In a world where computing goes "cloudy," can Firefox survive? What if Chrome OS successfully merges browser with operating system to create a new Google world order?

This is all highly speculative, but on Firefox's fifth birthday, I fear for the browser's future. (I am not alone; Tony Bradley also worries over Firefox).

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Users who want the Mac OS X experience on a netbook budget have figured out how to hack the Mac OS X operating system to force it to work on netbooks based on the Intel Atom processor. The latest update to the Snow Leopard update removes support for the Atom processor and puts an end to the 'hackintosh'--at least for now.

Why would Apple do such a thing? Is Apple so bent on maintaining draconian control of the Mac OS X software and the hardware platform it runs on that it would risk the customer backlash that might come from breaking hackintosh netbooks? Well, yes and no.

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Google's gift of free holiday Internet access at 47 U.S. airports only points out how backward those airports are. Don't they understand Internet access in public places is supposed to be free?

The scale of Google's announcement turned Yahoo's "free Internet in Times Square for a year" promotion, also announced Tuesday, into another example of how out-classed Yahoo has become.

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Happy birthday Firefox. Its hard to believe that its been 5 years already. Just surviving 5 years in the tech industry is a fairly significant feat, but Firefox has made its mark as the big fish in the small pond. Being the leading web browser that isn't Internet Explorer is commendable; however Google may knock Firefox off its pedestal with Chrome.

When Mozilla unleashed the first Firefox web browser, it was welcomed with open arms by a web-browsing population that was bored with the lack of innovation in Internet Explorer 6 and increasingly concerned with the massive security issues that plagued Microsoft's web browser. With each successive security flaw discovered in Internet Explorer, more experts jumped on the "switch-to-Firefox-for-better-security" bandwagon.

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Google is somewhat new to the mobile operating system and mobile device markets, but one market it understands, arguably better than any other entity, is online advertising. So, there is reason to raise an eyebrow when Google throws down $750 million to purchase a company like AdMob that is focused on mobile advertising.

Mobile advertising is a nascent market, but Google is placing a pretty hefty bet on its continued success. AdMob has built a solid reputation among the emerging mobile ad competitors, serving ads to both the iPhone and Android platforms. The purchase keeps Google a step ahead of the competition and provides it with an opportunity to help define the market as it has defined the online search advertising industry.

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On its fifth birthday, Firefox must be considered both an incredible success and somewhat of a failure. The open source Web browser is a great product and quite an achievement, but has not tremendously advanced the cause of "free" software.

Indeed, Firefox has proven both open source supporters and skeptics to be correct: Yes, you can build an excellent, widely used open source application. No, it is not going to happen very often. (Brennon Slattery wrote a nice Firefox retrospective).

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Christmas has come early for Barnes and Noble. The book store's Nook eReader is in such hot demand that Barnes and Noble is already announcing production delays before it has even shipped the first device. The eReader market has gotten crowded lately, but it is the Nook that seems to pose the biggest threat so far to the dominance of Amazon's Kindle.

A recent Forrester Group analysis stated "This holiday season, eReaders will be one category that's a breakout success. Lower prices, more content, better distribution, and lots of media hype are contributing to faster-than-expected adoption of eReader devices in 2009."

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The Droid invasion landed on Friday and so far the iPhone comparisons haven't stopped. Customers showed up for midnight launches to be first to get the new Android 2.0 device, and Verizon stores haven't had any issue burning through their inventory of the new phone. There is at least one other iPhone comparison that bears noticing, though--battery life.

If you actually put the many functions of the Droid to use, your battery mileage will vary. The phone has to be powered up to be of any use beyond a glorified paper weight, so poor battery life could be an Achilles heel for the Droid invasion like the bacteria that took down the alien invasion force in War of the Worlds.

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The Apple rumor mill claims that work is underway to develop a 'world-mode' iPhone capable of operating on both CDMA and GSM/UMTS networks. World mode. Rumors also persist that Verizon will begin to carry the iPhone in 2010. All of these rumors suggest that the AT&T honeymoon with the iPhone is nearing an end.

These are just rumors at this point, but when a rumor is both pervasive and tenacious there is usually a reason. That gives AT&T some reason to be concerned. Without iPhone exclusivity, what does AT&T bring to the table that would entice customers to switch to, or stick with the wireless provider?

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Businesses planning a move to Windows 7 need a more rigorous planning and assessment tool than the consumer-grade Upgrade Advisor. The early success of the operating system notwithstanding, you need to do some due diligence up front to determine if the existing hardware and software you rely on will work with the new operating system. If you only have a handful of systems to assess the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor should do the trick. For larger deployments, the more appropriate tool is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0--or MAP.

MAP is a Solution Accelerator from Microsoft that allows you to inventory and analyze the systems in your organization without requiring any sort of agent software to be installed on the endpoints. MAP leverages existing Microsoft technologies such as Active Directory Domain Services, the Remote Registry Service, and the Computer Browser Service to gather information and produce informative reports to help guide your IT planning.

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