One of the biggest issues for developers is moving their apps to the cloud. Many companies like RackSpace (@rackcloud) and Amazon are trying to figure out ways to on-board developers to the cloud. Today, Makara, a cloud startup, is coming out of stealth mode to target developers to provide a way to seemlessly move thier apps to the cloud and iterate fast with support for Makara provides easy on-boarding and management to the cloud. Makara hopes to leverages virtualization to simplify cloud application management. Makara’s Cloud Application Platform (now available as a developer release) helps developers easily deploy, scale and monitor mission-critical applications in the cloud Makara allows developers to deploy new or existing

Apple Launches iPad. You know it’s bad when the salesman has to visualize his product for you. He sat on a couch and demonstrated right? Wow, so let's recap: iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. The iTunes® Store gives you access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 8,000 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and in

Apple iPad hands-on demonstration. “iPad is pretty amazing — there, I said it.” – Ryan Block The magic hour has passed, and those that have had a chance to play with the Apple Tablet have played with it and those who have their opinions out about it have started to trickle in. I’ve been in press briefings since the moment I woke up this morning, so I haven’t had a chance to jot down my (already) quite well formed thoughts on the product. Still, I figured it’s worth pointing to those that have already said their piece, as a few of them were pretty interesting. The iPad Was Disappointing “Steve, Imma let you finish, but Moses had the greatest tablet announcement of all time.” - @Stwo Robert Scoble points to the upc

It all started when I wanted  some new network icons.  Somehow all the ones I used in the past were made by an art department I strangely do not have access to anymore, and I really don't want to have to pay an agency to make them for me.  I could probably outsource somewhere, but don't want to have to explain what I want, so sometimes it is just easier to do it yourself (and learn a few new things while you are at it).  Plus it was a fun way to spend an evening. So off I went, using a 3d design program known as Rhinocerous. Incidentally, Rhinocerous is an insanely cool name. I wish I could name my products things like that. A new switch is the Raven 98000, and over here we have the Magpie 5600 connected to the Co

We’ve seen a number of interesting videos come out of #CES, including the video that our friends Robert Scoble, Michael Sean Wright and Marc Ostrick put together as a part of their Spark Series as well as Art Fewell’s tireless efforts to bring us a mountain of video from the show. I was recently going over the mess of articles and videos I accumulated post #CES2010 and one in particular by Gizmodo that I had previously missed caught my eye: “Booth Babe Confessions.” I was immediately reminded of a post Stephen Foskett put out just after #VMWorld2009, “(Don’t) Make Your Startup Look Stupid With Booth Babes And Chotchkies!” It was a post that generated some of the most controversy and discussion of anything we’ve eve

A general observation of collaborative work is this: The larger and more diverse are your personal network of contacts, the higher the quality of your ideas and project work. In the enterprise market, the opportunity being seized by companies is to better connect employees. The sheer size of these firms makes it obvious that they are not optimizing collaborative activities. Social software plays an important role in helping that. SunGard’s CEO has a great take on this issue in the New York Times. But what about small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs)? Do they have issues with maintaining connections? We’ll tackle that issue in a second. First, however… WE by Spigit: Innovation Management for SMBs Spigit is introducing its SaaS

  Even with CES 2010 displaying tons of new Internet Tablets, many feel there is no real slot for it at home. Some think this is just a novelty product created on top of  everyone not wanting to get left out of the tech party. I'm not sure about any of that but I do think I can use it. For years I tried to have one main PC for the entertainment/living room, one for my office and one for my wife. Due to bad quality though, my wife's laptop constantly overheated. Due to the young age of my kids, I spent more time with them than my PC in my "office". Ultimately we would all flop down in the living room and fight over the one LCD TV connected to the cable, DVD player and PC. What to do? Well I've tried the "Netbook&qu

Hello, boys and girls. Welcome to day two of “As the Overrated Blog Turns”. Just a little while ago, Pete Cashmore took some time off between mirror visits to bang out a response on Mashable’s Tumblr blog.  Makes perfect sense doesn’t it?  I know when I’m looking for news on a company; a Tumblr is the first place I go.  Nice job, Pete!  Incidentally, the biggest thing on Tumblr is a picture of Pete looking all pouty and dressed in one of his trademark “Prettyboys of Scotland” suits, but I digress. Anyway, the Satin Highlander says: “While commenting on speculation isn’t something I’ve done in the past, I think it would be nice to keep our community in the loop as much as we can on recent Mashab

Google is introducing the Google gPhone or as the official names goes - The Google Nexus One.  Engadget has the definitive review while others are chiming in here, here, and here. Google is playing the open card by forcing fast innovation in a developer focused way - similar to what made Microsoft successful in the 80s and 90s - creating a future benefit incentive or rising tide floats all boats.  Apple in dark contrast is taking a completely different approach stay controlled and lead with economic incentives - money - their tide has risen. And This Means What? Google Nexus and Android goes beyond a me-too device. Google having its' own phone  is strategic. It’s just one piece of the user environment (aka the edge software) that

I’d committed to keep y’all up to date on my ongoing experience with my MiFi.  After a couple of months of use, I’m still enamored. Verizon’s network delivers as promised, with only a few occasions where I’ve had little or no signal; ironically, in each of those situations I’ve been able to fail back to my previous connectivity method of Bluetooth tethering to my 2G T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve, so I have yet to encounter a situation where I’m totally off the air, although I realize that it’s just a matter of time until I do. The power characteristics of the device are interesting (he says euphemistically).  From a full charge, I’ve been pretty consistently getting four hours or so of use when on EVDO Rev. A.