Jason Brooks

Microsoft Office virtually owns the productivity suite market and runs upward of $479 per copy—a price-to-ubiquity ratio that Microsoft Corp. has been able to maintain through constant feature refinement and careful guarding of its de facto standard office file formats. Enter OpenOffice.org 1.0, which became available for download last week. OpenOffice.org–or OOo, as it has […]

Zaurus Does More Than Look Sharp”> Sharp Electronics Corp.s Zaurus SL-5500 marries a flexible, Linux-based operating system with a slick, ingenious hardware design to provide a compelling alternative to Microsoft Corp.s Pocket PC-based handheld devices. Although Sharps new Zaurus isnt the first such device that runs Linux—that distinction belongs to the Agenda VR3 from Agenda […]

The reigning watchword for hand-held devices is wireless, and its easy to see why. The Internet has altered the way we compute thoroughly enough to relegate network-disconnected computing to second-class status. As handheld devices grow up into increasingly capable (and costly) mobile computers, the dependence of these devices on a desktop cradle for fetching fresh […]

As computer systems grow more powerful and their uses more varied, so, too, grows their demand for storage—this holds as true for handheld computers as it does for servers and workstations. SanDisk helps satisfy the storage needs of handheld and mobile computers with its gargantuan 1GB CompactFlash card. At $800, the new SanDisk offering doesnt […]

Ive written in the past about how Ive come to prefer KDE to Windows as a desktop environment (see www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=1870&a=18274,00.asp). I find KDE more widely configurable than Windows, and I think that the Windows interface gives short shrift to the command line—which, in many cases, is the shortest route to completing a given task. However, […]

Users of Linux- and Unix-based operating systems who find themselves forced to maintain a second desktop for working with Microsoft Office documents and for accessing corporate groupware servers via Outlook and Notes clients may be able to dump their Windows boxes with the help of CrossOver Office 1.0 from CodeWeavers Inc. CrossOver Office, released last […]

No matter how things end up shaking out for Microsoft vs. the Department of Justice, Windows will, for the foreseeable future, maintain its hammerlock on desktop computers and the software they run—such as Web browser plug-ins. However, CodeWeavers CrossOver Plugin 1.1 offers a partial solution for Linux users locked out of Windows plug-in access. CrossOver […]

For all its server room successes, Linux has found the mainstream corporate desktop a much harder nut to crack, and much of the blame belongs to usability issues. With a solid, configurable interface that should please Linux newbies and power users alike, Version 3.0 of the K Desktop Environment represents Linuxs best shot yet at […]

At the beginning of this week, Verizon Wireless began allowing its subscribers to send and receive text messages to users on competing wireless networks. Verizon is the fifth major US wireless carrier to so open its SMS services—the first was AT&T Wireless, in January of this year. In Europe, where widely popular SMS services pad […]

Server Keeps Data in Sync”> Companies can make the most of the handheld computers in their enterprise by providing them with flexible access to corporate mail and data via a server-based synchronization product—the sort of product that Extended Systems Inc. has been producing for years now. eWeek Labs tested the latest synchronization server from Extended […]

The last time I wrote this column, it was from the floor of CTIA 2002, where tech industry execs spoke of the wireless broadband future that awaits us once 3G networks are fully deployed. The thinking seems to be that wireless data services wont be truly attractive to enterprises until they reliably reach 3G speeds […]

I’m writing to you today from the sunny, humid environs of Orlando, Fla., where the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association is hosting its biannual wireless extravaganza-complete with blaring keynote address soundtracks, tantalizing product demos and even a personal technology fashion show. While I’ve yet to encounter any stop-the-presses product announcements, this gathering of wireless device, […]