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For those familiar with traditional thin-client computing, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions feel virtually like old home week with a couple of notable exceptions. First, rather than depending on dedicated data center-to-desktop hardware resources (a conventional model that is mostly on the wane), VDI leverages server, storage and net...

There's been a lot of talk recently about how BPM is gaining traction across a wide variety of industry verticals. BPM's surge is part of the larger trend of agile development; organizations are weary of growing top-heavy and employing a number of individuals to perform tedious, manual processes that could easily be handled by a single person if they had greater visibility into the complete processes and tools to automate all or certain portions of it...

We might never get to the point of having a Jetsons-like kitchen that prepares our meals for us, but some recent advances in kitchen technology are getting close to that Programmable ovens and stoves with pre-set recipes and instructions for various dishes, for instance, take much of the guesswork out of making a meal. In this way, Wolf's convectio...

Dan Loeb is not letting up the pressure on Yahoo, its board of directors or, most certainly, its CEO, Scott Thompson. Loeb, manager and founder of Third Point, a hedge fund that owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo, has demanded more information about the process that led to the hiring of Thompson, after charging last week that the CEOdid not have a ...

Verizon Wireless has reportedly entered a multi-year partnership with Color, the Palo Alto company launched last year by serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen of Lala fame Color offers an app for the iPhone and Android that lets users broadcast live video clips 30 seconds long to their Facebook friends....

As if the remote home monitoring and automation market weren't crowded enough already with players like ADT and utility companies with their smart meters, AT&T announced on Monday plans for entering the arena It will offer consumers Web-based access to automation tools for their home energy and water controls, as well as professionally monitored se...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is urging Internet companies to provide back doors that facilitate online surveillance, according to a Cnet report. The bureau reportedly aims to increase the amount of data they can collect through online channels. [*Correction - May 7, 2012] Because of a shift in popular communication methods - from phone...

The jury hearing the Google-Oracle copyright violation and patent infringement case is expected to return a verdict on the first phase of the trial -- possibly a partial verdict -- as early as Monday. The jurors retreated to consider the charges last week, after attorneys for Oracle and Google delivered their final arguments. Oracle alleges that G...

Targeted attacks on organizations and Web-born infections like the recent Flashback outbreak on Macintosh computers will continue to poison the security landscape in 2012, according to John Harrison, Symantec group product manager for endpoint threat protection and security technology and response Targeted attacks -- attacks aimed at specific indiv...

This occurred to me last Thursday when first-quarter PC sales came out. Apparently, sales are up 21 percent year-over-year and HP retook the lead from Apple in this segment. In this report, Apple's numbers include iPads, and sales for iPads collapsed in the first quarter. This got me thinking of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail w...

By 2016, tablet PCs will reach an inflection point, a new study predicts: That is the year tablet shipments are predicted to outpace those of notebook PCs That is one prediction in the quarterly NPD DisplaySearch Tablet Quarterly report, which also forecasts that shipments of tablet PCs will grow from 81.6 million units in 2011 to 424.9 million uni...

The chain of troubles plaguing Nokia grew longer this week with news that class-action litigation giant Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd has filed suit against the firm alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 The complaint can be summed up thusly: Nokia said its shift to Windows Phone 7 would halt its slide in the smartphone market, ...

A new video card from Nvidia or competitor AMD isn't usually all that newsworthy, but when the latest card arrives with eight Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), and a total of 4 GB of GDDR5 video memory that runs at 6.008 GHz over two 256-bit memory, that is enough for hard-core enthusiasts to take pause ...

A fresh blight has struck Yahoo, which continues to flounder as management slashes its workforce in a bid to put the ailing company back on its feet. The resume of recently hired CEO Scott Thompson claims he holds a college degree that he never actually earned The news erupted on Thursday in the midst of a proxy fight for control of Yahoo's board.

Facebook announced an estimated price for its long-awaited initial public offering Thursday, setting a range of US$28 to $35 per share. The top end of its estimate would give the social network a valuation of $96 billion. The company's upcoming roadshow starts Monday and will stop in major U.S. cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and San Fr...

The U.S. Federal Communication Commission may have settled for a gentle slap to Google's wrist after investigating alleged violations of the federal Wiretrap Act via its Street View program, but Google's legal woes stemming from that issue are far from over. Europe reportedly is preparing to look at allegations that Google employees may have known...

The British government will discuss new measures to restrict children's access to Internet pornography Under consideration is a plan that would require parents to explicitly enable pornography....

Research In Motion's investors did not seem pleased with the company's latest endeavor, BlackBerry 10, which CEO Thorsten Heins unveiled at its BlackBerry World 2012 conference in Orlando, Fla., earlier this week. As the new operating system made its debut, the device maker's stock dropped on the Toronto Stock Exchange approximately 15 percent -- ...

Imagine walking into a department store on a Wednesday morning and spotting a pair of shoes you feel that you must acquire, or life will have no meaning. You excitedly ask the sales rep if you can try on a pair in your size and she says, "Sure, why don't you come back on Friday?" That deflating experience occurs all the time on the Web, Ken Krogue,...

Shazam Encore, an app from Shazam Entertainment Limited, is available for US$4.99 at Google Play. I have to confess to being a little unfair on the Shazam Encore app for its first LinuxInsider test. It is supposed to identify songs you're listening to, and tell you the artists' names and lyrics and more.