Surface 2 design changes make it more difficult to crack open and repair

Bill Detwiler cracks open the Surface 2 and finds a redesigned interior that makes the tablet difficult, time-consuming to open and repair. On the outside, the Surface 2 may look like its predecessor, the Surface RT. But Microsoft dramatically changed the tablet's internal design. And in doing so, made it a real pain to crack open and repair. The Surface 2 is...

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Open your wallet and bring your buying power to open source

Find out why Jack Wallen finally bit the bullet and paid a premium price for a desktop machine with pre-installed Linux. He suggests that you also bring your buying power to open source. I've been writing about Linux and open source for nearly 20 years. In that time, a good number of desktops and laptops have graced my office. Some of those desktops were hand-built...

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Pro tip: Stop the iOS 7 Control Center from appearing while in app

Follow these steps to turn off access to the iOS 7 Control Center so that it doesn't appear when you're in an app. You're playing your favorite game or using an app the requires the swipe up gesture, and what happens? That's right, the Control Center appears. This new feature in iOS 7 is actually handy (for when you want quick and easy access to controlling certain apps,...

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20 Excel tips for creating stylish spreadsheets

Formatting is an overlooked skill when it comes to Excel. It is essential for communicating results clearly and powerfully. By Carlo Pandian Most Excel users would probably agree that the program is a godsend when it comes to creating spreadsheets, yet the results can often be boring to look at. Thankfully, Excel also provides the tools to make your spreadsheets look...

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Use Google AdMob to promote your mobile applications

Find out how Google AdMob can help advertise your mobile applications and gauge the results. I've written about advertising in the past and how it can be used in a relevant and tasteful fashion. We live in a society inundated with ads, many of which completely escape our attention due to distractions, our conditioning, or other ongoing activities at the time. This means ads...

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Best use cases for champions of the public cloud

Despite ongoing concerns about compliance and governance, the public cloud offers tempting benefits for some use cases. Here are the ones worth serious consideration. Public cloud solutions remain mired in a sea of distrust because of their inability to overcome enterprise governance and reliability concerns. Yet, these solutions are still finding inroads into enterprises...

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Make the successful transition to actionable predictions

Does your organization need to use predictive analytics? What lessons have you learned?  Homeowner insurance claims in 2011 were a record-setting $105 billion, according to Marsh's 2012 Insurance Market Report (PDF). This made it challenging for insurance companies to manage their policy risk, and the risk exposure was further amplified by the fact that homeowners insurance...

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Enterprise tablet apps: Swiss Army knife or sniper rifle?

Should your company build a single application that provides a multitude of functionality or multiple, single purpose apps? Patrick Gray provides some insight. As tablet applications become more prevalent, many companies are struggling to decide if they want to build a single application that provides a multitude of functionality or multiple single-purpose apps. This debate...

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10 old-school technology strategies that CIOs should not forget

Technology races ahead with new methods and capabilities, but that doesn't mean that CIOs should forget some of the management strategies that have always worked. A host of new and reformed practices have IT departments reinventing themselves: collaborative software development; rapid application prototype development and placement in production; new project meeting...

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Five more apps for screen capture in Windows

You can never have too many options for taking pictures of your desktop and windows. Last month, I shared with my take on five effective tools for capturing your screen in Windows, and it has attracted quite a few comments with suggestions for different utilities to check out. You can never have too many options for something as seemingly pedestrian as taking pictures of...

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Acer and Microsoft: A tale of mutual decline

In three years, Acer has fallen from the world's second-largest PC vendor to hitting a 12-year low. James Sanders explores Acer's recent misfortunes and how this affects the industry at large. With the recent departure of Acer's CEO, JT Wang, the good fortune of OEMs appears to be ending, as Microsoft is now encroaching on their territory with their own devices like...

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IceWarp Messaging Server for iOS 7 email

Will Kelly looks at IceWarp, an email messaging server that supports iOS 7 notes synchronization. Google Apps for Business, Gmail, and Office 365 get the lion’s share of market buzz for corporate and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) iPhone email support. In fact, it can be hard to remember there are other email options available for enterprise mobile users. I recently had...

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