InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Apple WWDC Visual Tour: First Look At iCloud, Lion, iOS 5, And More

Fresh from Apple's WWDC event, see images and details on Apple's iCloud service, Lion OS, iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad and other goodies unveiled by Steve Jobs. InformationWeek.com's Fritz Nelson brings you the latest from the company known for design style as much as substance.

Sony Xperia Play Teardown

UBM TechInsights looks inside the Android-based Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson, the first "PlayStation Certified" smartphone.

Nimble Contact Integrates Connections Across Mail, Social Networks

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks have supplanted business cards for keeping track of important contacts and Nimble Contact utilizes the information and communications in these networks to keep contact info current.

14 Leading Social CRM Applications

Social CRM is a double-edged sword. It gives businesses a tremendous opportunity to easily communicate with consumers, rapidly answering questions and responding to concerns. But it also gives companies more chances to slip-up or to be perceived as being unresponsive or uncaring. That is why a growing number of organizations are stepping beyond the confines of traditional customer relationship management and incorporating social media into the next wave of CRM implementation.

Gmail Add-On Boosts Support Features

The Shared Inbox add-on for Google Apps Business accounts is designed to provide improved help desk and customer support ticket features for businesses using Gmail as their main communications platform.

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

IT Salaries: 9 Ways We've Changed (Or Not) From 2001's Heyday

What a decade it's been for U.S. IT professionals. They rode the tech-fueled boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s to great heights, then crashed hard in the recessions of 2002 and 2008-2009. We have data from our annual U.S. IT Salary Survey dating back to 2000, so we thought now would be a good time to look back and compare today with the boom that was early 2001 -- the peak of salaries, raises, and perks, according to our data. We look at changes in economics and in attitudes, using data drawn from 18,201 respondents in 2011, and 19,206 in 2001.

Inside Interop 2011 Hot Stage

Three months of planning the Interop network. Two weeks staging the equipment and preparing the network. Dozens of people from as many vendors all focused on putting together a network that will go live for six days. Glenn Evans, Interop network project lead and benevolent dictator, works with the vendors and volunteers to design, build, troubleshoot, and manage the InteropNet.

The hot stage is when all of the planning comes together. The InteropNet team documents every detail, down to where patch cords are connecting, ensuring that when the equipment is moved to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, it can be rolled to position, connected, and powered on in preparation for the exhibitors showing up and the show starting.

After the equipment is moved to the convention center, engineers check the equipment, reseating cables that might have come loose and fixing any problems that occurred. Much of the work after that involves running the network, including getting exhibitors connected and resolving any issues they may have.

RockMelt Boosts Facebook, Twitter Integration

The RockMelt Web browser, which is based on the Google Chrome engine, is designed to be a tool for surfing the social Web. With deep integration into Facebook, along with capabilities to work with Twitter, RockMelt makes it possible to have a constant view into your social connections while using websites and Web applications.

12 Hot Mobile Medical Apps

Mobile medicine is everywhere. There's the iPhone app that lets you cut away images of muscle layers to see what lies beneath, an e-health record system for the iPad, and a smartphone-based blood pressure monitor. Here are a dozen innovative ones.

10 Crowdsourcing Success Stories

We looked at 10 applications of the crowdsourcing concept for business. They cover the broad disciplines of marketing, advertising, product development, customer service, public relations, human resources, outsourcing, project management, Web development, coding, social media, and quality assurance. In some cases, crowdsourcing is the business. Some companies, such as Netflix, have put a mighty fine price tag on their crowdsourced efforts. Others, like Dell and Starbucks, utilize the concept on a continuous basis to solicit new ideas for how they can push their businesses forward. And lest the brainstormers think they're putting suggestions into an empty void, the companies back up the proposition, publishing stats and updates when and how the best ideas are implemented.

Filemaker Go 1.2 Expands iOS Feature Set

The latest version of Filemaker Go--the database software provider's iOS-based mobile application for business users--adds charts and graphs, digital signature capture, enhanced PDF tools, and wireless printing while allowing users to develop custom applications for the iPhone or iPad without heavy-duty development work.

Lookout Mobile Security Protects Android Smartphones

For a while now, it seems as if malware that targets smartphones has been more of a theoretical exercise as opposed to a real threat. And mobile security software is one of the last things that many people and businesses think they need. But the recent outbreak of Android-based malware, which has led to reportedly tens of thousands of people becoming infected by malware found in more than fifty apps in the Android Market, could be the first sign of the new age of mobile threats.

Best Of Interop 2011 Finalists

The Best of Interop Awards recognize exhibitors that have made significant technological advancements in specific category areas. The winners in each category represent the products that the judges believe have the most significant technical impact on their segment, and are helping to move business technology forward. This year, more than 100 candidates were under consideration for Best of Interop and here we present the 2011 finalists in each category.

RIM BlackBerry PlayBook Teardown

UBM TechInsights takes a look under the hood at yet another tablet. Inside RIM's new BlackBerry tablet is the TI OMAP 4 processor, a six-axis gyro and some other fun hardware goodies.

Top 10 Mobile Apps For Business Collaboration

Collaboration is one of today's strongest business trends, fueled in part by advances in (and employees' experiences with) social media. The ability to exchange ideas and communicate about activities has proven wildly popular in the social sphere -- why not in the business one as well? And recognizing this demand, vendors are making tools available that enable teams to keep track of each others' progress on a group project, exchange information about tasks and contacts, and otherwise work together more smoothly and conveniently. At the same time, though, the trend toward worker mobility continues to grow. More and more workers find themselves working out of the office, on the road or telecommuting, and keeping in touch via their smartphone. These 10 mobile apps will keep the collaborative momentum going no matter where you are.

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.

Firefox 4 Is Faster, Cleaner, More Secure

The latest version of the open-source Mozilla Web browser has finally arrived and it is a welcome upgrade. Firefox 4 includes a revamped look and feel, faster performance, strong standards support, and enhanced privacy controls. As far as features go, Firefox 4 compares well with browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 and Google's Chrome, and the large library of extensions and add-ons for Firefox make it the most extendable and customizable of modern Web browsers. With all other major browsers having recently released new versions, this also means that the current generation of browsers all represent the latest in cutting edge Web technologies, including support for the emerging HTML 5 standard.