Despite the headlines and hyperbole around Facebook information privacy issues--and the public exodus of notable online personalities in protest--the reality is that Facebook membership is <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/05/17/what-backlash-facebook-is-growing-like-mad/">actually still growing</a>. Social networking and data privacy are, in many ways, directly at odds and the solution comes down to user awareness and choice.
Microsoft held a major launch event this week to unveil Office 2010--the latest release of it's venerable and dominant office productivity suite. As with any major product release, Office 2010 has a variety of new and updated features, but do any of them offer a compelling reason to invest in upgrading to it?
"Can you hear me now?" As much marketing hype as 3G wireless networks have received, the fact remains that customers of all the major wireless providers are frequently frustrated with their service's poor voice quality and dropped calls. With 4G looming on the horizon, can we look forward to better voice quality?
The villagers have pitchforks and torches in hand and everyone seems to be converging on Facebook--the scourge of all things private and personal. I am here to disband the angry mob by asking the question "how did Facebook get your data in the first place?" and telling people to look in the mirror before attacking Facebook.
Microsoft held its official launch event this morning for Office 2010--the latest release of its <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/196169/microsoft_office_2010_rocks_desktop_fizzles_online.html">dominant office productivity suite</a>. Some of the new elements of Office 2010 make the suite more Web-enabled, while recent changes to Google Docs make it more "Office-like", setting the two up for head-to-head battle.
In 2003, author and security pioneer Simson Garfinkel conducted a study of data he found on second-hand hard drives. On eBay, Garfinkel bought the hard drive from an old ATM machine; it held 827 bank account PINs. Another drive he purchased on eBay had previously been owned by a medical center and contained information on 31,000 credit card numbers.
Rumor has it that the Windows 7-based HP Slate tablet PC is dead, but that HP has plans to leverage its purchase of Palm to develop a new WebOS-based tablet currently codenamed "Hurricane".
The iPad is "magic" and all that, but it is not without its flaws and weaknesses--many of which I expect Apple will address with the next incarnation of the tablet device. However, for those looking to use the current generation iPad as a mobile business tool, Microsoft may be the hero with Docs.com.
The iPad has been available for a month now in the United States, but the 3G-capable version of Apple's tablet device just launched this past Friday. Apple has reportedly sold more than one million iPads thus far--less than half the time it took the original iPhone to reach that same milestone. If you aren't one of the million plus that already has one, here are some things to consider when choosing between the Wi-Fi only or 3G-capable models.
The latest numbers are out and the main story revolves around Google Chrome continuing to climb in market share, and Microsoft Internet Explorer continuing to fall. In fact, IE has dropped below 60 percent market share for the first time--fueled by a debatable perception that IE is less secure.
Facebook appears to be working diligently at establishing itself as the site that people love to hate. Don't get me wrong, passionate views are a mark of success--just look at Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Still, the trick is to foster that passion (and generate revenue) without inviting undue regulatory scrutiny or legal backlash.
I pre-ordered the Apple iPad, so it has been a month now--or near enough--that I have had my 32 GB WI-Fi iPad. I have had ample opportunity to try it out in different scenarios and form a reasonable opinion about both its capabilities and its inadequacies.
The fall of Palm from groundbreaking innovator of handheld PDA's, to ailing developer of capable-but-waning smartphones is complete with the announcement that HP will acquire Palm to the tune of US$1.2 billion. The primary asset of Palm is the WebOS mobile platform--an asset that puts HP in a strong position to create a tablet device to compete with Apple's iPad.
Once upon a time, instant messaging was a consumer technology. That consumer toy worked its way into the corporate network and was eventually not just accepted, but embraced and leveraged as a valuable tool.
It seems that the battle for net neutrality has boiled down to an argument over economics. Dueling reports paint vastly different visions of the economic outlook for the broadband and Internet industries should the US FCC be successful in imposing net neutrality guidelines.