David Coursey

Microsoft is releasing Windows Mobile 5.0 this week, an operating system the best feature of which it amazes me they are just now introducing: non-volatile memory. Devices using the new OS, due this summer, will have persistent memory, meaning your Microsoft PDA or smart phone wont go brain-dead when the battery dies. Actually, the old […]

Apple has a great operating system in its new Mac OS X 10.4, aka “Tiger.” And the company offers a great hardware platform, too. But from its actions heading into Tigers release, and now reading the troublesome list of missing-in-action applications and compatibility issues, I have to question the companys aspirations to be a player […]

Identity theft and fraud are, perhaps, the two most serious problems facing the Internet. Direct economic losses in the United States totaled over $574 million in 2004, according to the Federal Trade Commission. If not curbed, these crimes have the potential to make the Internet so untrustworthy that electronic commerce might slow considerably. All the […]

And the moral of this story is: Encrypt your backup data. That way, when your data storage vendor loses your tapes, you still have a reasonable defense mechanism in place. All those whose personal data has been lost will sleep better and youll look like a pretty smart person as you collect the big bonus […]

When I first heard on the radio that secret information had been found hidden in a document given to media by the U.S. military in Iraq, my first thought was Microsoft Word. Most people dont realize how much information Word (along with PowerPoint and Excel) stores with your document, including previous versions and some changes. […]

Jim Allchin, group vice president of Microsofts Platforms Group, says todays anti-virus software isnt doing the job and shouldnt be the first line of defense against malicious software. During a wide-ranging interview at the WinHEC conference this week in Seattle, Allchin said hes noted a rise in the incidence of small attacks—perhaps targeted at only […]

Enterprise customers may go to 64-bit computing and Longhorn not so much for what they are as for what they arent. Count on it (because Microsoft is): Longhorn and 64-bit will sell because they arent Windows XP and 32-bit. They will sell not because they are loved or because they get people genuinely excited, but […]

Am I alone, or is Microsoft Longhorn pretty much an amorphous ooze? I mean, weve been hearing about the wonders of Longhorn, and more recently the incredible shrinking wonders of Longhorn, since 2003. The one part of the new OS that got me excited, the object-oriented file system, has been delayed, and the rest, despite […]

The first three months of 2005 have been a special time for Apple Computer. If you dont believe it, look at the companys financial results, which were released Wednesday. Among the highlights: CPU sales were up 43 percent from year-ago numbers and iPod sales increased by 558 percent! This isnt a column about the iPod, […]

Whats smaller than a Tablet PC but larger than a Pocket PC? I dont know, at least not for sure, but I am expecting Bill Gates to clue me in real soon. My colleague, Mary Jo Foley, has been hearing rumors of a new small form factor device thats been making the rounds at Microsoft. […]

One of the most important decisions each of us makes—and we do this hundreds, maybe thousands of times each day—is who or what to trust. Who or what can I trust? Thats the question I ask myself when someone presents me with a research study or when I seek the opinion of an industry analyst. […]

A research report landed on my desk this week, the conclusions of which will be controversial to a few readers. But for the rest of us the report independently confirms what we already knew or suspected. It also tends to confirm what Microsoft has been saying, slaps down some zealots and reminds us that media […]