Stories by Keir Thomas

Nokia's app store sees explosive growth, still sucks

Nokia has been boasting its new Ovi Store is a huge success. Launched last year in a bizarre staggered release that saw the U.S. served after practically everywhere else worldwide, Ovi Store is Nokia's answer to Apple's App Store and similar efforts ...

Why tablet computing hasn't been big business

Over at Samsung's headquarters, the senior vice president of its Mobile Communications Division has gone on record saying that businesses will soon be snapping up tablet computers. In the interview, Lee Don Joo recounted the same old industries that ...

5 awesome free tools for small businesses

These are frugal times for business, and an organization starting out might have very little money to spend on IT. Even if you're part of an established business, you're probably feeling the pinch.

5 tips for the new tech support pro

There are two types of tech support professionals. There's the one who, responding to a call for help, brusquely shoves the individual aside, fixes the issue, then leaves without saying a word. Or there's the type who takes time and understands that ...

5 fabulous free tools for small businesses

These are frugal times for business, and an organization starting out might have very little money to spend on IT. Even if you're part of an established business, you're probably feeling the pinch.

Firefox F1 fights back against RockMelt

The timing might sound suspicious to some observers, but Mozilla has just announced a social networking plugin for Firefox that offers some of the features found in the much-heralded RockMelt social browser, the limited-availability beta of which was...

Future of IT Is Multiplatform and Mobile, Dell Says

Once upon a time it was nice and simple. If you were in charge of corporate IT, you bought Microsoft. Serious quantities of computing power required a different solution, but for everything from mid-level enterprise down to desktops, Microsoft did th...

What Dell's purchase of cloud company signals

A little-noted announcement earlier this month could have huge implications for cloud take-up in smaller businesses. Dell has snapped up Boomi, a company that describes itself as a "cloud integrator."

Why NASA Mars lab turns to cloud computing

The NASA team behind the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers--the Jet Propulsion Laboratory--has announced a move to cloud computing.

Top 10 Amazon Kindle irritations

I've have a Kindle 3 for a month or two now, and I can confirm that it's a thing of beauty. The ebook revolution might not necessarily start here, but momentum is certainly building.

Chrome OS could offend the open source community

The announcement a few days ago of Google's new Chrome OS was simultaneously shocking and expected. It's a typically understated and quietly ambitious move on behalf of Google. It's also proof -- if it were needed -- that Google people are supremely ...

Moblin: a first look at Intel's open-source OS

Moblin is an Intel-created open-source operating system for netbooks and, specifically, the kind of people who use them.

DIY netbook Linux

There are a variety of netbook distros out there, but you can have a little fun creating your own. Here are some software packages and tips worth considering.

Switching my dad to Linux -- part two

As mentioned in my last posting, I'm not a very good Linux evangelist. I don't try and convert family and friends to Linux. Therefore, as surprising as it sounds, putting Ubuntu on my dad's new laptop--as I did a week ago--was the first time I've eve...

Ubuntu One service stirs up open-source controversy

The commercial sponsor and originator of the Ubuntu project, Canonical, has stepped into new territory with the launch of a storage and sync service called Ubuntu One. In the tradition of open source marketing, this has been a "quiet product launch",...