Android’s rise presents a threat to Apple within the long run and hurts Microsoft at this time. Mobile World Congress: 5 Hot Gadgets (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Since its introduction in 2010, Apple’s iPad has dominated the tablet market, a market that it remade in its own image. But sales of tablets running Google’s Android operating system have now outpaced tablets running Apple’s iOS. Globally, Android tablet sales in 2013 reached almost 121 million, up from 53 million in 2012, a rise of 127%, consistent with IT research firm Gartner. Sales of Apple’s iPad and iPad Mini came to 70 million in this period, a rise of 36%. That’s just over half the final tablet market growth rate of 68%. Apple’s iPad isn’t always maintaining with the pace of the market. At the top of 2013, Android tablet sales accounted for 62% of the market, while iOS tablets represented 36%. Apple, however, remains the leading tablet maker. It sold over 70 million... Read More »

New release of open-source Docker software container system eliminates need for AnotherUnion Filesystem to transport apps from one flavor of Linux to a different. 10 IT Job Titles We Miss (click image for larger view) Docker is this kind of young open-source code project that it still hasn’t reached its 1.0 release. Nevertheless, with the 0.7 release issued this week, it gained broader appeal. Docker is a seven-month-old software container system that will be considered a software-such as the common-or-garden shipping container used on trucks and ships. Because Docker is an identical in numerous environments, it’s possible to position any application into it and move it around to different datacenter and cloud environments. Because it has got an ordinary way of operating, Docker can be utilized to navigate different hypervisors and operating environments into which it has been shipped. That’s making it well liked by open-source developers who typically use Linux. But until this week, only two Linuxes came able to recognize and work with... Read More »

The future can be unwritten, but it isn’t entirely unknown. We glance at nine areas of innovation and upcoming products to look at in 2014. Predictions about what is going to come seldom prove accurate. That’s why prognosticators pick trends, instead of specific events. Witness Gartner’s recent top 10 strategic technology trends for 2014. It correctly identifies areas of active innovation, including 3D printing, the extension of the web to everyday objects, and smart machines. Nevertheless it fails to supply enough guidance to pick out specific winners from an investment standpoint. Even when market seers stick to broad strokes, they frequently go wrong. For years, people have fretted about peak oil — the notion that global oil production will hit a peak after which diminish. In theory, it is sensible. Oil supply is proscribed, and the quantity we extract each year cannot continue growing forever. But peak oil doomsayers got the timing wrong. It was presupposed to happen within the 1990s, after which within the... Read More »

Officials unveil new FedRAMP Web portal, release details on firms seeking government’s cloud security seal of approval. Internet Of items: 8 Cost-Cutting Ideas For Government (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program), this system that helps agencies migrate to the cloud securely, is making public the names of cloud service providers which are within the technique of obtaining the government’s security certification. The information appears in a brand new FedRAMP resource section at the Federal CIO Council’s cloud.cio.gov site. FedRAMP.gov visitors were redirected to the location beginning last week. The brand new site provides a number of materials that agencies and cloud providers ought to meet FedRAMP requirements. The new FedRAMP site identifies, among other information, 10 previously undisclosed ”cloud systems in process” seeking FedRAMP certification for brand spanking new or additional cloud infrastructure, platform, and software services. The location provides details at the services under review from CenturyLink Technology Solutions, Clear Government Solutions (CGS), Economic Systems, Fiberlink... Read More »

VMware accelerates expansion outside the datacenter in a $1.54 billion deal that might broaden the company’s End-User Computing portfolio. 20 Great Ideas To Steal (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Virtualization and cloud infrastructure vendor VMware on Wednesday announced an agreement to shop for mobile device management and mobile security vendor AirWatch for $1.54 billion. AirWatch will bolster VMware’s End-User Computing (EUC) group, which was formed in 2010 with the Horizon desktop management product line. Last October, VMware acquired Desktone, which supplies a desktop-as-a-service virtualization platform for delivering Windows desktops and applications as a cloud service. With the AirWatch deal, VMware extends its management grasp to mobile devices. “VMware’s vision for end-user computing have been to create a safe virtual workspace that permits end-users to… move from desktop, to laptop, to pill, to phone, to car,” stated Sanjay Poonen, executive VP  and general manager of the EUC group. Poonen previously headed up mobile strategy at SAP, and was named head of... Read More »