Stories by Scot Finnie

Opinion: The lure of mobile is immediacy

Around the world, the rapidly expanding use of smartphones and tablets is turning into a transformational trend - for enterprises and consumers alike.

A running start to 2012

For IT, 2011 was a transitional year. A lot of big things were on the horizon ( data center as a service, for instance), but few of the profound concepts jelled.

Steve Jobs' indelible mark on the computer industry

There is unlikely to be another visionary like Apple Chairman Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at age 56, no one who will have anything approaching his impact on the computer and electronics industries.

Getting IT set for mobile

"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we'll be lucky to live through it."

Time to get smart about smartphones

If you didn't get the message with the release of the iPhone or the subsequent arrival of Android, then Windows Phone 7 has to be your wake-up call. Mobile is no longer just the future; its time is now.

Questioning the netbook phenomenon

It's human nature to get on the bandwagon of a "good thing." Take the screaming hype that is the netbook phenomenon, for example.

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Firefox 3 for Mac: Is it time to switch from Safari?

When I switched from a Windows PC to a Mac in 2006, I was very disappointed in my choice of Web browsers. As a confirmed Firefox user, I expected Mozilla's Mac browser to be a no-brainer. But after trying Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 for the Mac, I adopted Apple's Safari -- and haven't looked back. Now that Firefox 3.0 is out, though, is it finally the better choice for Mac OS X?

Apple's newest iMac packs a wallop

When Apple recently sent along one of its new iMacs -- a sweet 24-inch model with a 2.8GHz Penryn processor -- I agreed to take it home and give it a dose of family testing at the Finnie household. And with three kids aged 3, 6, and 16, that's saying something.

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Eating my words on the MacBook Air

For those of you who take joy in such things (and I would if I were you), it looks like I'm going to have eat a good many of the words from my initial analysis of the MacBook Air back in January.

The verdict: Leopard spanks Vista

This story caps off a truly comprehensive wave of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard coverage from Computerworld. Our readers have asked for more operating system coverage, and we're delivering.

Why Microsoft should fear Apple

Should Microsoft fear Apple's Macintosh? Maybe not quaking-in-your-boots scared, mind you, but Redmond should certainly be concerned.

A Windows expert opts for a Mac life

Windows Vista is in most ways an excellent operating system. But I've found myself increasingly disturbed by the many ways Microsoft is willing to erode the overall user experience, in most cases in the name of boosting its bottom line.

Firefox: The best browser of all

The people who live and breathe the Internet will all tell you the same thing: Firefox is the best Web browser for Windows and the Mac. Even after Microsoft played catch-up patty-cake with the release of IE7 earlier this year, Windows users who truly know the Web are continuing to choose Firefox.

Living with (or without) Internet Explorer 7.0

Like a lot of people, when Microsoft's latest browser was released, I installed it right away. In fact, I installed it on about half a dozen machines. As the days have turned into weeks (soon to be months) since Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7, what has become clear to me and many others is that some Web sites and many Web applications just aren't ready for this new version of the browser. On my computers, that has meant a return to IE6, until the Web and Web-based applications catch up with IE7.

The skinny on Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP)

One aspect of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system that has raised users' hackles is its new anti-piracy system, called Software Protection Platform (SPP). To understand SPP, it's necessary to take a few steps back. Microsoft began its aggressive campaign against software piracy in Office XP and Windows XP with functionality called Office product activation (OPA) and Windows product activation (WPA).