Lately it seems I can't go anywhere without running into a gaggle of social media consultants bloviating about the wonders of social network marketing. Sure, you've seen 'em, too. Slick shake-and-bake "experts" promising to help you leverage the power of Twitter and Facebook to raise your profile and, inexplicably, boost your profits. But scratch the surface on most of these claims and they instantly crumble. Meanwhile, it seems the only people making any money in social media are the consultants themselves.
A Nielsen report this week revealed that Twitter has an uncanny knack for hemorrhaging users. In fact, some 60 percent of new users bail on the service within a month. For those of us who've been tweeting for a couple of years, this isn't exactly a shocker. Many longtime users have gone through that initial period of wondering what, if any, use Twitter might be. And maybe it's better for everyone if those who don't get it refrain from tweeting until they do.
Google's location-tracking service, [[xref:http://www.google.com/latitude|Latitude|Google Latitude]], uses the GPS hardware found in smart phones (such as Google Android phones and BlackBerry and Windows Mobile handsets) to pinpoint your position on a map and share that information with your friends. I've been playing with the software on my BlackBerry for a couple of days, and I've taken the time to explore its features. Here's a guided tour of the Latitude experience.
On Thursday at CES, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the public availability of the Windows 7 beta release. At PC World we've been running our own evaluations of the forthcoming replacement to Microsoft's much-derided Windows Vista for some time now, and we just couldn't wait to take this new version for a spin. Here's one editor's take on the latest Windows 7 user experience.
Predicting the future ain't easy. That's why astrologers and fortune tellers tend to keep their forecasts as vague as possible. But in the high-stakes world of high technology, the future belongs to those who see it coming well in advance.
If your workplace is like a war zone, add these combative time wasters to your arsenal so you can dominate the office battlefield.
Over the past decade, Linux has emerged from a herd of obscure and nerdy operating systems to warrant a place in even the most technologically unsophisticated business environments. And in the past three years, a few distributions have made stupendous leaps in performance and usability, winning the affection of millions of mainstream desktop users.