applications - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Why Android is stealing share from iOS

  Hardly a week goes by without some fresh evidence of Android's growing success.

• Did e-mail and the Internet kill the 9-5 workday?

  Have you checked your work e-mailtoday? If you're like most employees in the United States and United Kingdom, the answer is yes despite the fact that it is not only the weekend, but an extended holiday weekend for most workers in the US. A day off is becoming an increasingly foreign concept as workers stay connected virtually 24/7.

• AutoCAD app proves strengths of iPad

  Autodesk announced that it is bringing AutoCAD back to the Mac, and also adding AutoCAD apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

• Chrome patches show the power of open source--and Google

  Google's patching of vulnerabilities in its open source Chrome Web browser last week wasn't so much notable in itself; Microsoft, to be sure, is forever issuing patches for the many bugs that afflict its products.

• Getting Ready For Internet Explorer 9

  After four platform previews aimed at demonstrating the power of the underlying Internet Explorer 9 engine to developers, Microsoft is ready to unveil a public beta of the on September 15. Many organizations are still struggling with the decision to move from IE6 to IE8, so what should businesses expect from the new Microsoft browser?

• Stupid mobile tricks: 7 stories of smartphone horror

  For a device with "smart" in its name, a smartphone sure can help you do a lot of stupid things. Whether it's racking up thousands of dollars in international roaming fees or encouraging dozens of eye rolls with your misrouted voice dialing -- I'm looking at you, guy who calls Ben O'Lynn in accounting every time he means to call Bennigan's for lunch -- our modern-day mobile devices provide plenty of opportunities for tech-tinged embarrassment.

• SAP-Sybase: What to expect in the first 90 days

  Now that SAP's roughly $US6 billion acquisition of Sybase has gained clearance from European regulators, it may not be long before the deal is finalised. With that in mind, users and partners of the companies have much to consider during the next few months, analysts say.

• Nimble's all-in-one storage combines primary and backup in one box

  Start-up Nimble Storage came out of the development stage this week with its first product -- an array that combines solid state drives (SSD) with high-capacity, cost and performance serial ATA (SATA) hard drives, acts as primary and backup storage and replicates offsite for disaster recovery.

• Hands-on with Sony's NEX-VG10 interchangeable-lens camcorder

  In the past few years, video-capable DSLRs and compact interchangeable-lens cameras have gained momentum in the world of filmmaking: they have big sensors, shallow depth-of-field capabilities, versatile interchangeable lenses, and affordable prices when compared to professional-level camcorders.

• Record and Create Music With FL Studio

  FL Studio 9.1 is the latest version of the long-time sequencer and recording app formerly known as Fruity Loops. Despite a slightly non-standard user interface, FL Studio is one of the easier digital audio workstations to use--if you come from a step/pattern-based recording background.

• First look: Firefox 4 Beta 1 shines on HTML5

  While it's impossible to sum up the thousands of enhancements and bug fixes both big and small, the Firefox 4 beta version brings the browser that much closer to taking over everything on the desktop. There are fewer reasons for anyone to interact with an extra plug-in or the operating system. Remember when people cared about whether a machine was Windows or Mac or a Commodore 64? Remember when software needed to be written in native code? Those days are fading away quickly as the browser is more able than ever before to deliver most of the content we might want.

• Meet the father of Google Apps (who used to work at Microsoft)

  Three weeks into his tenure at Google, Rajen Sheth -- former Microsoft and VMware employee -- met with Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt to propose a way of turning Gmail into a business-class e-mail system. And he was soundly rejected. 

• 55 super software secrets

  The apps you use most--your Web browser, productivity tools, media managers, and Windows and its built-in accessories--are more powerful than you realize. They are loaded with unpublicized features that make your PC easier to use, they respond to superquick keyboard shortcuts that you've never heard about, and they support add-ons and plug-ins that can shave minutes or even hours off of mundane daily chores.

• 20 more IT mistakes to avoid

  Back in 2004, InfoWorld's then-CTO Chad Dickerson polled the best and brightest to reveal 20 IT mistakes that were surefire recipes for cost overruns, missed deadlines, and in some cases, lost jobs.