As a software developer I do lots of market research into the current trends of both software and hardware. I read, read, read as much as I can about what is going on in the industry, for starters. There's a whole lot of hype about iPad, and near silence about Windows tablets. But there are plenty of them out there.

Windows 8 will be a boon for tablets, particularly with ARM support and the new Metro UI, but it's still a future release product. Windows 7 is here now. What is its value as a tablet PC operating system? This week, Windows 8 will have big tablet buzz at Microsoft's Windows BUILD conference. Is there really reason to wait? I'd like to offer my impressions of what's here right now, from a developer's viewpoint, about Windows 7 tablets.

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AT&T on Monday announced its complete launch lineup of Windows Phone "Mango" devices, which will include both new hardware and already-released models that will be receiving a software upgrade to the new version of Windows Phone.

"Mango" represents a major upgrade to the Windows Phone platform, and Microsoft in the past said it includes more than 500 new features such as multitasking, improved search, new hubs, and so forth. When the upgrade arrives in the fall, Windows Phone will have been at the bottom of the smartphone popularity ladder for at least six months.

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In late August, software developers MoboTap released Dolphin, the popular browser formerly exclusive to the Android platform, on iOS. Today, the tablet-specific version called Dolphin Browser HD is available for free in the iTunes App store.

Though Dolphin has a number of useful browser features such as tabs, sidebars, speed dial, desktop mode, and auto-completing URLS, there are two features that make this browser remarkable: Gesture browsing and Webzine mode, which launched on Android back in July.

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Microsoft Outlook is undoubtedly a powerful app, with its feature set going beyond that of a mere email manager to encompass contacts, calendars and other organizational tools. Everything you do in Outlook is stored in your own personal PST file, but what happens if you find yourself locked out of your PST file, or Outlook no longer recognizes the file?

In extreme cases -- say,  you ditched Outlook for another email program -- you may need to refer back to your old email messages, but without Outlook you’re unable to open the PST file. What then? The solution lies in using a free tool called Kernel Outlook PST Viewer.

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The importance of backing up your data, settings and even your entire hard drive is finally starting to hit home. With the comprehensive backup tools supplied in Windows 7 and high-end versions of Vista, you may think Microsoft has you covered, but it seems third-party vendors still have different ideas.

O&O’s entry into the backup marked is a drive-imaging tool designed to back up your entire hard drive. Version 6 also adds an option for backing up individual files, so the question is, does it contain everything you need to back up your computer?

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In the real world, you only have to worry about the criminals who live in your city. But in the online world, you have to worry about criminals who could be on the other side of the planet. Online crime is always international because the Internet has no borders.

Today computer viruses and other malicious software are no longer written by hobbyist hackers seeking fame and glory among their peers, but by professional criminals who are making millions with their attacks. These criminals want access to your computer, your Paypal passwords and your credit card numbers.

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It's received wisdom in software development generally that you don't write your own code when a perfectly good implementation is there for the taking. It's the old saw about reinventing the wheel. But it's especially true of cryptographic code. Windows programs that utilized the OS standard crypto functions got fast and automatic protection from the rogue certificates distributed during the DigiNotar scandal.

Over the last couple weeks, as stories about the hacking of certificate authority DigiNotar increased, various companies retracted their trust and the Dutch government stepped in. Given that the criminal who did the hacking announced the fact, it was potentially too late for anyone to protect themselves, but still time is of the essence in such matters.

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Today, around the globe, people are, sadly, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In posting my remembrance, I got to thinking how much has changed technologically and how much circumstances could have been different that day if the resources we take for granted now were available then.

Advanced communications technology of the day was the cell phone, which people trapped in the Twin Towers used to reach family and friends. The cell phone helped warn passengers of United Airlines 93 about the other hijackings. The heroes of that flight sacrificed their lives to save many others. That couldn't have been possible without the cell phone. But what if the people living in 2001 could have used social services widely available today to warn others or offer dramatic, first-hand accounts, photos and videos of events as they unfolded. The historical record -- and tribute to the lives lost that tragic day -- would be much different.

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Ten years ago this morning, my wife remarked about the perfect fall day. Clear skies, low humidity and freshness in the air. Washington, DC hadn't seen such a refreshing day in months. The sweltering heat and humidity gave way to autumn's charms.

Around 9:20 a.m. ET, I checked the headlines at Washington Post. I had been online for hours, but not looking at local news. I was writing a news story for CNET. Across the top of the page was a one liner about an airplane striking the World Trade Center. We naturally assumed a small plane had struck one of the towers. While I looked for more details online, Anne checked CNN and gasped in the living room. I walked out to see video of both towers aflame. This was no small plane incident.

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This has been another busy week in the world of software releases, and there has been more news than normal in the field of security; both AVG and Norton products have been unveiled. AVG Internet Security 2012 is a step up from the free antivirus tool that many people will be familiar with, adding a number of handy protection tools to the equation including parental controls and online backup. Anyone looking for extra security, should look no further than the premium version of the program which offers protection against identity theft as well as system tuning tools.

AVG also updated its flagship virus protection software, AVG Anti-Virus -- both the free and paid-for versions, with the latter providing additional checks for downloaded files amongst other things – and there is now a strong focus on minimizing the use of system resources whilst maintaining security. The company’s Rescue CD app, designed to fix problems with unbootable system, was also update, including the USB flash drive version.

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Can you hear it? Can you hear it coming? Microsoft's Windows developer conference is almost here. BUILD kicks off September 13 in Anaheim, Calif., and it's going to be big, big, BIG. Microsoft will give Windows 8 its formal unveiling -- everything else before was just movie previews. No new Windows version is really official until Microsoft presents it to developers.

But there's more. Microsoft moved its annual Financial Analyst Meeting from July to September, coinciding with BUILD. It's a colossally smart move. Wall Street geeks and technophobes will have chance to get caught up in the energy and enthusiasm of Windows 8 -- and Windows Phone "Mango", too. Microsoft really needs to energize analysts about these products and how they're not so much the past but vital forces for the so-called post-PC era.

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REVIEW: To me, plug computers are exciting because they can perform low-to-mid-level computational functions at an extremely low overall energy cost. They are sort of like fanless PC's of the smallest order...General purpose computers that have the small physical and ecological footprints of embedded systems without the usage case limitations.

A couple of months ago, the people at Mimo Monitors released a bundle called MimoPlug that combined a touchscreen version of their famous USB mini-monitor with an equally miniature plug computer based upon Marvell's SheevaPlug platform that booted Debian off of an included SD card.

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As the launch of Windows 8 draws closer and closer, and increasingly tantalising details creep out about the operating system, the number of tools that enable you to mimic the look or copy the features of the next version of Windows also increases. One such tool is Mosaic Desktop. which enables you to bring the look of the redesign to your Windows 7 computer.

The tiled interface can be used to display a range of information -- from the date and time to the state of your inbox. There are a number of tiles that can be added to the interface, some of which show information about your computer, while other pull in information from the Internet. In order to add new tiles to the basic set that is included by default, you need to pay a visit to the Mosaic ‘store’.

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Two weeks ago, German courts awarded Apple with a preliminary injunction on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, saying the tablet looked too much like the Community Design for handheld computers Apple registered with the European Union (shown above, Design Number 000181607-0001). Friday, that preliminary injunction was upheld in Düsseldorf regional court by Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann.

The ban does not even consider the software or technology behind the two devices, and really only pertains to the design of the chassis, which Brueckner-Hofmann reportedly described as "minimalist" and "modern."

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If you’re a data-heavy smartphone user, you belong on Sprint. That’s the findings of Validas, a company that specializes in tools to analyze cellular plan usage and spending. The average Sprint user spends about eight cents per megabyte, Validays says, which equals 12.5 megabytes for every $1 of data.

Sprint's numbers may be skewed though: its customers enjoy unlimited data plans, and a larger number are on its 4G network. Both factors likely contribute to higher data usage overall.

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