InformationWeek

Listen to the latest InformationWeek Macworld podcast, with John Welch, a contributor to our magazine, and senior editor Sharon Gaudin. Today we have more talk about why the iPhone looks like it's going to be a great phone -- but, still, it's just a phone, and an expensive one at that. We also talk about Apple TV, and generally cool stuff around the show.

Listen to our podcast interview with InformationWeek Senior Editor Sharon Gaudin. Sharon's on the scene at Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. She describes today's keynote from Steve Jobs, and products announced today: the iPhone and Apple TV. Sharon's pretty excited about the whole thing -- me, not so much. I'm thinking: Yeah? So? It's a phone? Listen to the podcast for yourself and make up your own mind.

Listen to a podcast interview with John C. Welch, as he talks about his recent InformationWeek article that compares Microsoft Windows Vista with Apple Mac OS X and finds Vista wanting. He responds to feedback on the article, describes why OS X outshines Vista, and talks about the general outlook for Apple vs. Microsoft.

Apple, he says, has a real opportunity to claim market share from Microsoft, in the consumer market and even on the corporate desktop. After listening to the podcast and reading the article, you can find provocative discussion on Slashdot.

Why is it you can easily find out who Britney Spears is dating, but you can't find this year's sales reports? Listen to the InformationWeek podcast to find out how vendors like Google, Yahoo, and IBM are closing the technology gap between Internet search and search on enterprise networks. And read more about it in our feature article, "IBM-Yahoo Pairing Should Spark Price And Feature War In Enterprise Search."

Innovation isn't just a matter of luck -- you don't have to stand around and wait for lightning to strike -- innovation can be built into the organization, business processes, and IT. Listen to our eight-part podcast series on business innovation to find out how, including connecting with customers and partners for innovation, managing information, making IT an innovation enabler, and more.

Listen to the latest InformationWeek podcast with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. Editor-at-large Tom Claburn interviews Bezos about Amazon's software-as-a-service strategy, called Amazon Web Services. Bezos also talks about search, and Amazon's internal commitment to Voice over IP.

Listen to the latest InformationWeek podcast about IT in China with Editor-at-Large Aaron Ricadela, reporting live from Beijing. Today I talk with Aaron about the travel experience, comparison with his earlier trip to India, China's higher education system, getting Internet access, government censorship of the Internet, and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt's perspective on what the U.S. needs to do to compete with China. Links: The first two installments of Aaron's travel journal: "Friendship, Peace, Cooperation, Development" and "Sliced Duck And Sharp Views With Reed Hundt." Read Aaron's January report from India: "Inside India." Listen to the first podcast interview with Aaron: "Special Podcast: Get A Sneak Peek At Our Upcoming Special Report On China." Also: "India's Bangalore Changes Name To Bengalooru."

In today's daily news podcast: Microsoft adds Office 2007 to enterprise price lists, while Gartner says the Vista coupon upgrade limit hits businesses; Office Live is nearly live, triggering a review; "new" Websense technology reportedly torpedoes threats; Google buys JotSpot; increasing interest and popularity drive Second Life's growth and economy; a wearable iPod hits stores Friday; Microsoft goes global to stop counterfeiters; Vice President Cheney expresses doubts about Sarbanes-Oxley; and we review alternative keyboards. The Editor's Note looks at scary things in IT.

Patricia Keefe is your host.

Links highlighted in this podcast include:

Review: Office Live A Big Deal For Small Businesses

Review: Get 'Hands-On' With Alternative Keyboards

What Scares You? And Who Scares Them?

As part of the run-up to next week's announcement of the 2006 InformationWeek 500, we're catching up with past winners. In today's podcast, we talk to Gregor Bailar, CIO of Capital One, our 2005 IW500 winner.

What distinguished Capital One from the rest of the formidable pack on the 2005 InformationWeek 500 was its information-based strategy, which joins all areas of its business--marketing, credit, risk, operations, and business technology--into a single, flexible decision-making structure.

In this podcast, InformationWeek's Valerie Potter asks Preston Gralla, author of "20 Questions About Windows Vista," a few burning questions about Microsoft's next operating system release. What features don't work in the current Vista beta? Should you wait until Vista is released to buy a new PC? Listen to find out.

It's decision time again for people who buy, manage, and use Microsoft's Office applications suite. Three years after introducing Office 2003, Microsoft is readying an upgrade in the form of Office 2007, a collection of about 15 desktop applications, five server applications, and middleware called Windows SharePoint Services that runs in the Windows Server operating system and ties those applications together with added functionality. I grabbed the chance last week to sit down with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and ask him about some of what's new in Office 2007. You can listen for yourself; here's a podcast of our conversation.

Listen to the current daily news podcast: AOL-co-founder Steve Case says it's time to "undo" the AOL-Time Warner coupling, the tech sector faces an up and down next two years, an apology follows a fake Wikipedia post, SCO's new funding has analysts abuzz, the iPod tops search requests for this holiday season, and we dream about an ideal 2006 for IT.

Background Music "The Misadventures of the Purple Sine" by Dilvie, www.dilvie.com, under Creative Commons License.

Listen to a version of this blog -- as part of a Daily Newsletter podcast -- here.

Here in New York and other Northeastern states, we have a wonderful system called E-ZPass that lets those with prepaid accounts buzz through highway and bridge tolls with little or no wait. If you've ever driven through any of the bridges in and around New York City, you can appreciate the time this system saves.