Network World

Summer Travel Tips: 12 Terrific Gadgets

It's summer: Time to get out from under all your work e-mail and all the tweets on your smartphone, and switch to a vacation state of mind. But before you go, take a look at this clutch of tech travel gadgets.

With one or more of our finds, you can say good-bye to travel stress. We have everything from waterproof HD camcorders to inexpensive noise-canceling headphones to mobile power packs.

Haven't started planning your vacation yet? Stop by some travel sites for some help.

Laptops With Epic Battery Life Keep You Working

These laptops and netbooks lasted at least 6.5 hours in PC World battery-life tests, making them ideal for the business traveler. 1

Microsoft Office 2010 highlights

Word 2010 sports the updated ribbon bar as well as the new Application button in place of the orb of Office 2007. Read the full report.

11 summer vacation ideas for geeks

The word "geek" might be considered an insult in some quarters, but we know geeks are just regular guys and gals – who might be a bit obsessed with electronics and various other intellectual pursuits. With that in mind, here are 11 summer vacation ideas designed for the geek within.

Also check out
The Geek Atlas: Terrific tech shrines
And don't forget
Your tech T-shirt 2

The Geek Atlas: Terrific Tech Shrines That Every Geek Should See

I seldom own a book that makes my fellow geeks here at PC World go wild when I show it to them, but John Graham-Cumming has done the trick with "The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive," available in both dead-tree and digital formats.

After getting permission from O'Reilly, his publisher, to feature the book in a slide show on PCWorld.com, I passed "The Geek Atlas" around the office, soliciting advice on which locations to feature. I had room for 10 to 12 choices. I got back yellow stickies on more than 50 described in the book.

In this slide show, I've concentrated on technology centers, which didn't give me room to discuss such fascinating places as the Sound Mirrors of Dungeness, England; The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany; or The Escher Museum of The Hague, Netherlands--among many other places described that have more of a science or art bent to them.

Here's just a sampling of the contents of this clever book, which not only gives you a description, photo, and Web site URL for each location but also supplies the longitude and latitude so that you can pinpoint exactly where in the world each place sits.

Let's start with the World War II code breakers of the United Kingdom. 1

From Palm Pilot to Palm Pre: A Brief History of Palm's Handhelds

Will the Palm Pre be the last in a storied line of products, or will it mark the beginning of a new era for the once and former Palm, Inc.?

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Websense, Sun, ProStor among others. 1

Windows 7 in Pictures: 10 Cool Desktop Features

Since the general beta release, Windows 7 has been through the testing ringer and has come out with mostly high marks for its speed, flexibility, user interface (UI) and networking features.

The starting point of all this UI efficiency is the revamped taskbar, which allows faster and easier management of application windows, while also adding some visual flair.

Some Windows 7 features that will unclutter navigation are clickable thumbnails that appear when you mouse over a taskbar button, jump lists and Aero Peek, which makes all windows transparent except the one you want to look at. On the networking side, HomeGroups links Windows 7 computers on your home network to share photos, music and videos through Media Streaming.

Here's our photo collection of 10 key interface and networking features new to Windows 7. 12

The Worst U.S. Cities to Work in IT

IT workers have their choice of many great U.S. cities for work and play (Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle), but what are the cities that you probably should avoid? Here's a very unscientific, highly subjective and unapologetically snarky list of our least favorite U.S. tech job locales. 17

The rise and fall of Nortel

For better or worse, Nortel as we know it is coming to an end. This week Avaya reportedly offered $500 million for the company's enterprise business, while the wireless assets will go to Nokia Siemens Networks for $650 million. The sad demise comes in spite of a history of ups and downs. 3

Tech tees release your inner nerd

Maybe you already wear your heart on your sleeve, but now you can wear your brain on your chest. A wide variety of tech-themed T-shirts are available from folks at Threadless, which describes itself as "a community-based tee shirt company with an ongoing, open call for design submissions." Here are some examples from the site that are unabashed in their nerdiness.

Wireless site survey

Company: AirMagnet
Product: Survey 6.0
Price: $4,695
Type: Predictive/Analytical
Skinny: A combined predictive/analytical powerhouse.

See test of these products.

Technology from the feds

Government research and development has resulted in many commercial products over the years, and here are a few examples in computer technology.

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Mainsoft, HP, Dell among others.

The Best and Worst of BlackBerry App World

Research in Motion's new BlackBerry store, called Blackberry App World, lets you buy and download any of a few hundred applications without connecting to a PC or creating a special account (it relies heavily on PayPal). What's worth getting--and what's not? Here's a collection of five cool BlackBerry apps and five clunkers. 1

iPhone 3.0 Software: What You'll See

It isn't hard for your iPhone to become cluttered with information, from contacts to calendar appointments, to nine pages worth of third-party applications. Spotlight search fixes this — simply move one page to the left of the Home Screen and you'll find a search box. Type in your keyword and it will bring up a unified list of search results. You can even customize your results, restricting the information to contacts, apps, notes, mail, calendar, and music or video. Unfortunately Spotlight won't search the contents of an e-mail, but it does bring up results for recipients and subject lines. 3

Gadgets for any kind of techie Dad

After Christmas, it seems the next-best season for the techy gadget crowd is June, with Father's Day, graduations (high school and college) and the start of summer all happening and presenting opportunities for people to buy other people gifts.
We've been inundated with pitches of the latest products for Dad, and we always enjoy trying out summer-related gadgets (since it's tough for us to try out grilling gadgets in the cold of November).

So if you're looking for something that goes beyond the normal "ugly tie", or even the typical gadget like a cell phone or digital camera, here are some ideas that piqued our interest. And if you are a techie Dad yourself, you can peruse the list and give ideas out to the people who will be buying you stuff.

For more ideas see our most recent Holiday Gift Guide. 2

5 things we love/hate about VMware's vSphere

VMware added loads of cmdlets to Microsoft's Powershell, and they continue VSPhere's theme of control and provisioning, plus limiting Vcloud sprawl.

Also: Read the full review

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from TripWire, Compuware, Lieberman among others.

The 10 Dumbest Tech Products So Far

New Coke. Chia pets. Ashton Kutcher. All are bad ideas that should have been snuffed out before they emerged into public consciousness. All are things that make you scratch your head and say, "What in God's name were they thinking?"

Unfortunately, the tech world is full of such ungainly monstrosities, from wireless displays that cost more than entire computers, to nausea-inducing game systems, and on to singing deer heads. We've dived into the Dumpster of tech history and returned to the surface clutching the worst of the worst--so far.

Join us as we count down 10 pieces of benighted technology that should never have seen the light of day. 12

A Guided Tour: Hands On With the Kindle DX

The Amazon Kindle DX comes off as surprisingly lean and elegant. Dominating the front is its 9.7-inch-diagonal E-Ink display, which can show 16 shades of gray (the same as the Kindle 2). The device measures 10.4 by 7.2 by 0.38 inches and weighs just 18.9 ounces. Like the Kindle 2, the Kindle DX has a keyboard, but it's awkward to type on. In my hands-on with the device, I came to appreciate much about its design. Even so, I still see some roadblocks ahead that could impede its wide adoption. The Kindle DX's cost is high ($489, more than some full-featured laptops cost), and newspapers on the device (at least, as presented at today's unveiling) lack the visual design and appeal of physical newspapers.

For more on the Kindle DX, see: "Video of the Kindle DX in Action," "Kindle DX: First Impressions of the Large Doc Reader," "Why Kindle DX Won't Save Newspapers," and ""Amazon Launches Larger-Screen Kindle DX E-Reader."

Are you a network know it all?

Maybe you're an IP addressing guru or DNS expert, but what if you jump into an unrelated project? Here's a quiz about a smattering of technologies to gauge the range of your knowledge. It's just for fun but keep score, and we'll rate you at the end. 2

In Pictures: Apple's New iPhone 3G S

Apple unveiled its next-generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G S, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco Monday. The updated device is said to be twice as fast as the current iPhone 3G model, with better battery life and a host of new features.

The iPhone 3G S will be available at the same price levels as its predecessor, though with higher amounts of storage: A 16GB version will sell for $199, and a 32GB phone will go for $299. Both models will require a new two-year AT&T service commitment for those prices to apply.

Apple's iPhone 3G S hits store shelves in the U.S. next Friday, June 19. The phones will be carried at Apple and AT&T retail locations as well as at Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. The new iPhone will also reach more than 80 other countries over the coming weeks.

While ongoing rumors of a scaled-down "iPhone Nano" didn't pan out, Apple will now offer a $99 iPhone, too: As of this week, the iPhone 3G 8GB model will drop down to that price, lending some validity to the recent predictions of a lower-priced iPhone option,

The 3G's price drop may be buzzworthy, but it's the iPhone 3G S that's the talk of the tech world today. We've broken down Apple's new offering into an easy-to-digest photo tour. Click through the following pages to get a glimpse at the next-generation iPhone and what it can do, then make your own decision as to whether it's the right smartphone for you.

PC World coverage of the 2009 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference:

New iPhones, New MacBook Pros, Snow Leopard, and iPhone 3.0 Unveiled at WWDC

WWDC 2009 Keynote: Complete Live Blog of the Event

Apple's WWDC -- Few Surprises, Few Innovations

Apple Adds Exchange Support to Snow Leopard

Apple Should Cut Price of iPod Touch Too

WWDC Highlights: A Closer Look at Apple's Newest Products

Apple took the wraps off its next generation iPhone at  Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco . It also unveiled new MacBook Pros, announced updates to Mac OS Snow Leopard  and Server software, and lastly made Safari 4 available for PC users.

There was no Steve Jobs, as some had  hoped and predicted. In fact some were wondering,  is that it?

Here is a roundup of what was announced.

See Related: In Pictures: Apple's New iPhone 3GS

Forget iPhone 3G S: Eight Great New iPhone Alternatives

Description: Apple's new iPhone 3G S looks just like earlier iPhone models, but its belly is full of new innovations. Specifically, there's now a 32GB version; a new 3.0 megapixel camera with video capture and autofocus; a built-in compass feature, which integrates with Apple's native Maps app; and "better" battery life.

Pricing: $199 with new two-year AT&T service agreement, 16GB; $299 with two-year contract, 32GB.

Availability: June 19, 2009 in the U.S.

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Trend Micro, Juniper, Voltaire among others.

World's Most Outrageous PC Cases

Without a doubt, the desktop PC is falling out of favor as the world gravitates to equally powerful laptops and ultraportables. But some people out there will never turn in their towers of power: case modders. Members of this PC subculture are all about breaking away from boring black (or beige) boxes and building creations that better suit their individual personalities.

And I'm not talking about slapping a few decals on the side of the box. (Or even building a PC from standard parts.) These people have taken their PCs to the extreme by packing components into antiques, toy figurines, and even custom cases assembled from the ground up. Underneath the hood, these works of genius have powerful processors, wild graphics cards, and gigantic storage capacities.

This slide show of inspiring modding madness features disc-eating robots, nuclear reactors, steampunk specialties, and a project by deconstructionist modders who prefer to have no case at all.

So, what do you do on your weekends?

iPhone 3G and Palm Pre: Head-to-Head

The iPhone 3G (right) and the Palm Pre both have a multitouch screen; both have similar feature sets and are used in a similar manner. But they are distinctly different. If you’re already accustomed to the iPhone but considering moving to the Pre, you can expect to relearn some actions. Let's have a look at some of the subtle differences in usability and layout of the two phones.

Note: Apple is expected to preview a new iPhone OS 3.0 at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference. This story compares iPhone OS 2.2.1 with Palm’s webOS. 2

2009's Summer Smartphone Blockbusters

Although summer is traditionally the time when movie studios release their big blockbuster movies, it is also becoming a time when device manufacturers release their marquee smartphones. This year many device manufacturers have seemingly timed news about their big smartphones to coincide with Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where much-hyped updates to the iPhone have become annual fixtures. In this slideshow we'll preview the most hotly-anticipated smartphones expected to be released this summer, complete with information about their pricing, their operating systems and what carriers they'll run on. 3

Palm Pre: An Inside Look at Its Hardware and Software

The Palm Pre smartphone has built up tremendous tech buzz over the past few months. It doesn't disappoint: The $200 phone (with a two-year Sprint contract) has a slick design, and an even slicker interface. The Pre's gorgeous, 3.1-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive touch display dominates the phone, sitting front and center. Running along the the bottom of the home screen is the phone's Quick Launch bar, which gives you fast access to frequently used functions such as e-mail, contacts, the calendar, or any shortcut of your choosing.

Computex: Asus Unveils Stylish Eee PC Laptops, Desktops, and Some Surprises

Asus continues to throw the Eee spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks--and for the most part, that's not a bad thing.

First up in our coverage: an upate to the company's Seashell-inspired Eee PC series. The 10.1-inch Eee PC 1008HA and Eee PC 1005HA Seashell models are quite recent, and now the company has unveiled a new model equipped with an 11.6-inch screen. Asus says that the 1101HA's Z520 or Z530 Menlow processor helps it achieve about 11 hours of battery life, but the new system is unlikely to keep pace with Seashell models that use Atom N270/N280 chips. Other specs include 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard disk, and possibly the option of either a 9.5-hour or an 11-hour six-cell battery. No word yet on pricing or availability in the United States.

Asus also unveiled the 1101HGO and 1005HGO, essentially the same models as above but with integrated WiMax or 3G networking. One of the tech staffers at the booth suggested that Asus might be working with AT&T on certification for the latter.

Facebook Updates: What Kind Do You Write?

Our lives may be full, and our experiences rich, but when it comes to squeezing the latest mini-chapters of our personal journeys into the limited space of a Facebook status update--with the added pressures of being clever, looking cool, sounding interesting, and eliciting responses--there are only so many ways to tell the folks on our social networks all about it. You begin see the same stuff over and over again: "Sean is hungry." "Chris is tired." "Ann is in a boring meeting." "Bob had a crazy dream." "Jane needs to study."

English professors claim that there are relatively few distinct story plots, and that every piece of literature is just a retelling of one of those narrative archetypes. I'm convinced that the same is true of the things people write in their Facebook status updates. On the following pages you'll meet some of the most common "archetypes" I've recorded so far. 1

E3: Back and Better Than Ever

A lot of game-industry navel gazers bemoaned the rebirth of the old big-tent, 300-ring circus that is the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Well, the show hasn't even officially opened its doors yet, and this shot alone screams, "We're back!"

Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr took center stage at Microsoft's event to help kick off E3--and say a few choice words about The Beatles: Rock Band game, which hits stores on 9/9/2009. Besides listening to the select songs that follow The Beatles' career, users will also be able to download full albums.

Oh, and for all those who want to feel good about playing games: Xbox 360 owners will be able to download "All You Need Is Love," and all proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders.

5 famous spies and their techie ties

They betrayed the U.S. – and here’s how technology played a role

So you think you know Apple?

Whether you love Apple or could live without it, the company holds an iconic place in IT history. Most people think they know that history pretty well. But here are 10 trivia questions with answers that might surprise you. After you take the quiz, head over to Yoni Heisler's iOnApple blog and share your score. 3

Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown

In the arena of world-class search, can Bing bring the hurt to Google and Yahoo? Microsoft's newest search engine comes packed with search tools such as an Explorer Pane for refining searches, Quick Previews for sneaking a peek at a site before visiting it, and Sentiment Extraction for making sense of product reviews.

Google and Yahoo, meanwhile, are no chumps. Google has outwitted its competitors by delivering solid search results and cool tools such as Street Views. Yahoo has done a masterful job of integrating search results with its rich network of Yahoo content. Search for the musician Sting within Yahoo, and presto--you're watching Yahoo music videos or listening to streaming audio of Sting singing "Desert Rose" from within your search results.

How do these services stack up against each other? Bing targets four categories of search: shopping, local, travel, and health. In a highly subjective comparison, I tested Bing, Google, and Yahoo in these areas and in others. 1

The Stars of SkyMall

You're on a cross-country flight. You left your book at home. The in-flight movie is Ishtar. You're bored with the stuff on your iPod. So in desperation you reach for the SkyMall catalog located in the seat pouch in front of you. We've done this often enough to know that the catalog contains some genuinely interesting-looking products. Many of these come from well-known name brands, and they really work. But SkyMall also sells plenty of nichy, even wacky, products. We selected some of the most intriguing of these, ordered them from SkyMall, and asked our editors to try them out and review them. As you'll see, not all of the products received glowing reviews, but then again that wasn't really the point. Finally, we'd like to thank the nice people at SkyMall for cheerfully providing us with the information and demo products we needed to put this collection of mini-reviews together.

Check out some of these products in action in our video of SkyMall treats, hosted by Senior Associate Editor Mark Sullivan. 3

The World's Weirdest Mice

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door,” the cliché says. Try to build a better mouse, though, and there’s a good chance that people will smile nervously and edge away from your door. At least, that’s the case with many of the “improved” mice we found – they’re not so much better as just plain weirder. And then there are the mice–three of them!–that might just get you fired. Read on for more about the Peep Hole Mouse, the Busty Mouse, and the Instant RSI Mouse.

When you’re done, you might be interested in these other compendiums of oddball technology:

The World’s Weirdest Keyboards

The Stars of Sky Mall

Weird and Wonderful Case Mods

The Sims 3: Breathlessly Anticipated, Masterfully Executed

It's shiny, sexy, and perplexingly emerald-green, but more than anything, The Sims 3 -- Electronic Arts' groomed and gussied-up digital dollhouse -- is intrepid and wonderful. Wonderful, because it's finally the game the original aspired to be, a sprawling valley-sized slice of virtual reality that's yours to tinker with entirely, no longer hemmed in by invisible barriers or repetitious characters. Intrepid, because its decked-out catalog of deceptively mundane activities illustrates even better how a game where you "tinker with the uneventful" can be so much more eventful than others conventionally packed with explosions, aliens, and magic swords.

Surprisingly, EA didn't mess with core series values, but then, it didn't have to. When your premise hasn't changed ("strategic life simulation") the writing's on the wall: Give your base an order of magnitude more to fiddle with, pretty it up, and make all that "extra" even easier to manipulate. Because it does, The Sims 3 represents a triumph of synthesis and style, an evolutionary leap rooted in progressive customizability, a gracefully architected interface, and several strikingly deep creative tools. Want the year's most compulsively playable, demographically far-flung PC game? You've found it.

5 things we love/hate about Win 7/Windows Server 2008 R2

We love that Windows 2008 R2's Hyper-V can finally slide a virtual machine from one server host to another. This feature has been years in the making, and it's not totally perfect, but after intense configuration, it's plainly do-able. Although VMware's vSphere has raised the bar, Microsoft is catching up quickly to VMware. 8

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from FastScale, HP and Sun among others.

Bing: A Visual Tour of What's New

Microsoft has replaced Live Search with a new brand: Bing. The new Microsoft search destination is in part an overhaul of Live Search and in part a renovation of Microsoft’s search technology. According to Microsoft, Bing lets you find Web content fast and excels at refining searches so that you can unearth the lowest airfares, discover reviews of neighborhood boutiques, or track down reliable health information from the Mayo Clinic.

Here is a slideshow overview of the Bing.

For additional detailed coverage, see Hands On With Bing, Microsoft's New Search Engine. 5

9 management apps that won’t bust your budget

Savvy IT professionals know that open source management applications can be excellent go-to tools when budget dollars are scarce. Plus, many open source tools have advanced to handle enterprise environments, say industry watchers. (See related story, "Why invest in open source management apps now?") Here are nine tools that could help ease an IT pain point at no cost. 7

10 amazing gadgets you can't get here

Sometimes the kids in Asia and Europe seem to get all the best toys. Though that isn't really true, you can find some wicked-cool gear over there (such as the high-design headphones pictured to the left) that you simply can't get here--at least, not yet. We've selected 10 of the most cutting-edge gadgets available west and east of the continental United States. Some will be arriving stateside shortly. Others you may be able to order from specialty importers. But the rest you'll only be able to dream about.

Star Trek Gear Fit for a Trekkie Lifestyle

Real Trekkies don’t just settle for a James T. Kirk action figure, they plop down $2,200 for a replica of Captain Kirk's chair from the bridge of the starship Enterprise.

With recent opening of the next Star Trek movie, we decided it's time to help Trekkies get serious about their obsession by putting together a collection of inspirational Star Trek gear. Mind you, this is not memorabilia, but Trek gear for everyday use.

You may want to cool your warp-drive engines, however, because, sadly, not everything assembled here is for sale--so please don’t blame us if you can’t find that Star Trek USB Web Cam shaped like the Enterprise. The good news is that you can spork over just $20 for a Star Trek eating utensil. 1

WiMAX changes lives in rural Thailand

Dr. Thongchai Yooyativong, dean of the school of information technology at Mae Fah Luang University, is leading the charge to bring broadband to the school and its environs. 6

Products to be shown at Interop

Key features: A less expensive WSE, aimed at midsized enterprises. The appliance hosts Cisco and third-party applications making use of a Cisco API that lets them collect wireless LAN data from access points and controllers. That data is correlated and blended by these applications for jobs such as network security monitoring, location tracking and other location-based services, and network and application performance. More info.

Related story: Cisco's Interop wireless grab bag of products  

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Nortel, Adtran, Trend Micro among others.

Where the IT jobs are: 10 American cities

Some signs of economic recovery are emerging and a variety of organizations in some of the biggest U.S. cities are seeing demand for IT professionals, according to high-tech career industry watchers. Here we list cities currently in need of IT professionals (according to Dice); salary information for the areas (according to PayScale); and a few reasons why IT pros might want to search for work there. 9

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from HP, 3Com, Brocade among others.

10 tech-inspired Mother’s Day gifts

If you're looking for a gift for your mom -- or something for your kids to give their mom -- check out these nine tech-inspired options. You'll find something for all budgets and levels of effort. There's even a Tetris-inspired ice cube tray. 3

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Axxana, Ring Cube, Novell among others.

Death of the mouse

New touchscreen and voice recognition technologies could make the mouse obsolete. Here are some products that don't require pointing and clicking. 19

Viva La Mouse!

Innovations in voice and speech technologies may make the mouse obsolete, but we've seen plenty of innovations in the way we use our hand to provide input for our PCs. Here's a bunch of our favorites, as well as a look at the latest mice that make us happy.

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Netgear, HP, CA among others. 1

It Takes a Village Idiot: The Jerks of Online Forums

Online comment forums create ample opportunity for behavior of such extreme jerkitude that it can drive even the most patient Netizens batty. You know what I'm talking about: The know-it-alls, fight-starters, and doctrinaire zealots who seem to frequent every message board on the entire 'Interwebs', using any and every topic as a springboard for their sociopathic gratification. We've sifted through pages of forum messages to find the most absolutely asinine tactics. So get ready to cringe: On the pages that follow you'll meet our nominees for the 12 biggest jerks of the Web's online forums. 15

Coolest robots of 2009

CCS Robotics builds autonomous robot bases that can be adapted to a variety of uses. The company ships a variety of products including SpeciMinder, a robot that delivers specimens within a hospital so nurses don't have to. The RoboCourier is a 'healthcare transporter' designed to makes deliveries within a lab environment.

RSA Conference's Innovation Sandbox

RSA sponsored its first Innovation Sandbox award in which 10 finalist companies as voted by visitors to the RSA Web site demonstrated their wares then presented them to a panel of judges, who chose the winner based on their market impact, technological significance, quality of their management teams and quality and professionalism of their presentations.

Apple iPhoneys: The 4G edition

While iPhone-maniacs are drooling over what Apple has in store for the new version of the iPhone 3G this summer, fans are already speculating as to what an iPhone 4G will look like and what features it will have.  Never mind the fact that for Apple to have an iPhone on a 4G network they'd have to be free of AT&T.

We've combed the Web to bring you our 'Photoshopped' favorites. Afterwards, let us know what you think about these concept iPhones and if there's one we missed. 8

Five tools to prevent energy waste in the data center

Data centers are filled with power-hungry racks of storage and servers, but many products and services are capable of reducing the power usage of existing IT equipment. With Earth Day upon us, here are five tools to help data centers stop wasting energy. 3

Products shown at the RSA Conference

Our round-up of intriguing new products from the RSA Conference. 6

Evolution of Ethernet

The IEEE is pushing Ethernet to unimaginable speeds, with the 40/100Gigabit Ethernet standard expected to be ratified in 2010 and Terabit Ethernet on the drawing board for 2015. Here's a timeline showing key milestones in the growth of Ethernet. 10

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from EMC, BigFix, Netoptics among others.

Exchange 2010: Sneak Peek

In this sneak peek at the newly released beta code for Microsoft's next Exchange upgrade, due in 2010, we found end user-friendly advancements in the Webmail interface and self-service management options. For administrators, there are usable scalability and reliability measures, more CLI support and role-based access controls.

15 nifty BlackBerry apps for IT pros

What BlackBerry's App World can offer IT

Research in Motion last week joined Apple and Google by opening its online store to sell third-party applications for its smartphones. The BlackBerry App World, which can be downloaded for free onto your BlackBerry, offers hundreds of applications for social networking, productivity, reference, entertainment, personal finance and more. In this slideshow, we'll look at 15 we found that should be useful to a busy IT pro. 8

Hands on with Sony's new X-series Walkman

The NW-X1000 players will go on sale worldwide beginning this month in Japan and on Tuesday I got a chance to try one out. It's been a while since I tested a new Walkman so anticipation was high for the new models and I came away impressed.

The Virtual Latino Museum: A quick tour

A walk through the Smithsonian's first virtual museum

While many education organizations would love to have their own museums, it can be costly to own a building large enough to display their exhibits. The Smithsonian Latino Center has solved this problem by taking its museum online with the help of Ohio University's Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning (VITAL) Lab. The new Latino Virtual Museum, which can be accessed through virtual reality platform Second Life, consists of hundreds of different exhibits including galleries of Latino paintings, video clips detailing Latino history, a room filled with virtual Caribbean instruments and even a disco club where users' avatars can learn to dance to meringue music.

Rise of the netbook

Netbooks are lightweight, low-cost laptops that provide access to e-mail, the Web, and not much else. Over the past decade, the netbook has gone from a fringe product to a valuable business tool.

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Sun, Brocade, HP among others.

Clear Choice Test: Cross-platform VM management tools

There ought to be an easier way to manage VMs running on disparate hypervisor hosts. In this test, we examine products from Computer Associates, DynamicOps, Insystek and Microsoft to assess how each handles VM life-cycle management in mixed VMware, Hyper-V and Xen virtual environments.

Are you an IT geezer? (and we mean that in a good way)

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10 eye-catching gadgets at CTIA

Jewels from the CTIA showroom floor

Last week's CTIA trade show in Las Vegas generated a decent amount of news, including BlackBerry's announcement that it was opening its own application store and Verizon's partnership with Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to open a research center for Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices and applications. But as usual, the biggest attractions at CTIA were the gadgets being paraded around by big-named device manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG, RIM, Palm, Motorola and Nokia. Here's a look at the 10 gadgets that most caught our eye at CTIA, plus details about pricing, availability and carrier support. 8

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Verisign, HP and Compellent among others.

15 secrets of next-gen browsers

Network World Lab Alliance member Thomas Powell makes it part of his Web consulting practice to analyze every new browser to hit the Internet. Powell's deep dive goes past the eye candy user interface upgrades and gets into the technological underpinnings that will have consequences for Web site and network designers. 1

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Dell, Force10 and Network Instruments among others.

Intel's Nehalem EP server chips hit the market

If you weren't expecting Intel to release its latest line of server chips Tuesday, you may be the only one who was surprised. Details of the new Xeon 3500 and Xeon 5500 processors -- formerly known by the Nehalem EP code name -- were first announced nearly four weeks ago when Apple updated its line of Mac Pro computers, and other vendors soon followed with details of their own systems based on the new chips. Read the full story.

Pictured here: Patrick Gelsinger, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group, holds up a wafer containing Intel's new Xeon 5500 series processors, Monday, March 30, 2009, at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.

Inside HP Labs: 8 cool projects

Innovation is both an exciting, revolutionary event and a mundane step-by-step process. For every remarkable, headline-making discovery -- flash memory! high-def movies! quad-core processors! -- there are more iterative research projects that move technology forward inch by inch.

At Hewlett-Packard Labs, projects such as a new substrate for flexible displays might make headlines one day, but will finally emerge as a shipping product only years later. Much of the HP research is directly tied to printing, imaging and server technology. This year, several ongoing projects reveal what's ahead for the 60-year-old company. All of the projects described below were developed in HP Labs. Some are exposed externally -- meaning they are available publicly -- but they were all birthed from HP Labs.

Intel raises the bar in server chips with Nehalem

Intel's upcoming Xeon server chips incorporate significant advancements that could form the basis for future chips that could handle high-performance computing tasks, analysts said. The new Xeons are based on Intel's latest Nehalem microarchitecture, which improves system speed by cutting bottlenecks that plagued Intel's earlier chips. The advancements are a step by Intel to build server chips that are able to run applications faster. Chip makers are consistently etching more complex features onto the surface of processors to handle a larger number of applications, which could reduce the need for extra components in servers.

Cisco, Fluke, AirMagnet sweep WLAN analysis tools test

Network World Lab Alliance member Craig Mathias takes a deep dive into seven WLAN spectral analysis tools from AirMagnet, Berkeley Varitronics, Cisco, Fluke, Metageek and Nuts about Nets to assess how they measure up for enterprise use.

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from HP, Cisco, Microsoft among others.

CEO payday: How much tech chiefs made in '08

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's pay package grew 38% in 2008, while HP CEO Mark Hurd's climbed 31%. Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha was granted $103 million in stock and option awards -- but like many CEOs' long-term equity incentives, they're underwater now. Read on to find out more about the salaries, bonus, stock awards and perks that tech CEOs took home in 2008. Our tallies -- arranged from lowest to highest paid CEO -- are based on data included in public companies' proxy statements (DEF 14A form), as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For details on how total compensation is calculated, see the last slide. 24

Flying car takes to the skies ... and roads

No longer a subject of science fiction, a car that can fly like a regular airplane, but then land, fold up its wings and drive away debuted in Boston Wednesday. Terrafugia of Massachusetts prefers to call its Transition a "roadable aircraft" rather than a "flying car." It has completed several test runs and one test flight as part of its proof-of-concept phase. The company plans to refine the craft further and begin commercializing it in 2011. Read the full story here, or click through to see the Transition transition from the roadways to the airways.

Pictured here: The Transition Roadable Light Sport Aircraft Proof of Concept with wings extended at home 1

Dell takes wraps off sleek Adamo laptop

Dell on Tuesday is finally expected to launch the mysterious Adamo laptop line, a "luxury" laptop that could be the PC maker's response to ultra-thin laptops including Apple's stylish MacBook Air. Let's take a look.

Products of the Week

Our round-up of intriguing new products from Vyatta, Sun, Isilon among others.

10 iPhone apps that could get you into trouble

iPhone applications are proliferating like rabbits, but not all of them are great. In fact some can get you into hot water. Here we take a look at 10 recent iPhone applications that might land you in a place you don't want to be. 14

Nokia accelerates music push with services and phones

The 5730 XpressMusic is a side-slider and Nokia's first music-centered device to offer a QWERTY keyboard.

Exchange alternatives: Front ends and back ends

NWW Lab Alliance member Joel Snyder tested six messaging products from vendors who hope to catch the eye of weary Microsoft Exchange users. This slideshow gives a peek at both the user Webmail front-end and the administrative back-end views of each product.

Spiderman guides Sony Ericsson into South Korean market

Sony Ericsson is calling on a superhero to help it enter the tough South Korean market. On Tuesday the company launched its brand with a version of the Xperia X1 cell phone that comes with the full Spiderman 3 movie loaded onto every handset.

Pictured here: Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 on show at a launch news conference in Seoul on March 10, 2009

Sony provides more details of OLED touchscreen Walkman

Sony has provided some detailed specifications for its promised and anticipated X-series Walkman that was teased at January's CES but the launch date remains the biggest unanswered question. The specifications were posted on Sony Hong Kong's Web site.

Products of the Week

Cool new announcements from IBM, HP, Veeam and others.

CeBIT 2009 highlights

The gates have been opened on CeBIT 2009 in Hannover, Germany, where 4,300 exhibiting firms from 69 countries are on hand to showcase digital solutions, trends and innovations.  Here we take a look at some of the highlights from the world's largest computer expo. 1

Acer sees the future of smartphones as free

Acer wants to bring the wholesale cost of smartphones down so far that mobile network operators can afford to give them away. It aims to release two such phones by October, said Aymar de Lencquesaing, the head of Acer's Smart Handheld Business Group.

Shown here: The Acer F900 touch-screen smartphone which runs Windows 6.1. 4

Foxit's eSlick challenges Kindle with PDF prowess

The thin and light eSlick device, on display this week at the Cebit trade show, is Foxit's first foray into hardware. Foxit has specialized in creating lightweight and fast desktop and mobile applications for viewing PDF (Portable Document Format) files, a format created by Adobe Systems and adopted as an international standard in July 2008. The eSlick is currently listed at $259.99 ($299.99 MSRP) excluding taxes and shipping fee.

MSI's svelte X-Slim laptops to get more powerful

After turning heads at CES with its X-Slim laptops Micro-Star International is using the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, this week to unveil new versions with a more powerful processor.

iPod...do you? A playful list of iPods

An ode to the iPod: In the fall of 2001, Apple launched its first iPod and forever changed the way we listen to music. Since that time, an amazing array of iPods have been introduced -- some of them becoming big hits, while others never quite caught on. Here we offer a visual history of the iPod. 14

11 cool tech products at DEMO

DEMO 09 looks for the next big thing

Some of the technology world's most promising companies will debut their products at DEMO Monday and Tuesday. Take a look at 11 cool new products.

Products of the Week

Cool new announcements from Fortinet, Prism and Check Point and others.

Microsoft demos innovations at annual TechFest

Microsoft Research's annual TechFest event showcases solutions to some of the world's most challenging technical problems and provides a strategic forum for Microsoft researchers to meet with the broader group of Microsoft employees and product managers. Hundreds of researchers from Microsoft's worldwide labs in China, England, India and the United States gather at the company's headquarters in Redmond to exchange ideas with colleagues, show off their latest innovations, and shine a light into the future of computing.  Here we'll take a sneak peak at some of the hottest work from Microsoft's research labs around the world.

Turning 5,000 discarded cell phones into art

Artist Rob Pettit creates his artwork out of obsolete, discarded or recycled cell phones. His instillation are painstakingly arranged flower-swirls and stacked mini-mountains, as well as paintings. Here we take a look at some of his most recent work.

Photo: Rob Pettit sits on one of his installations 11

Products of the Week

Cool new announcements from Norton, BMC and Blade and others.