technologies that have promise, but don't get too excited! Some of these products will get rolled into existing IBM offerings—or may never see the light of day at all.
By Clint Boulton
The buzz around green IT is growing increasingly louder, but what actions are companies really taking to go green?
IBM's ongoing successes are built largely on its global reach, which is reflected in the diversity of talent represented on this list. Here are the people who drive the IBM engine.
By Darryl K. Taft
As both lasers and inkjets improve, each encroaching on what was once the other’s strongest territory, the differences between the two types of printers are inevitably starting to blur. But there are still differences. Here’s a look at the good, the bad and the overlap.
By M. David Stone
As announced by Steve Jobs at MacWorld Expo, Apple's new iPhone firmware, 1.1.3, includes features such as location tracking for Google Maps, dashboard customization and multirecipient SMS capabilities. eWEEK Labs put the new features to the test.
After a history of acquisitions, BEA is itself acquired—by rival Oracle.
Apple's big announcement at this year's Macworld Expo is a
super-svelte notebook computer, the MacBook Air. Will the new notebook
fulfill our ultralight hopes and dreams?
(Photos courtesy of Apple)
By Jason Brooks
Likewise Enterprise and its open-source sibling, Likewise Open, enable administrators to extend the management embrace of Microsoft`s Active Directory and Group Policy to Linux, Macintosh and Unix clients and servers.
Looking to improve the way users access its applications on mobile devices, Google is using Macworld as the launching pad for new features that make accessing Google Apps on Apple's wildly popular smart phone faster and more fun.
By Clint Boulton
Microsoft's Office 2008 for Mac should prove a worthwhile upgrade for many companies.
At the International CES 2008 show in Las
Vegas, Senior Analyst Andrew Garcia took WiMax for a test
drive—literally.
The Office of Management and Budget has mandated that, starting Feb. 1, all federal agencies using Windows XP and Vista must adopt the standard security configurations developed by NIST, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as part of the Federal Desktop Core Configuration. But the FDCC also provides a good framework for ensuring secure civilian desktop and laptop configurations.
By Cameron Sturdevant
Amid the slew of products showcased at CES this year, several stood out for their potential in the enterprise.
By Scott Ferguson
eWEEK reviewed the technology statements and past actions of the major candidates. As 2008 dawns, here's where they stand on some of the major tech issues.
By Roy Mark
The day will surely come when there’s no choice in printers: There will be color and color. But today, it's worth taking a fresh look at the pros and cons of color and monochrome printers. The results may surprise you.
By M. David Stone
The announcement that the Netscape Web browser’s life was coming to an end brought few tears. This is mainly because very few people still use it. But while the browser itself is heading off into the sunset, it has left quite a legacy. Here are some of th
MySQL’s commercially available Enterprise Monitor provides a professional interface that lets administrators keep tabs on replication, memory usage and more than 80 other operational metrics.
By Cameron Sturdevant
Here are 12 things that IT managers should resolve to do in 2008, one for every month of the new year.
There are many ways IT professionals can stand out from the crowd in 2008.
eWEEK’s Clint Boulton makes his predictions about the search and collaboration technologies, products and events that will have the biggest impact on the enterprise in 2008.
Microsoft Watch Editor Joe Wilcox names the Microsoft stories of 2007 that will reverberate long into 2008.
eWEEK’s Deb Perelman makes her predictions about the technologies, products and events that will have the biggest impact on IT careers in 2008.
Paula Musich names the infrastructure stories whose impact this year will be felt into 2008.
There are some things that are presented and accepted as fact in IT but that have no connection to reality. Here are some of these IT “facts.”
By Wayne Rash
Illustrations by Brian Moore
Clint Boulton names the search and collaboration stories whose impact this year will be felt into 2008.
Chris Preimesberger names the virtualization and storage stories whose impact this year will be felt into 2008.
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