InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

10 Tips: Improve BlackBerry PlayBook Battery Life
Get more juice from your RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using these battery-saving pointers.
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Samsung Chromebook: Hands-On Visual Tour
Finally, the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 surfaces. Early verdict: This beautiful, slightly pricey gadget adds elegance to Google's Mobile OS.
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Apple iCloud Purchasing First Look
Apple's iCloud will give you the ability to see all apps you've purchased on any of your iOS devices and download them to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch without a wire in sight. Join BYTE executive editor Brian Burgess for a look at the service that will show you what to expect.
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Sony Xperia Play Teardown
UBM TechInsights looks inside the Android-based Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson, the first "PlayStation Certified" smartphone.
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InformationWeek Analytics Presents: The Best of Interop 2011
Well, the votes are in and once again we're pleased to bring you the top new products that appeared at Interop 2011 Las Vegas. Every year, my fellow judges and I are delighted to be able to review and compare some of the hottest technology available, and this year was no exception. This year we had 135 qualified entries for Best of Interop, and in reviewing the nominees this year the trend seems to be a focus on a number of great products to allocate, secure, manage, and improve the performance of what's becoming an increasingly extended IT environment. In previous years, the emphasis was on providing many of the underlying technologies for virtualized and cloud resources, but for 2011 a number of the contenders for Best of Interop are looking at ways to provide better visibility and control of these distributed types of services. Recent headlines about service outages in the cloud just reinforce the need for products and services that not only enable the use of distributed resources, but protect and provide contingencies for cloud workload interruptions; whether they are internal or external to your enterprise. -- Steven Hill -- Lead Judge, Best of Interop 2011
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Top 20 Enterprise Laser Printers
Demand for networked color laser printers continues to grow. They offer high-resolution, crisp text, and vivid colors, and are playing a greater role in businesses. But they face challenges: high-performance and lower cost inkjet printers and a weak economy that caused companies to look for ways to cut print costs or allocate those costs to departments. And there's still a big market for black and white printers. Most printers now meet Energy Star standards, which means energy efficiency isn't an effective sales pitch. So vendors have turned to features such as faster first page printing, better management tools, automated two-sided printing, and software that automatically turns the printer off after a pre-determined idle time.
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iPad 2 A5 Chip Teardown Reveals Samsung Fab, Advanced Power Management
The new dual core A5 chip inside the iPad 2 is very fast, but as always, Apple isn't very forthcoming on its origin. UBM TechInsights dissected the chip and found it to be a Samsung fab. TechInsights also provided a cost breakdown of all the iPad 2 components.
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11 Epic Technology Disasters
Nature and politics kill far more people than technological accidents but failures of machines still take a toll on both a personal and social level. Separating machine failures and negligent maintenance from unforeseeable circumstances isn't easy and no doubt there are some accidents worthy of mention that we've missed. In any event, these are the eleven worst tech-related disasters where mechanical or engineering failure played a significant role. And by "worst," we're considering death toll but not using it as the exclusive metric. Some disasters like the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger resulted in only a few deaths but nonetheless had a worldwide impact.
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Mobile World Congress: Samsung Announces GalaxyS II Phone, Galaxy Tab 10.1
Samsung is using Mobile World Congress as its own personal stage. Before the world's biggest mobile event kicked off, the company putting on quite a show itself, with dancers, a live orchestra and, oh, yes, some new devices, too. Namely, a second generation smart phone (Galaxy S II) and a 10-inch tablet (Galaxy Tab 10.1). These devices will be available in February and March, respectively, but, in typical Samsung fashion, only in Asia and Europe at first. The company will make a North American announcement here as well. We were there to capture the event (and nibble on some food), and we were also whisked away to play with the new products.
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Building The Mac Office
Building an office around the Apple Macintosh has long been a good business strategy, particularly for SMBs. Macs generally require fewer IT resources and retain their value better than Windows-based PCs -- that's a key consideration for cash- and resource-strapped small and midsize businesses. And the iPhone and iPad, with their strong Mac integration, make it easier for businesses to move into the new era of mobile computing. But before you can Go Mac, you need to know how to get your Mac office up and running. This review of products from Apple and other Mac vendors, will take you on a visual tour of a Mac-centric office that could be your future infrastructure.
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Slideshow: HP Tablet Announced
We are here at beautiful Fort Mason in San Francisco on a spectacular day. The Bay is sparkling, Alcatraz beckons (for some of us), and somewhere inside the theater HP is making all the final preparations. The line to get in is already pretty long, and growing. We are about to see the launch of a new lineup of HP mobile products based on the company's WebOS platform.
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Inside Watson, IBM's Jeopardy Computer
IBM has spent four years and untold hundreds of millions of dollars developing Watson, a computer that can play Jeopardy. In fact, Watson answers questions so quickly and accurately that IBM challenged Jeopardy and two of the show's all-time champions to a match. Jeopardy's producers and the human contestants agreed. Taping took place January 14, and the three computer-vs.-human episodes will air February 14-16. Cynics may call it a publicity stunt, but the project has brought real advances in computer science. If IBM's previous (chess-playing) Deep Blue and (genetics-studying) Blue Gene supercomputers are any indication, advances in what IBM calls deep question-and-answer analytics could show up in the real world within three to five years. Here's a look inside the architecture, hardware, and advanced analytics that make Watson tick.
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12 Money Saving Tech Tips For SMBs
Smaller companies are under constant pressure to maximize their performance with minimal resources. However, you can't do business without technology -- and tech means spending money, something there never seems to be quite enough of for growing businesses. You keep a vigilant eye on costs as a matter of course. So you need to be creative to get what you and your employees need -- from phone service to software to desks and chairs -- without busting the budget. No matter what your business needs, with a bit of effort and due diligence you'll find that you can have your tech and save on it, too. Here are 12 ideas for reducing the budget burden of the business tools you need to succeed.
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NRF Big Show 2011: Breakthrough Technologies For Retailing
The National Retail Federation's "Big Show" in New York highlighted scores of cutting-edge retail technologies, from mobile devices and digital signage to point-of-sale systems and store-management applications. Tablet computers were everywhere, of course, though more often featured as a raffle prize designed to draw booth visitors and gather business card leads. Several exhibitors demonstrated iPad-native "clienteling" apps designed to help salespeople demonstrate and explain complicated (or out-of-stock) products. There were plenty of conventional point-of-sale terminals on display, but with smart phones quickly gaining broad use, many retailers and retail technology suppliers are developing apps and peripherals designed to work with iPhones, Android devices, and other mobile platforms.
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Slideshow: CES TechWeb Suite Sneak Peek
We spent all day Wednesday getting a sneak peek at some hardware in the Techweb suite. Amtel's technology was standout. The team showed audio technology that dramatically improved speaker sound -- even from cheap, tinny speakers. Also from Amtel -- the Free Motion Remote Control, a free range control device for Internet TVs. The Modlet, from ThinkEco, is the first improvement to wall sockets in 83 years. Plug your appliances into it, and you can monitor where your power problems lie. Check out the videos soon to come of other products we saw today. Well worth watching! For now, here's a quick slideshow.
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15 Green Tech Innovations
Cost-savings and energy efficiencies go hand-in-hand. The poor economy and a collective awareness of the finite resources available to the world are encouraging businesses to invest in green technologies. In fact, 60% of companies now have green criteria for their technology purchases, a Forrester Research study found. Cutting costs is the primary motivator, while real or anticipated regulatory issues and pressure from buyers also ranked high, the report said. Only 30% were driven by their desire for environmental stewardship, Forrester said. Economic realities and environmental commitments have spurred businesses to invest in green technologies and practices to boost the bottom line and appeal to increasingly eco-conscious customers. These 15 leading green technologies that have big potential or are already making an impact.
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Top 15 Data Visualization Tips
"Excellence in statistical graphics consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency," writes information visualization guru and author Edward R. Tufte. Preaching simplicity and offering practical advice, expert Stephen Few decries distorted 3D pie charts and graphics that are too hard to read. This image gallery offers best-practice examples, advice, free resources and insight from experts on the best of data and information visualization. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then clear and effective data visualizations are worth more than a stack of spreadsheets or reams of reports. Learn from the New York Times, Gapminder, Zillow, Many Eyes, Google, Wordle and other successful practitioners of advanced data visualization.
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InformationWeek News Images

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