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Analysis: Apple's iPad 2 matches the competition in terms of hardware basics, but it lags behind in features, flexibility, and customization potential.

Analysis: Apple's new iPhone 4S catches up with the rest of the smartphone market, but it doesn't do much to surge past the status quo.

[As hilarious as some of the comments were, it's time to move on.]
Updated: Sony Computer Entertainment (SNE) (6758) regrets to inform PS3 users that it's been unable to repair its PlayStation Network (PSN) and Qriocity platforms -- at least, not so far. It now seems that users' personal data have been compromised, which "may" include credit card details. They've both been down for over a week and it could be another week until it's back. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers point the fingers of blame. Not to mention the Easter Peeps experiment: How long do marshmallow chicks last in an Arizona summer?..

Users from around the U.S. and the world are all reporting that Google, and its related services, are moving at snail-like speed.

In September 2008, the London Stock Exchange collapsed because its Windows-based electronic trading platform, TradElect completely failed. Now, under new leadership, the Exchange will finally do away with its fatally flawed Windows system.

If you really want to know why I'm so pro-Linux on servers, you need only look at the London Stock Exchange's total melt down on September 8th.

This construction company does work at job sites all over the country, so the engineers have to be supported remotely. "It seems when people do not see you much, then you are out of sight and out of mind," says an IT support pilot fish.

One morning fish gets an e-mail request from an engineer at a remote job site, asking him to install an attached "license file" on a server, so newly purchased software can be used on multiple computers right away.

Fish looks at the attachment. It's a PDF file with an invoice and license key for high-end CAD software. He asks around; nobody in the IT department knows anything about the engineer needing or buying the software.

Do you like the special effects in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; 300; The Golden Compass; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; and I Am Legend? The animation in Star Wars: The Clone Wars; WALL•E; or Ratatouille? You can thank Linux for all of them.

Seriously, and what will replace it? Would you believe a VMware exec saying it will be virtual applications running on... Linux? Believe it.

Welcome to Wednesday's IT Blogwatch: in which we look forward to Google's new phone. Or phones. Or something. Or nothing. Not to mention the making of 2001...

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins claims a deep throat insider:

I talked to one of my inside sources at Google today. He spoke on conditions of anonymity, but the guy is someone I trust implicitly. He said that he was baffled at Google's apparent internal confusion on the GPhone issue - that they've actually demo'ed the thing in public before. He said that the Google (applications) Suite is going to play a huge role in the usability of the GPhone ... This is my analysis based on what he told me: It'll probably be sold at a loss or sold as a loss leader to increase ad-monetized content viewing.
...
This is a solid confirmation on the GPhone ... It's a modified Linux kernel ... There is integrated GPS and GoogleMaps. I couldn't get much more out of him than that, and he wouldn't put anything on the record, due to his unique position at the company he wasn't sure what exactly he was allowed to say, but his exuberance and confidence was quite clear when he talked about the GPhone.

...Read more

When it comes to high-performance computing, it's Linux in the lead and Microsoft scrambling to catch-up.

Here's a story about a little bulletin board with grand dreams that were squashed and abused.

While not a ground-breaking Linux kernel release, the new Linux kernel, 2.6.27, offers at least five outstanding new features.

In Wednesday's IT Blogwatch, we're wowed by the thought of a 786 gigaflops supercomputer sitting on a desktop. Not to mention proof you can buy anything online...

Sharon Gaudin reports:

AMD (NYSE:AMD) has launched its new server CPU chips, some of which offer a whopping 16 cores -- or, at least, 16 threads. The Opteron 6200-series 'Interlagos' and 4200-series 'Valencia' products are supposedly better, faster, cheaper, and/or lower-power than the Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Xeon equivalents, thanks to AMD's 'Bulldozer' architecture. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers feel the need... the need for speed.