There’s no question that the hottest tech trend right now are iPads and other tablets. This trend might soon cross over into sports, where NFL teams such as the Dallas Cowboys are looking to abandon their traditional paper playbooks in favor of iPads and other tablets.

One network management vendor estimates that 20% of all U.S. data traffic between the peak hours of 8:00PM to 10:00PM is due to Netflix streaming. The implications for Internet providers are severe, seeing how Netflix is only moving to up its streaming video offering. About 66% of Netflix subscribers now use its steaming service, up from 41% last year. Netflix users now watch more hours of streamed content than hours of DVD rentals and these numbers are continually growing.

Microsoft has announced a beta version of Internet Explorer 9, set to debut on September 15, 2010, at a launch event in San Francisco. They have hyped their latest release as “beautiful” and claim that “IE9 will change the web forever.”

Some of us have been experiencing the internet since the early 90’s. In 1992 the first commercial companies started offering internet access to users. Since then the internet has grown and changed drastically, but there are a few things which have remained constant…

Creating a big, multi-billion dollar enterprise like Microsoft or Google takes a certain type of personality. You must do things nobody else has done. Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin all saw the value in new technologies and worked to make them a reality. Now, both of these companies are competing in the software market. Microsoft has long dominated the email, office tools, and web browser markets. Their customer list is enormous and most new PC consumers still find Microsoft software pre-installed. Even with well-established alternatives like OpenOffice and Lotus Notes from IBM, Microsoft is leagues ahead of everybody else. This is where Google steps in.

Following in the footsteps of other larger retailers like McDonalds, Starbucks is now offering free, unlimited Wi-Fi at all of its stores in the United States and Canada. Effective on July 1st, a Starbucks Reward Program membership is no longer required, no username or password is needed, and there is no longer a 2-hour restriction to accessing their AT&T wireless Internet. Free Wi-Fi has long been the top request of Starbucks customers.

These days are all about using your finances efficiently. Most of us have less cash in our pockets and less credit with the bank than we did 2 or 3 years ago. A $500 entry-level Apple iPad might seem like a steal, but you can build your own netbook or even desktop computer to use the internet (including Flash websites) for less money.

Triggered by the popularity of Blackberries, iPhones, Internet-capable gaming systems, and most recently, the iPad, there are now more than 10 billion non-PC devices that connect to the Internet. The majority of these devices do not have security software loaded on them, leaving them vulnerable to viruses, spyware, and malware. What might be even scarier is that it puts other devices on the network at risk if an attack is capable of spreading to other nodes.

It’s no secret that Google has never been very friendly about using Microsoft products. Google’s engineering-driven culture necessitates that software tests be done on multiple systems, but lately Google has begun to move away from Windows. Google has traditionally given employees the choice of operating systems, however new employees at Google are no longer allowed to request Windows PCs. They are instead given the choice of Mac or Linux systems. This news was reported by The Financial Times, after an attack on Windows and Internet Explorer 6 specifically, resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. Rumor has it source code was stolen late last year which facilitated Google’s decision to avoid the notoriously vulnerable operating system. Since so much testing and software engineering requires the use of Microsoft software, some employees will still get to use Windows PCs, but they will need special permission.

In the world of internet browsers, people have traditionally stuck with the installed option that came with their computer. Internet Explorer on PCs and Safari on Macs. Internet Explorer has been losing more and more market share to Mozilla Firefox and Google’s Chrome browser. Firefox edged out Internet Explorer for the #1 spot back in January 2009. Chrome has been growing fast, and is quickly stealing the market away from IE, but let’s take a deeper look at the numbers to learn more.