Applications

Adobe on Tuesday announced pre-release betas of Flash Player 10.1 and Air 2. The technologies have been enhanced to enable access to online video on any platform, including smartphones. They will also help provide a single, unified application development platform for online apps. Flash Player 10.1 ...

The scales of justice definitely don't tip in grayscale's favor when it comes to the overall e-reader device experience for consumers. Whether it's an Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader or Barnes & Noble Nook, 16-level grayscale means nothing more than a digital version of the weather in Seattle between...

Microsoft on Monday announced the worldwide release of Exchange Server 2010. Exchange Server 2010 is at the heart of Microsoft's unified communications push. The idea behind unified communications is to let users contact other people based on their availability and communicate with them in the best ...

Cisco has introduced new technologies to its collaboration platform -- a product portfolio that encompasses its telepresence, unified communications and WebEx solutions. Among the additions are new hosted email offerings and integration with enterprise social software. The enhancements leverage real...

Last month was fascinating for me. Not only was Windows 7 launched, but it appeared last week that because so many Mac users were installing Windows 7, some huge enterprise servers crashed. In addition, I got a chance to see Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz in action, and was both impressed with her an...

Google on Wednesday announced the beta release of a GPS navigation application for Android 2.0 devices. The application is part of Google Maps for mobile. Android version 2.0 will appear on the upcoming Droid handset from Motorola and Verizon, and other manufacturers also plan to release handsets ca...

I really was anticipating a battle royal between Microsoft and Apple and thought both companies would come to the mat with their best stuff. It felt like Apple was so focused on maintaining high margins last quarter that it gave up a huge chance to grow share, and its stealth launch of a couple of P...

Public betas of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Office 2010 will become available in November, CEO Steve Ballmer told the crowd attending Microsoft's SharePoint conference in Las Vegas on Monday. Touting SharePoint Server 2010 as the biggest and most important release of SharePoint to date, Bal...

The life of a worker ant in a cubicle farm may offer its unique challenges -- how else to explain the popularity of "Office Space" reruns on cable TV? -- but the world of office productivity software and applications is turning out to be anything but boring. The latest example: the Monday announceme...

Even in the best of times, job hunting is a taxing task, but in these economic conditions, it can be a crushing experience. Fruitless replies to job notices, dead-end interviews and inhuman human resource departments can grind a job seekers' resolve to dust. One way to beat the no-job blues is to p...

Microsoft on Thursday launched an early technical preview program for Microsoft Office Web Apps -- lightweight versions of its Office suite of applications. Participation is by invitation only, and the preview is initially available in English and Japanese. It will be available in additional languag...

Microsoft's been working hard to build a positive buzz around the release to manufacturing of Windows 7, but there remain a few flies in the ointment. Many enterprises may decide to wait until the first service pack comes out in about six months before moving to Windows 7. Also, complaints have alre...

Not content with battling Google on the search front, Microsoft now plans to offer a free, lightweight Web version of its Office productivity suite. The Web app will come as part of the next major release, Microsoft said, as it announced that Office 2010 was entering an invite-only technical preview...

OPINION

Is the Chrome OS an Apple Killer?

You betcha. OK, I'm just kidding -- but in most markets that are divided like the PC market, where one vendor has 90 percent and the other 10 percent, a well-funded competitor would likely take out the 10 percent vendor on the way to taking on the 90 percent vendor. However, as I look at this, I thi...

Business transaction management has been getting a lot of attention lately: IT organizations want it, and every major vendor in systems and performance management has rushed to claim they do it. The promise of BTM is to finally be able to manage IT from a business perspective and make sense of the c...

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