Network World staff

Social network tools have changed the way we interact in our personal lives and are in the process of transforming our professional lives. Increasingly, they play a significant role in how business gets done. But they're also high risk. With hundreds of millions of users, these tools have attracted attackers more than any other target in recent years.

Social network sites: Block or not?

Keeping up with the smartphone world can be a difficult task, what with new phones and applications appearing weekly. Which one is best? Which one best fits the enterprise? Read on and find out.

More essentials: Network routers, desktop virtualization, IPv6, Windows Mobile, 4G

While there are plenty of products customers probably wish had been recalled (OK, it's time to stop piling on Windows Vista), Nokia's recall Monday of millions of faultGraphic: Diego Aguirrey cell phone chargers got us thinking about other recent technology recalls. A sampling:

* HP recalls 70,000 laptop batteries: HP recalled Lithium-Ion batteries used in some of its laptops, as they pose a fire hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said in May. The recall covers about 70,000 batteries used in the company's HP and Compaq-branded laptops, the CPSC said.

Federal authorities arrested a husband and wife team for allegedly stealing $23 million from Cisco in a scheme that had the network giant shipping replacement parts to fake businesses in eight states. The scheme reportedly defrauded Cisco's SMARTnet program.

SMARTnet is Cisco's premium technical support program which promises, among other benefits, 2-hour, 4-hour and next-day delivery of replacement parts.

Apple Monday said it has passed 2 billion applications downloaded from its App Store, a number that promises to balloon further as the iPhone likely makes its way onto networks beyond AT&T's in the United States.

Apple says there are now more than 85,000 apps available to more than 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch users worldwide. It boasts 125,000-plus developers in its iPhone Developer Program.

Much to the consternation of a young Brigham Young University researcher, a new study out of the school shows that the more young adults play video games the worse their relationships become with family and friends.

Some 813 college students from around the United States were asked to share information about how often they play video games and how much time, trust and affection they share with family and friends.

Much to the consternation of a young Brigham Young University researcher, a new study out of the school shows that the more young adults play video games the worse their relationships become with family and friends.

Some 813 college students from around the United States were asked to share information about how often they play video games and how much time, trust and affection they share with family and friends.

University of Utah researchers have invented technology that could come to be embraced by teenagers with the same enthusiasm they have for curfews and ID checks. And like those things, it could save their lives.

The Key2SafeDriving technology uses RFID or Bluetooth wireless capabilities to issue signals from a car key to a cell phone to prevent drivers from talking on their phones or texting while driving. Some research shows that as many as one in 10 teen drivers talk on cell phones or send text messages while driving, and the consequences of such ill-advised multitasking have grabbed many a headline in recent years.

A new report warns that the cost from lost productivity at work related to the new NFL season could add up to $10.5 billion. And there we were, thinking the biggest waste of time at work came from fielding an endless stream of IT industry reports?

In an effort to do something productive with these sometimes insightful, sometimes scary, sometimes silly and frequently self-serving studies, we've boiled down each of about 20 that we've received over the past couple of months into one digestible story. Without further ado and in no particular order:

The rush to virtualize data-center resources has players across the entire IT landscape working to deliver virtualization products and win customer favor. Management and automation vendors see the technology as an opportunity to improve current tools and create news ones designed to help enterprise IT shops optimize their virtual environments.

"Many companies have implemented virtualization projects to save money -- they didn't realize that this entire craze for virtualization would be potentially problematic when changes need to be made to the production environment," says Evelyn Hubbert, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "Additionally, many organizations have thought of virtualization in one IT area, for instance server, client or network. Virtualization is forcing the silos or domains in IT to connect."