Apple enthusiasts across the world are having a big week as Apple releases the long awaited iOS5 update, and the iCloud service in one go. Apple also released a fairly bulky Mac OS X upgrade, which in addition to iCloud support also includes a few other improvements, like the ability to rearrange spaces in Mission Control, and bigger icons in Launchpad. Both iOS5 and the iCloud are major milestones for Apple. In addition to the iCloud support the iOS5 brings with it over 200 new features, most popular of which Read More

Zorin OS caught my attention through an attractive web site and an interesting video presentation. It is based on Ubuntu Linux and its aim appears to be to offer a friendly user experience to everyone, including those coming from Windows and Mac OS. The way it is presented implies the kind of professionalism that I typically expect to see from those who take building a good user experience and a quality product seriously. Zorin OS is available in Free and Premium versions, but the only difference between them is that Read More

Google silently released Panda 2.5 this week, and the smell has polluted the web.  This latest revision of Google’s much-maligned machine learning algorithm has identified and punished such evil spammers as Technorati, GamerPro, and MotorTrend. According to SearchMetrics, Technorati lost 73% of it’s search engine visibility in Google, GamePro lost 65%, and MotorTrend lost 31%.  Obviously these sites are not spammers.  Google’s little machine is seriously broken and no one inside the GooglePlex seems serious about fixing it. Panda 1.0 rolled out in February with serious bugs, notably decimating quality Read More

Virtualization technology was initially embraced by large enterprises.  These large IT shops had the resources to invest in the hardware, software, consulting, and training necessary to take advantage of virtualization technology.  These early adopters paid the price in terms of high costs for virtualization software and early blade servers, and also in terms of dealing with the inevitable bugs that accompany any new technology.  On the other hand, these early adopters also benefited significantly from the reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) which is made possible by virtualization.  They saw Read More

One of the novelties coming with Windows 8 is support for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) secure boot protocol which, when enabled, requires the boot loader of an operating system to provide a certified signing key in order to be allowed to boot. In fact, Microsoft made enabling secure boot by default a requirement for vendors who participate in the Windows 8 logo program, meaning that all PCs coming with Windows 8 pre-installed or branded as Windows 8 ready will come with secure boot enabled by default. The reasoning behind Read More

Last week Microsoft blessed us with the most detailed presentation of Windows 8 in a keynote that was a part of its BUILD developer conference. Attendees were given a free Samsung preview tablet with Windows 8 pre-installed, and everyone else was offered a free download of the Windows 8 Developer Preview from Microsoft Developer Network site. As many have said, and as is pretty obvious, Windows 8 is a pretty dramatic shift for Windows since it adds an entirely new user interface on top of Windows we’ve become used to. Read More

The trend of new processors increasing performance while decreasing power consumption continues unabated, and Intel just presented just one of the latest examples. On its Intel Developers Conference they demonstrated the new Haswell architecture, to become available in 2013, which will consume so little power that it would allow a notebook based on it to run for 24h on a single charge in use, and whopping 10 days on connected standby. In fact, the power consumption is so low that the notebook could remain connected to Wi-Fi and fetch updates, Read More

When I first read about the Google Verizon deal, in this highly hyperbolical article, I had to laugh at all the outcry about Google betraying the net neutrality cause to follow its own corporate interests. The naiveté of some people is just extraordinary, and perhaps deserves to be laughed at. Who would've thought that a big corporation would betray a "goodie" cause the first time their interests demand it? I would think everybody would think that, but we're apparently not living in a very sane world. It reminds somewhat of Read More

Here are three great reasons to buy a new laptop now. These don’t even include the fourth great reason — you want one! The Great Recession The “Great” Recession has pushed so many buyers out of the marketplace that manufacturers, distributors, and resellers are all pushing their margins to razor thin levels — or even operating below margin just to keep the doors open. Unless you are one of the 9.2% of Americans, who are currently unemployed, this can actually be to your advantage. Not only are the store aisles Read More

A recently released TED Talk given by Kevin Slavin of Area/Code, a company that makes “cross-media games and entertainment”, demonstrates the extent to which our world is being shaped by algorithms. He uses an example of financial markets 70% of which are apparently ran by so called “black box trading” or “algo trading” where algorithms decide on what to buy or sell, when, and for how much. He mentions the “flash crash of 2:45”, a sudden 5 minute dip in the markets the cause of which is still being debated. Read More