IT leaders like Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg and Pamela Goldberg have sparked a debate about women’s role in technology, demonstrating through both actions and words that the IT gender gap is closing slowly but surely. But during this period of reform within IT, despite the examples set by these women and the publicity around their successful careers, Samsung was not deterred from boldly alluding to female IT illiteracy and common gender stereotypes as part of its Galaxy S4 launch stage at Radio City Music Hall March 14.

During the unveiling of its newest smartphone (due to hit shelves late April 2013), the Korean tech giant showcased the device’s new features (5-inch screen, 1080p display, 2GB RAM, 13 megapixel camera, etc.) with the help of some theatrics. Like any other product launch, improved product specs took priority. However, during Samsung’s presentation of newer applications like Air Gesture and S Health, the presentation took a turn toward the sexist, enlisting the help of six actresses posing as girlfriends from Miami planning an upscale wedding with the help of their smartphones and a few glasses of wine.

When the question of Galaxy S4′s usefulness was posed, the Samsung ladies sounded off: “My nails are wet,” “Sticky fingers!” “Sunscreen” and “I really don’t want to put down this drink!”

Similar to Air Gesture is Samsung Smart Pause. As the emcee described it, “If DeeDee was watching a video and something caught her eye (handsome man posing as landscaper crosses the stage, sensual music plays), the Galaxy S4 will automatically pause the video.” Samsung, don’t you think this hands-free browsing and pausing might benefit women in a different way — say, for business matters?

Another aspect of the Galaxy S4 launch presentation that stirred up some controversy was the ladies’ explanation of S Health. One housewife joked, “My mother always dreamed I’d end up with a doctor. I bet she didn’t imagine this!”

Generalizing women as health and fitness enthusiasts seems wrong, no? Not every woman is trying to emulate the Barbie or housewife lifestyle. Female leaders like Mayer and Sandberg are concerned with the same mobility issues that plague all mobile workers — male and female. What would these advocates for women in technology have to say about Samsung furthering negative stereotypes of female users? How would the women of WITI (Women in Technology International) respond?

In its Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, a tech giant not only referenced the 1950s, marry-rich, housewife stereotype, but insulted the progress of women in technology. Having three businesswomen thrown into the mix of Samsung’s group of girlfriends might have changed everything.

Readers, this blog post is not to deter you from the purchase of an impressive device, but rather to discourage vendors from treating consumer women as vain, self-absorbed money grabbers. Women have proven their IT literacy and definitely have more to say and do than marvel at a smartphone’s candy-colored accessories and its ability to preserve their manicures.

Tell us what you think about the role of women in technology. Do you think the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch was sexist? Sound off in the comment section below.

Google reports an alarming rise in Web censorship by international governments in the last six months, according to its latest reports. The surprising thing is that most of those requests are coming from democracies.

Take one guess at the most important demographic in the tech industry. Now guess again, because your first guess was probably wrong.

Most of us have SoundHound or Shazam on our smartphones to help us play the “What’s that song?” game when out and about. But most users never realize that their smartphone apps are fueled by big data.

Got employees that work the 24/7 shift? Not the best strategy for success.

If you have stock in Nokia, you probably don’t want to read Andy Blumenthal’s latest.

Big bonus for the gadget-crazed among us: It’s rumored that Google’s first Android tablet will be called the Asus Nexus 7. Kind of rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?

Speaking of tablets, Microsoft will not be announcing a partnership with Barnes & Noble this afternoon. Sorry, Charlie.

A proposed new Web censorship status code 451 would pay homage to recently deceased science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury.

• As predicted when the new iPad release date was announced, throngs of Apple faithful waited in line to buy the new iPad last Friday, including the Woz. However, at least one store had more Apple employees than waiting customers.

• Are you on Google+ yet? Mike Elgan feels that after years of ineffectual social media marketing, Google+ is the best thing that ever happened to his career.

• The Sistine Chapel is now digitized and allows you to fly around examining Michelangelo’s crowning achievement. Does the Vatican have a CIO?

• In the mobile apps arena, PayPal has announced a Square competitor, PayPal Here. It’s essentially just like Square, only with the pain and anger issues from being a PayPal product.

• According to a Harvard Business Review survey, women are considered better leaders than men. However, looking at the reasons why, this is hardly a coup for women in IT.

• Think your Google Fu has what it takes? Maybe, but we bet you don’t know each of these 10 Google search tricks.

• our next Skype internet telephone call might have an unwanted visitor. Microsoft and Skype have built a backdoor into the Skype internet telephone application that allows for “Lawful Interception” — aka eavesdropping.

• If you celebrated the new iPad release with a fresh tablet device, here’s how to transfer everything from an old iPad device to the new iPad painlessly.

If you have an original iPhone in NYC, you’re about to become very sad when you attempt to make a call on a 2G network.

Is technology making us lonely? Or is it alleviating loneliness when we’re alone? Perhaps it’s two sides of the very same coin.

Remember how everyone was upset last week when it was discovered that iPhone apps were stealing copies of your personal photos? Android apps are doing it too.

Is it the project manager’s job to fix companies? Elizabeth Harrin ponders the role of project managers in portfolio management and delivering cost efficiencies.

Rumor has it that Yahoo’s new CEO Scott Thompson is gearing up for some big layoffs at Yahoo over the coming months.

Is being targeted by hacker supergroup Anonymous ever a good thing? It is when it’s a wake-up call for companies like Sony and the latest to fall, geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor.

It’s time for another round of Apple iPad 3 release date rumors. Where is it? Is it en route? Is it on the way? Is it a unicorn? Frantic fan boys are imagining all kinds of Apple iPad 3 release date scenarios while they salivate over the next precious Apple deliverable.

Now, Google has agreed to support the Do-Not-Track button and will add it to Chrome within nine months. You may remember that the Federal Trade Commission called for the adoption of a Do-Not-Track button on Web browsers two years ago. In theory, it would allow consumers more autonomy in sharing their own personal privacy with third parties. Nevertheless, when Firefox and Internet Explorer added Do-Not-Track buttons, users were still tracked by advertisers and companies that hadn’t agreed to honor the arrangement. What is it they say about good intentions?

Meanwhile, California is attempting to shut down data privacy leaks via mobile applications. The state has reached an agreement with Google, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com, Apple, Microsoft and Research In Motion — one that it hopes will protect smartphone users from further privacy breaches like the Path and Google debacles uncovered earlier this month.

When it comes to the Internet and government intervention, we have to be mindful of the careful dance around precedent. We applaud when the U.S. government tries to protect us from data poachers with a privacy bill of rights, but just a month ago we were up in arms about the Stop Online Piracy Act. So, which is it going to be? Do we want the government regulating the Internet or don’t we? As you well know, I tend to have a cold, black heart that’s filled to the brim with pessimism about Internet privacy; the Do-Not-Track button and the White House’s privacy bill of rights feel to me like security theatre.

What do you think? Will the Do-Not-Track button make a difference in upholding consumer data privacy? Is it the role of government to regulate the Internet? The comments are waiting to hear from you.

Your team is your first line of defense with your company’s data privacy and security, yet your employees are sharing company secrets — intentionally or not — via IM clients. Check out this primer to ensure that sensitive information stays out of chat logs.

We all know that meetings are a critical part of managing a team, but they can be enormous time-wasters too. Here’s a great drill-down of a best practice for the weekly status meeting.

What does the term distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS, really mean? We predict that “Anonymous” won’t appreciate Forbes calling its work “digital graffiti.”

Blogger Ian Thomas argues that we might be jumping into big data before we’ve gotten our storage strategies in line.

Hackers have broken into the Google Wallet app on Android devices. Google is addressing the personal data privacy and security breach, but when you start hacking into the world of finance, everyone gets a little testy.

If you’re worried about personal data privacy and security, be careful with your free mobile apps. It turns out that the free Path iPhone app was grabbing its users’ contact data and uploading their data to its own servers. What? You mean a free service is taking advantage of its users somehow? Color us shocked.

• Honda managed to hit a whopper of a successful corporate social media campaign with its Ferris Bueller revamp for the Super Bowl. Alas, Cameron is nowhere to be seen.

• With a $50 device bought off eBay, hackers can lift credit card info from the cards inside your wallet.

• Move over Seattle and Silicon Valley, the hot new tech cities include San Antonio; Greensboro, N.C.; and St. Louis.

• How serious is Apple about maintaining corporate secrets? Way serious. It creates fake projects for new engineers to work on until they can be trusted.

• Does your corporation have a corporate blog? The corporate blogging trend is on the decline, according to a recent study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Don’t worry, you can still get your blog fix right here.

• In an effort to become one of the top tech cities, should a local government sell stock to raise money for a broadband network? What the Green Bay Packers and rural England can teach the world about raising capital for technology improvements.

• Fresh Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is wasting no time cleaning house. The Internet company has announced it is whacking 10 of its big mobile apps, like Yahoo Deals and Yahoo News.

• Twitter announced that it was going to allow country-specific censorship of Twitter posts last week. The proposed #TwitterBlackout on Saturday, however, really didn’t do anything (as one might have suspected).

While some BlackBerry Messenger users would rather cut off an arm than put down their beloved CrackBerrys, this rumbling about who will buy RIM seems a little irrelevant among the other smartphones’ features available today. I’m about to horrify BlackBerry users, but sorry, guys, BlackBerry apps just can’t even come close to what’s out there for iPhones and Androids. I understand that using a BlackBerry is akin to taking your grandpa’s Cadillac cruiser out for a spin. It has a certain flair, but wouldn’t you really rather sport something a little — I don’t know — fresher?

RIM has stated that the BlackBerry’s software — BlackBerry OS 10 — will be released at the end of 2012 to new hardware. In smartphone years, that’s a product lifecycle away. Heck, we might even have the iPhone 5 by then. RIM will need more than a BlackBerry software upgrade if it wants to keep a foot in the game.

“If Samsung (or any other Android partner) were to integrate RIM’s enterprise services, like BlackBerry Messenger, into their offering, they would achieve instant differentiation in the increasingly monochrome Android space.  Not to mention gaining a brand which, despite its recent misfortune, still enjoys a loyal following and has seen recent gains in developing markets globally,” said Craig Cartier, a Frost & Sullivan analyst.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m an unabashed Applephile, so you can probably guess that I’m not using a BlackBerry. But I would definitely agree with Andy Patrizio that this is make-or-break time for RIM.

Let’s hear from the BlackBerry users in the group: Are you worried about losing your precious BlackBerry to the likes of Samsung or Microsoft? Am I being too hard on BlackBerry for its lackluster smartphone featuers? Do you think a buyout will change RIM’s strategy or commitment to quality?

The comments are waiting to hear from you.

I know this because the salesperson over at the Apple store gave me a funny look when I asked him to check if I had a defective battery. ‘Gee, you haven’t downloaded much. I have 3,000 songs on my iPhone and…hmmm you’re on an older version of the OS. Do you sync your phone up with your computer to get the latest updates? Have you checked out the App store? There are apps that you can use for work too, and you can make your own apps.’

What I’ve discovered so far is songs that I haven’t heard for years, Angry Birds (yes the game is as addictive as everyone says) and that you can scratch your iPhone screen (despite the car key test the Apple store employees show you before you buy one). All it takes is walking away from your phone for a few minutes while a puppy intent on eating your iPhone bumper is in the room.

As for business applications, I have it synced up with my work email account and I downloaded a scanner application to input receipts in my company’s travel and expense system. That’s it. It’s pitiful I know, but I have been checking out other iPhone business apps lately.

If I were a salesperson I could track leads and view invoices, and if I were a sys admin I could remotely update desktops. Actually, there are a lot of useful iPhone apps for IT admins like Rove Virtual Machine Manager and NiceTrace.There’s also apps that let you view financial reports and see how well a marketing campaign is doing.

And in this economy, who couldn’t use a few good networking apps. On the retail side I think it’s pretty cool that credit card transactions can now be swiped on the iPhone, even if I’m switching topics here to hardware advancements.

I know I’m glossing over a lot of other applications, but what I’m looking for is iPhone business apps that appeal to a more general audience, and what is more general than the use of Microsoft Office. I haven’t tried these out yet so this is by no means a plug, but according to their Website, DataViz makes Documents to Go, an application that lets you view and edit word documents and sync mail and documents with your Exchange Server. QuickOffice also has a suite of applications, one of which lets you create and edit Office files on your iPhone.

I’m not the only one on the look out for useful, general purpose mobile business apps. A lot of IT executives are putting mobile application development at the top of their priority list. The consensus at a Society for Information Management panel at the annual SIM conference this past October was that the developer community isn’t making many useful business applications, but instead ones that appeal to younger consumers. And this group of consumers find business applications “boring.”

“We, as enterprise architects of our organizations, have to understand that feature sets are going to be driven by consumer demand, not by what we in the business would like to see,” said panelist Chuck Musciano, vice president and CIO of construction material supplier Martin Marietta Materials Inc., at the time.

If this is true, then it will be up to internal IT departments to come up with ways to connect apps that the business needs to mobile devices, as is the case already at many Midmarket companies.

Let us know what you think about this blog post; email Christina Torode, News Director.