One of my sources, who has been pretty accurate so far about Windows Phone futures, said that neither the GDR2 nor GDR3 updates to the Windows Phone 8 operating system are going to introduce VPN support to the platform. (GDR2 is supposedly rolling out to existing Windows Phone users this summer; GDR3 is rumored for this fall.)

It's unclear if Microsoft will relent  and introduce VPN support with the follow-on to GDR3, which is known as Windows Phone Blue -- which is looking increasingly like an early 2014 deliverble. I hear there's still a chance it could be added at that point.

Microsoft officials said last year that the company had decided to rely on Secure SSL rather than support VPN with Windows Phone 8. One Windows Phone official told me Microsoft considered Secure SSL "a better, light-weight approach" to providing this kind of functionality in the new BYOD (bring your own device) world that is adopting Web servcies.

After Microsoft's introduction of Windows Phone 8, there were renewed rumors that Microsoft was planning to add VPN support to Windows Phone 8 at some point as part of what was known as "Apollo Plus." It turns out Apollo Plus was just a generic Microsoft name for the wave of updates to Windows Phone 8 and not a specific update.

The current plan, from what I'm hearing, is to focus this year on securing new Windows Phone 8 apps and devices. The GDR updates are meant to provide minor updates and tweaks to the Windows Phone 8 operating system. But my sources said the thinking by the powers-that-be in the Windows Phone team is that the base phone operating system is largely good enough for now, and apps and devices are what need the most attention.

The way to think about the three General Distribution Releases (GDRs) is that they are meant to provide bug fixes and specific updates requested by handset makers and mobile operators, I hear. GDR2 is about making some much-needed Xbox music app fixes, allowing Data Sense metering, and CalDAV and CardDAV support. GDR3 is the update that will help support larger screen devices.

Windows Phone Blue is where more major new features will be added. Will VPN be among them? No word so far.

Microsoft, unsurprisingly, isn't talking about GDR3 or Windows Phone Blue. It's shut-up-and-ship over there.

There is some good news for business users on the Windows Phone platform this week, however. Good Technology's enterprise messaging app is now available for Windows Phone 8.

There already was a version of Good's encrypted e-mail for Windows Phone 7.X. But the Windows Phone 8 version of Good's app didn't arrive until today, May 17, according to WPCentral. (The new Good app works on both Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8.) The Good WP app provides secure access to email, calendar and contacts; remote lock and wipe; supports blocking copy-paste policy; and more.

Today was a big day for Big Data and analytics, as data discovery and visualization darling Tableau Software made good on its filing for an initial public offering.  The company's shares were issued today on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol "DATA."  Wow.

Tableau company offered 8,200,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $31.00 per share.  The shares closed up almost 64% above that initial pricing today, their first day of trade.  Tableau now has a market capitalization of $2.9 billion.

I had the opportunity to speak today with Tableau's CEO and co-founder, Christian Chabot, and I discussed with him matters relating to Hadoop, data scientists, the business intelligence space, its business models, and what's next for Tableau.

Don't spend it all in one place
To start, I asked Chabot what the IPO-derived capital would be used for.  His answer was that the IPO was more about raising public awareness of Tableau, and the credibility of the company, than it was for expansion per se.

"Tableau everywhere" is what Chabot says is the company's next frontier.  He explained that Tableau's revenue is currently derived from a Windows-only, on-premises-only offering and one with limited market awareness, to boot.  So there's a lot of growth opportunity to go.

Product or stack?
While that's all well and good, we have to assume that Tableau will expand its sales force and quite possibly its product portfolio.  So I asked a few questions around those topics.

With Tableau's growth as a private company, and its now seemingly quite successful IPO, it has set a very high bar for itself.  I pointed out to Chabot that this has all been built around what is essentially a single product, and so I asked what Tableau would do to keep the momentum going.

First off, Chabot corrected my assertion that Tableau is a single product, insisting that Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server and Tableau Public are quite separate.  I suppose this comes down to semantics; to me, three different editions that are all geared to data discovery don't constitute separate products, but certainly they are marketed separately, and that does count for something.  

I peristed in exploring the possibility of new products from Tableau though, as most of its BI competitors offer a full stack of products that cover data integration, master data management, data quality, conventional reporting, and more.  Chabot explained that there's little reason to match everyone with a full BI stack simply for the sake of conforming to the market category.  But he also told me that the company is interested in diversifying into new product areas for which Tableau is seeing significant customer demand.  Chabot said that a data integration offering is of particular interest to Tableau.

Declaring independence, and neutrality
But if Tableau remains mostly focused on data discovery and visualization, it begs the question of whether it will be acquired by one of the BI stack vendors that is weak in that area (and compared to Tableau, many such vendors are).  Chabot insisted that Tableau will remain independent, explaining that such independence allows the product to remain a Swiss Army knife that connects to virtually any relational, Big Data or analytical data source, and how that benefits Tableau customers greatly.

Certainly, Tableau customers are a happy bunch, as I noted in my report from the Tableau Customer Conference last year.  Chabot believes strongly that the Tableau's undiluted dedication to self-service is what drives customers' passion, and that it also put Tableau well ahead of its BI competitors that offer self-service capabilities as a mere option, if at all.

Data science, for the layman
Having just participated in ZDNet's Great Debate, on the need for data scientists this week, I asked Chabot what he thought about the issue.  Not surprisingly, Tableau's CEO feels that we are too reliant on specialists, and that expanding this "priesthood of people" doesn't get us past the bottleneck.  Chabot said that the  complicated and developer-intensive nature of the vast majority of data technologies is what underlies Tableau's success.

With that complexity in mind, I asked Chabot about Hadoop.  The quintessential Big Data technology is clearly popular, but hardly something one thinks of when the self-service, agile and empowerment themes that Tableau identifies with are invoked.

"DATA" Convergence
How did Chabot reconcile the success of self-service with that of a complex tool like Hadoop?  He explained that Tableau sees Hadoop at many customers, but almost never sees it as a standalone platform.  Chabot's implication was, I think, that people want to use Hadoop, but they want it to meld with the data warehouse, BI and transactional database technologies they have been using for some time.  Chabot would tell you that Tableau facilitates some of that integration, and he'd be right.

I will just point out that 2013's trend of BI - Big Data convergence shows no sign of slowing.  Tableau's ticker symbol of "DATA" doesn't have "BIG" in it, and it doesn't need to, because the market need around data of all types is even bigger.

Related:

Love and hate: the new Google+ look

Thank you, Google, for the new homework assignment: Hangouts vs Chat

And, this is the new Google+. It has two to three content columns, and an optional video/VoIP/instant messaging column on the right. If it reminds some of you of Pinterest or WebOS, that shouldn't be a surprise. The Pinterest look is clear and Google+ designers now include some of the old WebOS team. 

Google+ is now integrating your images even more closely into the system. Besides just collecting all your Google online photos into one interface, it also now includes automatic image fixig tools. With this move, Google is putting Facebook and Instragram on notice that they're playing in the photography space as well. 

Google+'s secret sause continues to be Google+ circles that gives you easy, precise control over who can see, and who can't see, any given post. 

If circles don't always work for you Google+ communities enable you to focus on talking about the issues that matter to you.  if you follow me, for example, you'll get Star Trek posts as well as Linux stories

If you want to adjust what's happening in Google+, you'll find all its features and controls in a drop-down right-hand menu bar. 

If you really can't stand the Google+ multiple columns, you can switch to a single column look. As you can see, however, it's not very attractive. 

Linus Torvalds, inventor of a little thing called Linux, points out that Google+ has one real weakness: It's current default font is awful. 

Hashtags, as any Twitter user knows, can be very useful. Trying to figure out the right hashtag can be a pain, so Google+, under the direction of the developer who came up with the notion for Twitter, has automated hashtag selection. You can still add them in by hand, but this new mode will make hashtags as important on Google+, if not more so, than they are on Twitter. 

In 2013, Google+ came into its own when it became the world's second most popular social network. That didn't stop Google however from announcing more than 41 major changes at Google I/O. These weren't small, under-the-hood changes. One, the shift from a single content column to Google Now style "cards" in two or three columns with large images that take up the entire width of the display, has totally transformed the interface.

Gallery: The brighter, more colorful Google+

Some people loved this change. Harry McCracken, noted technology journalist wrote in Time magazine, "The service, which was already pretty darn slick, is now among the most attractive and engaging web apps I’ve ever seen." The New Yorker's new technology associate editor Matt Buchanan wrote, "The mobile version of Plus, which has used cards for a few months, by contrast, feels ebullient and rich, like it was inspired by beautiful magazines, if magazines were also living, breathing entities."

So much for the adoration. Others, such as Chris Voss a social media expert and CEO of Strategix One Consulting, look at the new Google+ and see the image-oriented Pinterest social network. Not that's there's anything wrong with that. Still others find it far too busy and annoying.

Me? I found it distracting at first, but I'm getting to like it. If you can't stand it, you can shift back to a look that's something like the old interface. You do this by going to Google+ settings and scrolling down to the Accessibility radio box. There, check "Change the presentation of some pages to work better with screen readers and other assistive tools," and you'll have the new one column look. It is not, I repeat not, a real replacement for the old look.

There is, however, another problem: Google+'s fonts. As Linus Torvalds, founder of Linux and a Google+ user, put it, "This is the fuzziest font I have ever seen. Maybe it's the WOFF [Web Open Font Format] rasterizer in Chrome that could suck dead baby donkeys through a straw?" Torvalds is right. The fonts are ugly as sin. Hopefully Google will get them fixed soon.

The other major change is that .

Finally, in addition to Google+ Circles, where you select which people see which of your posts, and Google+ Communities, which are online groups set up for a specific interest, Google+ has now embraced Twitter's favorite topic organizing feature, the hashtag.

You, however, don't have to assign hashtags to a story. Google does it for you. So, for example, if I write a story about Linux, Google will automatically add a Linux hashtag to it. Users, for their part, can now browse related content by clicking on a post with a particular topic. Since it's often hard to know what hashtag to use--e.g. Linux, Ubuntu, open source?--having the system handle it for you if you don't want to do it manually is a nice feature. 

At first, I found the new Google+ interface to be more distracting than useful. That said, even as I was double-checking my facts as I wrote this story I found myself liking it more and more. If you're a long-time Google+ user, I urge you to give it a chance before writing it off. If you haven't used Google+ before, it's high-time you did.

Related Stories:

• I/O 2013: Google Plus getting 41 updates
• Facebook remains top social network, Google+, YouTube battle for second
• Google presses algorithm, cloud advantage vs. Apple, rivals
• Google developer tool releases include new Maps, Games, Google+ APIs

Tired of staring at one of these? Read on!

Now that tablets and smartphones are all the rage, people are making their PCs last longer by improving them with strategic upgrades. But choosing the right upgrades can mean the difference between a faster, better system, and throwing your money away.

(Source: Crucial)

Adding more RAM to a PC or Mac is, short of replacing the entire system, the best way to improve system performance and gain more mileage out of your existing hardware. If that alone doesn't make you happy, what if I tell you that RAM upgrades are also cheap, and also really easy to do?

NOTE: The only caveat with RAM upgrades is that in order to be able to make use of more than 4GB on either the PC or Mac, your system MUST be running a 64-bit operating system. If you are on a 32-bit platform, you are stuck at 4GB.

How to tell if Windows is 64-bit | How to tell if OS X is 64-bit

You can add RAM to most systems. Some systems might already be at their limit for the amount of RAM they can take, and other systems – such as tablets and notebooks such as Apple's new MacBook Pro – can't be upgraded because the RAM is soldered direct to the motherboard, however, most of the time you're going to be in luck.

The best way to find out what RAM your system needs is to visit one of the online vendors. Two of my favorites are Crucial and Kingston. These websites not only tell you what RAM you need, but also how much you can add to your PC, and also give you handy hints on how to carry out the upgrade.

Bear in mind that not only can you add more RAM, but you can add faster RAM, again, depending if your system supports it. However, in most cases upgrading to faster RAM (say PC3-10600 to PC3-14900) doesn't offer much in the way of real-world gains, but it will help to bump up benchmark scores, if you're into that sort of thing.

If you know what your system takes, then visit your favorite retailer, where you will undoubtedly get a cheaper price, but you will be on your own if you make a mistake.

I recommend that for system with 4GB or more that you consider doubling the amount of RAM (assuming a 64-bit operating system). For systems with less than 4GB then you might be better off going up to 8GB immediately.

4GB of RAM will set you back about $30.

(Source: Kingston)

Another bottleneck in a PC is the speed of the storage. Maybe the hard drive is slow, or that it is filled up to the point where it is having an adverse effect on performance (if you've got less than 10 percent of your storage left, it's probably time to think about upgrading).

After RAM, upgrading storage is one of the easiest, cheapest, and best upgrades you can do.

If your PC currently uses a hard disk drive (HDD) for storage then you could give it an even bigger performance by swapping it out for a solid-state drive (SSD). These are pricier than regular HHDs, but the difference in transfer rates is like night and day.

If you're not sure what your PC or Mac can take, then once again I suggest you take a trip over to either Crucial or OWC, where you will find a wide selection of both HDDs and SSDs to choose from suited to your particular system. OWC has a great selection of high-performance drives, for both PCs and Macs, including the MacBook Air and the new Retina-display MacBook Pro systems. 

If you know what your system takes, then visit your favorite retailer, where you will undoubtedly get a cheaper price, but you will be on your own if you make a mistake.

(Source: Nvidia)

Another way to squeeze some extra life out of your desktop PC system – the graphics card in notebook systems, as well as those found in all Macs except for the Mac Pro are not upgradable – is to upgrade the graphics card. However, this advice applies primarily to one class of user – gamer.

Perhaps your current system has features an older graphics card, or perhaps your GPU is integrated onto the CPU. In either case, investing in a new graphics card should give your system a big of a performance boost.

Unless you are a hardcore gamer looking for cutting-edge hardware, then a graphics card doesn't have to cost the earth. $99 will buy you a Radeon HD 7750 or GeForce GT 640, both of which are capable cards, and will give you a good gaming experience with any modern title (assuming that the rest of your PC is up to the challenge).

If your budget goes a little deeper, then $200 buys you a Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GT 660, both of which are superb graphics cards. 

(Source: Intel)

Most newcomers to upgrading automatically think that the CPU is the place to start. After all, it's the brains of the CPU, and the faster the CPU, the faster the entire PC will be, right?

Wrong.

CPU upgrades are fraught with problems.

• Boosting performance by a few hundred megahertz doesn't translate into much real world gains.
• Finding out what CPUs are compatible with your motherboard can be a nightmare. Not only do you have to make sure the sockets match, but that the actual CPU is supported by the BIOS/UEFI and the hardware.
• If your PC is old enough that adding a new hundred megahertz would indeed make a difference, then chances are your newly upgraded system will be compromised by another bottleneck (RAM, storage, etc) and you end up having to spend more money.
• Notebooks – along with some desktop systems – are not upgradable because the CPU is soldered onto the motherboard.
• CPU spec and data sheets can be very complicated, leading you to buy something that is worse than you already have.

The only people for whom CPU upgrades are worthwhile are hardcore enthusiasts who have high-spec systems, and know them inside out. If you're not one of these people, then if you're considering a CPU upgrade, then what you really want is a new PC. 

(Source: Dell)

Here's one upgrade that you desktop PC and Mac users might not have thought of. Adding a bigger screen to your system – or, if the system allows, a second display – is an excellent way to improve performance without having to crack open your system.

If you work with a lot of applications at once, or your job involves having to split your attention between two or more applications/data sources, then adding a second screen means you can give the applications you use more screen real estate, making them visible all the time.

Many modern systems have two ports (or sometimes more) for displays. If not, you can add a graphics card that will support multi-monitors.

Even notebooks can support dual screens, although with some you may have to invest in an adapter. 

Don't underestimate the enormous productivity boost that adding a bigger -- or second -- display will bring.

(Source: Lacie)

Don't feel like cracking your system open to add more storage, or perhaps you want to add a LOT of storage, then external storage is the way to go.

Here you have loads of options, ranging from a single one-disk external drive that connects to your system via USB (1TB should cost about $80), to something more elaborate that can offer many terabytes of storage and be accessible to a number of PCs over a network (a 16TB LaCie Quadra Big will set you back $1,600).

If your system has a Thunderbolt port then there are a number of extremely fast external storage devices that make use of this port, but expect to pay a premium for this sort of performance.

(Source: Microsoft)

Running an old operating system? Then upgrading to a new version might give your system a spring clean and bring with it some new features for you to play with.

Upgrading Windows or Mac systems is pretty easy, and far less problematic than they once were. Macs are especially easy to upgrade because the process is essentially a one-click download from the Mac App Store.

Mac OS X upgrades are also cheap, costing only $20.

Windows upgrades cost more, but hardware support goes much further back, so there's a better chance that you can upgrade an older system to the latest version.

Anyone thinking of upgrading should check to see if his or her system can handle the upgrade before pulling the trigger on buying it. For Windows users Microsoft has an Upgrade Assistant, while Apple's offering is some simple instructions on checking your hardware.

Personally, unless the hardware is relatively new – no more than five years for a PC, and about three years for a Mac – I'd save my upgrade money and put it towards a new system, and the costs outweigh the benefits.

(Source: Microsoft)

Another simple – and cheap – upgrade.

It's amazing how a new mouse of keyboard can make an old PC feel like a new one.

Also, think beyond the keyboard and mouse! You have the option of adding a whole new class of peripheral, such as a pen tablet (handy if you're into photography or art), a fingerprint reader (makes logging on quicker and easier), or surround sound speakers (to give your gaming a bit more realism). 

Credit: Jokeroo

Timber Wolf gaming keyboard.

Credit: U R funny Junk

Original USS Enterprise with crew mouse.

Credit: Amazon

For the true geek. Non functional.

Credit: We love Mercuri

Klingon Keyboard. Translate your output with Bing's Klingon Translator.

Credit: Vyperlook

Kickstarter project to produce bamboo keyboards for iPads.

Credit: Kickstarter

Fully functional keyboard.

Credit: If it's hip it's here

Modified Macbook pro keyboard.

Credit: Fun substance

Credit: 30 Media

Projects a virtual keyboard onto any flat surface.

Credit: Hi Consumption

With matching headphones and mouse.

Credit: Sears

Edible. Not functional.

Credit: Vyperlook

Full keyboard with backlighting and beeps.

Credit: The Fancy

Also covered in Wearable Tech 4 but worth another mention. Mouse and speakers also built in to jeans.

Credit: Telegraph

Covered in gold leafand apparently not as expensive as you imagine at $271.

Credit: Shocking Anecdotes

Concept of a removeable keyboard that slots into laptop keyboard space for touch keyboard functionality.

Credit: Yanko Design

I'm not sure how it would cope with being cleaned.

Credit: Hella Jongerius

Credit: Desi Colours.

Credit: Datamancer

USB keyboard for PC and Mac.

Credit: Kenesis

Wooden stick on keys for Apple Keyboards.

Credit: Kickstarter

Not functional of course.

Credit: Wicker Paradise

Not a usable keyboard, but you could have a go at making it functional with some electronics and a lot of spare time.

Credit: Laughing Squid

Made from Brass, black felt and wood

Credit: Apartment Therapy

Access to the data network was pinpointed as the biggest challenge of the mobile phone firms, since performance was 3% below the goals set by Anatel.   

According to the report, there have been areas of improvement such as reductions in the overall number of dropped calls and connections. But that is not good enough, especially given that Brazil has almost 150 million mobile phone users, of which about 72 million utilize data services.

The inability of Brazilian mobile to reach an acceptable level of mobile data services charged at a premium is not only infuriating for users, but also reinforces the many uncertainties surrounding the recent launch of 4G services in the country.

Meanwhile, the telecoms authority watches the issue continue to snowball: Anatel's president Joo Resende was recently quoted by Brazilian newspaper Estado de So Paulo as saying that it would be "anti-economic" to not invest in fourth-generation technology - and offer it to end consumers.

When asked what consumers should be doing in case the services doesn't work, Resende said  the best option would be to "clog up" customer service reps at mobile operators with complaints. Now that's a job I wouldn't fancy doing...

Reports of strong demand for the Q10 have circulated in recent weeks. A new report this morning showed BlackBerry regaining lost market share in Canada. Several commenters to the TechRepublic poll supported that narrative.

TechRepublic user Vijitc, a multinational CIO, wrote in the comments: 

"BlackBerry woes made me switch to [Galaxy S3] last summer. Did not expect BlackBerry to make a come back. Like Android as a tablet. I have Nexus 7. But as a business phone the Galaxy does not cut it. Will definitely return to Q10 and will keep Nexus 7 tethered to Q10 hot spot for video apps."

The TechRepublic poll was run this week during BlackBerry Live 2013 when interest and exposure naturally peaked for BlackBerry. This is a self-selected poll so the numbers likely skew a little high for people interested in this topic, but the percentage was still higher than expected. With over 1,300 participants among TechRepublic's audience of IT professionals and business managers, this poll had plenty of responses to make it statistically significant.

The other question that TechRepublic asked was if the Q10 was enough to keep current BlackBerry users in the fold and avoid a future jump to Android or iOS. The response was even more emphatic in BlackBerry's favor there, as 76% said it was. 

TechRepublic commenter PurpleSkys, a Canadian business manager, wrote:

"I personally prefer they little keyboard... Keep in mind, BlackBerry has had touch for a while now. My Torch is a touch and it's a few years old. And the new BB Z10 is all touch... I'm waiting for my next upgrade with our service provider to get the new Q10."

There were also plenty of commenters who didn't plan to switch back or were on the fence. TechRepublic member Croiona, an IT department head in Great Britain, wrote:

"I moved from a Nokia E71 to an HTC Desire and then to a BB Bold. The only reason I switched to BB was because it had a touch screen but retained a conventional keypad. I hated the touch-screen typing on the HTC and wanted to have the best of both worlds. I'm not a touch typist, but I find a conventional keypad allows me to type much faster and more accurately. I'm now faced with the dilema of whether to switch back to an Android with a better sized screen and a wider range of apps, but have to suffer the touch screen typing, or stay with BB and hope it starts to catch up with all the apps available elsewhere."

I know a lot of business professionals who were long-time BlackBerry users that are now on Android and iPhone and almost all of them say that the biggest thing they miss is the hardware keyboard. Most of them comment that they write fewer and shorter emails on their phones now that they have devices with touch keyboards. For those that are tempted to go back, I'm sure they'll have to wrestle with the app trade-off that Croiona mentioned.

Nevertheless, the fact that these IT and business professionals are even considering a BlackBerry again is a win for the company. We'll watch to see if consideration can turn to into momentum for the Q10 over the remainder of 2013 as the first wave of these users have wireless contracts that come up for renewal.

Also read

• BlackBerry Q10 review
• How BlackBerry is riding iOS and Android to power its comeback
• BlackBerry releases BES 10.1: Simplified deployments, IT policy options
• BlackBerry announces colorful new Q5 device for emerging markets
• BlackBerry to launch BBM on iOS and Android this summer
• BlackBerry unveils its own social network, BBM Channels
• BlackBerry boosts enterprise IM with Microsoft Lync, Lotus support

Bloomberg, the tony U.S. financial data and news company, announced this morning that it appointed former IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano as an "independent adviser" for the company's privacy and data standards.

The news comes after Bloomberg was revealed to have given its news reporters access to data from its namesake terminals that revealed the activity of major customers such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Palmisano will "immediately undertake a review of the company's current practices and policies for client data and end user information, including a review of access issues recently raised by the company's clients," Bloomberg said. "In addition, Mr. Palmisano will make recommendations and advise on the implementation of any enhancements to these practices and policies, including the independent verification of the company's systems and procedures."

He will report to Bloomberg's board of directors.

"Sam Palmisano is an expert at understanding issues related to technology and data use, having led the transition at IBM from computers to helping customers use technology to solve business challenges," Bloomberg chairman Peter T. Grauer said in prepared remarks.

In addition to Palmisano, Bloomberg tapped the legal practice Hogan Lovells and former Bloomberg News editor-at-large Clark Hoyt to review the issues at hand: Hogan will approach the issue from a legal perspective; Hoyt will approach it from a journalistic one.

Don't let the Entry moniker imply any limitations on the SmartCloud Entry solution, because there aren't any. Entry just means easy, not limited. SmartCloud Entry is a full-blown, full-featured, highly scalable cloud enabling solution for businesses. IBM has just taken the sting out of cloud adoption both in complexity and in affordability.

SmartCloud Entry is an affordable cloud solution. And it's doubly affordable because you don't have to purchase a bit of new hardware or rip out and rebuild your current virtualized infrastructure to start using your own private cloud.

It's a cross-platform, multi-platform cloud solution that makes creating, using, and managing cloud resources as easy as a few mouse clicks.

If you don't believe me about the "few mouse clicks," check out this video that shows you how easy it is to deploy a new virtual private server using SmartCloud Entry.

And, you can also watch how easy it is to go from no cloud to cloud in a day with SmartCloud Entry.

I spoke with Jeff Borek, Program Director for Cloud Computing Systems and Technology Group, Ian Robinson, Product Line Manager for Virtualization and Cloud Solutions, IBM Systems Software Team, and Alan Dickinson, IBM Program Director for Cloud Computing in Mid-sized Businesses. You can listen to the full 32 minute podcast on my Frugal Networker blog site and gather information on SmartCloud Entry firsthand.

Some of the new key features of the new version, 3.1, are:

• Expanded hypervisor options now includes Hyper-V.
• Multiple server architecture support from the single interface.
• Enhanced web portal for rapid self-service workload provisioning.
• Pre-configured VM appliance images.

And of course, its standard features of automated approvals, metering, billing, users, and projects through the SmartCloud Entry interface and the capability to create gold master images, to convert from physical systems, and to convert virtual machine images between hypervisors.

IBM's SmartCloud Entry 3.1 will be generally available June 14, 2013.

For more information about IBM's SmartCloud Entry product or any of its cloud computing offerings, check out the IBM Cloud Computing SmartCloud website. This site provides several videos, multiple pages of features, product offerings, use cases, and a cloud computing community portal that provides additional learning resources and information.

Additionally, if you'd like to see more of SmartCloud in action, search YouTube for SmartCloud Entry and enjoy learning about the next generation of cloud computing.

For more information on private cloud click here to download a free ebook on private cloud from the Aberdeen Group.

What do you think of an easy to adopt private cloud computing solution? Do you think businesses will jump at the chance to move that direction or do you think they're still too reluctant to go cloud? Talk back and let me know.

After being certified by the U.S. government earlier this month for low-level security clearance work, iPhones and iPads running the latest software are now deemed suitable for U.S. military use.

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed in a statement on Friday that Apple's iOS 6 mobile operating system is secure enough to connect to secure Pentagon networks. 

Earlier in May, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which examines and tests mobile devices and technologies for security clearance, granted the Apple software FIPS 140-2 certification (Level 1) last Friday. This approves iPhones and iPads running the software in conjunction with the U.S. government's lowest level of national security clearance.

Read this

iOS 6 granted FIPS 140-2, approved for U.S. government use

• Read more

The Defense Dept. previously said it has up until now depended on around 470,000 BlackBerry devices, which have held U.S. government certification for many years. The department also has 41,000 Apple products and 8,700 devices running the Android operating system, according to the press release.

But because these platforms have previously not been certified or cleared for use, such devices had not been connected to secure military networks, except for testing.

Samsung recently received the nod from the Pentagon for any Samsung device protected by the Knox security software, which includes the Galaxy S4 and other compatible tablets.

For the first time, Apple's push into federal use opens up the U.S. government and military to competition for device procurement in the mobile space. 

While BlackBerrys had once held the monopoly over U.S. federal agencies, on two fronts there is an increasing responsibility for device and platform makers to secure their hardware and software, but also the dwindling BlackBerry market share has forced the federal government to look elsewhere for long term stability and reliability.

But with the decline in BlackBerry popularity and a slower-than-expected release schedule for the latest BlackBerry 10 smartphones, many federal agencies have already made headway towards rival platforms and devices.

Fortifying cloud, acquisition, data processes

The Defense Dept. also said today it will take "bold steps" to provide information and proper analysis as it fortifies its cloud computing, acquisition and data processes.

The Defense Dept.'s deputy director for acquisition resource analysis and enterprise information Mark Krzysko said cloud computing is one of many new ways to provide "decision-makers timely access to accurate, authoritative and reliable information."

He noted that the major challenge faced by the Pentagon is twofold: how can the Department make existing technologies and cloud information work together, but also how to "orchestrate the transition" from a desktop environment to a mobile one, while ensuring data security and integrity?

In conjunction with today's news regarding iOS 6's clearance for the Pentagon, Krzysko cited existing iPad use in the Department. But it wasn't just about the shiny, latest products and features. 

He firmly noted that the Department's requirement is to fully understand the "processes, people and policy framework" around the technology, data and acquisition evolution.

Today the value of Bitcoin and other digital currencies is more volatile than Americans are used to. But with Amazon and eBay looking at accepting them, that could change.

If that seems unlikely, recall that much of what you use now as "money" is simply electronic transfers: credit cards; debit cards; PayPal. Now, grasshopper, are those more "real" than Bitcoin?

The bad old days

Digital currencies are like how the US currency system used to work, before we had a national dollar.

Local banks issued its own currency supported - in theory - by the deposits of customers. To redeem the currency you'd go to the bank and exchange the notes for coin. When business crashed people would "run" to the bank to exchange their notes for specie - gold and silver coins.

Since banks borrow short term and loan long term, they would often run out of coinage and close - often costing depositors their life savings - which was Very Bad for business. That's why the US has a national currency, a Federal Reserve Bank and insures bank deposits (FDIC).

Digital currencies have none of these protections. But maybe that won't matter if the utility of them is greater than the fear that they'll become worthless.

How would that work?

"Gold bugs" advocate going back on the gold standard rather than letting the dollar "float" against other currencies. After all, advocates contend, without gold the dollar isn't backed by anything at all.

And yet the dollar remains the worldwide currency of choice, not only for B2B but as a store of value and convertibility as hard cash. Proof: most US currency circulates outside the US - Americans prefer credit cards.

Since the US dollar isn't backed by gold, and since the Fed can loan as much money as it wants to banks that can use it as reserves against loans - if only they were making loans! - why do we ascribe value to the dollar? Global acceptance and ready convertibility are two major reasons.

Which is where the value proposition for digital currencies makes the most sense. So can a digital currency replace - or at least supplement - national currencies? Yes.

The Storage Bits take

That isn't much different from what we used not so long ago - or what we use today. Digital currency is the new frontier in more ways than one: the 19th century dressed up in 21st century tech.

I hope to have more to say about it because I'm attending a Bitcoin conference that starts today. If you see me, say hi!

Comments welcome, as always.  Would you use a virtual currency? Would you put your life savings into it?

Note: Another version of this post appeared earlier on StorageMojo.

You will find native photo editing tools on all these newest smartphone platforms, but they don't appear as apps. These tools can improve the quality and look of photos you take. It is also fun to add customizations to your photos. To access these editing tools you first need to go into the device's gallery area and open up a photo. An option to edit a photo will be your gateway to these various editing tools.

I personally liked using the BlackBerry 10 and Nokia Creative Studio utilities the best as they gave me a mix of the essentials with some slick enhancement tools.

HTC One Android smartphone

The editing clients for all the other platforms is the same out of the box. However, on your Android smartphone the manufacturer has flexibility to provide a different native editing tool so the tools available on HTC will be different than what you find on Samung, LG, Motorola, and others.

The screenshots in this post were captured from the HTC One so the native tool has an HTC origin. You will even find that this tool differs from other HTC devices so with Android there is no consistent, cross-device experience.

After opening up a photo, tap the Edit button to access the HTC editor. At the bottom of the display you will find four icons that allow you to access Effects, Frames, Retouch, and Transform.

The Effects tool gives you filtering options similar to what you might find on Instagram. You can select from a number of effects and when you tap on an option you will see a preview of that appear as the photo changes. I personally don't use this tool much.

The Frames lets you customize the border of the photo with options such as wooden, airmail, grunge, and montage. These can be fun at times and I have edited photos using this tool.

When you tap on Retouch several options will appear, giving you a Photoshop Lite experience. The available tools actually are a bit dynamic too and will change depending on the photo you are viewing. For example, if someone photo bombed you then an option to remove that person may appear. Unfortunately, there is not much manual control over this option.

Tools available to you with Retouch include skin smoothing, lighting, face contour, eye enhancer, red eye removal, eye brightening, and anti-shine. As you can see most of these are focused on adjusting photos of people.

The last available tool is called Transform and allows you the ability to rotate, crop, flip, and straighten your photo.

The new Galaxy S4 has even more options for editing so open up a photo on your smartphone and check out the powerful editing tool in your hand.

Frames lets you customize the border of the photo with options such as wooden, airmail, grunge, and montage. These can be fun at times and I have edited photos using this tool.

The Effects tool gives you filtering options similar to what you might find on Instagram. You can select from a number of effects and when you tap on an option you will see a preview of that appear as the photo changes. I personally don't use this tool much.

Frames lets you customize the border of the photo with options such as wooden, airmail, grunge, and montage. These can be fun at times and I have edited photos using this tool.

When you tap on Retouch several options will appear, giving you a Photoshop Lite experience. The available tools actually are a bit dynamic too and will change depending on the photo you are viewing. For example, if someone photo bombed you then an option to remove that person may appear. Unfortunately, there is not much manual control over this option.

Tools available to you with Retouch include skin smoothing, lighting, face contour, eye enhancer, red eye removal, eye brightening, and anti-shine. As you can see most of these are focused on adjusting photos of people.

The last available tool is called Transform and allows you the ability to rotate, crop, flip, and straighten your photo.

BlackBerry Z10 with BB10

The photo editing tools were shown to me at the BB10 launch and have a slick user interface that helps make photo editing a fun experience.

After you open a photo and select to edit it you are launched into the center of the editor with the Artistic tool immediately available below your photo. The way the BB10 editor works is there is a bottom toolbar showing the four main tools and the row above this shows you the available options with thumbnails of your edited photo above the name of the option. When you tap the option, the large photo appears with your changes in place. You still have to save the edited photo and can always go back to your original.

The options available to you in Artistic mode include black and white, lomo, antique, sepia, watercolor, sketch, and more. I like these options much more than those on the HTC One and many like this are found on Samsung devices.

The Transform tool is limited and gives you options to rotate, free transform the size, or make an image square.

With Enhance options you can adjust red-eye, brightness, white balance, contrast, sharpness, saturation, and noise reduction. These are the standard editing tools you might find on your computer and are helpful for manual photo control.

The last tool, Styles, lets you apply Instagram-like quick styles to your photo. Options include smooth face, sixties, grain, age photo, cartoon, big eyes, and more.

I like the mix of traditional editing tools and new filters on BB10 and find it to be one of the most useful native photo editors available to smartphone owners today.

After you open a photo and select to edit it you are launched into the center of the editor with the Artistic tool immediately available below your photo. The way the BB10 editor works is there is a bottom toolbar showing the four main tools and the row above this shows you the available options with thumbnails of your edited photo above the name of the option. When you tap the option, the large photo appears with your changes in place. You still have to save the edited photo and can always go back to your original.

The options available to you in Artistic mode include black and white, lomo, antique, sepia, watercolor, sketch, and more. I like these options much more than those on the HTC One and many like this are found on Samsung devices.

The Transform tool is limited and gives you options to rotate, free transform the size, or make an image square.

With Enhance options you can adjust red-eye, brightness, white balance, contrast, sharpness, saturation, and noise reduction. These are the standard editing tools you might find on your computer and are helpful for manual photo control.

Styles, lets you apply Instagram-like quick styles to your photo. Options include smooth face, sixties, grain, age photo, cartoon, big eyes, and morel.

Nokia Lumia 920 with Windows Phone 8

Like Android, the tools available to you on a Windows Phone 8 device depend on the manufacturer. Since Nokia is the main Windows Phone vendor I have screenshots showing options available on a Nokia Lumia device.

When you tap on the Edit option as you view a photo, Windows Phone 8 jumps to a screen showing the available tools for your device. On my Nokia Lumia 920, options appear as crop, rotate, auto-fix (native WP tool), Camera360, and Creative Studio. These last two are tools provided by Nokia and only appear if you installed them from the Store.

Like iOS, the native WP8 tool is very basic and just gives you options to rotate, crop, and auto fix. That's it, no other options are provided natively so photo editing is limited out of the box.

I haven't used the Camera360 editor too often, but have seen some pretty slick edits made and shared online. After you launch this app, you will see options at the bottom of the screen for clip, rotate, and effect. Tapping on effect takes you into an editor similar to what you find in iPhoto.

Small icons appear in a menu bar at the bottom of the display with options labeled scenery, portrait, microspur, food, and night. Tapping on each of these then gives you a row of filters with small thumbnails showing previews of what you edited image would look like. These filters include names such as foggy, purple, fall, enhance, normal, reversal, maple, emerald, sunny, black & white, and many more.

The Creative Studio app from Nokia is the real powerhouse for editing your photos on a Nokia Lumia. You have the ability to quickly apply filters such as silver, ivory, jade, quartz and more as soon as you launch this editor. A preview of what your photo looks like with these filters appears on the display. After selecting one of these main filters, you can then tap to edit and access several slick photo manipulation tools.

The tools in Creative Studio appear under four main headings at the top of your screen in the panoramic Metro UI. These main options are titled fix, blur, play, and adjust.

The Fix option lets you crop, rotate, and fix red eye. The Blur tool is fun and lets you select parts of your photo to focus on while blurring the rest of the photo. You can use a line drawing tool for this or a slick and easy radial tool.

The Play tool has color pop and collage functions. Color pop turns your photo to black and white and then lets you tap to add color and even gives you control over the primary colors in the photo so you can have all yellow images or all red images shown in color. This is also a fun tool to play with. The collage tool lets you choose images to then pull together into a collage. I use collages for sharing before and after shots quite a bit.

Traditional photo edits are made through the Adjust tool that lets you control color balance, brightness, clarity, and vibrance.

I haven't used the Camera360 editor too often, but have seen some pretty slick edits made and shared online. After you launch this app, you will see options at the bottom of the screen for clip, rotate, and effect. Tapping on effect takes you into an editor similar to what you find in iPhoto.

Small icons appear in a menu bar at the bottom of the display with options labeled scenery, portrait, microspur, food, and night. Tapping on each of these then gives you a row of filters with small thumbnails showing previews of what you edited image would look like. These filters include names such as foggy, purple, fall, enhance, normal, reversal, maple, emerald, sunny, black & white, and many more.

The Creative Studio app from Nokia is the real powerhouse for editing your photos on a Nokia Lumia. You have the ability to quickly apply filters such as silver, ivory, jade, quartz and more as soon as you launch this editor. A preview of what your photo looks like with these filters appears on the display. After selecting one of these main filters, you can then tap to edit and access several slick photo manipulation tools.

The tools in Creative Studio appear under four main headings at the top of your screen in the panoramic Metro UI. These main options are titled fix, blur, play, and adjust.

The Fix option lets you crop, rotate, and fix red eye. The Blur tool is fun and lets you select parts of your photo to focus on while blurring the rest of the photo. You can use a line drawing tool for this or a slick and easy radial tool.

Apple iPhone 5 with iOS

Like most of these platforms, there are native tools and then 3rd party applications you can purchase to provide even more tools. The native iOS tool is very limited in the photo editing department with just options to rotate, auto-enhance, remove red-eye, and crop photos.

Since Apple provides iPhoto on Macs and iOS, I decided to include their iPhoto app for comparison even though this one will cost you a few bucks. iPhoto offers tools similar to what other smartphones have natively.

To edit photos with iPhoto, you need to actually launch the iPhoto app and then select a photo you want to edit. Editing tools in iPhoto are dynamic so tapping the icon in the bottom left slides tools out from the left side along the bottom where you can then dive down a level or two for more editing options.

There are options to crop, rotate, adjust contrast, adjust brightness, adjust color levels with slick sliders, red-eye removal, sharpen, soften, and more.

Tapping on the last icon to the right in the bottom toolbar takes you to a palette of tools, called Effects, that open up as a virtually stacked color strip selector. The main tool names appear as ink effects, warm & cool, duotone, black & white, aura, vintage, and artistic. Tapping on a strip then gives you more options for editing photos.

To edit photos with iPhoto, you need to actually launch the iPhoto app and then select a photo you want to edit. Editing tools in iPhoto are dynamic so tapping the icon in the bottom left slides tools out from the left side along the bottom where you can then dive down a level or two for more editing options.

There are options to crop, rotate, adjust contrast, adjust brightness, adjust color levels with slick sliders, red-eye removal, sharpen, soften, and more.

Tapping on the last icon to the right in the bottom toolbar takes you to a palette of tools, called Effects, that open up as a virtually stacked color strip selector. The main tool names appear as ink effects, warm & cool, duotone, black & white, aura, vintage, and artistic. Tapping on a strip then gives you more options for editing photos.

Tapping on the last icon to the right in the bottom toolbar takes you to a palette of tools, called Effects, that open up as a virtually stacked color strip selector. The main tool names appear as ink effects, warm & cool, duotone, black & white, aura, vintage, and artistic. Tapping on a strip then gives you more options for editing photos.

Tapping on the last icon to the right in the bottom toolbar takes you to a palette of tools, called Effects, that open up as a virtually stacked color strip selector. The main tool names appear as ink effects, warm & cool, duotone, black & white, aura, vintage, and artistic. Tapping on a strip then gives you more options for editing photos.

Tapping on the last icon to the right in the bottom toolbar takes you to a palette of tools, called Effects, that open up as a virtually stacked color strip selector. The main tool names appear as ink effects, warm & cool, duotone, black & white, aura, vintage, and artistic. Tapping on a strip then gives you more options for editing photos.

With the rise of free webmail services, the personal email landscape changed, but business mailboxes have remained pricey.

Now, thanks to aggressive competition between Microsoft and Google, that situation has changed. You can get business-class email for a relative pittance. And if you don’t want to pay for a modern mail server but still want to use a custom address with your business domain, you can now get that for free.

I’ve just converted several domains that had been running on ancient POP servers to a modern, cloud-based infrastructure. And it didn’t cost a dime. You can do the same.

First, a little background.

Back at the dawn of the commercial Internet, I registered a custom domain for my personal and business use.  One of the first things I did with that new domain was to attach it to a POP mail server and create a default email address.

I now own and use more than a dozen domains, but that first domain is still going strong. I’ve used that original email address for nearly two decades now. During that time I’ve lived in four states, changed Internet service providers a half-dozen times, and transferred the domain to different hosting providers without ever losing contact with my friends, co-workers, and family. I switched to a different default address for business e-mail a few years ago, but I have never stopped using that original address.

I could have chosen Google Apps for Business or Office 365, but either of those options would have meant a hefty annual bill.

As you can imagine, a 20-year-old email address, especially one with a common name to the left of the @ sign, attracts a lot of spam. Over the years, I’ve tried a bunch of spam-filtering options. None of them were close to perfect, but SpamAssassin passed the “good enough” test for a long time. A good decade, probably.

The trouble with SpamAssassin is that its technology hasn’t kept up with the bad guys, and over the past year or two the amount of junk mail that was bypassing the filters and landing in my inbox was steadily increasing.

And I’m not the only one with a mailbox on that domain. My mom has her primary account there, and my wife still receives some personal and business messages through an account there.

When the two most important women in my life both complained that the spam had gotten out of hand, I knew it was time to act.

So I decided to shut off the POP server and move that domain to a cloud-based service with its own spam filtering.

I could have chosen Google Apps for Business or Office 365, but either of those options would have meant a hefty annual bill: $50 per user for Google’s solution, $48 per user (and up) for Microsoft’s plans. (Those Google Apps accounts used to be free for up to 10 users, but Google dropped that option last year. If you set up an account before the cutoff date, you're grandfathered in, but there is no longer a free Google version for custom domains, only for Gmail.com addresses.)

But these are primarily personal accounts, so why should I pay a minimum of $150 a year? I decided instead to go with Microsoft’s best-kept secret: the free online tool that allows you to connect any domain to Outlook.com and keep email, contacts, and calendars in sync on just about any device.

Boy, am I glad I did that.

For the past three weeks, all three of those accounts, complete with custom domains, are now going through Microsoft’s mail servers. I’ve created some new accounts as well, using up 10 of the 50 addresses (and if I need more I can just put in a support ticket).

Here’s what I’ve gained:

• Amazingly good spam filtering. My main account gets between 300 and 500 spam messages per day, for a total of more than 10,000 per month. I’ve been monitoring that folder obsessively for the past three weeks. Only five messages of more than 7000 that I considered spam actually made it to my inbox. Fewer than 10 legitimate messages were caught by the spam filters. All of them were bulk messages that I ended up deleting anyway.
• Cloud backup. The trouble with those ancient POP servers is that they use a store-and-forward method that requires me to manage those archives somehow. Yes, I can use IMAP, but that’s still a crude technology compared to Exchange ActiveSync, which powers Outlook.com. And the same sync technology allows me to keep contacts and calendar items in the cloud as well.
• Easy connections to Microsoft Outlook. I use Outlook 2013 for my work email, which is handled by an Exchange server. I can connect any Outlook.com account (including my old Hotmail addresses) to Outlook as well. This support is built in to Outlook 2013; for Outlook 2010 and 2007, you need to install the free Hotmail Connector.
• Server-side rules. Microsoft calls this feature “sweep,” and it’s a very clever implementation that allows me to define flexible ways of handling different types of messages. “Just keep the most recent newsletter from Woot. Clean out daily news alerts from The New York Times after 10 days. Always move messages from the IPG mailing list to their own folder.” And so on.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, of course. The web version of Outlook.com includes unobtrusive ads that appear to the right of the main email window. Those ads are not context-sensitive: the advertising engine does not use the contents of the current message or other messages in your mailbox to determine which ads to display, as Gmail does. Incoming and outgoing messages do not include ads. (If you use a dedicated email client program such as Outlook, you’ll see no ads at all.)

Best of all, I get to keep my custom email address. If an alternative service comes along at some point in the future and I decide to switch, I can move my custom address. I own it. You can’t do that with an address in someone else’s domain, including Outlook.com and Gmail.com.

Oddly, the back-end service that makes this feature possible still uses the old Windows Live branding. It feels very … 2007. It’s scheduled for a visual refresh and a usability makeover to fit in with the look and feel of the new Outlook.com services, although Microsoft hasn’t said when that’s going to happen. But you can use it today, without waiting for those changes.

If you’re interested in connecting your custom domain to Outlook.com, I’ve put together a tutorial illustrating how to do exactly that.

To attach your custom domain to the Outlook.com servers, you need three things:

• Your own domain, which you can purchase from any registrar.
• The ability to create custom DNS (Domain Name System) records. In particular, you’ll need to create an MX (mail exchanger) record.
• A Microsoft account (formerly known as a Windows Live ID), which you’ll use to sign in to the domain administration center. This account should use an address that is not on the same custom domain as the one you're about to attach to Outlook.com. (If you already have a Microsoft account you use for other purposes, use it here.

If you're a stickler for legal details, you can read the terms of service, which are a supplement to the Microsoft Services Agreement.

Let's get started.

Step 1: Go to the Microsoft Custom Domains Admin Center and sign in using your Microsoft account.

Step 2: Click the Get Started link. (If you’ve previously used the Admin Center to attach a domain, click Add Domain.) That opens a new page where you can begin the custom domain setup process.

Step 3: Enter the domain name you want to attach to Microsoft’s Outlook.com service. Be sure you select the option to set up mail service for your domain.

Step 4: Accept the terms of service, fill in the captcha, and click I Accept.

You’ve now finished all of the initial setup steps. The next screen shows you the settings for the DNS record you need to create for your custom domain.

You now need to go to the settings interface for the DNS records associated with your domain. Each domain registrar is slightly different, but you'll need to find the place where you create an MX record and enter your domain name and the MX server address provided in the Mail Setup box, as shown above. If you're not experienced with managing DNS records, just copy and paste the entire box and send the details to a support professional at the registrar or a networking-savvy friend or colleague.

And then you wait, as the new DNS records propagate over the Internet. On one domain that I set up, the change was instantaneous. Most of the time, you should be able to continue within an hour. Click the Refresh button, and if the settings took, you'll see a screen like this one:

Click the Add button to begin creating accounts. For each new account, you add an account name (that's the part that goes to the left of the @ sign). You also assign a default password. If you're creating the account for yourself, you can clear the "Require password change at first login box."

If you're creating the account for someone else, leave that box checked, and send them the new email address and the password you just created. They'll be prompted to create their own password when they sign in for the first time.

To complete the account creation, go to Outlook.com and sign in using the credentials you just created. Your new mailbox is now available. You can attach the account to any mobile device and sync mail, contacts, and calendar using Exchange ActiveSync. You can also attach the account to Microsoft Outlook. This setup is automatic with Outlook 2013; for Outlook 2010 or 2007, you'll need to install the Outlook Hotmail Connector.

You can create up to 50 addresses in your new domain.

Any questions?

For years now, my colleague Jason Perlow and I have gone back and forth over the question of whether retail is dead or dying. He contends it is, and I contend it's a business model issue, that some stores are thriving while others are dying.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have an admission to make. I go into actual retail stores very rarely. Very, very rarely. I never liked shopping, I have an Amazon Prime account that meets nearly all my needs, and my work schedule keeps me pretty busy.

Besides, my wife actually enjoys shopping, so she does almost all the local errands. This isn't a gender thing. My dad loves to shop. I just never got that gene from him.

All that brings me back to the AT&T store. I needed a phone case from the store, and it was more convenient to pick it up than wait for Amazon to deliver it to me on Monday.

There was a problem. My wife wouldn't add it to her errands. She refuses to go in there. She says the attitudes of guys who work there are intolerably chauvinistic, in that "you don't know what you're doing, little lady" kind of way.

We both have iPhones on AT&T, so she's had a bunch of occasions to go in there. I bought my phone online, but she got hers in the store. She's also been back in there to look at phone cases and to get unnecessary bandwidth charges removed from her bill (she wasn't the only one).

So, fine, I'll run my own errand. It's only fair. I had tried to call first, but given that they sell phones, I found it a little disturbing that they don't ever answer their own phone when it rings. I called. No answer.

I drove the seven minutes to my local West Melbourne AT&T store. As I got out of the car, two women were getting into their car in the next parking space over. One woman turned to the other and said, "I hate that guy," pointing to the manager exiting the store. She continued, "He's always such a condescending jerk when I come in here."

This did not bode well. Not only was my wife distinctly unthrilled with this store, so was at least one other woman. Ah, well. My needs were simple. I went on in.

The very first thing I noticed was the stank. It smelled like a gym, on a particularly hot day. To be fair, I live in Florida, but it was only in the mid-70s yesterday. It just wasn't hot enough to justify the smell of a locker room.

The store consists of two main counters on the left and right side of the store. There were two salesmen behind the left counter (nearer the entrance) and three more behind the right counter. Each was with a customer. In the middle of the store were free-standing display areas, mostly uninteresting.

Some phones were on the display kiosks and were actually powered up and working, unlike the computers in our local office store (see Have PC retailers lost the will to live?).

That retail experience took me 30 minutes. By contrast, I could have ordered what I needed from Amazon in 30 seconds.

There was a definite Glengarry Glen Ross feel to the store. The man closest to where I planted myself was explaining a contract. The woman to my left was spending a few hundred bucks to buy a MicroCell so that the cell phone she was already paying for would actually work at home.

There were no female workers in the store. While I didn't see any outrageously inappropriate behavior, the sales guy who finished up first looked at me, and the only thing he said was "I'm going home." The store is listed closing at 8pm, and I was in there at 7:30, so he was clearly in a bit of a hurry to get out of there.

He didn't bother to say "Hi". He tried to avoid eye contact. He didn't offer to introduce me to another sales guy. He just wanted out and didn't care about his store's reputation, the possible purchase I might have made (at that point, he didn't know if I needed a phone case or an S4), or the impression he'd make on someone who might be a repeat customer.

He just wanted out.

In any case, it only took me about 15 minutes to get my needs met. I'm hard to miss, so the next free sales guy came over to me as soon as he was done with his customer. He was polite and got me what I needed. I had no complaints.

Even so, as I walked out, I thought once again about Jason's arguments about retail. It took me seven minutes to drive there and seven minutes home. Call that fifteen minutes. It took fifteen minutes of standing around. I didn't like how I was treated. There were other shoppers who clearly didn't like how they'd been treated.

And I had to get there before 8pm. And then there was the stank.

That retail experience took me 30 minutes. By contrast, I could have ordered what I needed from Amazon in 30 seconds. Had I been willing to wait the weekend for delivery, I would have saved half an hour.

Now, to be clear, half an hour isn't that much of a time investment. But when the choice for us all is sitting at our desks or on our couches and hitting One-Click or driving 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour, or more and having to endure waits, standing around, inattentiveness, attitude, or the stank, more and more of us will choose the online experience.

My only disagreement with Jason is that I don't believe retail is destined to die just because of "the online". If retail is dying, it's because the retailers themselves are letting it happen.

This store is simply poorly managed. There was no reason a salesperson should be allowed to let a customer feel ignored. And, of course, there was no excuse for the stank.

But Jason is right. If retailers don't change their ways, retail will be a wasteland. And retailers will have nobody to blame but themselves.

It's not consumer behavior, and it's not Amazon's fault. It's bad management. And, of course, it's the smell of failure.

This is an important moment for AMD; their decade’s long competition with Intel has gone full circle; they compete now based almost solely on price, having seemingly forever given up the technology leadership position to Intel. So with their new designs, focused on building efficient, cost effective, performance capable datacenter servers based on open standards, it could be said that AMD is betting the farm. Given the positive response that there has been, from both vendors and consumers to the Facebook lead Open Computing project, this might be a pretty safe bet.

Designed to fit in any standard 1U to 3U rack height server chassis (both the Open Compute and standard 19” rack models), the motherboard boasts components such as dual Opeteron 6300 Series processors, 12 DIMM slots supporting up to 384 GB of RAM, six SATA ports, integrated dual channel Gb Ethernet, multiple PCIe slots, and a custom connector for modules from vendors Broadcom or Mellanox.

The Open Compute servers are coming from vendors like Tyan and Quanta and through major distributors, but not from traditional first choice datacenter hardware vendors like IBM, HP, or Dell. If anything, the first stirrings of the Open Compute products are in direct competition with the traditional model of datacenter hardware sales and its proprietary nature, despite the much more commodity-like aspects of rack mounted servers.

Lenovo dubbed its convertible Ultrabook family the "Yoga" no doubt because it has the flexibility to serve as either a tablet with its display laid flat or as a traditional laptop. But the 11-inch version released several months ago, which was powered by an ARM processor and running Windows RT, apparently wound up giving users less than the best of both worlds,

Fortunately for Lenovo, it was already working on a full Windows 8 version of the Yoga 11, which it revealed at CES in January. Now, the company has finally made the Yoga 11S available to order on its website and BestBuy.com, with it being available in Best Buy brick-and-mortar locations starting on June 23.

Also unlike the original Yoga 11, the 11S runs the full version of Windows 8 or, in the case of the $1,349.99 model, Windows 8 Pro. (Making it more like the Yoga 13.) Windows RT has elicited very strong and mixed opinions (just check the comments for any RT-related post here on ZDNet), with Baxter-Reynolds glumly arguing that "Windows RT is a pointless curiosity with zero market potential."

With the Yoga 11S, Lenovo is giving those who feel like Baxter-Reynolds an alternative to Windows RT, at a price point not much more than the original Yoga 11. Are you more interested in the Yoga 11 now that there's an option for running a full version of Windows 8? Let us know in the Talkback section below.

My HP touchscreen PC was starting to show its age, and its first generation Core i3 wasn’t quite powerful enough for some of the tools I’d added to my workflow since I first bought it more than three years ago.

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Microsoft Surface: Seven things Microsoft must do to make it succeed

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Windows 8 had certainly given it a new lease of life, as I’ve mentioned in the past, but it was time to bite the bullet, hand over the credit card, and start the migration to a new PC.

Moving from one Windows 8 machine to another isn’t hard, especially when you’re keeping the same Microsoft account. Settings move across as soon as you log in for the first time, and Surface Pro’s bundled Office 365 click-and-run installer just needs an Office 365 account (or an Office 2013 product key) to start working.

There wasn’t much more software I needed to install: TweetDeck, Lightroom, the Flickr Uploadr, Skype and Chrome are about all I need on a Windows desktop these days (well, along with Steam to install my cloud copy of Civilisation…).

A Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM make the Surface Pro fast and responsive – and that makes it an excellent machine for working with photography. The 1080p screen is bright and clear, and it has some of the best and deepest blacks I’ve seen.

Microsoft ships the Surface Pro configured for 150 percent scaling, and I’ve left it on. While 100 percent scaling is crisp, fonts are just too tiny to be easily legible.

That screen scaling is probably the Surface Pro’s biggest flaw. If software has been written to support it correctly, you’ll have some of the best text and graphics Windows can give you. But if it isn’t you can end up with massive windows that can’t be shrunk, or teeny tiny fonts that need an additional magnifying glass to be read. Microsoft needs to get developers to build scaling-aware software that can give you the GUI the Surface Pro’s screen deserves.

No matter what amount of storage you opt for, you’ll find an SDXC card a worthwhile investment. I bought a 64GB card with my Surface Pro, and use it for additional document storage, and to hold pictures I take while on the road.

It’s worth considering using the trick of mounting the SD card in an NTFS directory, so you can use it in Windows 8 libraries (especially if you want to use it to host backup files for Office documents and for OneNote notebooks).

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Surface tension: The long, strange history of the Windows tablet

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There’s a lot to be said for Surface’s pen — especially if, like me, you use OneNote a lot. The size and weight of Surface make it easy to hold while taking notes (something that was a little difficult with earlier iterations of the Tablet PC).  It took a while for Microsoft and Wacom to release driver that supported pressure sensitivity in applications such as Photoshop.

One thing about the Surface Pro’s mix of touch and pen is that it’s easy to use the two together. If you’re drawing with the pen, you’ll quickly find yourself scrolling the screen with one finger, or using your other hand to make selections.

Mixing pen and touch turns out to be faster than just using touch or pen on their own; and if you throw in the Type Cover, you’ll also find yourself using the keyboard as well. UI research specialist Bill Buxton has talked about multi-modal computing, using MSR’s natural medium Degas art software (itself the basis of Windows 8’s excellent FreshPaint app) to demonstrate how mixing input methods would work. Surface Pro’s multi-modal hardware makes it an ideal platform for exploring these ways of working — and it’s fascinating to realize that those features are at the heart of everyday tools like Office.

Not everything is perfect. You do need long legs to type using a Type or Touch Cover on your lap, and mine just don’t quite make the grade. There are persistent rumours that Microsoft will be launching additional covers, and extra connectors that aren’t there on the Surface RT make a heavier keyboard case with an extra battery a distinct possibility. While Surface Pro’s battery life isn’t too shabby, a little extra wouldn’t hurt — and adding more stability and comfort to the mix would certainly be a bonus.

I did find buying a couple of accessories useful. Surface Pro doesn’t have an Ethernet port, and if you don’t want to be limited by the vagaries of wireless networks, you’ll want a USB to Ethernet adapter. I decided to invest in a USB 3.0 to Gigabit adapter to take advantage of the fast network I’d put in my office. I also invested in a case, getting Incipio’s ballistic nylon case — which, while originally designed for the Surface RT, turns out to be a good fit for a Surface Pro and a Type Cover keyboard, with plenty space for a pen.

Surface Pro is to Microsoft’s hardware range as the MacBook Air is to Apple’s. It’s a light, modern laptop that’s easily portable, taking up a lot less space in the bag than the last generation of Windows machines. The addition of touch makes it that little bit different, and it’s an attractive machine that gets attention wherever you might use it – on a plane, in a coffee shop, or even (in tablet mode) on the Tube.

And that’s what’s probably the most different about Surface Pro; despite one or two niggles, it truly is a laptop you can use anywhere. 

Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum recently discovered the malware on the Mac of an Angolan activist. He used the case to discuss security with activists from across the globe at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway this week. 

According to the researcher, the Angolan was the victim of a spearphishing attack and had received emails that duped them into installing the malware. 

The malware takes shots of the victim's screen and dumps them in a folder called MacsApp. Captured files are then relayed to two remote servers.

The threat was not detected by any antivirus product when Appelbaum uploaded it to Virus Total earlier this week, however the malware also does very little to hide itself from the victim.

The malware appears in a Mac's LogIn items list as a "Macs" application that is configured to open when the victim logs in.

Finnish security firm F-Secure added a signature to its product this week and has called it Backdoor:OSX/KitM.A. Sean Sullivan, a researcher with the vendor, noted the malware was signed with an Apple Developer ID. Apple's Gatekeeper on OSX Mountain Lion block apps downloaded from outside its own App Store unless they are signed with the developer ID.

Appelbaum provided a sample of the malware to Rapid7 malware researcher Claudio Guarnieri who reckons it is technically "lame".

"The malware itself is just an extremely lame piece of code that wraps around command line utilities to take screenshots, copy files and upload them," Guarnieri told ZDNet.

Still, as he noted on Twitter, it does work. 

The situation

Customers are presented a complex set of screens showing a number of ways to select flights. The source, the destination, the travel dates and travel times are selected and a number of flight options are shown. A price is presented for each option.

When a specific routing is selected, a number of other steps are required to provide information on the passengers.

Once that information is selected, the website presents screens asking for credit card information.

I tried three different sets of flights, at different times and through different Delta hub airports. Each time the result was the same. before I could enter my credit card information, the website showed an increase of nearly $125 per ticket per person to complete the purchase.

It seems inappropriate to change the pricing mid transaction like this.

First contact with Delta

I contacted Delta and complained about the slippery pricing and received the following reply:

Online booking allows you to arrange your travel safely and securely by providing you with real-time schedule and fare information. Each Delta flight has numerous fare structures for every flight segment offered. Our lowest priced fares are limited per each segment and once sold out are no longer available. When reviewing fares, they are never guaranteed until you receive a confirmation number at the end of the booking process. In very rare cases, a fare observed while reviewing flight segment options may sell out prior to you actually finalizing your purchase with a credit card. I am very sorry that the fare you originally observed was no longer available for your travel itinerary once you were ready to purchase the ticket, and I can certainly understand your disappointment.

I responded to this message by telling the Delta representative that I thought changing the fee in mid transaction appeared to be a "bait and switch" operation and that is unacceptable to me.  I also pointed out that seeing the same price increase for three different itineraries in a matter of a few minutes didn't seem to be a "rare case."

Second contact with Delta

Here is how a Delta representative responded to my second message:

Please allow me to explain that our policies are based on extensive research done by our marketing team. We have a dedicated team of analysts who analyze the features of the policy before they are implemented. At the same time, we also respect the sentiments of our passengers and welcome your comments as an attempt to improve our overall performance. This said, I have forwarded your comments to our Customer Service Leadership team for further analysis and internal review.

Snapshot analysis

Delta, I realize that you wish to maximize the value of each customer transaction. I also know that slippery pricing doesn't lead to customer trust or customer satisfaction no matter how your "extensive research" was conducted.

I don't think that your customers support changing the price of tickets in the middle of a transaction. I did a rather unscientific study at the airport and couldn't find a single passenger that thought that was acceptable supplier behavior. If you offer a product at one price, that price should not change mid transaction.