Cloud computing

Much has been written about security and other headaches that employee-owned devices can cause for IT departments. Much of this hand-wringing is arguably overblown given all the products, technologies, and established best practices available to mitigate risk. Nonetheless, dealing with a wide variety of client hardware over which they have little control requires at least some level of planning and work for IT professionals.

The justification for this effort? Sometimes it's framed with productivity metrics. But, really, the usual justification is that it's happening with or without IT's acquiescence and participation. The storyline then continues on about … Read more

CareZone, a startup for organizing and sharing personal information, announced a promotion that grants free access to those with a family member with epilepsy.

Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz, who previously led Sun Microsystems, said a partnership with the Epilepsy Foundation will match what CareZone has done with groups dealing with autism and Parkinson's disease.

(For a look at the executive and his views on Oracle, Apple, Amazon, and Intel, check CNET's accompanying Q&A with Schwartz.)

Schwartz hopes CareZone will catch on as a way to let people privately share information such as instructions for babysitters, emergency … Read more

Instead of leading 30,000 employees at a beleaguered Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz is now leading just a dozen at his new startup, CareZone

But Schwartz remains the same. True to the provocateur culture that helped keep Sun in the headlines despite a relatively small advertising budget, Schwartz clearly relishes holding forth about the trends that will separate the computing industry's winners and losers.

Among some opinions Schwartz shared in a recent interview: that Macs will once again seriously compete with Windows for PC market share, that Oracle lost a chance to innovate rather than just litigate in the … Read more

BackBlaze, an online backup company that for the last five years bootstrapped itself with its own funding, has taken a $5 million investment from U.K.-based TMT Investments to speed its growth.

The funding will be used for advertising, promotional partnerships, and hiring engineers to bring new features such as an iOS app to market, Chief Executive Gleb Budman said.

The 16-employee company, founded in 2007 ago and headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., has been profitable with plans that cost $5 a month, $50 for a year, or $95 for two years. TMT said in its announcement today that … Read more

Many iTunes Cloud users outside the U.S. can now watch their favorite synced movies on any computer or iDevice.

As of yesterday, such countries as the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, along with several in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, are now on Apple's list for cloud-based movie support. This means that movies purchased from iTunes are automatically synced to the cloud and made available for viewing on any eligible device -- computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Apple TV.

Entertainment available through iTunes in the Cloud includes music, videos, movies, TV shows, books, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's time to think of Google as much more than just a search engine, and that should both excite and spook you.

Search remains critical to the company's financial and technological future, but Google also is using the search business' cash to transform itself into something much broader than just a place to point your browser when asking for directions on the Internet.

What it's now becoming is an extension of your mind, an omnipresent digital assistant that figures out what you need and supplies it before you even realize you need it.

Think … Read more

"Big Data" promises to turn terabytes, petabytes, and exabytes (with, presumably, zettabytes and yottabytes to come) of what's often ambient digital detritus into useful results. That promise often seems to come with an implicit assumption; with enough data and the tools to crunch it, useful insights will follow. Insights that can be used to make businesses more efficient, tailor everything from medicine to advertising for individuals, and employ instrumentation and automation on larger and more complex physical systems than ever before.

For example, we're in the early days of what sometimes goes by the name of … Read more

With an open-source project called Collide, Google has released remnants of a tool that brings a collaborative, browser-based interface to programming.

The software runs on a server, letting multiple programmers tap into a project at the same time. It's similar to how Google Docs lets members of a group simultaneously edit the same document and thus a new example of the cloud-computing approach to software that Google advocates so fervently.

But apparently Google wasn't so fervent about Collide, because the two programmers who announced it, Scott Blum and Jaime Yap, said it's actually an ex-Google Project now. … Read more

Apple has apparently cooked up Web-based versions of its Notes and Reminders apps, as seen in the latest iCloud beta.

Accessible via iCloud from a PC or Mac, the new apps seem similar to their mobile iOS and Mountain Lion counterparts, according to a review by 9to5Mac.

The Web-based Notes app lets you enter and organize notes and then e-mail them using the iCloud e-mail. The Reminders app allows you to add reminders, attach notes to them, and schedule the date and time for you to be alerted.

Other online surprises are in store for iCloud users.

The latest beta … Read more