Report: Cisco to Target Consumers

In a move that will expand the company's market reach, Cisco Systems has plans to start selling a line of consumer products including phones, radios and home theater devices, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Cisco believes it can define itself by adding Internet connectivity to these devices, thus creating a new market.

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Cisco is commonly known for its networking products, and owns Linksys, a maker of consumer network devices. Chief development officer Charles Giancarlo told the paper he believes Cisco's ties with Google and Yahoo will also give it an advantage over competitors. A release date for any new consumer products from the company was not given.

Hotmail fail: Microsoft lays an egg in the cloud

Microsoft lost all email for 17,000 Hotmail customers, then botched the response. Is this a harbinger of Office 365 hassles?

If this is the way Microsoft's going to handle Office 365 outages, we're in for some interesting times.

On Dec. 30, one of the largest SQL Server databases on the planet started having problems. The database in question just happens to belong to Microsoft. And the way the company reacted to the problems should raise red flags for anyone considering a move to the Microsoft cloud.

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According to a blog post by Chris Jones, a Microsoft vice president in Windows Live Engineering, the Hotmail servers had a problem with load balancing, resulting in 17,355 email accounts losing all of their data. It took Microsoft three days to restore the data. At least, Microsoft claims it had the data restored in three days. Voluminous postings on both the Windows Live Engineering site and the Windows Live Solution Center say that some people still haven't gotten their data back.

Data loss happens in the cloud, on corporate servers, and on the desktop. But this is, arguably, Microsoft's most widely deployed cloud application, backed by Redmond's best and brightest, and it failed for 17,000 users for at least three days.

Put aside the obvious technical questions, like why were the servers performing a load balancing act in the middle of the busiest time of year? How did the data disappear and then suddenly reappear? Why does it take three days to retrieve lost data? Can't SQL Server scale better than that? If you look at Microsoft's response to the disappearing data, you really have to wonder how the 'Softies would handle a data-destroying incident involving your company's data.

Consider: The initial problem notification, predictably, came on the Microsoft support board, the Windows Live Solution Center. Hundreds, then thousands of people reported that all of their messages were gone. The support staff handling the Solution Center must've realized they were facing a systemic problem, not a random sampling of clueless users. But instead of coming out with a definitive statement and posting it on the forum in blazing color, the support people just chased after individual reports, using cut-and-paste responses to users' cries of anguish.

Microsoft Releases Free Anti-Virus Software

Alright Windows users, no more excuses for not having up-to-date anti-virus or anti-malware protection. Microsoft has released its new Security Essentials software that offers real-time protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs. It’s also free.

Although there are lots of anti-virus and anti-malware programs available (many which are also free), perhaps the Microsoft name and easy integration into Windows can help users who might not be familiar with some of the available programs get and stay protected.

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Microsoft says that Security Essentials is designed to run quietly in the background (no constant UAC alerts) and that it doesn’t hog CPU or memory usage. A constant complaint about some of the bigger name security suites is that they slow down the computer’s overall performance. Security Essentials also uses what Microsoft calls its Dynamic Signature Service, which is supposed to ensure that users are always protected and up-to-date, without having to wait for the next scheduled download.

windowssecurity3

Like any other standard security product, you can schedule full or quick system scans, exclude certain file types of processes from being scanned, and designate how you are alerted of various actions and what you want the default step to be.

Security Essentials is free — and no sign-up or registration is necessary — but you need to have a genuine copy of Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista, or the upcoming Windows 7. Security Essentials will also run in Windows XP mode in Windows 7 — so if you plan on running XP mode to keep compatibility with older stuff, your security won’t be compromised.

With viruses and malware a constant threat to Windows users all over the world, it’s about time Microsoft offered an actual security package. One note, however — if you already have an anti-virus or anti-malware program installed, make sure you uninstall it before installing Security Essentials.

What do you use to protect your computers against viruses?

Sony PlayStation Network downtime continues; personal data in jeopardy?

As the Sony PlayStation Network blackout continues into almost five days of downtime, there could be more problems than we realize.

The PSN outage started last Wednesday night, and even as of Saturday, Sony reps didn’t have many answers as to what is going on. Here’s what we do know:

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* An “external intrusion” is at fault
* Qriocity services will remain down until further notice
* Anonymous, the hacker group that claimed responsibility for the PSN outage earlier this month, claims no involvement this time
* Apps such as Netflix can be accessed still, but it takes multiple login attempts
* Games can still update
* Sony has not said when we can expect this issue to be resolved

What we don’t know? Whether or not personal data attached to PSN accounts (used for things like Music Unlimited subscriptions, buying games, movies, etc.) is at risk. Sony Computer Entertainment rep Satoshi Fukuoka informed PC World that “the company has not yet determined if the personal information or credit card numbers of users have been compromised.”

We could be looking at something much more serious than just a week or so without access to a network that caters to gaming console owners. And if the worst case scenario happens (i.e. all of that data ends up in the wrong hands), Sony could have a lot of furious customers around the world angry soon. All we can do for now is hope for the best…which isn’t really very reassuring.

Related coverage on ZDNet:

* Nintendo 3DS arrives at JetBlue’s Terminal 5 in New York JFK airport
* Nintendo announces Wii 2
* Sony PlayStation 3 sales surpass 50 million units worldwide
* Sony brings Music Unlimited to PlayStation Portable
* Sony NGP release could also be delayed by disaster in Japan

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Apple May Beat Google to Market With Cloud Music Service [REPORT]

According to reports, Apple is almost ready to release a cloud-based music storage service compatible with iTunes.

Sources say the product is finished, and Apple might be ready to launch its service before Google’s competitive product sees the light of day.

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Several sources close to the matter and aware of both companies’ plans told Reuters that Apple will soon let iTunes customers keep their music libraries on a remote server. The music would then be accessible from any Internet-connected, iTunes-running device.

But though the technology is in place, one all-important piece is missing from both music offerings: licensing agreements with major record labels. Google is stalling on its own music projects due to rumored tiffs with record labels, and Apple has yet to discuss any new licensing agreements with labels, according to Reuters’ sources.

However, since the latter company has been working with musicians for a long time vis-a-vis iTunes and iTunes’ new social component, Ping, one might imagine that Apple has a laid some groundwork for fruitful discussions around licensing.

Google was rumored to be building an iTunes competitor in the summer of 2010. The service was said to have an Android-friendly component or two, and the Android music store was expected to launch with the release of Gingerbread. The service was also rumored to include music-streaming options in addition to music locker features.

However, more current reports suggest that Google may be further than ever from an actual launch due to licensing snafus with major record labels, particularly Warner Music Group.

We’ll keep you updated on Apple and Google’s music services as the weeks wear on — particularly next month, when Google is set to make a slew of announcements at its annual developer conference, Google I/O.

Is The White iPhone 4 Arriving Next Week?

Apple fans with an Ahab-esque obsession with the Great White iPhone may finally have reason to shout, "Thar she blows!" Images of a purported white iPhone 4 wrapped in retail packaging were posted by Engadget Friday and later in the day 9 to 5 Mac quoted sources who said the product would begin selling in The Netherlands next Wednesday.

Rumors of a white version of the Apple iPhone have become something of a cottage industry for tech publications. Apple originally planned to make both a black and white iPhone 4 available when it launched the fourth-generation smartphone last year.

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But the company wound up delaying the white version of the iPhone 4, saying in a June statement that it had "proven more challenging to manufacture than expected." Apple promised to release a white iPhone 4 by the end of July, but on July 23, Apple conceded that the white iPhone would not be available until the end of the year.

Some10 months after the black iPhone 4 was released, Apple may finally be ready to start selling the white version.

The Engadget images were reportedly sent in by a British Vodafone UK customer who was accidently shown an in-stock 16GB white iPhone 4—the salesperson actually rang it up as a black iPhone, according to Engadget's source—long enough to snap some pictures before the sale was halted and any more such sales were postponed "until next week."

Engadget compared the model number shown in the pictures to an in-house UK iPhone 4 and came away convinced the white phone in the shots was the real deal.

Meanwhile, 9 to 5 Mac received word from its own tipster that Dutch retailer BelCompany would begin selling 16GB iPhone 4s next Wednesday. An unconfirmed BelCompany memo further stated that "a limited number of retail stores will receive a single 32GB white iPhone."

Dutch shoppers had better get up early Wednesday morning, however—the memo goes on to say that when the first batch of white iPhones runs out, it will take four to five weeks to get any more.

AT&T and Verizon have apparently been more circumspect than their European counterparts. If the two U.S.-based Apple partners have any white iPhones ready to start selling, they've been mum about it.

iPhone 5 Rumor: New Model to Be 'Completely Redesigned'

Various sources are reporting that Apple is shifting suppliers for parts of its next iPhone and that the new model, the fifth version of the phone, will be a complete redesign for the product.

The news that Apple is changing suppliers is the latest from the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, reported elsewhere. Apple is said to be turning to Taiwanese manufacturers Foxconn and Foxlink for some parts of the iPhone 5 in an effort to cut production costs.

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At the same time, Engadget cites "sources" in saying the next iPhone will be a "completely redesigned handset." The report goes on to speculate that the iPhone 5 will have a Qualcomm GSM/CDMA chipset and a new processor called the A5. The phone is said to be a "total rethink," but supposedly it won't feature LTE 4G connectivity.

The Qualcomm chip rumor is buoyed by the recent unveiling of the Verizon iPhone, which will have a Qualcomm CDMA chip. Additionally, rethinking the design of the iPhone seems prudent in the wake of the release of several Android phones with screens larger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch display. The bad press received by the iPhone 4's external antenna may also be a factor.

If Apple follows its normal product refresh cycle, the next iPhone should arrive this summer, most likely on the heels of a refreshed iPad.

Mobile Phone Deals - Affordable Deals For Every Consumer

Mobile phones are something that is more than a necessity for every human being on this planet. These small gadgets help us to stay in touch with our friends, lovers, relatives no matter what part of the world they are on. Relatives or friends living in any part of the world are now just a call away. These communication devices also serve us in carrying out the several tasks of our daily life conveniently.

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These days, mobile phone market is flooded with countless handsets and with each new day we are witnessing newer handsets arriving in the market. All these handsets are equipped with excellent features and appealing designs which creates sensation in the hearts of consumers and mobile critics. Earlier these widgets were the monopoly of rich class only and were considered as a luxury. But, now the situation has changed a lot. With the advancement of technology, mobile phones are now within the reach of common man. Now new handsets with sophisticated technology are available at low rate price tags. Consumers from every economic class can now afford to buy these tiny gadgets.

People use mobile phones for lots of purposes like listening to their favorite trcks, clicking photographs, recording videos, playing video games, text messaging, accessing high speed Internet, video calling, etc. These days, these gadgets are very simple to use and are available in the market at very affordable rates thanks to the presence of mobile phone deals which are offered by all top notch network operators. Professionals take advantage of these awe-inspiring gadgets to operate their professional life with ease and also to stay connected with their clients and employees in every part of the world. Multinational corporations are the one who take maximum advantage of this technology as their businesses are spread all over the world. To monitor such huge business empire they need mobile phones.

As stated above mobile phone deals are the most appropriate way to avail mobile phones at cheap price tags. These deals permit consumers to avail handsets from any major mobile manufacturer like HTC, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Blackberry, Apple etc. These nicely configured handsets are loaded with cutting edge ltechnology and alluring design.

Users have a long list of handsets to choose from. To get these handsets, we know that mobile phone deals are the best way. But these deals are available in different categories as contract, pay as you go, SIM free and SIM only deals. Network operators offering such exciting deals include Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin, Three and O2. The main factor behind the popularity of such deals is that users are also entitled to receive lots of unbelievable free gifts like free DVD players, laptops, computers, LCD TVs, Sony Playstation, PSP, vacuum cleaners, digital camcorders, Bluetooth headsets, car kit, coffee makers, home appliances, etc.

These cheap mobile phone deals also offer many incentives like free talk time, free text for messages, instant cash back offers, free data usage, free line rentals, discounted call rates, etc.

Open source programming tools on the rise II

Of course, not everyone welcomes the flexibility Git provides. Some see this freedom enabling confusion. Proponents counter that you're not required to use all of Git's power, but it's there to help out when the project requires more than a central government. Some developers have create Repo to combat the complexity of Git. A tool for pushing changes through multiple repositories, Repo is, in a way, the re-emergence of central control for the Git ecosystem.

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Open source programming tool on the rise: Gerrit
The rise of code reviews at larger development shops could lead to only one thing: the creation of a tool to automate the process. Enter Gerrit.

Meant to work closely with Git and Repo, Gerrit allows code validators to send comments to the central Git repository, creating an extensive meta layer of discussion on top of the code itself. In the old days, discussions took place in header comments, but by separating comments to a dedicated layer, Gerrit allows for a more sophisticated discussion that doesn't force future readers to wade through old change discussions before getting to the code.

Open source programming tool on the rise: Hadoop
The power of Hadoop was put publicly on display in the form of Watson, IBM's "DeepQA" machine that recently beat the two greatest human champions in a game of "Jeopardy." The framework was used to orchestrate dozens of algorithms searching for an answer in parallel.

Hadoop is a general tool kit for splitting apart the work into pieces that can be computed on separate servers, then joined together into a final product. Google pioneered the idea when it needed to choreograph a vast army of servers to crawl the Web, and now Hadoop offers a general framework that's being used again and again in similar situtations.

Hadoop's original simple core may be several years old now, but there's a great deal of interest in spinoffs that bundle Hadoop with code for tackling specific problems. Mahout, for one, is a scalable machine-learning framework that analyzes large data sets for patterns that might emerge. Hive offers a data warehouse that can be queried with parallel search using HiveQL. This method is fast becoming a popular approach for dealing with massive quantities of Web logs.

Open source programming tool on the rise: jQuery
jQuery is not a new tool for people building active Web pages with JavaScript that manipulates the DOM. Many Web developers start off learning jQuery before trying to understand pure JavaScript because it's so much simpler and efficient. Part of the reason for its success is the layer of plug-ins created by a vast army of devotees. This collection of plug-ins is a quickly changing ecosystem filled with very creative and amazing tools for enhancing websites. There are too many to begin to list.

These plug-ins are usually pretty easy to string together and glue into a coherent display. There are even some bigger collections of plug-ins that harmonize the widgets. jQuery Mobile, for instance, is dedicated to producing applications that run well on the small screens of smartphones.

Google Apps updates...something for everyone or about time?

This week, Google announced several updates to its Google Apps online productivity suite. Improved migration tools and the ability to paginate Google Docs were followed by an new administrator interface. And yes, I did just say that Google announced pagination.

In fairness, Google Docs has had the ability to insert page breaks for some time now. You just couldn’t really see the pages very well. Or know for sure where soft breaks would occur. Fairness aside, though, this bit of news is being met with almost as much scorn as the great ruler debacle of 2010. A year ago today, Google announced a ruler with tab stops in the Google Docs interface and Microsoft responded with an unusually clever snark:

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Andrew Kisslo, a Sr. Product Manager with the Office group, blogged about the new features on Wednesday, noting, “Rumor is the WordPad Team is very nervous about that leap in productivity gain. (Yes that’s a joke.)”

And yet…

Google Docs has always been about creating content and sharing it with coworkers. Page breaks, after all, don’t exist on the Internet. Only scroll wheels or, if you’re lucky, two-fingered scrolling on your touchpad, make the difference between a short page and a long one.

I use Google Docs now in my new job working for a virtual classroom company more than I ever have. The majority of my colleagues are in northern and central India and we get to talk when we occasionally happen to be conscious simultaneously. Fortunately, I’m a night owl and they seem to just work all the time, so it’s OK. However, as their head of marketing, I’m constantly collaborating on documents and pulling together content that will ultimately go into a CMS, onto a web page, or into a press release anyway. It doesn’t matter if it has pages.

Of course, it’s smart of Google to add this visual queue. Students around the world have had to hit Print every 10 minutes to see if they’ve actually written a 5-page essay since schools started adopting Google Apps. Now, they will know for sure.

But now for the more substantive updates. You can now add custom themes to Gmail!

OK, now I’m being snarky.

The updates that matter include the deprecation of their IMAP email migration tool, used to bring user accounts from other systems over to Apps. Rather, the Exchange Migration tool has been enhanced to handle more than just Exchange. According to the Google blog,

The IMAP mail migration tool in the administrator Control Panel will no longer be accessible as of April 30th. We recommend using the Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange utility which migrates email from IMAP mail servers in addition to supporting migration from Exchange Server 2003/2007/2010, PST files, and Google Apps.

The update to the “Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange” is discussed in more detail here.

There were other updates for Lotus Notes users, but I think they all work at IBM anyway, so we can ignore those.

The point of all this is that Google Apps is steadily marching forward with enhancements and tweaks. Nothing revolutionary recently, but many enhancements to the entire suite of related products. As I asked a year ago, is it enough to compete with Office 2010? It certainly is in my job right now. I think it is for a lot of other users, too. But even I can’t keep the snark out of a blog post on these little tweaks. Maybe it’s just late and I should get some sleep, but more likely, Google still has a ways to go to convince people that all they really need is a browser.

Asia-Pacific Runs Out of IPv4 Internet Addresses

The Asia-Pacific region effectively ran out of IPv4 addresses on Friday, meaning that the region is now conserving addresses for the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition.

The region officially moved into its planned "Phase Three" of the transition, where new and existing members will have restricted access to the existing IPv4 addresses used by most PCs today. All new and existing APNIC members will be entitled to a maximum delegation of a "/22", or (1,024 addresses) of IPv4 space, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre said.

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APNIC is the first regional Internet registry to exhaust its IPv4 address space, which experts have warned about for some time. When the available IPv4 addresses are exhausted, new devices coming onto the network, from phones to network switches, must be assigned an IPv6 address unless some intermediary technology is used.

"Considering the ongoing demand for IP addresses, this date effectively represents IPv4 exhaustion for many of the current operators in the Asia Pacific region," said Paul Wilson, director general of APNIC, in a statement. "From this day onwards, IPv6 is mandatory for building new Internet networks and services."

Current IP addresses use the IPv4 format, which assigns users an IP address using four numbers, each from 1 to 256. (8.8.8.8 is an available DNS server IP address administered by Google, for example.) Addresses like pcmag.com are translated behind the scenes into their numeric equivalents, just like 800-DOMINOS equates to an actual phone number. Each new device that connects to the Internet is assigned a new IP address, although home networks can assign their own non-unique IPs via network address translation, or NAT.

While the IPv4-to IPv6 shift will be a worry for networking vendors, ISPs, and domain-name registrars, the transition shouldn't be as much of a concern for ordinary consumers, networking vendors told PCMag.com. ISPs like Comcast can also run in dual-stack mode, internally translating addresses from IPv4 to IPv6.

"You can certainly run dual-stack in the routers to serve both types of packets," said Vint Cerf, the so-called "father of the Internet" and a chief Internet evangelist for Google, in an interview earlier this year. "You can certainly run dual-stack at edge devices, if the device has been provided with both address types. The IPv4 address might be a NAT assignment using so-call 'private IP address space.'

"Eventually there will be no more IPv4 'public address space,'" he continued. "When that exhaustion occurs (and it won't happen in a uniform way—some places will run out before others), then there will be some devices that only have IPv6 assignments. They will not be able to directly interact with IPV4-only devices."

RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: The Unboxing

Next week, RIM's first tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, will finally go on sale. Before we took the PlayBook to the labs for testing and itsfull review, we unboxed the tablet and played with it, taking photos all along the way, to give you a look at what you'll get if you buy a PlayBook when it becomes available on April 19th.

At launch, you can buy one of three versions of the tablet, all identical except for varying amounts of built-in storage. All current models are Wi-Fi-only, but 3G and 4G models are on the way. The 16BG model will sell for $499.99, the 32GB for $599.99 and the 64GB for $699.99—the same prices and capacities as the Wi-Fi-only Apple iPad 2.

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Included with the PlayBook is a soft carrying pouch. And we also got our hands on optional rubber and leather cases from RIM. None of the cases have magnets or special interactions with the tablet, unlike the Apple iPad Smart Cover, which can wake up the iPad or put it to sleep by simply moving the cover on or off the tablet's screen. The cases have cutouts for the Volume and Power buttons, and for the front- and back-facing webcams. Pricing has not yet been announced for either case.

The PlayBook runs a new operating system, optimized for tablets, called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. In the past few months, other competitors have redesigned their mobile operating systems to be optimized for tablets as well (like Google's Android 3.0 and HP's upcoming WebOS 3.0 for the HP TouchPad.)

Check out our full BlackBerry PlayBook review to see how the latest tablet stacks up against the competition. And hit the slideshow below for the unboxing photos.

iPad vs. Windows 7 Tablet

Its not about winning or losing, we are happy to start seeing some competition to industry’s most popular Tablet device: Apple iPad.

As illustrated in the video, there are things that iPad would do better than Windows 7 tablet, and vice versa.

Watch the Handson Comparison video for most daily use-cases:

Web Browsing: Windows 7 Tablet might be slightly faster at this but layout, screen size-wise, it fails to showcase its appeal.

OnScreen Keyboard: The on-screen keyboards are great, iPad definitely has a better one.

Flash, youtube: Windows runs native Flash in browsers and iPad relies on native youtube app to achieve the same. Other flash sites, just wont work. However, unofficial iPad Flash [Frash] should nail down to stability and support.

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Screen: Windows 7 Tablets will feature different screens, varied by the vendor that manufactures it. But iPad already features best in class IPS display.

Email & apps: As you can see from the video above, Windows 7 tablet seriously lacks on user usability. Its not easy when it comes to touching small areas which were originally meant be used with mouse cursor.

Connectivity: Windows 7 Tablets have its edge over here as it provide all kinds of standard PC connectivity ports: USB, SDcard and what not.

Battery: Mileage may vary but, iPad gives a bare minimum of 10hours, which is atleast 2x times better than any Windows 7 Tablet device that will be coming anytime soon. This is one of the reasons why HP windows 7 Slate was dropped.

Multitouch: Nobody, I said nobody can beat apple in this. They are the mastters of multitouch gesture smoothness, google might be approaching them, but Apple is far more superior at this.

Evolve Maestro Tablet triple-boots Android, MeeGo, Windows 7, Gives upto 16h of Battery backup

Can’t decide which tablet you should go for? Get the one that boots all 3 popular Tablet OSes.

Evolve III Maestro has built world’s first tablet that Triple boots Android, Windows 7 and MeeGo. The tablet has a 1.83GHz Atom N475 DualCore CPU based on OakTrail processor.

With Windows 7, you would be able to attain 8 hours of battery & 16hours of battery with Android, not bad for a Tablet that weighs less than 2 pounds.

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The tablet features a large 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 32GB of solid state storage, 3G and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and 2 USB ports.

What Evolve Three hopes will make this device stand out is the fact that it’ll ship with Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 out of the box. Although a custom layer for Windows was in the works – imagine a mash-up of Windows Phone 7 and Android – it was MeeGo that had the developers really excited. A virtualised version was running on the device, and while the combo of pre-release software and hardware were still a little rough around the edges, it certainly seemed like it would make for a finger friendly consumption focussed interface.

The device is set for launch in Q2 2011 and at a price of $500, it could be a steal.

Unfortunately, there’ll be no quick way to switch between the different operating environments.

Stay tuned for more on Windows Phone, Android, iPhone, Programming and Tech news via @taranfx on Twitter or:

Trends In Software Testing III

As the complexity of software applications increases, testing becomes more crucial. And in the process, more time consuming. Here is a list of emerging testing practices.

Software is everywhere today and is becoming increasingly mission critical, whether in satellites and planes, or e-commerce websites. Software complexity is also on the rise - thanks to distributed, multi-tier applications targeting multiple devices (mobile, thin/thick clients, clouds, etc). Added to that are development methodologies like extreme programming and agile development. No wonder software testing professionals are finding it hard to keep up with the change.

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As a result, many projects fail while the rest are completed significantly late, and provide only a subset of the originally planned functionality. Poorly tested software and buggy code cost corporations billions of dollars annually, and most defects are found by end users in production environments.
Given the magnitude of the problem, software-testing professionals are finding innovative means of keeping up - both in terms of tools and methodologies. This article covers some of the recent trends in software testing - and why they're making the headlines. Test driven development (TDD)

TDD is a software development technique that ensures your source code is thoroughly unit-tested as compared to traditional testing methodologies, where unit testing is recommended but not enforced. It combines test-first development (where you write a test before you write just enough code to fulfil that test), and refactoring (where, if the existing design isn't the best possible to enable you to implement a particular functionality, you improve it to enable the new feature).

TDD is not a new technique-but it is suddenly centre stage, thanks to the continued popularity of software development methodologies such as agile development and extreme programming.

Optimisations to TDD include the use of tools (such as PEX/peer exchange for Visual studio - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/ ) to improve code coverage, by creating parameterised unit tests that look for boundary conditions, exceptions, and assertion failures.

TDD is gaining popularity as it allows for incremental software development - where bugs are detected and fixed as soon as the code is written, rather than at the end of an iteration or a milestone.

For more details on TDD, use the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development
http://www.agiledata.org/essays/tdd.html

Virtualisation testing
Testing is becoming increasingly complex - the test environment set-up, getting people access to the environment, and loading it with the right bits from development, all take up about 30-50 per cent of the total testing time in a typical organisation. What is worse is that when testers find bugs, it is hard to re-create the same environment for developers to investigate and fix bugs. Test organisations are increasingly gravitating towards virtualisation technologies to cut down test set-up times significantly. These technologies include:

* accelerate set-up/tear down and restoration of complex virtual environments to a clean state, improving machine utilisation

* eliminate no repro bugs by allowing developers to recreate complex environments easily

* improve quality by automating virtual machine provisioning, building deployment, and building verification testing in an integrated manner (details later)

As an offshoot, virtualisation ensures that test labs reduce their energy footprint, resulting in a positive environmental impact, as well as significant savings.

Some of the companies that have virtual test lab management solutions are VMware, VMLogix, and Surgient. Microsoft has recently announced a Lab Management (http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/VisualStudio/Lab-Management-coming-to-Visual-Studio-Team-System-2010/) product as part of its Visual Studio Team System 2010 release. Lab Management supports multiple environment management, snapshots to easily restore to a previous state, virtual network isolation to allow multiple test environments to run concurrently, and a workflow to allow developers to have easy access to environments to reproduce and fix defects.

Theresa Lanowitz, founder of Voke, a firm involved with analysis of trends in the IT world, expects virtualisation to become ‘the defining technology of the 21st century', with organisations of every size set to benefit from virtualisation as a part of its core infrastructure.

Continuous integration
CI is a trend that is rapidly being adopted in testing, where the team members integrate their work with the rest of the development team on a frequent basis by committing all changes to a central versioning system. Beyond maintaining a common code repository, other characteristics of a CI environment include build automation, auto-deployment of the build into a production-like environment, and ensuring a self-test mechanism such that at the very least, a minimal set of tests are run to confirm that the code behaves as expected.

Leveraging virtualised test environments, tools such as Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) can create sophisticated CI workflows. As soon as code is checked in, a build workflow kicks in that compiles the code - deploys it on to a virtualised test environment, triggers a set of unit and functional tests on the test environment, and reports on the results.

VSTS takes the build workflow one step further, and performs the build before the check-in is finalised, allowing the check-in to be aborted if it would cause a break, or if it fails the tests. And given historical code coverage data from test runs, the tool can identify which one of the several thousand test cases needs to be run when a new build comes out - significantly reducing the build validation time.

One obvious benefit of continuous integration is transparency. Failed builds and tests are found quickly rather than having to wait for the next build. The developer who checked in the offending code is probably still nearby and can quickly fix or roll back the change.

For a complete set of tools that help enable CI, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Integration.

Crowd testing
Crowd testing is a new and emerging trend in which, rather than relying on a dedicated team of testers (in-house or out sourced), companies rely on virtual test teams (created on demand) to get complete test coverage and reduce the time to market for their applications.

The company defines its test requirements in terms of scenarios, environments, and the type of testing (functional, performance, etc). A crowd test vendor (such as uTest - www.utest.com) identifies a pool of testers that meet the requirements, creates a project, and assigns work. Testers check the application, report bugs, and communicate with the company via an online portal. Crowd testing vendors also provide other tools, such as powerful reporting engines and test optimisation utilities. Some of the crowd testing vendors are domain specific - such as Mob4hire (www.mob4hire.com), which focuses on mobile application testing. Testers will bid on various projects specific to their handsets. Developers will choose the testers that they require, and will deploy test plans for the mobile application they are developing. On completion of the test, the mobile tester will get paid for the work.

One obvious advantage is in terms of reducing the test cycle time. But crowd testing is being used in various other scenarios as well - for example, to do usability studies on new user interfaces. The cost savings can be substantial.

Tools driven developer testing
Traditionally, developer testing was primarily limited to unit testing and some code coverage metrics. However, as organisations realised that the cost of defects found in development was exponentially lower than that found in test or production, they have begun to invest in tooling to enable developers to find bugs early on.

IDE-integrated tools have made the self-testing practice acceptable to developers, and the unit-testing and coverage analysis process automated for them. These tools also make it easy to analyse performance and compare it with a baseline by extending the unit test infrastructure.

Development teams are also expected to perform a level of security testing (threat modelling, buffer overflow, sequel injection, etc). For teams developing on native languages such as C/C++, developers are also required to use run-time analysis tools to check for memory leaks, memory corruptions and thread deadlocks. Developers are also using static analysis tools to find accessibility, localisation and globalisation issues -- and in some cases more sophisticated errors related to memory management and performance simulation -- by using data flow analysis and other techniques.

As a result of using these innovative methods, testers can now spend a lot more of their time on integration testing, stress, platform coverage, and end-to-end scenario testing. This will help them detect higher-level defects that would have otherwise trickled down to production.

Android tablet on the cheap: Acer Iconia A500 is the XOOM "Light"

Acer’s Iconia A500 tablet features the same exact hardware specifications as Motorola’s XOOM, but with half the flash storage and $150 cheaper.

Back in early March, I proposed that Motorola create a new SKU for their XOOM tablet with a slightly reduced feature set, which I tentatively called the “XOOM Light”.

If you don’t remember the piece, here’s the crux of the argument:

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If iSuppli’s BOM is to be believed to be within striking range of actual component costs, then Motorola can shave anywhere between 50 and 60 dollars off their manufacturing cost on the XOOM by slicing the flash storage in half to 16GB and going with less expensive camera parts, putting it closer on par with Apple’s iPad 2. This would allow the XOOM to retail for about $50-$80 less than the entry-level iPad 2, depending on how close the company wants to cut their margins.

The only way XOOM is going to be a repeat hit for Motorola Mobility in the same way the Droid was for their handset business is to undercut the iPad 2 on price. With a lower price and a similar feature set to the iPad 2, a large segment of consumers might be willing to overlook some of the shortcomings on Android 3’s current tablet app gap.

While this plea seems to be falling on deaf ears at Motorola, apparently this idea resonated with one of its competitors, the Taiwanese-based PC giant Acer, Inc.

Today the company along with channel partner Best Buy announced pre-orders for its Android 3-based iPad competitor, the Iconia A500, which has nearly identical specifications to the Wi-Fi only version of the Motorola XOOM.

See: Motorola XOOM Specifications

See: Acer Iconia A500 Specifications

The only significant difference? 16GB of flash memory instead of 32GB which lines up with the entry-level Wi-Fi iPad quite nicely. At $450.00, the 10.1″ tablet device costs $50 less than the entry-level iPad 2, and is $140-$150 less than the XOOM.

It seems that Acer didn’t even need to sacrifice the camera capabilities to make up for component costs on the BOM in order to compete with the iPad 2. It also has identically-specced 2MP front-facing and 5MP, LED flash rear-facing cameras as the XOOM.

In addition to identical SoC and PoP, memory, RAM, GPU, screen, cameras and ports, the device is also the same thickness of the XOOM, at 12.9mm, roughly half an inch.

Note to all Android and other would-be tablet manufacturers: The bar for 10.1″ full size, 16GB devices that are not carrier locked has now been lowered to $450.00. That means anything in the tablet market that is not Apple needs to cost this much or less, with similar specifications.

Oh and HP, regarding your WebOS 3 TouchPad, I’m also talking to you.

Today I pre-ordered one of the Iconia A500 devices, sight unseen. If it’s anywhere near as good a device as the XOOM as far as build quality is concerned, I’m willing to put up with some of the current shortcomings in Android 3 in order to keep a test Honeycomb device in house.

I’m not advocating that most consumers look at this device in lieu of the superior application ecosystem on the iPad 2, but this price point was enough for me to take action to meet my immediate requirements. For the same reason, Android developers will probably jump at the opportunity to buy one of these devices as well.

The question now remains of how Android 3 devices can actually differentiate at the $450.00 price point, and if it’s even possible to lower that price bar any further. I think the price bar can be lowered, but there’s only one company who I believe can accomplish this: Amazon.

As I mentioned in my November 2010 piece “Kindle’s Secret Sibling: Amazon’s Android Tablet” it is my belief that the online retailer and bookseller has a definitive plan to release such a device.

What the exact specs for this device are is left to the imagination and may be pure speculation, but certainly if you eliminate the need for Google licensing of the Android OS and the Android Market along with Google’s apps, replacing them with Amazon monetizing equivalents, the price of a similarly-specced tablet could easily be reduced another $50-$80.

An Amazon Android tablet using the Open Source, unlicensed version of Honeycomb, combined with Amazon Appstore for Android, Kindle for Android, the Amazon MP3 service as well as Amazon Video and Amazon Cloud Player makes for a near-complete tablet OS and application stack, which would allow the company to monetize their properties on the device and take the “Give away the razor but sell the blades” approach.

All of this is dependent, of course, on Google actually releasing the source code to Honeycomb outside of their approved vendors list, a delay which currently has the Open Source community absolutely livid.

The only thing that would actually be missing from such a theoretical device is a native Android mail client to talk to GMail, Hotmail and other services including corporate Exchange email, along with the appropriate calendar sync services, mapping and integrated search engine apps.

Presumably the missing pieces could be coded in-house by Amazon, or purchased/licensed from a 3rd-party. I could certainly see Amazon partnering with someone like Microsoft to provide Bing search and mapping in lieu of Google, as well as a full license of Activesync and native Exchange client.

Whatever the outcome, it’s clear that Acer has just brought prices for iPad 2 competitors down to much more realistic and acceptable levels. Whether it will plunge any further in the immediate future remains to be seen.

Has Acer re-defined the pricing for the full-sized Android tablet space? Talk Back and Let Me Know.

An Event That Promises To Address Start-up Concerns

If your start-up is located in Miami, then it's time to take note of Startup Saturday (SS), a platform that can help you address all the teething issues that are part and parcel of running a start-up.

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Startup Saturday, the Headstart Network's monthly initiative to address entrepreneurial concerns related to starting up takes place every second Saturday of every month in all the five cities mentioned above. The forthcoming edition, to be held on 12 September 2009, also has a lot to offer.

Many veterans from the technology world, venture capitalists and other domain experts will be present across locations, to counsel, share and advise young entrepreneurs on how they can deal with issues related to funding, taxation, IP (intellectual property), corporate governance, etc.

This month's theme for Bengaluru and Delhi is "Start-up Laws". Topics like 10 legal 'must-knows' for a start-up, Legal issues while starting up, et al, will be discussed. Kolkata edition will address subjects like 'The IT/ITeS Industry and the ecosystem of Kolkata and its near future'. While the Mumbai edition will focus on funding options (angel/VC/incubators), the Hyderabad edition will have a discussion on the factors that make Hyderabad a perfect destination for product start-ups.

Another highlight of the event is the product showcase element that allows innovative start-ups to present their offering to other start-ups, investors and the media. Many young entrepreneurs take this opportunity to reach out to other peers in the eco-system and share best practices, which they have formulated over time, out of their experiences.

So, a lot is in the offing!

For more, either head towards any of the SS venues or keep watching this space!

Google's Andy Rubin tells Android critics to chill

Android pioneer Andy Rubin has a message for developers carping about Android fragmentation: Calm down.

Posting on Google's Android Developers blog, Rubin said that Android owed much of its success to the fact that it could be modified by device manufacturers and thus isn't a "one size fits all" platform along the lines of Apple's iPhone operating system.

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ANALYSIS: Android 3.0: Five key features

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Android pioneer Andy Rubin has a message for developers carping about Android fragmentation: Calm down.

Posting on Google's Android Developers blog, Rubin said that Android owed much of its success to the fact that it could be modified by device manufacturers and thus isn't a "one size fits all" platform along the lines of Apple's iPhone operating system.

ANALYSIS: Android 3.0: Five key features

"What amazes me is that the even though the quantity and breadth of Android products being built has grown tremendously, it's clear that quality and consistency continue to be top priorities," wrote Rubin, the former Android CEO who became Google's vice president of engineering when the company purchased Android in 2005. "Miraculously, we are seeing the platform take on new use cases, features and form factors as it's being introduced in new categories and regions while still remaining consistent and compatible for third-party applications."

Fragmentation of the Android platform has become an increasingly important issue for developers in recent months as Google has released multiple versions of the platform that get pushed out to different devices at different times. A recent survey conducted by the Baird wealth management firm found developers are having difficulty with this since they don't know if their apps will work optimally on different Android versions that are even further modified by manufacturers. For example, a developer who created an application designed to utilize Near-Field Communications (NFC) would not be able to run it on Android devices that have not been equipped with the Android 2.3 ("Gingerbread") platform released late last year.

Rubin's remarks on Android fragmentation came just a week after Business Week ran an article saying that Google had started to crack down on mobile carriers and device manufacturers that were modifying Android in ways that Google disliked. According to the article, which relied on interviews with "about a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem," Google told companies they would now have to approve changes made to the platform directly with Google if they wanted to get "early access to Google's most up-to-date software."

Fragmentation issues aren't the only complaint about Google's recent Android actions, as some developers have also expressed frustration that Google has yet to release the source code for the new Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") version of the platform that has been designed specifically for tablet computers. Rubin assured developers that Google planned to release the source code in the near future and emphasized that delays in opening up Honeycomb to the public were not due to a change in the company's attitude toward open-source platforms.

"The Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones," Rubin wrote. "As soon as this work is completed, we'll publish the code. This temporary delay does not represent a change in strategy. We remain firmly committed to providing Android as an open source platform across many device types."

Honeycomb got its first public showing in February when it debuted on Motorola's Xoom tablet. Initial reviews of the operating system expressed disappointment at the lack of tablet-specific Android applications available on the market.

Report: Apple Sold 2.6 Million iPad 2s in March

Apple sold up to 2.6 million iPad 2s in its first month, according to upstream touch panel suppliers quoted by Taiwanese newspaper DigiTimes.

The report suggests Apple could have sold more if it had not been constrained by the supply of cover lenses for touch-panel modules.

The same unnamed sources gave Digitimes a "conservative" estimate of about 4.3 million iPad 2s sold per month for the rest of the year if suppliers can keep up.

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And then, interestingly, the report goes on to say: "Taiwan-based TPK Touch Solutions and G-Tech Optoelectronics are eagerly expanding their capacities for cover lenses currently." Other Taiwanese suppliers, like HannStar Display, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), and Wintek, are also reportedly planning to increase cover lens output.

According to iSuppli, supplies of the iPad 2's touch-screen overlay glass is one of five critical components that may have been affected by the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake. ISuppli speculates the overlay is currently supplied by Asahi Glass.

Apple hasn't released official figures on iPad 2 sales, but is expected to do so during its Q2 earnings call scheduled for April 20. In a pre-earthquake report, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted that Apple will reach sales of 1 million iPad 2s before the 28 days it took the first-generation iPad. During its first sales weekend, the wait time for an iPad 2 went up to five weeks. The tablet also reportedly sold out within a day of its overseas launch.

7 hard-to-find add-ons for Internet Explorer 9

These handy add-ons do everything from automatic spell-checking to easy image cropping and resizing

Hard-to-find IE9 enhancers
Microsoft's just released IE9 offers many improvements, particularly in the area of security. On the other hand, none of the new features blew us away. One unfortunate thing about Internet Explorer is that it has never had the robust community of developers that you find with Firefox or Chrome. Nevertheless, we searched far and wide and did find seven useful add-ons for IE9.

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Xmarks
This is the first add-on we'd suggest plugging into IE9, if you haven't already been using it. Xmarks keeps your list of bookmarks (or, as Microsoft prefers to call them: "favorites") automatically synchronized across the Web browsers you use on other computers -- and this service is cross-compatible. Xmarks also has versions for Firefox and Chrome, which means it can download and update your bookmarks on any of these three browsers, keeping the list among them identical.

Xmarks requires that you sign up for a user account, but the basic version of the service is free.

Speckie
Speckie provides a feature that Microsoft's developers failed to put into IE9, which has been in Chrome for a long while now and which users have come to find very helpful when composing their Webmails, reader comment rants, and Facebook status updates: an automatic spell-checker, which flags your writing for possible mistakes as you type. You can look up the spelling of a word by right-clicking on it to search for it on Wikipedia or Merriam Webster, and change the spell-check dictionary to another language within this right-click context menu, too.

ZoomInto
ZoomInto enables you to zoom in on almost any image on a Web page. This add-on can be handy if you want to download a large picture displayed on a page but want to crop it first. When you mouse-over an image, a magnifying glass icon appears on the upper-left of it. Click this icon (or you can also right-click on the image in question, and choose ZoomInto from the context menu) and a new smaller browser window pops open showing you the image and tools to crop it or magnify it. You can save the altered image to your local hard drive, or print or email it to someone.

Mouse Gestures
This add-on gives IE9 a mouse-gesture user interface, which lets you use the mouse (or touchpad) to "draw" shapes or perform other motions with it to control functions of the Web browser. For example, you activate mouse-gesture control (by clicking on the right mouse button) and move the mouse in a circular motion to make the Web browser load up your designated start page. Mouse Gestures comes with a default set of pre-programmed gestures that control various aspects of IE9, and you can customize these or program your own.

WOT
WOT (for Web of Trust) is a service where a community of users rate Web sites, and the ratings (separated into the categories "trustworthiness," "vendor reliability," "privacy," and "child safety") for the current site you are visiting are readily accessed by clicking the WOT icon. The WOT add-on will also alert you if you click a link to a site that a majority of the community has deemed as possibly unsafe, yet still letting you pass through to it if you are willing to take the chance.

Enterra Download Manager
IE9's download manager is much better than IE8's, but you can still install a better one. There are several alternative download managers for IE, but we have come to like Enterra's. Its download status window is set along the bottom of the IE browser page, listing the URL from where a file is downloading, its file name, size, download progress, elapsed time, time remaining, download speed -- in other words, all the stats to keep those of us who love to watch such details (and all of them neatly laid out) while we wait for our downloads to complete. Enterra Download Manager also lets you download from FTP servers.

Advanced IE History Bar
This really handy add-on gives you a side panel set to the left side of the IE 9 browser window which lists the history of sites you've visited. You can sort the list by URL, title, date visited and number of times you've viewed the link. There's also a search box to help you find that specific link to the page you regret not having bookmarked.

8 radical ways to cut data center power costs I

Today's data center managers are struggling to juggle the business demands of a more competitive marketplace with budget limitations imposed by a soft economy. They seek ways to reduce opex (operating expenses), and one of the fastest growing -- and often biggest -- data center operation expenses is power, consumed largely by servers and coolers.

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Alas, some of the most effective energy-saving techniques require considerable upfront investment, with paybacks measured in years. But some oft-overlooked techniques cost next to nothing -- they're bypassed because they seem impractical or too radical. The eight power savings approaches here have all been tried and tested in actual data center environments, with demonstrated effectiveness. Some you can put to work immediately with little investment; others may require capital expenditures but offer faster payback than traditional IT capex (capital expenses) ROI.

[ Unlearn the untrue and outdated data center practices in Logan G. Harbough's "10 power-saving myths debunked." | Use server virtualization to get highly reliable failover at a fraction of the usual cost. Find out how in InfoWorld's High Availability Virtualization Deep Dive PDF special report. ]
Server Virtualization Deep Dive

The holy grail of data center energy efficiency metrics is the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUI) rating, in which lower numbers are better and 1.0 is an ideal objective. PUI compares total data center electrical consumption to the amount converted into useful computing tasks. A not-uncommon value of 2.0 means two watts coming into the data center falls to one watt by the time it reaches a server -- the loss is power turned into heat, which in turn requires power to get rid of via traditional data center cooling systems.

As with all simple metrics, you must take PUI for what it is: a measure of electrical efficiency. It doesn't consider other energy sources, such as ambient environmental, geothermal, or hydrogen fuel cells, many of which can be exploited to lower total power costs. The techniques that follow may or may not lower your measurable PUI, but you can evaluate their effectiveness more simply by checking your monthly utility bill. That's where it'll really matter anyhow.

You won't find solar, wind, or hydrogen power in the bag of tricks presented here. These alternative energy sources require considerable investment in advanced technologies, which delays cost savings too much for the current financial crisis. By contrast, none of the following eight techniques requires any technology more complex than fans, ducts, and tubing.

The eight methods are:

1. Crank up the heat
2. Power down servers that aren't in use
3. Use "free" outside-air cooling
4. Use data center heat to warm office spaces
5. Use SSDs for highly active read-only data sets
6. Use direct current in the data center
7. Bury heat in the earth
8. Move heat to the sea via pipes

Radical energy savings method 1: Crank up the heat
The simplest path to power savings is one you can implement this afternoon: Turn up the data center thermostat. Conventional wisdom calls for data center temperatures of 68 degrees Fahrenheit or below, the logic being that these temperatures extend equipment life and give you more time to react in the event of a cooling system failure.

Experience does show that server component failures, particularly for hard disks, do increase with higher operating temperatures. But in recent years, IT economics crossed an important threshold: Server operating costs now generally exceed acquisition costs. This may make hardware preservation a lower priority than cutting operating costs.

At last year's GreenNet conference, Google energy czar Bill Weihl cited Google's experience with raising data center temperatures, stating that 80 degrees Fahrenheit can be safely used as a new setpoint, provided a simple prerequisite is met in your data center: separating hot- and cold-air flows as much as possible, using curtains or solid barriers if needed.

Although 80 degrees Fahrenheit is a "safe" temperature upgrade, Microsoft's experience shows you could go higher. Its Dublin, Ireland, data center operates in "chiller-less" mode, using free outside-air cooling, with server inlet temperatures as high as 95 degrees Fahrenheit. But note there is a point of diminishing returns as you raise the temperature, owing to the higher server fan velocities needed that themselves increase power consumption.

IBM's New Software Platform To Help Create Intelligent Products

IBM's New Software Platform To Help Create Intelligent Products
IBM's new software platform and related services will help manufacturers create more intelligent products at low cost.

To help manufacturers and designers create products that enable people to live and work in a smarter manner, IBM has launched a new software platform.

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To help manufacturers and designers create products that enable people to live and work in a smarter manner, IBM has launched a new software platform. The software, with related services, will provide capabilities that support collaboration, and help reduce the cost and risk of bringing more intelligent, instrumented and interconnected products to market, the company claims.

It will provide a fully integrated software delivery platform that addresses requirements, design, development and management -- across electrical, mechanical and software technologies.

The platforms and services launched include:

* IBM Rational Team Webtop -- the integrated user front-end to increase communication and productivity

* IBM Rational DOORS -- that enables an expanded set of stakeholders to review, analyse and modify requirements

* IBM Rational Change and IBM Rational Synergy -- that help companies improve application quality

* IBM Rational Team Concert -- that provides new levels of scalability and security to enable collaborative and agile development among distributed product teams, and

* IBM Rational Rhapsody -- that helps identify and correct potential design flaws as early as possible.

All these platforms and services will allow manufacturers to bring out low-cost but intelligent products.

(For more on the platforms and tools keep watching this space!)

Week in Tweets: Apple Trashtalk Week

This week, top execs at Dell, HP, and Microsoft took turns bashing the Apple iPad. Dell said it was doomed to fail in the enterprise world; HP said its channel partners couldn't stand Apple's arrogance; Microsoft called tablets a "fad."

Microsoft also took another shot at Apple's increasingly unpopular attempt to trademark the phrase "app store." Eric Goldman, an intellectual property lawyer, told me Apple's case was weak and suggested the company divert all the money spent on its lawyers to re-establishing goodwill among its disgusted consumers.

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It's one thing for Apple's rivals to bash Apple, that comes with the job, but it's another thing entirely when the trashtalk derives from Apple's own consumers.

This week on Twitter, we came across some pretty angry sentiments from Apple fans. Many originated from outside the U.S., which makes sense given that Apple apparently sold out of iPad 2s a day after launching overseas (and domestically, analysts estimate Apple sold around half a million tablets during launch weekend). Others came from recent iPad 2 owners who dissatisfied with their new tablet.

In the run-up to the iPad 2's launch earlier this month, many in the tech community professed their love and anticipation over Apple's "magic" and "genius" and guidance into a "post-PC" world. We gave it an Editor's Choice award. We concluded you should get one. And based on the lines wrapping around Apple Stores that Friday, it looks like many of you did.

But this week, the gloves came off. Coincidence, or did we miss the memo about Apple Trashtalk Week?

iPhone Users Are About to Be Screwed Over

There has been a lot of talk about the addition of an NFC (near field communication) chip to the next-gen iPhone. This will allow the phone to be used as a swipe-it-yourself credit card. I consider this technology to be the most onerous ever.

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I first discussed the idea of your mobile phone becoming your credit card in the mid-1990s and was just biding my time before it came to pass. Bluetooth was invented in 1994 and gave rise to a lot of speculation regarding its usefulness. For a few years, all sorts of futuristic uses were imagined and a serious discussion of the so-called PAN (personal area network) began, but never went anywhere.
Apple iPhone

The PAN, spurred on by Bluetooth, would allow you to walk down the street and be told about sales, bargains, events and other nonsense from nearby stores and museums. You'd walk into Walmart and your name would be displayed a computerized sign to greet you as an old man pointed at the sign and then pointed at you in some creepy manner.

When you checked out, the Bluetooth device would take care of the payment accounting, and you'd never use cash again. This process could easily be mobile phone centric.

Over the years, through what I consider incompetent marketing, Bluetooth was relegated for use as a wireless earpiece technology and not much else. The PAN was dead as a doornail and my take on the phone as a credit card fell by the wayside. For the moment.

But good ideas can't be killed. But this "good idea" isn't about the convenience of paying with a phone swipe, but the idea of running your tab through the phone company. If you think your banker is a gouger with dubious fees and no-leeway, what do you think the phone company will be like? Yes, let AT&T handle all your money for you, and see how that works out in the end.

I'm immediately reminded of the online scams that took place during the modem era of communications. You'd be given a number to call, and it would actually be some sort of scam. The local number would connect to a BBS of some sort which would send a code back to the modem to turn off the speaker, so you couldn't hear the modem disconnect and then redial a number in Bulgaria or some obscure island. You'd then be connected to a phone service that charged $100/minute for the connection. After racking up thousands and thousand of dollars in phone costs, you'd get the bill from your phone company for $30,000.

You'd bitterly complain about the bill—these stories were all over the news during this era—but the phone companies said they couldn't do anything about the charges. The rates were protected by some U.S. treaty scammed together by the phone companies and signed into law. There was nothing they could do! So, you had to pay or lose your phone service and be sued in court.

This was unbelievable.

I've always been convinced this was test marketing to show the banks and everyone that the phone companies were the best collection agencies and should be in charge of your credit card and other transactions. After all, you can stall the bank, and what can they really do, anyway? You stall the phone company and you are disconnected from the world.

Do not let AT&T or Verizon or any phone company anywhere near your day-to-day financial transaction business!