Applications

Applications Topic Center

In-depth analysis, news, trends and more about enterprise and desktop applications

Microsoft dumps 'Aero' UI in Windows 8, 'Metro-izes' desktop

Microsoft is abandoning the 'Aero' user interface with Windows 8, calling the UI that debuted in Vista and continued in Windows 7, 'cheesy' and 'dated.'
Read more...

Yahoo's Genome highlights hosted big data analytics trend

Yahoo joined a growing list of companies offering big data analytics as a service with its Genome offering this week.

Funds Pour Into Big-Data Vendors

Investors have taken note of the surge in enterprise demand for tools that can manipulate and analyze massive volumes of structured and unstructured data.

EU: Programming Languages Can't Be Copyrighted

Europe's top court has ruled that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright.

How to avoid 5 common email management mistakes

Email managers have a lot at stake. After all, the volume of global electronic messages sent via email dwarfs all other forms of electronic communication, including social networking. Since the inception of electronic mail, which, according to some Internet historians, can be traced to a small mainframe app called 'MAILBOX' from the mid-1960s, human-to-human messages have been created, transmitted and stored in electronic format. But early email administrators could hardly have envisioned the complexity of current email infrastructure and the concomitant maze of technical, security, business and regulatory challenges.

Reports: Nasdaq admits technical bugs affected Facebook IPO trading

Technical problems at the Nasdaq exchange affected the trading of Facebook shares on Friday, the much-anticipated day of its IPO (initial public offering), Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., told reporters on Sunday, according to published reports.

Is cloud-based security really less expensive?

Businesses in new study were five times more likely to have decreased spending on managing security over three years as a percentage of their overall IT budget.

Facebook buys mobile e-commerce app Karma

The mobile gift-giving app Karma announced Friday it has been acquired by Facebook. The announcement came shortly after the markets closed on Facebook's first day as a publicly traded company.

Social Networking Security in the Workplace

At any given moment today, on-the-clock employees are updating their social media status, reading feeds and networking on business media sites. Moments can stretch to minutes: A recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that 60% of social media users spend at least 30 minutes a day on these sites while at work.

Update: Facebook shares rise as trading begins

After all the buildup, Facebook's long-anticipated initial public offering is finally here.

The Cobol Brain Drain

As baby boomers retire, the business processes they used to create their Cobol programs may walk out the door with them. Here's what IT organizations are doing about it.

The Grill: TASC CIO Barbie Bigelow

CIO Barbie Bigelow led the effort to build an IT organization and infrastructure from scratch when the TASC systems engineering operation was spun off from Northrop Grumman. Her team completed the cutover in just under 12 months.

Managing Mobile Mania

Unified communications isn't easy or cheap, but for companies that want to differentiate their customer service, it's becoming a must-have. Insider (registration required)

Learn the Basics of Using Pinterest for Business

Should businesses be interested in Pinterest? On the surface, you might not think so: the service would appear to be little more than a showcase for cool jewelry and favorite recipes.

Ask the iTunes Guy: Syncing tips

[Ask the iTunes Guy is a regular column in which we answer your questions on everything iTunes related. If there's something you'd like to know, send an email to the iTunes Guy for consideration.]

Wunderkit for iPhone

Wunderkit helps you work. That's what a productivity app should do, of course, but some unnecessarily bog you down in details. In contrast, Wunderkit--a free iPhone offering from 6 Wunderkinder--makes it easy to create projects and schedule tasks. And it's better than many competing apps at recognizing the realities of the workplace.

Unified communications still fragmented

The technology may get a big push from mobile adoption, but integration among multiple UC components is still a tough slog.

Organize videos by groups in iTunes

In iTunes, there are two ways to categorize your videos: as either Movies or TV Shows. Movies are displayed individually, but TV shows are organized in groups, as they would be if they were episodes in the same show. One anonymous Mac OS X Hints reader takes advantage of this to organize all kinds of videos, regardless of their actual source. He uses his Movies library for very large files and puts everything else in TV Shows. So, for example, in his TV Shows library, he has groups called YouTube Videos, Home Videos, Work Stuff, and so on.

BYOD: New animal, new taming techniques

Bottom Line

HK firm ensures toy safety with PLM tool

Toys are fun to play with, but making them is serious business. Hazardous toys from Greater China make great headline-material for US media, so regional toy manufacturers must make extra efforts to ensure that both their materials and finished products are safe.