From The Editor
By Jeff Caruso, Site Editor
- Nortel exec: Bay Networks glory can return after some "chemotherapy"
- I recently wrote about Nortel's current woes, and how they could (at least in part) be traced back to its acquisition of Bay Networks. That got the attention of Nortel's current VP and GM of its...
- This week's 10 most-read stories
- The tearing apart of Nortel was the most-read story of the week, mixed with lighter fare such as a slideshow of tech-related T-shirts and a look back at the "fathers" of the technology we use every...
- Facebook: The movie?
- Variety is reporting that David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") may be roped in to direct "The Social Network," a movie about the formation of Facebook. Aaron Sorkin wrote the...
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Bay Networks back from Nortel's ashes? Feds release $4B for broadband Listen now!
- US court rejects IBM appeal in executive's move to Dell
- A U.S. court has rejected an IBM appeal to bar David Johnson, the company's former chief of mergers and acquisitions, from working at rival Dell over concerns regarding trade secrets.
- Brushing up with Brush Pilot
- If you use Adobe Photoshop for design work, you've no doubt used a custom brush at one time or another. Experienced designers probably have a handful of custom brushes installed. Then there's people like me--Photoshop Brush freaks, who have hundreds upon hundreds of brushes at the ready, just waiting for the perfect excuse to use them.
- Outremer Telecom's Mauritius plans on hold
- Outremer Telecom's plans to expand into Mauritius by the end of the year have been dashed after the country's Information & Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) refused to grant the company a mobile license.
- SAP benchmarking program begins tracking first KPIs
- SAP users have begun measuring the performance of key aspects of their ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems as part of a benchmarking process agreed to with user groups. In April, SAP agreed to delay an increase in the cost of its Enterprise Support service, and to make future increases conditional on meeting certain targets for performance and customer satisfaction.
- MoBank app takes shopping to the iPhone in the UK
- iPhone and iPod Touch owners in the U.K. will be able to use their devices to buy and pay for goods using a new application from MoBank.
- Tightening credit requirements squeee smaller VARs
- As we entered the recession, the IT channel was optimistic that access to credit and financing wouldn't be a barrier to IT investment. However, now that we're in the eye of the storm, the barriers are looking more daunting than expected.
- N-able targets growing mid-market opportunity with
- While N-able Technologies' primary route to market for its network and systems management software has been through enabling managed services providers (MSPs), the company has recently launched a new partner program to tap what it sees as a growing opportunity: midmarket companies that want to run their internal IT shops like a managed service, just without the outsourcing.
- Avaya offers incentives to woo Nortel partners
- With networking vendor Nortel Networks currently attempting to re-organize its operations under creditor protection, rival Avaya is laying-out the welcome mat for Nortel partners looking for a new networking equipment maker to call home.
- Pick-and-choose model 'powerful,' B.C. CIO says
- Over 100 public sector organizations, including school districts, health authorities, crown corporations, agencies and municipalities have signed up for the same Microsoft toolset under an umbrella agreement between the Province of British Columbia and Microsoft Corp.
- How to maximize your incentive dollars
- In an effort to generate business and drive revenue in a challenging economy, vendors are making significant changes to their channel incentive programs, with an eye to generating results today instead of tomorrow, according to one analyst firm.
- Windows 7 promises reduced power consumption
- By building more intelligence and tools into the operating system and working more closely with its hardware and software partners, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is promising significantly reduced power consumption when its Windows 7 OS debuts this fall.
- Delaying PC refresh will cost SMBs money: Intel
- With the economic uncertainty many small-and-medium-sized businesses are delaying their PC hardware refresh cycles to save money, but it's a decision that could actually be costlier in the long-run. That's the message that Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) sent during a recent Web briefing on the SMB PC market, and it's a message that could help resellers and system builders close sales.
- Ottawa IP vendor eyes Cisco's marketshare
- Making even the smallest of businesses look like a big player is the focus behind the solutions offered by TalkSwitch, an Ottawa-based telephony vendor that could give Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) a run for its money in the "S" of the SMB market.
- U.S. memory vendor doubles down in Canada
- While this U.S.-based memory module and flash memory company already does business in Canada, Paul Jones, CEO of Patriot Memory, wants to double his company's Canadian market share by the end of this year with help from channel partners and new product releases.
- World's 1st presentation of Win 7 RTM set for Poland
- This year's Microsoft Technology Summit in Poland is set to become a stage for two major events - the world's first presentations of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in their RTM (ready to manufacture) versions.
- Weetabix swallow stage one of supply chain progect easily
- Weetabix has completed the first stage of a supply chain systems rollout, improving the accuracy of stock control.
- You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz
- You win some; you lose some. This week China decided its Web censorship filtering software was not quite ready for prime time, while U.S. courts sentenced phone hackers and file swappers to some crime time. Another Facebook-wannabe went down the tubes, another gadget Web site got birthed, and yet one more politician is undressed, so to speak, by his own e-mails. Are you up to speed on all things geek? Prove it by acing our quiz. Correct answers are worth 10 points, and no, we won't block your Web access if you mention Taiwan. Let's begin.
- Ngmoco releases Rolando 2 for iPhone, iPod touch
- Ngmoco has announced the release of Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid, a new game for the iPhone and iPod touch priced at $10.
- Frag Doll Wannabe: 1 Woman’s Quest to Become an Idol
- From March to May, Kristin Reilly spent her spare time doing two things: perfecting her deadly aim in first-person shooters, and smiling for the camera. Reilly had joined the running to become a Frag Doll, a group of highly skilled and--not accidentally--very attractive female gamers sponsored by game publisher Ubisoft. Reilly planned to secure the position with as much precision as a sniper lining up a headshot.
- Outback communities get $7m Internet access boost
- The Rudd government has announced it will spend $7 million over four years on improving public Internet access facilities in remote Indigenous communities.
- Oracle Fusion 11g vows to tackle middleware complexity
- Oracle has promised businesses it is tackling the complexity of IT infrastructure, with the release of Fusion Middleware 11g.
- uSocial to sell Twitter followers
- Members of the micro blogging service Twitter can now purchase followers from uSocial.
- IXOS intros Neo iPod speaker dock
- Looking like something from Transformers, IXOS has announced the Neo iPod speaker dock aimed at bedrooms across the land.
- Ken Frakes is new digital director at Start
- Branding and digital agency Start Creative has announced that interactive-media guru Ken Frakes will join its team as digital director.
- Apple admits iPhone 3GS heat problems
- Apple has posted a special iPhone 3GS and 3G temperature warning on its official support pages.
- O2 grabs Palm Pre as UK exclusive
- According to a report in the Guardian newspaper UK mobile operator O2 will next week announce a deal with Palm to be the exclusive UK partner for the Palm Pre mobile phone handset. O2 has so far refrained from commenting on the report.
- Archos 9 tablet PC runs Windows 7
- Archos has announced that its Windows touchscreen tablet PC - the Archos 9 - will hit the UK this autumn for £450.
- Oracle may cut up to 1,000 European jobs, union says
- Oracle may lay off between 850 to 1,000 European employees, according to the French union CFDT.
- Deathmatch rematch: BlackBerry versus iPhone 3.0
- The new iPhone 3.0 OS is now old news, but does its enhancements overcome any advantages that the BlackBerry has over the iPhone? In May, I pitted the BlackBerry Bold in a head-to-head competition against the iPhone 3G, which handily beat RIM's business standard in most areas. After all, the iPhone 3.0 OS enhances the e-mail, calendar, and search functions that many BlackBerry users focus on and that IT loves about the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).
- Web site for China Mobile's application store appears
- A Web site for China Mobile's upcoming mobile application store appeared online on Friday, giving a preview of what free and paid downloads the carrier will offer to its more than 480 million subscribers.
- RSA's Coviello: Cloud computing not secure enough
- Cloud-based services are being rolled out without enough attention being paid to securing these services and the information they handle. That was the finding of a recent study commissioned by RSA Security.
- Suit over China's Web filter to target Lenovo, Acer, Sony
- A U.S. company will seek legal action against Lenovo, Acer and Sony next week over their shipment in China of controversial software that the company says stole its programming code.
- Taiwan keeps door to China closed for chip maker UMC
- Taiwan will have to revise chip-industry regulations before United Microelectronics (UMC) can invest in China, an official said Friday.
- Wall Street Beat: After a strong Q2, what's next for tech?
- The second quarter officially ended on June 30 with technology stocks leading all others. The question is, after a strong second quarter run, where do they go from here? Some analysts predict a dip in coming months as people avoid buying new PCs, opting instead to wait until late October when they can buy computers with Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7.
- Satyam buyer does not get enough shares in public offer
- Tech Mahindra may have to ask Satyam Computer Services for a preferential issues of shares to continue its bid to take over the troubled outsourcer.
- Apple may be exempt from China's Web filter mandate
- Apple appears to be exempt from China's mandate that a controversial Internet filtering program be shipped with all computers sold in the country.
- Google updates some Apps functions
- Google made a few updates to various Apps services this week, including one that lets users within an organization share templates with each other.
- Mac News: BenVista releases PhotoZoom Pro 3 photo enlarger
- BenVista has released the latest version its photo enlargement software, PhotoZoom Pro 3.
- Will iPhones Get Tactile Feedback, Fingerprint ID?
- It's always fun to speculate about what Apple has up its sleeve, and one way to get the rumors flying is to uncover Cupertino's latest patent applications. MacRumors has done just that, and the paperwork shows Apple has its eye on some intriguing technologies that may find their way into future iPhones and iPods.
- Manage Twitter on Your Desktop With Spaz Or TweetDeck
- Twitter is all the rage. It was name-checked on Conan's second Tonight Show broadcast and was even extended into a comedy bit. Basically, Twitter is a microblog that you post, which is shared with the world at large. You can collect friends and only see their tweets, see everyone's tweets, and even reply and send direct messages. In order to use Twitter, normally you have to stick to its Web site, twitter.com. Hence the need for a standalone PC application, and freebie Spaz is one such approach.
- DOJ officially opens investigation into Google Book Search
- The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed on Thursday that it is investigating a settlement involving Google Book Search for possible antitrust violations, following months of speculation that the agency had its eye on the service.
- Suda51: No More Wii for No More Heroes
- In some interesting news, Suda 51, creator behind such titles as Killer 7 and No More Heroes has revealed that after this years upcoming No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, which is exclusive to the Wii, the No More Heroes series will go in another direction, leaving the Wii behind in its laser beamed wake.
- Asteroids and another Resident Evil movie in the works
- Recently, Hollywood's biggest production companies fought in a brutal bidding war for the privilege to adapt the old-school space-blaster Asteroids into a film. The winner? Universal Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura (G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra) and Jeff Kirschenbaum (Wanted, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) are attached to the product. The script is to be penned by Matthew Lopez, who wrote this year's Race to Witch Mountain starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
- XHTML 2 language dumped in favor of HTML 5
- Looking to focus on the budding -- and game-changing -- HTML 5 specification, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) said Thursday it plans to increase available resources for the effort by discontinuing further development of XHTML 2.
- Photographing Fireworks, Step by Step
- For the photographer, winter certainly has its share of iconic subjects, such as Christmas trees, snowmen, and icicles hanging from a roof. But there's nothing quite like the excitement of shooting summertime fireworks. Done right, fireworks photos are dynamic and colorful, and they convey a sense of action better than almost any other kind of still image. Read on to learn how to capture some exciting fireworks photos of your own this summer.
- Facebook Following Up Privacy Change With iPhone App
- The folks at Facebook don't seem to be taking much downtime this summer. After announcing a revamped approach to user privacy control this week, the Facebook team is now preparing to launch a new and improved Facebook application for the iPhone.
- Happn.In Shows Who's Tweeting About What in Your City
- Ever wonder what the folks in your town are tweeting about? Head to Happn.in, which shows the popular Twitter topics for dozens of major cities worldwide.
- Judge temporarily dismisses MySpace cyberbully case
- A U.S. judge on Friday overruled a jury verdict and dismissed a case against a Missouri woman convicted last November in a cyberbullying case that led to a teenager's death, according to published reports.
- Online ad groups release new behavioral ad principles
- Online consumers should get more information about what information is being tracked and collected for the purposes of behavioral advertising, and they should have more control over what data is being collected, according to new privacy principles released Thursday by four advertising trade groups.
- Get a Handle on Your Overhead
- For many businesses, recessions strike with a double whammy. Sales fall as fraud rises, squeezing profits at both ends. But unlike those in previous recessions, many of today's entrepreneurs are recovering lost revenue with new technologies that track output down to the last mile, french fry and drop.
- Good master data management needs a focus on data
- To engineers at oil and gas exploration and development company Nexen Inc., having access to information means being able to think in terms of concrete data and not barrels of gas.
- Game Deals: 50% off Fallout 3 PC, other deals included
- The much beloved Fallout 3 can now be yours for $25 thanks to the team at Steam. But, the deal only lasts this weekend and is exclusive for the PC version only. So, if you've got a PC and have yet to pick up Fallout 3, now's the best time to nab it, as the game usually goes for $50.
- Trine goes live today, release bumped up a day early
- As reported earlier, Trine will be priced at $20 for the PlayStation Network, while Steam is selling it for $30. And while the arguments over the variations in price continues, it looks like you'll finally be able to spend your $30 for the PC version as Trine was released today on Steam at 9AM PST, a day earlier than expected.
- Ask.com bets on semantic search, targeting special audiences
- In the past eight months, Ask.com has unfurled a set of changes to its search engine that the IAC unit calls a success, although its share of U.S. search queries has actually shrunk during that time period.
- Conficker: Forgotten but not Gone
- Conficker may not dominate the headlines any longer, but it's still going strong, according to Trend Micro's Malware Blog and stats from the Conficker Working Group.
- Capcom's PS1 survival horror hits coming to PSP
- On the PlayStation Blog, Capcom Marketing Coordinator Ryan McDougall revealed that the company will be re-releasing a handful of its PS1 and PSP classics on the PlayStation Network in the next few months, with the first titles hitting tomorrow.
- Net neutrality advocates score big win with broadband stimulus rules
- Advocates of network neutrality are cheering Thursday after learning that the federal government will require any applicants to its broadband stimulus funds to maintain nondiscriminatory networks.
- Palm Pre hardware glitches hard to evaluate, analysts say
- Customer forum complaints about shoddy hardware in the Palm Pre are hard to put in perspective, analysts said, considering it is a first-generation device that still has promise for its new WebOS.
- IXOS intros Neo iPod speaker dock
- Looking like something from Transformers, IXOS has announced the Neo iPod speaker dock aimed at bedrooms across the land.
- Claims that Apple admits iPhone 3GS overheating are hot air
- They say the iPhone 3GS is hot. Hot as in sexy. Hot as in selling like cakes that are hot. Hot as in "scorch the skin off your face Raiders of the Ark-style."
- Microsoft removes projectile-vomiting IE8 ad from Web
- An online ad for Internet Explorer 8 that showed a woman projectile vomiting has left such a bad taste in viewers' mouths that Microsoft has decided to remove it.
- Xbox 360 Dashboard Ads to Get Animation, Audio
- What's worse than paying $50 a year more than Games For Windows Live gamers, just to play Xbox 360 games online? How about paying that same fifty bucks plus having to eyeball banners that unfurl across your Xbox 360's interface like royal proclamations, flocks of leering emoticons that shout "hello!" (emphasis 'LO') like irritated eyeball-rolling tweens, or human silhouettes that groove in looping jukes as dangling ear buds flail like weird, pliable antennae?
- VideoCloud offers HD video conferencing
- Toronto-based solution provider, IT Methods, is aiming to "bring high-definition video conferencing to the masses," with its new videoCloud managed telepresence service offering and the help of its channel partners.
- Five reasons your family doctor isn’t using EMR
- Roughly 30 per cent of family physicians in Ontario utilize electronic medical records (EMRs), according to OntarioMD Inc., a subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC).
- Soft skills are sexy
- If you think technical skill is all you need for a career in IT, think again. Expectations for IT employees are changing.
- Choose a MobileMe account for publishing iPhone media
- A nifty iPhone feature is the capability to upload a photo or video directly from the phone's Photos app or Camera Roll to a MobileMe gallery. The iPhone grabs your MobileMe login info from Mail, so you don't even have to remember your account password.
- Vista Ultimate users fume, rant over Windows 7 deals
- Consumers running Windows Vista Ultimate, who have blasted Microsoft for breaking promises to deliver a host of extras, are now knocking the company's upgrade plans and discount pricing for Windows 7.
- Insert a Copyright From the Keyboard
- BooBoo asked the Answer Line forum how to enter the copyright symbol (©) without going through menus and the character map.
- Create Events-based iPhoto albums with specific people
- If you use iPhoto '09 and its Events organizational feature in a true events manner--separating your photos by actual event--then you may have stumbled onto a limitation in the current version of iPhoto. Let's say you're interested in creating a photo album for a friend who you've photographed at a number of events. But you don't just want photos that contain your friend in this album; you want all the photos from any event they attended.
- Bing Builds an Underwhelming Twitter Search
- Looking for a competitive edge in the Internet search wars, Microsoft plans to index Twitter updates in real time for Bing, its recently rebranded search engine.
- Researchers design wind turbine kites to fly at 30,000 feet
- Stanford University researchers are designing wind turbine kites that would fly to heights of 30,000 feet to reach powerful winds that could be used as alternative energy sources.
- Microsoft Pulls Gross-Out Ad for IE8
- It looks like the image of a woman throwing up after inadvertently viewing pornography was too controversial for Microsoft. As of this morning, the online-only ad for Internet Explorer 8 called O.M.G.I.G.P. -- oh my God! I'm gonna puke--has been pulled from all Microsoft and third-party video Web sites--including the dedicated IE8 site, Browser for the Better.
- AT&T, iPhone Customers Angry Over Voicemail Delays
- Some AT&T and iPhone customers are angry over delayed delivery of voicemail messages. Sometimes, they say, a voicemail message may not appear in their inbox for several days after it was recorded.
- Bing Adds Twitter Search, Overload
- For all the hoopla, it turns out that Microsoft's foray into presenting real-time information--Twitter posts--on Bing is pretty lame. I just hope it stays that way.
- Bing beats Google to the punch, launches Twitter search
- Microsoft beats Google out of the gate by adding Twitter searches to its Bing search engine.
- Reports: Microsoft will sell Windows 7 'Family Pack'
- Microsoft will reportedly offer a multi-license "family pack" for Windows 7, according to details in the end-user licensing agreement (EULA) of a recently-leaked build.
- Court orders spammers to pay $3.7 million
- A U.S. district court has ordered members of an alleged international spam ring to give up US$3.7 million that they made while sending out illegal e-mail messages pitching bogus weight-loss products and human growth hormone pills.
- Vendor squabbles cause W3C to scrap codec requirement
- The latest rewrite of the Web's mother tongue won't recommend the use of specific audio and video encoding formats that could make it cheaper and easier for people to distribute multimedia content.
- Cisco looks to accelerate virtualization deployments
- Cisco is looking to accelerate the rate at which customers adopt virtualization in their data centers, company officials said at the Cisco Live event this week.
- Stock exchange keeps Pirate Bay buyers under close watch
- Internet cafe operator Global Gaming Factory X will be delisted from a Swedish stock exchange if it engages in illegal activities involving the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, which it plans to acquire, a stock exchange official has warned.
- A Guide to the Next Version of Windows
- Choose a section The Desktop Features New Desktop Features The Enterprise Features Hands-On Reviews Upgrade Advice What Enterprise IT Thinks Features for IT Admins Availability and Pricing A Video Tutorial Windows 7 and Netbooks
...
- Green IT to be an antidote for CIOs
- The ongoing economic recession can help drive adoption of green IT within the data centre, according to a report from Datamonitor.
- Ex-Bay Networks CEO: Nortel's enterprise group could do well on its own
- Former Bay Networks CEO Dave House says he likes the idea of Nortel's enterprise data division -- built around Bay technology -- breaking free and picking up its old name.
...
- 10 Hot Touchscreen Phones Compared
- Keeping tabs on the latest cell phone models can be a full-time job, especially given the number of cell phones announced by Apple, Palm, Nokia, and HTC (including, most recently, the BlackBerry-like T-Mobile Dash) over the past few months. But thanks to PC World, you don't have to hunt down and compare the various touchscreen smartphones yourself.
- iPhone 3GS Tips to Prevent Overheating, from Apple
- In light of a spate of recent iPhone 3GS overheating reports, Apple published a set of guidelines to help iPhone users ensure that their devices remain at proper operating temperatures to prevent overheating and related issues. More accurately, Apple released the tips the day that many of the initial reports surfaced, last Thursday, June 25, so it's unclear whether or not the two are connected--Apple has not issued an official comment on the reports. But the following information could be valuable to any iPhone owner concerned with possible overheating.
- ING to simplify infrastructure
- Dutch bank ING has signed a "significant" deal with Atos Origin, expanding an existing outsourcing contract.
- Weetabix supply chain rollout eliminates error
- Weetabix has completed the first stage of a supply chain systems rollout, improving the accuracy of stock control.
- Couple gets prison time for Internet obscenity
- Husband and wife owners of a California company that distributed pornographic materials over the Internet have been each sentenced to one year and one day in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
- 75% of Brits in fear of mobile roaming charges
- Nearly two thirds of Brits don't know how much it costs to use their mobile phone abroad, says Acision.
- Mobile roaming rip-off ends today
- EU legislation that sees the cost of using a mobile phone in Europe slashed comes into force today.
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