Cisco is pulling the plug on its Cius tablet. Despite the fact that the Cius never really went head to head with more consumer-centric tablets, the Cisco device is nevertheless the latest victim of the iPad's dominance.

AOL announced that it has closed a deal to sell more than 800 patents to Microsoft. The deal is just north of a billion dollars, and it's easy to see why AOL might want to cash in on the intellectual property. What is less clear is why Microsoft is interested in the patent portfolio, or what Microsoft gains from the deal.

Linux is awesome. It's a powerful, capable, flexible operating system with tremendous potential. But, it's never going to be a factor on the desktop, so don't even waste your time considering it.

Dell is committed to joining the tablet fray once again--this time with Windows 8 tablets aimed at going head-to-head with the Apple iPad.

I think the idea of the "post-PC era" needs some clarification. There is much hoopla and fanfare being dedicated to dwindling PC sales, and the idea that tablets - specifically the Apple iPad - are going to be the death knell for PCs. It's not a "death", it's an "evolution" and the tablet is just the new PC.

These new and improved features in Windows Server 8 will make many Windows administrators very happy.

The Amazon Kindle Fire is living up to its name by setting the tablet market on fire. Pre-orders of the as yet unreleased tablet have been phenomenal. The success of the Kindle Fire, however, puts Android tablets in general between a rock and a hard place.

Today is Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday for the month of November--the eleventh Patch Tuesday of 2011. It is a light month from Microsoft, with only four security bulletins. The big news, though, is that a zero day flaw being exploited by the Duqu worm is not among the vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft today.

Over the weekend I wrote an article titled "What If Steve Jobs Is Right?" As the title implies, the post was a hypothetical look at the possibility that Steve Jobs' assertion that Android is a "stolen product" is true.

Siri and I just met a few days ago. I think we're getting along pretty well so far (although she seems to get a bit testy and sarcastic when I ask her to "open the pod bay doors."). As great as Siri seems, though, Apple is calling this a beta and I can see why.

The head of Google's Android mobile OS, Andy Rubin, doesn't think your smartphone should be your personal assistant. In comments made during an interview at the AsiaD conference this week, Rubin downplayed the impact of Siri -- the voice interactive personal assistant included with the iPhone 4S.

BlackBerry users around the world have been impacted this week with service outages. RIM has offered an explanation of the problem, and it has apologized, but it is going to take more than a simple "We're sorry" for RIM to regain the faith of loyal customers.

Steve Jobs has passed away. The man was a unique genius who transformed the world because he believed he could.

With the attention on Apple this week and the unveiling of the iPhone 5...I mean iPhone 4S, it is easy to forget about other mobile devices. But, Microsoft is pushing out "Mango" to current Windows Phone 7 users, and new Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" devices will be hitting shelves soon as well--probably about the same time that the iPhone 4S officially launches.

In case you missed it, Apple held a little event today. While no iPhone 5 was unveiled, Apple did announce a retooled, and updated iPhone 4 - the iPhone 4S - which will be available on October 14.