Network and Internet Technologies

After nearly a full year of rumor and speculation, Apple unveiled the second-generation of the iPad tablet today during a press event. The iPad 2 will feature a new design that is 33-percent thinner, a touch lighter, and will be available in both black and white. A new dual-core A5 chip should boost its speed dramatically, and front- and rear-facing cameras open up the iPad up to video conferencing with FaceTime. The latest iPad will keep the same pricing structure as the first generation, starting at $499 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and topping out at $829 for the 64GB 3G model and will go on sale March 11.

The already ballooning group messaging arena just got a little bigger with the release of Disco Messenger for iPhone by Google-owned app maker Slide. Google jumped on the group texting bandwagon late this week with the launch of the Disco Messenger app for the iPhone. Some have called the app a “secret,” since it didn’t arrive bearing the Google name. Instead, the app was released by Slide, a company Google purchased last August for $182 million. Like most group messaging apps now available, Disco allows users to create groups and send texts to everyone in the group at once. It is currently available only for the iPhone as a mobile app, and can also be accessed on the web at Disco.com. (As TechCrunch reports, Google purchased that domain at Domainfest last year for $255,000.) From our initial tests, it seems as though Disco could have used a bit more polishing before going public. In other words, the app works as advertised, but its functionality is still a bit clunky. Once the app is

What cloud computing really means The next big trend sounds nebulous, but it's not so fuzzy when you view the value proposition from the perspective of IT professionals By Eric Knorr, Galen Gruman | InfoWorld a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is a familiar cliché, but when combined with "computing," the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud," including conventional outsourcing. [ Get the no-nonsense explanations and advice you need to take real advantage of cloud computing in InfoWorld editors' 21-page Cloud Computing Deep Dive PDF special report, then go deeper in our Server Virtualization Deep Dive. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ] Cloud computing comes in