Reviews

18 essential Hadoop tools

Hybrid cloud wizards: CloudVelocity and Ravello Systems

CloudVelocity's One Hybrid Cloud and Ravello Systems' Cloud Application Hypervisor move clones of in-house servers into the cloud for development, testing, and disaster recovery

Review: iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini won’t knock your socks off

The best tablets on the market nonetheless feel more like interim upgrades than milestone devices worth ditching older models for

Review: Puppet vs. Chef vs. Ansible vs. Salt

The leading configuration management and orchestration tools take different paths to server automation

Review: Google gets it right with Nexus 5 Android smartphone

Finally, Google's flagship smartphone can actually compete with other Android flagships

Review: Dell PowerEdge VRTX hits the high notes

Dell's four-blade, 32-drive 'cluster in a box' packs high performance, high availability, and high-end management in a tidy package

Review: Visual Studio 2013 reaches beyond the IDE

Microsoft delivers editing, debugging, deployment, project architecture, and ALM improvements stretching from Windows to Web development, from mobile devices to clouds

Review: Box beats Dropbox — and all the rest — for business

Box trumps Dropbox, Egnyte, Citrix ShareFile, EMC Syncplicity, and OwnCloud with rich mix of file sync, file sharing, user management, deep reporting, and enterprise integration

Review: Mobile Web development frameworks face off

jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, Kendo UI, and Intel App Framework bring a native look and feel to Web apps for mobile devices

Review: Flash your way to better VMware performance

PernixData FVP clusters server-side flash to improve virtual machine performance and reduce SAN latency

Review: WebEx vs. GoToMeeting vs. MyTrueCloud

Cisco WebEx Meetings, Citrix GoToMeeting, and MyTrueCloud My Web Conferences compete on features, quality, client support, and cost

Deathmatch review: Windows 8.1 vs. OS X Mavericks

Although you can now hide some of the Windows 8 dissonance, Windows 8.1 doesn't leap forward enough

First look: Microsoft Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android

Late to the game, Microsoft releases Remote Desktop apps for rival mobile platforms, but they're bare-bones at best — and where's the WinPhone version?

Review: Office 365 administration made easy

Going beyond Office 365's native admin GUI, 365 Command provides powerful Exchange admin capabilities without the need to run PowerShell

Review: 3 toolkits tame mobile app development

How Adobe PhoneGap, AppGyver Steroids, and Telerik Icenium work around native limitations

Review: Salt keeps server automation simple

Salt brings simplicity, flexibility, and high scalability to Linux and Unix server infrastructure management — it does Windows too

Review: 3 PhoneGap toolkits tame mobile app development

Adobe PhoneGap, AppGyver Steroids, and Telerik Icenium simplify app development, but shine brightest at debugging and app distribution

Review: Ansible orchestration is a veteran Unix admin’s dream

Ansible and AnsibleWorks AWX bring simplicity and power to Linux and Unix server automation

Review: iPhone 5s offers better security today, a peek at Apple of tomorrow

Apple's flagship sets the stage for more powerful, more capable, and more secure devices to come

Review: 4 supercool JavaScript tools for data visualization

Free, open source D3, InfoViz, Processing.js, and Recline.js bring dynamic, interactive — and jaw-dropping — data-driven graphics to the Web browser

New in iOS 7: What developers need to know

The revamped UI, dynamic type, new multitasking modes, and 64-bit support point to new classes of apps — and devices

Review: Xcode 5 makes better, faster, stronger iOS and OS X apps

Major upgrade to Apple's IDE scores high with faster compiling, 64-bit support, easier debugging, source control integration, and automated testing

Review: Samsung Ativ Book 6 goes big for gamers — business users, too

A desktop replacement built for gaming, the 15-inch Book 6 is powerful, cool, quiet, and comfortable

Review: Moto X is the Android smartphone no one needs

The much-ballyhooed smartphone from Google's hardware unit brings little that's worthwhile to the mix

Bitbucket vs. GitHub: Which project host has the most?

The right choice boils down to a number of factors — you might even consider using both

Review: VMware Workstation 10 turns to tablets

The best desktop virtualization software for techs adds support for Surface Pro sensors and more polish

Windows 8.1 review: New version, same mess

If you're stuck with Windows 8, the Windows 8.1 upgrade is a no-brainer, but the fundamental flaws remain

Review: New Parallels, Fusion virtual desktops for OS X fail the smell test

Parallels has interesting ideas that only half work, and Fusion adds almost nothing new beyond better hardware support

Review: Acer Iconia W3-810 is too little, too lame

The world's first 8-inch Windows tablet is long on portability and battery life, short on everything else

Review: Firefox OS sputters on the ZTE Open

The open source challenger is meant to be simple, but it crosses the line into the less than functional

Review: Lenovo ThinkPad Helix flips Ultrabook expectations

Fast, functional Windows 8 laptop-tablet lets you detach for tablet use or dock with the display facing in or out

Review: Apache OpenOffice 4 vs. LibreOffice 4.1

Not so fast, LibreOffice — OpenOffice has a shiny, new, and improved major release of its own

Review: Chef cooks up configuration management

Opscode's Chef packs the power of Ruby and plentiful Cookbooks, but lacks features and polish found in other solutions

Review: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S has some odd moves

Bendy Windows 8 laptop-tablet combines solid performance, good battery life, and a questionable design choice

Peppermint OS Four Review: The distro in the clouds!

Peppermint Four is a sweet blend of the cloud and the desktop

First look: Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V shines on

Preview editions of Hyper-V 2012 R2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 pick up where the strong initial releases left off

Review: QNAP NAS meets XBMC media center

QNAP's TS-669L can store all your content and play it directly to your TV, though HD playback could be smoother

Top picks: The best Windows 8 tablet laptops, convertibles, and Ultrabooks

HP and Dell lead Samsung, Lenovo, and Acer in InfoWorld's reviews of both classic clamshell notebooks and innovative touch-driven hybrids

Review: Puppet 3.0 pulls more strings

Version 3.0 of Puppet Labs' configuration automation tool shines with speed boosts, orchestration improvements, and deeper support for Windows servers

Review: Top 4 open source network management tools

Zenoss Core edges Nagios Core, NetXMS, and OpenNMS in four-product roundup

Review: Smart card readers for the iPhone and iPad

Flexible PKard Reader and elegant Tactivo bring smart card authentication to your favorite mobile device

Review: HP EliteBook Revolve takes the Ultrabook for a spin

Professional-grade laptop-tablet convertible combines solid build, superior performance, and a surfeit of business features

Review: Ultimate guide to Windows 8 Ultrabooks

Users looking for the slimmest, lightest devices will have to accept trade-offs when it comes to these eight Windows 8 Ultrabooks

Windows 8.1 ‘Blue’ preview: Well, it beats Windows 8

Microsoft's Windows 8.1 Preview does much to improve Metro, but little to make Windows 8 more attractive to either new or longtime Windows users

Oracle Database 12c review: Finally, a true cloud database

Pluggable databases bring a new level of efficiency and ease to database consolidation, while a wealth of other new features address performance, availability, and more

Review: Acer Iconia W510 just keeps going and going

Lightweight, Atom-based Windows 8 tablet-laptop convertible gets amazing battery life

Review: Samsung Series 9 cuts few corners

Well-engineered laptop is long on performance and battery life, short on business features

Shoot-out results: Best security tools for small business

Check Point comes out on top; Kerio, Watchguard, Elitecore, and Sophos score high in review of unified threat management devices

Scorecard: Best Android office suite shoot-out

Which package of office apps provide the best mobile productivity experience on Android devices? We put the leading contenders to the test to find out

Review: 4 free, open source management GUIs For MongoDB

Genghis, phpMoAdmin, RockMongo, and UMongo free MongoDB database management from the command line