Business

It looks like Apple fans will be able to learn about their favorite company's CEO earlier than expected -- perhaps even in time for the yet-unknown release of the iPad 3 tablet. Right now the Apple iPad 3 release date remains highly speculative -- ... though prominent Apple watchdog blog MacRumors believe it's possible we'll see the latest revision as early as the end of this year. (Source: latimes.com ) What is relatively certain, however, is that the new book "Steve Jobs: A Biography," will be available on November 21, 2011. The book is written by author Walter Isaacson, head of the Aspen ... (view more)

Cable TV network Cinemax has launched a streaming video app on the iPad that has raised questions about whether the company's more risque content violates Apple's strict rules about mature subject matter. The app is an iPad version of the Cinemax ... "Max Go" website that allows subscribers to the TV channels to watch movies on the Apple device. It includes a special section known as "After Dark" that includes content normally restricted to late-night viewing on the channels that, although not explicit, is certainly suggestive and contains images. Two of the prominent movies available ... (view more)

The PC is 30 years old this month. But IBM, the company that established the system, believes the PC will soon be outdated. Until 1981, the "personal computer" was simply another term, like microcomputer, for any machine that was small enough and ... cheap enough that consumers could own one at home rather than it being a purely business tool. At the time, there were many different architectures for computers, meaning rival models weren't just different in design, but were largely incompatible. IBM's 5150 machine, however, changed all that. Also known as the IBM Personal Computer, the ... (view more)

Microsoft's August Patch Tuesday will be relatively moderate, though it does address 22 flaws. According to Microsoft, 13 of the patches addressed in August Patch Tuesday will address 22 flaws in a number of different programs, including Windows, ... Internet Explorer (IE), Visio and Visual Studio. Compared to last month's Patch Tuesday , the one set for release next Tuesday (August 9th) is only slightly larger: there are more patches offered, but the number of vulnerabilities remains the same. The number of fixes released this month is somewhat unusual as historically, Microsoft doles out fixes ... (view more)

A recent study suggested that Internet Explorer user IQs are lower than those who do not use Internet Explorer. Now, those responsible for the post are informing the public that everything from the results of the study to the company itself (called ... "AptiQuant") was a hoax. The report went viral in large part due to the attractive headline used to describe the report: "Is Internet Explorer for the Dumb? A New Study Suggests Exactly That." The news should provide some semblance of relief for Microsoft as the results of the fake study claimed that users of the aging Internet Explorer 6 browser ... (view more)

Microsoft's online services division, which includes the Bing search engine, has lost more than $2.5 billion in the past year. But the company is continuing to fight to attract search users by adding special features for mobile users. In its press ... release covering financial performance, Microsoft proudly announces that revenue from the online services edition grew by 17 per cent in the last three months of the year, and 15 per cent over the year as a whole. Bing Revenue Still Far Below Expenses Unfortunately, what it doesn't mention in the main release, but is detailed in the full financial ... (view more)

Google is set to launch a new positive reinforcement strategy: those who frequent the Google News website will be rewarded with a designated rank, turning average people into well-read "masters" according to Google's standards. Rewards take on the ... form of a virtual badge based on the search and reading histories of Google News supporters. If an individual is an avid reader of baseball reports, for example, Google would issue them a baseball badge. Other popular topics range from general news items (like politics, the stock market) to pop culture (like Harry Potter). Google says that over 500 ... (view more)

For the first time in years, Microsoft's Windows XP operating system has sunk below a majority share of the operating system market. The report comes just as a new study finds that Microsoft Internet Explorer users are slightly less savvy than users ... of other web browsers. According to Microsoft, Windows XP is now used by 49.84 per cent of all Internet users world-wide. Although the operating system (OS) is still the most widely-used system in the world, that percentage of the total market represents its lowest point in several years. Luckily for Microsoft, the damage hasn't been done by ... (view more)

Fact: Houses get cold in the winter months. Fact: The exhaust from a rack of cloud servers carries an average temperature between 104-122F. Microsoft is proposing that the racks (called "Data Furnaces") would be hot enough to replace the entire ... heating system of a home or office. Internet properties like Facebook and Google have already come up with large-scale solutions to combat unwanted exhaust, pumping steady streams of hot air into the skies of chilly cities around the U.S. But this act serves to rid the surrounding area of this waste without putting it to good use as Microsoft has since ... (view more)

How much are you willing to spend on a brand-spanking-new operating system? $50? $100? $200? How about $4,000? $4,000 is the ghastly sum that was allegedly charged to the PayPal account of one Apple fan who recently downloaded the Cupertino-based ... company's newest operating system, Mac OS X Lion. Released July 20, 2011, Mac OS X Lion is the most recent version of Apple's flagship operating system. In just its first day of availability, Lion took a serious bite out the competition, being downloaded a reported one million times. It's the best start for any Apple OS, ever. (Source: eweek.com ) ... (view more)