RAID in Linux

From: NextStep4IT

The term RAID is an acronym for the phrase, Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID is a way of combining the storage available across multiple disks and supplying users a single, unified virtual device.
RAID can be used to provide:

• data integrity
• fault tolerance
• improved performance
• greater storage capacity

Hard disks are mechanical devices involving moving parts and unfortunately tend to fail over time. There are also physical limits to the speed at which data can be read and/or written to disks. RAID helps mitigate this risk by protecting data stored on hard disks and improving disk performance by writing the data to multiple
physical locations according to several different schemas, known as "RAID Levels". Furthermore, RAID can be provided by either dedicated, specialized hardware or by the operating system at a virtual layer.

Hardware RAID vs. software RAID?

Hardware RAID solutions exist that operate as dedicated devices, usually as PCI expansion cards or directly on the motherboard. The independent disks attach to the hardware interface. In a true hardware RAID, the operating system simply writes data to the hardware RAID controller which handles the multiplicitous reads and writes to the associated disks. Other so−called hardware RAIDs rely on special drivers to the operating system; these act more like software RAIDs in practice. With current technology, hardware RAIDconfigurations are generally chosen for very large RAIDs.

Additionally, some operating systems, including Linux®, provide RAID functionality within a software layer.RAID partitions are logically combined and a virtual device appears to higher layers of the operating system in place of the multiple constituent devices. This solution is often a high−performance and inexpensive alternative available for RAID users.

 

RAID levels

There are many RAID levels. It will be impossible to list them all here. Here we mention the most common & most important RAID types, all of which are fully supported by Linux.

 

RAID0 (Striping)

 

This level is achieved by grouping 2 or more hard disks into a single unit with the total size equaling that of all disks used.

Practical example: 3 disks, each 80GB in size can be used in a 240GB RAID0 configuration.

RAID0 works by breaking data into fragments and writing to all disk simultaneously. This significantly improves the read and write performance.

On the other hand, no single disk contains the entire information for any bit of data committed. This means that if one of the disks fails, the entire RAID is rendered inoperable, with unrecoverable loss of data.

RAID0 is suitable for non-critical operations that require good performance, like the system partition or the /tmp partition where lots of temporary data is constantly written. It is not suitable for data storage.

Usable Space in Raid level0 = (smallest disk) * (no. of disks)

RAID1 (Mirroring)

 

This level is achieved by grouping 2 or more hard disks into a single unit with the total size equaling that of the smallest of disks used.

 

This is because RAID1 keeps every bit of data replicated on each of its devices in the exactly same fashion, create identical clones. Hence the name, mirroring. Practical example: 2 disks, each 80GB in size can be used in a 80GB RAID1 configuration.

 

Usable space of Raid level1= smallest-disk

On a side note, in mathematical terms, RAID1 is an AND function, whereas RAID 0 is an OR. Because of its configuration, RAID1 reduced write performance, as every chunk of data has to be written n times, on each of the paired devices. The read performance is identical to single disks.Redundancy is improved, as the normal operation of the system can be maintained as long as any one disk is functional.

RAID 1 is suitable for data storage, especially with non-intensive I/O tasks.

 

 

RAID5 

 

This is a more complex solution, with a minimum of three devices used. Two or more devices are configured in a RAID0 setup, while the third (or last) device is a parity device. If one of the RAID 0 devices malfunctions, the array will continue operating, using the parity device as a backup. The failure will be transparent to the user, save for the reduced performance.

RAID 5 improves the write performance, as well as redundancy and is useful in mission-critical scenarios, where both good throughput and data integrity are important. RAID 5 does induce a slight CPU penalty due to parity calculations.

Usable Space for Raid Level5 = smallest-disk*(no of disk -1)

 

Linear RAID

 

This is a less common level, although fully usable. Linear is similar to RAID0, except that data is written sequentially rather than in parallel. Linear RAID is a simple grouping of several devices into a larger volume, the total size of which is the sum of all members. For instance, three disks the sizes of 40, 60 and 250GB can be grouped into a linear RAID the total size of 350GB.

 

Linear RAID provides no read/write performance, not does it provide redundancy; a loss of any member will render the entire array unusable. It merely increases size. It's very similar to LVM. Linear RAID is suitable when large data exceeding the individual size of any disk or partition must be used.

Now, move backup to tape or other server:

 

Nested RAID Levels

 

RAID0+1

 

Exapmle of RAID Level 0+1

 

A RAID 0+1 (also called RAID01), is a RAID level used for both replicating and sharing data among disks.The minimum number of disks required to implement this level of RAID is 3 (first, even numbered chunks on all disks are built – like in RAID0 – and then every odd chunk number is mirrored with the next higher even neighbour) but it is more common to use a minimum of 4 disks.

 

The difference between RAID0+1 and RAID 1+0 is the location of each RAID system — RAID0+1 is a mirror of stripes although some manufacturers (e.g. Digital/Compaq/HP) use RAID0+1 to describe striped mirrors, consequently this usage is now deprecated so that RAID0+1 and RAID1+0 are replaced by RAID10 whose definition correctly describes the correct and safe layout, i.e. striped mirrors.

RAID1 + 0

A RAID1+0, sometimes called RAID1&0 or RAID10, is similar to a RAID0+1 with exception that the RAID levels used are reversed — RAID10 is a stripe of mirrors.

Hard disks are mechanical devices involving moving parts and unfortunately tend to fail over time. There are also physical limits to the speed at which data can be read and/or written to disks. RAID helps mitigate this risk by protecting data stored on hard disks and improving disk performance by writing the data to multiple

10 things you should know before buying a Galaxy S III smartphone

By Debra Littlejohn Shinder

Takeaway: If you're thinking about buying a Galaxy S III, be forewarned. This phone offers some incredibly cool features — but you'll want to factor in a few gotchas.

When it was time to upgrade from my Galaxy Nexus (in part because my husband was anxious to get my hand-me-down), the choice seemed obvious. I liked the Nexus a lot, but there were a couple of things I didn't like about it. One biggie was the lack of a microSD card slot for expanding storage. I also longed for even more screen real estate than I got with the Nexus's 4.65 inch screen (which includes the onscreen buttons). Finally, the camera quality on the Nexus, although much better than many phones, wasn't up to what I had come to expect from my previous (HTC) Androids.

The Galaxy S III seemed to fulfill my wish list, and more. With a gorgeous 4.8 inch Super AMOLED screen (and the buttons beneath the display so they don't take up any of that space), microSD support, and a reportedly excellent camera, it was my dream come true. Or was it? I got my S III more than a week ago, and I've played with it enough to discover both some pleasant surprises and a few gotchas. If you're thinking about getting an S III, and especially if you're trading up from a Nexus, here are a few things you might want to know to help you make the decision.

The good

First, let's look at a few things you might not know about the S III that will come as pleasant surprises.

1: MicroSD on steroids

You probably know that the S III, unlike the Nexus, has a microSD slot so you can add storage space. What you might not know is that it isn't limited to the 32 GB maximum card capacity like most phones. Not only does it support microSD and SDHC, it also supports SDXC, which have a theoretical capacity of up to 2 TB. Transfer speed is also faster.

The Galaxy S III specs say it supports up to a 64 GB card, but it's unclear whether that's because that is currently the largest size available or there is a software limitation. In practical usage right now, you can add a whopping 64 GB of storage to the S III for around $55.

2: Motion controls

The Nintendo Wii popularized the concept of interacting with an interface via motion on a gaming device, and Microsoft's Kinect took it to the next level and expanded it from the game console to the PC. Now Samsung has brought motion control to the phone, in a big way.

There's a whole set of gestures you can use with the S III that you won't find on the Nexus or most other phones. You can double tap the top of the device to go to the beginning of a list. You can tilt the phone forward or back to zoom in or out of a picture or Web page. Simply by placing the phone to your ear, you can call the currently displayed contact. You can shake the phone to update (refresh a Web page, rescan for Wi-Fi devices, etc.). You can pan (move the phone left or right or up or down) to move around a large onscreen image. You can briefly pause a video or mute sound by placing your hand over the screen.

If you don't want your phone doing things because of the way you hold it, don't worry. You have to activate the motion feature in Settings before you can use these and other built-in gestures.

3: Pop-up Play

This was another pleasant surprise. It works like the picture-in-a-picture feature on TVs. A limitation of smartphone screens has been the inability to display more than one app at a time. With the tiny screens of the past, it just wasn't practical. With a screen this big, it starts to make sense. The Galaxy S III doesn't go as far as I'd like in this department (side-by-side display of any running apps would be awesome) but the Pop-up Play feature does let you play an HD video in a small window while you use another app (email, Web, etc.) on your phone.

4: Camera bonuses

I care about the camera quality in my smartphone, because I take a lot of impromptu photos. Sure, if I know I'm going to be taking pictures, I'll load up one of the high-end Nikon DSLRs — but often, I'm out and about with no intention of playing photographer and I want a phone cam that can give me a decent shot of that once-in-a-lifetime photo op.

The Nexus was a big step forward, with its quick shutter, but the pictures weren't always as sharp as I wanted. Part of that was "operator error" — it's hard to hold a little phone steady as you tap the onscreen button. That's why I prefer hardware buttons. Well, the S III doesn't have that, but it does have the next best thing. You can delay the shot after you tap, giving you time to steady the phone/camera, or you can use S Voice to take the picture (just say "cheese"), so you don't even have to tap at all.

There's more to it than stability, though. The S III provides an 8 MP camera in contrast to the Nexus's 5 MP, and noise levels are lower, too. Photos simply look better, especially those taken in low light. And videos are sharper and more fluid.

There are some interesting shooting modes. In addition to the (now fairly standard) smile detection and panorama, there's a "beauty" mode that automatically smoothes facial features, a "cartoon" mode (that I've not found very useful) and "buddy photo share" that will use facial recognition to match up people in your photos to the pictures of your contacts and automatically send people pictures of themselves. A nice bonus is that you can edit the shortcuts to make it more convenient to get to the controls you use often.

Another photo feature might not matter a lot to the average phone user, but for those of us who write about phones, or to a lesser extent IT pros who support phones and may need to remotely demonstrate to a user how to configure something, the ability to take screenshots of the phone's display is important.

Once upon a time, getting a screenshot on an Android device was surprisingly difficult. Some phones had to be rooted before you could install screen capture software. Some of us even resorted to taking pictures of the screen with a camera (which presented the challenge of dealing with the glare on the glass).

Samsung made it a lot easier with the Nexus: You could do it by pressing and holding the volume down button and the power button simultaneously. You had to do it just right, though, or you might end up turning the phone off. With the S III, taking a screenshot is as simple as swiping your palm across the screen. Amazing. If you want to illustrate how Android and its apps work, this is the phone for you.

5: Great phone

A problem with some smartphones is that they're heavier on the "smart" than on the "phone." That's okay if you want to use your device primarily as a miniature computer, but if you plan to talk on it a lot (or even a little), it's nice if it also functions as a better-than-average phoneo.

The S III does. Call quality is crystal clear, and you can customize it with personalized equalization settings. This feature actually tests your ears with different frequencies and tones, measuring how well each ear hears them, and creates an equalization curve for each ear.

But that's not all. The whole calling experience has been improved. Lots of phones let you set custom ringtones for different contacts, but that doesn't help if you have the ringer turned off. The S III lets you set customized vibrations for different contacts. How cool is that? You can also answer (or reject) a call by voice command, and you can set up a rejection list to automatically reject those numbers you never want to hear from.

If you leave the phone app to go back to the home screen to check mail, look up a contact, or whatever, the status bar turns green so you won't forget you're in a call. Can't hear the caller? There's an Extra Volume button on the screen during a call, that lets you increase it beyond the maximum you get from pressing the up/down volume hardware key. There's even a key to let you create a memo from within a call.

The not-so-good

These are some cool features, and there are more (such as the Siri-like S Voice application that goes way beyond Google's voice search) But the S III still isn't quite the perfect phone. Here are some of the not-so-good things I've encountered in making the transition from the Nexus.

6: Speaking of that microSD card

It's great to have the extra storage space of a massive 64 GB card, but what exactly did you want to do with that space? If you only wanted to put your pictures, videos, music, etc., on it, no problem. But if you thought you'd be installing apps on it, think again. The S III doesn't support moving apps to the external microSD card, as you could do with most previous Android phones.

It can be done — by rooting the phone and using a third-party app, such as links2sd or Directory Bind. But many folks don't want to root their phones because it voids the warranty. The 16 GB version of the S III has about 11 GB available on its internal storage disk (sd). That's probably enough app space for most people, but some are going to run out of room.

7: No USB mass storage mode

If you're upgrading from an older (pre-ICS) Android phone or you got your start with Windows Mobile, you're probably used to being able to plug your phone into a PC via USB and seeing it pop up in Windows Explorer as a hard drive. Unfortunately, the UMS (Universal Mass Storage) mode that enabled that isn't supported in the Galaxy S III.

Apparently, you're supposed to use the Samsug Kies app instead. That's going to make a lot of people unhappy; it requires installing software on your computer (like syncing an iPhone via iTunes or a Windows Phone 7 via Zune — ugh), and it's slow as molasses. Sure, it has an "easier" interface that those moving from an iPhone might like. But many Android users prefer power and more control over "simple."

The alternative to installing Kies is to use MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) or PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) mode. This has advantages (you can still use the phone while it's connected to the computer), but it's not as easy to use. If you're willing to root your phone, you can use an app like Easy UMS to enable USB Mass Storage. It would have been nice if the S III just supported both UMS and MTP/PTP.

8: S Voice tries hard, but…

Samsung's answer to Apple's Siri suffers from some of the same problems I've heard iPhone users complain about. It works fine for simple things (and I do love that ability to use voice to trip the camera shutter), but it gets easily confused if you ask it to do something complex. Making a call by voice takes me three times as long as doing it the old fashioned way, since you go through the "found more than one match" business. Trying to search the Web with it proved to be a bit of a pain. And it seems to get frustrated with you when you don't like its results and keep trying — it froze up on me a few times and I had to kill the process.

Voice recognition is getting better, but in my opinion it's not ready for prime time yet for most uses. I'm sure my Texas accent doesn't help. If you're getting the phone primarily for this voice feature, prepare to be disappointed (or maybe not, if you have a perfect Midwestern non-accent that it can understand).

9: Missing photo options

Even though there's a lot to love about the S III's camera, there are also some things I miss about my Nexus camera. Mostly, I miss the great editing tools that were built in. You could adjust the brightness and contrast, add a vignette, and achieve all sorts of additional effects right there in the camera.

With the S III, unless I'm just not finding it (in which case they should make it a lot more obvious), the only editing options are to crop and rotate. Sure, I can download a photo editing app, but that involves extra steps. I really liked the simple but comprehensive set of editing tools in the Nexus. This isn't a deal breaker, but it's something that's good to know when you're considering the switch.

10: Wi-Fi connectivity problem

Overall, despite the small complaints above, I was immediately impressed with my Galaxy S III and loved using it — except for one very big problem. It was blazing fast and reliable on 4G, but I soon noticed that Wi-Fi was just plain wacky. It would load a page quickly, and then the next page would take forever and/or time out completely. S Voice would give me "Network error. Try again." messages. The Facebook app would give me "Connection Lost" errors. Often.

My old Galaxy Nexus (now my husband's) sitting right beside it, connected to the same wireless network, had no such problems. I started researching and found out this is a fairly common problem with the S III. There is a fix that works for some, which involves going into service mode and turning off power saving in the Wi-Fi settings. It doesn't work for everybody, though, and if you discover the problem during the return period, I'd recommend taking the phone back to the carrier and telling them it has a defective Wi-Fi radio. Although a number of people are reporting this problem, it seems to be a small percentage, so your chances of getting another one with the problem are low. Still, the possibility that you'll encounter this is something to be aware of if you're thinking about getting an S III.

10 compelling reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2012

By Debra Littlejohn Shinder

Takeaway: Windows Server 2012 is generating a significant buzz among IT pros. Deb Shinder highlights several notable enhancements and new capabilities.

We've had a chance to play around a bit with the release preview of Windows Server 2012. Some have been put off by the interface-formerly-known-as-Metro, but with more emphasis on Server Core and the Minimal Server Interface, the UI is unlikely to be a "make it or break it" issue for most of those who are deciding whether to upgrade. More important are the big changes and new capabilities that make Server 2012 better able to handle your network's workloads and needs. That's what has many IT pros excited.

Here are 10 reasons to give serious consideration to upgrading to Server 2012 sooner rather than later.

1: Freedom of interface choice

A Server Core installation provides security and performance advantages, but in the past, you had to make a commitment: If you installed Server Core, you were stuck in the "dark place" with only the command line as your interface. Windows Server 2012 changes all that. Now we have choices.

The truth that Microsoft realized is that the command line is great for some tasks and the graphical interface is preferable for others. Server 2012 makes the GUI a "feature" — one that can be turned on and off at will. You do it through the Remove Roles Or Features option in Server Manager.

2: Server Manager

Speaking of Server Manager (Figure A), even many of those who dislike the new tile-based interface overall have admitted that the design's implementation in the new Server Manager is excellent.

Figure A

Server Manager

One of the nicest things about the new Server Manager is the multi-server capabilities, which makes it easy to deploy roles and features remotely to physical and virtual servers. It's easy to create a server group — a collection of servers that can be managed together. The remote administration improvements let you provision servers without having to make an RDP connection.

3: SMB 3.0

The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol has been significantly improved in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. The new version of SMB supports new file server features, such as SMB transparent failover , SMB Scale Out, SMB Multichannel, SMB Direct, SMB encryption, VSS for SMB file sharing, SMB directory leasing, and SMB PowerShell. That's a lot of bang for the buck. It works beautifully with Hyper-V, so that VHD files and virtual machine configuration files can be hosted on SMB 3.0 shares. A SQL system database can be stored on an SMB share, as well, with improvements to performance. For more details about what's new in SMB 3.0, see this blog post.

4: Dynamic Access Control (DAC)

Even though some say Microsoft has shifted the focus away from security in recent years, it would be more accurate to say it has shifted the focus from separate security products to a more "baked in" approach of integrating security into every part of the operating system.

Dynamic Access Control is one such example, helping IT pros create more centralized security models for access to network resources by tagging sensitive data both manually and automatically, based on factors such as the file content or the creator. Then claims based access controls can be applied. Read more about DAC in my "First Look" article over on Windowsecurity.com.

5: Storage Spaces

Storage is a hot — and complex — topic in the IT world these days. Despite the idea that we're all going to be storing everything in the public cloud one day, that day is a long way off (and for many organizations concerned about security and reliability, it may never happen). There are myriad solutions for storing data on your network in a way that provides better utilization of storage resources, centralized management, and better scalability, along with security and reliability. Storage area networks (SANs) and network attached storage (NAS) do that, but they can be expensive and difficult to set up.

Storage Spaces is a new feature in Server 2012 that lets you use inexpensive hard drives to create a storage pool, which can then be divided into spaces that are used like physical disks. They can include hot standby drives and use redundancy methods such as 2- or 3-way mirroring or parity. You can add new disks any time, and a space can be larger than the physical capacity of the pool. When you add new drives, the space automatically uses the extra capacity. Read more about Storage Spaces in this MSDN blog post.

6: Hyper-V Replica

Virtualization is the name of the game in the server world these days, and Hyper-V is Microsoft's answer to VMware. Although the latter had a big head start, Microsoft's virtualization platform has been working hard at catching up, and many IT pros now believe it has surpassed its rival in many key areas. With each iteration, the Windows hypervisor gets a little better, and Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 brings a number of new features to the table. One of the most interesting is Hyper-V Replica.

This is a replication mechanism that will be a disaster recovery godsend to SMBs that may not be able to deploy complex and costly replication solutions. It logs changes to the disks in a VM and uses compression to save on bandwidth, replicating from a primary server to a replica server. You can store multiple snapshots of a VM on the replica server and then select the one you want to use. It works with both standalone hosts and clusters in any combination (standalone to standalone, cluster to cluster, standalone to cluster or cluster to standalone). To find out more about Hyper-V replica, see this TechNet article.

7: Improvements to VDI

Windows Terminal Services has come a long way, baby, since I first met it in Windows NT TS Edition. Renamed Remote Desktop Services, it has expanded to encompass much more than the ability to RDP into the desktop of a remote machine. Microsoft offered a centralized Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution in Windows Server 2008 R2, but it was still a little rough around the edges. Significant improvements have been made in Server 2012.

You no longer need a dedicated GPU graphics card in the server to use RemoteFX, which vastly improves the quality of graphics over RDP. Instead, you can use a virtualized GPU on standard server hardware. USB over RDP is much better, and the Fair Share feature can manage how CPU, memory, disk space, and bandwidth are allocated among users to thwart bandwidth hogs. Read more about Server 2012 VDI and RDP improvements here.

8: DirectAccess without the hassle factor

DirectAccess was designed to be Microsoft's "VPN replacement," a way to create a secure connection from client to corporate network without the performance drain and with a more transparent user experience than a traditional VPN. Not only do users not have to deal with making the VPN work, but administrators get more control over the machines, with the ability to manage them even before users log in. You apply group policy using the same tools you use to manage computers physically located on the corporate network.

So why hasn't everyone been using DirectAccess with Server 2008 R2 instead of VPNs? One big obstacle was the dependency on IPv6. Plus, it couldn't be virtualized. Those obstacles are gone now. In Windows Server 2012, DirectAccess works with IPv4 without having to fool with conversion technologies, and the server running DirectAccess at the network edge can now be a Hyper-V virtual machine. The Server 2012 version of DA is also easier to configure, thanks to the new wizard.

9: ReFS

Despite the many advantages NTFS offers over early FAT file systems, it's been around since 1993, and Windows aficionados have been longing for a new file system for quite some time. Way back in 2004, we were eagerly looking forward to WinFS, but Vista disappointed us by not including it. Likewise, there was speculation early on that a new file system would be introduced with Windows 7, but it didn't happen.

Windows Server 2012 brings us our long-awaited new file system, ReFS or the Resilient File System. It supports many of the same features as NTFS, although it leaves behind some others, perhaps most notably file compression, EFS, and disk quotas. In return, ReFS gives us data verification and auto correction, and it's designed to work with Storage Spaces to create shrinkable/expandable logical storage pools. The new file system is all about maximum scalability, supporting up to 16 exabytes in practice. (This is the theoretical maximum in the NTFS specifications, but in the real world, it's limited to 16 terabytes.) ReFS supports a theoretical limit of 256 zetabytes (more than 270 billion terabytes). That allows for a lot of scaling.

10: Simplified licensing

Anyone who has worked with server licenses might say the very term "simplified licensing" is an oxymoron. But Microsoft really has listened to customers who are confused and frustrated by the complexity involved in finding the right edition and figuring out what it's really going to cost. Windows Server 2012 is offered in only four editions: Datacenter, Standard, Essentials, and Foundation. The first two are licensed per-processor plus CAL, and the latter two (for small businesses) are licensed per-server with limits on the number of user accounts (15 for Foundation and 25 for Essentials). See the chart with licensing details for each edition on the Microsoft Web site.

Google presentations wants to be your slide making tool of choice

By Mark Kaelin

Takeaway: Google has recently released a new version of Google presentations for their Google Apps suite of office tools that emphasizes collaboration.

Like it or not, the presentation is a necessary form of business communication that just about everyone has to create and deliver at least a few times during their career. The default tool used to create those presentations has for many years been Microsoft PowerPoint. Well, not to be outdone, Google has recently released a new version of Google presentations for their Google Apps suite of office tools.

New features

The primary new features added to Google presentations include:

• Character-by-character collaboration
• Drawing on canvas
• Transitions
• Shape linking
• Better animations

Like all of the Google Apps, the presentations tool takes a minimalist approach to the user interface. When you click Create a new presentation you are presented with the basic slide creation view shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The basic slide creation screen

Just like PowerPoint presentations, themes are often where your slide building starts, and Google presentations has several basic themes to choose from (Figure B), although you can see there are not nearly as many as there are in PowerPoint. (I'll leave it to you to determine if that is a good thing or a bad thing.)

Figure B

There are several basic themes available in Google presentations

Bottom line

Google presentations, even with the new features, is still a fairly basic tool for creating slides. However, it does have one advantage over PowerPoint that could make it more valuable to you and/or your organization and that is the collaboration features. The ability to share your presentation and collaborate on it simultaneously can be a real time saver and productivity booster.

Perhaps Google presentations is worth a try as an alternative to PowerPoint.

How Microsoft could (but probably won't) take over the world again

By Debra Littlejohn Shinder

Takeaway: Microsoft could be uniquely positioned to take over a number of market segments if they properly leveraged some of their existing product lines.

Once upon a time, it was popular to joke (or rant) about how Microsoft was bent on total world domination. Today, that is not so much the case. To the contrary, as I've noted here before, now it seems to be a popular misconception that Microsoft is a failing company.

Despite that belief, Microsoft could be uniquely positioned to take over a number of market segments — if they properly leveraged some of their existing product lines and recent acquisitions. Will they do that? Well, I'm not holding my breath, but I do think they might get it right with one or two of those markets. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks so, since many investment advisers are currently saying to buy Microsoft stock.

Microsoft has its fingers in many pies — some say too many — so there is potential for big success (or a big flop) on a number of different fronts. Here are some areas where I think the company could come to dominate (or continue to do so), if they play their cards right. I said last week that I don't think Microsoft should try to do this by emulating Apple. This week, I'll talk about what I think they should do to achieve domination in at least some parts of the technology world.

Tablets

Microsoft was pushing tablet PCs way back in the early 2000s, and a portable computer that could be operated easily when you weren't sitting at a desk was one of Bill Gates' dreams. They tried, with heavy, expensive slates and convertible laptops, then later with smaller Ultra Mobile PC (UMPCs), and the devices became quite popular in some vertical markets, but never quite caught on in the broader business world or with the general public.

Apple gets the credit for bringing tablets to the masses (on their third try, after the failure of the Newton and the Modbook). The iPad currently enjoys 73.4 percent of the tablet market share, but there are rumblings. Many users don't like the locked-down nature of Apple products. They want to know why they have to buy a whole new device to increase their storage capacity, instead of just popping in a flash card as they can do with most Android tablets. And they'd like it even better if they could connect their tablets to an external USB hard drive as they can do with their Windows laptops.

In fact, it seems that there are a lot of people out there who really, really want Windows on their tablets. That's the conclusion you have to draw from the result of recent surveys by Boston Consulting Group and Forrester, with percentages of those who prefer Windows ranging from 42 to 46 percent, iOS coming in at 16 to 27 percent, and Android at 9 to 20 percent.

That seems to indicate that, if Microsoft does tablets right with Windows 8, they could climb to the top of that market over the next several years. It won't happen overnight, but in typical Microsoft "slow-and-steady" fashion, they could overtake the mighty iPad. This is particularly true with Steve Jobs no longer there to lead Apple.

Phones

We already know that Gartner thinks Windows Phone has a good chance of overtaking the iPhone by 2015. Microsoft's "do over" of its mobile operating system got off to a slow start — in part because of bad experiences with Windows Mobile, in part because many consumers are wary of a first-generation anything, and in part because Windows Phone 7 was lacking many essential features, such as tethering and multitasking. These features (although they were also missing in the first versions of other operating systems) were standard on Android and/or iOS at the time WP7 hit the market. There were also rumors that salespeople with the major cellular carriers were actively discouraging customers from buying Windows phones.

But I think another important reason for slow sales among those "in the know" (who are also influential in what technology their less tech-savvy friends and relatives buy) has been the uncertainty surrounding the Windows Phone 7.x operating system.

There has been a general consensus that, with Windows 8, Microsoft's objective is "one operating system to rule them all" (more on that later). Does that mean the next version of Windows Phone will run Windows 8, and will it be backward-compatible with Windows Phone 7.x? Then there was the Nokia partnership. Will the Windows phones that come out of that be far better than the ones that are available today? I think many folks who are interested are taking a "wait-and-see" approach.

With the Mango (WP 7.5) update, though, Microsoft has proven that they're serious about making Windows Phone a contender. With more than 500 improvements, including the longed-for Wi-Fi tethering and multitasking capabilities, it might just be the beginning of the long road to world phone domination.

Gaming

The Xbox 360 has been on the top of the gaming console heap for the past many months, coming in at 42 percent in September, and the gaming business was credited with being an important factor in the record revenues that Microsoft posted for the most recent quarter. Although the total gaming market has been on the decline since 2008, it's still big business — a $43-billion business in 2010, to be exact. Market forecasts expect it to hold steady and increase slightly over the coming years.

The gaming market is dominated by software sales, and Microsoft is the software company with more experience than almost anyone. A recent trend has been toward games marketed as smartphone and tablet apps (e.g., Angry Birds), an area where Microsoft hasn't had much of a presence.

But with Windows 8 on the horizon and the new push to court Metro developers, that could change. If Microsoft makes Metro a platform that's friendly to game developers, we could see some exciting new low-cost game apps for casual game players, along with the more sophisticated console games that serious gamers prefer.

The integration of Xbox Live on Windows Phone is also a step in the right direction if Microsoft wants to dominate the gaming market. The ability to use your same avatars and play the same games from the phone would certainly attract hard-core gamers. In fact, the idea of using the same "virtual you" (avatar) across all your applications, not just games, is something that might just catch on.

I don't play games, but one of the most interesting and fun things that I did with my Windows Phone was create an avatar that I thought nicely represented my personality and general look. I would love to be able to use it in Internet communications where live video isn't possible or isn't desirable but where some sort of visual presence would add to the interaction.

TV and home entertainment

I've been a big fan of Windows Media Center since the original Windows XP WMC Edition. I was thrilled when Microsoft included it as a standard part of (some editions of) Vista and then Windows 7. I've tried a number of DVRs and PVR software, and I think WMC is the best.

We have a computer with four tuners running WMC on Windows 7 attached to our 65-inch Sharp Aquos in our media room and use it for all our TV recording and a Media Center Extender attached to the bedroom TV so that we can also watch our recorded programs there. We just recently invested in a HD Homerun Prime Ethernet network tuning device so that we can use a CableCARD to view and record premium HD channels on our Windows Media Center PCs.

I've been saddened by rumors that WMC either wouldn't be included in Windows 8 (since dispelled by Steven Sinofsky) or is not the focus of any new development (still up in the air). My hope is that Microsoft is not getting ready to ditch WMC entirely, but perhaps has other plans for it, such as incorporating it more fully into Xbox.

The Xbox can currently function as a Media Center Extender. How about making it a full-fledged Media Center itself that can record programs without being connected to a PC and then stream them (and your music, photos, home videos, Internet TV programs, and movies) to the other TVs in your home via DLNA?

If Microsoft turns the Xbox into much more than just a gaming console (which is certainly the direction they seem to be headed) and makes it a true home entertainment hub that can take the place of your TiVo or cable company-provided DVR, Windows Media Center might finally get the respect it deserves and Microsoft might take over the TV/home entertainment market. Neither Apple TV nor Google TV seems to have made much of a splash in the marketplace, so it's a segment that's there for the taking.

One OS to rule them all?

With the right strategy, Microsoft could pull this off and gain dominance in all these markets, along with the (shrinking but not going away anytime soon) desktop and laptop computing markets. Will Windows 8 be the linchpin that ties it all together? The same Windows that works across all your computing platforms would be a wonderful thing — if it works well on all of them. Microsoft would be positioned to integrate its products so tightly that it would seem silly to buy anything else.

It would also put Microsoft in a position where perhaps they could consider some really innovative ideas. Here's one that's really "out there": What about a smartphone that doesn't depend on the wireless carriers?

Most of the people I talk to hate their carriers. They feel they're overcharged for basic service and nickeled and dimed to death for extras. They hate the way they're locked into contracts in order to get affordable devices. They hate the way the carriers cripple features that are built in to the devices by the vendors or charge extra for you to use them (e.g., Wi-Fi tethering). They hate the new tiered data plans.

If Microsoft put a fully functional Skype on its Windows Phones and perhaps invested in helping to build out ubiquitous low-cost Wi-Fi coverage in all major cities and sold the devices outside the wireless carrier channels, how many people could and would dump their plans with AT&T or Verizon or Sprint? Sure, there would be some technological and regulatory hurdles to overcome, but if we're dreaming about world domination, what better way than to do an end run around the telcos?

The 20 most useful Android smartphone apps of 2011

By Jason Hiner

Takeaway: Jason Hiner provides his list of the top 20 tried-and-true Android smartphone apps that are worth your time to download.

The Android Market may not have as many apps as the iPhone App Store yet, but there are still more than enough to be overwhelmed, and it continues to grow at a breakneck pace. To help you sort through them all, here is my latest list of the 20 most useful Android apps (this is an update of my 2010 Android list). I've also recently updated my list of the most useful iPhone apps and you'll notice several of the same apps on both lists.

Remember that I primarily had business professionals in mind when making this list and also keep in mind that this is a snapshot in time. The Android platform is developing so quickly that I guarantee my home screen will look different a month from now.

Still, here's my list of tried-and-true Android apps that I can highly recommend.

1. Google Voice

Google Voice is a service that is so useful I consider it one of the top benefits of Android itself. The service gives you a phone number that can ring to multiple places or devices and it allows you to access all of your voicemail and text messages from the Web. The Android app integrates even deeper. It can make outgoing calls look like they're coming from your Google Voice number so that you can keep your real mobile number private.

2. Advanced Task Killer

One of the realities of having a multitasking mobile OS is that you have to manage your apps so that they don't hurt performance or battery life. Advanced Task Killer (ATK) is my favorite on Android. It even comes with a widget that you can tap once to kill all open apps and you can also set up ATK to kill all apps at periodic intervals. Some people will argue that task managers are irrelevant and unneeded in Android, but I still prefer to use ATK.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox is a great cloud service that automatically syncs a folder of files between multiple computers (Windows, Mac, or Linux). This app extends Dropbox to Android and interacts with other apps (such as Documents To Go) to open the files. It allows you to access PDFs, image files, and business documents by simply dragging them to a folder on your computer and then you immediately have access to them from your mobile phone, once you have this app installed.

4. Evernote

Once you get used to typing on a virtual keyboard (and it honestly took me over a year to do it), then these devices are great for note-taking, and Evernote is a great note-taking app. It is similar to Dropbox in that it saves data locally but syncs it across all your machines and devices.

5. Taskos

There are plenty of to-do apps to choose from on Android but I now prefer Taskos because of the clean, easy, Android-friendly user experience. It also has a few extras that give it an advantage over apps. The biggest one is voice recognition, which lets you speak a task that the app turns into a to-do item (you might have to correct a word or two).

6. DroidAnalytics

For some reason Google doesn't have an official app for Google Analytics (for either Android or iPhone). The best one I've found on Android is DroidAnalytics. Another good one is mAnalytics.

7. Documents To Go

The free version of Documents To Go offers a great little reader for Microsof Word and Excel files. You can upgrade to the full version (for $15) if you want to be able to create and edit files and add PowerPoint files to the mix. If you do want editing capability, I'd also recommend taking a look at QuickOffice.

8. Google Docs

If you mostly work with Google Docs (including uploading Microsoft Office files to your Google Docs repository) then the only app you'll really need is the Google Docs app. It's a nice mobile implementation of document management, although the one annoyance is that always open up files in a web browser rather than within the app itself, which would be a little smoother.

9. Tripit

I dig Tripit. It is by far the best app I've found for keeping track of all my travel itineraries. It runs on some great backend systems. You simply forward your confirmation emails for your flights, hotels, rental cars, and more to Tripit and it automatically organizes them into trips with all your details and confirmation numbers. Or, if you use Gmail, you can even use a plugin to automatically catch confirmation emails and turn them into Tripit trips.

10. Places

This is an awesome app for finding shops and services near your current location. From restaurants to medical facilities to taxis, this app is very accurate and takes advantage of the business information from Google Local. This app is better than the info you get from a GPS unit (or app) and better than any of the similar apps available on the iPhone. It's also integrated into Google Maps.

11. Astro File Manager

Another one of the great things about Android (if you're a geek or a tinkerer) is that you have lower-level access to the system itself. Astro is an app that lets you navigate the Android file system, which is mostly just interesting, but can be handy once in a while.

12. Speed Test

I'm obsessed with running speed tests to check my bandwidth in various places, both to see 3G/4G fluctuations and to check the quality of Wi-Fi. There are a number of really good speed test apps, but my favorite is the Speedtest.net app. It's generally consistent and it has some of the best graphics and options.

13. Amazon Kindle

I've never completely warmed up to the Amazon Kindle e-reader, but I'm a big fan of the Kindle mobile app. Since it was released I've read a lot more books simply because my smartphone is always with me and I can pull it out and read a few pages anytime I've got a couple minutes free.

14. Google+

I've written a lot about Google+ since it launched in July and I'm pretty active over there (+Jason Hiner). One of the great things that Google did was to release a Google+ Android app at the same time it launched the service as a beta. And, surprisingly, the app was actually pretty good and has been improved since. It immediately became one of my most used mobile apps and definitely stole some of my time away from Android's Twitter app, mostly because Google+ is a little more interactive.

15. TED Air

The TED conference features a meeting of the minds of some of society's most influential thinkers. You'll disagree with some of them since there's a large diversity of viewpoints, but many talks are worth listening to in order to catch the latest creative thinking on society's biggest challenges. The cool thing is that they've taken the videos from the conference and made them freely available on the Web. The TED Air app provides a great way to access the videos on a mobile device. I hope more conferences follow TED's lead on this.

16. Google Goggles

This is a fun app that is a little bit ahead of its time. It does visual searches. You can take pictures of things and then the app tries to tell you what they are. It's limited in its scope but it is pretty cool, and it's definitely a peek into the future. One of the coolest features is the ability to take pictures of text in a foreign language and let the app translate it for you. In a foreign country, this can help you read street signs and avoid going into the wrong bathroom. :-) On a more practical level, Goggles is a QR code reader.

17. Photoshop Express

Photoshop is, of course, the best known photo editor in the world and its mobile app doesn't do anything to hurt that reputation. But while the desktop version is known for having a zillion features, the mobile app is distinguished by its simplicity. It's the best Android (and iPhone) photo editing app for simple crops, brightness adjustments, and sharpens, for example.

18. Audible

As much as I like the Kindle ebooks, I actually consume more books as audiobooks via Audible. With the Audible app you can connect to your Audible library and download over the air. The app also gives you a self-contained player optimized for audiobooks, with a skip-back-30-seconds button and the opportunity to make notes and bookmarks (although I wish the app would store these online so that they could be accessed from the Audible site).

19. Shazam

If you want to impress your friends with a mobile app, show them Shazam. Ever hear a song being played at a store or on the radio and ask yourself, "Oh, what song is that?" That's where Shazam comes in. Just hit the button and let it listen for 15 seconds, query its database, and then return the name of artist and the song. It has about an 80% success rate. This one isn't particularly productive, but it is really cool. (You have to live a little, every once in a while.)

20. Google Finance

This is a great little app that regularly gets overlooked. It connects to your Google Finance account, where you can set up a list of stocks and companies to follow and sort them into groups (portfolios). The app provides three simple tabs — a look at the market, a look at your portfolios, and the latest market news. It even does real-time updates when you have the app open.

Debug and interact with Web apps via Opera Dragonfly

By Tony Patton

Takeaway: Tony Patton provides an overview of Opera Dragonfly's features and explains why it replaced Firebug as his Web development tool of choice.

I have been a big fan of Firebug for quite some time, but I have quickly fallen in love with the Opera alternative Dragonfly. The comprehensive set of Web development tools are finally out of beta and ready for prime time. This article provides an introduction and overview of the tool with a focus on specific features in future articles.

Let's go to the Opera

I liked Opera, but I stopped using the browser when they started charging for it. That strategy was quickly dropped, and the free Opera browser currently sits at version 11.51 and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as mobile and tablet platforms.

While it only commands a small percentage of the browser market, Opera offers a lightweight browser with a slick user interface. In addition to the developer toolset, it provides hardware acceleration, stacked tabs, and mouse gestures; it also works great on mobile platforms and claims the fastest JavaScript engine called Carakan. The latest version is now my preferred browser on both my Windows and Mac laptops.

What more do you need?

Opera Dragonfly is installed with the browser; it is available from the Tools | Advanced dropdown menu, a keyboard shortcut (on Windows, it's [Ctrl][Shift][I]), or by right-clicking an element within a Web page and selecting Inspect Element from the popup menu.

Figure A

The Opera Dragonfly toolset is accessible via the Opera Tools dropdown menu. (Click the image to enlarge.)

A quick survey of Opera Dragonfly's features makes you wonder what else a Web developer could possibly need to thoroughly develop, test, and debug Web applications. The following list provides a sampling of these features, which are accessible via the main toolbar in the Opera Dragonfly interface (Figure B).

Figure B

The Opera Dragonfly main toolbar provides access to the main features. (Click the image to enlarge.)

You see all of the features discussed below in Figure C.

• DOM Inspector: The feature is available via the Documents panel in the toolbar. DOM Inspector displays the DOM tree for the current document as interpreted by the Opera browser. The Opera site has a great description of this feature, which they call "View Source on steroids." The option's Style Inspector feature, which is displayed in the lower right window, shows the corresponding style for an element selected in the left window (DOM Inspector).
• JavaScript Debugger: The full-featured debugger is available via the Scripts panel. It provides access to JavaScript for the current Web page and allows you to control flow via breakpoints and so forth. The source code is displayed in the left portion of the window; the right side provides features such as breakpoints, state (watches, call stack, etc.) and allows you to easily search the code.
• Network Inspector: The Network panel opens this feature, which is described as an HTTP dashboard. Network Inspector allows you to view and inspect all HTTP requests associated with the page, as well as a visualization of download times/duration for all resources used by the page; you can view all of this via the Network Log tab. A neat feature is the ability to send your own HTTP requests via the Make Request tab.
• Resources Inspector: The Resources panel selection provides access to this feature. Resources Inspector displays all resource requests initiated by the Web page. It displays the host for the resource and full URI along with type and size. This can be used along with the Network Inspector to see the large resources and their associated download times, allowing you to pinpoint issues.
• Storage Inspector: This feature provides an overview of the client-side storage utilized by the page. This includes cookies and HTML 5 Web storage.
• Error Log: The Errors panel provides access to the Error Log, which is one of the more important features for working with your own Web applications. The panel header includes a number of the total number of errors returned. It displays the error and its source. You can configure the Error Log via Settings to not display certain CSS errors, and the Filter box can be used to refine the error list.
• Console: The console allows you to evaluate JavaScript statements on the fly and inspect objects and properties.
• Remote Debugging: This cool feature allows you to debug separate instances of Opera on the same or other computer, mobile devices, or a television. When used, Remote Debugging listens for connections to a specified IP address and port and connects and passes debugging information across the connection. It debugs remotely just like a local instance.

Figure C

The DOM Inspector opened for the TechRepublic home page. (Click the image to enlarge.)

This list just scratches the surface at what is included in the Opera Dragonfly toolset. Each feature has its own set of functionality. Opera Dragonfly is completely open source, and there is a lot of good documentation for the tools available online.

Feature overload

Opera Dragonfly seems to offer all of the tools necessary to properly debug and interact with Web applications. It follows the path blazed by Firebug and offers even more features, which is why Opera Dragonfly has become my preferred tool. In future posts, I'll cover specific features of Opera Dragonfly in more detail. In the meantime, if you haven't already, I encourage you to install Opera and try Dragonfly.

Five reasons Android is superior to the iPhone

By Jack Wallen

Takeaway: Jack Wallen lists the top five reasons he thinks the Android platform is better than the iPhone.

While on vacation, I was reminded (yet again) how superior the Android platform is to the iPhone. How this happened was simple — during my large family gathering, I had to work on several iPhones but no Android phones. As I worked on the iPhones, it hit me just how inflexible the iPhone platform is and in how many ways the Android mobile is superior.

As with any listing of this nature, every point here could be argued, but I wanted to try to keep this particular listing to facts and not just opinion. So, let's dig in and see how that goes.

1. Application options. With the Android platform, all you have to do is tap the Menu button to get to the application options, even while the application is running. This is very much in line with how PC applications work. However, on the iPhone, you have to go through Settings to get to the application options. Sometimes this is circumvented when iPhone app designers add an Options button within an application — but this leads to inconsistency, because not all applications have options.
2. Updates. For me, this one is the deal breaker for the iPhone. In order to get updates (especially firmware updates) the iPhone must be connected to iTunes. Android, on the other hand, offers two ways to get updates: OTA (Over The Air) or using a third-party tool that allows the upgrade to be installed via a PC. The third-party tool will depend upon the maker of the handset, but most of them work very well. The OTA updates also work almost flawlessly. The only bad experience I've had with OTA updates is with AT&T, because they only allow you to check for updates every 24 hours. This can cause some serious frustration when you KNOW there's an update available, but your handset has yet to see it. But generally speaking, when your provider makes the update available, it will appear and be ready for installation.
3. No iTunes. I have always been very vocal about this. I have a great dislike for iTunes, and there are a lot of reasons for this. It's not intuitive, it's a resource hog, and it's forced upon you by Apple, when you want to fully manage your iPhone. With the Android platform, there is not one single application required to manage your device. In fact, a single Android device can be managed by multiple applications and in multiple platforms.
4. Multitasking. That's right, the Android platform does true multitasking. Sure, Apple claims the iPhone does, but I challenge you to actually manage multitasking on the iPhone platform. With Android, all you have to do is hold down the Home button to see a list of your running applications. From that list, you can switch between apps at any time. There are even third-party Android applications (such as Power Strip) that can be installed that make the task of multitasking even more powerful.
5. Application installation. With the Android platform, you can install apps from the Android Market, from your PC by simply copying the file to the mobile, or even transferring via Bluetooth. In fact, you can install home-grown applications just as easy as "official" applications created by Android developers. For developers, this is a real boon, because you don't have to rely solely on an emulator to make sure your application works properly. Some people argue that this opens up Android for possible malware, but if done carefully, it won't be an issue.

There are many reasons why I personally feel that Android is superior to the iPhone, but the above entries tend to float to the top for me. Yes, there are aspects of mobile life that the iPhone does quite well, but for anyone that prefers a sense of true freedom with their devices, Android is — far and away — the platform of choice.