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Apple apparently doesn't think fart jokes are very funny.

The developer of Pull My Finger, an iPhone application, told MacRumors that Apple decided to reject his application from the App Store because it was "of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community." Pull My Finger does pretty much what you would expect it to do, generating about five or six different sounds of flatulence from your iPhone depending on your preference.

Regardless of whether you think fart jokes are the linchpin of comedy (we're running roughly half and half right now in … Read more

Gearing up for a big virtualization event next week, Microsoft on Wednesday announced another round of changes to its lineup of virtualization policies and products.

Among a new series of changes being rolled out is the ability for businesses to allow their corporate PC image to be run in a virtual machine on PCs owned by employees or contractors.

To pave the way for this, Microsoft announced that either option is now covered under an existing licensing program that costs $110 per PC per year. Workers with desktop PCs that only need occasional remote access to their work PC image … Read more

Since the launch of Apple's App Store, a steady stream of business-oriented applications has flooded in for iPhone users. Most of the developers are independent third-party start-ups, but big-name software vendors are now clamoring for a piece of the pie.

Names such as Oracle, SAP, and Sybase have released iPhone versions of applications that allow users to tap some of the functionality afforded with the traditional desktop versions.

Most of the applications can be found on the App Store, Apple's online market--which opened in July--where iPhone users can browse and download applications built for their devices.

Fresh off … Read more

Google is well known as a one-trick pony.

Almost all of the company's revenue comes from its search engine, which last quarter accounted for more than $5 billion. New initiatives, such as the Chrome browser, Google Gears, and Google Friend Connect, are focused on building a mostly open-source Internet operating system out of Google technology in order to funnel more user data and targeted advertising opportunities into the Googleplex financial engine.

It's easy to draw parallels to Microsoft, which gradually built the dominant 20th century operating system and applications platform. Bill Gates and company realized that attracting developers … Read more

Oracle on Tuesday announced plans to acquire applications management software maker ClearApp.

The acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the year, aims to enhance Oracle's lineup of Enterprise Manager products. ClearApp's technology is designed to allow customers to manage applications built on service-oriented architecture (SOA) platforms.

ClearApp's software aims to provide a greater view into a company's business services spread across all related application components.

"As customers deploy more SOA-based applications, the task of effectively managing them becomes paramount," Leng Leng Tan, Oracle's vice president of applications and systems … Read more

Google is introducing video into Google Apps with the hope that companies will be attracted to a service that helps with training and internal communication but also removes the hassles of hosting video.

According to Google executives who spoke to CNET News last week, the search giant has tailored some of the technology developed by YouTube specifically for corporate clients. The offering is part of Google's continuing efforts to replace traditional office software with so-called cloud-computing services.

With the help of Google Video for Business, a company's employees can upload and share clips with the same ease as … Read more

Apple's iPhone App Store grows every day with new free and paid offerings. The lion's share of apps (and clearly the most popular) have been games, now with 626 digital time wasters at the time of this writing. I check the App Store almost every day for new stuff--mostly in the free category, but I've also bought my share of iPhone apps, too.

What do I look for? To be honest, I like it all--from the completely useless, but funny programs to the legitimately useful everyday apps. When I sift through the various lists of apps on … Read more

A week ago, I wrote a story about a morning and afternoon I spent in Seattle letting iPhone applications control my day.

And while I vouched for the concept of turning my life over to the various apps--a couple for finding restaurants, one for finding music, one for playing Internet radio, one for AOL Instant Messenger, and so on--I also said that I'd had some problems with several of them.

I also got a lot of feedback from readers who pointed out that I hadn't needed to take photographs of the apps because there is a way to … Read more

Google's always up to something, and here's a recap of some recent moves.

• Google is making room for gargantuan display ads on YouTube, according to Silicon Alley Insider, which cites advertising industry sources.

Making money off the popular video-sharing service is a top Google priority this year, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has said.

•  "Transparency" is a hot computing buzzword as everyone from Twitter to SalesForce.com seeks to share information about Web service availability so customers and users don't feel quite so helpless when things go wrong. And Google has showed it got … Read more