Does the Netbook Have a Life?

The continued growth in cloud adoption may radically change netbook adoption rates. "As more organizations explore a virtualized desktop and cloud-based productivity options, the netbook could be an interesting conduit to a world featuring 'Everything as a Service' -- providing traditional I/O to enable productivity tasks, but at a lower-cost, more portable profile," explained Deloitte analyst William Briggs. Trends have always come and gone, but when it comes to all-things-tech, the speed of change is faster than an Internet minute. It isn't that tech users are all that fickle; it's that the environment around them is constantly changing. Take...

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LG iPhone Looks Fat and Dull

Leaked photos of an LG Android smartphone supposedly called the "B" reveal what could be the slimmest smartphone yet -- even skinnier than the iPhone 4. The screen also appears to be extremely bright. "Everybody's searching for ways, however big or small, to one-up the iPhone, which is supposed to be the slimmest device," Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC, told LinuxInsider. Hot on the heels of its announcement of the Optimus 2X smartphone this week, LG is reported to be working on yet another Android mobile phone. The new, ulta-thin phone will be known as the "B," according to Phandroid. LG itself has been somewhat coy regarding the smartphone....

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UK Plan to Filter Porn

UK Communications Minister Ed Vaizey plans to ask for ISPs' help in keeping pornographic content on the Internet out of reach of minors. However, his plans, which could involve requiring users to opt in if they want access to the Web's adult side, have been questioned on technical grounds. Critics see a wide array of shortcomings, from defining pornography to imperfect automatic tools for weeding it out. The British government has joined China, Iran and Australia in seeking to actively restrict access to certain portions of the Internet. Communications officials have revealed plans to ask Internet service providers in the UK to restrict access...

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Microsoft launches a new online multiplayer game

Microsoft has kicked off an open beta of a new multiplayer game called Neosaurs, which it is attempting to propogate virally via Twitter and Facebook.The open beta commenced on December 9, according to the Web site for the game. “Neosaurs is a new massively multiplayer RPG (MMORPG) adventure that you can play, right here in your browser for free! No downloads, no wait times. Click ‘Play Now’ to jump in the game and start playing right away with your existing Facebook or Windows Live account,” according to the Web page.I asked Microsoft about Neosaurs and received the following statement from a spokesperson: “Neosaurs is a new game under development...

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Dell precision workstation

Usually tucked under the desk in a tiny cubicle, the humble workstation gets no love when it comes to industrial design. But the last bastion of the beige box may be getting a rather nice face lift, courtesy of Dell, if some images found on the Internet and supplied to Engadget are the real deal. As the above image shows, Dell has designed a workstation that looks like it borrowed some touches from sister company Alienware’s gaming PCs — a healthy dollop of red accents and some streamlined styling. It may not qualify as looking full-out “sexy,” but for a corporate machine, it’s about as close as it gets. The image are apparently updates to Dell’s...

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Google and its Chrome OS users

Google isn’t telling me any secrets about its plans for Chrome OS. Indeed, I’m not even one of the 60,000 or so people that Google has given a Cr-48 Chromebook prototype to play with. Even so, unlike my good friend Mary Jo Foley, I think I know exactly who Google has in mind for its Chrome OS Linux desktop system. I see Google as targeting two different, very different, audiences with Chrome OS. The first group are office workers. The other is those hundreds of millions, perhaps a billion plus, users who really don’t know the first thing about to use a computer safely even as they use them every day. In this set-up, a company would pay Google...

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Hacks and the Linux-Free PS3

It's not clear why Linux fans would even want to run it on a PS3, "when a console is NOTHING but 'DRM... in a box'" says Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. "Even when [Sony] allowed Linux you didn't get access to the full machine -- no GPU access -- which left it an underpowered POWER based PC." "Never get between a geek and a processor" would be an excellent maxim for tech companies to live by, but it's one that gets ignored again and again. Take Sony's (NYSE: SNE) latest misguided move. Not only is it what inspired Montreal consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack to utter those sage words, but it's also what has now prompted George Hotz -- author...

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PO'ed PS3 User Sues Sony for Nixing Linux

When the PlayStation 3 originally went to market more than three years ago, users had the option of installing an alternate OS, like Linux, if they so chose. Lately, however, Sony decided to dump that feature on grounds that it enabled piracy. Now Anthony Ventura, a user from California, has launched a proposed class-action suit against Sony alleging deceptive business practices. Less than a month after Sony (NYSE: SNE) dropped Linux support from its PlayStation 3  gaming console, a disgruntled customer has filed a lawsuit, charging that the move was a deceptive business practice. He's seeking class-action status. Sony Computer Entertainment...

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Switching from PC to Mac and back

We live in a cross-platform world. Windows-powered PCs still dominate in the workplace, but Macs have captured substantial market share and even greater mind share among the affluent and well connected. As I explained two weeks ago, I’m running a PC and a Mac side by side as part of a long-term commitment to developing more expertise in Apple’s platform and, along the way, helping my readers bridge the Mac-PC gap more smoothly. So far, it’s been a mostly delightful, if occasionally challenging experience. Although I’ve owned a Mac for several years, I’ve probably used this one more in the past two weeks than I have in the past six months combined....

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Could Wikileaks cause World War III

It’s a simple, one syllable word. If you think about it, trust is all that stands between us and terrible circumstance, whether that’s the breakup of a family or total, nuclear Armageddon. Trust is vitally important to the operations of nations and governments, as well. Not everyone, for example, is entrusted with America’s nuclear codes. Not everyone is entrusted with the command of virtually independent nuclear ballistic missile submarines. And not everyone is entrusted with secret government documents. For many things, trust has to be selective. It’s not a good idea, as an example, to put controlling nuclear weapons on the honor system. My...

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