News

• yARN: Are we in for a fresh wave of interest in virtual desktops?

  By Stephen Withers | 30 May, 2012 08:45

  The traditional reason for considering virtual desktops in place of conventional PCs has been TCO, with much of the saving coming from the ongoing management and administration benefits. But those savings largely accrued because of the difficulty of managing large numbers of PCs, so small businesses couldn’t really benefit unless they went down the DaaS (desktop as a service) route.

• yARN: Facebook's disappointing IPO puts other Web businesses on watch

  By Rimin Dutt | 22 May, 2012 15:26

  It should have been a revival of sorts for Web 2.0 public floats. Instead, the social networking giant Facebook’s IPO is turning out to be a dampener, raising questions about its knock-on effects on the fortunes of other social media hopefuls.

• yARN: 4G is a marketing minefield

  By Nick Broughall | 27 March, 2012 08:03

  It’s the biggest thing in mobile networks at the moment, but 4G is proving to be a confusing mess of mixed messages, unfulfilled promises and a marketing disaster.

• yARN: Apple gives back - within reason

  By Stephen Withers | 22 March, 2012 14:47

  So Apple has finally decided to return some of its massive pile of cash to stockholders. The company announced this week that it would start paying a regular quarterly dividend of $US2.65 per share, beginning in its fourth fiscal quarter of 2012 (July-September).

• yARN: Social obligation in the connected age

  By SocialSecurity: David Heath | 05 March, 2012 09:09

  I am frequently given pause to stare (somewhat open mouthed) at those around me as I watch them itching to get out their smart phone, iDevice or other tablet to update their Twitter friends; to add still more of life’s minutiae to their Facebook page; to send someone a TXT message; to tend to their ‘farm’ (or whatever the latest Zynga game theme is).

• yARN: Where do the data play?

  By SocialSecurity: David Heath | 09 January, 2012 14:48

  There’s an old Cat Stevens song (yes, I’m old enough to remember!) called Where Do the Children Play? The song speaks to a rapidly changing and evolving environment and uses the metaphor of the loss of children’s play space to the needs of the wealthy to explain inner urban life.

• yARN: Telstra’s “Androidland” will take on Apple retail with little green men

  By Nick Broughall | 05 December, 2011 15:56

  Telstra and Google have seemingly raised the bar for Australian experiential retailing

• yARN: Big new threats make for great job security

  By SocialSecurity: David Heath | 24 November, 2011 11:54

  'Yet again, incompetence is saved by technology and shrill media reportage'

• The mainframe computer is not dead: CA expert

  By Stephen Withers | 22 November, 2011 16:32

  "Cloud is the catalyst for people to get a grip on what’s core to their company and what’s not"

• yARN: Even in death, Steve Jobs is influencing the phone industry

  By Nick Broughall | 10 October, 2011 16:04

  In the days since Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death last week, the internet has been flooded with so many tributes and eulogies it seems that even his old competitors are building arks to help them survive the storm.

• yARN: Memo everyone ... Your computer is not a toaster

  By SocialSecurity: David Heath | 28 September, 2011 14:52

  Just like the Microwave, the blender and the coffee machine, your toaster is a simple appliance; designed to perform a single specific task. Your computer is not.

• yARN: HP TouchPad fire sale shows tablets should be cheaper

  By Nick Broughall | 29 August, 2011 17:17

  It happened in a flash. Just four days after HP launched its first WebOS-based TouchPad tablet on the Australian market, the company made a global decision to back away from all hardware running the Palm operating system. The fourth major tablet OS was dead in the water before it really began.

• yARN: Remember, remember, the fifth of November

  By SocialSecurity: David Heath | 18 August, 2011 18:09

  The recent YouTube video from Anonymous threatening a diabolical attack upon Facebook on November 5 continues a long tradition of civil unrest.

• yARN: Are companies finally ditching the Australian gadget tax?

  By Nick Broughall | 15 August, 2011 16:11

  The “Australia tax” is a concept every Aussie gadget lover is familiar with. As Australians, we are expected to pay more for products than other places in the world like the UK or the US.

• yARN: Here's something radical - the existing customer comes first

  By Stephen Withers | 11 August, 2011 16:32

  The newly appointed CEO of Primus Australia, Tom Mazerski, reckons telcos have lost sight of their existing customers and are instead focusing too much on trying to attract new customers. There shouldn't be anything controversial about that. After all, the idea that it is cheaper to keep a customer than to acquire one is conventional thinking.