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IT admins mourn Xserve's death

Not many MacBook or iPhone users are going to weep over the cancellation of an Apple server.

In fact, they probably didn't know Apple even made them. But when Apple announced it was shutting down production of the Xserve effective January 31, a very specific group of people took notice.

The Apple faithful inside corporate IT departments large and small are feeling jilted by Apple's sudden cold feet in the enterprise computing market. And though the announcement came last last week, the full impact of Apple's decision is still being absorbed.

Apple's own support forums are … Read more

Get better screen captures with Snagit for Mac

Arguably one of the best screen capture programs for Windows is now available on the Mac. TechSmith's Snagit has a long history with Windows fans as a highly flexible and feature-rich tool for quickly grabbing visual info on your screen. The software's main strength is that it offers a number of tools for adding graphics--like arrows, boxes, and thought and speech balloons--to call out specific areas on the screen. When you're finished with a capture, you can quickly add the project to a presentation, just about any document, or send the screen capture through e-mail. One of … Read more

AT&T launches health care business

AT&T is making a new foray into the health care market with a business geared toward improving patient care and trimming medical costs.

Announced today, the new AT&T ForHealth unit will deliver a range of wireless, networked, and cloud-based products to doctors, hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies. The goal is to push the adoption of new technologies to the industry as the country tries to switch over to electronic and digital health care management.

AT&T said it's looking to expand upon some of its current health care projects, which include medicine bottles that … Read more

Cool collages

Collages are a fun way to combine multiple images into one, and they have many potential uses, from greeting cards and scrapbooks to social networking profiles. CollageIt enables you to create good-looking collages without a lot of hassle.

The program's interface can be a little confusing at first glance--there are multiple menus and sliders--but if you focus on the Getting Started pane in the middle, you'll be fine. To create a collage, you simply select the images you want to use, adjust the settings, generate a preview, and save the collage when it's done. The program automatically … Read more

Easy zoom

Zoomit from Microsoft Sysinternals is a nifty little screen-zooming and annotating tool for presentations. It's free, portable, and compatible with all versions of Windows from XP up as well as Server 2003 and above. It sits in the System Tray until you activate it with customizable hot keys. You can use it to zoom in on portions of the screen, move the zoomed portion, and even draw on the screen, with or without zooming. Zoomit's drawing mode accepts digital pen input and is compatible with tablet PCs.

When you first run Zoomit, the Options dialog appears; there you … Read more

Survey: No need to be in the office to work

"Honey, I'm going to the office," is a remark we may not hear as much if more people have their way.

Three out of five workers around the world said they don't need to be in the office to be productive, according to a study out yesterday from Cisco. The "Cisco Connected World Report" collected the results of two surveys that questioned both IT and non-IT professionals about mobile work habits.

The belief that people can work just fine from home or on the road was especially pervasive in Asia and Latin America. Around … Read more

B&N's PubIt self-publishing platform goes live

Back in May, Barnes & Noble announced that it would be launching a self-publishing platform, and now its PubIt service has officially gone live. The new DIY publishing option allows independent publishers and self-publishing writers to distribute their works digitally through BN.com and Barnes & Noble's eBookstore.

The new service will compete with Amazon's pioneering Digital Text Platform (DTP), which many writers have turned to for distributing their works to the Kindle and other devices that run the Kindle Reader software. Sony, too, has a DYI option for its Reader Store, and Apple is now allowing self-publishers … Read more

Going corporate: Chrome getting admin-friendly

Chrome, like Android, got its start as a technology geared for individuals, not companies. And just as Google updated Android with features such as Microsoft Exchange support, Chrome is being refashioned for a broader world of corporate use.

The results of the work can be seen at Google's Chrome administrative information site. The site includes quick-start guides for administrators, policy templates for setting group permissions, and a list of tweakable settings that can be enforced through policies.

For example, administrators can use the settings to prohibit use of particular plug-ins, set the home page, disable synchronization services, and set … Read more

Better streaming audio and a unique puzzle game: iPhone apps of the week

As most people know, the thing about buying anything in the computer and gadget world is that you run the risk of your item becoming obsolete after the next revision. People often complain about Apple in this way (first-generation iPhone, anyone?), but it's mostly true across the board: with advances in technology coming so rapidly these days, the neat gadget you got this year will probably be mainstream by next year. It's just the nature of the tech business.

Even though I was armed with knowledge of the "early adopter" phenomenon well before I bought my iPad, it still hurt to read rumors over at AppleInsider saying a refresh of the iPad complete with a front-facing camera might be coming sooner rather than later. Sure, I have the ability to use FaceTime on my iPhone 4, but all that screen real estate is certainly going to make video calls better on the iPad. Much better.

So, here's your chance, readers! Go ahead and gloat--you made the right choice and waited. You didn't fall prey to the keynote for the "magical" device and now you're in the perfect position to get a better version. Congratulations! Now, try not to be too hard on me.

This week's apps include an streaming-audio app with a slick interface, and a fun and addictive puzzle game that will test your math skills.… Read more