Windows Phone 7: Hail Mary
If the story at Ars Technica is to be believed, Microsoft really is starting with a clean slate with its Windows Phone 7 platform. That seems like a good idea, because the old slate wasn't tearing up the market. However, Microsoft's new platform seems like it's betting on a slate of proprietary technologies that haven't yet been proven in the mobile world.
Sprint And Verizon Both Pushing webOS 1.4 Update
Sprint began making webOS 1.4 available to the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi during the early morning hours on February 27. Verizon customers had to wait an additional 24 hours before their devices began updating, too. The new version of webOS brings system-wide improvements.
Build A Web App in 5 Minutes, With No Code (ReviewCam)
Building simple, rich web applications still takes some programming effort, but Alpha Software's Alpha Five promises to let non-programmers tackle the effort quickly and without writing a single line of code. "Codeless Ajax," Alpha calls it. We put this to the test, asking if one of Alpha's development partners could build us a quick application in five minutes.
Why Multitenancy Matters In The Cloud
There's a debate in the software industry over whether multitenancy is a prerequisite for cloud computing. Those considering using cloud apps might question if they should care about this debate. But they should care, and here's why: multitenancy is the most direct path to spending less and getting more from a cloud application.
Newer, Cheaper iPhone(s) To Debut In June
June and Apple's WWDC are approaching swiftly. Though we're still three-plus months out, reports of what Apple plans to announce are already taking shape. Morgan Stanley believes that new models are coming, and they'll be cheaper to buy and cheaper to own.
IBM FileNet P8 on your iPhone
Apple's iPad looks like an ideal platform for accessing enterprise documents. Turns out this good idea is almost in the here and now...
Toyota Failure Proves Quality Isn't Scalable
There's a computer-industry lesson embedded within the bad news surrounding Toyota's unintended acceleration problem. It's out of the same playbook which in an earlier day saw GM morph from an innovator--electric starter, automatic transmission--into a lumbering behemoth. It's this: Quality is not infinitely scalable.
Software Update Bricking Motorola CLIQ
Users who downloaded and installed an unofficial software update for the Motorola CLIQ are seeing red. Turns out there are major bugs in the update that essentially brick the CLIQ. T-Mobile's advice? Don't update.
The 10 Most Strategic IT Vendors For SMBs
The most strategic vendors for SMBs may be the same as for large enterprises. Or, the local and regional vendors that keep serve the IT needs of smaller businesses may just fly under the radar of national and global vendor rankings.
Michigan Beats Florida-To IT Jobs
Michigan has vanquished Florida again. This time it wasn't the Capital One Bowl, where the Wolverines knocked off Tim Tebow's Gators 41-35 in 2008. Rather, Michigan won a contest many would argue carries a greater prize-hundreds of good IT jobs.
Palm CEO Addresses The Troops
In light of the bad financial news coming from Palm, CEO Jon Rubinstein took the opportunity to shore up the confidence of Palm employees. He sent a company wide email that outlines what the company is doing to get fully back on track.
No Flash Love For Windows Mobile 6.5.3
Windows Mobile can't catch a break. Since the announcement of Windows Phone 7 Series at Mobile World Congress, WinMo 6.5.3 has been cast aside like an old toy on Christmas morning. The latest kick in the stomach comes from Adobe. All plans to provide Flash 10 for WinMo have been halted as the software developer targets WinPho 7 this fall.
The Google Buzz New User Experience
Last November I took a look at the user experience for a new user who attempts to access Twitter.com. Now I'd like to provide the same new user experience overview for a person attempting to use Google Buzz.
Smoke And Mirrors Pricing Stifles PPM Tool Adoption
I tend to check in with a swathe of real world users when I'm working on InformationWeek Analytics reports. When I did this with material from our upcoming PPM best practices report, I gained a key insight from cranky would-be PPM tool customers: PPM vendors are stifling PPM tool adoption through their used-car-salesman smoke and mirrors appoach.
webOS 1.4 Changelog Leaks With Suspicious Timing
Just after Palm released some bad news today about its sales forecasts, the changelog for webOS version 1.4 has mysteriously surfaced. There are genuinely good changes in store for webOS devices. Let's take a look.
Palm: 'Slower Than Expected Consumer Adoption' Of WebOS
If things looked bad earlier this week for Palm, they look worse now. Palm updated its guidance for the current quarter and the numbers have been revised downward. The new numbers will be "well below its previously forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion."
J&J Uses Dashboards to Run the Business
At this week's IQPC Lean Six Sigma & Process Improvement conference in Toronto, David Haigh of Johnson & Johnson presented on how the company is using dashboards for process improvement efforts.
What's The Best Cloud Mix?
At TechWeb's Cloud Connect conference in March, I'll be moderating a panel on the value of public, private and hybrid cloud. We'll assess where the value is today and where things are headed. Here's my take: Utilizing the right cloud combination to maximize the resources in your organization for different types of workloads, functions, applications,
PocketGear Acquires Handango
If you have had any kind of smartphone in the past decade, you are probably aware of and have even used PocketGear or Handango to purchase your apps. Now these two software retailers are combining their catalogs to go head to head against platform owned stores like Apple's App Store and Microsoft's Marketplace for Windows Mobile. Will it help them survive though?
Gmail Labs: Six Graduate, Five Flunk
Google recently announced that it has promoted six Gmail Labs features to become full-time, regular options within Gmail. Sadly, at the same time, five precious Labs have lost their struggle for relevance and are being, in Google parlance, "retired."
Skype Yanks Windows Mobile App From Site
For some unknown reason, Skype is no longer making Skype and Skype Lite available to the Windows Mobile platform. Skype's support page says, "We felt that Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile were not offering the best possible Skype experience." What gives? Updated with explanation from Skype.
SAP BusinessObjects Relaunches SaaS BI Suite
It's more than an incremental upgrade but everything promised isn't all there -- just yet, anyway. That's my quick take on SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand, a major upgrade and consolidation of the vendor's software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings for business intelligence.
Force10 Fixin' To Switch HP, Cisco Customers
Force10 Networks is making hay of the impending termination by Cisco of its partnership with HP. The scrappy Ethernet vendor launched a promotion on Wednesday intended to get HP resellers to push Force10 switches instead of competing Cisco and HP ProCurve gear.
Google Blasts Italian Judge Over Video Convictions
A judge in Italy recently convicted three Google executives for failure to comply with Italian privacy laws. The privacy violation was actually committed by a school student who shot video of a classmate being bullied and then uploaded the footage to Google Video. Google calls the convictions "a serious threat to the Web" and contends that new precedent set by Italian courts endangers the very fabric of the Web.
Apple Says CIOs Opening Floodgates For Macs
"It's amazing how many CIOs are visiting Apple and are interested in the Mac," Apple COO Tim Cook said Tuesday, noting that the old enterprise fixation on standardization is giving way to a focus on creativity. Cook made those and other scintillating comments at a Goldman Sachs investors conference.
Apple Publishes Then Kills Latest iPad SDK
On Feb. 23 Apple released a third beta version of the iPhone OS 3.2 software development kit for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It wasn't available long, however. Apple pulled the updated beta SDK mere hours after it went live. Thankfully, a few developers were able to download it before the link went dead. They found a few interesting details buried inside.
Details On Windows Phone 7 Hardware
One of the benefits for manufacturers for Windows Mobile phones until now has been the incredibly wide variety of hardware they could build for the mobile platform. Windows Phone 7 Series is going to change all of that. Microsoft is strictly controlling the hardware specs that are allowed for the device. We've got some rumors on what is and isn't allowed.
TextFlow + Box.net = Easy Revision Management
Businesses that need to manage input from multiple collaborators on shared text documents will benefit from the new TextFlow application for Box.net, which makes it simple to see changes side by side and choose which one to accept.
Motorola May No Longer Call Chicago Home
As part of its reorganizational efforts, Motorola indicated that it might pick up and move its handset and home businesses to California. Why? Because apparently Motorola thinks the talent pool in Chicago is tapped out.
Piper Jaffray Sees Gold Rush In Cloud Software
Investment advisor Piper Jaffray interviewed 100 CIOs and IT managers, then wrote up its conclusions in a 320-page report, neatly summarized by its title: "The Future Is In the Cloud." Spending on software as a service and cloud computing will grow from 5.7% today to 13.5% of all software spending in five years, it predicts.
Number Of iPhone Users Surpasses WinMo Users
After two and a half years in the market, Apple's iPhone has overtaken Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform in overall smartphone share around the globe. Apple moved past Microsoft to become the third-largest deployed smartphone platform worldwide. RIM holds onto the number two spot worldwide, but Nokia is still number one.
HP Not Rolling Over On Cisco's Severed Ties
Monday's post was not the whole story as regards Hewlett-Packard's response to Cisco's impending termination of the partnership agreement between the two. While the statement HP e-mailed me might create the perception that it's a mature--albeit wilting--flower, shying away from a good fight, a look beneath the sur
Will Palm Survive 2010?
Palm's stock has declined from a high of over $17 in October to just over $8.50 as of this morning. What's behind the halving of Palm's value? Well, tepid sales of its webOS smartphones are one factor. Its low stockpile of cash isn't helping either. Can the ailing company make it through the year without being absorbed by a competitor?
Open Text Buying Nstein, TechCrunch Misreports
Enterprise content management vendor Open Text's planned acquisition of ECM + text-mining provider Nstein is significant text-analytics/publishing/content-management news. It gained the attention of TechCrunch, which managed to misreport the story. Here's my analysis of the news with a look at TechCrunch's mis-telling...
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