Julie Sartain

The social networking scene is constantly in flux. The big 3 (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) are at the top of the heap right now. But challengers are springing up all the time, hoping to leverage the next big wave into a lucrative IPO.

Actually there are two giant waves in the sea of social networking - mobility and games.

Have you looked at the new Microsoft Office 2010 yet? How many of its few, new features does your company really need? And are these features worth the investment? Here are five reasons your company doesn't need to purchase Office 2010.

1. No More Upgrades

Despite the belief of some skeptics that Google's new, free development software, App Inventor, will flood the Android market with useless apps, it's not necessarily true that this product will lower the bar for application development.

Admittedly, some of the home-grown applications people create may be frivolous or ineffective, but take a closer look at some of the iPhone apps, such as Tickle Me, which laughs when you fondle the screen, or iBeer, which shows fat lips chugging a beer. Wow, these are useful, quality products.

On June 23, Motorola introduced the Droid, set for release this Thursday, calling it "a pocket-sized home theater." That's an interesting slogan for a phone. I can appreciate the feature, but how does it benefit the average worker? I can see the advantage for advertising agencies, multimedia firms, and maybe film critics, but what about the rest of the companies who just need a good, dependable phone?

Every time I read the news, there's a press release for a new smartphone, laptop, notebook, netbook, e-reader, printer, and so forth. The competition is so intense that purchasing decisions must be a nightmare for the average company. You almost need to create a department specifically for researching IT and electronic options. And the worst part is, how can anyone make an intelligent purchasing decision when everything your company buys is obsolete in less than a month?

Research in Motion plans to release two new products later this summer. The release dates are unknown for the BlackBerry OS 6 operating system and BlackBerry Protect, a free data backup and protection utility, as are some key details about how the products will work.

BlackBerry users are hoping that the new products will be backward-compatible, so that those with older BlackBerry models also can enjoy the new benefits. That said, RIM has videos with teasers for upcoming features that look promising and even fun.

Smartphones are getting smarter every day, but a built-in Pico projector is the smartest addition to a cell phone so far, especially for any company that provides instructor-led training, product demos, or sales presentations. Imagine showing up at a conference with your company's sales demo, armed with a pocket-sized device that projects a 50-inch presentation onto the wall. That's cool and efficient.

The phone is from Samsung and it's branded the Galaxy Beam (model GT-I8520). It's Android-based, which means access to over 50,000 applications.

Net Market Share's recent Web browser statistics show Internet Explorer remaining the most popular, with 60 percent of the market share, which includes versions 6, 7, and 8. Firefox 3.6 comes in second at 24 percent, and Google's Chrome 5.0 is holding third place at 7 percent. It appears that Internet Explorer has a huge lead, but look out Microsoft, open-source alternatives are nipping at your heels.

Mozilla Firefox won approval from IBM when it announced last week that Firefox was "enterprise-ready". The open-source browser will come preinstalled on all of IBM's new computers, across all platforms. IBM's 400,000 employees plus its vendors are urged--even expected--to use and support Firefox.

A Silicon Valley product development consulting firm called the Nielsen Norman Group (not to be confused with the Nielsen ratings company) published a study last week comparing reading performance with a book to reading with an e-reader. The results--which are suspect because there were only 24 people in the test group--find that users of the Kindle 2 and iPad read 10.7 percent and 6.2 percent slower, respectively, than on paper or with books.

There are too many missing factors to take this study seriously. For example, this group was composed of all "avid" readers, given short stories by Ernest Hemingway to read on four platforms; the Kindle 2, an iPad, a PC monitor, and paper. First, Hemingway is not an easy read, and subject matter is all-important when measuring speed and comprehension. Avid readers are more likely to read anything faster than average or minimalist readers.

The Cisco Cius business tablet, announced in late June, appears loaded with features to impress mobile workers from the corporation to the classroom.

Weighing 1.5 pounds with a 7-inch display and an HD Soundstation docking unit, this multifunction device looks impressive, with some features similar to those of the iPad. The Cius advertises an Intel Atom 1.6Ghz processor, 32GB of flash memory, and the Android operating system, plus Wi-Fi, 3G/4G data, Bluetooth, 720p HD video, and eight-hour battery life.

Apple's iPhone has more than 200,000 applications in its library, and the list is growing. But with so many options, how do you decide which apps are relevant to your work? Obviously, no one has the time or money to download and review them all.

Nor does anyone plan to start working full-time on a cell phone, but these apps can provide adequate functionality, when necessary, and save the day in a pinch by helping you take work on an iPhone.

The number of Android apps has surpassed the 50,000 mark, and is increasing daily. With so many options, it’s difficult to know which ones are applicable to your organization and its employees.

These five business programs for Android phones tout unique and useful features. Although no one plans to give up their laptop and start working full time on a cell phone, these tools could provide adequate functionality, when necessary, such as those days you’re waiting for a flight or commuting to work on the subway.