Recent Enterprise News
Chambers: How I'll make Cisco into IT's biggest player
By almost any measure, Cisco Systems is the biggest fish in the networking pond. Thanks to more than 130 acquisitions, a brisk pace of internal development and a much-discussed new organizational structure that the company is using to attack a slew of new markets, Cisco's reach extends from the consumer to the enterprise and deep into service provider networks. The company offers everything from personal video cameras to high-end telepresence systems, set-top video boxes to, lately, servers for the data center, in addition to more traditional network gear like routers and switches.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:41 pm
CA to buy Nimsoft
CA said Wednesday it has signed a deal to buy IT performance monitoring vendor Nimsoft for $350 million.
The acquisition, which is scheduled to close this month, will strengthen CA's hand in IT management software for what it calls "emerging enterprises," or companies with annual revenues between $300 million and $2 billion, and for managed service providers.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:19 pm
Google still tops, but Bing inches ahead in search market
Microsoft in recent months has slowly boosted its share of the search business, but still remains far behind a so-far unbeatable foe in its battle with Google.
Hitwise, an online traffic monitor, today reported that Google last month remained firmly at the head of the search pack while its rival's well regarded Microsoft Bing product gradually picks up a little traction.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 3:55 pm
Cisco, Microsoft certifications increase high-tech salaries
For high-tech workers, it pays to be certified, according to research conducted by Dice Learning that shows 10 IT certifications stand out for delivering higher salaries.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:43 pm
Expert says Chinese government likely behind massive cyberattacks
The Chinese government is likely behind recent cyberattacks on U.S. government Web sites and on U.S. companies in an apparent effort to quash criticism of the government there, an expert on U.S. and Chinese relations said Wednesday.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:00 pm
Reader exploit prompts Adobe update alert
Users of Adobe PDF Reader should check they are running the latest version of the software after the discovery of an exploit that takes advantage of a serious flaw patched only three weeks ago.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:34 am
HP Slate vs. iPad: Focus on Flash
With the iPad presale beginning in just a few days, and the clock ticking down to the much-anticipated Apple tablet finally hitting the streets, HP launched a renewed campaign for its Slate tablet PC debuted at the 2010 CES by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:28 am
XenApp 6 centralizes management, adds Android and Mac support
Citrix Systems has launched version 6 of XenApp, its platform for centralized application delivery that features centralized management and access to Windows applications from Android-based smartphones and Apple computers, the company said on Wednesday.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:22 am
BlackBerry devices hit with ongoing data issues
Some BlackBerry users are complaining of an inability to use data services for two days in a row.
It appears that the issue could be related to two separate problems. While some users seemed to be back in business late Tuesday, others were still having problems.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 6:50 am
Microsoft skips patch for PowerPoint add-on
Microsoft fixed eight flaws in Windows and Office Tuesday, but passed on patching one Windows component because it cannot be automatically updated.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 6:39 am
EFF dubs Apple a 'jealous feudal lord' over iPhone dev contract
Apple's agreement with iPhone developers contains several "troubling" clauses that paint the company as a "jealous and arbitrary feudal lord," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said yesterday.
The nonprofit digital rights advocacy group on Tuesday published a January 2010 version of the iPhone Developer License Agreement obtained from NASA through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 6:29 am
Arm sees over 50 new iPad-like devices out this year
The launch of Apple's iPad will pave the way for a slew of rival products this year, an Arm executive said Wednesday, predicting over 50 tablet PC devices will be launched globally.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:52 am
Ex-Sun chief dishes the dirt on Gates, Jobs
Don't expect Jonathan Schwartz to go quietly.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:47 am
Enterprise Apps User Interface - the wrong discussion
Imagine an Enterprise App with UI design lifted from World of Warcraft? A tad gothic? But games work, kids dive into them in droves and never seem to scratch their heads. Electronic games now being a bigger industry than the...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 7:38 am
Elegant Organisations? Daily Simplicity? Fugetaboutit!
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem" Occam's razor keeps it simple - "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity". Or in short form; simple is better. A basic philosophy of science - simple is better. Einstein could be a signatory...
Posted on 2 March 2010 | 8:13 am
Enterprise Software's blind spot
A Project is a temporary activity or sequence of activities with a specific goal initiated by an issue, an idea or a request, often with multiple participants. It is usually unstructured, at least somewhat unpredictable and hence Barely Repeatable. There...
Posted on 19 February 2010 | 9:31 am
Work Flows and Wealth Creation
Inseparable since the beginning. Following the last post about Information, Knowledge, Wisdom and Innovation let's add one particularly interesting and dynamic object organiser, an object by itself: The Workflow. The representation of a particular sequence where value is created and...
Posted on 2 February 2010 | 7:16 am
Information, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Innovation
These four concepts makes humanity move forward. They're basic requirements for every day work as well as for Big Important Decisions, hence nothing to take lightly. Indeed, if possible to grasp, sort, handle, and model efficiently we would all be...
Posted on 19 January 2010 | 7:42 am
Process Engine + Social Media -> Thingamy and ESME
For a long while I've been keeping an eye on the E 2.0, collaboration and social media efforts meant for enterprise use. I have to admit to being a sceptic, still viewing such as mainly single-task tools with little or...
Posted on 7 January 2010 | 3:34 am
How not to do it - 12sprints and Chatter
More and more Enterprise Software vendors (and users) have their "aha!" moments, getting the reality that "unstructured", Barely Repeatable Processes are immensely important. Not only happens about 60% of all work in such processes, but no proper process based IT...
Posted on 21 December 2009 | 4:09 am
It's so strange here...
As a kid I was a huge fan of a Norwegian poet named Sigbjørn Obstfelder, a contemporary and friend of Edvard Munch (I'm a big fan of him as well). [Drawing by Oda Krogh, Wikimedia Commons] Now, many years later,...
Posted on 15 December 2009 | 7:45 am
Office work is like shovelling snow
When I entered the work force I lived in a log cabin in the woods, only connected by a footpath to the road, very romantic, but with a few "hardships" thrown in. When winter hit, nightly snowfalls had me out...
Posted on 9 December 2009 | 6:36 am
No...
No container, then no content. No data context, then no meaning. No process, then no business. No presence, then no record. Words makes no sense unless they're arranged sequentially on paper or in a text or html file, i.e. held...
Posted on 4 December 2009 | 7:13 am
Simple is always better, but harder to sell
The classic "Apologies for the long letter, I did not have time to write a short one" surely applies to development of Enterprise Software. So I've spent my time with Thingamy, too much some would say, exactly enough I say....
Posted on 2 December 2009 | 7:04 am
Discovering the universal Business core
What should Enterprise Software do if it stopped wasting everybody's time supporting the work to allow real work instead of supporting real value creating work? Obviously, it should directly support the work that actually creates value. If it did that,...
Posted on 1 December 2009 | 8:42 am
Legacy Enterprise Software impedes gravity
Movement requires a force. Gravity or electromagnetic force is not enough, a clear unobstructed path is required as well. The nature of the force is important; gravity is free and universally present while electromagnetic force has to be applied locally,...
Posted on 24 November 2009 | 8:43 am
Legacy Enterprise Software is not strategic
Despite being involved with some radically different Enterprise Software I have been fortunate enough to be frequently invited to study the wares and future plans of many legacy systems vendors. So again last week, with some of my EI friends,...
Posted on 17 November 2009 | 6:01 am
E 2.0 - not joining the debate, but...
Being 'diplomatic' I'm not going to step into the debate featuring Dennis, Susan, Nenshad and others... but I've been waiting and waiting for one benefit to be touted, an important but unplanned benefit (the only one?) I've seen in practice...
Posted on 6 November 2009 | 11:21 am
A case for rethinking the data model - reporting from SAP TechEd
Yet another TechEd is over, again definitely worth the time and effort. Mike and Stacey did amazing work yet again, my good blogger and SAP Mentor friends were a treat as always, and the management of SAP displays an amazing...
Posted on 3 November 2009 | 7:09 am
Work processor
On Friday I was asked to give a presentation of Thingamy to an audience of non-techies. My preparation and energy was a tad hampered by a bad cold and three days of non-stop meetings at SAP TechEd. The presentation format...
Posted on 1 November 2009 | 2:12 am
Do something instead of doing things to get something done
What if we could shift the whole world to renewable energy sources, feed and educate all children at no extra cost nor resource use? What if you could double your bottom line without cutting costs? All possible. Now. Of all...
Posted on 20 October 2009 | 6:43 am
Is Gartner "getting it"?
(At least they've found a huge issue, but not so much a solution.) Always a pleasure to read a blog post with "revelations" like this: "...the hidden costs of unstructured processes: although a lot of focus of BPM efforts (time...
Posted on 6 October 2009 | 9:49 am
Building by taking apart
Apologies for spotty posting activity, much too busy busy with stuff that is shaping up in unexpected ways. Ever had that feeling you're close to some solution even if you're not even looking for one? A vague pattern slowly appearing...
Posted on 22 September 2009 | 7:08 am
Think I nailed it
One single model for all Barely Repeatable Processes: IMCI, OODA and uttering of eureka! Most of this summer I've been busy building real world pilots, process model templates for Thingamy that is. When implemented and tested (such radical stuff) always...
Posted on 8 September 2009 | 2:08 am
Rules
A flow requires a framework. Electricity flows through lines directed by switches. No framework, then no boiled egg for breakfast. Work in large organisations flows through the organisational structure directed by rules. "If this then do that" is the switch....
Posted on 26 August 2009 | 1:58 am
Habits inhibits
I'm sometimes hitting a small snag when building pilots in Thingamy; actual workflow running engines where work flows seamlessly from person to person while all information and "tools" are delivered with the task: "This is not how we're used to...
Posted on 19 August 2009 | 2:42 am
The fallacy of IT productivity tools
Good thing we humans are flexible, able as we are to handle all kinds of tasks with sometimes far too little training. I can often get a lamp to work again, I can paint a door or even grease the...
Posted on 31 July 2009 | 2:41 am
Increase profits by working less
What's taking up most of your working day? Add up the time spent on the following: Receiving tasks from superiors Distributing tasks to subordinates Discussing these tasks to get more knowledge and clarify Emailing Phone and Skype calls Searching for...
Posted on 2 July 2009 | 4:25 am
Solutions creates problems
Thingamy's first business task is to create problems. Worse, Thingamy's business is to create problems for the daily work of most people! Sounds like a rather bad business purpose or what? Not so, it's more to it: Solving problems is...
Posted on 25 June 2009 | 5:48 am
Stop managing
If you like the occasional blinding flash of the obvious there's a book out - Management rewired: Why feedback doesn't work and other surprising lessons from the latest brain science by Charles S. Jacobs. Basically takeaway is that the annual...
Posted on 16 June 2009 | 6:30 am
Go to market by Extreme Business Planning
Don't know if this is an effort to make own behaviour plausible, but so what... When entering a market the GAMP (Generally Accepted Marketing Practices) has to be right, as in getting certain stuff right: Target market Price Packaging Channel...
Posted on 11 June 2009 | 3:23 am
The conceptual failure of business software and why nobody bothers
If you're in business you'll soon find the need for some business software... When you forget to follow up potential clients that's when you find a need to "manage" your leads and call the CRM vendor. When you need to...
Posted on 9 June 2009 | 6:10 am
The age of heretics and sceptics
Busy times on the Côte d'Azur. A 20 minutes bike ride along the coast towards west and I reach the Croisette and the glamour of the Cannes film festival, if I ride towards east I pass the Hotel du Cap...
Posted on 26 May 2009 | 3:14 am
Too much saving caused the economic crisis
Let me expand on the claim by asking "what really is saving?" Initially it was about stashing away some food for a rainy day. That the fresh meat could rot had to be accepted, losing some was still better than...
Posted on 19 May 2009 | 6:44 am
SAP and more on clarity
Léo Apotheker wrote an article in Forbes today where he calls for clarity - transparency, accountability and control. Nice one and quite their new tag line worthy. I of course, would suggest he forgot two core issues; less complexity and...
Posted on 14 May 2009 | 12:46 pm
Sapphire 09 from afar
First time in years that I missed this despite SAP being so kind to invite me again. Too much busyness on my side I'm afraid. Kind of interesting not to be there, sitting here slurping live videos, sniffing at tweets...
Posted on 14 May 2009 | 9:47 am
Breaking down corporate brick walls?
My good friend and fellow Enterprise Irregular Dennis Howlett raised an issue in regards adoption of (or lack thereof) Enterprise 2.0 software: "my experience suggests that while there are plenty of gr8 ideas 'enterprise' represents a daunting brick wall for...
Posted on 12 May 2009 | 2:42 am
France, law makers and the Internet - scary
I'm quite fond of my adopted homeland, France. Sometimes their quirks and ways deserves some vigourous shaking of head (but what country does not?) and sometimes one may get annoyed (same for most places). But mostly they serve great lunches...
Posted on 4 May 2009 | 6:12 am
Context over Dogma
Context: "The circumstances that form the setting for any event, statement or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed." Dogma: "An authoritative principle, belief or statement of opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely...
Posted on 28 April 2009 | 1:18 am
Graphical semantic reports
I might have mentioned it, but Thingamy (that run your business thing) is using "Semantic web" methods - in particular the concept of N-triples as a core when you build a model of your business. Just added some obvious use...
Posted on 20 April 2009 | 4:25 am
Journalists and the business of publishing
I do not subscribe to many paper based publications, but to avoid coffee and crumbles in my keyboard I like a newspaper for breakfast. My breakfast entertainment is International Herald Tribune (NYT), the occasional lunch reading material is Business Week....
Posted on 18 April 2009 | 11:01 am
Risk modelling versus transparency
"All models are wrong, but some are useful." George Box 30 years ago. Abstractions of reality, models, are created when we need to interact with a reality that is beyond our immediate grasp - like physics, weather and economy. To...
Posted on 8 April 2009 | 1:34 am
Regulation versus transparency
With the financial meltdown comes the palpable call for more regulation. Does that make sense? Or is that simply a basic human knee-jerk reaction? A basic human urge for control so we can feel safer? Really, it makes little sense....
Posted on 1 April 2009 | 4:56 am
BizTechTalk Briefs 03/10/2010
mite.blog. Facts & figures: The first 20 months of our small SaaS start-up going for premium-only instead of freemium Great writeup by a German SaaS start-up - demonstrating their twist on the freemium model (30-day fully functional trial, instead of...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 6:30 am
BizTechTalk Briefs 02/26/2010
Global CIO Quick Take: Don't Crown Salesforce Cloud King Just Yet -- Global CIO -- InformationWeek I'm planning a longer take on this, but the succinct take, Salesforce hasn't innovated for quite some time, and their offerings in content management...
Posted on 26 February 2010 | 6:30 am
BizTechTalk Briefs 02/12/2010
WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw Uh oh - another Facebook Beacon scenario in the making. This article is getting a LOT of heated commentary. This has to be the biggest stumble Google has made in the social...
Posted on 12 February 2010 | 6:30 am
BizTechTalk Briefs 02/11/2010
Google Buzz: "Are You at Work? How About a $.99 Big Mac From McDonald's, Three Blocks Away?" | Technomix | Fast Company In chasing ever increasing sources of ad revenue, is Google going too far? tags: google, buzz, contextual_ads, infoglut,...
Posted on 11 February 2010 | 6:30 am
BizTechTalk Briefs 02/06/2010
Mapping Business Models (a Knowledge Game) « Business Model Alchemist tags: innovation, participation, business_model_innovation, visualization, games, alexander_osterwalder Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Posted on 6 February 2010 | 6:30 am
Kodak keep on developing
In 1999, US imaging and photographic equipment giant Kodak's photographic film sales stood at little over $5 billion. The company was floundering and in danger of vanishing from the market as it struggled to keep pace with the emerging digital scene.
However, by 2008 film sales stood at $200 billion as CEO Antonio Perez succeeded in putting the stoppers on quarter after quarter of losses.
Difficult decisions had to be made as the company underwent some serious streamlining. The 129-year-old Rochester-based company pared its payroll from 64,000 to 26,900 from 2004 to 2007. It eliminated another 4,100 jobs last year, shrinking its work force to a 1930s-era low of 20,300 from a 1988 peak of 145,300.
Kodak have become an exciting digital tech star after being hounded for years by the rapidly disappearing traditional film business. Then growth in Kodak's digital plays, including sales of cameras, online prints, and digital snapshot-producing kiosks, came to the rescue.
By the time of the global financial meltdown the company had signed in a number of lucrative licensing deals with some big names and intellectual property rights helped to keep things ticking over (and with even more patents owned today this will only continue - On average, it expects to generate $250 million to $350 million annually through 2011 in licensing fees and royalties from its intellectual property).
But the recession hurt Kodak and they returned to times of profit hunting with little gain.
Progress interrupted
However, at the start of this year it was announced Kodak posted profits of $443 million in 2009's Q4. The company broke a series of four straight quarterly losses and sent its share price soaring, indicating that the companies second-coming - that was so rudely interrupted by the global economic crisis - may be gathering momentum once again.
"I'm very pleased ... with the positive momentum with which we're entering 2010," Perez said.
However the company's vision remain long-term in nature, and still may not produce a profit in 2010. Kodak said it expects to post results this year that range from a loss from continuing operations of $50 million to a profit of $50 million.
Kodak said it sees revenue for its traditional segment, which includes film, paper and movies, falling 14 percent to 18 percent in 2010 after falling 24 percent in 2009.
Beyond 2010 the outlook looks positive for Kodak and with Perez at the helm the company seem to be in good hands.
How Kodak got back on track has become the stuff of legend, and Jeffrey Hayzlett, the company's Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President, puts himself on the line to promote it.
See the whole interview at MeetTheBoss.tv
Related Articles:
Building a successful brand | The art of building brand identity | Wal-Mart: The biggest brand in the world
Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:02 am
Building a successful brand
Thanks to advances in travel and the development of the internet brand, competition has because increasingly intense over the last thirty years and building a successful brand and providing a return to investors has become very difficult.
The challenges appear to be overwhelming, especially with many companies operating on a quarter-to-quarter basis for fear of a negative reaction from the stock market and stockholders, especially in a post-recession climate.
But there is a way companies can effectively negate fluctuations in stocks and roller-coaster economies - build a brand. Put simply, any product can be copied but a brand cannot.
There are plenty of challenges to brand building that make it hard to convince investors to pump cash into doing so, such as a modern obsession with short-term objectives and opportunities to make your money work for itself on the market but if you get it right, the rewards are limitless.
Brand building is far from a new idea but as mentioned above, thanks to technological advances, today's consumers have more access to information and more choices than ever before.
Google's innovative branding techniques
The best thing to do is to look at examples of how the very best have done it. If you look at how one of the most fresh faced big brands have got where they are, it's easy to see the importance of brand building. A little over a decade since the search engine's launch, we can learn from Google's innovative branding techniques.
When Sergei Brin and Larry Page set up Google Inc. in a California garage back in 1998 the two founders had big plans for their company, but even they would have been stunned to learn that 12 years later Google would become arguably the biggest brand in the world.
Google proved that a heavy dependence on market research is not necessary. The tech firm's initial success was down to brilliance and innovation moving at a pace most of the world could not keep up with. But they didn't make the mistake of trying to meet all of the immediate needs of the consumer and were willing to invest in what they believed consumers would benefit from in the future. Look at UK company Amstrad who didn't move very far from the personal computer, and the best they could come up with after some early success was an email phone that wanted to charge people for sending emails because that was the tech darling of the time. Where are they now?
Expensive advertising no longer necessary
Google are also a perfect example of how traditional, expensive advertising is no longer necessary in today's business world. Google was built without any ads. Instead, it used two cheaper and far more effective brand building tools: viral marketing and public relations.
The California-based tech giant also quickly learnt that change was far more important than consistency when developing a brand.
But take Coca-Cola; introduced in 1886 and developed in a time far removed from today's high-tech world, Coke is now the only true ubiquitous brand known today.
They went about things pretty differently to Google, but have developed a brand so strong it is pretty much untouchable. Even a shift in global health consciousness worldwide has done nothing to jeopardize the brand. With the population gearing toward a healthier lifestyle, carbonated drinks' consumption has undergone a rapid decrease. However, Coca-Cola simply broadened their product offering to include sub-brands under the main Coca-Cola brand including teas, health drinks, bottled water and others. It was a clever move, one that was imminent and endlessly rewarding for the early adopters.
A strong brand is the key to surviving any major shocks the business world may encounter, a theory that is seriously being put to the test today as Toyota struggle to defend the technical faults in some of its models that has lead to a dizzying media circus.
Check out the infographic to see which companies have built a brand strong enough to be named amongst the most successful in the world.
Related Articles:
The art of building brand identity | The amazing world of Coca-Cola | Wal-Mart: the biggest company on the planet
Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 8:25 am
Ford profits from Toyota's woes
After Toyota dropped the ball in the global auto industry, American car manufacturers Ford and General Motors were left to pick up the pieces and it would seem that, despite GM's very own mini-recall crisis, the two are beginning to see the benefits.
Ford in particular have seen an uptick in profits since Toyota's downfall, announcing that the company's February sales were up by more than 43 percent, beating out GM's monthly sales for the first time in more than a decade.
It appears that buyers that may have otherwise chosen a Toyota over a Ford may have had their heads turned by recent events, leading to a sales jump. In total, Ford sold 142,285 vehicles during the month of February. Ford said that they sold a total of 334 more cars than General Motors during the same time period.
Customers abandoning Toyota
GM recently announced it was recalling 1.3 million small cars across North America due to power steering problems, but the firm still posted a more modest rise of 11.5 percent, as it benefited from customers abandoning Toyota over the Japanese firm's recall problems.
"We got what we thought was our fair share of Toyota sales," said Mike DiGiovanni, GM executive director.
Toyota reported a fall in sales of 8.7 percent for the first full month since it announced major recalls in January, not surprising considering the world's biggest car company has now recalled more than 8 million vehicles over concerns about accelerator and brake systems.
"We expect our progress to continue"
However the sales slump was not as big as the company had feared. "I'm surprised that we sold as many vehicles as we did," said Bob Carter, a Toyota group vice president. But this has not been enough to dampen spirits over at Ford, who aren't putting all of the recent success down to Toyota's failings: "The strength of our new products and Ford's leadership in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design and value are resonating with customers," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, US marketing sales and service.
"The good news is we have even more new products and fuel-efficient power trains coming this year, and we expect our progress to continue."
Related Articles:
Toyota could face criminal prosecution | China: The world's biggest car market | How the recession remade manufacturing
Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 8:50 am
US & China meet (again) to build bridges
Senior diplomats from the US and China have commenced meetings in Beijing as part of the latest charm offensive by the Obama administration to try and build bridges between the two.
Sino-US relations have been famously frosty for as long as the writer can remember, but in the light of America's gigantic trade deficit and China's increasingly important role in the global renewable energy markets the two are now waking up to the true (economic) value of a peaceful relationship.
The Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg (pictured) and White House adviser Jeffrey Bader arrived in the Chinese capital on Tuesday to discuss a wide range of issues. However the visit didn't get off to the best start as the two delegates were greeted with calls by China to forgo further sanctions on Iran - a major US foreign policy goal.
The most recent hostilities have involved disagreements over Tibet, trade, Taiwan and the very recent dispute over who's to blame for the notorious Google hacking.
Finding common ground
China was upset when US President Barack Obama met Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. It was also angered by Taiwan securing a weapons deal from the US.
But one issue where the two can find common ground is over North Korea, both agree on the need to bring the rogue state back to the negotiating table over plans to end its nuclear programmes.
China has led the six-party talks - bringing together the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan - which its ally, North Korea cancelled last year.
This three day meeting is ahead of a series of extremely important forums including a global nuclear security summit in Washington in April, and the next round of Sino-US "Strategic and Economic Dialogue", which last took place in July 2009.
"If this (visit) suggests that we are refocusing on the future and the important issues that we can work on together, I think we are encouraged by this.
"A car with two drivers"
"This is expressly why we sought this meeting - to be able to refocus on very specific issues, not the least of which is obviously our joint concerns about Iran," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.
Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), gave a slightly different take on the atmosphere between the two nations, comparing the Sino-US relationship to a car.
"It has two drivers. Americans should know this. China also has control over the steering wheel, the accelerator, and the brake. The two drivers must consult with each other to drive the car. Otherwise it will only spin around."
Related Articles:
US trade deficit | Google vs. China | Can the US and China ever be friends?
Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 1:46 am
InZero: The unhackable, virus proof device
An American technology start-up claim to have developed a device that can make a computer totally protected from cyber-attacks.
After the news that even Google has become a victim of internet hackers, it has become glaringly obvious that the current stock of internet security software available to us is not enough to keep the cyber-criminals at bay.
The problem is that the bad guys always seem to be five steps ahead of the good guys in a game of cat and mouse that has left the cat scratching his head over what to do next, whilst the mice keep themselves very, very busy. 85 percent of companies and agencies surveyed by the Ponemon Institute, a research firm, have suffered security breaches and data losses over the previous year - roughly one-quarter of which involved hackers. The losses resulting from such crime is thought to be around $1 trillion every year, so anybody that comes up with the ultimate weapon to stop these hackers dead in their tracks can expect a massive payday.
Enter InZero Systems. The Herndon (Va.) start-up that claims to have built a hack-proof hardware-based system capable of doing the impossible - shutting the door to all intruders.
"There isn't a way to circumvent it"
As reported by Business Week, so far everyone who has tested the device has failed to get past it. Its approach has been tested by the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and several companies that specialize in finding gaps in computer security.
"It was very secure," says former DARPA director Anthony J. Tether, who bought 10 devices to test just before he left the agency in early 2009. "As best we can tell, there isn't a way to circumvent it."
The device's approach was first dreamed up in 2002 by Ukrainian computer engineer Oleksiy Shevchenko, whilst trying to help out a friend experiencing some PC internet security problems. Instead of simply installing software that seeks out and tries to destroy all viruses and intruders one by one, Shevchenko set up some hardware that could act like a second computer (or "sandbox") that can sit between the internet and the vulnerable computer in question.
No bigger than a paperback book
Put simply, the sandbox acts like a sponge in-between you and the internet that can soak up any viruses and hacking attempts before they have chance to reach your computer, and because the InZero is read-only it cannot be changed or controlled by a hacker or virus.
InZero CEO Louis R. Hughes offers his own analogy, that of a patient with an unknown disease quarantined behind a glass wall. "Our device is the equivalent of that glass wall," he says.
The idea of a second computer that can be wiped and rebuilt acting as a screen between another machine and the web isn't new, but InZero differs because it doens't have to be constantly "wiped down" and is no bigger than your average paperback book.
Hughes, former president of General Motors' international operations and of Lockheed Martin, was won over by the device after watching a number of expert hackers fail to break the InZero. He took Shevchenko with him to the US and put millions of his own dollars into the creating a new US company, InZero, making himself CEO and appointing Shevchenko as chief technology officer.
Convincing the US government
As Business Week reports, since then the company has filed additional patents and spent several years simplifying the steps a user must take to operate the device.
The company look set to take the internet security market by storm and hopes to market a family of devices for PCs, servers, and entire networks, with prices starting in the low hundreds. But in two or three years, the hardware could be embedded into laptops adding as little as $25 to hardware costs.
However, InZero still needs to pass the toughest of all tests - convincing the US government that its engineers haven't built in a back door for spies, "We have to show that nothing will be reported to Putin," says Alexander Pyntikov, Alexander V. Pyntikov, a top Soviet Union government innovation official-turned-entrepreneur who is also chief operating officer at InZero.
Check out the video to hear the company describe exactly how they plan on stopping anyone planning to get past the InZero device.
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Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 1 March 2010 | 10:00 am
Death of the Hummer?
Bad news for those of you who like your vehicles militaristic and completely fuel-inefficient; General Motors has announced they are to 'wind down' operations on its Hummer range, after a takeover by a Chinese firm failed to happen.
The Hummer, originally designed as a military off-road vehicle by AM General, was in the late 90s the off-road vehicle of choice for many a celebrity that cared not about good gas mileage. It was rumoured that Arnold Schwarzenegger had over six...
However, in these economic trying times and when the Hollywood elite prefer hybrids over former-military vehicles, the Hummer has seen sales fall.
General Motors has faced hard time itself during and in the wake of the recession and when it went into bankruptcy, was forced to offload famous names to keep itself afloat.
GM said it was 'disappointed' the deal with the China-based Tengzhong has collapsed.
"GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner," said John Smith, vice-president of corporate planning and alliances.
The firm has stated though, that it will continue to honour Hummer warranties, and provide service support and spare parts to current owners around the world. So good news for the Governator...
Click for a larger view
Poor sales and image
The fact that the Hummer traditionally weights five tonnes and does about 15 miles to the gallon has not served it well it recent years, with people focusing more on greener, more fuel efficient models such as the Prius.
In fact in the US, due to the pure off-road nature of Hummers, dealerships were required by GM to organize a minimum of four off-road events per year in order to push sales.
It was hoped that the deal with Tengzhong, who specialises in making equipment for the road, construction and energy industries, would be able to utilise the Hummer for more 'down and dirty' purposes but Beijing allegedly refused to approve the purchase.
Plans for the Hummer under Tengzhong included focusing on improving efficiency in Hummer models by including the introduction of diesel engines.
So if you still want a vehicle that can drive through 30 inches of water, you'd better hurry up and get one now before they vanish for good.
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Timon Singh
Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.
Posted on 25 February 2010 | 9:06 am
Venture project to invest $3.5bn in start-ups
One of the major concerns surrounding the global economic crisis was the damage it could do to enterprise in the US, particularly in the tech sector. Technologists have been worrying for some time, even before recession hit, that the United States was falling behind in the global innovation stakes.
It has been evident for years that heavy investment in technology education and innovation by nations such as China and Taiwan has left America fighting tooth and nail to maintain its competitive edge.
Thus, Intel Corp. CEO Paul Otellini has just announced the company and a group of 24 venture firms are committing $3.5 billion to US technology companies over the next two years.
In a kind of Marshall Plan for the US tech economy, the Invest in America Alliance hopes to put American technology industry back at the sharp end of global innovation. A number of the world's largest tech firms are still US-based, such as Google, Microsoft and Intel itself, but the fears that began circulating a few years ago that the number of successful tech start-ups was starting to wain turned to full blown panic mode when the financial crisis hit.
"Investments in education and research"
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, are spearheading the venture with an investment of $200 million and in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington this week, Otellini expressed his personal concerns over the downward trend in the US technology industry:
"Unfortunately, long-term investments in education, research, digital technology and human capital have been steadily declining in the US.
"So, too, has the commitment to policies that made us such an entrepreneurial powerhouse for more than a century."
Other countries, including China, India, Taiwan, Finland, Korea and the Netherlands, have become "far more potent competitors in the next phase of the global economy," he said.
Another key aspect of the Alliance's plan is to create more jobs in the tech sector, as a result Google, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and 13 other employers pledged to add jobs in 2010 - specifically by hiring 10,500 graduates of American colleges, largely those with computer science and engineering degrees.
Less than ten percent of US graduates have degrees in engineering compared with over one-third in India and China, and foreign students returning home after gaining their degrees is also a growing problem.
Encouraging enterprise
Some huge companies, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock and DCM have promised to invest chunks of their funds in start-ups founded in the US.
But Intel have often proved to be the industry leader in stimulating activity and have singled out particular sub-sectors ripe for investment, including molecular diagnostics; bioinformatics; electric vehicle ecosystem and wireless infrastructure. Intel itself has made over 1,350 investments in US businesses totaling $6.2 billion over two decades.
Investing in start-ups, not just in the tech industry but across all sectors, leads to the creation of jobs and the encouragement of enterprise, both vital to stimulating a sustainable economic recovery and making America the patent capital of the world once more.
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Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 24 February 2010 | 9:19 am
Silicon Valley start ups, step up
One minute America is about to emerge from recession, the next Wall Street and Main Street start to wobble and the message comes from Washington to tighten our belts once again as we try to avoid a second dip into crisis.
But there is one place that has started giving out some positive vibes - Silicon Valley.
On February 10, the AP reported that Silicon Valley's economy took a pretty big hit during the global economic meltdown and predicted that it could have some trouble climbing out of the crisis unscathed.
The 2010 Index of Silicon Valley said the region is entering a "new phase of uncertainty" where job losses, a shrinking foreign talent pool, a drop in investments and state legislative gridlock could put its standing as the center of technology at risk.
Returning to relative normality
However it appears that the new kids on the block (or should I say, in the Valley) are doing their best to drag it back to relative normality, as Silicon Valley's start-up economy stepped up a gear.
Mercury News reports that within just two-weeks, a diverse group of start-ups raised a staggering $600 million in investments, topped by $350 million for Better Place, a Palo Alto company with a global vision for a 21st-century electric car battery-charging network. Meanwhile Tesla Motors, widely seen as the poster child for the infant electric car industry, filed for an initial public stock offering.
As a whole venture investments experienced an uptick nationwide in the final months of 2009, albeit only modestly, but the yearly total of $17.7 billion was a steep drop from $28 billion in venture investments in 2008 and $30.5 billion in 2009.
This essentially means that the art of fund raising will be made difficult through most of 2010, but news of this has so far failed to reach companies like QuinStreet, an Internet marketing firm based in Foster City, who earlier this month became the valley's first Wall Street debut of the year, raising $140 million despite an initial lukewarm response from investors.
Pessimism reigned
Investments in Cleanteach remain a relatively safe bet and will benefit companies like Tesla and thin-film solar panel manufacturer, Solyndra.
The number of IPO candidates in Silicon Valley still remains relatively low at just six, but this is encouraging after such an IPO famine over the last 24 months.
Since the economic crisis hit analysts and experts have had to realign their view of "normality", not just with Silicon Valley, but across the whole of the United States. The new look normal may well include a slight IPO rebound but will likely see far more mergers and acquisitions. But as the AP points out, "there are still a lot of great opportunities available for tech giants such as Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft, EMC, Oracle and HP", which have a history of growing through acquisition.
The new found optimism will help to breath new life into the Valley, where pessimism has reigned for far too long.
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Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 22 February 2010 | 9:57 am
Economy grows but unemployment will stay high
2010 should see the US economy gather strength after a torrid last two years as we really start to see the benefits of Obama's economic stimulus fund. However the Federal Reserve has warned that unemployment is likely to remain high throughout the year.
In its latest forecast, the Fed said that the economy would expand between 2.8 percent and 3.5 percent in 2010, better than its previous estimate of 2.5percent to 3.5 percent.
Yet the unemployment rate is expected to remain between 9.5 percent and 9.7 percent in 2010, easing to 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent next year. President Obama has repeatedly said throughout the start of this year that many American families are still struggling to make ends meet.
Millions struggling
"Millions of Americans are still without jobs, millions more are struggling to make ends meet," said the president.
"It doesn't yet feel like much of a recovery. I understand that."
The US officially exited recession towards the end of last year but companies and consumers remain reluctant to expand their spending habits after the nation has been advised by experts and top officials to remain cautious as the US tries to avoid a "W"-shaped economy.
The most recent official figures showed that the US unemployment rate in January was 9.7 percent, slightly down from 10 percent in December, which has given people room for a little more optimism but the Fed themselves have insisted it will take "some time" for things to return to relative normality for the both the jobs market and the economy in general.
Job-creation schemes
"The pace of the economic recovery will be restrained by household and business uncertainty, only gradual improvement in labour market conditions, and a slow easing of credit conditions in the banking sector", the Fed predicted.
Job-creation schemes have been a priority for Washington, with $179 billion being spent so far on increasing government projects such as road-building schemes, job training initiatives.
In addition, $93 billion worth of tax cuts for both individuals and companies have been issued.
Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 18 February 2010 | 9:57 am
How the recession remade manufacturing
There are many, many reasons to be fearful during a recession. Much of the population sits and waits nervously for the red numbers to turn green as they watch the television bring more news of businesses folding and entire industries teetering on the edge of collapse.
But a recession can also serve to keep a nation's economy dynamic. The threat of going out of business forces companies to shift focus and diversify capacity. The most recent recession, the worst in living memory, has reshaped US industry as companies increase capacity in some areas and cut it in others.
The Federal Reserve has released figures that show how a number of sectors, including semi-conductors and plastics and rubber products, have changed capacity through contraction and expansion over the course of the recession.
The figures basically translate that firms with commodity - or close to commodity - products have "closed US capacity and moved oversea", as Seeking Alpha's Gad Allon explains. Where a company moves operations to is often indicative of where the majority of that particular market now lies.
US manufacturing base being "remade"
The example given by Allon is of Huntsman Corp, a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals, which has been expanding its production of basic chemicals in China and the Middle East in part because that is where they are being used. What it has left in the US focuses on industries such as aviation.
From this it is appropriate to conclude that the US manufacturing base is being "remade", as Allon puts it.
The flexibility of US manufacturing is the main reason behind it being one sector that has emerged from the recession relatively strongly, because even though many firms did choose to transfer operations overseas a lot of companies would still rather produce domestically - the semiconductor production industry falls under this category. But again, that's because the market is in the US with US-based design centers of major chip users like computer maker Dell and consumer-electronics makers like Apple.
Sustainable economic correction
This report arrives just as news circulates about how the manufacturing sector is largely responsible for the US economy correcting in a sustainable fashion. RBS point out that on both sides of the Atlantic the recovery appears to be gaining a firmer foothold in the manufacturing sector than in the larger service sector.
Furthermore, outlook for US employment became a bit less bleak with January's unexpected decline in the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7 per cent from 10 per cent as more people said they had jobs. The manufacturing sector added jobs for the first time since January 2007 and its gain of 11,000 jobs was the most since April 2006.
However the majority of firms in highly productive industries that are keeping operations within US borders tend to be companies whose manufacturing entails little human labor or is highly complex. This means the prospect of a significant recovery in the job market still remains some distance away.
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Daniel Jones
Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.
Posted on 9 February 2010 | 9:57 am
Super Bowl: Amazing Non-Football Stats
Consistently one of the most watched TV events in the US broadcasting schedule, the Super Bowl is an American institution, regularly reaching a viewing audience of over 160 million. Last year, Super Bowl XLIII was the most watched game in the history of the event and this year's predicted viewing figures of 168 million.
However, in the aftermath of the game which saw the New Orleans Saints triumph over the Indianapolis Colts, it is easy to forget that, among the touchdowns, kicks and transfer fees, how much the event actually generates for the US economy.
Of course, one of the most well-known facts about the Super Bowl is the cost of advertising space, with film companies and other firms this year having to spend $3 million for a 30 second advert. However, the size of the audience that these companies are able to reach isn't lost of them and even the more mundane groups have realised the benefits - after all, a recent survey revealed that 24.3 percent of viewers watch for the ads and that 7.1 percent say the commercials influence them to buy the products shown. As such, the Census Bureau spent $2.5 million to air one 30-second Super Bowl ad this year.
However, one day of Super Bowl madness generates the US economy an estimated $8.9 billion with the average viewer spending $52.63 on food, merchandise, apparel and other game-related purchases. Not just that, but the sheer amount of money bet on the game (officially) was estimated to be between $80 million and $85 million according to the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Massive income and outcome
Of course like all successful businesses, the Super Bowl is a mega-franchise made up of numerous individual smaller franchises. The two teams that featured in this year's final are individually worth close to a billion dollars each, with the estimated franchise value of the New Orleans Saints said to be around $942 million (pre-Super Bowl win. Expect that to now rise dramatically). Meanwhile, the value of the Colts was (also pre-Super Bowl) said to be worth $1.025 billion.
The high salaries of football players is well documented and as such, these two teams have annual payrolls of between $100-120 million. In fact, some of the players are paid so much, a pound of their weight earns as much as the average US citizen does in a year.
To explain, the total weight of Saints' starting defensive line is 1,167 pounds. The starting defensive line's combined salary is approximately $18.8 million - that's $16,110 per pound of Saints' defender. In comparison, a pound of premium Tajima Kobe beef Chateaubriand steak found in New York's top restaurants costs $320.
However, these figures go up even further with lucrative sponsorship deals. While it may be no huge surprise to learn that these teams earn as much as they do, fans would be more shocked to learn that since the first Super Bowl in 1967, ticket prices have risen by over 22,225 percent. In comparison, the average US home price has risen 'only' 999 percent.
Of course, it's not just about the players and teams. One of the joys of the Super Bowl is kicking back for a Sunday with friends and family while drinking and eating during the game. As such, Domino's projects that the number of pizza slices they would sell this weekend would top nine million while, for the more healthier fan, avocado sales - due to guacamole making - would top 160 million according to the California Avocado Commission.
So no matter who win, and despite the amazing facts and figures regarding player fees, it is clear that Super Bowl Sunday continues to be a massive draw for Americans nationwide - the 32 million people that will throw a Superbowl party this year are a testament to that... not to mention the 59 million that will be attending one.
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Posted on 8 February 2010 | 5:04 am
US jobs on their way back
After pretty much two years of misery for America's workforce, which saw the percentage of people out of work hitting double figures, there may finally be some light at the end of the tunnel for the US job market.
US nonfarm payrolls are set to move back into positive territory in 2010, and perhaps as early as January, with the 5 February release of the month's employment report. Hiring for the US Census is the main reason behind the uptick, but economists will be more concerned with private payroll figures when it comes to gauging the sustainability of job growth into second half of 2010.
The US cannot climb out of the economic darkness unless the current double-digit unemployment figure falls significantly. And if this recovery is to be sustained, those lucky enough to have a regular job need to have the peace of mind that their security is exactly that - secure.
Kickstart job creation
President Obama is desperate to kickstart job creation with the rollout of the Small Business Lending Fund. With $30 billion transferred from the TARP account, the president hopes to entice some 8000 banks with assets of $10 billion or less to open their loan offices and put more money in the hands of small-business owners.
The money is desperately needed to fund capital projects and to patch short-term holes in cash flow.
But before all this, it has been the Obama administration's Economic Stimulus Fund that has been largely responsible for getting the ball rolling on job creation. Even though the almost $800 billion fund has increased the nation's deficit, it was entirely necessary for the long-term well-being of the job market.
Just this week US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner argued that record deficit spending was essential to reviving a sluggish US labour market.
Testifying before the Senate's Finance Committee, Geithner defended the administration's $3.8 trillion dollar budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which was unveiled Monday and criticized by conservatives for not doing enough to tackle growing debt levels.
"Our deficits, as everybody says, are alarmingly high," Geithner said.
Perilous debt levels
He went on to emphasize that "our priority now though has to be to make sure this economy is growing and getting people back to work."
President Barack Obama's budget proposed about $100 billion in new stimulus measures designed to bring down the US unemployment rate from its current quarter-century high of 10 percent.
But Geithner goes on to acknowledge that the perilous debt levels would have to be brought under control in the coming years. He and other lawmakers on both sides emphasized the importance of lowering those debt levels over time, but disagreed on the pace and tactics.
"The budget illustrates the fiscal perils our country faces," Republican Senator Charles Grassley said, arguing Obama's proposals would depress economic growth by raising taxes on businesses and wealthier Americans, as reported by DPA International.
No-one can argue the fact that Obama did the right thing by focusing his budget on reviving the labour market, now let's hope the economy works hard enough to start putting right the deficit problems.
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Posted on 3 February 2010 | 9:56 am
Spending freeze could hurt Obama
President Barack Obama looks set to call for a three-year spending freeze aimed at reining in America's ever increasing budget deficit.
The deficit now stands at $1.4 trillion with Obama facing fierce criticism for the amount of government spending since taking office just over a year ago. Much of the spending was a result of his $800 billion economic stimulus package that was intended to heave the US out of recession, and whereas this was a bitter pill to swallow because of how much it added to the nation's deficit, many analysts feel the economic infrastructure could have totally collapsed without it.
Officials say the proposal would be a major component both of Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress next week for the fiscal year that begins in October.
$250 billion taken off the deficit
The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.
Security and defence spending, foreign aid, social security and spending on health care for the poor and retired would be exempt.
However the Washington Post reports this will shave no more than $15 billion off next year's projected deficit of well above $1 trillion. Over the next decade however, President Obama insists the move could see a further $250 billion taken off the deficit.
There are plenty of political risks as well as potential benefits to this decision.
Obama plans to leave military spending untouched, appeasing many of those on the right and even some in the Republican camp. Yet the freeze will leave many popular domestic programs vulnerable. This will upset senior liberal Democrats in Congress who are already disillusioned by the possible collapse of the health reform bill and the recent deployment of even more troops in Afghanistan.
A family in tough times
But one administration official said it was like a family in tough times deciding on its budget.
"That's the decision-making process the president and the economic team went through," Associated Press quoted the unnamed official as saying.
"It's the very same process American families have gone through for the past several years," he added.
So in conclusion, many people are criticising the spending freeze for the programs and policies it may place in danger, but others (mostly Republicans) are critical of the cut for not being sufficient enough.
But cuts had to be made somewhere. Heavy initial outlays were highly necessary to avoid economic catastrophe in the US, but as Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, puts it, "given Washington Democrats' unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you're going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest."
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Posted on 26 January 2010 | 9:55 am
Are foreigners to blame for the global recession?
Since the global financial crisis hit, one of the easiest things for financial analysts, market experts and industry spectators to do was to point the finger. The generic term "greedy bankers" was used to throw a blanket over those involved in the US financial sector as the collapse of Fannie and Freddie sent the rest of the world tumbling.
However new research by economist Ricardo Caballero has found that 'foreigners' may have been the driving force behind one of the worst recessions in living memory.
Time magazine reports that Caballero, the head of MIT's economics department, has deflected part of the blame away from careless American bankers and regulators, instead choosing to accuse countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Canada for pumping way too much cash into the American system.
"There is no doubt that the pressure on the US financial system [that led to the financial crisis] came from abroad," says Caballero, adding that foreign investors created a "demand for assets that was difficult for the US financial sector to produce. All they wanted were safe assets, and [their ensuing purchases] made the US unsafe."
The system is broken
Many analysts and experts look to the real estate sector and its "sub-prime mortgages" for causing the first domino to fall, encouraging very high risk mortgage applications. Most of the Banking system has repeatedly been accused of ignoring its responsibility to monitor the credit worthiness of mortgage applicants. These worthless debt instruments were then passed on to Wall Street, separating them up into billions-of-dollars worth of of highly questionable securities - Collateralized Debt Obligations.
The Bush administration has also shouldered a large chunk of the blame for its slack regulation of the banking system because, in theory, under the US system of checks and balances, if the cognizant federal agencies continued to screw up, then Congressional oversight should have kicked in to fix any problems.
But this has long been broken.
"Safe haven" for foreign investors
All of this has contributed to making the US a "safe haven" for foreign investors who bought the bonds of mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in turn serving to fuel the housing bubble.
Ohio State University professor René Stulz, explains, "Investors looking for safe investments in the U.S. created a demand for new products that caused our financial system to work differently from how it had worked in the past and to become more fragile in ways that were not well understood at the time."
The world had an insatiable appetite for safe debt instruments, a demand that the US felt compelled to provide lots of nice triple-A-rated securitized bonds, that when the real estate bubble finally, and spectacularly popped, mass panic ensued, and the US was left holding the bag for much of the risk.
What Caballero is saying is that US lawmakers and bankers are simply two in a whole load of contributing factors, and that fixing the US financial system in order to prevent a similar crisis happening again is only part of the answer.
Fixing the supply side of US economics
Foreign investors, he says, need to change their behavior as well. Specifically, Caballero believes the US needs to encourage foreign governments to hold a range of US investments, instead of just funneling all of their money into Treasuries or mortgage bonds.
It is quite true that attending to the supply side of American economics is the only real way to make the US financial system more resilient to shocks.
As Caballero himself puts it, "There is a crack in the US financial system, but it's important to ask where the water that caused the crack came from."
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Posted on 20 January 2010 | 10:02 am
Business TV: The way to get ahead in business
Books, seminars and conferences are still valuable mediums through which to sell your business ideas. But there is now a far more effective way to reach the people that matter and make sure your ideas are not only heard, but heeded - business TV.
MeetTheBoss TV is the new way for executives to access exclusive video and audio lessons from the world's most innovative and influential business leaders. From visionary entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 CEOs, MeetTheBoss TV interviews focus on the business challenges that matter today, clearly explaining the solutions, competitive strategies, people, and thinking around them.
You only have to look at the people who have already seen the value of business TV and have shared their expertise with this new online business channel - Herbert Hainer, Chairman and CEO of Adidas, Jeff Hayzlett, Kodak's CMO and VP and CIO for Coca-Cola, Esat Sezer, to name but a few.
Thought provoking and career enhancing advice
By focusing on the business challenges that matter and identifying both the symptoms and the solutions, MeetTheBoss TV aims to provide users with the tools to become the complete executive.
"We hope to provide a resource for business professionals to access information from leading executives that they simply would not be able to access through conventional social media or anywhere else," says Adam Burns, senior editor at MeetTheBoss TV.
"Programs can be watched whole, or topic; on the desktop, laptop or Smartphone. Delivering value quickly for the time-poor exec, wherever they are," he added.
Thought provoking and career enhancing advice of such incredible quality has never been this accessible, this immediate, or this free.
MeetTheBoss TV launches today!
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Posted on 18 January 2010 | 1:47 am
Wal-Mart: The biggest company on the planet
In 1951 Sam Walton opened the Walton's Five and Dime discount store in Benton, Arkansas. The small family run business enjoyed moderate success in its early years, with little hint that it would spawn the world's largest public corporation by revenue.
Even today its headquarters in the north-west of Arkansas hardly suggests that Wal-Mart is little more than a modest family-run enterprise, consisting of a collection of prefabricated buildings next to a four-lane highway hundreds of miles away from the nearest big city. But as Warren Buffett demonstrates with his minimalist approach to running Berkshire Hathaway, the most profitable businesses can be built and run from the most modest foundations.
The Wal-Mart retail empire now spans over 8000 stores in 15 countries generating annual revenue in excess of $401 billion. The next retailer that even comes close to Wal-Mart's annual sales figures is French hypermarket chain Carrefour, at $124 billion.
Spreading a global message
Far from everybody's favourite brand, Wal-Mart insist they are on the side of hard-working families who need to save every penny they can - and the company have embarked on a mission to spread this message globally - but the company has been hounded by controversy.
In the last five years Wal-Mart has been hit by a brutal onslaught of lawsuits, intense criticism and a plummeting stock price that have resulted in a re-invention of the world's biggest retailer.
In its native North America, Wal-Mart is fiercely anti-union making it understandably unpopular within the industry, but the sheer size of the company means it can afford to brush any unwelcome opposition within the ranks under the carpet. As reported by UK newspaper the Guardian, when, in a rare case in 2005, workers at a Quebecois Wal-Mart store voted in favor of collective representation the company simply closed it down arguing the location was "unprofitable".
Overseas it has proven to be more flexible as a means of necessity, working with unions in Argentina, Brazil and China.
Downward pressure on wages
Unions detest Wal-Mart not only because of its refusal to recognise them in North America, but because of the intense "downward pressure" the company puts on wages. Discrimination against female and elderly staff also account for many of the blotches on Wal-Mart's record and the company also have a reputation for putting smaller local shops out of businesses.
Spokeswoman for Wake Up Wal-Mart, a pan-union campaign group, accuses the company of exploitation. She argues that Wal-Mart have not "shared their wealth".
Much of this wealth is instead used to expand the enterprise abroad as the company spent $4.1 billion on international expansion in the year to January 2009 and expects to spend a further $4.4 billion in the current fiscal year.
The investment is paying off, and many analysts believe much of the success overseas is due to the fact that people are unaware they are shopping in an America multinational retail chain.
Squeezing every penny
But Wal-Mart's desperation to drive down store prices means the firm opts to squeeze every penny out of its suppliers. And as Michael Bride, deputy overseas director at the Food & Commercial Workers Union, explains, "If you're a Chinese supplier and Wal-Mart is pressing you down, you probably can't go and negotiate your electricity rates or your rent down. But you can cut costs when it comes to labour."
This is a real problem for Wal-Mart. Investigations by human rights groups into overseas operations, particularly in China, have found "illegal and degrading conditions", with workers required to work 24-hour shifts for less than 44 cents an hour.
Although Wal-Mart have insisted they will start an immediate internal investigation into the findings, huge numbers of people remain concerned over how the company do business.
The success of free enterprise
Looking to the future, Wal-Mart have insisted on universally higher standards of working conditions for its staff while also promising a more environmentally conscious philosophy. For example under a newly launched "sustainability index," Wal-Mart's suppliers must report to the company on their greenhouse gas emissions, waste reduction initiatives and ethical sourcing.
With a company the size of Wal-Mart's questions will always remain over the way it operates, especially as it looks to further expand around the globe. While it remains a glowing example of the success of the free enterprise system, Wal-Mart will have to work extremely hard to change the growing sentiment that it will stop at nothing to achieve even greater global domination of the retail market.
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Posted on 14 January 2010 | 9:46 am
Google vs. China
On paper, when Google China opened in 2005, it made perfect sense. The world's largest internet search facility starting operations in the world's largest internet market. But there was always going to be problems.
Google's success relies heavily on the users freedom to search for whatever they like, and in turn companies pay Google millions of dollars for the privilege of having billions of eyes looking at there brand.
But in China, a communist state heavily weighed down by excessive government censorship across all communication mediums, especially the internet, Google effectively had their wings clipped. Prior to the formation of Google China, Google.com itself was accessible around 90 percent of the time, but a number of its services were not accessible due to censorship.
Since announcing that it would comply with internet censorship laws in the People's Republic of China, Google China has succumbed to the Great Firewall of China (officially known as the "Golden Shield Project") establishing self-imposed censorship that has led to much controversy and widespread criticism of the internet search giant.
Last year the firm's YouTube site was blocked by the Chinese government for at least three days after Tibet's government-in-exile released a video on March 20 that it said showed Chinese police beating protesters.
Head-to-head conflict
But now recent news suggests Google Inc. are in the midst of a head-to-head conflict with the Chinese government and are even said to be considering pulling the plug on its website in the communist state, after discovering a "highly sophisticated" attack last month aimed at gaining access to e-mail accounts of human-rights activists.
For companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google itself, censorship has always been conceded as the "price to pay" for doing business in China, but the latest events have provoked the California-based tech giant into drawing the line.
For Google to even contemplate taking such drastic measures the attack must have been "large in scope and very penetrating," James Mulvenon an expert on Chinese cyberwarfare capabilities told the New York Times. China's internet audience has already climbed from 10 million to nearly 340 million in the past decade, of which Google are thought to have over a 30 percent share.
China's lack of free speech
Google said the attack itself is said to have targeted at least 20 other large companies in industries such as finance, technology, media and chemicals. The company also said it plans to stop censoring results on its Google.cn site and hold talks with Chinese authorities.
Google said the sophisticated attack, which occurred in the middle of December, originated in China and resulted in intellectual property being stolen from the company.
Google said two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed as part of the attack. The information gathered was limited to account information, such as the date the account was created, as well as the subject lines of e-mails, Google said. The contents of e-mails were not exposed.
Can Google ever return to China?
The company added that dozens of Gmail accounts owned by advocates of human rights in the US, China and Europe were also accessed through phishing scams or malware.
In a statement Google said: "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."
Although the company are a "long way from getting out of China" according to FBR Capital Markets, it does signal that Google may be ready to follow its own "Don't be evil" motto a little more closely.
But a move out of China, although being ethically admirable, may be a significant business risk due to the fact that with Google gone, Baidu can swallow up the free business, giving it a potential 90 percent internet market share.
This will make it extremely difficult for Google ever to return to China.
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Posted on 13 January 2010 | 9:36 am
Print, phone, web, sale.
With today's smartphones, shoppers can have their very own hand-held barcode reader. But they don't necessarily need to be walking from place to place checking the price of the items they desire, all you may need is a magazine.
The print medium has been experimenting for more than a decade with barcodes and icons capable of taking readers to web sites as they try to compete with the interactivity of online and mobile advertising.
As the New York Times reports the sudden ubiquity of smartphones, which have apps that can read barcodes, and camera phones, which can easily take a picture of icons (pictured), magazines like Esquire and InStyle are adding interactive graphics to their articles, while Entertainment Weekly and Star are including them in ads.
Only last month, there were reports of plans to build barcode scanning software into every single smartphone and digital camera so that a quick photo of a product can immediately take the user to a website.
Not a new idea
On 2 December 2009 NeoMedia Technologies, Inc. announced that Sony Ericsson has selected NeoMedia as its strategic 2D barcode partner, Sony Ericsson will begin shipping phones pre-loaded with NeoMedia's NeoReader barcode scanning application globally in the first half of this year and pre-installed across all Sony Ericsson platforms.
But the idea is far from new. Ten years ago a company called Digital:Convergence introduced a product called the :CueCat that could print pages with barcodes, which readers could then scan to be sent to a particular website. From there they could be connected with the specific item they were interested in.
But nowadays there is no need for such clunk, long-winded software when everyone can have a barcode scanner in their pocket. And even thought he technology has moved on the obstacles remain the same - educating users on how to use the technology correctly.
More simplified technology
ScanLife, a smartphone application widely available as a free download, allows people to easily scan barcodes, in a print magazine for example, but there is a shared sentiment within the industry that American consumers will need more than a simple link to a web page in order to use the technology regularly.
As yet the decision made by publications such as Esquire has been to use the scanning system in editorial pages rather than in ads, with David Granger, Esquire's editor in chief, explaining that he wants "editorial to lead, to show advertisers they are supporting it, because there is an educational component necessary."
Other more simplified technology requires a standard camera phone, where readers can snap photos of ringed logos next to an image, called SnapTags, then text or e-mail them to a certain address. This has a wider reach because it allows users to get to grips with similar technology to that of ScanLife even if they don't have a smartphone.
Rejuvenation in print media
"You really reduce a person's ability to engage if you force them to go to a Web site or download an app," said Nicole Skogg, chief executive of Denver-based SpyderLynk.
This camera phone technology has so far been used by publications such as Everyday Food, Entertainment Weekly and Star Magazine.
This sort of technology makes it easy for publications and advertisers to track reader interest and is therefore highly valuable, perhaps giving the print medium a new lease of life in the ever more digital world.
Image: The New York Times
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Posted on 12 January 2010 | 7:18 am
US trade deficit climbs unexpectedly
It's early days but the initial signs are not looking good for the US economy. Last week it was revealed that a surprise rise in US job losses had occurred over December as employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs, and now it's been announced the US trade deficit widened sharply in towards the end of 2009.
Over November the trade gap increased ironically as a result of the recovering economy as demand for imported goods was boosted to its highest in almost a year.
The BBC reports that the deficit grew to $36.4 billion, up 9.7 percent from an upwardly revised figure of $33.2 billion in October.
The November deficit was bigger than Wall Street expectations for a $34.7 billion shortfall.
Straight months of gain
While exports have registered seven straight months of gains as economic growth has returned, the rise in oil prices has brought the trade deficit back up. After a temporary dip in October, oil imports rebounded in November.
Imports totalled $174.6 billion, up by 2.6 percent from the previous month, while exports totalled $138.2 billion, up 0.9 percent.
The poor state of the US dollar helped boost exports, especially to China where the trade gap is watched extremely closely by analysts. It narrowed to $20.2 billion from $22.7 billion in October.
Increased demand for industrial material and consumer goods was responsible for the large hike in imports, a rise so steep in fact that it easily offset a fall in demand for foods and cars.
Imports and exports increased
Economists were encouraged by the fact that both imports and exports increased.
"The big news is continued and sustained growth in trade volume, signalling recovery both in the US and among major US trading partners," said Christopher Cornell, at Moody's Economy.com.
The growth in US trade deficit brings with it mixed signals as the widening gap also signifies a domestic economic recovery. But a full recovery will be extremely slow in coming, and 2010 may bring more despair before we see genuine hope.
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Posted on 12 January 2010 | 2:29 am
China auto market the largest in the world
The US auto-making industry took a big hit during the financial crisis, prompting Washington to establish the "cash for clunkers" scheme that saved the sector from going under. However, it wasn't enough to prevent America being overtaken as the world's largest producer of vehicles in 2009.
China sold more than 13.5 million vehicles in 2009, the official Xinhua news agency said today, overtaking the United States to become the world's largest auto market as the communist government's own stimulus policy spurred demand after the financial crisis hit.
New car sales in the US fell more than 20 percent in 2009 to a 27-year low of 10.43 million vehicles, and China's own figures came well above the 10 million in vehicle sales that Beijing had originally targeted for 2009.
Turnaround in the auto industry
The news signals a huge turnaround in the global auto industry that has been led by the Big Three Detroit companies since Ford introduced the world's first conveyor belt system in 1913. The market also shrank due to production cutbacks at General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC following their filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier in the year.
In 2009 Toyota outsold GM in the US market for the first time, excluding fleet sales, with retail sales of around 1.61 million cars, while third-ranked Ford saw its US sales fall 15.3 percent to 1.62 million units.
But it also reflects a similar global trend across all sectors as US dominance has slid downwards after its banks kick-started a world-wide recession at the end of 2007.
Industry observers attributed China's strong auto sales largely to government policy initiatives, which had effectively lifted market sentiment and attracted buyers back to showrooms, as reported by Reuters.
Bleak global economy
A low comparative base in 2008, when car sales growth slowed to a single-digit rate for the first time in at least 10 years, also helped inflate the 2009 rate.
Much to the frustration of Washington, China has remained a bright spot in an otherwise bleak global economy amid recession and has surprisingly become a safe haven for the very US car-makers it made pay in 2009, such as GM and Ford Motor.
America's domestic car industry is expected to recover slowly in 2010 with the help of further assistance from President Obama's administration.
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Posted on 8 January 2010 | 2:11 am
Ten Years of JetBlue
JetBlue is running this poster in the New York Times today to celebrate its tenth year of flying. It’s good to see a company that has paid so much attention to customer service and experience reach this milestone, especially in a decade that has been particularly hard on airlines.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 12:08 pm
Presentation at GDC on the State of the Social Gaming Industry
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Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:58 am
Brizzly's iPhone app looks nice
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Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:58 am
I'm for anything that creates less paper -- go Expensify
via readwriteweb.com "Users can associate a credit card with their account for automatic tracking of purchases, and Expensify will create electronic versions of the receipt, eliminating the need for paper receipt hoarding." [Chris Cameron @ReadWriteStart] Permalink | Leave a comment »
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:57 am
Rick Mahn & Albert Maruggi - Road Trippin' with Tungle.me and Social Media Breakfast
***This is the first of a series of guest blog posts by Rick Mahn and Albert Maruggi, who are taking a Tungle-sponsored roadtrip to SxSW and scheduling meetups using Tungle.me along the way.*** It’s official, Social Media Breakfast - Minneapolis/St....
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 9:51 am
How My Blog Reading is Changing
In the spirit of how my Twitter usage is changing in 2010, so too is my overall online learning changing. Take blogs. I used to read certain blogs — by person and subject — religiously. I used to comment on their blogs whenever I was inspired, and it was often. I used to click their suggested links [...] -- Thank you for reading How My Blog Reading is Changing at AriWriter Related posts:Why I Unsubscribed From Every BlogHow I ...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 9:49 am
BizTechTalk Briefs 03/10/2010
mite.blog. Facts & figures: The first 20 months of our small SaaS start-up going for premium-only instead of freemium Great writeup by a German SaaS start-up - demonstrating their twist on the freemium model (30-day fully functional trial, instead of...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 7:08 am
Text Killed the Multi-Media Star
Recently it occurred to me that video and (to some extent audio) has become a less important requirement for most of my web content management clients these days. If I were to extrapolate the interest trend I was seeing back in 2004, I would expect to see the web resemble billions of tiny television [...] Related posts:Public Media 2007.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame {...First Magnolia ...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 6:07 am
Google’s Chief Economist On What Newspapers Need To Do + A Few Thoughts
I don’t think anyone doubts Varian’s view that only very specialized content will draw consumers in enough to where they’ll pay. The experimentation is taking place, albeit it seems only sparse. Most news organizations appear to have implemented some form of user-generated content by now, but sadly that’s just not enough. Did [...]
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:13 am
The "Know" Profile: Q&A
This entry is part 11 of 12 in the series Creating Social Media Value My post “The Emergence of the “Know” Profile” stirred numerous responses. Within these responses, and the subsequent dialog within the blogosphere , came many questions and perceptions as to the validity of someday actualizing the “know” profile as described. Given this exchange I thought it would be worthy to examine some of the relevant issues raised and address ...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:06 am
Making Micro-Services Markets Within the Enterprise
Here is an interesting idea. Marc Andersen, my former Renaissance colleague, posted recently on his blog on applying "product service systems" to corporate environments. He was inspired by a Boston Globe article, The Leased Life, on how people should share...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:01 am
Google's Chief Economist Hal Varian's FTC Preso
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 7:48 pm
Apple Loves Buttons
The running joke every time Apple releases a new product, or removes buttons from an existing one, is that the company hates buttons. Cameron Hunt suggests the opposite: Would you say to someone, “Wow, you must hate dogs. You only have one. You enjoy his company and playing with him, but seriously, only one? What do [...]
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 12:53 pm
Are You Afraid Of Google? Video Explains Why Some Are
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 6:39 am
The Network Security Podcast, Episode 188
Can you hear that? That’s the sound of air escaping as we all finally recover from the RSA conference. Rich and Martin are back, and Zach… never left (but did celebrate a birthday last week). We do a quick recap of RSA and then dig into the security news… much of which had nothing to [...]
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 9:11 pm
RSAC2010: Sourcefire
Snort was one of the first security tools I ever used. When I was working in a small computer lab years ago, I set up a Snort sensor just to see what was there. And there was a lot in that particular environment. I’ve used it many times since then and I found out at [...]
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 8:19 pm
RSAC2010: ISC2
I’ve been a member of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium [(ISC)2] for nearly a decade; I passed my CISSP test in November of 2002 and don’t have to worry much about CPE’s until at least 2011. So when I was offered an opportunity to talk to Hord Tipton, Executive Director of the (ISC)2, [...]
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 7:33 am
RSAC2010: Kaspersky Lab
It’s hard doing interviews on the showroom floor at RSAC. Even the relatively quiet places are incredibly noisy when you get right down to it. The good thing is it hopefully masked the worst of my mispronunciation of Roel Schouwenberg’s name. Roel is the Senior Anti-Virus Researcher at Kaspersky Lab and spent some time talking [...]
Posted on 7 March 2010 | 6:46 pm
RSAC2010: Astaro Internet Security
Jan Hichert, CEO of Astaro Internet Security, and I met in one of the quieter hallways of the 2010 RSA Convention. Of course, ‘quiet’ is a relative term when it comes to RSA, but the audio came out acceptable in any case. We talked about several of the new products Astaro is offering this year, [...]
Posted on 7 March 2010 | 9:47 am
RSAC2010: F-Secure
While I’m sure Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure, is getting as tired as hearing the term APT* as the rest of us are, he had some insight into what’s really happening with this threat and the fact that it’s not something new, it’s just the acknowledgment that it’s happening that’s new. He’s been [...]
Posted on 6 March 2010 | 8:22 am
Network Security Podcast, Episode 187
Note: Rich and I were kind of busy this week, so we let Zach run with the podcast. Now I have to go back and listen myself to hear what was said. I’ve been told I shouldn’t be worried, but… Martin and Rich are away at RSA — and I’m all alone. Well, actually, I have [...]
Posted on 6 March 2010 | 7:43 am
RSAC2010: Panda Security
I caught up with Pedro Bustamante, Senior Research Analyst from Panda Security, for a brief interview about what his company is doing in 2010. Panda recently received ICSA Lab certification of their cloud AV product, which required some retooling of the ICSA processes. Panda is releasing a new, free, no-registration version of their product as [...]
Posted on 6 March 2010 | 7:10 am
RSAC2010: ICSA Labs
One of the things I don’t believe we see enough of in the security field is independent testing. Vendors of all stripes make claims about what their products do, and without independent testing it’s hard to tell if they’re the cream of the crop or a bad apple. ICSA Labs is one of the few [...]
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 7:59 am
RSAC2010: Mark Bower, Voltage Security
As a PCI QSA, one of the big technologies I’m looking at this show is end-to-end encryption (E2EE). So it’s no surprise that my first interview of RSA 2010 is with Mark Bower, the Director of Information Protection Solutions at Voltage Security. We talk about what E2EE is, how it will affect merchants and what [...]
Posted on 2 March 2010 | 9:47 am
Guest Case File Alert: How A Laptop Bankrupted a Millionaire
Hi everyone, I know you're all frothing at the mouth for the final installments of the Tenacious Timelord casefile - however, it's still not ready. I really do apologize, but I'm up to my ears in work right now. To hold you over and to further my desire to entertain and educate, I wanted to introduce you to the work of Drew Janssen over at Drive Rescue,
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:27 pm
Presenting the Customer Care Implementation Plan
To prepare the final deliverable and presentation material to the Acceptor. Secure Sign Off The Customer Care Implementation Plan is confirmed with the Acceptor by packaging the interim deliverables and presenting the findings to the Acceptor. Spe...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:03 pm
Oracle DB for system administrators - part2
This serie of posts is intended to give kickstart overview on oracle database for system administrators. For more deep knowledge please consult oracle documentation
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:51 pm
TIBCO rolls out Spotfire 3.1 with spotlight on predictive analytics
TIBCO says its software is not just for analytics gurus but also marketing professionals, business development managers and others who need forward-looking business intelligence in a hurry.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:40 pm
Creating and Maintaining a Windows 7 Image using Virtual PC on Windows 7 - Part 2 of 3 - Step by Step
Creating and Maintaining a Windows 7 Image using Virtual PC on Windows 7 Part 2 of 3 Step by Step Published on 09 March 2010 by lynn lunik Detailed Screen Captures of Steps Below: I am using several steps to demonstrate how to create, use and maintain
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:40 pm
Creating and Maintaining a Windows 7 Image using Virtual PC on Windows 7 - Part 1 of 3 - Step by Step
Creating and Maintaining a Windows 7 Image using Virtual PC on Windows 7 Part 1 of 3 Step by Step Published on 04 March 2010 by lynn lunik DETAILED SCREEN CAPTURES OF STEPS BELOW: 1 One method of making available a Windows 7 Workstation Image is
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:35 pm
Adobe Interactive Forms - Helpful Hints when starting out
Here are a handful of configuration tips that I've compiled to make things a little easier and clearer while creating your forms.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:10 am
Top ten reasons YOU should be doing S&OP - Part 2
Yesterday, I gave you a list of 5 reasons you should be doing Sales and Operations Planning; allow me to finish my top 10 list 1. Alignment 2. Decision Making 3. Visibility 4. Finance Integration 5. New Product Introduction 6. Responsiveness Responsiveness you ask? Sales
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 9:00 am
Selecting a Customer Care Solution Package
Evaluate and select an application package solution to fulfill the needs of the customer care strategy for the organization. Specific objectives include: · selecting candidate packages, · establishing evaluation criteria and developing an eva...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:52 am
Easy File Encryption
Windows passwords are all too easy to crack, and malware can give the wrong people access to your system. You need to encrypt your key files and passwords, but that can be a lot easier than it sounds with these very simple tools. Windows Vista and Windows 7 contain a built-in drive encryption tool, BitLocker, that's well worth exploring if you're using a laptop or otherwise might need full disk
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:49 am
It’s Patch Tuesday (3/9) again!
Looks like this months updates are relatively minor compared to last month. You may notice that there is no patch for the Dont press F1"! security exposure . Here are some decent links that we may have a chance of understanding. Needless to ...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:17 am
Possibly the best suite of utilities out there!!
Most techies and network admins are aware of a group of programs written by Sysinternals. This was a group that MS bought a four years ago. Fortunately, they appear to have let the group continue to work on and improve the programs. They include ...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:11 am
How The 4 P's of Project Failure trip up Technology Projects
Learned a lesson about teamwork and engagement recently. Not sure how to share it here. But it's really important to get all the stakeholders engaged. This is something I'm grappling with. The stakes are high. Technology...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:57 am
Sample ‘Supplement Payment Admin & Mgmt System’ Test Plan
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Scope and Objectives The System Test will verify that the functionality of the Supplement Paymen...
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 8:59 pm
The 3 communication levels
Today topic is a "communication model based on three levels" Generally speaking when you have a power-based role, you can easily enforce behavioral changes just leveraging the power position. Although I would not recommend to do that too frequently, in the very beginning or for rapid changes this approach is quite effective. On the long term, however, you should play a more influential
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 6:14 pm
A Race Towards Pervasive Analytics
Analytics on corporate data will also become pervasive. Companies are demanding this. The analytics will be contextual, as this is required for analytics to automatically make sense out of data. The analytics will be agile and companies will be able to pour their data in, and watch the results take shape. Much like Google analytics on web traffic.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 4:10 pm
The Linux community is fragmented, or is it?
It has been said many times that if only the Linux community were to band together and start rooting for the same team so to speak, then Linux could easily surpass other proprietary operating systems. They say that it is due to the fragmented nature of the people in Linux that it only has a minuscule share of the market. It is reported that all the infighting, arguments and flame wars around different
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:17 pm
SAP Mobility Challenge, Part 5
This article explores the concepts and strategies of mobile micro-applications and MEAPs.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 12:09 pm
SAP EDI, Cloud Computing, NetWeaver PI and Business Networks
This article explores SAP's strategies for EDI, NetWeaver PI, Cloud Computing and Business Networks.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:29 am
Cast Iron launches integration platform to help pull hybrid cloud models together
Integration can get complex in a hurry with a growing number of applications in the enterprise, such as Salesforce, Google Apps, WebEx and ADP. Companies could take a do-it-yourself approach but it won't scale over time.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:08 am
10 things to think about with Cloud Computing and Forensics
I was recently invited to write the first chapter of an upcoming book about cloud computing and computer/network forensics. While I am excited about being published, and of course you should go buy the book when it comes out Cloud Computing forensics needs to have a wider discussion in the information security field, as there are some very real paradigm shifts that need to occur to make forensics work
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 8:40 am
Top ten reasons YOU should be doing S&OP - Part 1
Ok, maybe not you personally, but your company should be doing S&OP. Sales and operations planning has been around since the 80s. Until recently, adoption has been slow, but steady. In the last 5-7 years, S&OP has started to become mainstream. Why? Because when implemented properly, it just works. Lets think about a world (maybe your world?) where S&OP isnt done. The high-end DVD
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 8:25 am
8 Usefull Facebook and Twitter Add-Ons You Might Want To Have
By no means are Twitter and Facebook perfect: You might wish that Facebook made it more intuitive to hide FarmVille or certain status updates. Or, maybe you wish that Twitter would introduce a new feature like nested tweets. Good news: For many of these website tweaks or suggestions, there's likely to be a script you can download to fit the bill. Here are my top eight picks for Facebook and Twitter
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 8:24 am
How to set up your single cloud computer for multiple web sites
The logistics of moving two active web sites into the cloud and keeping costs down can be daunting, but here is how I am going to do it after extended outages at my hosting provider.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 8:17 am
Sample Design & Development Standards for Visual Basic.
1.1 Introduction This chapter describes the standards and procedures to be followed for all TAE components constructed with Microsoft Visual Basic (VB). 1.2&...
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 7:24 am
Social Media in Business Means Filling Gaps and Catching All
Before (businesses were present in) social media, reporting a product flaw or homepage typo or otherwise productive feedback to a business was hardbarriers to submission were indefinite, impersonal and unrewarding. Social media changed that, supporting a bottom-up, transparent conversation whereby anyone can reach deep into backend staff of many companies with minimal effort. Today I was excited
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 6:39 am
For those gamers out there…
Im a fan of First Person Shooter (FSP) games on my PC. Ive played the original Doom, Quake, Castle Wolfenstein on up to some of the latest ones. One of my current favorites is Left4Dead 2. Its a typical FSP game (kill everything that moves) but ...
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 4:16 am
Counterfeit Intel CPU’s sold by vendor
Nothing is safe any more NewEgg is one of the more reputable sources for computer components. Many of us have ordered from them and received complete satisfaction. Now it turns out that they most likely sold at least 1 counterfeit Core I7 CPU to a c...
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 3:35 am
Do something productive with your failures
Nancy Dixon has a nice post on failure and learning lessons over at Conversation Matters entitled Learning from Failure - it's possible. After my soliloquy yesterday, it really resonated with me. I heartily recommend it as a good read (af...
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 1:11 am
Sample Design & Development Standards for PowerBuilder
1.1 Introduction This chapter describes the standards and procedures to be followed for all TAE components constructed with the PowerSoft PowerBuilder...
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 11:39 pm
Four pillars of the transition to SaaS
So many of the issues facing SaaS and cloud providers are due to a business model that's completely different from traditional software licensing and on-premise implementation. Here are four key elements of difference up for discussion at EuroCloud UK's next meeting.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:51 am
RightNow promises an end to SaaS shelfware
SaaS CRM vendor RightNow today launched a new customer contract proposition that, to me, should always have been on the table from every reputable SaaS vendor. It gives customers a bit more of a break from the lock-in that SaaS represents.
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 11:54 am
Cloud, it's a web thing
OK, let me concede for a moment that there is a use case for private cloud, but only with heavy qualification and many caveats. That doesn't mean anything I'm going to say will please the proponents of private cloud.
Posted on 2 March 2010 | 12:53 pm
SAP's Vishal Sikka on SaaS
Published here for the first time, my interview last summer with SAP CTO Vishal Sikka may shed some light on the company's intentions for SaaS and cloud after its tumultuous management shake-up last week.
Posted on 16 February 2010 | 9:19 am
Most inane customer service #fail ever
Broadband service provider ntl:Telewest terminated my account today moments after its customer service lines closed for the day, leaving my no way to resolve the issue for SIXTEEN crucial hours. How inane is that?
Posted on 2 February 2010 | 1:47 pm
Mimecast's $21m shows strength of SaaS in Europe
With a crop of Europe-based SaaS ventures expanding into the US, the forming of a new industry group and signs of new funding opportunties for smaller European start-ups, the omens look good for a flowering of SaaS and cloud adoption in Europe.
Posted on 29 January 2010 | 1:34 am
Why Microsoft and Intuit need each other's clouds
Delve under the covers of a cloud platform to understand why marrying up Microsoft Azure with Intuit Partner Platform makes for a perfect match between two complementary partners.
Posted on 20 January 2010 | 6:09 pm
Why freemium is bad for business
Businesses should spurn free online services. Here are four good reasons why it's not in the customer's interest to be lured into using them. Look instead for providers that have a sound revenue base.
Posted on 15 January 2010 | 10:38 am
When will the crowd turn against private cloud?
Private clouds will be discredited by year end, I predicted yesterday. I was promptly challenged to put my money where my mouth was. Here's my considered response.
Posted on 14 January 2010 | 5:13 pm
People-centric IT for a new decade
You could call it people-oriented architecture: democratization of IT that puts computing power in the hands of users and lets them get a job done without having to adapt their processes to the way the technology works.
Posted on 5 January 2010 | 3:40 am
Latest iPad SDK Hints At New Touch Gestures
Late Tuesday, Apple made a new version of the software developers kit available for iPhone OS 3.2 for the iPad. As per usual, developers have made some interesting discoveries buried in the code, including some support for new finger gestures.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:30 pm
Management Tools Will Be Cloud Glue
The year has started out with significant M&A activity from vendors looking to deliver the necessary components for cloud computing. They all come to market with their own technologies and solutions, but there's one offering that's a must-have.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 12:48 pm
Google Gains While Palm Loses Smartphone Share
ComScore issued its latest report on smartphone usage in the United States for the three months ending January 2010. Google moved up significantly, while Palm dropped a few (more) percentage points. RIM, however, remains champion.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 12:17 pm
As Celebrities And Millions Joined Twitter Criminals Followed
Anyone who has been using social networks for the past couple of years has anecdotally witnessed an increase in malicious activity and phishing attacks. Today, a security firm released its analysis of 19 million Twitter accounts and has quantified just how rapidly malicious activity on Twitter has grown. Hint: it's been significant recently.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:51 am
5 Reasons To Raise CIO's Pay
The 30-year-old CIO of a Chicago-area public school district has a salary of $96,000 and until recently earned an additional $24,000 by serving as school-board treasurer. When the district's teachers accepted pay cuts due to budget limitations, they carped about the $24,000 stipendso the CIO gave it up, but requested the board consider increasing his salary. Here are 5 reasons why he deserves a big raise.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:55 am
Fifty Percent Of Workers Use Smartphones While Driving
Listen up, employers of mobile workers. The results of a new CareerBuilder survey should scare you. More than half of all mobile workers admitted to using their smartphones to check emails and perform other tasks while driving for business.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:20 am
Extending Your Storage
In our last entry we discussed what to look for in a new storage system. But what if you don't have the budget for a new storage system or your current system is not old enough that you dare bring up the subject of replacing it? The alternative is to look for solutions that can extend the usefulness of what you currently have.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 7:09 am
Microsoft Gets Windows Phone 7 Strategy Right
Since Windows 7 entered public beta in early 2009, Microsoft has garnered praise for getting so much right with its cash cow. This is in stark contrast to the complaints it got over Vista. After announcing Windows Phone 7 Series last month at Mobile World Congress, the accolades just keep coming in for it.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:02 pm
Taser Cloud Manager Leads Experiment In Police Evidence
There's an experiment underway to see whether video recordings of police actions can be captured as they occur -- by an officer wearing a camera as an ear piece. Local police forces can't afford the system that captures the contents of the camera and stores them. But that's where the cloud can help.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:43 pm
Facebook's Latest Status Update? Geo-Location
Facebook is preparing to add a location-sharing feature to its popular social networking site. Can Facebook escape the bad buzz generated by Google's Buzz?
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:35 pm
iPhone Scientifically Proven To Be Addictive
Obsess much? According to a study undertaken by Stanford University, the iPhone can be addictive. My favorite nugget from the study? Seventy-five percent of respondents admitting to falling asleep with their iPhone in bed.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 1:29 pm
Microsoft Cloud Gets $1 Billion Delivery From Domino's
Last month, Domino's Pizza online-orders revenue topped $1 billion since the new channel was launched. With online orders now accounting for 20% of Domino's total revenue and that, uh, slice of the revenue pie expected to grow, Domino's wants to put it all in Microsoft's cloud. But Microsoft's not ready yet, and it appears that the "all-in" strategy needs to stay in the oven a bit longer.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:53 am
Nexus One Sales Model Not Really Working Out
Google promised to change the way cell phones are sold with its direct-to-consumer approach. The only problem is, nothing has really changed -- unless you count the Nexus One sales estimates that Goldman Sachs reduced from 3.5 million down to 1 million.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:28 am
Cisco Boosts Bandwidth Play With CRS-3 Intro
Cisco took its bandwidth strategy to the next level on Tuesday, unveiling an ultra-high-capacity carrier routing system. The CRS-3 product announcement culminates several weeks of hype, during which Cisco teased it as news which would "change the Internet forever." In reality, it's a smart, incremental move intended to position Cisco as the go-to bandwidth provider.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 9:29 am
The Best Deal On IT Research -- Period
A bit over two years ago, we realized we were underutilizing one of the best resources available to us -- the InformationWeek audience.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 7:20 am
Nokia Applies For Self Charging Phone Patent
Nokia has applied for a patent that will charge your phone while you walk. It sounds similar to those self winding watches that renew their energy as you swing your arms. Certain components inside the phone are on a movable frame that moves up and down or side to side depending on your motion. This is the basis for energy generation.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:03 pm
Fujitsu Produces Desktop Virtualization 'Zero Client' Monitor
Fujitsu, a $47 billion IT solutions provider with 175,000 employees, has teamed up with startup Pano Logic on the "zero client" approach to desktop virtualization. It will build a monitor that contains connectors to the network, the keyboard and mouse. This approach eliminates even the tiny square device that Pano normally sells.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 4:30 pm
AT&T's Backflip A Backward Step For Android
AT&T's first Android handset went on sale March 7. Based on several factors that have come to light since the device's launch, there are some serious drawbacks to the Backflip. Chief among them? No Google, and a lock-down on apps compatibility.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 2:55 pm
Putting Verizon's LTE Speed Claims Into Perspective
This morning Verizon Wireless issued a press release noting that its trials of Long Term Evolution were producing data speeds much faster than expected. How does that really compare to what's available today?
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 1:03 pm
Feds Still Seeking 'Meaningful' Feedback
Want to weigh in the federal government's proposed meaningful use criteria before it's written in stone? Act soon. There's only about a week left to submit your comments to the feds.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:15 am
iPad: The Ad, Tethering, What We Don't Know
Despite its flashy debut in January and the recent television spot that aired during the Oscars, there's still a lot we don't know about the Apple iPad. Steve Jobs did, however, take the time to respond directly to one user email about tethering the iPad to the iPhone.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 9:11 am
Android Still At Risk From Fragmentation
Recently Google announced that it will upgrade all US users to Android 2.1. Devices are currently shipping with four versions, so moving to one will help, but that may not be enough to save the platform from fragmentation.
Posted on 7 March 2010 | 10:04 pm
Funeral For A Fiend
Most web designers and users despise Internet Explorer 6, especially now that it has been hanging on for nearly a decade. So there weren't a lot of tears shed at the recent funeral for IE6. But is it really dead, or will it live on in a zombie-like existence?
Posted on 6 March 2010 | 7:44 pm
Vonage Targets Offshore And Overseas Usage
I have been a Vonage customer for years and was surprised at the latest promotional email I received from the VOIP firm last week.
Posted on 6 March 2010 | 5:04 pm
Google Scoops Up DocVerse, Open-Sources ReMail
Today Google added another business-oriented company to the swath of acquisitions it has made this year. It has bought up DocVerse, a Web-based office productivity company. Google has also turned around and made the source code for reMail -- which it also recently acquired -- open via an Apache license.
Posted on 5 March 2010 | 1:45 pm
Google's Big New Cloud Play: Should Microsoft Be Afraid?
Microsoft, long the king of productivity apps, has even more to fear from cloud rival Google, thanks to Google's recent acquisition of DocVerse. The key: Google Apps users will be able to access Microsoft Office files on the Web.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
CA to Buy Nimsoft
CA said Wednesday it has signed a deal to buy IT performance monitoring vendor Nimsoft for US$350 million.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
The Next E-Book Reader: Color, Video and Nearly Unbreakable
If you thought the E-Ink screen on your Kindle or Sony Reader was the epitome of high-tech for the printed page, hang on to your hat. By the end of this year, newer models--with newer display technologies--will start to make today's e-book readers look like Model T versions. These next-generation readers will sport color displays with refresh rates capable of supporting video. They'll also use flexible display technologies--but that doesn't mean you'll be able to roll them up (yet). Rather, they will make the devices a lot less fragile.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Google Apps Store Seeks Cloud Collaboration Boost
Google's new Apps Marketplace could give a significant boost to Web-based communication and collaboration software for businesses by creating a wide-ranging yet integrated virtual suite of heterogeneous cloud applications.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
US Expert: Chinese Gov't Likely Behind Massive Cyberattacks
The Chinese government is likely behind recent cyberattacks on U.S. government Web sites and on U.S. companies in an apparent effort to quash criticism of the government there, an expert on U.S. and Chinese relations said Wednesday.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Three Benefits and a Warning for Google Apps Marketplace
Google can't seem to let a week go by without launching a new product, or introducing a new service. The latest announcement from Google is the Google Apps Marketplace--launched yesterday with over 50 third-party partners contributing unique add-ons and functionality that extend the value of Google Apps.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Top Free Troubleshooting Tools for Windows
These seven handy tools help you diagnose and cure a wide range of Windows ills, and they're all free for the downloading
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Cisco, Microsoft Certifications Increase High-Tech Salaries
IT professionals with certain IT certifications could make bank compared to counterparts, according to a study of 17,000 high-tech workers conducted by Dice Learning.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Zeus Botnet Dealt a Blow As ISP Troyak Knocked Out
Internet service providers linked to the notorious Zeus botnet have been taken down, knocking out a third of the command-and-control servers that run the network of hacked machines.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Former TSA Analyst Charged with Computer Tampering
A U.S. Transport Security Administration analyst has been indicted with tampering with databases used by the TSA to identify possible terrorists who may be trying to fly in the U.S.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Hackers Exploit Latest IE Zero-Day with Drive-By Attacks
Hackers are exploiting the just-disclosed unpatched bug in Internet Explorer (IE) to launch drive-by attacks from malicious Web sites, security researchers said today.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
What You Need to Know About the IE Zero-Day
For the second time already in 2010, Microsoft's Patch Tuesday security bulletin release has come with a footnote--an unpatched zero-day exploit affecting Internet Explorer (IE). Security vendors are reporting more incidents of this new IE vulnerability being exploited in the wild, so IT administrators need to understand the threat and take action to protect vulnerable browsers.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Only 21% of Twitter Members Are Active, Report Says
A study by Barracuda Networks found that most Twitter members are still inactive members, though the analysis does find some increased activity at the microblogging service.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
SaaS ERP Has Buzz, But Who Are the Real Players?
An Aberdeen Group report lists the nine SaaS vendors that offer actual ERP software and services -- not just a bunch of cloudy marketing hype.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Former FCC Chair Says More Fiber Will Help Wireless Crunch
Laying more fiber is one way to make more efficient use of wireless spectrum, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said on Wednesday.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
Google chief sees outcome 'soon' in China row
Google expects an outcome soon from its talks with China over a censorship and hacking dispute, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:39 pm
Will 3D TV Grab You And Your Money? -
Three major electronics brands have announced plans for 3D TV, including Panasonic, Samsung and Sony.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:28 pm
Woot! Bike There Feature Added to Google Maps! (Video)
It's about time! Google Maps has finally added a Bike There feature. They've been plugging away for awhile now on ways to get directions for cyclists that avoids hills, excessive traffic, and points you in the best directions for pedaling to your destination.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 3:22 pm
Apple's Customer Trust Tough to Beat - TheStreet's Jason Schwarz
Jason makes his case with these points: The Apple community provides benefits beyond minor features of a single product. To compete effectively a competitor must: 1. Produce multiple products. 2. Earn brand trust. 3. Produce multifunction devices. 4.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:57 pm
Eyeblaster plans initial public offering, again
Online advertising company Eyeblaster Inc. is planning an initial public offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday, though it did not disclose an expected size or price range.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:37 pm
Belgian newspaper issues 3D edition
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:10 pm
Palm Inc. teeters in crowded smart phone market
Last year, Palm thought it had all the pieces for a turnaround in the market it pioneered: A new CEO known for making the iPod a household name, a sleek new smart phone called the Pre and fresh, intuitive operating software.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:08 pm
Conan's lone Twitter followee: 'It's totally nuts'
Last week, Sarah Killen had three Twitter followers.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:34 pm
Azerbaijan bloggers' appeal denied
A court in Azerbaijan has rejected the appeal of two bloggers who were sentenced to prison last year in a case that supporters say was politically motivated.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 12:51 pm
Global agency reconsiders `.xxx' for porn sites
A global Internet oversight agency is reopening discussions about whether to create a ".xxx" domain name as an online red-light district where porn sites can set up shop away from the wandering eyes of children and teenagers.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 12:03 pm
OnLive game streaming service to start in June
In an industry first, a new gaming service will start allowing people to "stream" popular high-end games such as "Assassin's Creed II" over the Internet in June, using a mechanism similar to watching TV shows or listening to music online.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:31 am
Putting Google to the Test in Translation
Google has poured resources into improving its automatic translation service. Some of these systems are better than others at handling particular pairs of languages, and it is impossible to evaluate them fully using small bits of text.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:18 am
Can MySpace overhaul lure users back to site?
The new site recasts MySpace more strongly around its music and media content, with features such as the ability to listen to a music playlist based on songs that other MySpace users are sharing in their stream of updates.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:16 am
Review: `Final Fantasy XIII' falls flat
During the 1990s, the Square brand was synonymous with the role-playing video game. A generation of gamers got hooked on the challenging quests, quirky characters and sweeping story lines of Square RPGs like "Chrono Trigger," "The Secret of Mana" and, of course, the "Final Fantasy" series.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:14 am
Windows users need to security-patch every five days - Boing Boing
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:03 am
BT boss urges fines for filesharing customers
Ian Livingston, the boss of Britain's biggest ISP BT, is lobbying for the government's proposed technical sanctions against filesharers to be replaced with fines.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:56 am
China's troublemakers bond over 'drinking tea'
Like the United States, China is having its own tea party movement, but this one has a very different agenda.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:48 am
Google vs. Yahoo: Who Has the Right Social Strategy?
An really interestig article written by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, The Social Analyst. He digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:48 am
Cable, sat TV firms ask gov't to stop TV blackouts
The most recent showdown left millions of Cablevision Systems Corp. customers around New York without an ABC station at the start of the Academy Awards.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:41 am
Tweeted Conception?
Last December, TechCrunch reported that the bed of a newlywed couple had been rigged to tweet whenever they had sex. This followup piece from UK's Staggered may not be suitable for work. ;oD
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:28 am
Panasonic's first 3-D TV set in $2,900 package
Panasonic Corp. on Wednesday revealed the price for its first 3-D TV set, confirming that $3,000 is about what it takes to be among the first to watch 3-D movies in the home.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 9:43 am
Google to digitize old books from Rome, Florence
Google said Wednesday it will scan up to 1 million old books in national libraries in Rome and Florence, including works by astronomer Galileo Galilei, in what's being described as the first deal of its kind.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:42 am
Correction: Botnet Busted story
In a story March 2 about the arrest of three suspects in the virus infection of nearly 13 million computers, The Associated Press erroneously reported the spelling of the last name of a captain with Spain's Guardia Civil, which is investigating the case. The captain's correct name is Cesar Lorenzana, not Lorenza.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:03 am
Bank of Hawaii offering coupons free online
Bank of Hawaii says it's come up with a way to generate more business for its clients.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 6:11 am
China Mobile investing $5.8B in Chinese bank
China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone company by subscribers, said Wednesday it was investing $5.8 billion in a Chinese bank as part of a plan to develop mobile phone banking and business services.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:50 am
Playcast Media Announces Game Publisher Partnerships at Game Developers Conference for First Ever Cable and IPTV Games-On-Demand Service
Playcast Media announced today at the Game Developers Conference partnerships with some of the video game industry’s top publishers including Atari, Capcom, Codemasters and THQ, as well as independent publishers/developers DDI, Strategy First and Zushi. Playcast Media delivers high-quality console-free video gaming directly through existing Cable and IPTV set-top boxes and is the first gaming-on-demand technology for Cable and IPTV in the world. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/playcast/gdc/prweb3683934.htm
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HostGator Wins About.com Reader's Choice Best in Web Hosting Awards
The votes are in and HostGator.com has won three out of four 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards from About.com. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706754.htm
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Colocation America Announces Emergency Protection for Natural Disasters and Network Threats
Leading colocation server hosting company provides both physical and network protection to protect businesses from data loss. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Colocation_America/Emergency_Protection/prweb3708514.htm
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Chesapeake NetCraftsmen Top Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE®) Terry Slattery to speak at Satellite 2010
Slattery chosen as an expert panelist for Securing Your Network: Protecting your Operations, Content and Assets (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/satellite/2010/prweb3687664.htm
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A New Network Time Server and Master Clock in One!
Brandywine Communications releases the updated ENTA II to their range of Network Time Servers. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/brandywine/networktimeserver/prweb3701684.htm
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Golfsmith Guaranteeing Golfers Will Play Better in 2010
Golfsmith is guaranteeing better play for anyone who buys new, custom-fit clubs from the retailer. Those who doesn't see better play can return their clubs -- no questions asked. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/golfsmith/guarantee/prweb3702304.htm
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New mobile Comparison Site Helps Australians Find Better Deals
A new mobile phone site has just launched in Australia, allowing users to compare more than 1,000 different handsets and plans. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703564.htm
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OSF Global Services Receives the Business Solutions Provider for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Certification
OSF Global Services, the Canadian provider of IT services and consulting, announces that it has received the Business Solutions Provider for Microsoft Dynamics CRM certification. The company was awarded this certification based on its proven track record for using Microsoft Dynamics CRM in complex development projects. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/osfglobalservices/msdynamicscrm/prweb3703634.htm
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AVIDwireless Launches Packaged Solutions for the Oil and Gas Industry
AVIDwireless a pioneer in creating easy to install wireless remote control and monitoring solutions brings packaged solutions to Oil and Gas. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706344.htm
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NewCom International President Jaime Dickinson Named World Teleport Association’s 2010 Teleport Executive of the Year
NewCom President Jaime Dickinson, named WTA's 2010 Teleport Executive of the Year, is being recognized for his commitment to bring education, economic development and stabilization to developing countries in Latin America and Africa through 21st Century communications. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708404.htm
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eCrypt Initiates Social Media Campaign
The eCrypt team makes its debut on social network sites including YouTube and Facebook. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709304.htm
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Vlingo Expands Management Team, Names New Sales Executive and CFO
Seasoned Technology Executives Will Drive Adoption of Vlingo's Mobile Voice Application and Support Global Expansion (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701484.htm
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Aastra and TurboBridge Team to Offer HD Audio Conferencing on Aastra SIP Phones
Aastra USA and TurboBridge today announced a new collaboration that ensures compatibility between Aastra SIP phones and the TurboBridge HD Audio Conferencing service. To help businesses experience the benefits of high-definition audio conferencing, Aastra and TurboBridge are teaming to offer a 60-day free trial to Aastra SIP phone customers, carriers and resellers. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702274.htm
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New Mobile Phone Payment Technology Can Help Keep Families Safe
"Your Designated Driver on Me" is a nationwide designated driver program that encourages family members and friends to pay for each other's cab fare if they ever need to use a cab after drinking. No questions asked. The program incorporates innovative new mobile phone payment technology that allows users to send money instantly by mobile phone. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/drunkdriving/designateddriverprogram/prweb3691894.htm
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Daviess County Public Schools Implements Netsweeper Internet Content Filtering Solution to Foster Success of 1:1 Computing Program
Daviess County Public Schools has implemented Netsweeper, an Internet content filtering solution designed to protect students from the dangers posed by the Internet while enabling a more productive online, educational experience when using their student assigned laptops both at school and at home. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Netsweeper/DaviessCountySchools/prweb3698924.htm
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New Jersey Natural Gas Selects Sagequest’s Mobile Control GPS Vehicle Tracking And Management Solution
SageQuest, provider of integrated GPS vehicle tracking (http://www.sage-quest.com/01webdev/) solutions marks another customer win in the utilities industry. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702224.htm
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Bollywood Stars Embrace Emerging Mobile Social Media by Adopting 'Bubbly'
Bollywood is bubbling with excitement over India's hottest new social networking service. Bubbly, a new mobile service that lets people record and send audio messages to the phones of their followers, is now connecting Bollywood's brightest stars including Kareena Kapoor and Aamir Khan with their legions of fans. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703584.htm
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Mobile Retail Market to Exceed $12 Billion by 2014, Driven by One-to-one Marketing and Smartphone Adoption, Juniper Report Finds
A new report from Juniper Research has found that one-to-one marketing allied to the rapid proliferation of smartphones will be among the key drivers of a mobile retail market which is anticipated to exceed $12 billion by 2014. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698244.htm
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XL World - Eastern Europe's Top Provider of Outsourced Multilingual Contact Center Services, and Second in the World
Black Book of Outsourcing’s annual publication recognizes XL World as the leader in the Eastern European market and also grants it second place on a global scale. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/call-center/top-bpo/prweb3636804.htm
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Rainbow Advertising Sales Corp. Promotes Kim Norris To Executive Vice President, Advanced Advertising Strategy and Operations
Rainbow Advertising Sales Corp. (RASCO) today announced the promotion of Kim Norris to executive vice president of advanced advertising strategy and operations. The announcement was made by David Kline, president and chief operating officer of RASCO. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3671494.htm
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Radicom Telemedicine Dial-Up Modems Enable OEM Applications
Radicom announces low cost IEC 60601-1 medical certified dial-up modems for OEMs. Small and versatile embedded and external telemedicine modems offered in Serial TTL and USB interfaces. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3691524.htm
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Big in Japan, Creator of Breakthrough Shopping App ShopSavvy, Names Board of Advisors
Metric Ventures partners, Snappr founder join mobile startup’s board as company plans for next stage of growth. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Big_in_Japan/ShopSavvy/prweb3692784.htm
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GL Announces Wireless, Packet, and TDM Testing Products at CTIA Wireless 2010
GL Communications Inc. (http://www.gl.com) announced today its participation in CTIA Wireless 2010 to be held From March 23-25, at Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, USA. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697664.htm
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Leading Conference Call Provider Powwownow Becomes a Telco
With Ofcoms decision to remove the rebate payable to the telecoms supplier from 0870 numbers, Powwownow has decided to become a Telco in order to receive the entire rebate available and maintain their current revenue. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/conference-calls/conference-calling/prweb3697934.htm
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Solectek announces 2.5 GHz mobile broadband system to augment rural broadband access product lines.
New frequency option bolsters Solectek's existing last-mile offerings at 400 MHz, 700 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz and 3.65 GHz. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699934.htm
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Solutionz Conferencing & Polycom Offers “Polycom or Web Video Conferencing Solutions?” Webinar
Polycom and Solutionz to host “Polycom or Web Video Conferencing Solutions” Webinar… Why you should choose high-end video conferencing solutions over run-of-the-mill, low-quality web-based desktop video applications. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/video_conferencing/polycom/prweb3700364.htm
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Custom Toll Free Expands Affiliate Program With New Search Tools for Vanity Toll-Free Phone Numbers
Custom Toll Free, a national leader in search, marketing and provisioning of vanity toll free numbers, today announced that it has expanded its affiliate portal with several new search engine tools designed to help affiliate marketing partners expand their reach and increase traffic. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/toll_free_numbers/affiliate_marketing/prweb3701074.htm
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Moravia Worldwide to Present Webinar on Software Localization Engineering
Practical, Actionable Information on Localization Engineering (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702284.htm
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Burden of Surgical Disease Conference at Vanderbilt Has Call to Action with Speeches by Senator William Frist and Bob Isherwood
The Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health will host the annual meeting of the Burden of Surgical Disease Working Group (BoSD WG) in Nashville, TN, on March 10-12, 2010. www.globalhealth.vanderbilt.edu/bosd The BoSD WG mission is to advocate for the global delivery and improvement of surgical services, especially in low-income countries where the needs are great. www.burdenofsurgicaldisease.com The Honorable Senator William H. Frist M.D. will deliver a keynote address ‘Lessons Learned in Haiti: Using Crisis to Highlight Surgical Need’. Bob Isherwood, Chief Creative Dude and Co-CEO of i.e. healthcare will also deliver a keynote ‘For crying out loud’. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3696134.htm
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Easy to See and Use Senior Phone Works with AT&T and T-Mobile Cellular Providers
Snapfon™ has released a new mobile/cellular telephone aimed at the senior citizen marketplace. This new phone called the “Snapfon™ ez ONE” is specifically designed to be both easy to see and easy to use. By offering safety features such as a dedicated SOS button that dials your preferred emergency contacts (up to 4) until it connects, and a high intensity LED flashlight to light up a dark path or stairway, Snapfon™ is raising the bar on what is expected for a mobile device targeted at senior citizens. Ease of use, simplicity and safety are the cornerstones of this design philosophy. The Snapfon™ ez ONE cellular telephone will work on both AT&T and T-Mobile service networks and requires no contract for use. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3681444.htm
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Andrew Seybold Choice Award Finalists Continue to Display Innovation, Practicality; Winners to be Announced March 23
Wirless Commuications Analyst/Consultant Andrew Seybold today announced 12 finalists in the four "Most Innovative" categories that are the basis for the annual Andrew Seybold Choice Awards: (Most Innovative) Mobile Applications; Mobile Devices; Mobile Service; and Mobile Technology. Winners are recognized at the Andrew Seybold Wireless Dinner, a popular event that takes place in conjunction with the spring CTIA Wireless show to honor outstanding achievements in the wireless communications industry. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3696664.htm
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Eze Castle Integration Named IT Support Company of the Year Finalist by MicroScope ACEs
Eze Castle Integration was named an "IT Support Company of the Year" finalist in the MicroScope Awards for Channel Excellence (ACEs) 2010. Eze Castle was selected as a finalist based on its premier IT service, broad product and solutions offering and focus on outstanding client service. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/london/itsupport/prweb3697034.htm
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Call Capture™ Announces New Offer on Portable Mobile Wireless Cellular Signal Amplifiers
New Pricing on Technology that Improves Cell Phone Reception for Motorists (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Call_Capture_Wireless/Cellular_Signal_Amplifier/prweb3674774.htm
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MVP Systems Software, Inc. Acquires Saranac Technology Group
MVP Systems Software, Inc., a leader in enterprise job scheduling and workload automation, announced today that it has acquired privately held Saranac Technology Group (STG) of New York. Founded in 2007 with offices in the US and Canada, STG is a leading reseller of virtualization and automation solutions. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3680894.htm
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AssureSign Announces Retirement of President and Chief Technical Officer Dale Combs
AssureSign Announces Retirement of President and Chief Technical Officer Dale Combs (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3692154.htm
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3PV® Announces Retirement of President and Chief Technical Officer Dale Combs
3PV® Announces Retirement of President and Chief Technical Officer Dale Combs (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3692224.htm
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Wright Line to Feature Independent Containment System at AFCOM Event
Manufacturing Leader's Cottuli to Give Presentation on Free-Standing,Vendor-Neutral, High-Density Containment Solution at Conference (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/datacenter/thermalmanagement/prweb3695044.htm
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eCrypt President Invited to Sit on Panel at Business and Technology Convention
Brad Lever, President and CEO of eCrypt Technologies will sit on a discussion panel at the F5 Expo as information security industry professional. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697094.htm
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Nat Burgess Promoted to President of Corum Group
Corum Group Ltd., the global leader in Internet and software M&A, announced that Nat Burgess, Corum's executive vice president, has been promoted to president of the firm. Ward Carter, who served as president for the past three years, has been promoted to chairman and given additional responsibilities for Corum's international expansion. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697184.htm
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Node-H shows highest performance secure Femtocell technology
Node-H is demonstrating its Femtocell software running on Percello's new 6100 chipset at the Femtocells Asia 2010 conference in Singapore. The software supports the highest HSPA uplink and downlink data rates yet seen on a single-chip femtocell, and can support at least 8 simultaneous calls. (PRWeb Mar 7, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3692874.htm
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Top 10 Tips to Make the Right Impression in a Sluggish Job Market
Image is everything. It can land or lose you the job. Learn how to stand out in a sea of applicants, or how to maintain – even gain – precious ground in your career. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/tero/03/prweb3701394.htm
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CGI Unveils CGI Trade360™ to Replace Proponix360™ as Trade and Supply Chain Finance Solution
Trade360 is a web-based customizable software-as-a-service to help banks participate in the trade and supply chain finance revolution (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CGI/Trade360/prweb3706604.htm
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Biocide Systems’ roomSHOCKER Chemical Deodorizer Makes for Fast and Odor Free Apartment Turns.
New Hi-Tech “Little White Pouch” removes smoke, paint, and new carpet odors from apartments in less than 24 hours and for as little as $25 per unit! (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706634.htm
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Protocol Appoints New Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Protocol Global Solutions, a trusted provider of BPO solutions for the healthcare, energy, financial services, and insurance markets, today announced the appointment of Rachel Macha as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Ms. Macha will be responsible for building and maximizing sales and marketing efforts within the organization. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706654.htm
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Mike Fraser Joins Source 44 LLC as EVP and Chief Development Officer
Sales and Marketing executive joins Source 44 senior team to lead company’s expansion efforts (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/supplychainsustainability/mikefraser/prweb3708184.htm
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Dr. Joseph R. Urgo Named Next President of St. Mary's College of Maryland
Urgo will join the college July 1, 2010. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SMCM/Dr_Joseph_R_Urgo/prweb3710774.htm
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The National Association of Professional Women's Sacramento Chapter Continues to Have Successful Bi-monthly Local Chapter Meetings
Susan Darrow, local NAPW chapter President in Sacramento, has had such great success with her meetings that they have two meetings, both a lunch and a dinner meeting, each month in order to accommodate the busy schedules of the members. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010napw/sacramentochapter/prweb3698614.htm
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Morehead Webinar to Discuss Building Workforce Commitment
Extensive research has established a strong link between elevated commitment among employees and positive business outcomes. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700184.htm
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Morehead Associates, Inc. and Child Health Corporation of America (CHCA) Finalize Agreement for Employee and Physician Surveys and Consulting Services
Morehead Associates, Inc. announced today its agreement with Child Health Corporation of America (CHCA) to provide employee and physician surveys and consulting services through October 31, 2012. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Morehead/CHCA/prweb3700624.htm
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Strategic Marketing Firm Gotham, LLC Launches New Website
North Carolina strategic marketing firm Gotham, LLC is excited to announce the official launch of its new Web site, GothamStrategic.com. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/gotham/strategic-marketing/prweb3701014.htm
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National Association of Asian American Professionals Calls for Nominations to the 2010 NAAAP 100 Program
NAAAP is seeking nominations of Asian leaders who are notable in the press, have achieved success in their profession, have made a significant contribution to the world-wide community, and exemplify our vision and mission, for the NAAAP 100 Recognition Program. Deadline is now April 15, 2010. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701094.htm
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PeopleMetrics, Inc. Unveils Expanded Website
Customer and Employee Engagement solutions company updates web site to include their one-of-a kind Physician Engagement Management solution (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701614.htm
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FreeBalance and Grant Thornton Demonstrate How Government 2.0 Technologies Lead Transformative Change
White paper details how proven Web 2.0 and social networking technologies enable governments to increase transparency, participation and collaboration (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FreeBalance/Grant_Thornton/prweb3705604.htm
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Hoover's Launches BtoB Mobile App on App Store
Hoover's today announced its Hoover's Near Here Mobile App (http://www.hoovers.com/Marketing/100003463-1.html) is available on the App Store. Available for the iPhone and iPod touch from the App Store, Hoover's Near Here app lets users find companies based on their current location or any other location in the United States and Canada for targeted sales prospecting anytime, anywhere. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/mobile_app/hoovers_near_here/prweb3707384.htm
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RapidAdvance Wins Praise By Providing Access to Working Capital Via its Business Cash Advance Program Which Creates Many New Jobs
With the scarcity of liquid, working capital available for most small businesses across the nation, owners have seen the growth of their organizations all but come to a grinding halt, with most not having anywhere to turn, including banks. This one issue causes an even bigger problem, in that with many of the nation’s small businesses undercapitalized, hiring new employees comes to an agonizing standstill. So what’s an owner to do? The answer is simple – call upon RapidAdvance, who currently provides unsecured business cash advances to businesses of all types. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710174.htm
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ICAP Ocean Tomo Announces IP Think Tank Track: Developing a National Intellectual Property Economic Infrastructure
ICAP Ocean Tomo, the intellectual property brokerage division of ICAP plc (IAP.L), today announced one of four program tracks for the upcoming IP Think Tank event on March 24-25, 2010, in San Francisco, California. The tracks are focused on exploring the next generation of intellectual property (IP) development. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3713524.htm
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Consultant Mark Reed Guides Struggling Project Managers Worldwide With His Unique By The Numbers Approach To Achieve Success Despite Tough Times
Overwhelmed project managers are struggling to do more with less in this difficult economy when company departments are crumbling and teams are in massive disarray. International consultant Mark Reed comes to the rescue with his dynamic "...by the Numbers" training, now used in companies in 110 countries with powerful results. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698674.htm
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GALA 2010 Early Registration Ends 12 March
Second annual conference attracts translation and localization professionals worldwide. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702784.htm
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The "A Players" in Business Can Now Receive The Same Quality of Talent Representation Enjoyed by the Hollywood A List
Every Hollywood Celebrity walking the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards has one thing in common: a highly skilled talent agent to help promote and manage their high-profile careers. Now, for the first time, this same level of Executive Career Service is available to the "A List" in business. A new podcast interview on TotalPicture Radio presents David Perry and Kevin Donlin, the founders of a radial departure in career development: The Guerrilla Job Search Executive Agent Service. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/guerrilla_job_search/podcast/prweb3703104.htm
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BizFilings.com Enhances Website to Offer Small Business Owners Additional Free Online Tools and Resources
New tools and resources for entrepreneurs available at http://www.BizFilings.com (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698294.htm
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YPO Social Enterprise Networks Announce Winners of the Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Award
Honor Recognizes Young Business Leaders’ Efforts in Making a Significant Impact in Society (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/charitable_organizations/prweb3699724.htm
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New Jersey Natural Gas Selects Sagequest’s Mobile Control GPS Vehicle Tracking And Management Solution
SageQuest, provider of integrated GPS vehicle tracking (http://www.sage-quest.com/01webdev/) solutions marks another customer win in the utilities industry. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702224.htm
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Intellimed and Analytix On Demand™ Partner To Deliver World Class Quality and Performance Management Solutions to the Healthcare Industry
Expanded Analytics Enable Healthcare Organizations to Accurately Report on Quality, Improve Efficiencies and Benchmark Performance (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703084.htm
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Corporate Team Building Expert Afterburner, Inc. Launches Black Ops, a High Intensity Experiential Training Event
Organizations move into high alert through focused teamwork, urgent action, and planning/debriefing tools. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/corporate-team-building/experiential-training/prweb3700044.htm
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Collective Data Announces New Fleet Management Software Options
Powerful software modules evolve as a result of ongoing trends in the fleet management industry. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3693884.htm
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SEO Earns Mainstream Marketing Recognition with New Award
Search Marketing industry insiders are hopeful a new Marketing award will be an important step towards recognition of their industry in New Zealand. The inaugural winners were TVNZ News and SureFire Search for an SEO (http://www.surefiresearch.com/) project. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/seo/marketing-award/prweb3703194.htm
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Ethoca Introduces Ethoca360 SE Data-Driven Fraud Prevention Service to Help Online Businesses Stop More Card-Not-Present Fraud
Ethoca Limited, provider of Ethoca360 fraud detection services, has released Ethoca360 SE, a packaged "off-the-shelf" service based on a data-driven anti-fraud model. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/stop-more-CNP-fraud/SE/prweb3573754.htm
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XL World - Eastern Europe's Top Provider of Outsourced Multilingual Contact Center Services, and Second in the World
Black Book of Outsourcing’s annual publication recognizes XL World as the leader in the Eastern European market and also grants it second place on a global scale. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/call-center/top-bpo/prweb3636804.htm
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Gateway Encore Resort Management Services Opens Naples Offices
Gateway Encore Resort Management Services, a full service community management firm, has opened offices in Naples. Gateway Encore Resort Management Services provides premium management and accounting services for Condominium and Homeowners’ Associations throughout Southwest Florida (http://gatewayencore.com/germgtsrv/sub_category_list.asp?category=2&title=Services). (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Naples-Florida/Property-Management/prweb3691844.htm
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Encore Asset Management Opens in Naples, FL and Columbus, OH.
Encore Asset Management (http://www.EncoreAsset.com) has opened operations in Naples,Florida and Columbus, Ohio. Encore Asset Management is the most reliable one-stop shop for all types of asset management services from Troubled Asset Workout, Receivership Designation, Debtor in Possession, Trust and Family Asset Management, Commercial Property Management and Asset Disposition. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Naples-Florida-Assets/Columbus-Ohio-Management/prweb3691854.htm
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Big in Japan, Creator of Breakthrough Shopping App ShopSavvy, Names Board of Advisors
Metric Ventures partners, Snappr founder join mobile startup’s board as company plans for next stage of growth. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Big_in_Japan/ShopSavvy/prweb3692784.htm
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LeadMaster Announces Enhanced Workflow Automation for Online Lead Management Solution
LeadMaster, the online lead management SFA CRM solutions software developer announces their enhanced workflow automation system. Using a point-and-click wizard interface users can automate tasks and schedule activities. With a single click of the mouse users can send emails, add a callback to their calendar, add a prospect to lead nurturing and update multiple items on the customer record - e.g. sales rep comments, lead source, lead status and campaign. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Lead_Management/Lead_Tracking/prweb3694714.htm
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Leaders In Audio & Web Conferencing Solutions Publish New White Paper: 4 Ways To Make Money With Webinars
BeaconLive, a leader in audio conferencing and web conferencing services, has published a white paper designed to help organizations make money through webinars. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3696684.htm
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Achieve IT Solutions to Participate at SAP Solutions Tour 2010 in Boston, Philadelphia and Parsippany, NJ.
To Exhibit Achieve One for SAP Business Objects & SAP Business One to Small-to-Midsize Organizations at the Solutions Zone. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698704.htm
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Hitachi America, Ltd. Automates Trade Data with Global Data Mining’s Web-based HS Classification System
Desktop tool optimizes trade data and global classifications, saving time and money. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700264.htm
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Linkage To Launch Leadership Development Community in Boston on April 21-22
Kick off event for exclusive membership community for high performing leaders includes a full day of professional development with world-renowned leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/linkagenetwork/leadership/prweb3701624.htm
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Flexera Software Wins IT Europa European IT Excellence Award
FlexNet Producer Suite for Software Vendors Honored as Exceptional SaaS Solution for Helping Sybase Transform the Way They Do Business With Their Customers (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FlexeraSoftwareITEuropa/2010_03/prweb3701664.htm
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Career Partners International – Houston Introduces Dynamic Personal Performance Improvement – 7 Weeks to Increased Productivity
Responding to the demand to accomplish more with fewer resources, Career Partners International – Houston has introduced a proven program to help individuals and organizations dramatically improve performance and productivity (http://www.cpihouston.com). The Personal Leadership & Productivity Program has been completely updated for today’s busy leaders and employees. The 7 – week program delivered in 2-hour sessions weekly, enables executives, managers and individual performers to increase personal productivity, live a well balanced life, and enjoy greater success. At the same time, it improves leadership skills and enhances organizational culture. The program’s unique methods are proven over 15 years in large and small organizations. The process improves goal setting, communication, and team work increasing bottom line results. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/development_productivity/prweb3703094.htm
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Outsourced Facilities Maintenance a Cost-Savings for Commercial Building Owners and Managers
“As an outsourced contractor, we provide the right service when it’s needed,” says Troy Norberg, General Manager for Tru-Serve, a facilities maintenance company in the Twin Cities. “More times than not, we are less expensive and more efficient than using a separate plumber, electrician, or carpenter. Our professionals can come into a facility at one time to do the work of all those vendors.” (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Outsourced_Facilities/Maintenance_Minneapolis/prweb3703264.htm
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Planview and an Independent Research Firm Discuss the Evolution of the Project Management Office
Planview®, the leading independent provider of enterprise-wide portfolio management solutions, will host a webinar discussing the latest PMO research and findings featuring independent research company Forrester Research, Inc. on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. Central Standard Time. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704594.htm
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New FileMaker Pro 11 Delivers Eye-Catching Charts, Easy Reporting and Improved Productivity Features
Innovative new ways to create, share and visualize databases now available in FileMaker Pro 11 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3685054.htm
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Moore County Government Selects Unlimited Mailbox™ for Email Archive and Retrieval
The Moore County, North Carolina Government is implementing the Unlimited Mailbox email archiving and e-discovery solution from CGS. The new software solution will enable the county government to minimize complexity, reduce costs, and improve regulatory compliance by providing automatic email backup, robust search capabilities, and quick and easy data recovery. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698594.htm
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MyFantasyLeague.com and FantasySharks.com Recognized by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association for the Best Fantasy Draft and Game Assistance Tool
MyFantasyLeague.com follows up their 2008 Best League Management Product and Best Print Ad awards with yet another industry award (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701004.htm
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Photometrics Introduces 64-Bit PVCAM Driver
Photometrics releases its exclusive PVCAM universal programming interface, which supports Microsoft’s 64-bit Operating Systems such as Windows 7 and Microsoft Vista 64. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703284.htm
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Raxco Software Releases Faster, More Flexible PerfectDisk 11 Disk Defrag Software
Client Solutions product line of disk defragmentation tools provides all-encompassing solution to boost PC, laptop, netbook, server and home server performance (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/perfect-disk/defrag-software/prweb3704654.htm
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Slide To Play Releases GameFinder iPhone App
GameFinder Allows iPhone and iPod Touch Gamers to Discover the Best Games in the iTunes App Store (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3705934.htm
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eCube Systems Announces NXTera 6.0 Release to Include COBOL to .Net, COBOL to Java and COBOL to Web Services Integration Tools
NXTera 6.0 simplifies the generation of .Net, Java and Web Services interface libraries for COBOL business logic. These tools enable business logic running on legacy hardware and operating systems to quickly inter-operate with contemporary middleware and Java server containers. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/cobol-to-java-dot-net-/cobol-to-web-services/prweb3708354.htm
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ENow Announces New Exchange 2010 Monitoring and Reporting Features
Today ENow announced new Exchange 2010 monitoring and reporting functionality as part of their Feature Pack 1 release for Mailscape V4.5. Mailscape is an award-winning total systems management tool that combines Exchange monitoring, reporting, and administrative features in one solution. The most notable enhancement in this update is a new feature that allows administrators to verify, monitor and report on the hottest new Exchange 2010 feature —Database Availability Groups. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708854.htm
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SpeedUpMyPC 2010 from Uniblue is Launched in 12 Languages and with a Brand-new Set of Features
Having proven to be a popular utility globally over the past few years, Uniblue’s newest version of its award-winning software, SpeedUpMyPC has just been launched with a fresh user interface, a new set of features and in 12 languages. With a completely rewritten backend, SpeedUpMyPC combines a professional range of tools to boost a computer’s performance, speed and output, all via an easy-to-use GUI. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/speedupmypc/prweb3710044.htm
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KnowledgeVision Goes to Market with New Company, Experienced Team
A new Massachusetts company will further develop and market the popular KnowledgeVision software tools for creating on-demand, online presentations. KnowledgeVision synchronizes video, PowerPoint, images, and dynamic footnotes and makes presentations available on the web, anytime, anywhere. KnowledgeVision Systems Incorporated will be led by three internet services veterans: Michael Kolowich, Rusty Williams, and Tom Crawford and will be headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. Originally created by DigiNovations, KnowledgeVision is already serving organizations in health services, professional services, financial services, corporate marketing, and higher education. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/knowledgevision/video-powerpoint/prweb3708434.htm
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Digital Signature Solution Builds New Levels of Collaboration at Duke Realty
Commercial real estate developer Duke Realty employs CoSign® digital signatures in its web portal to enhance collaboration with partners. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Digital-Signature/CoSign/prweb3698364.htm
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New Email Marketing Software Product, ChiefContactOfficer.com, Offers Automation, Ease Of Use
Miles Technologies and Chief Contact Officer, LLC have jointly developed a new email marketing software product, ChiefContactOfficer.com,to revolutionize email marketing and campaign management for businesses of all sizes. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698874.htm
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Hanley Center Calls Spector 360 a “Tremendous Resource” to Ensure Patient Confidentiality, Employee Productivity, and HIPAA Compliance
World-Renowned Alcoholism and Addiction Treatment Center Realizes Demonstrable ROI by Monitoring Employee Use of PC and Internet Resources with Spector 360 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/HIPAA/healthcare_compliance/prweb3700094.htm
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Digiscribe Inducted into Digitech Circle of Excellence as Top Ten Worldwide Reseller
Digiscribe inducted into Digitech Systems' prestigious 2010 Circle of Excellence as a Top Ten Worldwide Reseller of electronic content management software. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Digiscribe/CofE/prweb3700124.htm
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Idera Announces SharePoint 2010 Best Practice Webcasts in ‘Secrets of SharePoint’ Educational Series
The "Secrets of SharePoint" webcast series is presented by Errin O'Connor, CEO of EPC group and author of the upcoming Microsoft Press book, “SharePoint Foundation 2010 - Inside Out.” They will be held March 17 and April 21, 2010. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700784.htm
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Ryarc™ Announces Availability of Digital Signage Software with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT)
Today Ryarc announces the availability of CampaignManager, which adds Intel® AMT technology which can dramatically reduce downtime and ongoing TCO for operators of Digital Signage networks. By automatically discovering Intel® AMT enabled devices in the user’s Digital Signage network, Ryarc CampaignManager provides single click access to such powerful features as power cycling, inventory management and more. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703184.htm
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eMaint Enterprises a First Prize Recipient of 2009 FANATI Customer Service Award
eMaint Enterprises named a First Prize recipient for 2009 Rackspace “FANATI” award for outstanding customer service. eMaint was selected from a field of over 31,000 eligible companies. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CMMS/Maintenance-Software/prweb3703884.htm
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New Wix Arena Invites Musicians to Join & Benefit
Wix.com, a fast growing start up has been evolving as a community over the last few months. The company is encouraging this direction and will soon be introducing the Wix Arena. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Wix-Arena/invites-musicians/prweb3704034.htm
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EclipseSource to Participate in Eclipse Foundation's Eclipse Training Series
EclipseSource will once again be delivering Eclipse courses through the Eclipse Training Series program taking place in April and May of 2010. The firms popular RCP Development, Advance RCP and OSGi courses will be offered at a special rate as part of this program. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704224.htm
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Invesp Grows 130% and Extends Market Leadership in Ecommerce Conversion Optimization
Invesp, the leading provider of conversion optimization services and software for ecommerce websites, announced its results for 2009. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704474.htm
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FreeBalance and Grant Thornton Demonstrate How Government 2.0 Technologies Lead Transformative Change
White paper details how proven Web 2.0 and social networking technologies enable governments to increase transparency, participation and collaboration (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FreeBalance/Grant_Thornton/prweb3705604.htm
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smartRealm Launches First Semantic Web-Based Social Network Analysis API Providing Developers with Access to Individual Social Network Influence Scores
smartRealm announced beta launch of its SNAP API to provide developers with access to social network scoring and analytics indicating a person’s position and influence in their social networks for optimizing social media marketing and outreach. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706194.htm
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Moodlerooms Awarded Statewide Contract for REMC $AVE Bid Project
jouleTM Recommended as Standard LMS Solution in Michigan (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/moodlerooms/REMC/prweb3706474.htm
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expressor software to Host Customer Case Study Webinar Featuring American Tower on March 18th
This webinar features American Tower describing how it is using the expressor semantic data integration system to improve the performance and capabilities of its existing Microsoft SQL Server enterprise data warehouse. The company is replacing Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) with expressor for this application. The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 11:00 am EDT. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706524.htm
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Integration Point Celebrates Recognition of Two Team Members as Industry Experts by National Publication
Integration Point announces two team members - Melissa Irmen and Angela Chamberlain - have been named to the Supply & Demand Chain Executive Provider Pros to Know list for 2010. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708024.htm
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Physical Bullying of Kids on the Decline; PC Pandora 6.0 Computer Monitoring Software Can Help Combat the Rising Cyberbullying
A new national study conducted by the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found physical bullying among peers declined from 2003 to 2008. At the same time, the National Crime Prevention Council says cyberbullying is on the rise. Pandora Corp. co-founder Manuel Coats explains how PC Pandora 6.0 computer monitoring software can be a valuable tool in the fight against cyberbullying. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/PCPandora6/CombatCyberbullying/prweb3708644.htm
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Notable Solutions AutoStore Workflow Now Provides Capture On-Ramp for DocuWare Document Management System
Certified Solution Captures to DocuWare Repository from Scanners and MFPsNotable Solutions, Inc. (NSi), a leading developer of distributed content capture and workflow solutions, has released an update to its AutoStore document capture platform which supports capture to the popular DocuWare Document Management System (DMS). (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/document/capture/prweb3709474.htm
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Verizon Business Networking Solution Helps iYogi Deliver Superior Global Technical Support
Technical support services provider iYogi has chosen an advanced technology platform from Verizon Business to help it deliver outstanding customer service while supporting rapid growth (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710124.htm
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Consona Explores Impact of Social Media on Customer Experience
KMWorld Moderates Web Panel Discussing Critical Role Social Media Plays in Improving the Customer Experience (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Consona/CRM_Software/prweb3710914.htm
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Spinscape 2.0 Shines at Making Life Easier
Educators, Students, Businesspeople and Critics Alike Love Spinscape’s Newest Features. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3691534.htm
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Best Western Hotel Launches Online Booking Widget to Reach Customers via Desktops, Facebook and the Web with WorkLight
Hotel to Use New Applications to Drive Revenues and Customer Loyalty (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3707744.htm
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SyberWorks and Focus Compliance & Validation Services Announce Risk-Based Approach to FDA Computer Systems Validation Webinar
SyberWorks, Inc., a leader in custom e-Learning Solutions and the Learning Management System (LMS) industry, announces a Webinar, A Risk-Based Approach to FDA Computer Systems Validation. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3692844.htm
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Medical Practices and Community Health Centers to Benefit from IT Provider’s Experience Providing eClinicalWorks Support
Stemp Systems Group is Among First IT Providers Awarded eClinicalWorks Preferred IT Vendor Status; Recognizes Commitment and Excellence in Serving Medical Community (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699684.htm
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Archaio Launches its Mobile Response Viewer Allowing Incident Commanders Immediate Access to Interior Building Intelligence
Archaio's Mobile Response Viewer application provides incident commanders real-time access to interior building plans and data on computers and on mobile handheld devices in the field. The application runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 and is currently available on Motorola's MC75 Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA). The MC75 is a size-optimized, wirelessly connected rugged handheld mobile computer that can be deployed in public safety and emergency response applications and is designed to withstand everyday use in harsh environments. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698484.htm
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IdiomaX Introduces Language Translation Software for Windows 7 and Office 2010
IdiomaX L.L.C., a world leader in translation software technology, announces the launch of their new state of the art translation software package compatible with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010: IdiomaX Translation Suite 6.0. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698954.htm
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Unitask Announces Cloud Based Output Management Support
Company Extends Leadership of Oracle E-Business Suite Printing for Hosting (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699574.htm
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Online Tax Preparer Launches Software, Earns Top Ranking and Projects Exponential Growth
OnePriceTaxes.com recently launched a new software product and was ranked the No. 4 best tax preparation program by TopTenReviews.com. The online tax preparation company is expecting to generate 500 percent growth in its business this year over last year. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3683444.htm
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Emerson Network Power Unveils Performance Optimization Suite to Extend the Life of Existing Data Centers, Saving Organizations Millions of Dollars
Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical Continuity™, today announced Aperture Integrated Resource Manager, the industry’s first data center performance optimization solution for extending the life of existing infrastructure resources and improving overall efficiency in the data center. Aperture Integrated Resource Manager can deliver cost savings in the millions of dollars by enabling organizations to delay new data center builds, increase rack densities, better utilize existing resources and improve staff efficiency. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3693504.htm
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Intellimed’s Popular Data Reporting Software IM-IC (Intelligent Client) Receives Latest Update
Pivot Tables, Cross Tabs and Summarized Demographic Reporting increases value of Intellimed's Reporting Tool. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699194.htm
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Netop Takes Affordable Endpoint Protection for Networked Computers to the Next Level
Updates to Netop ProtectOn Pro Include Enhanced Ease of Use, Support for Windows 7 (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699394.htm
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New FileMaker Pro 11 Delivers Eye-Catching Charts, Easy Reporting and Improved Productivity Features
Innovative new ways to create, share and visualize databases now available in FileMaker Pro 11 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3685054.htm
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Raxco Software Releases Faster, More Flexible PerfectDisk 11 Disk Defrag Software
Client Solutions product line of disk defragmentation tools provides all-encompassing solution to boost PC, laptop, netbook, server and home server performance (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/perfect-disk/defrag-software/prweb3704654.htm
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Caribou Systems Recognized with WBE Certification
Specialized Company for Healthcare and Insurance, Caribou is One of First to Attain WBE Certification in This Marketplace (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Caribou_Systems/WBE_Certification/prweb3705314.htm
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Sogeti USA Grows to Ensure Industry Expertise for Clients
Sogeti USA hires new vice president for retail industry focus. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Sogeti_USA/Todd_Smith_VP_retail/prweb3706554.htm
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CGI Unveils CGI Trade360™ to Replace Proponix360™ as Trade and Supply Chain Finance Solution
Trade360 is a web-based customizable software-as-a-service to help banks participate in the trade and supply chain finance revolution (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CGI/Trade360/prweb3706604.htm
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Colocation America Announces Emergency Protection for Natural Disasters and Network Threats
Leading colocation server hosting company provides both physical and network protection to protect businesses from data loss. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Colocation_America/Emergency_Protection/prweb3708514.htm
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Versiera Surpasses The Big 4 Infrastructure Management Vendors
IT departments can not only visualize their network infrastructures, but can extend to visualize all network communications in the enterprise and those extending out to the Internet. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709054.htm
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Demdex Helps Entertainment Advertiser Improve Display Ad Targeting with TARGUSinfo AdAdvisor® Verified Audience Data
Ad Agency Leverages AdAdvisor Data to Target Ads to Internet Users Twice as Likely to Become Customers for Leading Entertainment Client (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/TARGUSinfo/AdAdvisor/prweb3710274.htm
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French Fashion Designer Artextyl Selects Gerber Technology’s YuniquePLM™
Gerber Technology's leading product lifecycle management solution is selected by French fashion company Artextyl to reduce cycles for development and sampling, to strengthen quality levels and to increase collaboration amongst suppliers. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/gerbertechnology/artextyl/prweb3670644.htm
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Chesapeake NetCraftsmen Top Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE®) Terry Slattery to speak at Satellite 2010
Slattery chosen as an expert panelist for Securing Your Network: Protecting your Operations, Content and Assets (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/satellite/2010/prweb3687664.htm
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Digiscribe Inducted into Digitech Circle of Excellence as Top Ten Worldwide Reseller
Digiscribe inducted into Digitech Systems' prestigious 2010 Circle of Excellence as a Top Ten Worldwide Reseller of electronic content management software. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Digiscribe/CofE/prweb3700124.htm
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MainBrain Joins Forces with All Covered Inc.
Nationwide IT Outsourcing (http://www.allcovered.com/services/it-outsourcing/) Solutions Provider Expands Presence into Maryland. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700574.htm
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Invesp Grows 130% and Extends Market Leadership in Ecommerce Conversion Optimization
Invesp, the leading provider of conversion optimization services and software for ecommerce websites, announced its results for 2009. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704474.htm
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Hoover's Launches BtoB Mobile App on App Store
Hoover's today announced its Hoover's Near Here Mobile App (http://www.hoovers.com/Marketing/100003463-1.html) is available on the App Store. Available for the iPhone and iPod touch from the App Store, Hoover's Near Here app lets users find companies based on their current location or any other location in the United States and Canada for targeted sales prospecting anytime, anywhere. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/mobile_app/hoovers_near_here/prweb3707384.htm
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Messaging Architects’ M+Archive Indispensable for Texas City ISD’s Cost-Effective and Easy Migration to Exchange
By using M+Archive for their transition from GroupWise to Exchange, Texas City ISD was able to leverage the savings from not having to invest into a separate migration tool to extend the email system refresh beyond the original scope of the project. M+Archive allowed them to meet the need to migrate and enable a deployment policy for centralized email retention and electronic discovery. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708134.htm
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Syncplicity Brings Its Sync and Backup Solution to the Google Apps Marketplace
Syncplicity Enhances Sync and File Management for Google Apps (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Syncplicity/GoogleAppsMarketplace/prweb3708954.htm
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Verizon Business Networking Solution Helps iYogi Deliver Superior Global Technical Support
Technical support services provider iYogi has chosen an advanced technology platform from Verizon Business to help it deliver outstanding customer service while supporting rapid growth (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710124.htm
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Consona Explores Impact of Social Media on Customer Experience
KMWorld Moderates Web Panel Discussing Critical Role Social Media Plays in Improving the Customer Experience (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Consona/CRM_Software/prweb3710914.htm
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DMTI Spatial Inc. Announces Critigen’s Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Akers, as Keynote Speaker at Expedition 2010
Expedition 2010 Customer Conference, hosted by DMTI Spatial Inc. at the King Edward hotel in Toronto on April 22nd, to include Jeff Akers, Critigen’s Chief Executive Officer, as a Keynote speaker. Jeff will address the relevance of information management technology to Location Intelligence. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698934.htm
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Blowfish Shoe Launches New E-Commerce Platform Developed by RLM Software
Trendy footwear company Blowfish LLC has launched a bold new e-commerce initiative designed to convey the company’s brand and product message while providing its customers and online community with rich content and social media interaction. The new system is fully integrated with the company’s ERP business system to streamline both the shopping experience and order fulfillment. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701584.htm
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GIGMAX.COM Introduces New Desktop Software for Online File Backup
Web site also offers file sharing and remote access solutions. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3387774.htm
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American Society of Anesthesiologists: Is Apathy or Avarice Precluding Advocacy of Better Patient Safety?
“What part of ‘medicate the brain, measure it’ does the ASA not understand?” asks prominent, board certified anesthesiologist Barry Friedberg, MD. “Is the ASA not as smart as a fifth grader?” (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3609584.htm
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Cable Mover Hotline® Serving 41 Million Annual Movers Now Powered by TARGUSinfo
Popular National Toll-Free System Supported 4.8% of Americans Who Moved in 2009 (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698274.htm
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Intellimed’s Popular Data Reporting Software IM-IC (Intelligent Client) Receives Latest Update
Pivot Tables, Cross Tabs and Summarized Demographic Reporting increases value of Intellimed's Reporting Tool. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699194.htm
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Get Smart: Emerson Network Power Introduces SmartAisle Solution to Put a Lid on Data Center Cooling
As high heat densities continue to push the limits of data center cooling, Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical Continuity™, today introduced the SmartAisle™ cooling management solution to increase cooling efficiency and rack capacity. Leveraging the hot aisle/cold aisle rack configuration, the flexible SmartAisle solution contains the cold aisle to prevent hot and cold air from mixing, while adding a layer of intelligent management through the Liebert iCOM™ control system. The SmartAisle solution is available to customers worldwide. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700914.htm
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XL World - Eastern Europe's Top Provider of Outsourced Multilingual Contact Center Services, and Second in the World
Black Book of Outsourcing’s annual publication recognizes XL World as the leader in the Eastern European market and also grants it second place on a global scale. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/call-center/top-bpo/prweb3636804.htm
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Re-Launch of the Spread Betting and Trading Website for Traders and Investors
First Financial Ltd have just launched their new spread betting website (http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/) redesign and overhaul. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3676704.htm
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PaymentSeal™, a PCI-DSS Solution for E-Commerce Transactions, Proposes an Innovative End-to-End Payment Security
PaymentSeal™now provides shoppers with a secure method to authorize online payments, making e-commerce safe and reliable. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3688374.htm
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Radicom Telemedicine Dial-Up Modems Enable OEM Applications
Radicom announces low cost IEC 60601-1 medical certified dial-up modems for OEMs. Small and versatile embedded and external telemedicine modems offered in Serial TTL and USB interfaces. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3691524.htm
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CBT Planet Set to Release New Training Courses for Microsoft Windows 7
New Microsoft Windows 7 courses (http://www.cbtplanet.com/microsoft-windows-7.htm) designed for IT professionals will soon be released by CBT Planet with several Microsoft certifications covered. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697544.htm
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GL Announces Wireless, Packet, and TDM Testing Products at CTIA Wireless 2010
GL Communications Inc. (http://www.gl.com) announced today its participation in CTIA Wireless 2010 to be held From March 23-25, at Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, USA. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697664.htm
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Research Identifies The Most Infringed Terms Within Domain Names
Corporation Service Company® (CSC), the leading domain management and brand protection company, announced today the findings of a recent study that found the most infringed terms within domain names are “www” and “online”. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698134.htm
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NextNine Joins the OPC Foundation
NextNine Confirms Continued Commitment to its Process Control Customers (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/NextNine/OPC_Membership/prweb3698504.htm
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iWave Software Announces Release of IT Process Automation (ITPA) Adapters For EMC Ionix Products
Lowers IT Data Center Operations Costs by Enabling Simple, Out-Of The-Box Process Integration and Run Book Automation (RBA) with EMC Ionix For IT Operations Intelligence, Ionix Network Configuration Manager, and Ionix Service Manager. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698634.htm
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Three Security Firms Create Consortium To Automate Meaningful Use Requirements And Qualify Clients For $Billions In Stimulus Funds
Hospitals and physicians can receive $19 billion in subsidies over five years for making “meaningful use” of certified Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/hipaa/security/prweb3699874.htm
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Solutionz Conferencing & Polycom Offers “Polycom or Web Video Conferencing Solutions?” Webinar
Polycom and Solutionz to host “Polycom or Web Video Conferencing Solutions” Webinar… Why you should choose high-end video conferencing solutions over run-of-the-mill, low-quality web-based desktop video applications. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/video_conferencing/polycom/prweb3700364.htm
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Moravia Worldwide to Present Webinar on Software Localization Engineering
Practical, Actionable Information on Localization Engineering (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702284.htm
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Storage Guardian Announces ‘Virtual Backup Roadmap’ for SQL 2008 Users
MSPs and small businesses planning to migrate a physical installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to a virtual model can now take advantage of zero upfront software/hardware cost program that features Asigra technology. Storage Guardian’s capacity-based pricing means no additional license fees when making the switch, plus a completely smooth transition to a dependable, cloud-based solution. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702664.htm
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Datatel Adds IT Infrastructure Partners to Help Clients Build Strategic Academic Enterprises
Sirius and VCOMP to Provide Advanced Hardware with Design and Implementation Services (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Strategic/Academic_Enterprises/prweb3702764.htm
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Planview and an Independent Research Firm Discuss the Evolution of the Project Management Office
Planview®, the leading independent provider of enterprise-wide portfolio management solutions, will host a webinar discussing the latest PMO research and findings featuring independent research company Forrester Research, Inc. on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. Central Standard Time. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704594.htm
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PRWeb Seminar in NYC: SEO and Marketing Secrets to Drive Web site Traffic
PRWeb Presents a Live, In-person Seminar in New York, NY Featuring Speakers Randy Aimone and Harry Brooks (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/PRWeb-Seminar-NYC/small-business-marketing/prweb3699524.htm
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Internet Video Marketing Experts Launch Premium Services for Agencies and Brands
The Internet's leading video marketing experts are teaming up to offer full scale online video marketing services for brands large and small. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/video/marketing-services/prweb3603934.htm
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New FileMaker Pro 11 Delivers Eye-Catching Charts, Easy Reporting and Improved Productivity Features
Innovative new ways to create, share and visualize databases now available in FileMaker Pro 11 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3685054.htm
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MyFantasyLeague.com and FantasySharks.com Recognized by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association for the Best Fantasy Draft and Game Assistance Tool
MyFantasyLeague.com follows up their 2008 Best League Management Product and Best Print Ad awards with yet another industry award (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701004.htm
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anyoption™ Launches the First Ever Binary Options Trading Platform in the German Market
The first ever German binary options trading platform has been launched by anyoption™, the world’s largest and leading site of its kind. Not only is the binary options trading platform fully functioning in the German language but the entire launch and marketing campaign will be carried out in Germany, ensuring complete localization. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/anyoption_trading/German_investors/prweb3703724.htm
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TRAFFIQ Announces Strategic Partnership with TAAN
End-to-end platform offers members advanced digital capabilities. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704404.htm
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PrescriptionDrugs.com and Mike “Zappy” Zapolin Have Been Selected to Compete in Harvard Business School New Venture Contest
Internet Entrepreneur and HBS Alumnus Recognized for PrescriptionDrugs.com Business Plan (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/health/prescription-drugs/prweb3704924.htm
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HostGator Wins About.com Reader's Choice Best in Web Hosting Awards
The votes are in and HostGator.com has won three out of four 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards from About.com. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706754.htm
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Earth Class Mail™ Introduces Miami and Chicago Street Addresses
Earth Class Mail adds Miami and Chicago to its US Street Address network. In addition to NY, LA, San Francisco, Delaware and Seattle, Earth Class Mail Street Address customers have gained a business advantage for processing inbound mail in Miami and Chicago. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/earth-class-mail/chicago_miami/prweb3708604.htm
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Versiera Surpasses The Big 4 Infrastructure Management Vendors
IT departments can not only visualize their network infrastructures, but can extend to visualize all network communications in the enterprise and those extending out to the Internet. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709054.htm
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Overtone, Inc. Introduces OpenMic GameVoice—the First Social Media Insights Report for the Video Game Industry
GameVoice First to Analyze Millions of Online Conversations and Provide Actionable Insights about Consumer Sentiment in a Single Report. Overtone™, Inc. today introduced OpenMic™ GameVoice™, the first monthly video game industry report to analyze millions of consumer conversations from popular social media video game communities, providing actionable insights to marketers, producers, designers and retail category managers. Introductory three-month subscriptions to GameVoice are $1,999 (US) for a limited time. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709064.htm
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SpeedUpMyPC 2010 from Uniblue is Launched in 12 Languages and with a Brand-new Set of Features
Having proven to be a popular utility globally over the past few years, Uniblue’s newest version of its award-winning software, SpeedUpMyPC has just been launched with a fresh user interface, a new set of features and in 12 languages. With a completely rewritten backend, SpeedUpMyPC combines a professional range of tools to boost a computer’s performance, speed and output, all via an easy-to-use GUI. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/speedupmypc/prweb3710044.htm
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Demdex Helps Entertainment Advertiser Improve Display Ad Targeting with TARGUSinfo AdAdvisor® Verified Audience Data
Ad Agency Leverages AdAdvisor Data to Target Ads to Internet Users Twice as Likely to Become Customers for Leading Entertainment Client (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/TARGUSinfo/AdAdvisor/prweb3710274.htm
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AmeriCommerce Again Recognized as a 2010 CODiE Finalist for Best eCommerce Solution
AmeriCommerce is pleased to announce that for the third year its Shopping Cart Software has been named a top 3 finalist in the Software & Information Industry Association's prestigious 25th annual CODiE Awards competition. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CODiE-eCommerce/Shopping-Cart-Software/prweb3688444.htm
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International Biometric Group (IBG) Announces its March 11th Webcast: "Biometrics in Social Networking and Virtual Online Applications"
March webcast focuses on biometrics in social networking and online applications (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710514.htm
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KnowledgeVision Goes to Market with New Company, Experienced Team
A new Massachusetts company will further develop and market the popular KnowledgeVision software tools for creating on-demand, online presentations. KnowledgeVision synchronizes video, PowerPoint, images, and dynamic footnotes and makes presentations available on the web, anytime, anywhere. KnowledgeVision Systems Incorporated will be led by three internet services veterans: Michael Kolowich, Rusty Williams, and Tom Crawford and will be headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. Originally created by DigiNovations, KnowledgeVision is already serving organizations in health services, professional services, financial services, corporate marketing, and higher education. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/knowledgevision/video-powerpoint/prweb3708434.htm
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WebMetro Ranked as a Top Integrated Search Company by topseos.com for March 2010
topseos.com, the independent authority on search vendors, announced WebMetro as one of the best integrated search firms. The self-titled "ROI-fanatics" provide top notch services and reporting for their clients. topseos.com began in 2002 to help businesses connect with the best internet marketing agencies, and WebMetro has certainly proven themselves to be among the best. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3664014.htm
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Lexalytics Discusses Top Text and Sentiment Analysis Trends at Leading Industry Shows;
Lexalytics CEO Jeff Catlin and VP of Products Seth Redmore Will Speak at Upcoming Content, Cloud Computing, Text Analytics, and Sentiment Analysis Conferences On March 15, Redmore will sit on a panel of industry experts at Cloud Connect 2010 in Santa Clara, Calif. On April 18, Catlin will lead a keynote presentation and discussion at Information Today, Inc's. Buying & Selling eContent 2010 Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. Also in April, Lexalytics will sponsor The Sentiment Analysis Symposium in New York, N.Y. Catlin will also appear on a technology panel at the Text Analytics Summit in Boston, Mass., on May 25 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700014.htm
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AIT Unveils Xeon Dedicated Server Suite: At Ground Breaking Prices
AIT, Inc. (Advanced Internet Technologies), www.AIT.com announced a new suite of dedicated hosting solutions that include managed and self-managed dedicated servers featuring Xeon and Dual Xeon processors coupled with record breaking disk space and bandwidth for enterprise clients. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701444.htm
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PeopleMetrics, Inc. Unveils Expanded Website
Customer and Employee Engagement solutions company updates web site to include their one-of-a kind Physician Engagement Management solution (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701614.htm
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Urban Airship Expands Popular Mobile Push Messaging Services to Android and BlackBerry Platforms
Urban Airship, which has delivered more than 160 million push notifications to iphone users since June 2009, now fully supports mobile messaging on BlackBerry smartphone apps. Support for the Android is available soon. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702744.htm
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eMaint Enterprises a First Prize Recipient of 2009 FANATI Customer Service Award
eMaint Enterprises named a First Prize recipient for 2009 Rackspace “FANATI” award for outstanding customer service. eMaint was selected from a field of over 31,000 eligible companies. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CMMS/Maintenance-Software/prweb3703884.htm
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New Wix Arena Invites Musicians to Join & Benefit
Wix.com, a fast growing start up has been evolving as a community over the last few months. The company is encouraging this direction and will soon be introducing the Wix Arena. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Wix-Arena/invites-musicians/prweb3704034.htm
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HostelBookers Offer Chance for Free Stay In Hostels this Easter
The budget accommodation specialist launched its $50,000 Easter offer; giving lucky customers the opportunity to win their stay for free in a selection of top hostels. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010-hostelbookers/easter-giveaway/prweb3704444.htm
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Invesp Grows 130% and Extends Market Leadership in Ecommerce Conversion Optimization
Invesp, the leading provider of conversion optimization services and software for ecommerce websites, announced its results for 2009. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704474.htm
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Delta Hotels and Resorts Selects Powered by Search Inc as National Local SEO Agency of Record
Powered by Search's local search engine optimization program will assist Delta’s Hotels local search prominence on a national level for its 45 hotel and resort properties. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3705584.htm
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PrintCountry Unveils New Technology to Assist Online Shoppers Find Right Printer Cartridges
Everyone knows the experience of working on an important project, only to have the printer run out of ink at a crucial moment. However, not everyone knows which replacement printer cartridge to use. With more than 5,000 models in operation, finding the right cartridges and supplies for a specific printer can be frustrating and time-consuming. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3705744.htm
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Explorra Launches Travel by Color –- A Visual Discovery Tool for Travel Guides
Explorra.com, a young travel start-up has launched “Travel by Color”, an interactive visual discovery tool which allows users to discover travel guides in a fun and innovative way, by just using color. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/explorra/travel-guides/prweb3705974.htm
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HiSoftware Signs Systems Alliance to Channel Partner Program
Maryland Firm Will Deliver Website Quality and Compliance Assessments and Mitigation as an Extension of its Web Effectiveness Consulting Practice (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/HiSoftware/SystemsAlliance/prweb3706414.htm
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Michael C. Fina Unveils Revamped Employee Recognition Solutions Website
New Site Launches Today at www.mcfrecognition.com. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3707084.htm
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Non-profit Organization Gets Recognition for Spreading Message in Innovative Ways
The Skinny Gene Project is an #influenceSD 2010 nominee for non-profit of the year. To support diabetes prevention and promote the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, the public can vote the Skinny Gene Project up the nomination list until March 24th. The top 5 nominees in the non-profit category will advance to the final judging round. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/nominee/prweb3707894.htm
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NewCom International President Jaime Dickinson Named World Teleport Association’s 2010 Teleport Executive of the Year
NewCom President Jaime Dickinson, named WTA's 2010 Teleport Executive of the Year, is being recognized for his commitment to bring education, economic development and stabilization to developing countries in Latin America and Africa through 21st Century communications. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708404.htm
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Optelec Gets Creative: CSUN San Diego and VisionZone Premier with Special Movie Debut
Optelec will gather with industry professionals to display the latest technology for persons with disabilities and reveal new nationwide movement to promote ocular health awareness (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708614.htm
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Physical Bullying of Kids on the Decline; PC Pandora 6.0 Computer Monitoring Software Can Help Combat the Rising Cyberbullying
A new national study conducted by the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found physical bullying among peers declined from 2003 to 2008. At the same time, the National Crime Prevention Council says cyberbullying is on the rise. Pandora Corp. co-founder Manuel Coats explains how PC Pandora 6.0 computer monitoring software can be a valuable tool in the fight against cyberbullying. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/PCPandora6/CombatCyberbullying/prweb3708644.htm
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Syncplicity Brings Its Sync and Backup Solution to the Google Apps Marketplace
Syncplicity Enhances Sync and File Management for Google Apps (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Syncplicity/GoogleAppsMarketplace/prweb3708954.htm
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Verizon Business Networking Solution Helps iYogi Deliver Superior Global Technical Support
Technical support services provider iYogi has chosen an advanced technology platform from Verizon Business to help it deliver outstanding customer service while supporting rapid growth (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710124.htm
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International Baccalaureate Expands Access to IB Diploma Programme Courses
Online courses from Pamoja Education use Web 2.0 technology to encourage global collaborative learning (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/diploma/online/prweb3710544.htm
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eCommerce Merchants Trade Association Goes Local with Local Chapters
eCommerce Merchants Trade Association opens 5 new local chapters for a total of 9 in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, South Louisiana, South Florida and Philadelphia. Local chapters are designed to deliver ecommerce education to merchants locally while reinforcing peer to peer networking with other online retailers. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701234.htm
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Best Western Hotel Launches Online Booking Widget to Reach Customers via Desktops, Facebook and the Web with WorkLight
Hotel to Use New Applications to Drive Revenues and Customer Loyalty (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3707744.htm
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BT Business Connects CAN Media with Schools and Surgeries Across the UK
BT Business announces new deal with CAN Media to provide private TV information service to schools and surgeries across the UK. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698854.htm
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Slide To Play Releases GameFinder iPhone App
GameFinder Allows iPhone and iPod Touch Gamers to Discover the Best Games in the iTunes App Store (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3705934.htm
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AT&T Releases ‘Raising Their Voices,’ a New Study Into Causes and Solutions for the High School Dropout Crisis
In Response to Key Research Finding, National Education Association Takes Lead in Launching Series of Community Dialogues (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708444.htm
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International Biometric Group (IBG) Announces its March 11th Webcast: "Biometrics in Social Networking and Virtual Online Applications"
March webcast focuses on biometrics in social networking and online applications (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710514.htm
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PocketSLP iPhone App a Game Changer for Speech Therapy
The PocketSLP iPhone app captivates and engages children in ways flash cards never could. Dubbed “The Digital SLP Assistant”, PocketSLP makes card decks obsolete, ushering in a new era for speech therapists and parents of children with articulation delays. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3580704.htm
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Chesapeake NetCraftsmen Top Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE®) Terry Slattery to speak at Satellite 2010
Slattery chosen as an expert panelist for Securing Your Network: Protecting your Operations, Content and Assets (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/satellite/2010/prweb3687664.htm
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Golfsmith Guaranteeing Golfers Will Play Better in 2010
Golfsmith is guaranteeing better play for anyone who buys new, custom-fit clubs from the retailer. Those who doesn't see better play can return their clubs -- no questions asked. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/golfsmith/guarantee/prweb3702304.htm
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Urban Airship Expands Popular Mobile Push Messaging Services to Android and BlackBerry Platforms
Urban Airship, which has delivered more than 160 million push notifications to iphone users since June 2009, now fully supports mobile messaging on BlackBerry smartphone apps. Support for the Android is available soon. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702744.htm
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New mobile Comparison Site Helps Australians Find Better Deals
A new mobile phone site has just launched in Australia, allowing users to compare more than 1,000 different handsets and plans. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703564.htm
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Hoover's Launches BtoB Mobile App on App Store
Hoover's today announced its Hoover's Near Here Mobile App (http://www.hoovers.com/Marketing/100003463-1.html) is available on the App Store. Available for the iPhone and iPod touch from the App Store, Hoover's Near Here app lets users find companies based on their current location or any other location in the United States and Canada for targeted sales prospecting anytime, anywhere. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/mobile_app/hoovers_near_here/prweb3707384.htm
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Syncplicity Brings Its Sync and Backup Solution to the Google Apps Marketplace
Syncplicity Enhances Sync and File Management for Google Apps (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Syncplicity/GoogleAppsMarketplace/prweb3708954.htm
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eCrypt Initiates Social Media Campaign
The eCrypt team makes its debut on social network sites including YouTube and Facebook. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709304.htm
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Spinscape 2.0 Shines at Making Life Easier
Educators, Students, Businesspeople and Critics Alike Love Spinscape’s Newest Features. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3691534.htm
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Archaio Launches its Mobile Response Viewer Allowing Incident Commanders Immediate Access to Interior Building Intelligence
Archaio's Mobile Response Viewer application provides incident commanders real-time access to interior building plans and data on computers and on mobile handheld devices in the field. The application runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 and is currently available on Motorola's MC75 Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA). The MC75 is a size-optimized, wirelessly connected rugged handheld mobile computer that can be deployed in public safety and emergency response applications and is designed to withstand everyday use in harsh environments. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698484.htm
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Vlingo Expands Management Team, Names New Sales Executive and CFO
Seasoned Technology Executives Will Drive Adoption of Vlingo's Mobile Voice Application and Support Global Expansion (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701484.htm
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v-Fluence Study Shows Healthcare Applications for Mobile Devices Exploding: Online Expert Jay Byrne Asks, 'Are You Ready?'
v-Fluence Interactive CEO Jay Byrne discusses the growth of healthcare mobile apps and why companies should be watching them. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701754.htm
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The First HD Video Converting Software for Multi-track HD Videos Released
Digiarty Software announced the release of WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, which is the first one to support multi-track HD videos, offering up to 5x - 15x real time converting speed. Easily convert video from HD camcorder, HDTV, Blu-ray movies, etc. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/giveaway/hd-video-converter/prweb3570644.htm
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New Mobile Phone Payment Technology Can Help Keep Families Safe
"Your Designated Driver on Me" is a nationwide designated driver program that encourages family members and friends to pay for each other's cab fare if they ever need to use a cab after drinking. No questions asked. The program incorporates innovative new mobile phone payment technology that allows users to send money instantly by mobile phone. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/drunkdriving/designateddriverprogram/prweb3691894.htm
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Daviess County Public Schools Implements Netsweeper Internet Content Filtering Solution to Foster Success of 1:1 Computing Program
Daviess County Public Schools has implemented Netsweeper, an Internet content filtering solution designed to protect students from the dangers posed by the Internet while enabling a more productive online, educational experience when using their student assigned laptops both at school and at home. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Netsweeper/DaviessCountySchools/prweb3698924.htm
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Razorfish to Explore Augmented Reality, Mobile Apps, the Future of TV at South by Southwest Interactive Festival, March 12-16, in Austin, Texas
Razorfish hosting happy hour for festival attendees at Paradise Café and Bar on Saturday, March 13 (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699284.htm
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YouSayToo Announces a 2010, Two-Week Social Bookmarking Challenge to Raise Funds for 'Hope for Haiti'
YouSayToo, the internet’s most innovative blogosphere company, is encouraging the global internet community and bloggers everywhere to participate in its two-week Social Booking Challenge. From March 8 – March 22, 2010, those who take part in the challenge will automatically raise funds for the “Hope for Haiti” organization and be entered into a contest where they can win cash prizes. Three lucky winners will be selected to win $100 from one of each of the following social media sites: Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo Buzz. Competitors simply need to go to this link to join in: http://www.yousaytoo.com/awards and follow the directions. At the link, they’ll be asked to add their social bookmarks to support YouSayToo’s “Hope for Haiti” donation goal. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700954.htm
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Throw Away the Traditional Office Pool Bracket—FanFeedr’s March Madness Pick’Em is Here!
The First Sports Social Game Seamlessly Integrated with Facebook and Twitter (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703004.htm
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PressDisplay Brings More Than 1,500 Newspapers and Magazines to the enTourage eDGe
Dual-screen display offers users an engaging, interactive read of their favorite publications on newest entrant to the handheld device market (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703064.htm
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Bollywood Stars Embrace Emerging Mobile Social Media by Adopting 'Bubbly'
Bollywood is bubbling with excitement over India's hottest new social networking service. Bubbly, a new mobile service that lets people record and send audio messages to the phones of their followers, is now connecting Bollywood's brightest stars including Kareena Kapoor and Aamir Khan with their legions of fans. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703584.htm
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UltraSlo Video Production Company Makes iPhone App Using AppMakr
Emmy-winning cinematographer Alan Teitel uses PointAbout Inc.’s self-service app making tool to create an iPhone app for his popular video clip website UltraSlo.com. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/appmakr/ultraslo/prweb3703954.htm
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Boomerang Networks Launches Community Controlled “Offerwall” Virtual Currency Monetization Platform
Users Rate Offers To Get Virtual Currency. Good Offers Float to Top and Bad Offers Disappear (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704764.htm
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Mobile Retail Market to Exceed $12 Billion by 2014, Driven by One-to-one Marketing and Smartphone Adoption, Juniper Report Finds
A new report from Juniper Research has found that one-to-one marketing allied to the rapid proliferation of smartphones will be among the key drivers of a mobile retail market which is anticipated to exceed $12 billion by 2014. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698244.htm
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Surfline Launches HD Surf Cams on the iPhone
Surfline introduces high-definition (HD) surf cams on the iPhone and iPod touch -- continuing its passion for surfing and helping surfers know before they go. Free access is available throughout the month of March (details below). (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3684764.htm
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GTT Group Releases Q3 2009 Patent Market Index (PMI)
The Q3 2009 Patent Market Index (PMI) Is Available On Request Or By Subscription From Global Technology Transfer Group. The PMI Shows Data On Patent Asset Transfers, Notable Patent Asset Transactions, And Public Auction Results. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3690724.htm
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Big in Japan, Creator of Breakthrough Shopping App ShopSavvy, Names Board of Advisors
Metric Ventures partners, Snappr founder join mobile startup’s board as company plans for next stage of growth. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Big_in_Japan/ShopSavvy/prweb3692784.htm
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Predicto Mobile Community Narrows Down the 'American Idol' Field
Members of Snackable Media's Predicto, the Largest Premium SMS, Text Message Critiques and Predictions Revolving Around America's Top Rated Show. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701534.htm
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GayCities Releases The First iPhone App With Check-in Functionality For LGBT Community
Premier City Guide and Travel Review Site Enables Users to Immediately Connect, Share Locations and Experiences; User with the Most “Check In Points” in March Wins West Hollywood Get-away (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703124.htm
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New Media Production Company, SiXiTS Launches in U.S.
Announces private beta partnership to produce and develop social games using the Sibblingz Social Gaming Framework (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/New_media/SiXiTS/prweb3696544.htm
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Andrew Seybold Choice Award Finalists Continue to Display Innovation, Practicality; Winners to be Announced March 23
Wirless Commuications Analyst/Consultant Andrew Seybold today announced 12 finalists in the four "Most Innovative" categories that are the basis for the annual Andrew Seybold Choice Awards: (Most Innovative) Mobile Applications; Mobile Devices; Mobile Service; and Mobile Technology. Winners are recognized at the Andrew Seybold Wireless Dinner, a popular event that takes place in conjunction with the spring CTIA Wireless show to honor outstanding achievements in the wireless communications industry. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3696664.htm
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Snoop Dogg Selects Myxer’s MobileStage as Centerpiece for Deluxe Album Release More Malice
Innovative Music Icon Leveraging Myxer’s Technology and Massive Audience for March 23rd 2010 Album and DVD release (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697024.htm
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Call Capture™ Announces New Offer on Portable Mobile Wireless Cellular Signal Amplifiers
New Pricing on Technology that Improves Cell Phone Reception for Motorists (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Call_Capture_Wireless/Cellular_Signal_Amplifier/prweb3674774.htm
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Top-30 UK Law Firm Nabarro LLP Completes Firm-Wide Deployment Of BigHand For BlackBerry®
Top-30 UK law firm Nabarro LLP deploys the BigHand for BlackBerry® Dictation App to 460 lawyers to help them get more documents drafted on-the-go and enhance client service. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3691134.htm
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Appcelerator Titanium Releases for General Availability
Performance Increases Five-Fold Introduces Premium Support, Training and Analytics (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Appcelerator/Titanium/prweb3695024.htm
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eCrypt President Invited to Sit on Panel at Business and Technology Convention
Brad Lever, President and CEO of eCrypt Technologies will sit on a discussion panel at the F5 Expo as information security industry professional. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697094.htm
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New Fight Time App for iPhone Simulates Competitive Fight Matches
Designed for MMA, boxing, and martial-arts, Fight Time is an easy-to-use and richly-animated app timer. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3685544.htm
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Node-H shows highest performance secure Femtocell technology
Node-H is demonstrating its Femtocell software running on Percello's new 6100 chipset at the Femtocells Asia 2010 conference in Singapore. The software supports the highest HSPA uplink and downlink data rates yet seen on a single-chip femtocell, and can support at least 8 simultaneous calls. (PRWeb Mar 7, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3692874.htm
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Raxco Software Releases Faster, More Flexible PerfectDisk 11 Disk Defrag Software
Client Solutions product line of disk defragmentation tools provides all-encompassing solution to boost PC, laptop, netbook, server and home server performance (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/perfect-disk/defrag-software/prweb3704654.htm
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Sogeti USA Grows to Ensure Industry Expertise for Clients
Sogeti USA hires new vice president for retail industry focus. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Sogeti_USA/Todd_Smith_VP_retail/prweb3706554.htm
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HostGator Wins About.com Reader's Choice Best in Web Hosting Awards
The votes are in and HostGator.com has won three out of four 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards from About.com. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3706754.htm
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Sumo Lifestyle Carrying Cases at the International Home & Housewares Show
Sumo introduces new duffel bags and totes with vibrant colors and styling at the International Home and Housewares Show. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708264.htm
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Colocation America Announces Emergency Protection for Natural Disasters and Network Threats
Leading colocation server hosting company provides both physical and network protection to protect businesses from data loss. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Colocation_America/Emergency_Protection/prweb3708514.htm
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Versiera Surpasses The Big 4 Infrastructure Management Vendors
IT departments can not only visualize their network infrastructures, but can extend to visualize all network communications in the enterprise and those extending out to the Internet. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709054.htm
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SpeedUpMyPC 2010 from Uniblue is Launched in 12 Languages and with a Brand-new Set of Features
Having proven to be a popular utility globally over the past few years, Uniblue’s newest version of its award-winning software, SpeedUpMyPC has just been launched with a fresh user interface, a new set of features and in 12 languages. With a completely rewritten backend, SpeedUpMyPC combines a professional range of tools to boost a computer’s performance, speed and output, all via an easy-to-use GUI. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/speedupmypc/prweb3710044.htm
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Secure IT Recycling Ltd - 'It is Time to Stop Throwing Away Computers!'
It is is in all of our interests to ensure we dispose of this form of waste in a compliant and environmentally friendly way. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3696374.htm
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Hanley Center Calls Spector 360 a “Tremendous Resource” to Ensure Patient Confidentiality, Employee Productivity, and HIPAA Compliance
World-Renowned Alcoholism and Addiction Treatment Center Realizes Demonstrable ROI by Monitoring Employee Use of PC and Internet Resources with Spector 360 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/HIPAA/healthcare_compliance/prweb3700094.htm
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Idera Announces SharePoint 2010 Best Practice Webcasts in ‘Secrets of SharePoint’ Educational Series
The "Secrets of SharePoint" webcast series is presented by Errin O'Connor, CEO of EPC group and author of the upcoming Microsoft Press book, “SharePoint Foundation 2010 - Inside Out.” They will be held March 17 and April 21, 2010. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700784.htm
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EclipseSource to Participate in Eclipse Foundation's Eclipse Training Series
EclipseSource will once again be delivering Eclipse courses through the Eclipse Training Series program taking place in April and May of 2010. The firms popular RCP Development, Advance RCP and OSGi courses will be offered at a special rate as part of this program. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704224.htm
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Invesp Grows 130% and Extends Market Leadership in Ecommerce Conversion Optimization
Invesp, the leading provider of conversion optimization services and software for ecommerce websites, announced its results for 2009. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704474.htm
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FreeBalance and Grant Thornton Demonstrate How Government 2.0 Technologies Lead Transformative Change
White paper details how proven Web 2.0 and social networking technologies enable governments to increase transparency, participation and collaboration (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FreeBalance/Grant_Thornton/prweb3705604.htm
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Healthcare Data Solutions Announces New AnalyticPRO division.
Healthcare Data Solutions (http://www.healthcaredatasolutions.com/?utm_campaign=HDS_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pressrelease_email) (HDS) has announced the addition of an AnalyticPRO division to their organization. The division of HDS will be responsible for optimizing sales and marketing potential by using analytics to help uncover hidden customer information for their clients. AnalyticPRO will be headed by Sahar Rashidi Meyer, Manager of Analytics based out of Omaha, NE. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/healthcaredata/analytics/prweb3707484.htm
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Optelec Gets Creative: CSUN San Diego and VisionZone Premier with Special Movie Debut
Optelec will gather with industry professionals to display the latest technology for persons with disabilities and reveal new nationwide movement to promote ocular health awareness (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708614.htm
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Physical Bullying of Kids on the Decline; PC Pandora 6.0 Computer Monitoring Software Can Help Combat the Rising Cyberbullying
A new national study conducted by the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found physical bullying among peers declined from 2003 to 2008. At the same time, the National Crime Prevention Council says cyberbullying is on the rise. Pandora Corp. co-founder Manuel Coats explains how PC Pandora 6.0 computer monitoring software can be a valuable tool in the fight against cyberbullying. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/PCPandora6/CombatCyberbullying/prweb3708644.htm
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Syncplicity Brings Its Sync and Backup Solution to the Google Apps Marketplace
Syncplicity Enhances Sync and File Management for Google Apps (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Syncplicity/GoogleAppsMarketplace/prweb3708954.htm
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Verizon Business Networking Solution Helps iYogi Deliver Superior Global Technical Support
Technical support services provider iYogi has chosen an advanced technology platform from Verizon Business to help it deliver outstanding customer service while supporting rapid growth (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3710124.htm
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Consona Explores Impact of Social Media on Customer Experience
KMWorld Moderates Web Panel Discussing Critical Role Social Media Plays in Improving the Customer Experience (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Consona/CRM_Software/prweb3710914.htm
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SyberWorks and Focus Compliance & Validation Services Announce Risk-Based Approach to FDA Computer Systems Validation Webinar
SyberWorks, Inc., a leader in custom e-Learning Solutions and the Learning Management System (LMS) industry, announces a Webinar, A Risk-Based Approach to FDA Computer Systems Validation. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3692844.htm
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UFXBank Launch of Binary Options Trading Gives “Above” and “Below” Choice to New Traders
UFXBank.com introduces a cutting-edge trading option that simplifies forex trade. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697704.htm
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Unitask Announces Cloud Based Output Management Support
Company Extends Leadership of Oracle E-Business Suite Printing for Hosting (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699574.htm
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GIGMAX.COM Introduces New Desktop Software for Online File Backup
Web site also offers file sharing and remote access solutions. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3387774.htm
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The First HD Video Converting Software for Multi-track HD Videos Released
Digiarty Software announced the release of WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, which is the first one to support multi-track HD videos, offering up to 5x - 15x real time converting speed. Easily convert video from HD camcorder, HDTV, Blu-ray movies, etc. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/giveaway/hd-video-converter/prweb3570644.htm
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Salesnet Releases The New Salesnet, a CRM System for the Next Decade
Salesnet, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) software company, announces the release of The New Salesnet. This new release completes the update of the core technologies and positions Salesnet to deliver sales excellence solutions for the next ten years. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3694334.htm
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Daviess County Public Schools Implements Netsweeper Internet Content Filtering Solution to Foster Success of 1:1 Computing Program
Daviess County Public Schools has implemented Netsweeper, an Internet content filtering solution designed to protect students from the dangers posed by the Internet while enabling a more productive online, educational experience when using their student assigned laptops both at school and at home. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Netsweeper/DaviessCountySchools/prweb3698924.htm
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Netop Takes Affordable Endpoint Protection for Networked Computers to the Next Level
Updates to Netop ProtectOn Pro Include Enhanced Ease of Use, Support for Windows 7 (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699394.htm
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Sumo Folding Furniture Cubes at the International Home & Housewares Show
Innovative new Folding Furniture Cubes ideal for video game consoles, children's toys and more! (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Sumo/Cubes/prweb3700344.htm
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Vogue Tyres Uses QA Graphics’ Virtual Showroom to Elevate their Shopping Experience
Vogue Tyre and Rubber Company is using an interactive application developed by QA Graphics to enhance their customers’ online shopping experience. Customers can visit Vogue Tyres’ new online showroom, EnTyre 360°, to virtually customize their vehicle with Vogue products and see exactly how it will look on their vehicle before buying. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/aftermarket-auto-parts/car-accessories/prweb3702804.htm
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PressDisplay Brings More Than 1,500 Newspapers and Magazines to the enTourage eDGe
Dual-screen display offers users an engaging, interactive read of their favorite publications on newest entrant to the handheld device market (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703064.htm
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DiscountASP.NET Launches SQL Server Profiling as a Service
DiscountASP.NET enhances their SQL hosting offering with SQL Server profiling as a service. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3678194.htm
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Mobile Retail Market to Exceed $12 Billion by 2014, Driven by One-to-one Marketing and Smartphone Adoption, Juniper Report Finds
A new report from Juniper Research has found that one-to-one marketing allied to the rapid proliferation of smartphones will be among the key drivers of a mobile retail market which is anticipated to exceed $12 billion by 2014. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698244.htm
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XL World - Eastern Europe's Top Provider of Outsourced Multilingual Contact Center Services, and Second in the World
Black Book of Outsourcing’s annual publication recognizes XL World as the leader in the Eastern European market and also grants it second place on a global scale. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/call-center/top-bpo/prweb3636804.htm
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CBT Planet Set to Release New Training Courses for Microsoft Windows 7
New Microsoft Windows 7 courses (http://www.cbtplanet.com/microsoft-windows-7.htm) designed for IT professionals will soon be released by CBT Planet with several Microsoft certifications covered. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3697544.htm
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Qhub, the Service that Allows Anyone to Build a Q&A Website in Minutes, has Over 1,000 Websites in 17 days
The websites are completely free to set up, customise and manage. In just 17 days from the launch Qhub has seen over 1,000 new site creations by people and organisations across the globe. Anybody can start a Q&A website in minutes on Qhub.com. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/qhub/1000/prweb3697904.htm
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NextWindow Opens Korean Office to Extend Relationships with Top PC and Monitor Makers
Korean presence also key to supporting local companies making touch-enabled plasma and LCD displays for the education market. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699854.htm
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Intelligent Software Solutions Deploys Application to the White House Situation Room
Intelligent Software Solutions under the sponsorship of the Air Force Research Laboratory and direction of Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) has developed and deployed an application to enable critical infrastructure monitoring to the White House Situation Room. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701304.htm
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Moravia Worldwide to Present Webinar on Software Localization Engineering
Practical, Actionable Information on Localization Engineering (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702284.htm
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Storage Guardian Announces ‘Virtual Backup Roadmap’ for SQL 2008 Users
MSPs and small businesses planning to migrate a physical installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to a virtual model can now take advantage of zero upfront software/hardware cost program that features Asigra technology. Storage Guardian’s capacity-based pricing means no additional license fees when making the switch, plus a completely smooth transition to a dependable, cloud-based solution. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3702664.htm
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Businesses Appreciate Cost-Saving Measures Taken by Codero
New Price Match Challenge gives businesses assurance they have secured the lowest available hosting cost. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Codero/price_match_challenge/prweb3702884.htm
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New Research Finds Variable Annuity and Life Policy Holders Eager to Adopt Electronic Delivery of Prospectuses and Related Compliance Documents
Comprehensive Study Shows Overwhelming Consumer Interest; Yet Few Providers Articulate and Capitalize on Their E-Delivery Capabilities and Offers (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/variable_annuity/e-delivery_prospectus/prweb3699434.htm
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Raxco Software Releases Faster, More Flexible PerfectDisk 11 Disk Defrag Software
Client Solutions product line of disk defragmentation tools provides all-encompassing solution to boost PC, laptop, netbook, server and home server performance (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/perfect-disk/defrag-software/prweb3704654.htm
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Caribou Systems Recognized with WBE Certification
Specialized Company for Healthcare and Insurance, Caribou is One of First to Attain WBE Certification in This Marketplace (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Caribou_Systems/WBE_Certification/prweb3705314.htm
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ENow Announces New Exchange 2010 Monitoring and Reporting Features
Today ENow announced new Exchange 2010 monitoring and reporting functionality as part of their Feature Pack 1 release for Mailscape V4.5. Mailscape is an award-winning total systems management tool that combines Exchange monitoring, reporting, and administrative features in one solution. The most notable enhancement in this update is a new feature that allows administrators to verify, monitor and report on the hottest new Exchange 2010 feature —Database Availability Groups. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708854.htm
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Versiera Surpasses The Big 4 Infrastructure Management Vendors
IT departments can not only visualize their network infrastructures, but can extend to visualize all network communications in the enterprise and those extending out to the Internet. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3709054.htm
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Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College Replaces Three Products with a Single Astaro Security Gateway
Switch reduced seminary’s costs and administration time while providing better controls and reporting (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Astaro/Security_Gateway/prweb3710234.htm
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French Fashion Designer Artextyl Selects Gerber Technology’s YuniquePLM™
Gerber Technology's leading product lifecycle management solution is selected by French fashion company Artextyl to reduce cycles for development and sampling, to strengthen quality levels and to increase collaboration amongst suppliers. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/gerbertechnology/artextyl/prweb3670644.htm
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Digital Signature Solution Builds New Levels of Collaboration at Duke Realty
Commercial real estate developer Duke Realty employs CoSign® digital signatures in its web portal to enhance collaboration with partners. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Digital-Signature/CoSign/prweb3698364.htm
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New Email Marketing Software Product, ChiefContactOfficer.com, Offers Automation, Ease Of Use
Miles Technologies and Chief Contact Officer, LLC have jointly developed a new email marketing software product, ChiefContactOfficer.com,to revolutionize email marketing and campaign management for businesses of all sizes. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698874.htm
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Lexalytics Discusses Top Text and Sentiment Analysis Trends at Leading Industry Shows;
Lexalytics CEO Jeff Catlin and VP of Products Seth Redmore Will Speak at Upcoming Content, Cloud Computing, Text Analytics, and Sentiment Analysis Conferences On March 15, Redmore will sit on a panel of industry experts at Cloud Connect 2010 in Santa Clara, Calif. On April 18, Catlin will lead a keynote presentation and discussion at Information Today, Inc's. Buying & Selling eContent 2010 Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. Also in April, Lexalytics will sponsor The Sentiment Analysis Symposium in New York, N.Y. Catlin will also appear on a technology panel at the Text Analytics Summit in Boston, Mass., on May 25 (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700014.htm
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Digiscribe Inducted into Digitech Circle of Excellence as Top Ten Worldwide Reseller
Digiscribe inducted into Digitech Systems' prestigious 2010 Circle of Excellence as a Top Ten Worldwide Reseller of electronic content management software. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Digiscribe/CofE/prweb3700124.htm
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Idera Announces SharePoint 2010 Best Practice Webcasts in ‘Secrets of SharePoint’ Educational Series
The "Secrets of SharePoint" webcast series is presented by Errin O'Connor, CEO of EPC group and author of the upcoming Microsoft Press book, “SharePoint Foundation 2010 - Inside Out.” They will be held March 17 and April 21, 2010. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700784.htm
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Ryarc™ Announces Availability of Digital Signage Software with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT)
Today Ryarc announces the availability of CampaignManager, which adds Intel® AMT technology which can dramatically reduce downtime and ongoing TCO for operators of Digital Signage networks. By automatically discovering Intel® AMT enabled devices in the user’s Digital Signage network, Ryarc CampaignManager provides single click access to such powerful features as power cycling, inventory management and more. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703184.htm
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OSF Global Services Receives the Business Solutions Provider for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Certification
OSF Global Services, the Canadian provider of IT services and consulting, announces that it has received the Business Solutions Provider for Microsoft Dynamics CRM certification. The company was awarded this certification based on its proven track record for using Microsoft Dynamics CRM in complex development projects. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/osfglobalservices/msdynamicscrm/prweb3703634.htm
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EclipseSource to Participate in Eclipse Foundation's Eclipse Training Series
EclipseSource will once again be delivering Eclipse courses through the Eclipse Training Series program taking place in April and May of 2010. The firms popular RCP Development, Advance RCP and OSGi courses will be offered at a special rate as part of this program. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3704224.htm
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FreeBalance and Grant Thornton Demonstrate How Government 2.0 Technologies Lead Transformative Change
White paper details how proven Web 2.0 and social networking technologies enable governments to increase transparency, participation and collaboration (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FreeBalance/Grant_Thornton/prweb3705604.htm
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HiSoftware Signs Systems Alliance to Channel Partner Program
Maryland Firm Will Deliver Website Quality and Compliance Assessments and Mitigation as an Extension of its Web Effectiveness Consulting Practice (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/HiSoftware/SystemsAlliance/prweb3706414.htm
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Moodlerooms Awarded Statewide Contract for REMC $AVE Bid Project
jouleTM Recommended as Standard LMS Solution in Michigan (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/moodlerooms/REMC/prweb3706474.htm
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Messaging Architects’ M+Archive Indispensable for Texas City ISD’s Cost-Effective and Easy Migration to Exchange
By using M+Archive for their transition from GroupWise to Exchange, Texas City ISD was able to leverage the savings from not having to invest into a separate migration tool to extend the email system refresh beyond the original scope of the project. M+Archive allowed them to meet the need to migrate and enable a deployment policy for centralized email retention and electronic discovery. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3708134.htm
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Syncplicity Brings Its Sync and Backup Solution to the Google Apps Marketplace
Syncplicity Enhances Sync and File Management for Google Apps (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Syncplicity/GoogleAppsMarketplace/prweb3708954.htm
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Notable Solutions AutoStore Workflow Now Provides Capture On-Ramp for DocuWare Document Management System
Certified Solution Captures to DocuWare Repository from Scanners and MFPsNotable Solutions, Inc. (NSi), a leading developer of distributed content capture and workflow solutions, has released an update to its AutoStore document capture platform which supports capture to the popular DocuWare Document Management System (DMS). (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/document/capture/prweb3709474.htm
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Consona Explores Impact of Social Media on Customer Experience
KMWorld Moderates Web Panel Discussing Critical Role Social Media Plays in Improving the Customer Experience (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Consona/CRM_Software/prweb3710914.htm
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Unitask Announces Cloud Based Output Management Support
Company Extends Leadership of Oracle E-Business Suite Printing for Hosting (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699574.htm
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Blowfish Shoe Launches New E-Commerce Platform Developed by RLM Software
Trendy footwear company Blowfish LLC has launched a bold new e-commerce initiative designed to convey the company’s brand and product message while providing its customers and online community with rich content and social media interaction. The new system is fully integrated with the company’s ERP business system to streamline both the shopping experience and order fulfillment. (PRWeb Mar 10, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3701584.htm
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Emerson Network Power Unveils Performance Optimization Suite to Extend the Life of Existing Data Centers, Saving Organizations Millions of Dollars
Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical Continuity™, today announced Aperture Integrated Resource Manager, the industry’s first data center performance optimization solution for extending the life of existing infrastructure resources and improving overall efficiency in the data center. Aperture Integrated Resource Manager can deliver cost savings in the millions of dollars by enabling organizations to delay new data center builds, increase rack densities, better utilize existing resources and improve staff efficiency. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3693504.htm
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Salesnet Releases The New Salesnet, a CRM System for the Next Decade
Salesnet, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) software company, announces the release of The New Salesnet. This new release completes the update of the core technologies and positions Salesnet to deliver sales excellence solutions for the next ten years. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3694334.htm
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Daviess County Public Schools Implements Netsweeper Internet Content Filtering Solution to Foster Success of 1:1 Computing Program
Daviess County Public Schools has implemented Netsweeper, an Internet content filtering solution designed to protect students from the dangers posed by the Internet while enabling a more productive online, educational experience when using their student assigned laptops both at school and at home. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Netsweeper/DaviessCountySchools/prweb3698924.htm
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Netop Takes Affordable Endpoint Protection for Networked Computers to the Next Level
Updates to Netop ProtectOn Pro Include Enhanced Ease of Use, Support for Windows 7 (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699394.htm
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Intellimed and Analytix On Demand™ Partner To Deliver World Class Quality and Performance Management Solutions to the Healthcare Industry
Expanded Analytics Enable Healthcare Organizations to Accurately Report on Quality, Improve Efficiencies and Benchmark Performance (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3703084.htm
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The New Edition of "The Definitive eCommerce Platform Guide 2010 for Small and Medium business" is Now Available for Immediate Download
The "Definitive eCommerce Platform Guide 2010 for Small and Medium Business" contains 102 e-Commerce Platforms in the Hosted, Licensed and Open Source model and is the most comprehensive review of eCommerce Platforms and Solutions available to date. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb2357014.htm
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Media Alert: eTouch SamePage Publishes Enterprise Wiki Case Study on a Global Financial Technology Company
eTouch SamePage Has Published a Case Study about the Implementation and Usage of SamePage by a US-based, Publicly Traded Global Brokerage and Financial Markets Technology Company That has been a Customer Since 2007. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010_03/SamePage/prweb3693134.htm
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New Version of BrowserSeal Cross Browser Testing Tool is Now Available
BrowserSeal announces a release of version 1.5 of its cross browser testing tool. With this release BrowserSeal takes the lead as the fastest and most feature-rich cross browser testing application. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3696924.htm
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NextNine Joins the OPC Foundation
NextNine Confirms Continued Commitment to its Process Control Customers (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/NextNine/OPC_Membership/prweb3698504.htm
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Achieve IT Solutions to Participate at SAP Solutions Tour 2010 in Boston, Philadelphia and Parsippany, NJ.
To Exhibit Achieve One for SAP Business Objects & SAP Business One to Small-to-Midsize Organizations at the Solutions Zone. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3698704.htm
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Confirmit Extends its Horizons with the Latest Release of its Multi-Channel Feedback Platform
Confirmit Horizons Version 15: A More Intuitive and Productive Platform… (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3699084.htm
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Three Security Firms Create Consortium To Automate Meaningful Use Requirements And Qualify Clients For $Billions In Stimulus Funds
Hospitals and physicians can receive $19 billion in subsidies over five years for making “meaningful use” of certified Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/hipaa/security/prweb3699874.htm
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Flexera Software Wins IT Europa European IT Excellence Award
FlexNet Producer Suite for Software Vendors Honored as Exceptional SaaS Solution for Helping Sybase Transform the Way They Do Business With Their Customers (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FlexeraSoftwareITEuropa/2010_03/prweb3701664.htm
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MindTouch CEO to Present the Benefits of Collaborative CRM at SugarCon 2010
Leading open source collaboration provider will reveal the value of adding collaborative solutions to CRM deployments (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/open_source/SharePoint/prweb3702344.htm
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Datatel Adds IT Infrastructure Partners to Help Clients Build Strategic Academic Enterprises
Sirius and VCOMP to Provide Advanced Hardware with Design and Implementation Services (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Strategic/Academic_Enterprises/prweb3702764.htm
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SherpaTools for Google Apps Now Available in the Google Apps Marketplace
Available free of charge, SherpaTools provides IT managers and business users with previously unavailable admin and corporate directory functionality. (PRWeb Mar 9, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SherpaTools_in_the/Google_Apps_Marketplace/prweb3703274.htm
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A game-changing play in enterprise software
Finally, someone is showing some innovation in how enterprise software is sold and contracted. No, it's not the two big guys of traditional on-premise software, SAP or Oracle. And it's not the market leader in cloud-based systems, Salesforce.com. Rather it's a smaller player, farther down the list: RightNow.com, a SaaS provider of customer service applications.According to RightNow's press
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 3:01 pm
Victory in court for open source software
My friend Jeff Gordon, an expert on software licensing, alerted me to an important decision that came down today, greatly strengthening the legal basis for open source software licenses. The case, which I've been following for some time, was filed by one Robert Jacobson, who manages an open source project for model railroad enthusiasts, claiming copyright infringement for use of his code in a
Posted on 23 February 2010 | 4:28 pm
SAP pushes back on Gartner for its ranking of Business Objects
SAP is complaining about Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant, which shows its Business Objects product line ranked way down the line for "ability to execute," behind Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, SAS, and Microstrategy.From Information Week:When vendors make it into the top-right "leaders" quadrant of a Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) report, they generally don't complain. But SAP isn't thrilled with the "
Posted on 18 February 2010 | 8:17 am
IT workers seeing meager 1.8% pay raise in 2010
Over at Computer Economics, we've just released our new 2010 IT Salary Report. Bottom line: salaries at the median are increasing but not by much:During two years of turmoil, the great recession of 2008-2009 brought budget cutting and layoffs across most IT organizations, large and small. But the picture is brightening for IT workers, and our 2010 IT Salary Report finds that IT organizations are
Posted on 15 February 2010 | 1:48 pm
Oracle shuts down free support blog
Dennis Howlett called my attention to a recent action by Oracle to shut down a free support blog run by one of its senior support people. Chris Warticki’s Oracle Support Blog (See Feb. 24 Update at bottom of this post), was hosted by Oracle but completely under the editorial control of its author.Leaving no doubt that it was Oracle that took action to shut down his blog, Warticki subsequently
Posted on 15 February 2010 | 7:32 am
Not a good week for SAP
There are more management changes in Waldorf, with SAP announcing more changes to its executive board. But the big disappointment is the resignation of John Schwarz, former CEO of Business Objects, which SAP acquired in 2007.Why is he leaving? Most likely because he didn't get the CEO job, which went to Bill McDermott, head of the field operations, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product
Posted on 11 February 2010 | 12:12 pm
SAP top management changes: impact on maintenance fees?
SAP pulled a surprise change in its leadership team over the weekend, with Léo Apotheker out as CEO and replaced by Bill McDermott, head of the field operations, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development, who will now share the top job. At the same time, SAP elevated Vishal Sika, chief technology officer (CTO) to the SAP Executive Board.Analyts and bloggers have been buzzing about the
Posted on 8 February 2010 | 5:18 pm
Oracle slams Rimini Street with lawsuit over third-party maintenance
Chris Kanaracus at Computerworld alerted me, via email, to the news that Oracle filed has filed a lawsuit against Rimini Street, alleging massive theft of Oracle's intellectual property, in connection with Rimini Street's delivery of third-party maintenance services.Chris was kind enough to send me a PDF of the actual complaint. A quick read reveals allegations similar to those Oracle made in its
Posted on 26 January 2010 | 5:07 pm
Flash: SAP backs down on 22% maintenance fees
SAP has finally thrown in the towel on its fight to unilaterally increase maintenance fees from 18% of software license cost to 22%.According to SAP's press release: SAP...today announced a new, comprehensive tiered support model that is being offered to customers worldwide. This support offering includes SAP Enterprise Support services and the SAP® Standard Support option and will enable all
Posted on 14 January 2010 | 9:52 am
Outlook brightens a bit for 2010 IT spending
Over at Computer Economics, we've just release the findings from our special November survey of IT decision-makers regarding their IT spending and staffing plans for 2010. See the six year trend chart above, with our 2010 projection.Although the 2% projected rise for 2010 in IT spending at the median of the sample is surely not a barn-burner, it's a welcome improvement from the dismal results for
Posted on 16 December 2009 | 1:54 pm
Revisting Epicor's Shared Benefits program
I wrote about Epicor's Shared Benefits program about a month ago, when it was first announced. The program, in brief, offers customers to get back half of the savings if Epicor delivers its implementation services at less than estimated, and only pay half of Epicor's hourly rates if Epicor exceeds its estimate. In essence, it's sort of a compromise between a time-and-materials project and a
Posted on 8 December 2009 | 11:11 am
Killer combination: open source ERP and cloud computing
I honestly can't understand why this has not gotten more attention. Opentaps, an open source ERP project, is now available on Amazon's Elastic Compute (EC2) cloud. Si Chen, of Open Source Strategies, has put up a Youtube video that shows how anyone can go to Amazon and install a working instance of opentaps in less than 10 minutes.Although Si plays it straight, if you have any experience at all
Posted on 19 November 2009 | 9:04 am
Oracle layoffs, November 2009
A reader emailed me today indicating he had received word from a friend, who works for Oracle, that Oracle Consulting had a sizable layoff today. He mentioned a specific percentage that I won't repeat here, without some confirmation.A quick check of my webstats shows a pickup in web referrals today searching under the key words "Oracle layoffs," "Oracle Consulting layoff," and "Oracle layoffs,
Posted on 13 November 2009 | 2:23 pm
Epicor's Shared Benefits program: watch for unintended consequences
Epicor is holding its Perspectives user conference this week in Las Vegas, and one big announcement this morning was concerning Epicor's new Shared Benefits Program. According to the press release, the program is "aimed at helping companies eliminate risk and avoid excessive cost overruns that can plague conventional enterprise resource planning (ERP) system deployments."The press release goes on
Posted on 9 November 2009 | 1:49 pm
The inexorable dominance of cloud computing
Cloud computing is not just one more way to deploy information systems. It represents a total shift in how IT resources are delivered and ultimately will replace most of not all internally-maintained IT infrastructure.At least that's the view of Nicholas Carr, who gave a talk at a one-day conference on cloud computing organized last week in London by Google. If you've read Carr's work in the past
Posted on 31 October 2009 | 9:35 am
Out of recession: US economic review and forecast
Maria Simos at E-forecasting has put together an excellent slide show on her firm's forecast for US economic activity, in light of history since the mid-1800s. This is a must-see for anyone interested in where we're headed in the near future.Bottom line: we're already out of recession.Some key points:US GDP is estimated at 3.6% growth in Q3, marking end of recessionSix month growth rate in
Posted on 27 October 2009 | 9:03 am
Oracle's roadmap for Fusion Apps
In the last part of the last keynote at Oracle Open World yesterday, Larry Ellison finally gave some specifics concerning Oracle's Fusion Applications, its next-generation of business software.Technology foundation and user interfaceThese are the areas where Fusion really shines. The product is completely architected from the ground up on Oracle Fusion middleware, with a service-oriented
Posted on 15 October 2009 | 8:22 am
Salesforce.com: more than an itty-bitty application
I'm spending a couple of days at the Oracle Open World conference this week and decided to find out a little bit more about Salesforce.com and its relationship with Oracle. Why? A couple of weeks ago, Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison made some not-so-kind comments about the term "cloud computing" in general, and Salesforce.com in particular.Ellison said,"Let's look at [Salesforce.com's] technology," he
Posted on 13 October 2009 | 9:05 am
Live from Oracle Open World 2009
I'm attending a couple of days at Oracle's user conference in San Francisco this week. Tonight, Larry Ellison and Scott McNealy took the stage as a united team representing Oracle and Oracle's latest acquisition, Sun Microsystems.Larry Ellison, true to form, spoke mostly about Oracle's competition, specifically IBM, claiming Oracle's database running on Sun processors are faster than IBM's DB2.
Posted on 11 October 2009 | 10:30 pm
Best Practices In Reducing SAP Ownership Costs
As I wrote in the previous post, Enterprise Advocates, of which I am a part, is offering a free one-hour webinar, Best Practices In Reducing SAP Ownership Costs: Now's the Time to Act, on October 22. (Click the link to register.)This will be our first joint event and will be focused, true to our mission, on the needs of enterprise IT customers, specifically in this case on SAP users. SAP, of
Posted on 7 October 2009 | 6:54 am
Enterprise Advocates: serving the interests of IT buyers
Over the past two years, I've been collaborating with several like-minded bloggers on matters of interest. Now, this collaboration is taking a more tangible form, with the formation of Enterprise Advocates.More on Enterprise Advocates in a minute. But first, what do I mean by, like-minded? I mean consultants and analysts that are primarily concerned with the interests and needs of technology
Posted on 7 October 2009 | 6:02 am
NetSuite a viable alternative for SAP customers?
NetSuite has been getting some attention recently in the press and among my blogger friends for its PR campaign to offer itself as an alternative to SAP. The opportunity? A good number of SAP customers--approximately 70%--are on older versions, such as R/3 4.6 and 4.7 that are nearing end-of-support. These customers must either upgrade to a more recent version, forgo maintenance and support, or
Posted on 29 September 2009 | 6:04 pm
SaaS contingency plans need more than software escrow
Although I'm a supporter of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model of application delivery, there's one area that still make me nervous: contingency planning. What happens if my SaaS provider goes out of business? Or, one day decides he doesn't want me as a customer? How do I ensure continuity of my system? How do I get my data?Furthermore, it doesn't take a business failure of my SaaS provider
Posted on 8 September 2009 | 5:13 pm
Four technologies offering best investment profile in 2009
Over at Computer Economics, we've released our new study, Technology Trends and IT Management Best Practices 2009/2010. It's based on our annual survey, which also produces our IT spending and staffing benchmarks.For the first time this year, we not only analyzed each technology in isolation but also in comparison with each other, looking at adoption vs. current investment levels as well as risk
Posted on 31 August 2009 | 2:44 pm
The other shoe drops with Ray Wang
Earlier this month, my friend Ray Wang announced he was leaving Forrester. Now, today he texts me with the press release announcing his next step: he is joining a boutique analyst firm, Altimeter Group, with several other ex-Forrester analysts.From the press release:Altimeter Group, a consulting firm focused on helping businesses integrate emerging technologies into their strategies, today
Posted on 27 August 2009 | 8:10 am
NIH embraces OpenID
The National Institutes of Health is one of the first federal agencies to use OpenID to make it easier for users to switch among secure federal websites without having to log in repeatedly. The success of this procedure may become the forerunner for how the federal government intends to wrestle to the ground the problem of accessing privacy-protected pages on multiple sites.
"It's a real advantage for the user, who doesn't have to get another password and try to remember it," Peter Alterman, senior adviser to the NIH chief information officer for strategic initiatives, tells nextgov.com.
The National Library of Medicine this week began offering a single sign-on page called the NIH Federated Identity Service to access about 10 applications, including the NIH library. The long-term goal of using this technology is to make sure citizens can log on to an identity management company certified by the federal government and complete a variety of transactions during one online session.
For more on OpenID:
- see this nextgov.com article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:12 pm
VA to automate Agent Orange claims
The Department of Veterans Affairs is automating how it pays for claims relating to exposure to the chemical Agent Orange. The system "is likely to break" if nothing is done, says VA chief technology officer Peter Levin.
It is the first time the VA is making an effort to automate claims processing, and it's an important step in the agency's struggle to cut a backlog of more than 1 million claims, Levin says.
"Look, the bottom line is why the hell they didn't do [automation] 30 years ago?" John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America, asks InformationWeek. "The question is whether they will do it right."
The automated system will apply only to Agent Orange claims. If it works, it's likely to revolutionize the way the VA handles claims throughout its system.
For more on the VA and automation:
- see this InformationWeek article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 1:51 pm
More money sought to fight cyberattacks in Senate
The Senate has a cybersecurity problem. Like many government offices, it's facing an increasing number of computer security threats.
To deal with the problem, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, Terrance Manier, is seeking a $1 million budget increase just to handle an increasing number of computer security threats.
"The amount of people trying to get to us is increasing," Manier said. "It's a continuing, constant threat....Our adversaries are playing chess with us."
The Senate receives about 18 phishing attacks per month and deals repeatedly with dangerous viruses and Trojan horses. And the numbers everywhere are only increasing: In 2009, Manier's office handled 1.6 billion network security events per month. So far in 2010, the average has climbed to 1.8 billion.
For more on the Senate's cybersecurity needs:
- see this Roll Call article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 1:14 pm
Army plans enterprise email system
The Army is planning to cut its $400 million-a-year email bill by consolidating its email systems and outsourcing the operation. In a draft solicitation request, the Army said it plans to build the entire system on Microsoft Exchange 2010. Lt. Gen Jeffery Sorenson, the Army's chief information officer who is spearheading the effort, said he'd like to see the entire Defense Department use the system.
It's a massive undertaking for the Army which supports 950,000 accounts. When a soldier moves from one location to another, he or she currently has to get a new email address, and the old one has to be deleted. And these multiple accounts open many doors for cyber hackers.
Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting, a federal information technology consulting firm, estimates the Army could cut its $400 million operating bill in half with this new plan.
For more on the Army's e-mail plans:
- see this nextgov.com article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:57 am
Former Intel officer to head TSA
It's really no surprise that President Obama turned to a retired career Army intelligence officer to lead the Transportation Security Administration. He announced his intention on Monday to nominate retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding to become administrator of the TSA.
His appointment comes just three months after a near catastrophe on Christmas Day on a commercial flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. A would-be terrorist attempted to blow up the plane but was thwarted at the last minute by a passenger. The incident underscored the dangers in the sky these days for commercial flights, both domestic and international. And it comes at a time when the TSA is under intense pressure to increase its security systems and make them airtight to prevent terrorist attacks.
"Bob's national security expertise and extensive experience in the intelligence community and U.S. Army will be a great asset to the department in our efforts to ensure the safety of the nation's transportation systems," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in a statement.
For more on the TSA:
- see this govexec.com article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 11:20 am
SPOTLIGHT: Fed IT workers get $13M in bonuses
The public has been turned off by federal workers, in part because of bad publicity over just how much they are being paid, which is more than the average worker. And here's another turnoff: A new report from the Office of Personnel Management found that agencies paid $13 million to retain IT managers, recruit them or relocate them. Article
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:41 am
SPOTLIGHT: How to start a government blog
Getting government managers to sign off on creating an agency blog is not easy, but one blogger reports on OhMyGov.com about how to overcome the obstacles and what to do once you are online. The advice includes ways to circumvent the bureaucracy, including moving ahead quickly instead of writing a policy manual that will need countless approvals. Another suggestion is to rally the troops and get online feedback while making sure the discussion allows for a diversity of views while remaining respectful. Article
Posted on 7 March 2010 | 8:03 am
The official and unofficial Pentagon Facebook sites
The Pentagon has official Facebook sites, and then, of course, there are those sites set up by military families, fans, supporters and possibly interlopers.
Janson Communications, a public relations firm, says it is often difficult to distinguish the Pentagon's official Facebook pages from the countless "clones" that have cropped up. The reason, according to the study released by the firm, is because few of the Defense Department's Facebook sites have any markings indicating they are official military websites.
The release of the report comes as the Pentagon has said it will liberalize its social networking policies, and that it will allow troops serving both at home and abroad access to social networking sites. Pentagon officials have promised a complete policy review and guidance within six months, but the new report shows that there are challenges, including making sure bogus sites do not appear.
Janson recommended that the Defense Department label its official content on the popular social network.
For more:
- see this The Hill article
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Posted on 7 March 2010 | 7:58 am
Are fed IT workers overpaid?
With unemployment rates high, the federal budget deficit soaring and many Americans in distress, there has been a great deal of dissatisfaction with the federal government.
That anger and distrust has spilled over to federal workers, with some politicians and conservative groups taking aim at civil servants, claiming they are making too much money while citizens across the country are suffering. A recent story in USA Today has helped fuel the fire, maintaining that federal workers on average make more than private sector workers.
The newspaper said federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector. The average pay for the same jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008.
Federal unions have objected to the analysis, arguing that the data ignores the fact that many federal workers have higher education levels and perform more complex work that private sector counterparts. The conservative Cato Institute, however, maintains that federal employee salaries have been steadily rising at rates higher than the private sector.
For more on federal pay:
- see this USA Today article
- read this nextgov.com article
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Posted on 7 March 2010 | 6:58 am
GSA's multi-billion dollar networking contract
The General Services Administration (GSA) has released a draft proposal of its Connections II contract, a major 10-year proposal that will make a number of networking and IT services available to federal agencies.
These services will include communications and networking, IT operations, administration, management support, customer service and technical support, according to the GSA.
Connections II will serve as a successor to the similar Connections contract, which expires in 2011, and complement the troubled and delayed Networx contract vehicle. Networx covers external telecommunications services while Connections is geared toward internal networking needs.
The GSA said the Connections II contract will include "all labor and equipment necessary to support communications and networking solutions at the LAN, building, campus, and enterprise level."
The GSA places the Connections II's contract ceiling at $10 billion over 10 years, but government market research and analysis group FedSources projects that the contract cost could eventually reach $35 billion.
For more on the proposal:
- see this InformationWeek article
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Posted on 7 March 2010 | 6:47 am
GAO raps feds on cybersecurity
A 2008 cybersecurity blueprint laid out and funded by the Bush administration remains largely unfulfilled, according to the Government Accountability office (GAO). As a result, the GAO said in a new report that the secret federal cybersecurity program started by President Bush, and now declassified by President Obama, has been largely ineffective, with many agencies still lacking clearly defined roles and safeguards still not in place.
The report focused on the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), a blueprint outlining 12 government cybersecurity programs. The GAOs said CNCI called for White House officials to centralize their cybersecurity efforts to facilitate information-sharing among agencies and departments, a task that remains incomplete and fraught with confusion.
The report said the government still has a long way to go before fully securing its computer systems, which includes "reducing potential vulnerabilities, protecting against intrusion attempts, and anticipating future threats."
The congressional watchdog agency also cited challenges involving coordination with international entities and building a government-wide identity management and authentication system.
To get the full picture:
- read this article in The Hill
- here's the GAO report
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Posted on 7 March 2010 | 6:37 am
Feds still trapped in last century
The federal government may be making progress on the IT front, but some agencies remain in the dark ages. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, speaking at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public affairs, listed some of the troubles plaguing the government agencies, and talked about his hope that better use of information technology can provide a fix.
Kundra cited the 160 days it takes the Veteran's Administration to process benefits for veterans. Part of the reason for the slowness of the system is that the VA is still processing paperwork by passing manila folders from one desk to another. Kundra said VA employees sometimes send a folder by UPS to another office, all the while ignoring modern technology.
Then there's the Patent and Trademark Office, which takes three years to process a patent. Kundra said the patent office receives applications online, prints them out, and then someone manually re-keys the information into an antiquated system.
Sounds crazy in this day and age, but someone set up these systems, and change is difficult when it comes to the bureaucracy.
There's more. Kundra said the State Department has spent $133 million during the past six years writing reports about the security of its IT systems. He said the reports are then filed away in secure rooms and probably never seen again.
To get the full rundown of government inefficiencies and Kundra's plans for change:
- see this Computerworld article
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Posted on 7 March 2010 | 5:52 am
Google, PayPal, Equifax to provide trusted logins
The federal government has approved a universal sign-in application for use on secure government websites. The move will allow users who are logged into one site to easily and securely switch to another agency site without having to sign in again. In other words, one agency will be able to trust the identity information of a user from another federal site.
The system is known as the Open Identity Exchange. So far, users will be able to sign in to federal sites with their account credentials furnished by Google, PayPal and Equifax. Others are set to follow, including Verizon.
The system will eventually become a government-wide effort. The first agency to accept outside login credentials on its site will be the National Institutes of Health.
The exchange relies on a trust framework that certifies online identity managers meeting U.S. federal standards for identity assurance. The exchange was created with the support of the OpenID Foundation and the Information Card Foundation.
For more details:
- see this PCWorld article
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 7:29 pm
Should the FCC regulate Internet providers?
Everyone is trying to control the Internet, or at least have a piece of it. Until now, the Internet grew free, unhampered by regulation and was allowed to grow on its own. But now, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is going head-to-head against Internet service providers.
Genachowski is confident the agency has the authority to regulate Internet service providers. The providers are pushing back, arguing they cannot be regulated like a telephone company.
The debate over a national broadband plan is fanning the flames of this dispute. In two weeks, Genachowski plans to recommend unleashing 500 megahertz of spectrum for the next generation of smartphones, tablet computers and other portable devices that connect people wirelessly to the web. But in an interview at the Washington Post, he declined to say whether the FCC would reclassify broadband service providers to fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC.
Ultimately, Congress will get involved in this dispute over whether the Internet can remain a free entity. And somewhere down the road, the issue is likely to end up at the Supreme Court.
"We are focused on developing the right policies and the FCC will have the authority to implement the right policies," Genachowski said. "We will argue in court that we have the right."
For more on this debate:
- see this Washington Post article
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 7:18 pm
SPOTLIGHT: Warning: Online census scams
The 2010 census has not yet arrived, but security vendor Symantec is already warning about cyber criminals attached to the count. In a blog post, Symantec advised people not to fill out any online census questions because they are not real. The census is not taking the count online, and any emails relating to the census are bound to be fakes. Article
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 6:42 pm
VA in market for 360,000 PCs
The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to buy a lot of computers--360,000 PCs to add to its fleet of 240,000, to be exact. The VA plans to award one indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract on a purchase or lease basis, with plans to release a request for proposals within three months, according to an article in nextgov.com.
The VA said in its request for information that it hopes to determine if small businesses can fill this contract. It's a very big deal for big computer makers, too.
In 2007, giant computer maker Dell won a three-year deal from VA valued at more than $248 million. That contract period ends in August 2010. Dell and PC manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, along with reseller CDW-G, are likely bidders for the upcoming PC buy, according to nextgov.com.
It's good to know that the VA is continually refreshing its equipment to make sure its workers have state-of-the-art computers to carry out its mission, and that there is money in the federal budget to make this happen.
For more on the VA's computer contract:
- see this nextgov.com article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 4:25 pm
DHS to share aviation info with Israel
In a new partnership, the Department of Homeland Security and Israel signed an agreement this week to work together to share information more quickly about civil aviation incidents.
"The real-time exchange of information with our international partners is critical to our efforts to enhance overall global aviation security," said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. "This agreement will allow the United States and Israel to better coordinate on, and respond to potential aviation security incidents to strengthen our mutual safety."
The near Christmas Day bombing over Detroit spurred this new agreement, one of a number of initiatives being implemented to deter terrorists from carrying out their missions.
Speaking with Napolitano, Israeli Transport and Road Safety Minister Israel Katz said the new agreement will "further improve the effectiveness of the cooperation between the respective civil aviation security authorities." However, some experts warn that it may not be enough to stop any terrorist attack.
Tom Kellermann, vice president of security awareness at Core Security Technologies and former senior data risk management specialist for the World Bank treasury security team, told nextgov.com that "nonstate actors and terrorist groups are mobilizing in cyberspace."
"The virtual arms bazaar of hacking capabilities forces the United States and Israel to implement true defense in depth strategies," Kellermann continued. "That includes penetration testing of applications that feed data to international partners, two-factor authentication and techniques to verify the identity of anyone accessing network applications, and enhanced dynamic forensics for identifying potential intruders."
For more on this new aviation agreement:
- see this nextgov.com article
- read this DHS press release
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 3:47 pm
Intel agencies open up on the web
The Intelligence community is joining the party for greater transparency in government.
Although there is plenty of information that is being kept secret, Intel agencies are using the web just like other federal agencies to get the word out about what they do. It's not just the FBI and CIA that's becoming more public. An article in InformationWeek identifies other secret agencies that are opening up on the web.
> The National Security Agency includes links to declassified information, how to do business with the NSA and even a section for kids.
> Intelligence.gov is a site geared toward recruiting new employees with links to the employment pages of other intelligence sites. It lists the 17 government agencies that comprise the U.S. Intel community.
> The National Counterterrorism Center, at NCTC.gov, includes links to the center's terrorist incident tracking system and a chart showing emergency responders how far back people have to be moved in the event of a bomb threat.
InformationWeek outlines the Intel agencies and their sites in a slideshow.
For more on Intel agencies and the web:
- see this InformationWeek article
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 2:43 pm
Obama declassifies parts of cybersecurity plan
Howard Schmidt, the federal government's cyberczar, has been on the job for little more than a month, and all signs are there that he is moving swiftly to harness cybersecurity defenses.
On Tuesday, he announced the declassification of portions of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, created during the Bush administration. It's a strategic plan to harness the nation's defensive and offensive strategies for protecting commercial and government networks. The plan is published on whitehouse.gov.
He told The New York Times in an interview that declassification will not include the entire directive. It is intended to show the public that the government has a clear and workable strategy for protecting the nation's computer systems. Schmidt also said that his office plans to appoint an official to oversee privacy and civil liberties issues.
"In order to be successful against today's cybersecurity threats, we must continue to seek out innovative new partnerships--not only within government, but also among industry, government, and the American public," Schmidt said on whitehouse.gov.
"Transparency improves our collective knowledge and helps bind our partnerships together to form the most powerful cyber tools that we have. We will not defeat our cyber adversaries because they are weakening, we will defeat them by becoming collectively stronger, through stronger technology, a stronger cadre of security professionals, and stronger partnerships," he added.
For more on the cybersecurity plan deciassification:
- see this whitehouse.gov post
- see this New York Times article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 1:15 pm
President Obama gets his own EMR
President Obama is a huge supporter of electronic medical records because it cuts costs and delivers better health care. His economic stimulus plan includes billions of dollars to bring the American health system into the digital age. But surprisingly, Obama was not part of any EMR system until recently.
That's quickly changing. The Military Health System is setting up a version of its electronic health record system for use in the White House, MHS chief information officer Charles Campbell said.
Campbell made his remarks at the Health Information and Management Systems Society's annual conference held in Atlanta this week, according to an article by Paul McCloskey in govhealthit.com. The system was set up two months ago, he said. It's based on AHLTA Theater, DoD's electronic health records system designed for rugged uses in war zones.
The White House EMR would be used in the residence's clinic, in Camp David, as well as on Air Force One and Marine One, the president's airplane and helicopter, Campbell said.
It's one good move, we say.
For more on the president's own EMR:
- see this govinfoit.com article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 12:21 pm
Will Facebook replace government websites?
Chris Vein, the CIO for the city and county of San Francisco, is raising an interesting question about whether governments will have to keep running their own websites. He says government websites may no longer be the primary way the public gets information about their government entities. Facebook may be stepping in to provide that information and a better, faster conversation about government services.
For more on this:
- see this govtech.com article
Posted on 2 March 2010 | 11:48 am
White House plans review of all IT projects
Listen up, everyone. The boss is watching and reviewing every one of your federal information technology projects.
Federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra disclosed last week that the White House plans "relentless oversight" of the entire federal IT portfolio, from the bottom up. Kundra provided few details on the White House review plans but said the government will no longer "put good money after bad" in pursuing troubled projects.
As an example, he pointed out the Department of Veterans Affairs review of their IT projects. The VA temporarily halted 45 IT projects and then allowed 32 of them to continue after they were reviewed.
Hard to know how quickly these reviews will result in more projects being delayed or canceled. One thing is certain--the old ways of doing things are over.
For more on this:
- see the nextgov.com article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 11:13 am
Have clearance? Feds will pay big bucks
IT professionals holding an active federal security clearance are getting paid at least 20 percent more than their not-cleared counterparts, according to a new survey by ClearanceJobs.com.
The organization's 2010 pay survey found that Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.-based professionals with security clearances had average earnings of $98,542. California-based security-cleared professionals top the list as the highest-earners, with an average of more than $98,968 a year.
"The government plans to take on more than 270,000 new employees over the next few years--about 40,000 of those in D.C.," the survey says. "That surging demand will definitely impact security-cleared professionals locally and nationally as both agencies and contractors fight for talent."
Among those jobs needing security clearances are project managers, programmers, system administrators, business analysts and software engineers.
There was other good news out of the survey for job satisfaction. More than half of those with security clearances--62 percent--rated the highest level of satisfaction coming from employees and contractors in intelligence services such as the CIA and FBI. The lowest level of satisfaction came from cleared workers at the Department of Homeland Security.
For more on better pay with security clearances:
- see this Nextgov.com article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 10:33 am
GSA refines its cloud strategy
The General Services Administration is turning a page on its plans to offer cloud infrastructure services to government agencies.
Although it released a request for quotations nearly a year ago, GSA canceled the request and is now planning to offer a new one. The reason: It received constructive feedback from agencies and vendors about what it was proposing and is now offering one that reflects the changing nature of the market.
"Since GSA began this procurement 11 months ago, both the marketplace and definition of Infrastructure-as-a-Service and the marketplace have evolved and matured," said GSA spokeswoman Sahar Wali.
"This evolution includes more industry players, more diverse product offerings, and more market experience by both industry and government. GSA has made the decision to issue a new RFQ that takes into consideration this dynamic marketplace, feedback from the vendor community, and needs of federal agencies. Under the new RFQ, vendors will be able to make offerings for a moderate level of security in addition to providing offerings for low level security," she added.
Dave McClure, associate administrator for GSA's office of citizen services and communications, said the revised request is responsive to both industry and agency customers.
"Eleven months in cloud computing time is really about 11 years," McClure said. "The market is changing fast, experience in the market is changing daily, and customer needs are becoming better defined."
The new BPA will have a number of changes, including security. It will require vendors to meet moderate-risk standards, McClure said.
"We've learned we need to interact with industry very carefully. As we go out with the new RFQ, we're going to be reaching out and making sure we pull in as big a pool of vendors as possible," McClure told Information Week.
For more on GSA's cloud offering:
- see this Information Week article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 9:56 am
$104m for Air Force cyber command center; How to manager social media;
> $104m for new Air Force cyber command center. Article
> How to manage social media. Article
> Are EHRs a risk to patient safety? Article
> New bill broadens Obama cybersecurity powers. Article
> CSC, Stanley run $2.8b visa applicant program. Article
> Op-ed: Losing the cyber war. Article
> Lawmaker complains about drop in Army R&D funding. Article
And Finally... Experts: Agencies lax on data security. Article
Posted on 1 March 2010 | 2:40 pm
Feds look to data center consolidation
The federal government has embarked on a study of its data centers, hoping to consolidate the more than 1,100 now in use, save money and create new efficiencies.
Federal CIO Vivek Kundra said that Treasury CIO Michael Duffy and Department of Homeland Security CIO Richard Spires will spend most of this year developing a plan to cut costs and reduce energy consumption by merging the centers. Kundra said some agencies have too many data centers, but are leery of change. He noted that some agencies fear loss of control of their data, but added that government must alter how it operates to be more efficient.
"We've seen that this is the best practice from the private sector, and the government needs to take it head on," he said.
The number of government data centers has ballooned from 432 in 1998 to 1,100 in 2009. According to Kundra, agencies are only using only 15 to 20 percent of the capacity of many of their data centers.
The 2011 Obama administration budget incorporates data center consolidation among its major IT initiatives. Kundra said he will work closely with CIOs will ensure the plans are carried out smoothly and meet the growing needs of the agencies..
For more on data centers:
- check out this InformationWeek article
- read this Federal Times article article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 9:52 am
FCC to Congress: Pony up for mobile public safety network
We live in a new century, and it is finally occurring to our government leaders that we need a state-of-the-art communications system to match the demands placed on the nation's public safety officials.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski last week stepped up to the plate, saying he wants Congress to come up with $16 billion to $18 billion to pay for the construction and maintenance of a nationwide mobile broadband network for emergency response agencies, including police and fire departments.
Sounds like a big lift and a lot of money in tough budgetary times, but the plan is to give grants to states and communities over 10 years to get an interoperable public safety network built.
The FCC maintains that the mobile carriers that paid billions of dollars for spectrum in the 700MHz band should be required to share their spectrum with public safety agencies. Sounds reasonable and prudent, but it is unclear whether the major carriers will want to go along without a mandate from the government.
Genachowski said he is convinced the private sector will not act on its own or spend the money needed to build a nationwide, state-of-the-art, interoperable broadband network for public safety agencies.
The FCC chairman said that with access to other spectrum, the plan would give public safety agencies a redundant and reliable network.
To get more details on the FCC plan:
- check out this Computerworld article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 9:17 am
Secret Service computers are a mess
This should make you feel nervous about your government: The Secret Service, which protects the president, other national leaders and foreign dignitaries, has a computer system from the dark ages.
ABC News reported that a classified review of the Secret Service's computer technology found the system is outdated and reliant on IBM mainframes from the 1980s. Yes, the 1980s! Currently, 42 mission-oriented applications run on a 1980s mainframe. What's worse, the review found that the system is fully operational only 60 percent of the time.
"We have here a premiere law enforcement organization in our country which is responsible for the security of the president and the vice president and other officials of our government, and they have to have better IT than they have," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
A Secret Service spokesman told ABC that the National Security Agency (NSA) conducted a review that "suggested we needed enhancements to ensure that our systems remained sound." He said a number of the recommended changes have been implemented.
That is an understatement. The 2011 budget request for the Secret Service said its "data environment is fragile and cannot sustain the tempo of current or future operational missions." The existing hardware, the Secret Service acknowledged, is "prone to failures."
For more details on the IT troubles of the Secret Service:
- see this ABC News report
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 8:56 am
SPOTLIGHT: Cybersecurity czar: Nothing will be left behind
Howard Schmidt has been on the job for one month, and already has assessed what needs to be done to toughen the nation's defenses against cybersecurity threats. The transcript of his first press conference, days after he took office, was just published. "This is not going to slip below the radar," he said. "It may not be on the front news everyday, but there are a lot of things being done in the background." Article
Posted on 27 February 2010 | 11:52 am
Recovery.gov names names
Recovery.gov is blowing the whistle on companies that received stimulus money and haven't reported the progress on the number of jobs created or other data required.
Last week, the website that tracks the progress of the economic stimulus package posted online the names of those who failed to file reports on time for the last quarter. Also posted were the lists of nearly 400 people who have not filed reports for the last two quarters since the stimulus money started flowing.
"The two-time losers--those who failed to file reports in the last quarter of 2009 and the earlier reporting period--should really be embarrassed,'' said Earl E. Devaney, the Chairman of the Recovery board. "They took millions of dollars and then thumbed their noses at taxpayers.''
Devaney wants Congress to amend the law to add penalties against those who fail to report their progress.
In one bright spot, the number of companies failing to report their progress has dropped. In the first reporting period--October to December--there were 4,359 missing reports. In the second period, there were 1,036.
For more on Recovery.gov:
- see this press release
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 11:06 am
Tips on caring for your laptop
Lincoln Spector over at Computerworld offered some interesting advice about caring for one's laptop. With more companies buying laptops than desktops these days, I've decided to highlight a couple of pertinent tips that will benefit readers of FierceCIO:TechWatch.
One tip is to keep the laptop battery cool. Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly fine to leave the lithium-ion batteries found in modern laptops plugged-in all the time, or to recharge them before their charge is depleted. Subjecting them to excessive heat, though, can dramatically shorten the lifespan of the batteries.
While Spector recommends that the battery be removed, my opinion is that a nice laptop stand would be more than adequate in to facilitate ventilation. Of course, my personal philosophy is that a well-designed laptop should not trap heat in the first place.
While many executives benefit from the portability afforded by their laptops, few, if any, do their work exclusively from cafes and airports. When at home or at the office, Spector recommends that laptop users switch to using a full-sized keyboard and mouse, and also an external desktop monitor to work from. This allows for more ergonomic use, and also alleviates eye strain--especially when using a tiny netbook.
For the rest of the tips:
- check out this article at PCWorld
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:50 am
IDC: All-in-one desktops to stage a comeback
Market researcher IDC has predicted that the market share of all-in-one desktops is expected to stage a comeback in 2010 amidst stronger demand from businesses and consumers alike. Based on its analysis, IDC says that market share of all-in-one desktops will double to 10 percent even as the sales of portable PCs slows slightly. The shift will occur as emerging markets look for a more affordable solution in the form of a full-fledged desktop.
Ultimately, portable PCs will still account for more than 60 percent of all PC shipments, though sales of netbooks is expected to suffer. Last year was the climax for the market growth of netbooks, noted the research firm. For now, the falling prices of portable PCs mean that the differentiation factor is less compelling.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:41 am
Microsoft discontinues Windows Essential Business Server
Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Windows Essential Business Server (EBS), to be effective June 30 this year. EBS shipped in November 2008, and is aimed toward businesses with between 250 to 300 desktops. Microsoft has hoped to replicate the success of its Small Business Server product with EBS, which is catered toward smaller businesses of less than 75 desktops.
However, demand for EBS must have been far less than expected for the Redmond company to abruptly discontinue it barely 16 months after it was first launched.
In an email, Microsoft wrote that this decision represents "a natural market shift" in which mid-size businesses are creating their own IT solutions. Microsoft has pledged that it remains fully committed to small- and mid-size businesses as a whole, and that this has no bearing on any other Windows Server products and solutions, "including the next version of Windows Small Business Server."
For more on this story:
- check out the article at Ars Technica
- check out this post at Windows Essential Business Server Team blog
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:41 am
Back door found in software for Energizer Duo USB battery charger
A back door has been found in the free, optional software created for use with the Energizer Duo USB battery charger, according to battery maker Energizer.
The U.S. CERT has also issued an advisory that elaborates on the Trojan software: "The installer for the Energizer DUO software places the file UsbCharger.dll in the application's directory and Arucer.dll in the Windows system32 directory." UsbCharger.dll appears to be a legitimate component for providing USB communications capabilities that has been tempered to also launch Arucer.dll. The advisory further noted that, "Arucer.dll is a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access via accepting connections on 7777/tcp."
In a nutshell, the malware allows a remote attacker to remotely control the infected system, which includes the ability to list directories, send and receive files, as well as execute programs with the privileges of the logged-on user.
In fact, the Trojan may have been around since the software was offered three years ago, says Symantec. Energizer says it has no idea how the Trojan got into its software, though the company says it has discontinued the sale of this product and has also removed the site from which the software is downloaded.
If anything, this incident shows the need to install antivirus software as soon as possible after the operating system is in place--earlier rather than later.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at eWeek
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:39 am
Release date for Windows 7 SP1 moved forward
Rumors have it that Microsoft will be releasing the first service pack for the popular Windows 7 operating system toward the end of 2010, or about Q4 of this year. Using previous Windows releases as a benchmark, Microsoft "traditionally" releases the first service pack within a year after the operating system is released, though there has never been a fixed time table in that sense.
TechARP.com quoted unnamed sources on the presence of "a few serious bugs that would affect performance in certain scenarios." This has resulted in the initial 22-month development period planned for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be pushed forward by Microsoft, says the site. Microsoft declined to comment, though TechARP has in the past correctly predicted the service pack schedules for Windows XP and Vista.
For now, detractors are arguing that a service pack this year would be too early, considering the success of Windows 7. Not only does the latest version of Windows lack any "significant problems," analyst Michael Cherry noted that "If Microsoft wants to break people of the habit of waiting for SP1, this would be the time to do it."
Ultimately, the report noted that Microsoft doesn't have an exact release date yet, and also conceded that it's still too early to pinpoint a specific month.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at TechARP.com
- check out the article at Computerworld
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:39 am
Internet access should be a right, says majority
The majority of users around the world consider access to the Internet to be a right, according to a recent survey conducted for the BBC. The poll of 27,000 adults across 26 countries who use the Internet found that 87 percent felt Internet access should be "the fundamental right of all people." Interestingly, 53 percent of Internet users agreed that "the Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere." You can download the entire report here (pdf). Article
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:37 am
Open source data centers in the wings
The Open Source Data Center Initiative was launched last week with the idea of applying open-source ideas to the design and construction of data centers.
The data center industry is "dominated by a handful of large engineering houses" that are wedded to mechanical and engineering designs that are "largely considered proprietary," said Michael Manos, who used to run Microsoft's global data center operations and is advising the initiative. Those companies don't have enough incentive to educate their customers about simpler, more standardized alternatives, he told the New York Times.
"When you think of all the great things we've been talking about at data-center conferences, about moving to greener designs and driving efficiency with new technologies--a lot of that innovation is being held back because competition for those ideas is not out there," Manos added.
The details are still being worked out, according to Manos, but the idea is to give smaller engineering firms access to a pool of engineering resources that could help them compete for business with more established players.
And the concept of open source data centers is one likely to take off quickly.
For more on open source data centers:
- see this New York Times article
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Posted on 7 March 2010 | 11:29 am
Qwest opens cyber cloud center
Qwest Communications recently opened a new center in Washington, D.C., for cloud computing infrastructure services. It's Qwest's 17th cyber center in the nation, and the third in Washington, D.C.
Diana Gowen, senior vice president and general manager at Qwest Government Systems, discussed the opening of the new center and the cloud computing infrastructure services and provided some insight into where private companies are heading with their cloud services.
"It enables us to launch, with very little effort, our cloud computing services, that is--infrastructure as a service," she told the Fed Cloud blog.
The facility has increased security that allows for handling and storing classified information, she said. Cyberspace is not the only domain in which the new facility has increased security. There's tough physical security, too, gated entrances and security passwords.
Centers like Qwest's cloud facility are part of a growing trend among private IT companies to offer cloud services as well as more traditional services.
For more on Quest and cloud computing:
- see this Fed Cloud blog
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Posted on 6 March 2010 | 6:06 pm
Outsourcing prices to drop in 2010
It may be hard to kick the outsourcing habit this year because falling prices make the practice hard to resist. Analysis from ProBenchmark, the pricing subsidiary of outsourcing consultancy Alsbridge, finds that outsourcing prices will continue to head down, although it's not certain for how long.
"How long the economy will be like this and how long client companies will continue to more aggressively [offshore] infrastructure remains to be seen," says Chris Pattacini, ProBenchmarks's director. "It is clear that RIM will continue to proliferate in the market, continuing that downward price pressure, but not as much as last year."
Another factor at play is constant renegotiation of outsourced contracts by vendors looking for the best deal, according to ProBenchmark. While pricing is dicey to predict, ProBenchmark sees some changes in the market:
- Desktop services have been dropping 10 to 14 percent annually and should fall another 7 to 10 percent this year.
- Storage prices are on track to continue their 10 to 14 percent annual decline.
There's one exception to the downward spiral: Virtualization. Virtual service support has been quietly increasing, ProBenchmark says.
For more on outsourcing prices:
- see this CIO magazine article
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Posted on 6 March 2010 | 4:10 pm
Gartner: PC shipments to grow 20 percent in 2010
PCs are getting more popular every day, driven by mobile PCs and netbooks, according to a new Gartner forecast. The company raised its worldwide PC shipment forecast for this year, predicting growth of 20 percent compared to 2009. The research firm estimates that PC shipments will total 366 million units in 2010.
"The PC industry will be overwhelmingly driven by mobile PCs, thanks to strong home growth in both emerging and mature markets," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, in a statement.
The world is definitely going mobile. Mobile devices accounted for 55 percent of all PC shipments in 2009, and will account for close to 70 percent of shipments by 2012, Gartner said.
Meanwhile, desktop PC shipments are on the decline and will be used primarily in emerging markets.
It's important for IT executives to pay attention to these trends. Why refresh your hardware when you can replace it with mobile devices? Why not move to a more mobile workplace that is likely to deliver faster and better services to your customers?
For more on PC trends:
- see this Computerworld.com article
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Posted on 6 March 2010 | 3:18 pm
Are you a tweeter or a memo manager?
Twitter is a 21st century technology that many older workers have not yet adopted. And as it becomes a more popular communication tool, the debate over social networks in the workplace becomes intense. Which tools are secure and productive? Which tools are dangerous and useless?
"There are baby boomers like me who think the road to productivity is through single focus, one thing at a time," Jim Routh, a consultant for Archer Technologies, tells CSOonline.com. "In reality, those brought up on the Internet are accustomed to using multiple media-rich environments productively. The older generation separates the work and the social, but the technology is so pervasive, there is no separation anymore," he adds.
That's a great observation for a workplace trying to navigate its way among the old school and new one as business tries to figure out what to make of social networking.
Some companies are responding to this debate by allowing social networks for specific business initiatives, but not for every project. Other companies ban Twitter and other social networks due to security fears. Nevertheless, CSOonline.com reports that security personnel are in a tough place, under pressure from employees and business managers to allow social networking into the office as long as it's secure.
"We spent so many years locking things down," said Frank Waszmer, information security architect at Florida-based Health First. "It took a long time to convince management to tighten things up. You have to make sure management is on board to the risk of opening up."
For more on the debate over social networking:
- see this CSOonline.com article
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Posted on 6 March 2010 | 2:47 pm
Data centers slow to deal with cyberterrorism
Data centers are ignoring the potential threat of cyberterrorism, according to recent surveys. And while center mangers are looking for ways to make a system run more efficiently, a recent AFCOM survey of more than 400 data center pros found that only one-third of them included cyber terrorism in disaster recovery plans.
Only a quarter of them addressed cyber terrorism in policies and procedures and only one-fifth provided cyberterrorism employment training, according to the association for data centers.
"This is a really unique time, because for the first time in history the data center is in the public eye," AFCOM chief executive Jill Eckhaus told Network World. "People are starting to understand how vital data centers are. We could not do business as usual without data centers," she added.
The top-to-bottom scrutiny of data centers comes at a time when data centers are dramatically expanding, according to a survey by data center provider Digital Realty Trust. A company survey of 300 corporations finds that more than 80 percent plan data center expansions in the next two years.
Yet without the necessary protections against cyberterrorism, every data center could be vulnerable to an attack.
For more on data centers and cyberterrorism:
- check out this NetworkWorld.com article
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Posted on 6 March 2010 | 2:15 pm
Google Apps now does synchronous data replication
Google says it has added synchronous data replication to its Google Apps lineup. Replication involves making exact copies of digital files to protect against disasters, and synchronous replication means that changes to the original digital data is instantly propagated across the various copies. Of course, this being Google, the files are broken up into "chunks" and stored on random servers scattered across the many Google data centers around the world.
Google told eWeek that it has been using replication for Gmail for years, and has now extended the feature to all its services. Rajen Sheth, Senior Product Manager of Google Apps noted that Google Apps customers can now "get best-in-class disaster recovery for free, no matter their size."
Sheth also (indirectly) confirmed that no disaster at one geo-location will result in lost data, "...we have very high speed connections between data centers, so that we can transfer data very quickly from one set of servers to another. This let us replicate large amounts of data simultaneously."
For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek
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Posted on 5 March 2010 | 12:09 am
Intel positions Atom chip to power small servers, appliances
Intel this week launched its first processor platform based on the Atom chip for powering small servers or appliances. In tandem with the new Atom D410 single core and D510 dual core processors, a 82801IR I/O Controller is used to power new hardware platforms that require higher-intensity I/O workloads. The new platform means that performance for popular consumer applications such as video processing is upped by some 85 percent, says Intel.
Already, Intel says that storage hardware vendors such as LaCie, QNAP, Synology and Thecus already have products planned around the new Atom-based platform. And no wonder, the new platform offers six PCI Express lanes, eSATA, 12 USB 2.0 ports and an integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller. On top of these, the hyper-threading capabilities of the new Atom chips meant that video transcoding performance is bolstered by some 85 percent.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at CNET News
- check out the article at Computerworld
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Posted on 5 March 2010 | 12:07 am
Flash could doom Fibre Channel, says EMC
The use of Fibre Channel-based hard disks could well be a thing of the past in just a few years, according to Frank Hauck, an executive vice president in charge of EMC's storage division.
Of course, this will only happen when the cost of enterprise flash drives achieves price parity with Fibre Channel drives. But if you would consider that flash drives were 20 times more expensive than Fibre Channel drives in 2008, but just 10 times the cost in 2009, it is clear that the gap is eroding quickly to the point where flash drives will become the obvious choice. In fact, the price difference is now down to just seven times the cost and is expected to narrow further.
Already, EMC says that many of its mid-tier customers are purchasing storage arrays with flash drives, with typical deployment containing 80 percent HDD and 20 percent SSD. For now, a key goal of EMC is to fully automate the movement of data between the HDD and SSD tiers via the use of more advanced software.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at Network World
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Posted on 5 March 2010 | 12:05 am
Released: Exploit code to bypass DEP security in Windows
Google security software engineer Berend-Jan Wever has published proof-of-concept code on how to bypass Microsoft's data execution prevention technology, or DEP. First introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, DEP prevents malicious code from executing in memory spaces not meant for code execution. This helps the operating system defend against various types of attacks, including those based on buffer overflows.
Wever worked for Microsoft as a security software engineer from 2006 to 2008. In his personal blog, he says that the decision to publish the exploit is to demonstrate that the combined use of ASLR and DEP are not a mitigation to "put a lot of faith in." ASLR stands for address space layout randomization, a technique in which the position of key memory areas are randomly shuffled around to thwart hackers from predicting whether their exploit code will actually run.
Where ASLR is concerned, Wever wrote that on the x86 platform at least, "32-bits does not provide sufficient address space to randomize memory to the point where guessing addresses becomes impractical, considering heap spraying can allow an attacker to allocate memory across a considerable chunk of the address space and in a highly predictable location."
Heap spraying was a technique Wever popularized in 2005 to make exploits against browsers more efficient. Senior threat researcher at Trend Micro David Sancho noted that the demonstration "is pretty significant." According to Sancho, "This can be used to further enhance exploits, and I expect that we'll start seeing it being used within exploits fairly soon."
For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out Wever's personal blog
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Posted on 5 March 2010 | 12:02 am
Six-core chips from Intel, AMD to debut soon
The coming weeks and months will see the launch of new six-core processors from both Intel and AMD. Indeed, the official roll-out of Intel's new 6-core "Westmere" processors is expected to take place later this month. While not the first 6-core chip to be introduced from Intel, the Core i7-980X is aimed at dual-socket platforms and is distinguished from the earlier 6-core Extreme Edition chips based on its fabrication using advanced 32-nanometer process technology.
Unlike earlier Core 2 processors though, the new chips comes with Hyper-Threading to effectively double the number of threads that can be executed per core. Preliminary pricing pegs the processor at just over $1,000 and is shown to run at 3.33GHz and with 12MB of built-in cache memory.
Not to be outdone, AMD announced on Tuesday that its first six-core processor designed for desktops--the Phenom II X6--will ship in Q2 this year. Specifics such as speed and size of its cache are not available though. With regards to the possible usage of these processors, at least one analyst thinks that the processing capabilities of six-core chips are meaningful only for a very small segment of the market that requires immense processing power.
Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat noted, "Does it mean something for the average consumer? No. Would it be absolute overkill? Yes." McGregor gave his opinion that dual and quad-core systems are "adequate" for most average consumers.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at HPCwire
- check out this article at Network World
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Posted on 5 March 2010 | 12:01 am
Best Buy in N.J. hit with heist, 'Mission Impossible' style
Acrobatic thieves cut a hole in the roof of a Best Buy store, and rappelled down to snatch $26,000 worth of laptop computers. The sophisticated ‘Mission Impossible' inspired operation allowed them to make off the loot without ever touching the floor--which would have set off motion sensors. Meticulous planning also meant that the thieves descended while obscured from security cameras by advertising banners, leaving police with few clues to work with. Article
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 11:53 pm
Coca-Cola CIO: IT must balance budget and innovation
Over the last two years, the environment has been less than favorable for CIOs trying to bring new technology to their companies. Economic uncertainty has caused many IT shops to play it safe, as CFOs keep a tight grip on their purse strings. CIOs have been opting to focus their energy on maintenance and security, rather than introducing major projects.
Esat Sezer, SVP and CIO with Coca-Cola Enterprises, said CIOs must strike a balance between cost reduction and the need for innovation. He handles the IT needs of over 70,000 employees--50 percent of whom are mobile workers. In 2008, with the recession underway, Sezer transitioned employees to a software as a service communications platform in less than nine months.
Even in tough times, there still needs to be "funding of growth related initiatives that should be shared within business and IT," said Sezer in an interview with MeetTheBoss.tv. For his company, buy-in from top executives was essential to achieving his goals for growth.
"If you look into the end of 2006 timeframe coming into 2007, probably close to 90 percent of our internal resources were occupied to maintain what we have; [to] keep the lights on in other words," said Sezer. "Today...[we reduced that to] 60 percent roughly. So in other words we created around 30 percent capacity of IT resources to get engaged into business transformation enabling activities."
To Sezer, the process of freeing up IT dollars for new inititives is simple: "Create resources through the efficiencies and productivity initiatives, and fund your growth related activities that business is requiring."
In collaboration with that strategy Sezer recommends CIOs look to other business units and avoid tunnel vision. The IT department's goals should parallel those in other parts of the enterprise.
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For more:
- view the full MeetTheBoss.tv interview here (reg. req.)
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 8:03 am
Free Office upgrade deal from Microsoft
There's something free coming from Microsoft. The company's chief financial officer confirmed on Tuesday that it will offer a free upgrade to the upcoming Office 2010 suite starting this month.
Computer World reports that Microsoft's Peter Klein said that the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee program would kick off before the end of the month. Klein told Wall Street analysts that Microsoft would defer $300 million to $350 million from the quarter that ends March 31 to cover the costs of the upgrade.
Details of the new program began emerging last month across the web. Customers who purchase an eligible copy of Office 2007 between March 5 through the end of September will be allowed to download a corresponding edition of Office 2010 for free when the new suite launches in June.
For more on this Microsoft program:
- see this Computer World article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 1:34 pm
Oracle hikes certification testing fees
The cost of getting a technical certification for Sun and Oracle technologies just went up. While the full numbers were not available, one forum claimed the cost of a MySQL Certified Associate exam had more than doubled under the new pricing.
An official post said the new fee structure represents "the first material exam price increase that Oracle has made since the inception of its program." It went on to say, "Prices may vary from country to country so please be sure to check the links below or with your local site for details."
An article in Computer World said both Internet-based exams and proctored ones conducted at testing centers are affected.
Under the new price schedule, "all non-proctored exams worldwide; proctored Sun exams for emerging-market countries and Oracle Database, Middleware and Linux exams for emerging-market countries" cost $125.
In addition, proctored Oracle exams in developed nations and Oracle application exams in countries designated as emerging markets are priced at $195. Proctored Sun tests will cost $300 in developed countries.
For more on certification costs:
- see this Computer World article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 11:51 am
Don't neglect your help desk
Your help desk may not be getting the attention it deserves to keep your IT operation running smoothly. Information Week recently interviewed Craig Baxter, managing director of HDI, a certification association for technical support professions, who argues that the IT help desk is far more strategic than executives give it credit for.
Baxter said help desk support is less than 10 percent of an overall IT budget, and it is under-appreciated for the work it does for that little cost.
"The support groups in IT are the ones who take the pulse of the IT infrastructure on a daily basis and see how it's impacting business in real time," Baxter said in a Q&A with Information Week. "They are the first to see issues, hear about needs, and the first to respond. Based on what they see and track, they're in the best position to understand if there's a major underlying problem that is affecting an entire enterprise or, worse, its external customers."
For more on the importance of the help desk:
- see this Information Week article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 11:26 am
Another stolen laptop, another breach
This is another case of a breach that shouldn't have happened but did. An unencrypted laptop which was stolen from an employee's home has led to a breach of information on 12,500 patients at Shands HealthCare in Gainesville, Fla.
The story is very familiar, but it is getting very old. A Shands employee downloaded the health information onto an unencrypted Shands-owned laptop at home for work-related purposes, the provider organization reported. It contained the Social Security numbers of about 650 people. The laptop also contained other information such as names, addresses, medical records and medical procedures.
The laptop was stolen on Jan. 27 when the employee's home was burglarized. The worker reported the theft immediately to the police, and Shands opened its own investigation into the extent of the damage.
There's no evidence that confidential information on the laptop has been used for fraudulent purposes. But in a cautious response, the company sent letters to those individuals whose information was on the laptop, giving them instructions on what they should be doing--looking for unusual activities on their credit cards and at their banks.
The theft has prompted Shands to get more proactive about protecting its data. It's launched a systemwide encryption initiative to better protect the health information it is responsible for.
This is a classic case of what can go wrong when employees take their work home, when data is not encrypted and when a theft occurs. It's a good lesson for any organization to impose strict requirements before letting it's workers walk out the door with confidential data.
For more on this breach:
- see this HealthcareInfoSecurity.com article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 10:18 am
Latest IBM layoffs blamed on outsourcing
IBM is planning another round of layoffs--this time around it will be 2,000 workers. After shrinking its U.S. workforce by as many as 10,000 employees last year, IBM this week may be on its way to cutting another 2,000 workers. Rumors are swirling around the announcement, as some believe offshore outsourcing is the reason for the cuts.
Big Blue hasn't commented on the latest round of layoffs. Word of it comes from Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701, which gathers its data from IBM employees, Computer World reports.
The union is blaming offshoring for many of the layoffs, and so are the workers.
"IBM is clearly offshoring things where they can," said one IBM employee who received his notice this week and spoke to Computer World on the condition of anonymity.
For more on IBM layoffs:
- see this Computer World article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 8:21 am
Microsoft: A tax to fight cybercrime
Taxes are always a dirty word, but Microsoft's security chief is suggesting that a tax may be what is needed to raise the money to fight cybercrime. Scott Charney, microsoft corporate VP for Trustworthy Computing said that the technology industry needs to think about more "social solutions" in dealing with winning the fight against hackers.
He spoke Tuesday at the RSA security conference in San Francisco. Among his suggestions: An Internet usage tax to help hold companies accountable and more vigilant in stopping malware from running on their computers.
"Maybe markets will make it work," Charney said. But an Internet usage tax might be the way to go. "You could say it's a public safety issue and do it with general taxation," he said.
Taxes are never a popular idea, and there will be plenty of pushback if Congress ever decides to try to enact one.
For more about a new Internet tax:
- see this Computer World article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 7:53 am
Microsoft puts kibosh on tell-all site, then relents
A website that has made its mark revealing IT secrets has felt the heavy hand of Microsoft. Cryptome.org, a site that posts documents people want to keep secret, ran into trouble when it published a confidential Microsoft document that revealed how much information the company keeps on its users.
Microsoft succeeded in shutting the site down last Wednesday, filing a legal action and putting pressure on its ISP, Network Solutions. Microsoft claimed Cryptome violated its copyright by publishing a confidential document meant only for law enforcement. The document laid out its guidelines for responding to law enforcement subpoenas for information.
But on Thursday, after negative publicity in Wired.com and elsewhere, Microsoft suddenly withdrew its complaint, and the site was back online.
In a statement, Microsoft said it did not ask that the site be taken down, but only that its copyrighted content be removed. "We are requesting to have the site restored and are no longer seeking the document's removal," the company said.
Wired.com reported that the document contained no trade secrets, but tells Microsoft users some things they didn't know. It said, for example, that Xbox Live records every IP address a user ever uses to login and stores them for perpetuity. Microsoft also said it retains the last 10 login records for Windows Live ID. As for instant messages, it tells police that it keeps no record of what anyone says over Microsoft Messenger although it will turn over who is on the buddy lists.
For more on this controversy:
- see this Wired.com article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 2:58 pm
Hottest technology of the last decade
EWeek.com has come up with a definitive list of the 25 hot technologies that changed the first decade of the 21st century. It's a list that includes BlackBerrys and broadband. It also includes items we cannot even remember being without.
Take Twitter, for instance. "Twitter has been massively influential and changed the way we all communicate," the article says. And it's only been part of the tech revolution for the last couple of years. Then there's 3G broadband that has made it possible for smartphones, netbooks, laptops and mobile offices to get good Internet access pretty much anywhere. And don't forget about AJAX which makes it possible to build attractive and interactive web-based GUIs that don't need extra plug-ins or extensions.
It's great to look in the rear-view mirror and appreciate how far technology has advanced in just a short time. It's also exciting to get ready for the next decade to see what's coming next.
For more on hot technologies:
- see this eWeek.com article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 1:17 pm
The dangers of online file sharing
Congress is looking at ways to plug a hole that increasingly is letting hackers gain access to a company's data. A bill, passed in the House and awaiting action in the Senate, would require software companies to inform Internet users of privacy and security risks associated with file-sharing programs.
The software, known as peer-to-peer programs, or P2P, is often used to download music and movies and is the largest portion of Internet traffic. But it can also lead to the inadvertent sharing of documents, a problem linked to plenty of data breaches lately.
The bill would require software developers to clearly tell users when their files are made available to other users over the Internet. It would require file-sharing software to display a pop-up box alerting Internet users when they encounter such programs. The bill would also let consumers and employers block or disable file-sharing programs.
The Federal Trade Commission is on a campaign to make people aware of P2P vulnerabilities. The agency says drivers license numbers, social security numbers and other personal data has been compromised many times in recent months.
"This bill will let people know-in a way that they can understand-that their personal files are being shared with complete strangers," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), one of the co-sponsors of the P2P legislation.
For more on P2P legislation:
- see TheHill.com blog
- see this Computerworld article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 12:12 pm
Are we deluged with data?
The IT world has been an amazing boon to business, supplying companies with streams of data and information to assess the marketplace, make strategic decisions and informed judgments. But do we have too much data, and do we know what to do with it all?
The Economist reports that by one estimate, we created 150 exabytes (billion gigabytes) of data in 2005. This year, we will create 1,200 exabytes.
"Merely keeping up with this flood, and storing the bits that might be useful, is difficult enough. Analyzing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information, is harder still," the magazine notes.
Yet it points out that the deluge of data is transforming business, government, science and everyday life. And the data can be used for good and perhaps for purposes that are less than pure.
At the moment, credit card companies have mastered the ability to gather and make good use of the data in their possession. Retailers, supermarkets, drug makers and other businesses use data mining quite effectively to determine buying patterns and trends, and to target their marketing. But as the Economist notes, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are not linked together as they should be. The same can be said for the emerging electronic health records industry that still has a long way go.
And then there are the risks--data stolen and computers hacked. Rather than owning and controlling their data, people and companies very often find that they have lost control of it or do not know how to use it effectively.
The key, says the magazine, is "learning to cope with the data deluge, and working out how best to tap it."
For more:
- see this Economist article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 11:13 am
Strategies for being a good CIO
The CIO's job is always being refined. Should she dictate the company's IT direction? Should she be saving money or making money? Should she be troubleshooting when something goes wrong with the system?
Some of these issues present a tug-of-war for the CIO's strategy. A group of public and private-sector CIOs at the California CIO Academy gathered last week to come up with tips on what a CIO should know and problems to avoid. Here are a few of them:
- Embrace change. Don't let financial hard times hold you back.
- Have a good relationship with your team. Develop strong relationships with people at all levels of the IT shop.
- Keep stress at bay. Be a positive motivator to your staff, not a negative one.
- Build a team you can rely on and treat them like gold.
- Be accountable. Make sure you are as accountable as you expect your staff to be.
Make sure you have a well-run ship, not one that continually has personnel problems or needs to be patched.
For more on being a good CIO:
- see this GovTech.com article
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Posted on 28 February 2010 | 9:31 am
Google to the rescue in Chile
Google once again showed the world that a social networking site can be used for far more than socializing. On Saturday, Google quickly activated an online "people finder" tool to allow relatives and friends to find loved ones in Chile within hours of the country's 8.8-magnitude earthquake.
The "Person Finder: Chile Earthquake" from the California-based Internet giant is located at Chilepersonfinder.appspot.com and offers users the choice of using it in English or Spanish. It asks users "What is your situation?" and gives them the choice between "I'm looking for someone" and "I have information about someone."
Google also launched a "person finder" after last month's earthquake in Haiti. It currently contains some 58,700 records. Google has plenty of features that find where people live on Google Maps and pinpoint locations with Google Earth. But it was this emergency tool, activated this weekend for the second time, that will provide life-saving information in an emergency situation.
It's also the kind of tool that may have a practical application for private sector IT executives. Could the Google locater be used to communicate more rapidly to a customer in the event of a sudden product recall or the need to rapidly find customers for a product update? Could it be used to keep track of products being shipped and consumer complaints?
Whatever the answer, the practical side of a Google locator could be adopted by IT execs keeping up with the market.
For more on Google's locator:
- see this Vancouver Sun article
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 5:53 pm
Microsoft spearheads operation against major spamming botnet
Spearheaded by Microsoft, a team of security experts from The Shadowserver Foundation, Symantec, the University of Washington, as well as researchers from Germany and Austria successfully took down the Waledac botnet. Waledac is the second-generation iteration of the Storm botnet, and widely believed to have been created by the same people.
Waledac is a highly sophisticated botnet that utilizes a complicated peer-to-peer communication mechanism to maintain cohesion between hosts and its command and control (C&C) servers. Part of what made the operation successful was the taking down of 277 dot com domains on the Internet that served as Waledac's C&C servers.
The domains were cut off after Microsoft secured a federal court order, and was the culmination of months of investigations. The team was able to trick bots into connecting with servers prepared by the team instead. As a result, 90 percent of the botnet was diverted from the Waledac's C&C network within six hours, essentially shutting down the botnet.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at Dark Reading
- check out this article at Network World
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 2:44 pm
40G, 100G Ethernet still too pricey
Prices for 40G and 100G Ethernet need to come down before mainstream adoption can take off, was the consensus among experts at the Ethernet Technology Summit last week. At the moment, 40G Ethernet costs between six to seven times that of a 10G link, which keeps demand muted. And where 100G is concerned, at least one analyst says it will be 2015 before it is even priced for the market.
Participants at the event say that 40G Ethernet will eventually follow the price decline seen in 10G in the past. What is clear though is that there is pent-up demand for 40G speeds. Paul Hooper, chief marketing officer at Extreme Networks, says that this is true for the banking, healthcare and media markets.
At least one other category of companies will rejoice with the expected ratification of 40/100G Ethernet three or four months down the road. Donn Lee, an engineer at Facebook laments the problem faced by the fourth largest Web site in the world as a result of having to work with 10G switches. "We have to lash together huge arrays of 10G links to scale. Switches are not built for being in a fabric."
And while the bigger 10G Ethernet switches on the market can do upwards of 500 ports, their backbones only have sufficient capacity to run 25 percent of the ports at line rate. Utilizing them will only result in slow-downs on the ultra high-performance networks in Facebook.com.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at Computerworld
- check out the article at Network World
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 2:40 pm
Lenovo claims battery life crown for ThinkPad X201
Lenovo says its new ThinkPad X201 ultraportable laptop can run up to 12.2 hours with an optional nine-cell lithium-ion battery, setting a new endurance mark. And using the nine-cell battery won't render the laptop a kludge either--its total weigh tips the scales at a modest 3.1 lbs, according to Lenovo. The battery tests were conducted using MobileMark 2007.
Lenovo credits the improvements to the power managers in its T-series and X-series of ThinkPads. Users who work with their laptop plugged in for long periods of time, for example, will see their laptop adapting to charge the batteries slower. This has the effect of extending battery life.
In addition, the company also offers batteries with slightly lower runtimes, though they're guaranteed to provide the same runtime for three years. Lenovo's senior worldwide product marketing manager Mika Majapuro explained how this works: "We don't give all of the capacity at once to a customer," which allows the battery to remain fresh over a longer period of time.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at Computerworld
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 2:37 pm
Top Chinese search engine files lawsuit against Register.com
Top Chinese search engine baidu.com had operations disrupted for hours last month as users were redirected to a Web page with the declaration that "This site has been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army." According to the company's version of events as detailed in a lawsuit filed against U.S. domain name registrar register.com, the entire debacle stems from negligence.
On the day of the attack, someone contacted register.com tech help via online chat. Claiming to be from Baidu, the attacker managed to get the representative into changing Baidu's e-mail address that is on file--despite supplying a bogus confirmation code that was sent to Baidu's registered e-mail account.
With the registered e-mail account changed, it was a simple matter for the attacker to use the reset function to have register.com automatically send a new password to the fake account, which was given as "antiwahabi2008@gmail.com."
On changing of the registered e-mail account, the complaint noted that register.com "changed the e-mail address on file from one that was clearly a business address and contained the name of the account owner, to an e-mail address that conveyed a highly politically charged message ('antiwahabi'), with the domain name ('gmail.com') of a competitor of Baidu, at the request of an individual who not only could not produce the correct security verification, but actually produced false information twice."
Baidu is seeking millions of dollars in lost revenue and other costs.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World
- check out this article at Ecommerce Journal
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 2:36 pm
Intel introduces faster Atom processor
Intel officially released the Atom N470 processor this week, bumping up the performance ante slightly to 1.83GHz. Designed for netbooks, the new chip is based on the second-generation Atom architecture code named Pine Trail, and is Intel's fastest to date for this category of devices. The first Pine Trail chip debuted in December with the Atom N450 clocking in at 1.66GHz.
Like its predecessor, the N470 comes with a graphics processor and memory controller built into the processor itself. This not only causes the chip to be more power efficient, but allows higher system and graphics performance to be achieved. Sources say that systems shipping with the N470 could be on the market as early as next week.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at PC World
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Posted on 27 February 2010 | 2:31 pm
JooJoo tablet delayed until the end of March
The delivery of the JooJoo Internet tablet has been pushed back until March 25 from its original ship date of the end of February. Fusion Garage, the start-up that created the device, says that a manufacturing issue involving "fine tuning the touch sensitivity" of its industry-first 12.1-inch capacitive touch screen was the reason. As compensation, a free unspecified JooJoo accessory will be given to pre-order customers to compensate for the delay in the delivery of their JooJoo. Article
Posted on 27 February 2010 | 2:30 pm
Facebook's 'Newsfeed' becomes exclusive
Facebook users know the "newsfeed" technology well--the constantly updating page which appears when members log in to the social networking site. As of Tuesday, social networking fans will be seeing similar features become less prevalent across the web.
This week, Facebook obtained a patent for "dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network." This broad definition could cause problems for sites such as MySpace, Flickr, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, Yahoo Mail and Windows Live, reports PCWorld. Those sites all include some version of streaming user updates.
AllFacebook.com, a news blog following the story, reports that another patent by the company has been published, but has not yet been approved. This patent also addresses newsfeeds within a social network and was submitted in 2006--when Twitter was a mere twinkle in Biz Stone's eye. Twitter is just one of the sites that may be affected by Facebook's newly-asserted intellectual property rights.
Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb.com offered his analysis on the news with a post saying, "If offering a stream of updates of the non-status messages of friends is something Facebook alone could deliver, that would be a major loss for the rest of the social Web."
Back in October 2008, Kirkpatrick declared the newsfeed model "the dominant Internet metaphor of the day; the cascading waterfall of updates from your friends, with comments swirling even around those--that model is everywhere now!"
For more:
- see this PCWorld article
- see this AllFacebook.com article
- see this ReadWriteWeb post
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Posted on 26 February 2010 | 2:28 pm
Smartphone devices vulnerable to exploitation
Computer scientists at Rutgers University demonstrated how a software attack can be used to corrupt a smartphone to eavesdrop on a meeting, track the location of the owner or even activate unnecessary services to drain its battery and render the device useless. In the demonstration, the team developed a rootkit using existing software development tools and manually loaded it into a smartphone.
While the demonstration involved a smartphone, Vinod Ganapathy, assistant professor of computer science in Rutgers' School of Arts and Sciences highlighted the narrowing gap between a smartphones and laptops. Ganapathy noted that "Smartphones are essentially becoming regular computers," and that smartphones "run the same class of operating systems as desktop and laptop computers, so they are just as vulnerable to attack by malicious software, or 'malware.'"
The increasing number of netbooks, laptops and tablets that incorporate mobile wireless capability could well represent an increased opportunity for hackers to remotely reach into our daily lives.
For more on this story:
- check out this press release at the Rutgers University website
- check out this article at InformationWeek
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Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:48 am
Amazon unveils new high-memory instance for EC2
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a "high memory extra-large" instance option for its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. Amazon's EC2 service provides scalable, cloud-based computing infrastructure on the Internet. The new high-memory instance costs $0.50 per hour, and comes with 17.1GB of RAM, two virtual cores and 420GB of instance storage.
This option is targeted at a niche of the market that might require a large amount of working memory but with only moderate storage space. Commenting on the advantage of more memory, Redmonk analyst Michael Coté said "simply having more memory to work with is an effective way to brute-force much computation."
In case you're wondering if Amazon is making a profit on the new offering, SearchCloudComputing.com did a quick calculation based on full retail prices of the hardware required to power the new instance. The site came to the conclusion that a single hardware box will make "EC2 $2.00 per hour, or $17,500 per year." This works out to a nice gross profit of around 290%.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at SearchCloudComputing.com
- check out the article at PC World
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Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:38 am
CA buys cloud platform provider 3Tera
IT management software vendor CA has announced that it will be acquiring privately-held 3Tera for an undisclosed amount. 3Tera is the creator of AppLogic, a management platform in which a graphically oriented system is used to configure applications for deployment in the cloud.
CA says that this latest acquisition is part of the company's effort to handle application management issues in the cloud, tying them back to CA's existing system management and performance monitoring products. In addition, CA also has plans to expand 3Tera's virtualization support beyond the Xen virtualization platform, and to eventually support competing platforms such as VMWare ESX and Microsoft HyperV.
Gartner analyst Donna Scott says that this latest acquisition is CA's strategy to "get ahead of the curve." Scott noted that "[CA] is buying small companies early instead of waiting for a fully developed (cloud) marketplace."
Of CA's intention to enter into the cloud computing market, Forrester Research analyst James Staten wrote in a blog post: "If anyone doubted CA Inc.'s intention to get into the cloud computing market, you can't get away with that skepticism anymore. This company is serious."
For more on this story:
- check out the article at CNET News
- check out the article at InformationWeek
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Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:34 am
Report: Novelty of Firefox wearing off
A new report by Janco Associates noted that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has lost more than 12 percent of its market share since February 2007, courtesy of competing browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Fortunately for Microsoft, interest in these competing offerings appears to have dipped with the recent release of IE 8.
The report from Janco Associates, reported in Network World, elaborated, "The acceptance of Firefox has stalled as the novelty and uniqueness of its features has worn off and has been duplicated by Microsoft's IE. Firefox is no long unique as both IE and Google's offerings provide most of the same features." In fact, the research firm said the seemingly stalled interest is "a major defeat" for Google.
Personally, while I agree that the features in Firefox are no longer unique, I think it's still far too early to dismiss Chrome. Indeed, it was only recently that Google released the latest version of the browser with support for plug-ins. What do you think? Do you think IE will still be dominant in a couple of years?
For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World
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Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:30 am
Specifications for Compact Flash 5.0 released
The specifications for revision 5.0 of the Compact Flash standard have been released by the Compact Flash (CF) association. In a nutshell, the new standard comes with a revised feature set, inclusive of the TRIM command that is designed to reduce wear and tear on flash memory.
The highlight though, is probably the extension to 48-bit LBA which gives a huge bump to the maximum capacity of Compact Flash cards that can be supported. As an example, the current Compact Flash 4.1 specification makes use of 28-bit addressing, which limits the size of CF cards to just 137GB of data.
On the other hand, the new standard will allow the creation of CF cards of up to 144 Petabytes. While such large cards are unlikely to be manufactured any time soon, CF cards of 2 TBs or more will likely appear in short order to support upcoming super high-definition video like Quad HD (2160p) and Ultra-definition (4320p).
For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Inquirer
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Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:28 am
SugarSync adds 'Upload by Email' feature
SugarSync launched a new service called "Upload By Email" mid-week. This new feature allows SugarSync users to save their attachments by sending them to a special email address. All attachments received in this manner will be automatically synced to the SugarSync Cloud. If case you're not aware, SugarSync is a backup and sharing service that supports PCs as well as mobile platforms such as the BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Android smartphones. Files backed-up to the SugarSync Cloud are automatically made available via all supported platforms. Article
Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:25 am
Microsoft looks for the silver lining
Microsoft is planning to invest heavily in its cloud platform, but doesn't expect a fast return, Bob Muglia, the president of the server and tools business, said during a conference call on Tuesday. While the economic recovery is still coming along, Muglia said the computer giant is taking the long view--it will take two or three years until it sees any return.
"From the perspective of investment internally, interest from customers and engagement clearly the cloud will be an area of focus," Muglia said. "But in the next two to three years that is not what will drive financial growth in server and tools. It is essentially zero percent of our current operating revenue."
It's a slow-going strategy, but it is working, he said.
Microsoft just this month began billing users of its Azure cloud platform environment. Meanwhile, "the big dogs"--Windows Server and SQL Server--are the big revenue drivers, Muglia added.
For more on Microsoft's cloud:
- see this NetworkWorld.com article
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Posted on 24 February 2010 | 2:51 pm
Twitter becomes an essential tool
If you've been ignoring Twitter as a social phenomenon or business tool, you better rethink your tactics. The 140 character tweets are now logging 35 million per day, a growth of 1,400 percent in 2009. It's no longer a place to telegraph that you are having a tuna sandwich. It's become a place for businesses to advertise their sales, offer their services and grab a new market.
A tally by web-traffic monitoring firm Pingdom reports that Twitter passed its 1.2 billion tweet in January and would pass the 1.4 billion tweet mark in February.
Another report from Nielsen Online finds some problems for Twitter. It released data showing the social networking site is dealing with low retention rates. More than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month.
Nevertheless, Twitter is the place to be for any business trying to get out the word about products. Why buy a radio announcement when tweeting is cheaper? A blast email may never be read and telemarketing calls are blocked.
For more on the Twitter advance:
- see this eWeek.com article
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Posted on 24 February 2010 | 2:19 pm
EU opens antitrust probe of Google
Google's lawyers can never take a day off. The company gets sued in U.S. courts, it faces U.S. regulatory panels aiming to restrict its activities or its hauled before Congress to testify about Internet warfare.
Now, CNET News reports that European regulators want Google's attention. It wants to know how the company ranks search results and advertising. The request for information follows complaints from European businesses such as Foundem and Ciao, two price comparison sites, that Google penalized their websites in search results, because of competitive pressure.
"While we will be providing feedback and additional information on these complaints, we are confident that our business operates in the interests of users and partners, as well as in line with European competition law," Google said in a blog post.
It's no surprise that Google is a target all over the world. Its share of the search and search advertising market in Europe is 90 percent--even higher than it is in the United States.
New products are being unwrapped all the time--Microsoft's Bing among them--to wrestle control of the search market from Google. And Google is introducing new products, too, keeping its hold on the market even tighter.
For more on Google:
- see this CNET.com article
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Posted on 24 February 2010 | 1:46 pm
Intel gets attacked, too
There was more than one hack attack roaming through cyberspace in January. While the Google attack and other big-name victims got the most attention, Intel faced its own unrelated intrusion.
"We did not see the kind of broad-based attack as described by Google," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told Wired magazine. "Companies routinely see hackers trying to get into their system. It is a risk factor and that's why it was in the 10-K. We've seen no loss of [intellectual property] as a result of any of these attacks."
Intel disclosed its hack attack in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It didn't reveal what information was lost and didn't make a separate announcement that it had happened. Nevertheless, it is another example of the dangers for private sector companies. It comes on top of an attack against Google and more than 30 companies that has been traced to two schools in China.
In its SEC filing, Intel acknowledged that it's facing attacks on a regular basis.
"These attempts, which might be the result of industrial or other espionage, or actions by hackers seeking to harm the company, its products, or end users, are sometimes successful," Intel said.
Intel acknowledged a business reality, too. These attacks could "adversely affect our competitive position and reduce marketplace acceptance of our products."
For more on the Intel hack attack:
- see this Wired.com article
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Posted on 24 February 2010 | 1:04 pm
Intel, VC firms investing $3.5 billion in U.S. technology
Intel president and chief executive Paul Otellini announced plans this week to invest $3.5 billion in new technologies that could help the U.S. economy and increase the hiring of recent college graduates.
The investments will come from two dozen venture capital firms. Investment over the next two years will go toward clean technology, information technology and biotechnology. Intel plans to contribute $200 million toward this effort.
In a separate plan, Otellini said Intel and other tech companies are committed to increasing the hiring of recent college grads this year.
"Strong, enduring economies grow out of a culture of investment and a commitment to innovation," Otellini said in a statement. "We simply must have a clear, consistent strategy to promote innovation, investment and start-up companies. There are things business can do, and ought to do, independent of what government achieves."
For more on Intel's tech plans:
- see this Information Week article
- see the press release
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Posted on 24 February 2010 | 9:57 am
The party isn't over for IT
There's plenty of talk these days about where IT is going after recovering from the recession. Will it be growing domestically or will the trend toward outsourcing continue to eliminate jobs in the continental United States?
Will new technologies consolidate existing systems and remove redundancies in workers' daily tasks--making a human hand less essential?
CIO.com reports in a recent blog that baby boomers and Gen Xers are steering Millennials away from a career in IT. The reason is outsourcing and cost cutting. But blogger Sharyn Leaver, of Forrester Research IT, writes that IT-related jobs are still the best potential career path for young, smart graduates looking for a place to hang their hat and grow their careers.
Here are some of her reasons:
- Businesses will depend more and more, not less, on IT functions.
- IT will become more embedded, not less, in every kind of business scenario.
- The need for technical expertise is growing as businesses work to consolidate and get the best profits from their products.
There are plenty of IT careers that are hot right now--security for one. And one piece of advice from pros is to learn Drupal, a free software package that makes publishing and managing social content on the web easy.
Meanwhile, look around to find gaping holes in IT processes. There are likely many jobs that need an IT expert to fill in the gaps once the recession ends. Think of it this way: Even COBAL, that old mainframe language, still needs to be maintained now and then. And where are the IT workers who know how to do that?
For more on the future of IT:
- see this CIO.com article
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Posted on 24 February 2010 | 9:36 am
The growing problem of banking Trojans
A new Trojan has been discovered swiping credentials of customers across various banks in the United States. Discovered by researchers at SecureWorks, the Bugat Trojan bears similar features as other better-known banking Trojans like Clampi and Zeus, though incidences of Bugat appear to be low for now.
SecureWorks security researcher Jason Milletary, blogged, "The emergence of Bugat reinforces that there is a strong demand for new malware to commit financial credential theft and that ACH (Automated Clearing House) and wire fraud remains a profitable venture for criminals."
Banking Trojans allow remote attackers to perform sophisticated man-in-the-middle attacks on web sessions--a technique that was once the domain of computer science textbooks or hacking demonstrations. Data from Neustar indicated however, that U.S.-based SMBs are losing an average of $100,000 to $200,000 per day to such attacks targeting online banking activities.
Network traffic to banking sites are surreptitiously channeled via the cybercriminal, and fraud could occur by swapping account numbers when transferring funds. Alternately, the Trojan could request for the one-time-code used by most banks when none is required, which is then used to log in from another location and wire funds out.
Additionally, banking Trojans are also known to utilize the use of SSL encryption to deter detection on the network, and widely distributed via botnets. Ultimately, protection from them is not impossible, but it requires that banks implement more robust measures.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at Dark Reading
- check out this article at eWeek
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:24 pm
Central Desktop unveils 2.0 upgrade
Central Desktop on Monday unveiled a comprehensive 2.0 upgrade to its hosted collaboration suite with a redesigned user interface that is more intuitive and easier to use. Founded in 2005, Central Desktop makes a complete software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that it calls a "social technology platform." In a nutshell, Central Desktop merges traditional tools such as WYSIWYG editing, document management with search, discussion threads, together with wiki-based and project-centric solutions.
New features in Central Desktop 2.0 include an online file viewer that supports more than 200 different file types--including PDF, CAD and Adobe Photoshop files, improved Wiki navigation. A single click from within Central Desktop will also convert any file types into a downloadable PDF document.
The privately held company has 30 employees, and says its goal is to allow more efficient communication and collaboration between business teams. According to PC World, clients include Nielsen, CBS, The Ritz Carlton, Netflix, Harvard University and DirecTV.
For more on this story:
- check out the official press release
- check out the article at PC World
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:23 pm
Google to drop Gears for HTML5
Search giant Google has ceased development of Google Gears, and has shifted to focus on the development of standards-compliant HTML5 as a replacement. This in itself is not completely unexpected news, though the blog entry on the Gears API blog confirmed that Google will not be investing in the "active development of new features" where Google Gears is concerned.
In a blog titled "Hello HTML5," Ian Fette from the Gears Team noted that there is no simple, yet comprehensive way to move from a Gears-enabled application to HTML5. Fette wrote: "We will continue to support Gears until such a migration is more feasible, but this support will be necessarily constrained in scope."
Due to the amount of engineering effort required to support certain platforms, gears support for Safari on OS X Leopard and later will be dropped. However, support for Firefox and Internet Explorer will continue--for now.
For more on this story:
- check out the article at Gears Blog
- check out the article at The Inquirer
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:23 pm
Free VirusTotal service taps into 40 antivirus applications
Remember the article we ran of sites that are designed especially for malware writers to test their creation? Well, supporting the "good guys" is the free VirusTotal.com website that will scan any web download, email attachment, or individual file with more than 40 antivirus scanners and security utilities in order to establish their safety.
Users who are loath to visit a website can install the VirusTotal Uploader utility to facilitate uploading files via the "Send To" menu. The same can be done on any process that is running, or even an online file that the service will download directly from the Internet.
An obvious downside of checking with so many antivirus applications would be the inevitable increase in the number of false positives. There are also privacy concerns, especially involving email attachments. As the site notes though, the service is not a substitute for antivirus software installed on a PC, which offers permanent real-time protection for the system.
For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:22 pm
FBI probes high school webcam spying incident
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating whether Harriton High School broke any federal wiretap laws in which software was installed and activated to spy on a student at home. The Lower Merion School District (LMSD), of which Harriton High School is part, has also told the Associated Press that the webcams on the school-issued laptops were activated over 42 times since they were issued.
LMSD stressed however, that the ability to remotely activate the webcams was meant solely for the purpose of tracking lost or stolen machines. While students appear to be aware that the webcam can be remotely activated, parents were unfortunately left in the dark. LMSD spokesman Doug Young admitted that the school district committed a "significant mistake." He told the Inquirer, "There was no specific notification given that described the security feature. That notice should have been given, and we regret not giving it."
In the meantime, what of the "improper behavior" by the student that catapulted the case into the limelight? On video, the attorney hired by the parents claimed that the school "caught" Robbins with candies and mistook them for pills.
Trend Micro education director David Perry sums up the tricky situation involving webcams: "...when you hook something like a webcam up to your system, making it secure is your responsibility. By default, it's insecure."
Anyone got black tape to spare?
For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at Ars Technica
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:22 pm
Steve Jobs: Flash is an old technology
Apple is staunch in its stand against the use of Flash thus far. When asked about the iPad's lack of Flash support recently, the response from Steve Jobs to editors of the Wall Street Journal was: "We don't spend a lot of energy on old technology." Among other issues, Jobs think that Flash is a CPU hog, an aspect which I have personally encountered. Article
Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:20 pm
Google gets sizzle
Google has a new product that may take the company to the next level. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted Google Energy the power to sell energy at market rates.
What does this have to do with the Internet? Why own just half of a market, when Google can have much more? Wired.com explains the reason for this strategic move: "Providing these services will allow Google to better leverage its hardware resources. Search will get cheaper because the hardware budget can be amortized over more services."
But the publication expects web-based companies and energy-services companies will complain about being undercut by Google. It predicts consumers will have to get used to Google having even more information about their daily habits, it says.
What else is next? We can only imagine. Will Google be able to own the hardware, the air waves and your ideas?
For more on Google expansion:
- see this Wired.com article
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Posted on 21 February 2010 | 7:05 am
Two Chinese schools source of online attacks
Cybersleuths have traced a series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American companies to two schools in China. The findings by computer security experts and investigators from the National Security Agency have already been denied by the Chinese.
It's unlikely this discovery will put an end to the onslaught of cyberattacks worldwide. Researchers who monitor Chinese information warfare say the Chinese have adopted a distributed approach to online espionage, making it impossible to trace the source of an attack. At the Lanxiang school, one teacher told the New York Times that it was unlikely students at the school were involved in computer mischief.
"I think it's impossible for our students to hack Google or other U.S. companies because they are just high school graduates and not at an advanced level. Also, because our school adopts close management, outsiders cannot easily come into our school," he said.
It's also unclear what this kind of discovery means for the future. It is still a needle in a haystack for investigators to pinpoint the source of a problem and stop it before it spreads worldwide.
For more on the source of hack attacks:
- see this New York Times article
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Posted on 20 February 2010 | 3:50 pm
Are you too old to be a techie?
IT is a young person's game. While the older, grayer IT workers are still a big part of the work force, they are being replaced by younger, newly minted workers.
An article in InfoWorld.com reports that the average IT operation is staffed by people whose answer to this question: "What were you doing when the Berlin Wall fell?" is going to be "teething." But there are plenty of reasons for the age change in the profession.
- Older workers are more expensive than younger ones. The philosophy is to ax two or three high-paying positions and hire younger, cheaper workers to do the same job.
- Younger workers will work longer hours and produce more code.
- A decade of experience with an old programming language isn't as good as fresh experience with a new one.
- Younger workers aren't burnt out from previous experiences.
The InfoWorld article points out that there may be age discrimination in IT in the same way there's age discrimination in professional sports and the arts.
"At some point in those career arcs, the assets that made workers such hot properties--youth, the ability to devote lots of time to their vocation, comparative inexperience--diminish. And the marginal utility of what's left--experience--is not as strongly valued," the article says.
For more on age in the IT world:
- see this InfoWorld.com article
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Posted on 20 February 2010 | 2:38 pm
Can the Internet stay open?
The Internet may be plagued by increasing hack attacks and government restrictions, but information will continue to flow freely online 10 years from now, according to a new survey by Pew. The survey, released last Friday, of 895 people affiliated with the technology sector, made predictions about how open the Internet would be over the next 10 years.
The findings are a good barometer for any company that relies on the Internet. The survey found that most people believe the Internet will remain open with a minimum number of restrictions. However, one skeptic was Susan Crawford, a former White House technology adviser in the Obama administration. "The locked-down future is more realistic as things stand now. We've got a very cautious government, an international movement toward greater control, and a pliant public," she wrote. "I wish this wasn't the case."
Google's chief economist Hal Varian expressed caution, too. "It seems to me inevitable that nation states will attempt to exert more control over the Internet," he wrote. "However, I think that these will be relatively small changes, so that the Internet will remain relatively free."
In a recent speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration would make Internet freedom and openness a diplomatic priority. It comes at a time when there is a firestorm of criticism against China for imposing an internal firewall that blocks users in China from accessing some websites.
For more on the future of the net:
- see this NationalJournal.com article
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Posted on 20 February 2010 | 1:08 pm
Microsoft and Yahoo deal gets stamp of approval
Competition in the search engine world is about to get steeper and it may result in better, faster searches for users under a new agreement with Microsoft and Yahoo.
The two companies received a green light last week from the Justice Department and the European Union for a search engine deal likely to increase competition with Google. Under the terms of the 10-year agreement, Microsoft's Bing will become the search engine on Yahoo websites. And Yahoo will, in turn, focus on core news, financial and sports properties and new ways to deliver Microsoft's search results to Yahoo users.
The Justice Department said in a statement that it's a good deal for the industry and won't harm Internet users or online publishers.
"U.S. market participants express support for the transaction and believe that combining the parties' technology would be likely to increase competition by creating a more viable competitive alternative to Google, the firm that now dominates these markets," the Justice Department said.
What does it mean for your bottom line? Probably not much. But it may mean a great deal for your business practices as you rely on search engines to develop business and keep your operations humming.
For more on the Microsoft-Yahoo deal:
- see this eWeek.com article
- see this Wall Street Journal article
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Posted on 20 February 2010 | 12:27 pm
75,000 computers hacked
In one of the largest and most sophisticated cyberattacks to date, a Northern Virginia security firm has identified attacks on 75,000 computer systems at nearly 2,500 companies around the world.
NetWitness, the security firm, says the attacks began in late 2008 and were only discovered last month. Targets included proprietary corporate data, emails, credit-card transaction data and login credentials. Companies were targeted in the health and technology industries in 196 countries.
Amit Yoran, NetWitness's chief executive, said news of the attacks underscore that most companies are unable to defend themselves.
"The traditional security approaches of intrusion-detection systems and anti-virus software are by definition inadequate for these types of sophisticated threats," Yoran said. "The things that we--industry--have been doing for the past 20 years are ineffective with attacks like this. That's the story."
The Wall Street Journal features a graphic to outline how the attack spread and what countries were effected. The damage is still being assessed by NetWitness, but the disclosure of the hack attack raises new questions about how much protection companies really have and what measures they can take to heighten the security against attacks.
Yoron said the attack was spotted when a NetWitness engineer spotted the scheme when he was installing technology for a large corporation to hunt for cyberattacks.
The full list of companies attacked was not revealed. But a partial list includes the following: Merck, Cardinal Health, Paramount and Juniper Networks.
For more on these attacks:
- see the Washington Post article
- see this Wall Street Journal article
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Posted on 20 February 2010 | 9:42 am
Hackers fix Microsoft security patch BSOD problem
Remember the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) crashes experienced by some users after installing Microsoft's security patch released on patch Tuesday? In case you missed it, Microsoft has since confirmed that the root cause is likely to be an elusive piece of malware called a rootkit.
Well, the authors of the implicated TDL3 rootkit have apparently updated their software so that the BSOD no longer occurs. And it's not because the hackers experienced a sudden bout of guilt from their conscience either. As noted by The Inquirer, "Rootkits are designed to evade detection, so a BSOD on a hacked PC lets the user know that their PC was infected, making it likely they'll clean it up."
Now is that one less problem, or one more problem to worry about?
For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Inquirer
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Posted on 19 February 2010 | 6:20 am
WordPress outage takes down 10 million blogs
A massive outage at WordPress.com saw more than 10 million sites being put offline for 110 minutes on Thursday. According to the official WordPress blog, this is the company's worst downtime in four years and translates to a staggering 5.5 million pageviews.
The downtime was due to an "unscheduled change to a core router by one of our datacenter providers" explained WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. This "messed up our network in a way we haven't experienced before, and broke the site. It also broke all the mechanisms for failover between our locations in San Antonio and Chicago." Mullenweg assured users that no data was lost.
WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform in the world, and WordPress hosts many highly trafficked web properties such as TechCrunch and most sites in the GigaOm network. The outage does not affect the substantial base of servers running on the free WordPress blog software.
For more on this story:
- check out this blog at WordPress.com
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Cisco bumps HP from reseller program
Network giant Cisco has informed Hewlett-Packard (HP) that it will not be renewing the latter's system integrator contract when it expires at the end of April. As such, HP will no longer be commissioned as a channel or global service partner, and will not be eligible for rebates and other incentives.
This caps off a year in which both companies have increasingly encroached on each other's product lines. For example, Cisco last year unveiled a server system to push a new Unified Computing System that competed directly with HP. On the other hand, HP went acquired rival networking company 3Com in November.
In a video statement, Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of Cisco's Worldwide Partner Organization summed up the reason HP was dropped, "Being a Cisco Certified Channel Partner has numerous benefits, including access to proprietary information, such as product road maps and partner profitability initiatives. Given the evolution of our relationship, it simply no longer makes sense to provide these benefits to HP."
For more on this story:
- check out the article at eWeek
- check out the article at The Wall Street Journal
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Posted on 19 February 2010 | 6:18 am
Hunting down enterprise mobility at Mobile World Congress
Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world's largest wireless trade show, has never been explicitly about business mobility and never will be. In the past, trying to unearth events, announcements and activities from the show that will directly impact enterprise mobility was like trying to find a needle in a haystack--or at least like searching for an enterprise application among the thousands in Apple's iPhone App Store. With that in mind, there were some announcements that had some direct implications for business mobility, and others that will more subtly impact the segment. Three key themes emerged from the show that will continue to influence enterprise mobility: The continued consumerization of the enterprise, especially in the smartphone market; the emergence of 4G and implications for new business applications; and the expansion of M2M business models to unearth the transformative power of mobility for enterprises.
RIM and Microsoft both acknowledge the increasing consumer influence in the enterprise
RIM announced its BES Express server offering at MWC, which requires no server or client access license (CAL) fees. It is essentially freeware to connect BlackBerry devices to Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. BES Express is a scaled-back version of the company's traditional BES product, offering a reduced number of IT policies (35-plus versus more than 450 for BES) and without some additional capabilities, such as over-the-air BlackBerry activation, support for mobile voice service and enterprise messaging and collaboration add-ons.
Why this approach? BES Express serves two purposes for RIM. First, it is an acknowledgment that while many businesses don't require the robustness that traditional BES offers, they may still want a manageable and secure platform to connect smartphones. Second, it acts as a competitive response to "free" connectivity solutions available in the market, most notably Microsoft ActiveSync, which allows several smartphone OSs outside of Windows Mobile (iPhone, Nokia E series, etc.) to connect with Exchange. RIM is essentially removing cost as a barrier to entry for companies that haven't deployed BES but want to support BlackBerry.
Perhaps more importantly, however, RIM is hoping to capitalize on the increasing consumer penetration of BlackBerry and BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) offerings. With BES Express, users no longer need a BlackBerry Enterprise service plan from their wireless operator, but can instead use their existing BIS plan to connect to corporate email. RIM's hope is that this will encourage companies that already have BES deployments for corporate-liable BlackBerry smartphones to use BES Express to expand corporate email support to employees who want to bring their own, individually purchased BlackBerry to work.
In one of the most anticipated, and therefore least surprising announcements, Microsoft unveiled its plans for Windows Phone 7, it's latest iteration of its smartphone OS (or the artist formerly known as Windows Mobile). While there is still much unknown about what Windows Phone 7 will look like and offer OEMs and developers, this much is clear: Microsoft is willing to break from the past to offer an OS and user interface that will likely more closely resemble offerings from Apple, Palm and Android than previous iterations of Windows Mobile.
What are the implications for the enterprise? First, Windows Phone 7 will likely be positioned not as a mobilized version of the Windows desktop OS, but more of pure mobile OS. This is a good thing for Microsoft: It is finally acknowledging that mobile is different from the desktop world and needs to be architected from a mobile-centric point of view. It may be bad for both developers and enterprises in the short-term, however, as it appears many applications developed for Windows Mobile may not be easily ported to Windows Phone 7.
With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is shifting its approach to the smartphone market and clearly acknowledging the growing consumer influence on smartphone purchasing. In the past, Microsoft had counted on its presence within the business market and its sway among IT decision-makers to grow its mobile OS market share. It continues to lose ground in the enterprise market, however, to RIM and Apple iPhone.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 10:36 am
Verizon touts progress on LTE network
Verizon Wireless, which is expected to be the first mover in the United States when it comes to deploying the next generation of mobile technology--Long Term Evolution (LTE)--said its network tests in Boston and Seattle are producing download speeds between 40 Mbps and 50 Mbps.
Upload speeds are coming in at between 20 Mbps and 25 Mbps, although the company maintains that the network will be able to generate average downlink speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and average upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps.
Verizon plans to launch 25-30 commercial LTE markets this year, covering around 100 million people. Next year the carrier plans to double that number of markets.
In an interview with Network World, Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone said the carrier is "going to be aggressive in our plan to get to critical mass" in LTE. He also said that, as the company fills out its LTE network, it will bring the LTE service to places where it does not have 3G coverage today.
For more:
- see this release
- see this Phone Scoop article
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Posted on 10 March 2010 | 9:12 am
AT&T details 3G investments
AT&T Mobility issued a flurry of press releases that detail some of its planned 3G investments for 2010 in various markets across the US, as part of its plan to spend $18 billion to $19 billion on wireline and wireless capital investment this year.
In New York City, a region of particular concern given the volume of users, AT&T said it plans to add nearly 40 new cell sites and upgrade another 70 sites to 3G. The operator noted it spent nearly $290 million on capital expenses in the New York metro area in 2009.
"Wireless data traffic on the AT&T network has grown more than 5,000 percent over the past three years, largely attributed to today's advanced smartphones that are generating dramatically increasing volumes of network traffic," AT&T said in a release. "In fact, roughly 40 percent of AT&T's postpaid base uses a smartphone today, representing twice the number of smartphone customers than any other U.S. provider."
Other markets on tap for 3G investments include: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alabama and New Jersey.
For more:
- see the AT&T press releases
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Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:47 am
Sybase teams with Orange Business Services on mobile device management for multinational companies
Sybase announced that Orange Business Services will manage Sybase's mobile device platform in a move designed to extend the company's mobile device management services into the global enterprise market.
While Orange Business Services manages the world's largest telecom network that spans 220 countries and territories, the service will be device and operator agnostic. Sybase said its platform, running on Orange's network, will enable enterprises requiring cross-operator and cross-device management to address both large mobile fleet demands and a growing number of workers bringing their own devices into the enterprise, Sybase said.
Current Analysis analyst Kathryn Weldon noted that all major operators have either already introduced or will soon announce a variety of managed mobility services as a way to generate recurring value-added revenue from multi-national corporations. "These customers are starting to deploy mobile business applications but have been stymied by the complexity of dealing with multiple carrier relationships and a multitude of device/OS types, as well as the lack of control and security associated with these deployments," she said in a research note.
For more:
- see this InformationWeek article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:40 pm
AT&T intros first Android device, blocks non-market apps
AT&T has introduced its first Android-powered device, the Motorola Backflip smartphone, and it is reportedly preventing subscribers from installing non-Android Market apps from unknown sources, unlike previous Android devices from other US operators.
Other Android devices from AT&T's competitors have included support for non-market apps as a default option--something that is seen as an advantage over Apple's iPhone. As of press time, AT&T had not responded to sister publication FierceMobileContent's request to clarify the decision. According to the xda-developers Forum, developers and subscribers can work around the Backflip lockdown by installing the latest Android SDK and enabling the USB debugging option.
AT&T has also gone its own way by making Yahoo the default mobile search engine on the Backflip rather than Google.
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- read this FierceMobileContent article
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 pm
SAP and Sybase announce two mobile enterprise solutions for iPhone, WinMo
SAP and Sybase have partnered to push two applications for mobile workers looking to use their smartphones to conduct specific business processes. The two products are Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM, which gives traveling workers access to SAP CRM 2007 through either an iPhone or Windows Mobile smartphone, and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite, which allows business processes such as workflow alerts, time recording and travel requests to be filtered through a secure email inbox. Article
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 9:38 pm
Twisted Pair turns BlackBerry phones into push-to-talk devices
Twisted Pair has introduced an application that turns BlackBerry smartphones into push-to-talk devices.
Using its IP-based WAVE 5.0 group communications software platform, which has been engineered to connect disparate communications networks, Twisted Pair is enabling BlackBerry users to "tune" their mobile devices to a WAVE-supported radio channel, enabling a PTT experience. The solution, called Mobile Communicator for BlackBerry, is aimed at government workers, those in surveillance and intelligence, hotel and warehouse workers who don't require a ruggedized handset but have a need for PTT capabilities.
"As the capabilities of smartphone devices have advanced, our customers and partners have asked us to extend the WAVE software technology platform to better leverage the utility and cost-advantages of these devices, " said Tom Guthrie, president and CEO of Twisted Pair in a press release. "With WAVE 5.0, we've responded with a platform that allows users to securely extend the scope of their legacy radio systems with WAVE smartphone clients. This enables our partners to develop a wide variety of clients as enhancements to their WAVE-powered products and solutions."
Mobile Communicator for BlackBerry uses WAVE Thin Client technology to create a new architecture for radio communications across cellular and WiFi networks, the company said. It can be used to communicate on a WAVE channel in the same way as other WAVE endpoints--meaning, similar to a two-way radio as part of a larger radio network, the company said. It can also be used to make secure, point-to-point calls between two devices across any network, regardless of whether that user is in or off a radio network grid.
The solution consists of the WAVE engine that is hosted on an enterprise's IP server and a thin client. Additional smartphone applications are being designed and will be available for use on the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and others by Twisted Pair and its ecosystem of partners, the company said.
For more:
- see this release
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 9:32 pm
Report: More than 130M enterprise users in mobile cloud by 2014
A new Juniper Research report found that the number of enterprise customers using mobile cloud-based applications will increase to more than 130 million by 2014.
Platform as a service (PaaS) deployments from companies such as Google and Microsoft are expected to be the catalyst for growth. Juniper Research found that the market for connected enterprise applications benefits from Apple's iPhone and App Store as the number of enterprise apps available to end users grew significantly.
In addition, Juniper's Mobile Cloud Applications research has found that as cloud providers open up their APIs for application developers looking to build browser-based or thin-client applications, a bigger opportunity and incentive is created for developers looking to drive down costs associated with porting applications across multiple platforms.
"A cloud-based ecosystem for enterprise apps will be attractive both for developers and enterprises alike. For developers, cloud opens up a far wider potential audience for their products; for enterprise customers, outsourcing application management to a remote third-party, costed on a scalable, pay-per-use basis, offers far more flexibility combined with a significant reduction in capital expenditure," said report author Dr. Windsor Holden.
For more:
- check out this Mobile Europe article
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 12:37 am
Cisco announces 'Security without Borders' solution
Cisco announced a new architecture designed to help business users securely access information from any device and location.
The Cisco Secure Borderless Network architecture focuses on four anchors: mobile and fixed enterprise endpoints, the Internet edge, the data center and policy that is context- and location-aware.
As the first proof point of the architecture, Cisco is releasing the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility solution and expanding Cisco TrustSec to provide businesses with identity and granular control over policy to maximize persistent security and protection. AnyConnect Secure Mobility, slated for release in the second quarter, features automatic security gateway protection, network detection and secure application access for both managed and unmanaged devices.
Future plans call for extending the AnyConnect Secure Mobility solution to include hybrid enforcement delivered through the Cisco IronPort S-Series appliances and cloud-based security delivered through Cisco ScanSafe. By combining the endpoint, the network and the cloud within one solution, Cisco said it will provide significant flexibility and scalability for enterprises.
For more:
- see this release
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Posted on 3 March 2010 | 12:04 am
Analyst: Businesses should use iPhone as model for IT
As the consumerization of the enterprise continues, one industry analyst believes businesses need to use the iPhone as a model for IT. Capgemini's CTO Andy Mullholland, speaking at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, said that business users will demand do-it-yourself cloud services from their IT departments. "People have chosen to use the iPhone because they can choose exactly what services they want...they don't have to call IT for it," he said in an article from IT Pro. "Multiply that model up and what you have is a cloud services model for IT to use as an open model. Article
Posted on 2 March 2010 | 10:23 pm
Sybase delivers SAP functionality to smartphones
Sybase and SAP have introduced a business process tool that could help alleviate the headaches IT departments face as employees continue to bring their personal devices into the workplace through the back door.
The two companies have introduced a business process tool for iPhones, Windows Mobile devices and Nokia Series 60 phones along with customer relationship management (CRM) software for iPhone and Windows Mobile. An Android version may be introduced later.
The Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite and Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM are designed to enable employees to access business processes on their personal devices without having to log into a VPN. Moreover, the applications operator is in an enterprise "sandbox" that is separated from an employee's personal applications on the phone to ensure security. Once a user has logged into the sandbox, he cannot use personal applications until logging out.
Sybase Mobile Workflow incorporates an interface that resembles an email interface to present tasks that need to completed. The software works with any task or work flow in SAP's Universal Worklist, which includes supply chain, human resources and accounting.
For more:
- check out this ComputerWorld article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 9:56 pm
Apple files patent infringement suit against HTC
Apple has filed suit against HTC, claiming the smartphone maker is infringing on 20 of its patents pertaining to the iPhone's user interface, architecture and hardware.
Apple has taken its complaint to both the U.S. International Trade Commission and U.S. District Court in Delaware. Apple CEO Steve Jobs issued these fighting words: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
HTC makes a range of smartphones, including Google's Android-based Nexus One. In a response, HTC said that it "values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations."
At press time, HTC said it had learned of Apple's move via media reports and therefore wasn't going to comment until it could investigate the filings.
Apple is current involved in a patent dispute with Nokia. Last month, the ITC said it will investigate Apple's patent-infringement claims against Nokia. The decision came roughly three weeks after the ITC said it would investigate Nokia's own patent-infringement claims against Apple to determine whether imports of Apple devices should be banned.
For more:
- read this release
- see the filing via AllThingsD
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Apple may add gesture technology to iPhone
A Morgan Stanley analyst believes Apple may add gesture technology to its next iteration of the iPhone this summer.
Rumors of gesture-based technology ending up in iPhones are new, but Huberty is likely referring to recent patent filings from Apple that seem to indicate advances in usability, such as a touch-sensitive bezel designed to turn the outer edges of a device into a controller of sorts for applications. Other possibilities include a camera-based swipe technology to give users another way to control applications.
"We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology," Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote in a research note. "As we've highlighted in the past, the cost of device plus service plan is currently the biggest barrier to incremental demand in both mature markets like the U.S. and emerging markets like China."
For more:
- take a look at this AllThingsD blog post
- read this CNet article
- see this Dow Jones Newswires article
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Posted on 2 March 2010 | 1:17 pm
New test puts AT&T's 3G network on top
The results of PC World's latest 13-market 3G network performance test indicates AT&T's network has improved dramatically since the magazine, in conjunction with testing partner Navarum, conducted the same test last spring. AT&T's 3G network was under fire in 2009 after users began complaining of dropped calls and data sessions. AT&T admitted that it was struggling a bit under the heavy data load brought on by the iPhone, but has been working to improve the network.
Testers recorded one of the lowest average download speeds on AT&T's network eight months ago, lagging behind T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint in many areas. This year's test, however, indicated AT&T's download speeds were 67 percent faster on average than the network speeds of Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.
While AT&T's network reported an average download speed of 818 kbps across 13 states this past spring, the new tests conducted in December 2009 and January 2010 show AT&T's average download speed increased to 1410 kbps. In New York City and San Francisco--two markets that have come under fire for connection problems--AT&T recorded significantly enhanced data speeds. New York saw download speeds three times faster than tests last spring, while San Francisco recorded speeds 40 percent faster.
Data network reliability also increased for AT&T, with testers reporting that they got a usable broadband connection 94 percent of the time compared with 68 percent of the time last spring.
In all, AT&T delivered significantly faster data speeds and better reliability than Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile.
For more:
- take a look at this PC World article
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Posted on 23 February 2010 | 9:00 pm
Study: Email addiction causes employees to engage in inappropriate and risky behavior
A new study from Osterman Research says email addictions cause employees to engage in risky or inappropriate behavior.
The firm's second annual "Mobile Messaging Study" polled employees at businesses to learn about their email habits and found that 95 percent of those surveyed check their business email outside of work, 78 percent checked email while in the bathroom and 11 percent said they looked at email during "intimate moments." (We can only guess what that means.) The risky behavior Osterman refers to is driving while texting as 76 percent polled admitted to doing this.
According to the report, this constant need to check work email shows that many employees feel like they are supposed to always be on the job.
"As email has become integrated into mission-critical business processes, employees are feeling extraordinary pressure to be constantly available," Osterman Research President Michael Osterman said in a statement. "In fact, this year's study finds that employees rely so heavily on mobile email availability that if service went down, even for an hour, 85 percent of respondents indicated that it would impact their business work flow."
Some information the firm found: About 94 percent of those surveyed check work email at night. Nearly 80 percent said they bring their mobile devices that can access work email with them on vacation, and 33 percent revealed that they hid from family and friends while on vacation just to check email. Inappropriate behavior comes into play when people check up on email at weddings (20 percent admitted to doing this) and funerals (15 percent admitted to this).
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- check out this CNET article
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Posted on 23 February 2010 | 8:17 pm
Motorola open to using Windows Phone 7
Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola, which has appeared to put all of the company's efforts into the Google Android OS camp, told the Wall Street Journal that he is open to the company building smartphones running on the new Windows Phone 7 system Microsoft introduced last week.
"I'm open to it," Jha told the publication. "I think I need diversity in our portfolio."
Windows Phone 7 is a radical departure from Windows Mobile 6.5 as Microsoft is aiming to regain lost market share and catch up with the iPhone and Android devices. Motorola was once a significant manufacturer of Microsoft OS devices. The new Windows Phone 7 OS sports features such as a Zune-based HD interface and real-time connectivity that is accomplished via "tiles" and "hubs" for actions and connections, eliminating the need for multiple clicking.
For more:
- check out this eWeek article
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Posted on 23 February 2010 | 7:47 pm
Gartner: Smart wireless usage policies translate into savings
By establishing well-thought-out wireless usage policies, enterprises can save anywhere between 10 percent and 35 percent on wireless costs, according to a new report from Gartner.
The firm said policies are an important way of managing complex services. That complexity comes as companies move from individual-liability wireless plans to corporate-liability plans that combine voice and data services. Gartner estimates that some 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies are expected to move wireless plans in that direction by 2014. However, many enterprises currently do not have complete wireless policies in place even though there is an increasing need spurred by swift mobile adoption.
Phil Redman, research vice president with Gartner, explained in a statement that these incomplete policies have come about because employees are tending to bring their mobile devices in "through the back door." Redman recommends that corporations create a policy that encompasses all of IT, not just certain groups such as networking or telecom.
"A good method to ensure a strong policy is to incorporate a centralized team across IT that will be impacted by mobile and wireless decisions," said Redman. "Wireless policies don't have to be large documents. Often the best, most-read and most widely adopted policies are brief and to the point."
Gartner offers 12 guidelines for helping companies to establish policies. These include: Determining who should receive a subsidized service; figuring out what devices the enterprise will support that includes a listing of "which devices they will not permit into the enterprise due to cost or security issues;" and determining technical support, security and procurement procedures. When it comes to individual versus corporate-liable devices, Gartner supports the latter and recommends that enterprises negotiate services and assume fiscal responsibility for the user.
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- see this eWeek article
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Posted on 23 February 2010 | 2:11 pm
SOUND OFF: What Windows Phone 7 means for the enterprise
It's official, Windows Phone 7 will be the next mobile operating system from Microsoft. The news broke last week and many are anxious to see whether or not it will be an appropriate chassis for the enterprise. Unfortunately, you will have to temper your anticipation a bit; the platform will not be released until the end of 2010.
So what does this mean for CIOs, as they plan their mobility strategy for the remainder of 2010? FierceMobileIT asked several industry experts: What impact will Windows Phone 7 have on the enterprise?
Sean Ryan, Research Analyst, Mobile Enterprise for IDC
"Windows Phone 7 may work well in an enterprise setting; however, it is much more consumer-oriented than many were expecting. It definitely has more of an iPhone or Google Android feel. This release is in line with a greater trend we're seeing toward the consumerization of the enterprise. Rather than being an issued platform, it is more likely that Windows Phone 7 will be coming in through the back door--most likely by execs."
"Many times higher ups in the enterprise want to use something of an 'uberdevice' that allows them to toggle from their personal interests to work at any time. They also want to be able to change devices at anytime. Microsoft likely had this in mind with Windows Phone 7. Microsoft wanted to make sure it would be a top contender when it comes to consumer choice so that execs could introduce it in the enterprise. SharePoint and Windows integration are obviously bonuses."
"Some enterprises may be left with question marks around how consumery the features are--maybe they don't want workers accessing XBox. There may be room for customization in this area and access restrictions to certain features. When these are introduced through the back door it does put the IT department in a tough spot, as far as integrating, managing, controlling and supporting these devices. There could be a few surprises as this happens, as well. I think there will be some issues in dealing with WinMo 6.5. Applications that enterprises may have used will not necessarily be compatible with Windows Phone 7."
Sean Ryan is a worldwide research analyst within IDC's Mobile Enterprise group. In this position, he provides coverage of mobile enterprise software and device technologies for the enterprise and mobile ecosystem providers. His primary focus is on mobile software markets including mobile infrastructure software, mobile middleware, mobile enterprise applications, and mobile device management.
Fritz Nelson, Executive Producer, TechWebTV and VP, Editorial Director, InformationWeek
"The race for mobile dominance in the enterprise is entering stage two, with the first stage winner, Research In Motion, still the early favorite. But the challengers are many (certainly Apple and Android will be players), which makes this exactly the right time for Microsoft to completely redo its offering. It's also a big risk, because developers are already scratching their heads about the never-ending march of new platforms. Microsoft will be a player just because it is Microsoft, but it's not enough to win, and right now we don't know enough about Windows Phone 7 Series to make an adequate prediction...But heck, that's never stopped anyone, has it?"
"The winning platform for stage two will have to steal a few ideas from RIM. It will have to be a manageable platform, and this could be a strength for Microsoft, at least compared to other platforms. It will have to make applications easy to deploy centrally. It will have to be secure, which hasn't always been Microsoft's biggest strength. And because most smartphones start at the executive level, they need to be extremely simple to use (early anecdotal feedback I've heard from Android users is that it is powerful, but a little too geared toward the geekier set). Microsoft can nail most of this."
"What RIM has failed to do is make application development easy enough; and that's where Apple and Android are starting to threaten its hegemony. Since Microsoft has been mum on the development front, there's not much to say here. But the importance of development isn't just about applications that are self-contained, it's also about applications that allow the smartphone to act as a client in a client/server architecture, and not just web-based apps. Most players haven't seemed to give it much thought here, and Microsoft is no exception. The entire Windows Phone 7 Series announcement focused only on the consumer aspects of its new platform, and my guess is that the enterprise is just one target buyer, and a lesser one at that."
Fritz Nelson is the executive producer of TechWebTV and editorial director for InformationWeek and the. Fritz writes about startups and established companies alike, but likes to exploit multiple forms of media into his writing.
Eric Zeman, Blogger, InformationWeek
"Right now it looks like Windows Phone 7 will have a minimal impact on the enterprise. It is a completely new platform and that makes it completely incompatible with any WinMo programs and apps that enterprises were using previously."
"Out of the gate it will support the basic, core Microsoft lines, including Exchange and Sharepoint. But that's about it. Enterprise adoption will probably be a little slow because of incompatibility with other programs."
"Microsoft is hosting a conference in March that will introduce the platform to developers. Everything's built on Silverlight and XNA--which is a gaming platform. We, as IT administrators, need to recognize what opportunities will be made possible, as far as enterprise features, with the use of these codes. We need to determine if this will be a good platform for what we want to do in the enterprise."
"At first, we will see the adoption of Windows Phone 7 is similar to the way iPhone entered the enterprise. Employees will be buying them on their own, with their own money and then they will attempt to link it in from the backend."
Eric Zeman is editor of mobile phone industry website Phonescoop.com. He also blogs about mobility for InformationWeek.
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Posted on 23 February 2010 | 11:14 am
Amazon.com intros e-reader app for BlackBerry devices
Amazon.com introduced new e-reader software that allows certain BlackBerry devices to access e-books.
Called the Kindle for BlackBerry, the free beta app is available for download from Amazon.com. Since Amazon.com introduced a Kindle app for the iPhone, BlackBerry users have asked for the same thing, said Amazon Kindle Vice President Ian Freed.
The software is compatible with the BlackBerry Bold, the Curve, Storm and Tour smartphones. The software uses Amazon.com's Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes a user's bookmarks across devices such as the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, PC and BlackBerrys.
The online retailer said BlackBerry users who download the free app will be able to access more than 420,000 Kindle books as well as download titles directly from the Amazon Kindle Store.
For more:
- see this Newsfactor.com article
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Posted on 21 February 2010 | 2:20 pm
Report: Worldwide mobile workers to exceed 1 billion by 2011
Research firm IDC predicts that some 1.2 billion workers will be using enterprise mobility tools by 2011, a number that represents about one third of the total workforce worldwide. The firm forecasts that the U.S. market will continue to lead in terms of the number of mobile workers. It predicts 75.5 percent of workers will be mobile by 2011. The European market is predicted to grow much slower, unable to surpass the United States in total mobile workers until at least 2013. Press release
Posted on 20 February 2010 | 11:50 pm
Intel, Nokia introduce MeeGo Linux-based OS
Nokia and Intel announced an open-sourced, Linux-based platform called MeeGo aimed at smartphones, netbooks and other communications devices.
MeeGo will merge with the Linux-based Maemo platform Nokia uses on its own N900 smartphone. The new platform is expected to launch in the second quarter. MeeGo won't replace the Symbian platform, Nokia said, but will use Symbian on lower-end devices.
The new OS combines the Intel-developed Moblin core and the user interface toolkit from Maemo, and it will support both Intel's Atom and ARM architectures. Previously, Nokia had been independently developing its Maemo platform, which has powered all its Internet tablets. Intel's Moblin has been designed primarily for netbooks. While the two Linux-based platforms have a lot in common, there are a number of technical differences that can be difficult to reconcile for developers.
Nokia is the only company that has said it will ship phones with MeeGo so far. However, more hardware partners and operators will announce support and product plans for MeeGo in the coming weeks, Intel said.
For more:
- see this TechWorld article
- check out this article at Ars Technica
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Posted on 17 February 2010 | 12:02 am
Adobe: Millions of iPhone customers have tried to download Flash
According to an Adobe blog post, some 7 million iPhone customers, as of December 2009, attempted to download Flash, which isn't enabled on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Seven million iPhone users have tried to download Flash according to an Adobe blog post. Mark Doherty, Flash platform evangelist at Adobe Systems focused on mobile and devices, said: "A little while ago I blogged about our new iPhone page at the Flash Player download center, the same site where hundreds of millions of users download and upgrade Flash every year. We were amazed by the numbers of hits received from iPhone OS devices, from users seeking the Flash Player to play back rich content from their favorite sites. Users that, before we created the special page, had no idea that Apple do not want them viewing the Internet as they see it today."
While these devices, including the recently announced iPad, don't support Flash, more than 85 percent of websites use Flash.
"It has now been reported that over seven million attempts were made by users to download the player by December 2009, that's up from three million attempts in June 2009," Doherty said on the FlashMobileBlog post.
Recently, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly called Flash buggy when he addressed employees and said that HTML5 would become the future of the Internet.
Meanwhile, Google announced that Android will offer full support for Adobe Systems' Flash 10.1 runtime. Palm also vowed to support Flash 10.1 on its webOS platform, and said Flash would be made available to its Pre and Pre Plus devices sometime this month.
For more:
- see this Macworld UK article
- read this FierceMobileContent article
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 11:42 pm
RIM introduces free version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server
Research In Motion introduced a new, free software platform for small- and medium-sized business users called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express.
The software, which will be available next month, provides access to corporate email, calendar and contacts, but offers 35 IT policies along with the existing security of a full BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. The platform is designed to run on an existing Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server for up to 75 users. A separate server can run the free software for up to 2,000 users.
Other features include the ability to manage and search email folders, book meetings and appointments, check availability and forward calendar attachments. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be edited using RIM's Documents To Go software. The Enterprise Server Express can also run on its own server or on the same physical or virtual server as the Microsoft mail server.
Current Analysis analyst Kathryn Weldon said the move was a positive one: "...This provides the company with a beautifully cost-effective story for SMBs, a market in which it has been trying to make significant inroads. By providing a very trimmed-down version of BES (with many fewer yet still critical centralized IT capabilities, policy settings, and security measures), RIM may finally crack the code on how to draw this segment. As Windows Mobile, iPhone, and any ActiveSync-connected devices do not require a separate and expensive server beyond the Exchange server, and BES always did, RIM had long suffered from the reputation of being too expensive compared to competitive solutions."
For more:
- check out this InformationWeek article
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 10:16 pm
Microsoft's Ballmer: No interest in buying RIM
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company is not looking to merge or acquire another large handset maker, such as BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. He said the software company is "doing well" with the partnerships it has. "I don't see the big boys in this market as very ripe for mergers and acquisitions," Ballmer said in an interview in Barcelona, Spain, today. "One day, maybe somebody in some place with a lot of money wakes up and changes it, but that's not me and that's not today." Article
Posted on 16 February 2010 | 9:54 pm
RIM announces enhanced web browser for BlackBerry devices
Research In Motion countered the criticism of the browsing experience on BlackBerry devices by releasing a new WebKit-based browser the device maker says will download files faster by making better use of mobile operators' networks and offer a better display of websites through full HTML rendering.
Analysts say the enhancement was critical as today's BlackBerry devices offer a poor browsing experience and enterprise users have begun to bring more consumer-oriented devices, such as the Apple iPhone.
In August, RIM acquired WebKit solutions developer Torch Mobile, the maker of the Iris web browser for mobile devices, to tackle the problem. This week RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that his company expects the new browser to attract a wider audience to the BlackBerry platform. No exact date has been set for the browser's release, although the company said late last year the enhanced browser would be available in early 2010.
Lazaridis also continued to push the notion that mobile applications need deep integration with BlackBerry devices. These "Super Apps" will be integrated with phone functions users consistently access, such as email. He demonstrated how users can view and send Twitter tweets from their inbox.
For more:
- see this release
- take a look at this Bloomberg article
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 1:49 pm
Verizon, Skype to launch Skype Mobile app for smartphones
In a move that would have been unheard of just a year ago, Verizon Wireless and VoIP provider Skype announced they will launch a custom Skype Mobile application for Verizon smartphones starting in March.
The application will be free and available to smartphone users that already subscribe to a voice and data plan. That means Verizon Skype Mobile app users will be able to connect with more than 500 million Skype users worldwide, the company said. That means enterprise users can save costs on international calls.
The application will initially be available on nine devices including the BlackBerry Storm and Storm 2, the Curve and the Tour as well as Android phones such as the Motorola Droid, the Droid Eris and the Motorola Devour.
During a press conference reported by sister publication FierceWireless at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer with Verizon Wireless, indicated the Skype Mobile app was developed solely for Verizon's network, and it won't allow VoIP calls over WiFi when smartphones are in WiFi mode.
Neither Stratton nor Skype CEO Josh Silverman would say whether the deal was exclusive, however Stratton said that users "won't see an application like this anywhere else in the U.S."
Just a year ago, Verizon Wireless was resistant to the idea of allowing applications and services that it didn't control onto it its network. Skype filed a petition with the FCC asking the commission to force operators to open their networks. Verizon has since been open to working with outside players such as Google.
AT&T Mobility and Apple were also criticized in the past for not allowing VoIP applications on the iPhone to run over the 3G networks. The apps were relegated to WiFi mode only. However, VoIP over 3G apps have now been approved, including Skype's.
For more:
- see this FierceWireless article
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 1:24 pm
Executives drive consumerization of mobility, but at high risks to the business
A few months ago in this column, I discussed how employees were pushing mobility forward on their own while IT was waiting on the sideline during the economic downturn. The message was that users were purchasing mobile technologies such as smartphones and wireless broadband cards on their own. The "consumerization" of enterprise technology is especially relevant for mobile technologies--devices are inherently personal, and the channels for acquiring wireless devices and services are largely consumer oriented.
A particularly interesting aspect of consumerization is that these technologies often work their way into the mainstream of enterprise IT. They slowly become accepted, and then adoption proliferates into the organization. Instead of happening behind the backs of IT leadership it often occurs directly under their noses. More frequently than not, business executives are the mobile workers who demand the latest "consumer" gadget for personal use. And IT administrators, reluctant to tell senior leadership what they can and cannot use, generally make an exception for executives.
We hear the tried-and-true anecdote of the executive who purchases an iPhone on his own over the weekend and then brings it to IT on Monday to have them set up his (or her) work email. But we can actually look at the most successful mobile business device for evidence of real consumerization at work. BlackBerrys were actually the first device to be pulled in through consumerization, with executives coveting this new, fancy email machine that other business execs were using across the aisle in the first class cabin. It just so happened that RIM capitalized on this trend by creating a platform (the BlackBerry Enterprise Server) that allowed IT to support devices at an enterprise-class level.
Yankee Group's 2009 Empowered Employee survey of mobile professionals captures the consumerization trend at work today. Not surprisingly, given their job requirements, executives are far more likely than non-executives to use mobile email (35 percent vs 24 percent), mobile broadband on laptops (32 percent vs 2 percent) and smartphone applications (20 percent vs 9 percent) than non-executives. For our analysis, we defined executives as those with a title of VP or above. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that executives also make much wider use of consumer tools for business purposes, such as consumer email (69 percent vs. 53 percent), consumer instant messaging (62 percent vs. 48 percent), and online travel services (41 percent vs. 25 percent).
What does this mean from an enterprise risk perspective? I recently spoke with IT managers at two organizations who told me similar stories of what I'm calling the "executive exception rule" for smartphones. One example concerned the use of iPhones. When describing his company's smartphone policies, he indicated that his IT department sanctioned both BlackBerrys and iPhones. Turns out, this was a half-truth. Ninety percent of corporate smartphones were BlackBerry devices, and these were the only devices truly supported within the official IT policy. The company made exceptions for executives wanting iPhones, but did not conduct a thorough analysis of the security and data management implications.
The other story involved a BlackBerry policy at a manufacturing company. In this case, IT policy was crystal clear: All users needed to use password protection on their devices. This is a sound, basic and fairly standard security policy for many businesses. However, the CEO found it cumbersome to enter his password when checking his BlackBerry. So an exception was made for one user. Of course, it happened to be the user whose device should have the greatest level of security and data management. The IT manager wasn't dumb, however. He clearly documented the risks of removing the password and made the CEO sign-off.
The moral of the story? If the CEO invokes the "executive exception rule", best to invoke one of the oldest standing corporate survival plans: CYA.
Eugene Signorini is a vice president of Yankee Group's Anywhere Enterprise research group with an expertise in applications and mobile solutions.
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Posted on 10 February 2010 | 7:14 am
Will Microsoft pursue an acquisition of RIM?
Microsoft, which has taken a beating as of late over its lagging WinMo platform, may be looking outside the company to help it catch up with the iPhone, Research in Motion and the various Android devices.
According to the blog AllThingsD, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has repeatedly talked about his interest in buying RIM, say the blog's multiple unnamed sources. The combo makes sense given both companies' strong presence in the enterprise market, but an acquisition would come with a hefty price tag given the fact that RIM comes with a $36-billion market cap. Reportedly, Ballmer doesn't want to tie up with Palm, which has been rumored to be a potential Microsoft acquisition target.
Microsoft is also reportedly continuing its development on its "Project Pink" multimedia touchscreen device, which is expected to be a Zune-like phone likely brought to market via an OEM partnership.
According to the AllThingsD blog, a team of Microsoft folks that includes some from Danger, the maker of the Sidekick that Microsoft purchased in 2008, is developing the device's hardware and software. The device is expected to be released later this year.
Next week Microsoft is expected to make a major smartphone-related announcement during the industry's annual Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
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- see this AllThingsD post
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Posted on 9 February 2010 | 11:08 pm
Study: Hospital wireless VoIP deployments fragmented
Wireless VoIP and unified communications are supposed to help facilitate better patient care in hospitals and home care but the deployment of these technologies has been stymied by a fragmented approach that can interfere with care, a new study from Spyglass Consulting Group said.
The firm, which is focused on healthcare IT, concluded that healthcare companies need to take an enterprise-wide approach to wireless equipment and mobile devices and involve nurses early on in the planning stages. Concerns about cost of deployments often results in deployments that are limited to certain hospital departments. As such, hospital nurses say about 71 percent of the wireless networks they deal with are poorly designed with coverage problems, interference and overloaded access points.
These results come from 100 in-depth interviews with nurses in home health and acute care facilities. Spyglass covered topics including existing workflow problems and inefficiencies in patient communication and other staff, how mobile devices are being used and the barriers to more widespread adoption of technologies.
For more:
- see this Network World article
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Posted on 9 February 2010 | 10:39 pm
Google reduces Nexus One equipment recovery fee, offers live support
Google has reduced the equipment recovery fee it charges for the Android HTC-made Nexus One smartphone from $350 to $150 and introduced a phone support line to answer questions from Nexus One customers--addressing two major criticisms of Google's foray into phone sales.
The lack of phone support has been an irritation for Nexus One users who had to communicate with Google via email to get their questions answered. Some customers reported being referred to HTC only to be told that Google could answer their questions.
Google had also come under criticism since it charged the $350 equipment recovery fee to those subsidized subscribers who cancel or downgrade their service plans after 14 days but within 120 days on top of the $175 early termination fee (ETF) charged by T-Mobile. Now subscribers must pay a $150 fee plus T-Mobile's ETF if they cancel or downgrade service in four months. However, upgrade customers will now be charged $50 by Google, instead of the original $25 fee.
"We've been working with T-Mobile to improve our customers' overall Nexus One experience through a reduction in the equipment recovery fee (ERF) associated with purchasing the Nexus One with a T-Mobile service plan," Google said in a statement. "Google's overall financial philosophy with regard to operator service plans remains unchanged: We make no profit from commissions from operators or from equipment recovery fees, and our recovery fees are based on operator charges to Google for early termination of service."
Meanwhile, mobile analytics firm Flurry estimates Google, which only sells the Nexus One online and spends next to nothing on marketing the device, sold around 80,000 Nexus One devices in January. Flurry derived its sales estimate from Nexus One owners' mobile application usage.
For more:
- read this PC Magazine article
- take a look at this Cnet article
- see this Dow Jones Newswires article (sub. req.)
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Posted on 8 February 2010 | 10:48 pm
Acer Android smartphone sales exceeding expectations
Newbie smartphone vendor Acer, the world's second largest computer maker, announced that sales of its touchscreen Android phone, called Liquid, have exceeded expectations. The company is experiencing shortages of the device.
Acer said it expects to ship at least 250,000 smartphones by the end of this quarter, compared with its previous expectation of 150,000 to 200,000 devices shipped. The phone features a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 5-megapixel camera.
Acer said it anticipates that all smartphone sales, including those running Microsoft Windows Mobile, to come in at between 2 million and 3 million this year, according to Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer in an interview with Bloomberg.
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- see this Bloomberg article
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Posted on 8 February 2010 | 10:22 pm
BlackBerry Curve best-selling smartphone in 4Q
The BlackBerry Curve was the best-selling smartphone in the fourth quarter, according to research firm IDC. The device beat out Apple's iPhone 3GS, despite the fact that Apple's iPhone sales grew 100 percent in its most recent quarter. Motorola's Droid came in third in the fourth quarter, amid Verizon Wireless' full-scale marketing effort. To see more top-selling smartphones, check out this special feature from FierceWireless here.
Posted on 8 February 2010 | 9:56 pm
Security researcher warns of iPhone vulnerability
Major security flaws exist in the Apple iPhone that could enable hackers and malware developers to create applications that steal users' information, according to a security researcher at the Black Hat conference last week in Washington, D.C.
"Overall security improves with each new iPhone version, but some basic security principles are still not correctly implemented, in particular the least-privilege principle, the deny-by-default principle and a recognition that it is dangerous for Apple to deny the existence of vulnerabilities," said Nicolas Seriot who wrote in a paper entitled iPhone Privacy.
Seriot wants Apple to acknowledge the problems and offer enhanced protection of the iPhone's cache files and create an outbound firewall to block the movement of stolen information. Until then, Seriot advises iPhone users to watch what they install on their devices, including third-party software from Apple's App Store.
"As a basic precaution, users should regularly clean the browser's recent searches and the keyboard cache in 'Settings'," he said.
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- see this V3.co.uk article
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Posted on 8 February 2010 | 9:44 am
AT&T bolstered by iPhone sales in 4Q
It was the fourth quarter that Verizon Wireless launched an aggressive ad campaign highlighting AT&T Mobility's more sparse 3G coverage. As such, folks wondered what impact those ads would have on AT&T's fourth-quarter results. It appeared unfazed.
AT&T said it it added 2.7 million net new wireless subscribers during the fourth quarter, which was the second highest quarterly gain in the company's history. iPhone subscribers continued to make up the bulk of those net adds. The company activated 3.1 million iPhone users in fourth quarter, and more than a third were new to AT&T.
Still, the issues surrounding AT&T Mobility's 3G network continue to be a focal point as executives spent much of the quarterly conference call talking about ways to improve it. AT&T said it will spend $18 billion to $19 billion on its network in 2010, more than the $17.3 billion it spent in 2009. As part of the increased capex, the operator will increase its spend on improving backhaul capacity.
AT&T Operations President and CEO John Stankey said that "wireless is our No. 1 investment priority." In particular, the company talked about two key markets that continue to experience problems: San Francisco and New York City. The company said it has added cell site controller capacity in its troubled markets. Now it is in the process of adding third and fourth radio network carriers to maximize capacity, Stankey said.
AT&T has previously announced that its network has the software necessary to deploy HSPA 7.2Mbps but lacks the backhaul capacity. That will happen over the course of this year and 2011.
"We anticipate that the majority of our mobile data traffic will be carried over the expanded fiber-based, HSPA 7.2-capable backhaul by the end of this year, with deployment continuing to expand in 2011," AT&T recently said in a release.
With Apple's latest device, the iPad, coming out many have been asking whether AT&T Mobility can handle the additional traffic. However, AT&T executives said the new Apple iPad is a different model for the company because it is not subsidizing the device and because customers will activate it online--thus, AT&T won't have the typical activation and billing costs. However, executives also said they believe iPad users will rely predominantly on Wi-Fi, and therefore it won't drain AT&T's 3G network. "We will monitor the usage as the device gets out there," said Rick Lindner, senior executive vice president and CFO at AT&T. "If it turns out substantially different, we will adapt."
Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless benefited from the strong momentum surrounding the Motorola Droid and other smartphones during the fourth quarter holiday buying season. The company added 2.2 million net new wireless subscribers, surpassing market expectations.
For more:
- see this ZDnet article
- read this FierceWireless article
- see this release
Posted on 2 February 2010 | 11:17 pm
Apple's Jobs disses Google Android
Attendees of an internal Apple company meeting CEO Steve Jobs held after unveiling the iPad tablet last week, say the CEO discounted the progress of Google's Android mobile platform and disparaged Adobe's Flash technology, which is not available on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
According to reports from Wired.com and Macrumors.com, Jobs said Apple will surpass Google with its own aggressive updates to the iPhone and noted that there are elements within Google, most likely those working on Android, that are seeking to "kill" the iPhone. Jobs also reportedly disparaged Google's "don't be evil" motto.
The chief executive also took aim at Adobe. Jobs reportedly said Flash is buggy and that the world is moving toward HTML5 technology, which will help render Flash obsolete.
For more:
- see this Wired article
- see this Macrumors.com post
- see this Daring Fireball post
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Posted on 2 February 2010 | 10:53 pm
Will Verizon Wireless get the Apple iPad after all?
Will Verizon Wireless get its hands on an Apple iPad yet?
Rumors had been building for months that the iPad would go to Verizon Wireless rather than long-time partner AT&T Mobility, but last week Apple stayed with its partner, selling the iPad on an unlocked basis. But the Verizon Wireless/iPad rumors live on.
This week, a report from Silicon Alley Insider, citing an unnamed Verizon source, said a Verizon/iPad deal is still in the works, and that Apple will announce the partnership later this year. Such a deal might be unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, an event that has, in the past, served as a launching pad for Apple's iPhone enhancements. Such a deal would require Apple to include CDMA technology into its products.
For more:
- see this Silicon Alley Insider article
- see this AppleInsider article
- see these photos
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Posted on 2 February 2010 | 10:38 pm
Sony Ericsson releases WinMo 6.5.3 device
Sony Ericsson released one of the first smartphones to run on version 6.5.3 of Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS called the Aspen, which is part of the company's more environmentally friendly devices. The device features both a QWERTY keyboard and a 2.4-inch touchscreen and includes a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and HSPA. WinMo 6.5.3 is supposed to feature improved web performance with faster web page downloading and is designed to be more suitable for touchscreen phones, Microsoft said. But Aspen buyers won't be able to take advantage of all of those improvements, since the smartphone has a resistive touchscreen that Sony Ericsson has not enabled for multitouch gestures. Article
Posted on 2 February 2010 | 10:15 pm
Nexus One gets multitouch capability
Google is addressing a few of the main complaints users have about the Nexus One smartphone, which is only available through Google online. It is adding a multitouch mechanism and a software fix to improve the well-documented 3G connectivity problems.
Google, which has been selling the phone for a month now, said it has started pushing a multitouch and other software updates over the air to Nexus One users this week. Users have complained about the lack of native multitouch utilities on the device. Now they are able to pinch-to-zoom on the device's core browser, gallery and Google Maps applications.
In addition, Google Maps is being updated to version 3.4, which will enable greater synchronization capabilities, personalized search suggestions and a night mode in Google Maps Navigation.
Regarding the 3G connectivity problems, Google said users will receive a downloadable message containing the fix. "This fix won't be immediate, rolling out gradually to phones over the course of a week," the search giant said.
Moreover, it appears Google might be looking to bolster its customer service. Currently, customers can only email their questions to Google, often receiving a reply in three days. But a new job post from Google is looking for a phone support program manager.
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-see this eWeek article
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Posted on 2 February 2010 | 9:37 pm
Agito announces enterprise VoIP on iPhone
Agito Networks announced the availability of Agito Global Enterprise, which includes the company's unified communications product, the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, to enable VoIP and UC applications over the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the BlackBerry Bold 9700.
The RoamAnywhere Mobility Router is designed to extend UC, PBX and deskphone features to mobile devices, while enabling handover between Wi-Fi, 3G and cellular networks to reduce costs for the enterprise, especially for international traveling, said the company.
Agito said the solution reduces the costs of international direct dialing, roaming and hidden overage charges and can move mobile calls away from Wi-Fi coverage to 3G cellular data networks which are paid as a flat rate rather than with voice minutes. The service also uses an automatic SSL-based Secure Remote Voice capability that requires no third-party VPN solution to secure the VoIP over 3G calls.
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Posted on 1 February 2010 | 5:33 pm
Combination of mobility, cloud and social media has power to transform enterprise
Mobility still represents a powerful emerging technology that many businesses are just beginning to deploy within their organizations. However, it's certainly not the only emerging technology evolving in parallel. Cloud computing and social media represent two other spheres of innovation for enterprises as we enter 2010 and beyond. More importantly, the combination of three powerful emerging technologies--cloud computing, application mobility and social media--has the potential to transform the way enterprises learn, innovate, and operate.
Ubiquitous connectivity and the creation of the Anywhere network is allowing enterprises to take advantage of these three emerging technologies. But there is still much left to be done. Business leaders must understand the benefits of using cloud, mobility and social media to drive productivity, efficiency, collaboration and innovation within their organizations.
Through our one-on-one discussion with enterprises, we uncovered that there are innovative businesses taking advantage of the emerging technologies of cloud computing, social media and mobility. However, companies such as these represent the early adopters of technology and aren't necessarily representative of the state of adoption as a whole. For a glimpse at this, we turned to our 2009 Transforming Infrastructure & Transforming Applications survey of business decision makers.
First, we looked at how far along companies were at some level of adoption of the three spheres of innovation. All three categories, cloud, social media and mobility, are broad areas of technology that companies can begin to take advantage of in many ways. So we chose three proxies for each category.
Yankee Group defines cloud computing as "scalable, virtualized information services provided on demand over the Internet with multitenant capability, service-level agreements (SLAs) and usage-based pricing." We also note that cloud services can manifest themselves in the form of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Since our previous report on the energized enterprise examined how cloud can impact business applications, we have focused on SaaS as our proxy here. According to our 2009 TI&TA Survey, 52 percent of firms have deployed some sort of SaaS solution within their organizations today.
In the case of social media, we looked at how firms were adopting social networking tools: 25 percent of companies report using social networking tools for employee collaboration and 23 percent report using social networking to connect with customers and partners.
Mobility adoption was far more widespread. As a proxy we examined the percentage of firms deploying at least wireless email on smartphone devices in their organizations--83 percent of firms reported doing so already. As an alternate view, we also examined how far along companies we adopting more advanced applications via smartphone. Mobile CRM/SFA led the charge among line-of-business applications, with 40 percent of firms saying they have deployed on some smartphones within their organization.
As we peel back the onion however, it does indeed get smaller. Forty-one percent of companies are deploying both SaaS and Mobility solutions. This shrinks further to 22 percent of enterprises deploying both social media and mobility. And only 16 percent of firms are deploying both SaaS and Social Media. Finally, the innovative firms beginning to energize the enterprise with all three--social media, SaaS and mobility--represent only 15 percent of all companies today.
Enterprises are only scratching the surface in adopting and deploying cloud computing, application mobility and social media in powerful combination. Part of this stems from IT budget constraints that are limiting investments in emerging technology. Part of this is a result of companies' struggling with understanding the value that these technologies bring to business improvement and innovation. The next year will represent a challenge for enterprises as they seek to harness mobility, cloud computing and social media to energize their organizations.
Eugene Signorini is a vice president of Yankee Group's Anywhere Enterprise research group with an expertise in applications and mobile solutions.
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Posted on 27 January 2010 | 8:16 am
Apple to unveil latest creation today
Apple's promise to show off its "latest creation" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco today has fueled a endless stream of rumors about the company's planned announcement. Everyone is downright giddy as Apple could very well introduce a tablet device complete with content specialized for that device along with a new version of its iPhone operating system and a possible iPhone distribution deal with Verizon Wireless.
Late yesterday, McGraw-Hill executive Terry McGraw told CNBC that indeed a tablet will be revealed today. "Yes, they'll make their announcement tomorrow on this one," said McGraw. "We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system."
McGraw said that 95 percent of McGraw-Hill's textbooks are in e-book format and therefore will be available on the new tablet.
"We have a consortium of e-books...and we have 95 percent of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you're going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific," he said.
Apple plans to unveil the new creation at 10 a.m. pacific time.
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Posted on 26 January 2010 | 8:31 pm
Survey says workers ruder thanks to mobile devices
Robert Half Technology has conducted a survey of 1,400 CIOs with 100 employees or more asking whether the proliferation of mobile electronic devices has increased rudeness in the workplace. Fifty-one percent said the trend does.
David Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, said the increase in rudeness results from these devices distracting employees.
"Although the rules of etiquette vary from business to business, it's always a good idea to give people you're collaborating with your undivided attention," Willmer said.
The firm cites five types of "breaches of workplace etiquette" relating to mobile devices in its survey: Those who email or text message during company meetings; workers that communicate primarily through email rather than face-to-face conversations; employees who talk loudly on their phones regardless of where they are; workers who walk around with their Bluetooth earpieces constantly attached to their heads; and employees who allow their phones to vibrate without turning them off during company meetings.
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Posted on 26 January 2010 | 7:40 pm
Apple: iPhone continues march into enterprise
Apple again reported significant progress of its popular iPhone smartphone in the enterprise sector when it reported its fiscal first-quarter revenue results on Monday.
Apple reported its all-time highest quarter in terms of revenue and profits, driven in part by the iPhone. Shipments of that device grew 100 percent year-on-year to 8.7 million from 4.4 million the previous year. Sales of the handset and its various accessories brought in revenues of $5.58 billion, up 90 percent from $2.94 billion a year earlier. Apple's overall revenue came in at $15.68 billion, while net profit jumped 50 percent to $3.8 billion. The iPhone contributed to 36 percent of Apple's total revenue in the quarter.
Apple COO Tim Cook said corporate usage of the iPhone has doubled since the release of the 3GS in the summer."This is a key focus of ours," he said.
About 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies are actively piloting or deploying iPhones, as is 50 percent of the FTSE 100, he said.
"Those are some pretty staggering numbers when you think that the time frame we've been in the business is only two and half years." Apple has also added sales staff to assist carrier staff in selling to the enterprise.
During the quarter, Apple added 17 new operator partners worldwide. Regarding the heat AT&T Mobility, Apple's exclusive operator in the United States, has taken over its network performance, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said Apple was confident the operator will make significant progress toward improving service after reviewing AT&T's plans.
Cook avoided answering any questions related to whether AT&T will remain the exclusive provider in the near future. Speculation is that Apple could unveil an iPhone that operates on Verizon Wireless' network, at today's press conference.
For more:
- see this Total Telecom article
- take a look at this Bloomberg article
- check out this GigaOm article
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Posted on 26 January 2010 | 7:14 pm
Motorola files patent complaint against RIM
Motorola has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against rival Research In Motion claiming the BlackBerry maker infringes on five of its patents. Motorola is seeking a ban on the sale of the products, but the vendor isn't revealing which models are infringing.
Motorola claims the patents are related to advances the vendor has made in certain technology areas such as WiFi access and application management. It wants the ITC to commence an investigation into RIM's use of the patents.
"In light of RIM's continued unlicensed use of Motorola's patents, RIM's use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation and RIM's refusal to design out Motorola's proprietary technology, Motorola has no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM's continued infringement," Jonathan Meyer, Motorola's senior vice president of intellectual property law, told Dow Jones Newswires.
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- see this Dow Jones Newswires article (sub. req.)
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Posted on 25 January 2010 | 1:35 pm
Research: ARM-based processors to dominate ultra-mobile device space
Intel processors may dominate now in the ultra-mobile device space, but market research firm ABI Research is forecasting that ARM-based devices will begin to outsell Intel-powered systems by 2013, primarily because of the demand for the "always connected" experience. Moreover, ARM-based chips are popping up in a number of form factors, including tablets. Article
Posted on 25 January 2010 | 1:19 pm
Verizon announces pricing for Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus
Verizon Wireless is pricing its first devices running on Palm's webOS platform, the Palm Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus, at the same price that Sprint Nextel sells the Pre and Pixi--$150 and $100, respectively, with a two-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate. Verizon also is offering a Pixi Plus for free after a mail-in rebate with the purchase of another Palm device, through Feb. 14.
The devices went on sale Monday. The two smartphones will feature a downloadable application that turns them into mobile WiFi hotspots that allow customers to connect up to five WiFi-enabled devices to Verizon's network. The service will cost $40 per month for 5 Gb and 5 cents per megabyte overage, in addition to a customer's monthly service costs. The pricing is in line with the carrier's MiFi device from Novatel, service for which also starts at $40 per month.
Aside from the mobile hotspot service, the Pixi Plus features the addition of WiFi and the Pre Plus has double the internal memory, from 8 GB to 16 GB.
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Posted on 22 January 2010 | 11:58 am
Customer relationship management should be part of the healthcare industry
One of the most compelling parts of working in the tech industry as an independent pundit is that you get to speak to a wide variety of vendors and have frank, candid conversations. The tone and depth of these conversations is such that, in all likelihood, they would not have them with others--particularly their competitors.
While I have the good fortune of being able to do so, on a nearly daily basis, I will admit to you that I sometimes feel as if I have an "unfair" advantage, especially when talking about enterprise mobility in the healthcare industry. My unfair advantage comes from the fact that my step father is the Medical Director for Non-Acute Care at a leading hospital network in the Boston area.
This past Sunday morning, I went to enjoy a cup of coffee at his home to see how his weekend was (he had been on call at the hospital all weekend). Our conversations span a wide range of topics, from politics, to pop culture, to the economy, religion and of course, healthcare. This time we broached the topic of patient-centric care and how mobility could improve that "business process."
Now, while it may seem "cold" to think of patient care as a business, the harsh realities of healthcare payments and reimbursements--especially in the United States--make it very much a business (a business that is quite happy to earn 1 percent to 2 percent net margins). Healthcare facilities are always struggling to find new ways of improving patient care and safety with very limited financial resources. This sounds to me like a classic case where mobility can help an organization improve the quality of its service, all while managing costs.
Specifically, I find many similarities in patient care with customer relationship management (CRM). Patients are always waiting. They're waiting in the emergency room, they're waiting to get an appointment with a doctor, they're waiting in the doctor's office and certainly waiting for test results. This creates stress for the "customer." While there is of course a higher level of stickiness in the relationship between a physician and patient, hospital administrators do still worry about "churn." So what can they do to alleviate some of that stress and churn?
I think there are two fundamental areas where healthcare systems could leverage a Patient Relationship Management (PRM) system. The first is in a "B2B" context and the second is in a "B2B2C" environment.
1. The B2B Context: There is an increasing trend within the healthcare industry to digitize medical records. This creates tremendous value for the medical system--patient records are only a computer screen away. Physicians' notes, order entries, lab work and the entire history of the patient are available in one central location. However, the healthcare provider must go to the information, as opposed to the information coming to them. IT solved this problem years ago with the advent of push email and mobile CRM, yet it has not arrived to healthcare. Imagine if as soon as lab results were entered into the electronic medical record, the system pushed out a notification to all relevant healthcare practitioners to their mobile device. Imagine then a scenario where that email provided a link that the medical professional could click that would either launch an application on their mobile or provide a link to a web-based application where they could see the results and then be able to share those results in real time with the patient. The time savings, and the improvements in the efficacy of care, should be pretty straight forward.
2. The B2B2C Context: As I mentioned earlier, one of the greatest points of fear and frustration in patient care is having to wait. What if there were an automated system that would provide real-time notifications to patients and their loved ones when new information was available? You're on your way to the doctor's office and you get a text message or an email saying that the doctor is running late, so you don't have to wait in the office another hour. The lab results have come in and the doctor can talk to you at 4:00pm today...or 10:00am tomorrow. This wouldn't necessarily be in violation of HIPAA regulations regarding patient confidentiality, because no information has been shared. However, there could theoretically also be a secure mobile portal where patients could log in to see what their lab results were.
Knowledge is power. For both healthcare providers and the recipients of that care. Conversely, the lack of knowledge creates fear, uncertainty and doubt. A better informed patient improves the quality of care and their satisfaction level with that care--regardless of the medical outcomes. My sense is Mobile Patient Relationship Management could help facilitate the quality and efficacy of that care.
Philippe Winthrop is a research director in Strategy Analytics' Global Wireless Practice. You can also find him on his blog www.enterprisemobilitymatters.com.
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Posted on 20 January 2010 | 8:36 am
Apple expected to release iPhone 4.0
Apple is hosting a highly anticipated media event on Jan. 27, where the company is expected to unveil its new tablet and the iPhone 4.0 operating system.
According to Boy Genius Report, which posted a supposed screen shot of an iPhone screen running on the new version, iPhone 4.0 will feature:
- Multi-touch gestures OS-wide
- Multitasking
- Enhanced navigation through the OS via many graphical and UI changes
- New synching ability for contacts and calendar applications
The update is reportedly available only for the iPhone 3G and 3GS.
For more:
- see this Boy Genius Report article
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Posted on 20 January 2010 | 1:12 am
Is Microsoft gearing up for own smartphone?
Is Microsoft following Google's path by partnering with a handset manufacturer and introducing its own smartphone based on the new Windows Mobile 7?
According to Jefferies & Company analyst Katherine Egbert, Microsoft is gearing up for a launch of such a device, previously rumored as the "Pink" phone project. "Our recent industry checks indicate Microsoft will be debuting its own phone sometime in the next two months," Egbert wrote. "We expect the new phone to debut soon, at either the Feb 15-18 Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Spain or possibly at CTIA in Las Vegas one month later."
According to Egbert, the device is "a Zune-like phone" that will likely be brought to market via an OEM partnership similar to the deal between Google and HTC that released the Nexus One. Egbert has no information about the price of the phone or what operators might carry it.
"Revenue from the phone is also very unlikely to be meaningful for many years," the analyst adds. "However, the new phone might explain why Microsoft has allowed WinMo to dwindle to [less than] 10 [percent] mobile OS market share. Pink would be the 'third screen' (after Windows and Xbox) and final component in Microsoft's '3 screens and a cloud' strategy."
For more:
- see this All Things Digital article
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Posted on 19 January 2010 | 11:28 pm
IBM unveils Lotus Notes apps for iPhone, Android
IBM introduced applications for Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platforms that allow users to read their encrypted Lotus Notes email.
IBM unveiled a free plug-in called Lotus Notes Traveler Companion for iPhone users while later this year it will begin offering the same product client for the Android platform, beginning with Google's Nexus One device.
The AppShopper site describes the client as this: "If you want a mobile alternative to reading Domino-encrypted mail on your laptop, then this is the application for you. Encrypted mail will appear in your inbox with only a unique, secure link for the Companion application. After entering your Lotus Notes Traveler password, the mail will be displayed on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and then upon exit will leave no decrypted mail on the device--ensuring the security of your most sensitive corporate data."
In related news, Research in Motion launched new BlackBerry software for several Lotus products designed to improve social networking and collaboration for mobile workers.
For more:
- see this eWeek article
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Posted on 19 January 2010 | 9:47 pm
See you at VoiceCon
Who's going to Orlando? In a few weeks, VoiceCon will be taking over the Gaylord Palms resort in Orlando, Florida to discuss the latest in VoIP and Unified Communications. The keynotes will feature speakers from Avaya, IBM, Siemens, Cisco, and Microsoft all discussing the evolution of IP communications.
Since 'what's next in IP communications' is the focus of FierceVoIP, we will be there to cover the event and discuss the latest solutions on display at the show. Do you have some big news planned for the show? Please send us an email and let's plan to talk. Embargoed press releases, meeting requests and any news you'd like to share before the show are all welcome. Look forward to seeing you all there in two weeks! -Mike
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 11:40 am
Digium signs distribution deal with Synnex
Digium is spreading its Asterisk-based phone system love further with a new deal with Synnex, a company with a network of 15,000 IT resellers. Synnex has a dedicated telephony group to provide unified communications solutions to resellers that service the small-to-medium sized business.
The partnership will get Digium's Switchvox business phone systems to resellers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The deal will allow Synnex resellers to offer Switchvox business phone systems, Asterisk Business Edition software, and digital and analog telephony cards. Digium's open source Asterisk software-based systems will provide an interesting alternative offering for the resellers' catalogs.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:51 am
XO and VoIP provider Vitelity team on IP backbone
Vitelity, a large VoIP network provider with more than 10,000 wholesale customers in 50 states is having XO Communications provide dedicated long-haul network connectivity between Denver and Los Angeles for its network. XO will also upgrade the network in the Denver-based company's hometown. Vitelity's move to upgrade its network speed with a 10 Gbps backbone is due in part to the Denver area's demand for VoIP and IP services increasing by nearly 800 percent in the past 3 years.
The 10 gig long-haul route between Denver and Los Angeles is Vitelity's first such connection with LA. The new network will connect the LA market with the the companies Denver-based data center and will offer customers high-capacity VoIP and data capabilities.
XO won the contract in a competive bidding process. Don MacNeil, vice president of XO Carrier Services Operations stated in a release that "Vitelity's continued relationship with XO speaks to the fact that we're dedicated to expanding the capabilities of our network so that we can quickly respond to customer demands with top-of-the-line products and services."
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:46 am
National Broadband Plan in trouble?
Ars Technica has a story about how the National Broadband Plan is getting dumped on. Look out towards the bottom for some tidbits on how the plan might benefit small VoIP providers... Article
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:05 am
Avaya intros updated UC for SMEs
A new version of Avaya's IP Office for small and medium enterprises (SME) has hit the market with some new unified communications (UC) offerings. The new features include advanced collaboration tools using voice, instant messaging, presence and video. The addition of video collaboration comes with the release of the IP Office Video Softphone application.
In addition to the new UC features, the Avaya IP Office 6.0 is easier to install and according to the company makes UC 40 percent cheaper for small enterprises. According to the release, some of the savings comes from Avaya IP Office being "available to this segment through a new 'combination card'--providing just a single card for what used to require several cards to support digital, analog and IP devices." Cutting down on equipment needs and pairing the combo card with the cost savings of UC, the new offering is sure to spur a few more SME's to join the UC migration trend.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 8 March 2010 | 9:39 am
Report: VoIP equipment Q4 results led by SBC sales
Although the service provider VoIP equipment market was down 28 percent in 2009, the industry's last quarter was led by the steady sales of session border controllers (SBC) says a new report from Infonetics, Q4 Service Provider VoIP Equipment and Subscribers. Q4 2009 was the third consecutive quarter of stable revenue.
Despite being down for the year, the revenue for the VoIP equipment market did show a comeback being up 2.7 percent over Q3 09. According to the release: "The migration to native IP sped up during the past 12 months due to the acceleration of TDM access line loss, resulting in significant declines in TDM-related equipment, particularly traditional trunk media gateways and softswitches."
The report noted four vendors who stood out for growing revenue in 2009 with Metaswitch pulling in sales from trunk media gateways and softswitches, Acme Packet providing SBCs, Radisys moving media servers, and BroadSoft dealing in voice application servers. The report also highlighted that GENBAND's takeover of Nortel's CVAS unit will spur new changes in the VoIP vendor landscape.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 8 March 2010 | 8:07 am
Skype for Nokia not available in U.S. Ovi store
Last week Skype announced they were officially launching a Skype app for Nokia phones, but the story turns out to be a little more complicated than that. According to Venture Beat, due to Skype's new deal with Verizon which will one day embed Skype on Verizon phones, the Symbian-based app will not be available for download in the U.S. via the Ovi store.
According to Venture Beat, Nokia spokespeople were caught off guard by Skype not releasing the U.S. version into the Ovi store. Skype later explained that they wanted to be able to draw more attention to their partnership with Verizon in the U.S. and if Nokia phone users wanted to use the Skype app, they could still download it from the Skype website.
The Nokia/Skype software is capable of running on 200 million Nokia mobile phones and plans are in the works to get the software running on other non-Nokia Symbian-based phones. The service offers free Skype-to-Skype calls anywhere in the world over WiFi and 3G.
For more:
- read the Venture Beat story
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Posted on 8 March 2010 | 7:42 am
Almost 300 million VoIP subs by 2013
In-Stat's latest report is getting some press as it announced that there will be 288 million VoIP subscribers by 2013 due to the growth of mobile VoIP. Check out this GigaOM post.
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 9:20 am
More UC at HIMSS: Cisco launches HealthPresence
Not to be outdone by Avaya, Cisco is also showcasing its Unified Communications (UC) healthcare offering at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference this week. True to form for a company that calls its telepresence offering 'Telepresence', their healthcare system is called HealthPresence.
The system combines Cisco's Telepresence with their Internet call center solutions and digital diagnostic devices and allows doctors and other healthcare providers to make consultations with patients via video conferencing. Patients will be able to provide doctors with various health indicators using a digital stethoscope, an ear-nose-throat camera, and a vital signs device--passing on blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, and blood oxygen levels information to caregivers. In addition, the system can also be linked to electronic health records so that doctors and patients can review health information and update records through the system.
For more:
- read this article
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 9:12 am
Skype officially on Nokia phones
A few weeks ago, Skype launched a Beta version of its software for Nokia phones. Now it's official. Skype has launched Skype for Symbian and it is now available for download at Nokia's Ovi app store.
The Skype software is capable of running on 200 million Nokia mobile phones and plans are in the works to get the software running on other non-Nokia Symbian-based phones.
The service offers free Skype-to-Skype calls anywhere in the world over WiFi and 3G. Users can get calls to their online numbers, share pictures and videos, and send instant messages to each other.
This last mobile move follows Skype's deal with Verizon to embed a seamless Skype application on certain phones in the carrier's lineup.
For more:
- see this article
- see Skype's explaination here
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 8:22 am
REDCOM completes SIP interoperability testing with Polycom phones
REDCOM Laboratories, a designer of digital and IP-enabled telecom systems, completed its Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) interoperability testing for their HDX and SLICE 2100 Carrier-Class 4/5 softswitches with a number of SoundPoint IP phones from telepresence solutions provider Polycom.
REDCOM was able to verify 100 percent integration between the Polycom VoIP phones and REDCOM's HDX and SLICE 2100 SIP platforms after thorough testing. REDCOM engineers assured commercial customers that the phones and call platforms could be deployed together problem-free--highlighting that despite SIP being a standard that promotes compatibility, testing is still important.
"SIP is supposed to be a standard that eliminates many of the challenges with integrating systems from different vendors, but interoperability is not something that can be assumed or taken for granted," said Gerald Totsline, Director of Engineering, REDCOM in a release. "SIP interoperability testing is a good method of verification to ensure that when two SIP-based solutions are actually deployed that they will work together flawlessly."
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 7:45 am
CDW tracking poll shows companies planning for UC future
CDW, a technology products and services company, has just posted the results of its second annual Unified Communications (UC) Tracking Poll. While it found that UC deployments remained steady from a year ago, companies with strategic plans to deploy UC were up 12 percent.
Today, 45 percent of IT executives surveyed have deployed presence technology compared to 37 percent in surveyed in 2009. Fifty four percent of those surveyed cited reduced operating costs as the top benefit seen from their UC deployment--followed by productivity and more reliable communications.
CDW surveyed 915 IT professionals who were actively exploring UC. The survey pool was divided up between various sectors: medium and large businesses, the federal government, state and local governments, healthcare, higher education and K-12 public schools.
For more:
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- get the report here
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 6:24 am
Bankruptcy courts approve Nortel CVAS sale to GENBAND
Nortel just got approval from the bankruptcy courts in the U.S. and Canada that they could go through with the sale of their Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) assets to GENBAND.
Apparently, the deal still requires the approval of Israeli courts. After that, the companies hope to work through the second quarter of 2010 to transfer the assets, products and customer accounts over to GENBAND.
According to the agreement, GENBAND will pay a purchase price of $282 million, subject to balance sheet and other adjustments currently estimated at approximately $100 million for a net purchase price of approximately $182 million. GENBAND launched a stalking bid for Nortel's CVAS unit in December 2009.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 5:50 am
VocalTec wins Russian contract
Israeli telecom equipment provider, VocalTec won a $1 million contract with a Russian Tier-1 operator to supply the core platform to deliver VoIP services to over 100,000 subscribers.
The deal with the unnamed operator will provide VocalTec's Essentra BAX Large-Scale Class-5 solution as the core platform for the delivery of Voice over IP subscriber services. The deal is only the first stage of deployment and the system is meant to be able to grow to support more users.
“This transaction reflects our ongoing penetration to the top-tier service provider community in Russia and reinforces our position as a global provider of VoIP and Convergence solutions. We look forward to implementing our solutions with this new customer and to expanding our relationship in the near future.” said Ido Gur, President and CEO of VocalTec Communications in a release.
For more:
- read this article
- read this release
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Posted on 1 March 2010 | 11:57 am
Nortel name to dissappear with sales?
Apparently with all the auctioning, Nortel's name was also up for sale but the buyers of its various pieces did not pick up the name. GENBAND's VP and CMO Mehmet Balos said it declined to buy the name. Article
Posted on 1 March 2010 | 11:38 am
Avaya introduces UC solution for healthcare providers
Sure its not an IP Communications conference, but that doesn't mean UC providers can't have fun at HIMSS too. At the healthcare conference today, Avaya announced unified communications products to make healthcare providers' patient care more efficient.
The four products announced are meant to help providers make processes run more smoothly and be more organized while increasing the quality of care:
- Mobile Device Checkout: Frees hospital and nursing staff from the nursing station allowing them to receive notifications and communication using a personal WLAN device from anywhere in the hospital. When devices are checked-out in the beginning of a shift they are given a specific phone number and can be tagged with identifiers like 'lead nurse' to make it easier for doctors to contact the right person for the job.
- Nurse Call Response: This solution is aimed at reducing nurse walk times and allowing patients to directly ping their nurses so that patients get faster care.
- Patient Appointment Reminder: This offering automates out-bound calls to patients to remind them of appointments, using a voice activated system for patients to confirm they will be coming and it allows them to reschedule through voice activated menus. This is aimed at reducing patient no-shows.
- Patient Admit Coordinator: This is a patient work-flow solution aimed at replacing the time hogging paper-based ER admittance process. The solution hopes to speed things up for admitting new patients, free up beds and avoid patient walk-outs.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 1 March 2010 | 11:28 am
TelCentris teams with Sandler Partners for reselling deal
News is starting to trickle out of Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Las Vegas and it looks like the creators of VoxOx have some VoIP news to share. TelCentris has a signed a Master Agent agreement with Sandler Partners, a telecommunications master agency, which will allow it to expand the reach of the company's IP communications products to 900 sub-agents nationwide.
"Partnering with Sandler is an exciting, strategic step for us that reinforces the strength of our growing Channel Partner Program, which we launched last fall," said Bryan Hertz, CEO of TelCentris in a release. Sandler will be reselling a number of TelCentris' products including hosted IP-PBX, SIP trunking, hosted contact center solutions and wholesale carrier services.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 1 March 2010 | 11:10 am
Samsung releases Skype TVs
So maybe it's just in Korea right now, but Skype-enabled TVs are now among us. Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series televisions include Internet connectivity and when combined with Samsungs' FREETALK TV Camera, couch potatoes and their friends can interact over Skype video calling.
Users will be able to send and receive voice calls as well as video calls using the service that makes use of Skype's SILK audio codecs enabling super-wideband audio quality. The TV-based Skype will work just like on the computer, with users setting up new accounts with their TV remote and having access to long distance landline calls at Skype's low rates.
Although currently only available in Korea, the TVs are slated for release to the rest of the world in the first half of 2010.
For more:
- read this release
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Posted on 1 March 2010 | 10:38 am
Sonus details future on Q4 earnings call
In an earings call on Friday, Sonus Networks shared some positive results for the year. Despite the down economy in 2009, Sonus announced that it was profitable on a non-GAAP basis and ended the year with over $414 million of cash and investments on their balance sheet.
Some highlights Sonus pointed out for 2009 were that they "won a multimillion dollar contract with a Fortune 50 customer that extends VoIP capabilities from within the enterprise to IP peering points at the carry edge", and they announced new customer relationships with service providers like Cox Communications, CITIC 1616, Hypercube and KDDI Global. They are also providing the IP voice network core for an American Tier 1 exchange carrier.
According to CEO Richard Nottenburg, the company will use 2010 to launch a new IP to IP platform and focus on four points:
- Create products that lead the industry in scale, performance and reliability for IP to IP session management targeted at service providers, enterprises, and channel distribution.
- Invest in creating solutions and ensure service continuity on broadband wireless networks and bring out solutions for Internet-based and carrier-hosted services to work in a fixed-mobile convergence environment.
- Use the platform to deliver solutions for policy based control of IP services and flows; empower service providers to create new services and controls; maximize returns on existing and new traffic investments.
- Continue to invest and extend the company's leadership in their other core products and service offerings.
For more:
- read the SeekingAlpha transcript of the call
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Posted on 1 March 2010 | 10:18 am
Skype drops its Windows Mobile app
Ok, ok. Don't freak out--it looks like this is just a step towards supporting the new Microsoft mobile operating system and not a move showing Skype is quiting MS-based phones altogether. Skype has pulled their app for Window Mobile, meaning new users will not be able to download it. Users with the software already installed will still be able to use it. According to GigaOm, it appears the reasons are that the software never quite achieved the best possible consistent user experience and Skype has grown tired of supporting it when they could be focusing on making a killer app for the Windows Phone 7 operating system.
"We felt that Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile were not offering the best possible Skype experience," reads the Skype for Windows Mobile FAQ.
For now mobile Skype enthusiasts will have to look toward Verizon with their latest Skype integration deal or the iPhone app that runs over WiFi. As with these apps, it seems Skype is very focused on ironing out all the kinks before releasing a product to ensure the best user experience. Perhaps with the previous Windows app, they didn't feel they were living up to this goal.
For more:
- read this blog post
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Posted on 25 February 2010 | 11:30 am
How much bandwidth do you need?
The FCC is trying to launch a national broadband push and the debate rages over how much bandwidth we need. If we love our VoIP and video technology and want to see it everywhere, I'd say we need a lot. PCWorld doesn't think we should get ahead of ourselves, I think that might be a mistake. Read the article.
Posted on 25 February 2010 | 10:47 am
BT offers interoperability with top video conferencing providers
BT Conferencing just announced a powerful new offering to its video conferencing customers. It is offering interoperability between the video conferencing systems of the top three video conferencing equipment vendors: Cisco, Polycom and TANDBERG.
As part of the company's managed service offering, BT One Source now provides an end-to-end solution for all three video conferencing systems for ease of use and cost saving no matter what video platform customers choose.
"BT has successfully deployed this interoperability service for several large multi-national customers, enabling them to use a mixture of different endpoints in a video meeting. We also currently operate this service within BT's internal video estate. Our goal is to help our customers maximize their investments in video technology by allowing them to collaborate with partners, suppliers, customers and others around the globe," said Aaron McCormack, CEO of BT Conferencing in a release.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 25 February 2010 | 10:44 am
Report: Synergy examines VoIP market share
Synergy Research Group released their newest report describing the market share break down of the VoIP markets and showing what's been driving the carrier VoIP market.
In "Carrier VoIP Q4 2009 and YE 2009 market shares," Synergy reveals that the market for Carrier VoIP totalled $10 billion in 2009. While traditionally the migration of old PSTN lines to VoIP was the main driver of Carrier VoIP, Synergy found that further growth was added by Mobile Operators seeking the Capex and OpEx benefits of IP. "Mobile deployments for Carrier VoIP have made a serious impact on market sizes and market players for the VoIP Media Gateway market," says the release.
As for market share, Synergy saw GENBAND as the leader of the pack for Media Gateways with 22 percent followed by Huawei with 15 percent. When GENBAND acquires Nortel CVAS its market share will be twice its nearest competitor. In the IMS VoIP market, Synergy saw Alcatel-Lucent as the leader with 47 percent of the market share. Ericsson followed Alcatel-Lucent with Huawei nipping at its heels.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 25 February 2010 | 10:00 am
Vonage announces net income for first time
Vonage released its Q4 earnings report and had some exciting news. Excluding adjustments, the company reported net income from operations for the very first time. Vonage reported a net income of $3 million excluding adjustments which was up $37 million from 2008.
Sequentially, net income was flat but revenue was up to $224 million. According to the release, the average revenue per user increased to $30.54 from $28.33 in the year ago quarter and $29.89 sequentially.
"2009 marks the first year generating net income excluding adjustments. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled. And, revenues per subscriber have increased while we reduced selling, general and administrative expenses by double-digit percentages," said Marc Lefar, Vonage Chief Executive Officer in the earnings release. Lefar saw the net income success as a function of an upgraded value proposition, enhancing the customer experience, and reduced costs.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 25 February 2010 | 9:15 am
Nortel closing deal with GENBAND for CVAS
Well, it looks like GENBAND will be officially acquiring Nortel Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS). Yesterday, Nortel announced that it would not be proceeding to auction, and instead would be working towards closing the sales agreement with GENBAND for the CVAS unit.
The Nortel/GENBAND deal is for all the global assets of Nortel's CVAS business for a purchase price of $282 million. This number is subject to balance sheet and other adjustments that are approximately $100 million which would add up to a net purchase price of $182 million. The deal will transfer all of CVAS' patents and products for softswitching, gateways, SIP applications, TDM products and services, as well as any intelectual property and customer agreements to GENBAND.
GENBAND proposed the bid around Christmas last year and got court approval both in the U.S. and Canada in early January. Although the bidding was open to challengers since then, it seems that Nortel CVAS has found its buyer.
For more:
- read this release
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Posted on 25 February 2010 | 7:25 am
Patton launches any-to-any SIP SBC
SIP is everywhere these days. And with any new technology standard, making a transition to it needs to be easy and secure. Patton, a Washington, D.C.-area based technology company, has just released its SmartNode 5200 Session Border Control to help businesses interested in SIP make an easy conversion.
The new SBC will provide security and any-to-any connections for SIP calls where the legacy firewall or Edge Router are SIP unaware. In addition, the SmartNode 5200 offers cost savings by including advanced IP router, QoS, VoIP-VPN security, least-cost call routing and IP-link redundancy all in one device.
The new offering is targeted at businesses with 50 or less employees when using the built-in virtual firewall. For companies with 50 to 250 employees the SBC can forward SIP messages to an external firewall to handle security.
For more:
- read this release
- read the company website info on the new offering
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:53 am
Cloud computing competition heats up
As business computing gets more advanced and cloud computing moves beyond email, competitors are flooding in to challenge incumbents. GigaOm takes a look at some of these and sizes up the market. Article
Posted on 22 February 2010 | 10:26 am
Hosted PBX provider Vocalocity hires new CEO
Small business VoIP provider, Vocalocity, has brought on some new talent. The Atlanta-based company is bringing on Wain Kellum as its new CEO. Kellum comes from location-based services company Omnilink and has over 25 years of experience in technology companies.
Prior to his stint as CEO of Ominlink, Kellum started, grew and sold software development company Extreme Logic which is now a part of Hewlett Packard.
Kellum signaled that in taking this position he could see Vocalocity dive into cloud computing as well. “Vocalocity has a unique and distinct value proposition and there is a tremendous upside in accelerating our business model of bringing VoIP communications to the small business market," said Kellum in a press release. “There is also a nearly unlimited potential in helping small businesses take advantage of additional capabilities of the cloud computing phenomenon by extending our core offerings.”
Vocalocity provides hosted PBX services to small businesses with 50 employees or less and doesn't sell to enterprise or residential customers.
For more:
- read the release
Related articles
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 8:30 am
Cisco modifies UC licensing
Unified communications (UC) may seem complicated, but in the end its all about simplifying customers' business communication. In that spirit, Cisco has decided to simplify how it licenses its UC software to its customers.
The changes are being made to Cisco's a la carte User Connect licensing program. Before, customers expressed confusion at the al la carte licensing as being too complex with a per server right-to-use fee and an additional device licenses. Since customers told Cisco that they were used to per-workspace type licensing models, Cisco has decided to collapse the pricing to simplify it for customers opting for the User Connect program.
For more:
- read the TMCnet story
Related articles
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Posted on 22 February 2010 | 7:34 am
Report: UC will drive mobile workers to top 1 billion
According to IDC, mobile workers will number 1.2 billion by the end of 2010--thanks in part to the growth in VoIP technology.
The driving force behind the growth is the emergy markets of Asia/Pacific and the regions use of unified communications (UC) technologies. According to the analysts, the mobile workforces in the U.S. and Europe have peaked. The U.S. is described as having a highly concentrated mobile workforce, but that by 2013 over 75 percent of workers will be described as mobile in some way--that's 129 million people. Compare that to Asia/Pacific figures, and you'll see why IDC is saying the real action won't be in the U.S. By 2013, about 37 percent of Asia/Pacific workers will be described as mobile, and before you say that percentage sounds smaller, it is actually 734.5 million people!
For more:
- read this report
Related articles
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VoIP growth to focus on optimization
Posted on 21 February 2010 | 8:51 am
GVMax fills in the gaps for Google Voice
A few weeks ago, Google launched an app that mobile phone users could take advantage of, but the problem was it was a mobile web app and not a native phone app. Some of the functionality that Google Voice users love like SMS notifications haven't been carried along to the mobile web app so other developers have stepped in to fill the void. Enter GVMax, a free web service that monitors your Google Voice account and notifies you when you receive a new SMS or voicemail.
The work around uses Google Voice's SMS-to-email functionality using it to send the forwards to GVMax's servers which are then rerouted to the various ways a user wishes to be notified. When you recieve a new voicemail or SMS, the GVMax system can send you an IM, an SMS, an email or even a message on your Twitter account. The service not only fills in a functionality gap, but it also replaces a more cumbersome hack some user were employing involving having the notifications forward to an always-on home computer running a desktop app that would then pass on the notifications to users' mobile phones.
For more:
- read this blog post
Related articles
Google Voice for iPhone finally released--as a web app
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Posted on 21 February 2010 | 8:34 am
Mitel offers truly virtualized IP telephony
Mitel Networks and VMWare have come up with a virtualized offering of the Mitel core 3300 ICP telephony system. The new Mitel Communications Director generic software called vMCD will run on a virtual server platform based on VMWare's vSphere 4. The platform will also be able to host non-Mitel business apps like email, web servers and database applications.
According to No Jitter, what makes this offering different is the ability for the telephony system to run on the virtual server platform with all these non-communication focused software apps. The main problem associated with such a system would be latency and jitter, but the two companies have set up vMCD to put priority on voice communications so that there is no loss of quality when customers use the voice system.
For more:
- read the No Jitter post
Related articles
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8x8 launches Virtual Office Online across offerings
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Posted on 18 February 2010 | 11:21 am
Skype CEO: iPhone VoIP over 3G 'soon'
Hot off the announcement of its Verizon partnership, Skype didn't want to leave AT&T and the iPhone out. Om Malik over at GigaOm was able to corner Skype's CEO Josh Silverman and ask him about the VoIP over 3G Skype app and the answer was that it would be coming very soon. What does that mean? 'Soon' truly is anyone's guess, but Malik thinks it will be Q2 of 2010.
Skype claims to be fine tuning the 3G version of its popular iPhone app, and has yet to release it despite AT&T and Apple opening up the restrictions on VoIP over 3G on their network. One thing to keep in mind is probably the concern Skype has about quality of service. Already on record saying that the AT&T 3G network is strapped in major iPhone user areas, I am sure they are worried about how well their app will work over 3G once it goes live. Skype's latest tactic of teaming up with Verizon to send Skype calls over the voice network and the rest of the data over 3G is telling. Perhaps a similar deal will emerge for the iPhone?
For more:
- read GigaOm's story
Related articles
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Posted on 18 February 2010 | 10:35 am
Global Crossing: 2009 saw VoIP investment
VoIP services provider Global Crossing announced its 4Q revenue this week showing a consolidated revenue of $651 million in the last quarter of 2009. That number was up 1 percent both sequentially and year over year. While the company discussed a number of facets of its business in its earnings call, we are here for the Voice and VoIP side of things. Global Crossing's wholesale voice business generated revenue of $93 million in Q4, a 4 percent increase sequentially, but a 7 percent decline year over year. While voice was down year over year, the service provider sees its network as a strong point.
"Unified communications and cloud computing promise to drive increased use of networks and applications giving us the opportunity to leverage our global IP network and data center infrastructure," said John Legere, CEO of Global Crossing in the earnings call.
2009 saw investment into their VoIP network and services and the plan is to continue this into 2010. "We continued to expand our suite of VoIP services. We expanded the reach of our VoIP local service and made it easier for enterprises to implement a unifying communications platforms. We significantly expanded capacity on our undersea fiber optic cable systems and IP core network both to meet growing demand for converged services," said Legere.
For more:
- see SeekingAlpha's transcript of the earnings call
- see the release
Related articles
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Global Crossing Grows Latin America
Tellme improves call center automation, adds Global Crossing VoIP
Posted on 18 February 2010 | 10:11 am
Report: VoIP growth to focus on optimization
Research and Markets has debuted a new report offering some insights into the growth of the VoIP market. The "US Business VoIP Overview: Optimization Trumps Expansion" report takes In-Stat's recent claim of 79% penetration of VoIP in businesses by 2013, and states that much of the focus in the industry will be on optimizing current systems and upgrading headquarters rather than bringing more VoIP systems to satellite offices.
The 79 percent figure represents company's having VoIP deployed in at least one of their location, meaning the universal use of VoIP throughout these companies is not being implied. The study also found that Hosted IP Centrex is now the leading revenue generator over Broadband IP Telephony for carrier-based business VoIP solutions.
For more:
- read this release
Related articles
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Report: VoIP subscribers to grow in 2010
Report: UC spending to go from millions to billions in 5 years
Posted on 18 February 2010 | 9:16 am
A Review of Magic Jack - Lots of hype, but it works
Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal decided to look into the Magic Jack device and what he found was renewed faith in late night infomercial products. He also noted that the company is planning a software-only release that wont require their trademark USB hardware. Article
Posted on 18 February 2010 | 8:30 am
Are consumers driving the VoIP, UC and UCC market now?
Gary Kim at TMCnet has an interesting piece about how VoIP, UC and UCC have gained traction as consumer apps and that may be driving the market. Article
Posted on 16 February 2010 | 11:22 am
Skype meant it when they said go Mobile
Christopher Dean, Chief Strategy Officer at Skype, meant it when he focused his IT Expo keynote on mobile VoIP. Part of his speech was spent demonstrating the rapid uptake of the mobile internet versus the slow growth of the original wired Internet. He noted that mobile data usage on AT&T's network was up 5000 percent since the launch of the iPhone and the future of IP communication would also involve embracing mobile technologies.
"Changes in the market offer both immense risk for operators who don't actually adapt to change and an incredible amount of opportunity for those that do," said Dean at IT Expo. Perhaps his message was directed at mobile operators with the knowledge of what he would launch a few weeks later at Mobile World Congress.
Today at MWC, Skype announced that they've been working with Verizon Wireless to develop an always-on Skype Mobile app. The program will work on RIM phones, the Motorola and HTC Droids, and the Moto Devour--being tightly integrated into the functionality of the phones. Unlike other platforms, this Skype app will run in the background and will receive calls even when the customer isn't actively using it. Requiring a data plan, the app will allow for unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls and cheap international calls at Skype's VoIP rates.
Despite some of Dean's statements at IT Expo about the need for 4G, the companies' believe that the new application will not hinder Verizon's 3G network quality. The reason behind this is that the calls are being handled by Verizon's voice network and not the data network. Once the calls connect to Skype, they get routed like VoIP calls, but on the cell phone they actually use voice. -Mike
P.S. This post was edited and clarified on 2/17 when it was brought to my attention that Verizon and Skype are using a voice network work-around so as not to bog down the 3G networks. I guess we aren't quite ready for Mobile VoIP.
Posted on 16 February 2010 | 11:20 am
MWC: iBasis launches IP Exchange network for converged services
Converged voice and data services are getting some focus at Mobile World Congress this week and iBasis made an announcement to add to the buzz. The company launched their IP Exchange (IPX) network which will enable both fixed and mobile operators to support voice, data and signalling over a single IP connection. The offering will allow network operators to efficiently launch converged voice and data over a managed IP backbone with built in security and QoS.
John van Vianen, iBasis CEO, in the release said: "The IPX solution we are providing today addresses the immediate demand for a more efficient international interconnect and transport solution for voice and data, while facilitating operators' longer term service and architecture strategies, including LTE." As mobile VoIP becomes more of a reality--particularly with the move to 4G--converged voice and data networks will grow in importance.
For more:
- read the press release
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 9:15 am
Alteva brings international porting to Canada
It's all about being local these days. Well, being a multinational corporation that looks local anyway. Luckily, IP communications is here to help. VoIP provider Alteva is offering Canadian companies the appearance of a local U.S. presence using a local number with a hosted VoIP solution.
"This has never been done on an enterprise level," said Mark Marquez, CIO at Alteva in a release. "The demand for international enterprise deployments is growing and we are ready to meet the needs of our multi location customers and expand the global reach of our VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) services worldwide. Alteva will offer porting capabilities to over 70 countries by the end of 2010."
The hosted VoIP solution will offer enterprises lower up front costs, flexibility, scalability and redundancy measures with live failover. The hosted solution also means easy automatic upgrades. The new offering reminds me in some ways of Verizon's recent announcement of their local calling solution for call centers of businesses that want to maintain a local presence.
For more:
- read the release
Related articles
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 9:10 am
Qwest profits down 39%, but IP drives strategic revenue
Wireline provider Qwest saw its profits drop 39 percent from the same quarter a year ago in its latest earnings report, but there are a few bright spots in the report. Their Business Markets segment and IP services had a few good points even while their traditional legacy services continued to decline.
Legacy services at Qwest declined 13 percent to $1.7 billion in revenue annually. Qwest attributed the decline to lower demand for voice services and customers transitioning to newer generation data services. On the up side, fourth quarter strategic revenue grew 4 percent due to the demand for enterprise IP and mass market broadband services. According to the release, Qwest sees its success in the enterprise space "driven by a strong mix of data and IP services."
For more:
- read this release
- read this article
Related articles
Qwest upgrades Enterprise VoIP service
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 9:07 am
GENBAND offers any-to-any interconnect
Migration to VoIP for fixed line and mobile calls has many service providers looking at how they handle interconnection issues. The old TDM network might not be sufficient anymore to handle the volume and complexity of rich IP offerings. What to do? GENBAND is offering up one answer with its Interconnect Solution which allows for seamless any-to-any interconnection of fixed and mobile traffic between any IP or TDM network.
GENBAND's Interconnect Solution provides support for the gamut of traffic and signaling types: TDM to TDM, IP to IP, and IP to TDM signaling and media interworking. “With our Interconnect Solution, operators are able to cap or replace their legacy TDM networks yet interconnect and route traffic on an any-to-any basis, which simplifies and future-proofs their networks,” said Mehmet Balos, Chief Marketing Officer of GENBAND in a release.
For more:
- read the release
Related articles
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 7:35 am
Nortel CVAS simplifies deployments with Edgewater Networks
In a move to simplify IP communications deployments, Nortel Carrier VoIP Application Solutions (CVAS) has teamed up with Edgewater Networks to provide the the gateway maker's products to Nortel CVAS customers.
According to FierceVoIP's interview with Nortel, the new thing about this partnership with Edgwater is that Nortel CVAS will be equipping service providers to sell SMBs the entire package combining Edgewater's EdgeMarc Network Services Gateways and EdgeView VoIP Support System with Nortel's Hosted IP Communications--offering a holistic approach that will be plug and play. Offering one package to get them up and running, the new offering will relieve enterprise customers of the task of purchasing, installing and managing additional CPE infrastructure.
Nortel's Hosted IP communications gives service providers carrier-hosted UCC for enterprise customers with email, IM, VoIP, click-to-call and video calling. Edgewater's EdgeMarc Network Services Gateways and EdgeView VoIP Support system will add IP Routing, survivability, SIP call processing and QoS functions to these services.
For more:
- read the release
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Posted on 16 February 2010 | 6:17 am
Happy President's Day
We will be taking the day off to celebrate President's Day! Take some time to think about what your favorite presidents did for you. Perhaps rent that HBO mini-series John Adams or watch PBS biographies. We will be back on Tuesday with a new issue. See you then! -Mike
Posted on 15 February 2010 | 6:35 am
IP Telephony cost savings are hard to ignore
A new Frost and Sullivan report talks about the cost savings of IP Telephony and how it'll be hard to ignore them in the future. TMCnet has this article.
Posted on 11 February 2010 | 11:33 am
AMD Planning Netbook Chip for 2011
After a long time on the sidelines, Intel rival AMD is getting into the netbook game with a dedicated chip designed specifically for computers with screens 12 inches or smaller.
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Google Ready to Make China Decision
CEO Eric Schmidt said the search giant is continuing discussions with the Chinese government that will determine whether it shuts down its operations there.
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Lost Drive Puts National Guard Data at Risk
Tens of thousands of Arkansas National Guard soldiers became the latest victims of a security breach at a military base after an unencrypted external hard drive was discovered missing last month.
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Tech Stocks Rally Ten Years After Topping Out
Ten years after the dot-com bubble burst, the Nasdaq still has a long way to go.
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Mariposa Bot Shipped With Vodafone Smartphone
Panda Security discovered Confiker, Mariposa and Lineage password stealing malware samples installed on a recently purchased Vodafone HTC Magic smartphone.
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IT Job Market Heating Up: Report
A report by staffing and placement firm Robert Half International shows that while many companies are still taking a wait-and-see approach to new hires, there's general optimism in the IT sector.
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Bing Makes Strides But Momentum Stalls
Microsoft's Bing search engine managed to gain market share again in February, but its success isn't exactly sending Google running for cover.
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Microsoft Veteran Thacker Scores Turing Award
Chuck Thacker, one of the found researchers of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, has received the Association for Computing Machinery's prestigious Turing Award.
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Google Unveils Apps Marketplace
Search giant debuts online shop for apps, expanding beyond its own App Engine to offer developers working in other frameworks an integration into the marketplace.
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MySpace Planning Site Revamp to Revive Growth
Once the leader in the social networking space, MySpace has fallen on hard times of late. But a new executive team is betting it can bring the site back to life with a site overhaul and fresh developer talent.
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U.S. Eyes Path to Press China on Internet Policy
U.S. Trade Representative describes country's talks with Google and other companies, and raises the prospect of pursuing a WTO complaint against China over Internet restrictions.
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Is Windows 7 Service Pack Coming in Q4?
Malaysian tech enthusiast site TechArp claims its sources say Microsoft has moved up availability of the first service pack for Windows 7 - possibly to the end of this year.
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Microsoft-Sponsored CodePlex Moves Ahead
The non-profit open source foundation looks to show it's not just an extension of its main backer, Microsoft.
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Microsoft Offering Software, Training for Vets
Software giant pledges $2 million in cash and $6 million in software to help veterans acquire the skills and training to compete in a 21st century workforce.
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Microsoft Patch Tuesday Includes IE Warning
In the latest edition of its monthly security ritual, Microsoft patches two bugs, both deemed "important," and issued an advisory about a flaw recently discovered in the Internet Explorer browser.
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Apple's Flash Feast Could Crimp SSD Sales
An article in DigiTimes shines the spotlight on an unintended consequence of Apple's success with devices like the iPhone, iPod and the pending release of the vaunted iPad.
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Apple Seen Gearing Up for More Patent Fights
Though it's not known for initiating patent lawsuits, Apple could be getting ready to more aggressively defend its intellectual property in the face of increasing competition from rival smartphone makers.
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Symantec Tackles Mobile Security
Security software firm unveils prototype system designed to help carriers weed out malware and other security vulnerabilities on mobile devices.
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Microsoft: Windows Phone 7 More Than an OS
Executive from the software giant pitches the new Windows Phone 7 as more than just an upgrade to its earlier Windows Mobile line, but a legitimate game change.
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Hackers Check Into Wyndham Hotels' Network
For the second time in two years, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts says hackers managed to access its computer systems, stealing personal data including customer payment card data.
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7 Technologies Enterprises Need in 2010
Amid signs that the economy is crawling back to health, IT strategies are shifting from the cost-cutting mode of the past two years to an orientation toward innovation, according to recent Forrester Research analysis.
Forrester predicts that IT spending will rise 6.6 percent during 2010, compared with a drop of 8.8 percent in 2009. A healthy chunk of that increased spending will be targeted toward the new technologies business users are clamoring for, and IT sourcing professionals will be asked to analyze the risks and benefits.
Forrester says there are seven specific technologies that business users will ask their IT sourcing and vendor-management teams to look at:
- ...
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:10 pm
What RSA is Saying Now About IT Security
CIOs face more complexity than ever as an array of new technologies, from social media to cloud computing, open up new opportunities - and vulnerabilities. In ensuring that their businesses aren't exposed to new threats while charging into these new frontiers, IT security teams are essentially helping to enable emerging business models. Whether that means training employees on social media or pressuring cloud vendors to disclose their security practices, IT security will continue to evolve from its historic focus on protecting IT systems to playing a more entrepreneurial role in business.
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Posted on 9 March 2010 | 2:15 pm
9 Ways Web Apps Woo Hackers
Web security research gurus with the Santa Clara, Calif.-based Web application security firm Cenzic uncovered their findings at RSA from data collected during the second half of 2009. Though CIOs are constantly struggling to get their development teams spinning up new business-enabling Web applications as quickly as possible, leaders would do well to take a lesson from the disconcerting trends laid out in Cenzic's most recent report.
The vast majority of proprietary web applications developed in house contain some sort of vulnerability or another, as seen by scans of customer applications conducted through the company's managed services. The following nine types of vulnerabilities are the most common found through Cenzic's scans of customer Web apps.
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Posted on 5 March 2010 | 2:45 pm
8 Reasons Google Won't Leave China
The Google-China standoff has entered week eight, and no one's budged yet. China's still demanding that Google censor its search results there. Google's still refusing to censor them, while publicly lingering on its intentions to pull out of China if the government doesn't back off. And now the Obama Administration is considering joining the fray. The drama builds. Will Google really shut down its operations in China and walk away from such a potentially lucrative market? Will China actually let Google walk away, taking with it a critical window into the Western economy? Okay, okay, everyone calm down. No ones going anywhere. Here are 8 reasons we continue to believe Google and China will settle their differences:
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Posted on 4 March 2010 | 11:08 pm
RSA: Identity Theft Challenges for Healthcare
Healthcare providers face more challenges with identity theft than financial services firms, a panel of experts said at the RSA 2010 conference in San Francisco.
- The phenomenon of medical identity theft is on the rise, and healthcare companies face more challenges in addressing the issue than their counterparts in the financial services industry, a panel of experts agreed Thursday at the RSA 2010 conference in San Francisco.
The Federal Trade Commission est...
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 3:51 pm
CIO Success: A 10-Step Playbook
A former divisional CIO with Prudential offers a treatise on what IT leaders must do to meet the changing demands of the job.
- CIOs and IT executives have a complicated job.
Systems need to run, hardware needs to be up to date, longer-term architecture strategy needs to be developed and executed on, transformation programs need to be rolled out, capabilities need to be delivered, and proper governance around information s...
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 8:52 am
Business Intelligence: The Real Challenge
Business intelligence tools have matured, but have IT's internal capabilities? A look at the real challenge CIOs face in executing their BI strategy.
- Businesses have been accumulating data in digital form from business operations for more than 40 years now. In parallel with this accumulation, tools for organizing, categorizing and analyzing this data turning it into the kind of context-rich information that can drive decision making have been gro...
Posted on 2 March 2010 | 7:55 am
Building Leadership Continuity
Perhaps some people feel that this will no longer be their problem when they retire.
- Many people assume that executives are born with leadership qualities. I dont buy that premise.
Leaders tend to have different personalities. Look at Michael Jordan. He definitely had some natural talents, but he was the first guy in the gym and the last guy to go home and that had a lot to do wit...
Posted on 1 March 2010 | 9:40 am
5 CIO Priorities for the Upturn
The global economy has begun a fragile recovery from a shattering recession. CIOs must now focus on opportunities for growth and important technology trends, while continuing to drive down costs.
- Before the global economy took a nosedive in 2008, business leaders were looking to IT to help drive their companies growth efforts. They sought to transform business processes and operations with information, and wanted IT to play an active role in attracting customers, developing new products and ...
Posted on 26 February 2010 | 8:02 am
20 IT Skills on the Rise
Even though many IT professionals have seen flat to declining pay rates, there are some bright spots in the IT job arena. According to Foote Partners, publishers of the esteemed quarterly IT Skills and Certification Pay Index, there has been a definite demand for SAP and enterprise applications skills over the last six months. Here are the top 20 distinct skills by market value growth over the last six months, according to the most recent index.
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Posted on 19 February 2010 | 3:42 pm
IT Certifications Still Offer an Edge
The quarterly Foote Partners IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index examines in depth how certain skills and certification can affect the pay of IT professionals. Unsurprisingly, the index found that most skills and certifications decreased in value last year.
But as a percentage of the base salary for IT professionals, most types of certifications gave recipients an edge in remuneration. Typically, IT certification holders made 7.46 percent more than average IT workers in the fourth quarter of 2009.
CIO Insight examines how much extra certain types of IT certifications have garnered professionals over the last three years. The percentages are all measured as additional value on top of the base IT salary, as determined by Foote Partners.
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Posted on 19 February 2010 | 3:22 pm
10 Technologies for Driving Revenue in 2010
Becoming a revenue generator instead of a cost center is the dream of every IT shop.
CIO Insight Research asked almost 170 IT executives which deployed technologies have the best potential for driving revenue generation. Heres what they said.
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Posted on 18 February 2010 | 12:49 pm
5 Books for Understanding the Millennial Generation
The 80-million strong Millennial generation is going to change the IT landscape in countless ways, whether CIOs like it or not.
Dealing with this unique generation can be difficult given their work habits, interests and deep grounding in technology as a way of life. Luckily, there are a handful of insightful books that help businesses and bosses understand and manage the Millennials.
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Posted on 17 February 2010 | 9:18 pm
10 Steps for Pushing Your Agenda
Change is hard. Doing what youve always done is easy. Doing something new that requires a change in thinking, changes in procedures, and changes to systems are difficult.
Thats where leadership comes in. Executive coach and former technology executive Mike Hawkins explains how leaders can win support for their priorities and initiatives.
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Posted on 11 February 2010 | 12:58 pm
Demystifying Cloud Computing
Its tough to tell the difference between true cloud computing and the smoke created by hype and buzz. Heres how to clear the air.
- As CIOs consider new corporate computing options, they often find themselves awash in cloud metaphors thanks to the overwhelming desire to achieve the promise of cloud computing.
The potential for cloud computing is compelling. For business, it promises faster access to technology and better align...
Posted on 11 February 2010 | 12:56 pm
IT service provider consolidation tips: A CIO talks vendor management
IT service provider consolidation can simplify enterprise IT vendor-management strategies, says our CIO columnist. Learn how to categorize IT services and ace vendor consolidation.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 7:45 am
Balanced scorecard author talks agile business and risk management
Robert Kaplan, author of the balanced scorecard, talks about agile business, risk management and predictive analysis in this Q&A.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 7:45 am
Balanced scorecard founder on the business value of IT
Balanced scorecard framework co-developer Robert Kaplan discusses IT strategy and the ways CIOs can demonstrate the business value of IT.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 9:44 am
Running IT in 2010: Better response times on a budget
Running an IT department in 2010 requires new processes that boost responsiveness, and vendor management and IT outsourcing practices that cut costs in IT budgets. Learn more here.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:50 pm
Enterprise desktop virtualization may increase costs
Enterprise desktop virtualization can solve difficult security, compliance and other problems, but at a price.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:48 pm
IT outsourcing contracts FAQ: Establishing SLAs, flexibility and more
IT outsourcing contracts are only as strong as the negotiations surrounding them. In this FAQ, learn how to establish service-level agreements, set contract lengths and maintain flexibility.
Posted on 4 March 2010 | 8:04 am
Innovation strategies: How Chevron drives ingenuity
Should CIOs have innovation strategies? We talk with Chevron's innovation specialist on how the energy giant discovers ingenuity and develops a corporate creative process.
Posted on 3 March 2010 | 8:56 am
IT governance framework helps public agencies boost service, cut costs
An IT governance framework can help public agencies improve service levels and cut costs amid tight budgets. Read more about IT governance models in Massachusetts and California.
Posted on 25 February 2010 | 9:40 am
Storage virtualization helps rein in storage sprawl
Storage virtualization can help CIOs manage the ever-increasing storage requirements that server and desktop virtualization cause.
Posted on 24 February 2010 | 11:27 am
What to watch for during negotiations with outsourcing vendors
What are the warning signs that contracts with outsourcing vendors are going bad? How can you mitigate the risks? Outsourcing experts offer advice.
Posted on 24 February 2010 | 9:37 am
Why Project Scheduling Must Not Become an Extinct Science
New demand for project scheduling expertise is driving change in the market place. Learn the key project scheduling strategies for 2010.
Posted on 23 February 2010 | 8:43 am
Top 10 Project Plan Review Factors
Considering the project plan review? Follow these critical steps for ensuring productive, successful project plans.
Posted on 22 February 2010 | 8:44 am
Value Triple Constraint: How to Evaluate Project Value Delivered
How to use VTC (Value Triple Constraint) to quantify project value delivered while understanding actual benefits and detailed ROI.
Posted on 19 February 2010 | 8:43 am
How Effective is your Agile Team?
Learn to integrate and coordinate Agile teams by developing better work understanding and preferences.
Posted on 18 February 2010 | 9:08 am
Business Process Design using Agile Concepts
Business process design takes a page from the software development playbook. Discover new strategies for better business process design using agile concepts.
Posted on 16 February 2010 | 10:27 am
Cooking up Google Apps at campfire event (photos)
At campfire-themed developer meet-up, Google on Tuesday introduces its Google App Marketplace, where users can buy third-party applications to run atop the Google Apps suite.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 4:17 pm
Microsoft Outlook makes friends with MySpace
The software maker says it is ready with a version of its Outlook Social Connector that links the e-mail program with the youth-oriented social network.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:50 pm
Firm: Toyota, industry need more rigorous testing
Latest problems linked to Toyota show the auto industry needs to fix the way it tests software, says company that specializes in software integrity.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 2:20 pm
Mozilla to overhaul its open-source license
The Firefox backer wants to modernize and simplify the Mozilla Public License and sets an ambitious November deadline.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:13 pm
Microsoft looks to 'Elevate' California
The software maker is bringing its free technology job training program to the Golden State, the company and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are announcing on Wednesday.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 11:10 am
Windows Live support via e-mail ends
Starting Wednesday, users with problems will have to go to online forums to get answers to issues with Microsoft's consumer Web services.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 9:24 am
Acer's PC market numbers add up
Across all of 2009, Dell managed to stay ahead of Acer by a hair's-breadth, but the year-end trend wasn't going Dell's way.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 8:12 am
Nasdaq 5,000: Ten years after the dot-com peak
Exactly 10 years ago, during the height of the dot-com mania, the Nasdaq reached its all-time high of 5,408.62 on March 10, 2000. It has never recovered.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 5:00 am
Sun fended off Apple, Microsoft IP lawsuit threats
Steve Jobs personally threatened to sue Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz says. Sun warded off that and a Microsoft threat with its own patent portfolio.
Posted on 10 March 2010 | 1:25 am
FileMaker 11 delivers charting, 'on-the-fly' reporting
Apple-owned company on Tuesday releases next major version of its database product, FileMaker Pro 11.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 3:13 pm
Microsoft researcher wins Turing Award
Chuck Thacker, who helped pioneer key aspects of the PC, gets an honor seen as the Nobel Prize of computing. In an interview, he talks about the award, his work, and why he's not retiring anytime soon.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 12:42 pm
MSN decides to keep its makeover
Microsoft is making final a series of changes to the look of the MSN portal, hoping a cleaner page with more videos and fewer links will help give it a fresher look.
Posted on 9 March 2010 | 10:00 am
Newegg probes shipments of fake Intel chips
As the Newegg case of fake Intel CPUs demonstrates, typos are one of the big tip-offs.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 10:47 pm
Android coders get high-speed graphics ability
Google has released a new native programming kit that provides new graphics abilities to programmers using Android 2.0 phones.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 2:04 pm
Musings on the future of Microsoft, Windows
Robert Scoble and Microsoftie-turned-Googler Don Dodge discuss Redmond's future with CNET's Ina Fried and Rafe Needleman. Also, Technologizer has more on what Microsoft needs to do with Windows.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 11:00 am
Online retailers poised for further growth
The e-commerce market can expect double-digit gains over the new few years, both in the U.S. and Western Europe, according to reports from Forrester Research.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 8:53 am
Ex-Novell CTO takes Web leadership post
As CEO of the World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees HTML, Jeff Jaffe wants to see faster standards development and more work with outside developers.
Posted on 8 March 2010 | 12:41 am
MacBook Pro sports Core i7 chip label at Best Buy
MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 label: Though likely a mistake, it's probably enough to jump-start the rumor mill.
Posted on 7 March 2010 | 8:10 pm
Apple A4 chip, iPad vs. the competition
As the Apple iPad and its A4 chip get ready to ship, plenty of competing products are waiting in the wings.
Posted on 7 March 2010 | 10:45 am
Intel exec critiques PC graphics, phone market
Executive Vice President David Perlmutter downplays the importance of laptop graphics performance and speaks about ARM chip rivals at an investor conference.
Posted on 6 March 2010 | 1:33 pm