A group of consumers is pleading its case that Microsoft's Vista-capable designation misled purchases of low-end machines. Those PCs ended up running only Vista Home Basic, not any of the more capable--and demanding--versions of the OS. But even if Microsoft loses--and the case appears to be a long way from that possibility--consumers and business customers probably won't see much of that sweet settlement cash.

Most recently, the presiding judge revoked the suit's class-action status, meaning that the individual plaintiffs couldn't pool complaints into one case. That action is currently being disputed, but if plaintiffs have to file individual claims, that creates a lot of work for attorneys relative to the possible benefit in a settlement.

I recently attended a briefing where Microsoft explained some of the new features in Windows 7 to reviewers from different publications. At the end of the meeting, the MS folks asked the half-dozen of us present what it will take for the new OS to be a success.

"Injecting about three trillion dollars into the economy to end this recession," was my initial response. It's hard to imagine any new OS will be a success, especially with business customers, until the economy improves. What we are already using works just fine, thank you. It will have to see us through.

PC parts are so cheap, you could easily spend more on 10-user license for Windows Server than on the hardware on which it's installed. Steve Ballmer mentioned the disparity, noting the upcoming Foundation Edition server designed as a "low-cost, low-price, low-functionality Windows Server SKU." The skeleton server will be released in the next month or two, although Microsoft hasn't yet announced further details.

I loath the multiple editions of Windows, and the server space is just as confusing, especially for smaller companies that don't have the luxury of a full IT staff to sort it all out. Customers pick between Small Business Server Standard, Small Business Server Premium, Essential Business Server in its own Premium and Standard versions, and numerous other versions of Windows Server. Some think these price points and different features are helpful, but what small-biz managers really just need is a reasonably priced server OS that scales to my needs.

Regardless of what Apple honchos said at today's shareholder meeting, I have come to the sad conclusion that Steve Jobs will never return to the helm at Apple. This is another of those “I hope am wrong, but . . .” posts that I hate to write. But, skipping the shareholder meeting is a more than subtle hint that Jobs won’t be back in the active role he’s enjoyed, if at all.

Expanding upon the above paragraph takes me down a road I don’t want to travel. So, I will keep Steve in my prayers and hope the future proves me wrong.

OK, I am a sucker for headlines that ask a question. But, yes, in response to an item posted by my colleague Jeff Bertolucci yesterday, I do care that Microsoft Office 14 won’t be released until 2010.

Why? Because it could easily be a watershed release and have a major impact on how we work. On that basis, people who follow Microsoft or use Office should have at least a passing interest in what happens with Office 14. I'll explain:

One of the things that makes terrorism so frightening to the good guys and attractive to the bad guys is leverage. It allows a handful of people to attract unwarranted attention and achieve goals far beyond their actual numbers.

Social networks can have the same effect, giving a small group a voice far louder than its actual numbers or demographics might justify.

Quake Live just launched into public beta, likely putting extra strain on your small office network and productivity. The free first-person shooter is based on the classic Quake III Arena, but now it runs inside a web browser. It's perfect for slacking off on nearly any PC, and when I finish this post, I'm going to jump into the fray. But if your employees can't wait to finish their work before playing, here's how to block access to the game.

Your Internet connection is full of software ports, virtual strands isolated for specific communications. Email access, FTP, instant messaging, and other Internet activities default to a certain port. Web traffic uses port 80, but Quake Live requires port 5222 even though it lives in a web browser; just block this port to leave other Internet services unaffected.

As more and more people bring personal technology into the workplace-most often smartphones--malicious code writers are beginning to take notice and target these weak points of entry. In its 2009 Cyber Threat Report, the Georgia Tech Information Security Center cited the possibility of botnets moving from the desktop to the smartphone within the year. A few enterprise security vendors are not waiting.

On Tuesday, Lumension, a security management company, released Lumension Mobile, a data protection tool specifically designed for Windows Mobile devices.

There's no shortage of buzz over predictions that iPhone service costs are about to drop, but I wish to respectfully disagree with that expectation. The predicted price drop is supposed to be the result of a trickle-down effect from the heating up of competition for cellular customers. Fortune.com quotes Kaufman Bros' analyst Shaw Wu as saying cheaper all-you-can-eat pricing from Sprint and T-Mobile could convince AT&T reduce its up-through-the-sky pricing for iPhone users.

From Wu's lips to God’s ears, but I am not particularly hopeful. Apple, which plays a key role in determining AT&T’s pricing for iPhones and service, has never been known to reduce prices except as a normal part of the technology cycle.

If the new Pinch Media report on iPhone applications usage is correct--essentially that we download and even pay for a lot of stuff we never really use--then I must be an anomaly (which isn't the worst thing I've been called). But I regularly use most of what I download. OK, not most, but let me explain. iPhone apps are an important part of my life.

Here are some "fun facts" taken from the report and quoted from another post here at PC World:

Think of iPhone software sales as the anything-goes, impulse-buy section on the way out of a store. Customers have downloaded more than 500,000,000 free and paid apps, but nearly all abandon the software the following day.

According to research by Pinch Media, 30 percent of customers return to a paid app the second day after purchase. About a month after buying an app, less than three percent of customers still use it. After two months, that base drops to about one percent. This disposable marketplace makes the iPhone software community even more fragile.

Do you think Congress has given any thought to what its latest effort to police the Internet is going to cost? Not just the cost to Internet Service Providers, like AT&T and Comcast, but also to anyone who offers Internet access to anyone, potentially including you and me?

Two bills currently under consideration both include the same language: "A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user."

Is Yelp using negative user reviews to coerce small businesses into buying its advertising? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a media company had tried such an innovative approach.

One way to tell might be to look at Yelp’s balance sheet, but who really knows? Does Yelp have an economic incentive in a tough economy to coerce potential advertisers? I don’t know and can’t say.

Microsoft got a split-decision in federal court over whether its early promotion of Vista was a lie. The court decided the issue shouldn't be a class action--which may effectively end the case--but allowed the plaintiffs' to continue their action if they choose.

I don't think there is any question that Microsoft dramatically understated the hardware requirements necessary to run Vista. I also think Vista Home offers so little of the Vista experience, already a dramatically scaled-down version of the Vista promise--that it's fair to say people who run Vista Home aren't running Vista at all. No Aero interface = No Vista.

A few years ago, Google made a play to become a one-stop shop for companies seeking to purchase all types of advertising--online, print, radio, and television. Some people worried about the impact Googlization would have on the entire ad industry. What if Google did to TV, radio, and newspapers what it had already done in dominating online?

There was reason for concern because, as we all know, Google is, was, and shall remain a media company pretending to be a technology company. That is an important thing to remember: Google has yet to create a big moneymaker that isn’t tied to search-related revenue.

Here’s my contribution to the ongoing debate over Facebook’s overly broad terms of service and it begins with a story:

Gavin Newsom is the mayor of San Francisco. Closely associated with gay marriage rights, Newsom is revered in some circles and reviled in others. And that’s just in San Francisco. The rest of the nation, for the most part, just seems to hope SF would slide into the sea and get it over with. (SF residents consider this an expression of jealousy.)

While traditional security software typically only inspects incoming communication and downloads for malware, a free security tool. BotHunter instead correlates the two-way communication between vulnerable computers and hackers. BotHunter "flips the security paradigm" by focusing on the egress, says Phillip Porras, a computer security expert at SRI International and one of its creators.

Botnets are shadowy networks of compromised computers. Typically the PC gets infected with malware from e-mail or from visiting a compromised Web site. The infection may linger for a while before it calls out to a command and control server which may download malware, or enlist the PC in a spam campaign or denial of service attack.

Facebook's new terms of service say that it owns--or at least shares--your uploaded content. Your photos from a company retreat could show up in a Facebook ad. Or Facebook could sublicense the rights to your company jingle in a video. Does Facebook want to use your content like this? It doesn't matter--the company says it can.

Technically, the terms say that by joining and uploading, "you grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute..." your content. Facbook also specifies it can "use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising... ."

Google and Microsoft have teamed up to let Google Calendar and Google Contacts users sync their data with an iPhone, without the need for Apple's help, via a utility called Google Sync. Google is using Microsoft's ActiveSync technology to provide--for free--the same over-the-air synchronization that Apple's MobileMe charges $100-a-year for.

No longer is iTunes necessary as an intermediary between the worlds of Google Apps and iPhones.

Oh Internet nerds, I love you because I'm one of you. But even I had to look up this 1234567890 meme that's been bouncing around. If you've been wished a "happy 1234567890" or other similarly obtuse numerical greeting by your sysadmin, IT consultant, or Tweeting tween nephew, they're just celebrating a milestone in the Unix calendar system.

It may be telling that when Apple decided to get into retail stores, it hired the vice president of merchandising from Target to run them. Why do Apple stores look so much like Gap stores? Could it be Steve Jobs’ time served on the Gap corporate board?

So, when I read that Microsoft is getting back--yes, they used to have a store in San Francisco--into the retail business, I can’t help but notice they hired someone with 25-years’ experience at Wal-Mart.

For many years, I have been searching for a solution to the problem of how to carry electronic notes with me. You'd think there would be a number of these, but each one I've tried has always lacked something important, usually ease of use and simplicity.

In my small business life, I often have to refer to various (and ever-changing) small pieces of information. I used to write it all down in a small pocket notebook or on file cards but usually managed to lose them. The ideal electronic solution would improve my access to information, as well as protect it from loss.

Google Latitude is a useful--if slightly creepy--way to track your location on a mobile phone or GPS laptop. But you can get roughly the same sense of fleeting privacy on any old Wi-Fi PC; Google Latitude automatically pegged me within about 100 feet of my ground-floor office on GPS-free laptop.

The process works through Skyhook's Wi-Fi mapping and triangulation technology. The results aren't as accurate as a clear GPS signal; I've been misplaced in some neighborhoods by about a half-mile, and Wi-Fi locating is useless in rural areas without a network. But it adds another trick to Google Latitude for free. Here's how to activate the feature in Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Netbooks are cost-effective and cute….but "powerful" and "business-friendly" aren't exactly words that spring to mind. Well, over the past few months since Nvidia first unveiled the Ion platform, we're finally seeing some headway in a next generation netbook capable of getting the job done.

What's the Ion platform? Basically, take Intel's affordable Atom CPU, Nvidia's GeForce 9400M GPU (as seen in the new MacBooks) and marry the two together on a single picayune Pico-ITX motherboard. The big news is that as of this morning, Microsoft is officially backing Nvidia's play by certifying it as Windows Vista-ready. As in, you'll see newer Netbooks that will be able to effectively run Windows Vista Lite…er….I mean, Windows 7. How can this impact the way you do business? Let's count the ways.

Forgetting, for a moment, the understandable business interest in the new Google Latitude geo-location service, which can be used with a smartphone to track employees' whereabouts, let me direct your attention to those serious-looking men and women in the serious-looking dark suits.

Since we can neither live without them nor kill them all, let's gather 'round the great big conference table and bring on the lawyers. Waybe if we don't let them sit down this will be a mercifully short visit.

According to iPhone tracking site, Aptism, Apple's iTunes catalog includes more than 20,000 iPhone apps. In that rabid App Store competition, some of those apps have proven themselves as knock-out business tools. And the iPhone is riding the crest, challenging RIM for the business crown.

After Apple introduced Exchange Server support, many IT departments began begrudgingly accepting the device. For individuals without an enterprise AT&T plan and their own Exchange Server, Apple offers MobileMe for over-the-air contact and calendar syncing. New iPhone support for Google Sync takes individuals and small businesses further, enabling group calendars, even though push email isn't yet an option. But the real power is in the apps.

With proper respect for the views of fellow PCW blogger Zack Stern, none of his six reasons why I am supposed to spend $359 on an ebook reader really impressed me

The apologetics necessary to make Kindle--a name perilously close to "kindling"--sound like a good deal reminds me of the excuses made when Larry Ellison was planning to introduce a $500 PC. Back then, it seemed like a good price, but achieving it required some major tradeoffs. In the end, Ellison failed, but today we have lots of $500 PCs that traded nothing to reach the price point. Prices just came down.

The story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the #$&%$ pond scum who hijacked the name of a not-for-profit animal rescue group. Not that they deserve protection.

This morning, I was at a meeting of a group I'll call Pet Rescue of Carbona, a fictitious name chosen for this example. This is a perpetually struggling group that saves of the lives of cats and dogs near where I live. We were discussing what to do about a bank balance hovering in the $500 range.

It's no secret that I've been a convert to the Amazon Kindle for more than a year now. And now that Amazon has announced its second generation of the Kindle, I'm even more impressed with the device than I was before. But some misguided souls, like my colleague Rick Broida, are throwing down the gauntlet on my favorite eBook reader, saying it's no match for that little all-in-one wonder from Apple, the iPhone. Here's why they're wrong.

1. It's easy on the eyes. And no, I'm not talking about the design. The Kindle's 6-inch E-Ink display sports a crisp 600x800 resolution that closely rivals the look of a real printed page. And because it's as wide as a typical trade paperback, there's plenty of space on the page to increase the font size to a large, comfortable level while still fitting more than 5 words on the screen.

Microsoft's upcoming My Phone sync service could be a boon for businesses that use Windows Mobile and don't host their own exchange servers. The upcoming product will sync address books, calendars, and other data over-the-air with PCs, not requiring a direct connection between the two.

Microsoft hasn't announced full details about the My Phone launch and availability, but you don't have to wait for these features. Here are four over-the-air services that you can use right now to sync typical phone data, documents, photos, and more. You might not even need a smartphone.

The pomp from the Kindle 2 launch this morning has begun to fade but the circumstance is clearer than ever; the Kindle 2 is a must-have business accessory. Amazon's new version of the eBook reader adds even more killer features than a Stephen King story. These are the top six why you should click that pre-order button for the $359 device.

It takes less space than books.
The new Kindle is a miniscule 0.36-inches thick, nearly half the depth of the original model. It's also shed nearly two pounds, weighing in at 10.2 ounces. While it's still another device to tote along in your laptop bag, the Kindle 2 is easily smaller than the pile of books it displaces. We'll have to wait for real-world testing to gauge the battery life, but Amazon claims it'll go up to four days in regular use. And unlike the original, you don't need a separate power adapter to charge the Kindle 2; just tap into a USB port.

Ever wonder which companies are looking at your Web site? A free download from Demandbase offers traffic analysis tools that can provide at least part of the answer.

It's called Demandbase Stream and it's a small application that allows you to view a screen crawl display of the names of the companies that have recently visited your site. Click on a company name and you can see more about the company itself. All that information is free. Here's the download location.

I don't care if print is dead, or if it's just resting a while. What I do care about is getting the best, most versatile access to information when and where I need it. And for this, I've come to depend on my Amazon Kindle. While the rest of the tech world is busy kvetching over the forthcoming second-gen Kindle's design aesthetics and its admittedly hefty $359 price tag, I'm wondering only one thing: Will it make me want to upgrade?

I've been carrying a Kindle for a little over a year now. I've purchased a few dozen books for it, some of which I already owned in print. For me, it's been the ultimate traveling companion.

If your network lacks a file server, it's missing a central hub for storage and backup. You could choose between several free and paid options, from Ubuntu Linux up to Windows Server. Here's how to get started with the free approach. You'll just have to scrounge up an old PC you probably have lying around already.

Download Ubuntu Server
Visit the download page, and click the Server Edition tab. Download the current version, and burn the ISO file to a CD. Boot from that disc on your server hardware, and follow the 20-minute process to install the operating system. When finished, the OS will boot into a command-line prompt. Log in with your name, press Enter, and add your password. Enter the command sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop to unpack the graphical interface; the server edition normally only includes a command-line interface. After about 20 more minutes, you’ll be able to reboot and use the mouse as you would in the Desktop Edition.

An iPhone or iPod touch can drive slides in Apple's new Keynote 09, but several PowerPoint alternatives do the same trick on a PC. The iPhone connects through your local Wi-Fi network for unimpeded reception. Unfortunately, you can't connect through Bluetooth if without a network. But with that caveat in mind, here are my thoughts on three options.

iPresenter [App Store link]: This app includes the core functionality needed for presentations, but little else. You can view the current or next slide from the iPhone, move ahead or back, and that's about it. I had installation difficulties on one of my Vista PCs but got it working in XP. Like the others, this app requires a software utility to run on the PowerPoint computer. Unlike the others, that utility weighs in at a bloated 27MB.

It will be interesting to see how Google's new geo-locator service, called Latitude, plays with small business. Launched yesterday, Latitude transmits the user's location back to Google for display using the service's online maps.

The location information comes from a GPS-equipped Smart phones or by triangulation using cell towers. An opt-in service, Latitude also works with laptop computers.

It doesn't seem like five years since Facebook appeared on the scene. I was slow to join the throng--my friends list numbers only 242 of the 110 million people who have joined the site since its inception.

Facebook is less juvenile in look-and-feel than MySpace, which it has overtaken in popularity. It is also a lot cleaner, again in look-and-feel but also in content. It also lacks the sexual content that plagues MySpace.

What is the deal with Microsoft and its myriad OS editions? Microsoft has insulted us all again by announcing that Windows 7 will come in no less than six different editions. In this needlessly complicated street game of up-selling you're not a customer in need of a solution, you're a mark.

Want Aero effects, Media Center, and the ability to run more than three applications at once? Then you can't settle for Starter, which comes bundled on some new hardware. Instead you'll have to pay for Home Premium. If you want those plus more presentation tricks and other extras, cough up the cash for Professional.

Is the speed of your company's Internet connection being throttled back by your ISP? Unless you're using a cable modem for your business Internet connection--and have Comcast or Cox as the provider--probably not. But, wouldn't you like to know, just to be sure?

By offering new tools to measure broadband network performance, developers at a Google-backed venture called Measurement Lab are putting pressure on all ISPs to stop limiting customer bandwidth, or at least to not do it in secret.

I accumulate piles of business cards from trade shows and meetings, but I often feel overwhelmed when entering them into my address book by hand. Thankfully, a business card scanner can automate this rote task... mostly.

Several companies make scanners for this niche; I recently tried the CardScan Executive. While a little bulky, the scanner is small enough to pack for travel, about the size of a narrow, thick day-planner. At least it needs no power cable, connecting only through USB.

According to Net Applications research data, Mac OS X market share is inching its way to 10% of all computing platforms, currently at 9.93%. The Net Applications data comes by tracking the OS through web browser activity, so it's not a direct measurements of computers. But it's on-target with other market surveys.

What's driving the trend? Could it be iPhone owners dabbling in full-fledged Macs? Perhaps. But what about the business audience; could swaths of PC-only outfits finally be moving to mixed-platform environments? With so many business tools running as platform-agnostic web services, Macs are nearly fully compatible out-of-the box.