Almost 50 million citizens have disabilities, and the likeliness of a disability rises with age. Meanwhile, nearly one-quarter of the workforce will be 55 or older by 2018. At the same time, mobile devices that are smaller than the typical desktop computer and require more dexterity to operate are becoming more common in business.

As Windows 8 straddles the desktop-mobile divide, it will include assistive technologies optimized for touch-enabled devices, and built to be easier for easier integration by developers.

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There’s always some sort of wild speculation floating around about what to expect next from Apple. But, there also comes a point in time where the rumors start to validate each other and reach a critical mass that indicates there may be more than a little truth to them. We’ve reached that stage with the Apple iPad 3 rumor mill.

Various reports suggest that Apple will unveil the next generation iPad in March. Depending on the source, Apple may hold an event during the first week of March (or even the last week of February) to reveal details of the iPad 3, and the device itself could be available that same day, or shortly thereafter.

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Even as social media presents unprecedented business opportunities for marketing, customer service, brand building and consumer relationships, many organizations are still struggling to embrace it for fear that it negatively effects worker productivity or puts the company at risk. A 2011 survey by Society for Human Resource Management reveals that 43% of businesses block access to social media on company-owned computers or handheld devices.

Rather than policing employees, these organizations would be better served by a social media governance model -- a collection of policies, procedures and educational resources that allow you to manage social media internally. A sound social media governance model empowers your employees while keeping them accountable. It allows you to quickly recover from a blow to your brand, or even sidestep it completely. It helps you keep your social initiatives on track and aligned with your business’ strategic goals.

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The world of desktop Linux is often portrayed these days as a battle primarily between longstanding leader Ubuntu and up-and-coming challenger Linux Mint, frequently with the suggestion that Mint is winning.

It's true that Mint is now in the No. 1 spot on DistroWatch's page hint rankings, but it's critical to remember that those rankings indicate just that--page hits per day--and don't really say much about actual usage. Unfortunately, when it comes to Linux, it's very difficult to gauge real-world usage because the software is readily downloadable, sharable, and free, so there are no sales statistics the way there are for Windows.

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Google has issued a fix that changes the behavior of Google Wallet prepaid cards to prevent abuse. The ability to add new prepaid cards to Google Wallet has been restored, and the mobile payment system is back in business.

Following revelations that an unauthorized user could potentially gain access to funds available in a Google Wallet account, Google took proactive steps to prevent any such abuse while it worked on a fix. Google temporarily disabled provisioning of prepaid cards while it worked on a permanent fix.

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While you struggle to figure out whether your significant other would rather have jewelry, chocolate, flowers, or all of the above, Microsoft has an entirely different view on what to give for Valentine’s Day. Although we’re nearly half way through the month, it just so happens that today is the second Tuesday of February--and that means it’s Patch Tuesday.

As predicted in its Patch Tuesday preview last week, Microsoft released a total of nine new security bulletins today. Four of them are rated as Critical, and the remaining five are Important. I got some input from security experts to help you understand which updates are most urgent, and enable you to prioritize your patch management resources accordingly.

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Here's a common office scenario: You run Outlook on your desktop and your laptop, but you have no easy way to keep the data in sync between them. Thus you wind up with some contacts here, other calendar entries there, a mismash of e-mails, and so on. Not exactly efficient.

One way to solve the problem: Astonsoft's EZOutlookSync, which synchronizes Outlook PST files across multiple PCs. (For those unfamiliar with it, the PST is the holding tank for all Outlook data.)

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After many months of widespread anticipation, the Document Foundation on Tuesday announced the arrival of LibreOffice 3.5, the third major release of its free and open source office productivity suite.

More than 30,000 changes have been made to the software during its 16 months of development, representing the work of an average of 80 developers each month, the Document Foundation says.

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There are reports of alleged pricing information being leaked for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. If the information is accurate, Samsung has apparently not learned any lessons from its tablet experience thus far, or from the challenges and failures of its rivals. Pricing the Galaxy Tab 2 too high would virtually ensure it is dead on arrival.

A European blog called Sammy Hub has shared details it claims will be the pricing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 in various countries. The costs vary from country to country, but converting to US dollars reveals that the next-generation 7-inch tablet from Samsung will be somewhere north of $400.

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It's no secret that free and open source software is increasingly popular both in the business world and among consumers, and now that it's Valentine's Day, one advocacy group is encouraging fans the world over to show their love.

In fact, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has officially declared today “I Love Free Software Day,” and it's calling on all those who use and appreciate the merits of free software to give a little love back.

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