NYC

Despite our commander-in-chief's seemingly undying allegiance to BlackBerry, it looks like the federal government could be ready to make a break from RIM. According to a  Washington Post  article published yesterday, a number of agencies within the federal government are questioning their attachment to the standard-issue BlackBerry devices, and allowing government employees to bring in their own preferred methods of communication -- among other things,Congress now allows the use of iPads and iPhones on the House floor and use of BlackBerrys at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has dropped from 1,000 to 700 in the past year. What's more, the General Services Administration is currently shifting 17,000 employees to Gmail, a move it says could reduce expenses by 50 percent in the next five years. Likewise, the USDA will also move its email services to the cloud with Microsoft's services, claiming $6 million in annual savings. Now, we doubt Obama's going to...

Misc. Gadgets , Alt Dell to trial mushroom-based packaging on servers, hugs IT hippies By Richard Lai posted Apr 6th 2011 2:33PM We've already seen Dell embracing the bamboo woods to package its products, so what's next for Round Rock's green fingers? Mushrooms, apparently. Unveiled at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference yesterday is a biodegradable cushioning tray, which is grown -- yes, grown -- out of a mold stuffed with old cotton hulls, mushroom spawn, and nutritious agricultural waste. While it does take about five to ten days for the mycelium (aka mushroom root) to form the desired shape, the merit of such process is that all the energy required for the manufacture is provided by the recycled waste, thus reducing other energy dependencies. What's more, this fungal packaging has already passed Dell's extensive lab tests ...