The Weekly Round-Up: The genie won't go back in the bottle - his iPad doesn't fit through the spout

The BYOD revolution, Amazon's Kindle Fire and - you guessed it - iPhone 5 hype...

The tablet revolution is well underway in our modern post-PC world. Let's take a look at the marketplace. The iPad is leading the pack. The rest aren't faring too well.

The Motorola Xoom isn't setting the world alight, RIM's PlayBook was a bit of a damp squib and the Samsung Galaxy Tab is banned from sale in some European countries.

It's not exactly a vibrant and welcoming market to get into, unless you work for Apple.

Yet this week saw the arrival of a new competitor that could challenge the iPad - although the Round-Up thought much the same of the TouchPad before it launched and look how that panned out.

In the spirit of optimism, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos this week gathered friends and press around and launched the Kindle Fire, a seven-inch tablet running a version of Android.

There were 'oohs', there were 'aahs', there was a fair bit of replicating Steve Jobs' presentational techniques but there was also the tablet. It looks interesting and you can check out pictures and specs on silicon.com.

It's a tumultuous market that Amazon has decided to leap into, despite the presence of the ruddy great circulating sharks and dozens of struggling minnows.

What makes the former bookseller think it can make a big splash? Well, three things actually. Firstly, it's as cheap as chips. Secondly, like Apple, the company has a vast service and content infrastructure behind it.

And thirdly, well it's easy as pie and not an iPad. It looks friendly, easy to use and has that reassuring Amazon brand.

Even though Amazon is not really a hardware company, it had a big hit with the Kindle. As the old adage goes: lightning can and frequently does strike twice.

Personally, the Round-Up rather suspects Amazon will have another hit on its hands. It also rather suspects that the companies feeling the pain from Amazon's entry into the market will be Apple competitors rather than Apple itself...

The new order of BYOD

Alfred Lord Tennyson probably knew very little about the hands-on running of an IT department but the old chap knew a thing or two about the transient and ephemeral nature of things.

When he wrote, "The old order changeth, yielding place to new", he was writing about the passing of the Arthurian legend and not the increasing consumerisation of corporate technology but, my, aren't those two things linked more than you'd expect?

Increasingly, it is staff - and not their IT departments - who are calling the shots when it comes to what technology they should use at work.

Gone are the days when you could tell the guy from marketing, 'You're getting a Dell, deal with it', when he submitted his request for a Vaio or a PowerBook.

Now, nearly three in four companies surveyed by security vendor TrendMicro say they have an open-door policy for employees to use their personal devices at work. The new order of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) is upon us.

Can you turn back this tide? No chance. The genie is out of the lamp and he won't go back in because his iPad won't fit through the spout.

But you can control it, bring order to chaos, use the Force or in fact take the advice of some security chiefs at blue-chip firms who spoke to silicon.com this week.

Firstly, assume the worst. All devices are potential insecure, harbouring nasty little beasties that could cause nightmares for other devices on the network. Also, think of all the priceless corporate data that could be hoovered up.

Secondly, be prepared to...