Stories about: Apple

A hat-trick of technology stories has caught my attention in recent weeks. The first one was Google launching its App Engine, essentially a competitor to Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) web-based environment and Microsoft's tranche of Live services. It's an environment where you're again using external systems for processing and storage. Interesting, but CIOs will quite rightly ask what the benefit is for them.

Last month CIO.com sister publication PCWorld.com posted an article entitled "BlackBerry Bold Beats iPhone to the 3G Punch." The story was written to announce the official unveiling of RIM's latest-and greatest to date-BlackBerry smartphone, but it rubbed me the wrong way from the start.

They don't call 'em CrackBerrys for nothing.

As the dynamic duo steering Microsoft together for the past 28 years, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have been a near-unstoppable team, combining Gates's technical vision and will to power with Ballmer's salesmanship and rousing, if polarizing, personality.

With the unveiling of Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry Bold in May and Apple's next-generation iPhone 3G a month later, there's been a lot of hype around third-generation (3G) data connections for smartphones. Frankly, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

After months of speculation, Apple this week unveiled its next-generation smartphone, the iPhone 3G and solidified its push into the enterprise mobile space with a spattering of business-specific announcements. But how well did these enhancements to the uber-popular device and its software measure up to enterprise users' expectations?

The blogosphere has been all abuzz lately with iPhone and BlackBerry hype.

Derek Gannon has a state-of-the-art Apple MacBook Air on his desk when we meet at Guardian News & Media's London offices on the busy Farringdon Road. "I like to play with new things," Gannon says, while agreeing that, like the newspaper group that employs him as chief operating officer, Apple has a brand seen as fashionable, liberal and, some would say, design-led.

Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphone, which has traditionally been known as a business device, made its first foray into the vast consumer mobile phone space back in 2006 when it debuted the sleek and shiny BlackBerry Pearl 8100. Since then, the company has continued into the land of consumer gadgets, launching the Curve 8300 in May 2007 and its newest device, the Bold 9000, is expected this US summer-both of which feature digital cameras, Wi-Fi, and media players.

Though Apple continues to be coy regarding business-minded tweaks to the next iPhone, slated for unveiling next week, enterprise users have plans of their own: They want the iPhone--even if the IT department's still a bit weary.

Classrooms need to adapt to serve students who are plugged in online as never before, and corporations will need to adjust to the "thumb generation" and its thirst for connectivity and numerous computing devices, a new report says.