IT management can be a single, big expense for medium- and small-businesses; it's an easy target to try to save money. Whether you have in-house IT help, you use offsite contractors, or even if you have a savvy employee who doubles as a help desk, just getting to an afflicted PC can be your biggest cost. Techinline Remote Desktop gives access through a browser and quick download so that even if you're manning a backyard barbeque on this holiday weekend with one hand, you can instantly help someone in the office with the other.

The initiating PC establishes a Techinline account, downloads and runs a small utility, and can then invite the remote PC to connect. The connection gets made without knowing or setting IP addresses or any other networking functions, and it encrypts everything through an SSL connection. Techinline works with all recent Windows operating systems--going back to Windows 98--and Internet Explorer or Firefox. (Look for other options if you need other operating systems.)

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While Mozilla lights a fire under competing browsers with support of emerging Web standards with Firefox 3.5, it can still improve its performance, reliability, and usability.

Firefox has the misleading status of second most popular browser. Two-thirds of all sites are still visited by some version of Internet Explorer. It’s no secret that Microsoft only wins because the majority of computer users run Windows and aren’t quite savvy enough to make a conscious decision about which browser to use. In fact, when 50 people in Times Square were asked, “What is a browser?”, most confused it with a search engine.

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For all the hoopla, it turns out that Microsoft's foray into presenting real-time information--Twitter posts--on Bing is pretty lame. I just hope it stays that way.

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Some AT&T and iPhone customers are angry over delayed delivery of voicemail messages. Sometimes, they say, a voicemail message may not appear in their inbox for several days after it was recorded.

"I have had this happen on a number of occasions," wrote one AT&T customer in response to my item posted yesterday. "I've been growing tired of AT&T's issues for quite a while now. I look forward to the iPhone being available through Verizon sometime in the not-so-distant future.

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In a move that may actually pass without a huge uproar, Facebook has begun testing new privacy options that will make the service pretty much just like Twitter, but only if you want it to be. Or so they say.

If these changes pass without a big user protest it would mark something of a return to normalcy for the service, which in the recent past has become globally-recognized for its ability to tiff users at seemingly every turn.

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Moblin is an Intel-created open-source operating system for netbooks and, specifically, the kind of people who use them.

On a technical level this means Moblin is built for the Atom x86 chip found in many netbooks, while on a practical level it means Moblin is an Internet- and multimedia-focused operating system. Moblin is less about knocking-up spreadsheets on the move and more about twittering, updating your Facebook account, and watching movies on the go.

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With all the outrage over The Pirate Bay going legit, I think it's time to reconsider the merits of illegally media sharing. The world has changed since Napster introduced peer-to-peer file sharing in 1999, and the culture that made the practice seem necessary has transformed.

Global Gaming Factory X, a Swedish company, is in the process of purchasing The Pirate Bay (TPB) for $7.74 million. The company intends to continue to allow file sharing, but legally and by making sure content-owners get paid. It's speculated that it may also try to compete with YouTube in the user-uploaded video market. Regardless, what seems clear is that unchecked illegal downloading will come to a halt on TPB.

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Ever feel like your iPhone is holding out on you? Not delivering voice mail in a timely manner? Well, I have and now I know why--sometimes AT&T doesn’t deliver visual voicemail for days.

That's according to Glenn Tenney, a computer security expert who posted his experiences and findings onto a mailing list maintained by Dr. David Farber, the famed professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

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An online, cloud-based tool, Platformic streamlines the website creation process, doing everything from slicing images to managing daily content. Since it stays on the Platformic server, you can access everything from a web browser on any computer, letting you manage websites from anywhere. This accessible approach could save you money versus traditional website building and maintenance.

Platformic creates your site once you have a sense of its design. You upload a layout image and then define links, text areas, and all other content. The CSS is all managed automatically, and you can also activate ad servers, media galleries, RSS feeds, mobile-device redesigns, and other commonly needed functions. Your layout changes can affect templates and then be rolled across the entire site.

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If Michael Dell decides to release a new Android-based handheld device, as the Wall Street Journal speculates he might, it wjll be his fourth try at entering the market and he will almost certainly fail, if his track record is a guide to his future.

You'd think that Dell might be able to sell a business device--such as an Android handset--and the company supposedly has those in development for debut later this year. But, an inexpensive consumer music player/Internet device? Much less likely.

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