Stories by Shane O'Neill

In Pictures: Ultrabooks - the newest, thinnest, lightest laptops

Ultrabooks, a term coined by Intel, gave name to the increasingly thin, light, fast and (relatively) cheap Windows laptops popping up over the last year in reaction to the Apple MacBook Air and the iPad-led tablet craze.

'Consumerisation of IT' takes its toll on IT managers

The 'consumerisation of IT' may be an overused phrase, but it is by no means a fad. Workers nationwide are coming to expect that personal devices will connect to corporate networks.

Survey: Value of the cloud, telecommuting overstated

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Cisco, take notice: Despite the near-constant hype about cloud computing services, most mid-market companies are still viewing cloud as a complement, not a replacement.

CIO alert: Five cures for what ails IT

Your IT department may be armed with bright and ambitious employees, but that doesn't mean the group will be efficient.

In pictures: 7 ways to use HP TouchPads after they stop working

Hewlett-Packard's announcement that it is discontinuing its TouchPad set off a $99 fire sale. But without HP's full attention and support from developers, these devices won't live long. However, they can still be useful even after they're useless as a tech device. Here are some ideas.

Should Microsoft buy Nokia? The pros and cons

A hot-button question lately in the rapidly-growing smartphone market: Can a company succeed at selling smartphones and tablets without owning the software and the hardware?

Browsing and privacy: How to not get tracked

If you're old enough to remember the Cold War, you know what an arms race is. One side comes up with a new weapon, the other side matches it, and then the first comes back with something even bigger and so on and so on. That also describes the ongoing battle between computer users who value their privacy and the Web sites and their advertisers that don't.

Why Microsoft won't buy hardware to compete with Googorola

Chances are Microsoft will not retaliate against Google's 12.5 billion purchase of Motorola by acquiring a phone maker of its own, say industry analysts, mainly because of the company's rich history developing and licensing software and building an ecosystem of hardware partners.

Bloomberg CIO deals with stock market data surge

Ever since Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. government's credit rating last week, the global financial markets have been on a wild ride.

7 worst tech mergers and acquisitions

We're all waiting to see if pending buyouts by AT&T (T-Mobile) and Microsoft (Skype) will succeed or fail, but many a tech deal over the past decade has been an epic fail. Let's take a look back at the worst murders and executions, er, I mean mergers and acquisitions in tech.

IT spending: Bad news for Windows

Research firm IDC has tallied up PC sales for the second quarter of 2011, and the news is not good for Windows.

MS Office alternatives: Many are trying, few are buying

When it comes to deploying Microsoft Office alternatives such as Google Apps, Zoho or Lotus Symphony, enterprise IT managers are in a state of intense curiosity but are still not ready for widespread adoption, according to a new Forrester research report entitled "Market Update: Office Productivity Alternatives."

Microsoft-Skype deal: Three ways it benefits enterprises

At first glance, Microsoft's whopping $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype may seem like a pure consumer play to bolster Windows Live, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect -- or an extremely expensive way to prevent Google from gobbling up Skype first.

3 ways to ensure Cloud benefits meet enterprise needs

For all the cost-saving appeal of cloud applications -- more commonly referred to as SaaS (software as a service) -- enterprises are still trying to get their heads around the benefits and risks of SaaS and which parts of the company need it the most.

Google apps for business: 10 powerful add-ons

Check out these 10 Google Apps add-ons designed to enhance the Google Apps experience and help you take care of business -- from data protection to project management and more. All add-ons can be found at Google Apps Marketplace, and most of them are free or offer a free edition.