Computers-Plus

The “private cloud” is a popular phrase in IT these days, but often a meaningless one, with tech vendors slapping the label on any old product that happens to make an existing IT function slightly more efficient.

Logically, a private cloud should act just like a public cloud service – such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud – but exist entirely within an enterprise’s firewall. Few “private cloud” products actually recreate the functionality of a public cloud, but a new contender in the market called “Nimbula” has a product that, at the very least, can be called a private cloud without causing eyes to roll.

Greatest tech arguments: Public vs. P

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We review Microsoft’s new and improved Xbox 360 Slim console which offers a number of new features in a smaller, quieter package.

Introduction

It has been four and a half years since the original Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005. New bundles have come out, hard drives for consoles have jumped in capacity exponentially, and there is even a black model of the 360 out there, but at its core the console has remained the same in terms of design.

When the Xbox 360 originally debuted against the Sony PlayStation 3, it did so with somewhat similar hardware, but several less bells and whistles.

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Verizon Wireless lined up its partners – Google, Motorola, and Adobe – to announce a Droid successor a day before the iPhone 4 launch. The aptly named Droid X launched with much fanfare at a New York event labeled “Unleashing the Next Generation of Droid.”

The Droid X is a solid upgrade over the Droid which arrived last Fall as the first viable alternative to Apple’s iPhone, backed up with an aggressive marketing push by Verizon Wireless. The Droid X features a large 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display running at a 854×480 pixel resolution, incorrectly first advertised as a 720p screen. And just l

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People trust Apple more than Facebook, and Google more than Twitter, according to a poll from Zogby Interactive.

Steve Ballmer must have an awfully reassuring face, because 49 percent of US adults said they trusted Microsoft. The same number felt equally warm and fuzzy about Apple and Google.

But, like the two-faced person who acts like your friend but isn’t, social networking sites are deeply mistrusted. Only 13 percent of people said they trusted Facebook, and Twitter scored a measly eight percent.

There’s a clear generational difference, says Zogby. Microsoft and Apple were particularly mistrusted by those under 30.

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