Stories by Galen Gruman

Lapdock: From avant-garde to awful

What a difference a year makes. A year ago, I was <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/test-driving-the-motorola-atrixs-lapdock-072">intrigued by Motorola Mobility's Lapdock</a>, a laptop without a brain into which you plugged a Motorola Android smartphone to run it on a full-size screen, with full-size keyboard, trackpad, SD card slot, and USB and HDMI ports for access to USB peripherals and mirrored screen display to a TV or monitor. A year ago, I saw the Lapdock as a wonderful innovation that presaged an era in which a smartphone is your main -- and perhaps only -- computing device, plugging into resources when needed to scale up to a desktop PC.

Written by Galen Gruman28 Feb. 12 22:11

MobileIron brings unified Android management console

With the U.S. release of the first <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/first-look-android-4-ice-cream-sandwich-177044">Android 4 "Ice Cream Sandwich"</a> devices expected in December, more Android devices are likely to head into the enterprise as strong customer adoption and emerging enterprise capabilities begin to break down the barriers that have kept Android largely out of business use, says Ojas Rege, products vice president at <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/infoworlds-guide-successful-byod-and-mobile-it-strategy-179111">mobile device management (MDM)</a> tool provider MobileIron. To address that trend, MobileIron today released version 4.5 of its MobileIron MDM tool.

Written by Galen Gruman30 Nov. 11 22:10

InfoWorld's guide to a successful BYOD and mobile IT strategy

It's the biggest shift in IT in years: the consumerization-of-IT trend that gained major traction with the advent of the iPhone and other modern mobile devices, causing most businesses to let employees bring -- or at least choose -- their own smartphones and tablets, all in fewer than two years.

Written by Galen Gruman23 Nov. 11 02:25

iOS, Android to get federal-strength authentication

Good Technology and ActivIdentity today jointly announced an effort to bring federal-level authentication to Apple iOS devices, such as the iPad and iPhone, and Google Android devices. And Apperian released its Enterprise App Services Environment (EASE) product for Android devices, which lets businesses provision and manage apps, and manage content delivered to those apps. EASE can manage Android Market apps, in-house Android apps, and HTML5 apps, and also provides push notification and updates.

Written by Galen Gruman16 Nov. 11 04:01

In pictures: Android 4 'Ice Cream Sandwich'

Google's mobile OS gets a major upgrade this week if the tipsters are right, but there's no need to wait to see some of the new capabilities in action.

Written by Galen Gruman01 Nov. 11 10:25

After drama, HP to keep its PC business after all

Hewlett-Packard isn't going out of the PC business after all. Today, CEO Meg Whitman announced the company would continue to make and sell PCs, <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/data-discovery/what-it-means-if-hp-dumps-its-pc-business-170226">reversing a decision </a>made by her predecessor Léo Apotheker in August -- a decision that riled investors and employees and<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/hp-board-ousts-apotheker-whitman-in-ceo-173762"> led to his ouster</a> in late September. Since the August announcement, <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/the-sharks-are-circling-hp-can-anyone-save-it-170747">HP's future has been repeatedly questioned</a>, as has the competence of its senior management. The appointment of board member Whitman as CEO <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/hps-meg-whitman-new-ceo-same-old-strategy-173792">added to the criticisms</a>.

Written by Galen Gruman28 Oct. 11 07:51

Beauty and the geek: Windows Phone 'Mango' vs. Android

Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango," Microsoft's answer to Apple's iOS and Google's Android, draws you in immediately with its simple but sexy interface. It's very easy to get into messaging -- both traditional email and IM and newfangled Twitter and Facebook -- and launch widgets to track the weather or see your stocks. The colorful Windows Phone UI makes iOS look a bit dowdy, almost computerlike, and it really shows what a mess the Android Franken-interface is.

Written by Galen Gruman26 Oct. 11 21:12

RIM delays BlackBerry tablet OS to February 2012

Last week at its BlackBerry DevCon conference, Research in Motion tried to excite developers about the forthcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 mobile operating system, to spur developers to create applications for RIM's BlackbBerry PlayBook tablet, released last spring to poor reviews and low sales. But yesterday, RIM said in a blog post that it was delaying the release of the PlayBook 2.0 OS "until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers, and users."

Written by Galen Gruman26 Oct. 11 22:06

iPhone 4S: Upgraded iPhone offers 'intelligent' assistant

Apple today unveiled the new iPhone, the iPhone 4S. More of an upgrade to the iPhone 4 than a new model (thus the lack of the "iPhone 5" moniker), the iPhone 4S uses the same dual-core 1GHz Apple A5 processor as in the iPad 2, up from the iPhone 4's 800MHz A4. Apple also claims it's increased the battery life and doubled the maximum speed of wireless communications on the iPhone 4S.

Written by Galen Gruman05 Oct. 11 06:08
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