work

David Byrne on how music works (book review)

I was a huge Talking Heads fan and saw the band many times at shows in New York. That was a long time ago. Byrne is still a vital creative force, recording new music, performing, and writing books. He's worked with various media including film, photography, opera, and non-fiction. He's still searching for new creative challenges, which is more than you can say about most aging rock musicians. Byrne's new book, "How Music Works" reads more like an autobiography than a how-to make it in the music business tome.

Byrne is hyper-aware of how technology … Read more

iPhone 5 camera powered by Sony sensor

Sony has been on a roll with its camera image sensors, and a close look by ChipWorks shows that the iPhone 5 uses one of its products for the main camera.

A close-up photo shows the Sony brand name on the 8-megapixel sensor at the heart of the camera.

It's not a big surprise: Sony is very competitive with image sensors these days, and former Sony CEO Howard Stringer let slip earlier this year that Sony was supplying camera technology to Apple.

But the iPhone 5 has two cameras, of course. The lesser one, a front-facing camera for videoconferencing … Read more

Cyberspying effort drops 'Mirage' on energy firms

Researchers have uncovered a new cyberespionage campaign being waged on a large Philippine oil company, a Taiwanese military organization and a Canadian energy firm, as well as targets in Brazil, Israel, Egypt and Nigeria.

The malware being used is called "Mirage" and it leaves a backdoor on the computer that waits for instructions from the attacker, said Silas Cutler, a security researcher at Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit (CTU).

Victims are carefully targeted with so-called "spear-phishing" e-mails with attachments that are "droppers" designed to look and behave like PDF documents. However, they are actually … Read more

Track your time like a pro with WorkTime

Keeping careful track of your time is critical if you're paid by the hour -- even more so if you're both the boss and the workforce. WorkTime 5 is a robust time-tracking tool that's easy to use, especially when it's time to create reports for billing clients. It monitors and reports your time and activities while you're at your computer, so anyone who needs to keep track of time spent on the computer can use it. WorkTime is shareware that's free to try for 30 days.

When WorkTime's installer finished, a pop-up nag … Read more

Can iWork on the iPad really compare to a Mac?

Apple offers versions of its iWork suite (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) for both the Mac OS and iOS platforms, and given that the new school year is right around the corner, students might be weighing the options for creating and managing projects using either iPads or Macs.

While having been a fan of Apple's iWork suite in OS X since its debut and enjoy having the apps available for other platforms, I have been somewhat skeptical of using the iPad or iPhone to write a full report, a formatted resume, or managing calculations in a spreadsheet. Being a touch-only device, I've considered the iPad in large part as a viewing tool where you can look up information and browse through it, rather than buckling down and creating intricate and detailed content, especially with regard to office-related tasks. While Apple's touch-based input panels in iOS have made entering strings of text relatively easy, and along with gestures it provides a unique approach to drawing and arranging objects in applications, the question does arise as to whether this approach is adequate for more-detailed work such as word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets.… Read more

Facebook drops off the greatest places to work list

Marquee tech companies have always had a good rap of being great places to work: beautiful campuses, casual clothing, free food, and lunchtime workouts. But maybe that's not really the case?

A new list by company review site Glassdoor compiled the 25 best places to work for those trying to achieve an even work-life balance for 2012. And the results are surprising.

Of all well-known tech companies out there, LinkedIn, Orbitz, and CareerBuilder were the only ones to make the list. And for the first time, Facebook entirely dropped off the list. However, of the 25 companies, 12 were … Read more

Updates to iWork, iMovie, and iPhoto follow Mountain Lion release

Whenever Apple releases a new version of its OS X operating system, it soon follows with updates to some of its popular programs for OS X. Today's release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (see here for CNET's full review) is no different, and Apple has made several updates available for its iWork productivity suite, its iPhoto consumer picture manager, and its iMovie home video editor.

The updates are available through Mountain Lion's Mac App Store, which Apple has unified for managing updates to both Mac App Store purchases and also other system updates in the … Read more

iWork.com users have one month before Apple shuts it down

In the wake of the closure of MobileMe, Apple is again reminding people that it is pulling the plug on iWork.com at the end of the month as it transitions users to its iCloud service for online syncing and storage.

"As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the Web," the iWork.com site says. "We recommend that you sign in to iWork.com before July 31, 2012, and download all your documents to your computer. For detailed instructions on … Read more

Apple reminds iWork.com users of impending closure

If you have Apple's iWork productivity suite and have used Apple's iWork.com collaborations, Apple has sent out another notice to remind users that this service will be canceled on July 31. The service, which was always in a beta release status, was an attempt to provide an online storage and collaborative environment for iWork programs, similar to Microsoft's SkyDrive and SharePoint options for its Office suite.

Apple's decision to shutter iWork.com comes after its transition of its MobileMe service to iCloud, which provides an online syncing and storage option that is system-wide and usable … Read more

Link up with business associates

LinkedIn for iPad doesn't have all the features you'd find on the business-oriented networking Web site, but a nice layout and new integration with your calendar make it a worthy download.

Formerly just on smaller devices like iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Palm Pre, the new LinkedIn app for iPad has some interesting functionality built in that lets you map out your busy workday.

Upon launch, you can browse three categories: All Updates, You, and your Inbox. Touch You and you can see who has viewed your profile, people you may know (through your connections) and all your current … Read more