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Microsoft touts Mac-Windows collaboration
<div class="rxbodyfield">Microsoft on Tuesday said it would launch new Mac software later this year that will let Office 2008 for Mac users collaborate with people running the Windows version of the application suite.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>The company made the announcement at the Macworld Conference and Expo, where <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=search&searchTerms=Apple+Inc." target="_blank">Apple</a> <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9124983" target="_blank">held its last keynote</a> without <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=search&searchTerms=Steve+Jobs" target="_blank">CEO Steve Jobs</a>, a longtime fixture at the event.[ Special report: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=121433&source=fssr">Macworld 2009</a> ]Document Collaboration Companion will be released to a small number of beta testers next month, said a Microsoft spokeswoman in an e-mail today. However, Microsoft would not commit to a definitive final release timetable, saying only that it would deliver the software "later this year."The program will make it easier, said the spokeswoman, for users to download and upload documents to enterprise servers running SharePoint, Microsoft's browser-based collaboration platform, or to <a href="http://workspace.officelive.com/" target="_blank">Office Live Workspaces</a>, the free online service that offers similar functionality. Document Collaboration Companion also will provide Mac-based tools to let Office users check in and check out shared documents.Microsoft touted the upcoming software, and a planned makeover of Entourage, the Office 2008 for Mac e-mail client, as its first moves toward providing some of the same kind of services to its Mac customers that those running Windows already enjoy."Entourage Exchange Web Services and the Document Collaboration Companion lets Mac Office users connect with counterparts on a PC," said Eric Wilfrid, the general manager of Microsoft's Mac business group, in a separate statement. "These releases are the first step in harnessing the power of software plus services on the Mac."Entourage will also be beefed up this year, promised Microsoft, so that it's more equivalent to Outlook, the Windows e-mail client, in enterprises. As part of that upgrade, which Microsoft will offer free-of-charge later this year to Office 2008 users, it is transitioning Entourage to Exchange Web Services (EWS) for connecting to Exchange mail servers, and dropping the currently supported WebDAV.The changes will also include new support for synchronizing tasks, notes and categories in Entourage via an Exchange server.A public beta for Entourage EWS will be released later this month, Microsoft said.<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/" target="_blank">Computerworld</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=7d440eeaf95b3f29d008c6fc6b6d927e&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=7d440eeaf95b3f29d008c6fc6b6d927e&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=7d440eeaf95b3f29d008c6fc6b6d927e" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:10:50 GMT

Startup Ctera will offer cloud storage through carriers
<div class="rxbodyfield">Startup storage vendor Ctera is looking to service-provider networks as the best place for home and small-business backup and will go through them to sell an appliance that combines local and cloud storage.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>The company, based in Israel and Silicon Valley, this week will privately show off its first product at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Called the CloudPlug, it's a small embedded Linux appliance that sits between an external hard drive and a router to turn the drive into network-attached storage. The CloudPlug plugs directly into a wall socket and has a USB port for attachment to an external hard drive and a Gigabit Ethernet port for connection to the router. Ctera also plans to sell appliances with hard drives built in. None will require users to load or maintain software on their PCs, said Ctera Founder and CEO Liran Eshel.[ See also:  "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/21/Amazon_launches_EC2_cloud_storage_1.html?source=fssr">Amazon launches persistent EC2 cloud storage</a>" and "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/22/EMCs-forecast-cloud-storage-and-flash-drives_1.html?source=fssr">EMC's forecast: cloud storage and flash drives</a>" | Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/news/?source=fssr">InfoWorld News</a>, or subscribe to the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr">Today's Headlines newsletter</a>. ]Ctera expects all of its products to be delivered by ISPs or managed service providers as part of monthly services rather than being sold. The services would include ongoing backup over the network, but all the data would still reside on a local drive and be available at LAN speeds, Eshel said. The appliance and backup service could take the place of a file server and tape backup system that would require some IT expertise to operate and maintain, Eshel said. These services should be available later this year, he said.The company aims to take some complexity out of the "cloud storage" concept for the consumers or small businesses that would use it. All users will need to do is plug in the appliance, or attach it to an existing drive and set up the service via a Web interface. The on-site storage can be used both for regular local backups and for sharing files. The Ctera appliances will be managed over the network by the service provider, using a back-end product also provided by Ctera. The service provider could host the backup storage capacity itself or buy it from an online services company such as Amazon.com.Eshel estimated the services would be sold for tens to hundreds of dollars per month, depending on capacity and WAN speed. The company is approaching service providers around the world and believes its products will be most popular with carriers that offer very high-speed broadband services such as fiber to the home or DOCSIS 3.0, a fast cable technology. Eventually, Ctera may sell its technology for inclusion in other devices a carrier might offer, such as home gateways, Eshel said.Ctera's approach <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/22/EMCs-forecast-cloud-storage-and-flash-drives_1.html">differs from that of Mozy</a>, the online backup company <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/11/19/EMC-targetsconsumers-with-own-brand_1.html">acquired in 2007 by EMC</a>, in that it requires no PC software and includes both local and remote storage, Eshel said.Some other cloud-storage vendors, including Seagate's i365, offer options that include on-site storage, said Henry Baltazar, an analyst at The 451 Group. But none has tailored this to the home and small-business market the way Ctera has, he added. Including on-site storage as well as a cloud backup allows users to back up and restore their data even when their network connection is down, which is an important safeguard, he said. Although cloud storage is emerging as the best approach for backup, providing greater flexibility than tape, it is not yet ideal for primary storage because of performance and availability concerns, Baltazar said.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=7d09798ac03e19ffa5b90fddffeb03a7&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=7d09798ac03e19ffa5b90fddffeb03a7&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=7d09798ac03e19ffa5b90fddffeb03a7" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:06:47 GMT

Apple says goodbye to Macworld, without Jobs
<div class="rxbodyfield">There was a standing ovation at the Macworld Conference and Expo this year, but it wasn't for Steve Jobs or a hot new Apple product.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>It was for singer Tony Bennett, who closed an otherwise lackluster keynote address -- Apple's last at the conference -- by Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller. To be fair, Schiller had been given a tough assignment, filling in for Apple CEO Jobs, who dropped out as a keynoter just weeks before the show.[ Special report: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=121433&source=fssr">Macworld Expo 2009</a> ]During the Tuesday keynote, Apple didn't deliver anything as breathtaking as the next iPhone, but it did come up with a few new offerings for the faithful, such as versions of its iLife and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/06/Apple_adds_productivity_features_to_iWork_1.html">iWork software</a> and a slim 17-inch MacBook Pro that will ship with new long-lasting batteries that will keep the laptop running for as long as eight hours. The company also introduced a competitor to Google Docs called iWork.com and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/06/iTunes_Store_goes_DRM_free_1.html">announced plans to start making all music on its iTunes store available under its iTunes Plus program, so free of digital rights management</a>.For years, Apple has used Macworld as a stage for launching some of its most exciting products. But with Jobs missing this year and Apple saying that it would not participate in future Macworld conferences, pundits had figured that Apple might hold off on any ground-breaking product news at this year's show. They were right.Apple's most interesting news related to iTunes.Apple began introducing freely copyable iTunes music last year when it began selling songs from EMI's catalog for an extra $0.30 per song under a program called iTunes Plus. On Tuesday, Schiller said that Apple has now expanded iTunes plus to cover 8 million of the 10 million iTunes songs. By the end of March, the entire song catalog will be available under the program, he said.In another big change for music lovers, Apple will also begin selling its regular iTunes songs at two new prices, starting in April: $0.69 per song and $1.29 per song. To date, regular iTunes songs have gone for a flat rate of $0.99.For Mac OS fans, the big news was the new <a href="http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/features-17inch.html">17-inch MacBook Pro</a>. Based on the same aluminum unibody design as the 13-inch and 15-inch versions of the laptop, the model will be less than an inch (2.5 cm) thick and will weigh 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms). But Schiller called the laptop's redesigned battery, which will last three hours longer than its predecessor, its "most innovative feature." Apple says that the new battery, which will use a microchip to control current flow, can be fully recharged 1,000 times, about three times the industry standard.Schiller kicked off his keynote by introducing a new version of Apple's iLife suite of multimedia software. Expected by the end of the month, iLife 09 will include jazzed up editing software that integrates with Google Maps to let users create maps of where their videos and photos were taken. The suite's iPhoto software will have new face-recognition features and will also be integrated with Facebook and Flickr.The new Garageband 09 software will come with new multimedia piano and guitar lessons for beginners. For $4.99, users will be able to buy a lesson from music stars like Sting, John Fogerty,and Norah Jones. Budding musicians will be able to follow the lessons on their Macs, looking at videos of the instructors, finger positioning, and musical scores all at the same time. "It's so simple and such a breakthrough way to learn music," Schiller said.Available immediately, the iWork office suite will let users access an online service called iWork.com, where they can share iWork documents, Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF documents with others, much in the same fashion as Google Docs. Apple plans to eventually start charging for iWork.com, but for now the service is available as a free beta for Apple users, Schiller said.Macworld is run by International Data Group, which also owns the IDG News Service.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=cd72a3de55c8edd9590ab11a57d20131&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=cd72a3de55c8edd9590ab11a57d20131&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=cd72a3de55c8edd9590ab11a57d20131" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:49:08 GMT

Vista's flaws surface again on eve of Windows 7 beta
<div class="rxbodyfield">Attendees of the International Conference on Cyber Security 2009 in New York Tuesday were reminded of the shortcomings of Windows Vista a day before Microsoft is expected to reveal the first beta for its follow-up, Windows 7.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>Microsoft Investigative Consultant Michael Dunner asked attendees how many of them have used Vista as he gave a presentation on the security differences between that OS and Windows 7.[ Related: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/02/49FE-windows-7-great-debate_1.html?source=fssr">InfoWorld's Randall C. Kennedy and OSNews' Thom Holwerda went head-to-head on how to assess Windows 7's changes</a> | Kennedy: <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisedesktop/archives/2008/12/vista_sp2_the_n.html?source=fssr">Vista SP2 is the new standard</a> ]When people in the audience raised their hands, Dunner then asked, "How many of you like it?" Only about half of those who acknowledged using Vista raised their hands.Dunner also called Vista's UAC (User Account Control) feature "annoying" and one of its "biggest problems," to which one audience member responded, "Yes, it is annoying."Problems with UAC have been widely publicized and even spoofed by television commercials from competitor Apple. The feature was meant to improve the security of Vista by preventing users without administrative privileges from making unauthorized changes to a PC. But because of how it was set up, it can prevent even authorized users from being able to access applications and features through a series of screen prompts that interrupt normal user workflow to ask for account privileges.Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil the Windows 7 beta during his keynote Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/09/Microsoft_to_improve_Vistas_problematic_UAC_in_Windows_7_1.html">Microsoft has publicly acknowledged the limitations of UAC</a>. The company has called it one of Vista's most "controversial" features and has said it will improve the feature in Windows 7 to make it more efficient and to reduce the number of prompts users receive.Dunner's comments and the lackluster audience response to Vista Tuesday was evidence of users' overall disappointment with the OS, which many view as a failure for Microsoft. In addition to problems consumers have reported, many business customers have opted to skip Vista and run Windows XP until Windows 7 is available.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=8afddef0bbebfd1c97fd2365ed8be10a&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=8afddef0bbebfd1c97fd2365ed8be10a&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=8afddef0bbebfd1c97fd2365ed8be10a" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:25:07 GMT

Curl bolsters RIA data access
<div class="rxbodyfield">Curl, maker of the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/29/curl-ria_1.html" class="regularArticleU">Curl Rich Internet Application Platform</a> for Internet development, on Tuesday is releasing Curl Data Kit Data Services, providing an alternative to cumbersome XML-based data access for Curl applications.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>Instead of XML, Curl's data services library leverages Adobe AMF (Action Message Format), a binary protocol for exchanging data between an RIA client and server platforms, Curl said.[ Related: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/30/Adobe-opening-up-Flash_1.html?source=fssr" class="regularArticleU">Adobe opened up access to AMF last year.</a> ]"Today, most access to databases is through XML," which is verbose and slow, said Richard Treadway, vice president of marketing and product strategy at Curl. Using AMF provides higher performance, he said.The initial release of the of the library implements remoting and Web messaging services supported by the open-source BlazeDS server, including publish/subscribe, RPC, and security and authorization capabilities. Communication with the server is asynchronous, which is an important option for usability and keeps the user interface active while waiting for a response from the server, Curl said.Curl features a language and runtime environment that installs on the client. By running native on the client as opposed to being in an interpretive fashion, Curl applications offer performance advantages, Treadway said.The free library can be accessed at <a href="http://www.curl.com/developer/libraries/cdkds/index.php" class="regularArticleU">this Web page</a>.Curl said the data services library continues Curl's initiative to provide libraries for data-centric applications. The CDK library released in July 2008 offered support for local SQL databases, for storage and retrieval of data using the SQLite engine.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=283413c71cbdbaf3ec057e9d51387d92&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=283413c71cbdbaf3ec057e9d51387d92&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=283413c71cbdbaf3ec057e9d51387d92" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:08:23 GMT

iTunes Store goes DRM-free
<div class="rxbodyfield">Apple has announced three significant changes to its iTunes Store at Macworld Expo, but the first is undoubtedly the biggest news: The music and video download service, which features more than 10 million songs, is finally going DRM-free.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller told the assembled throngs at Macworld Expo this morning that the service has sold six billion songs since going online in 2003. More than 75 million accounts with credit cards have been created thus far.[ Special report: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=121433&source=fssr">Macworld Expo 2009</a> ]No more DRM by the end of March iTunes Plus is Apple's DRM-free encoding for the iTunes Store; music is encoded using the AAC format at 256Kbps. Beginning today, 8 million of the iTunes Store's 10 million songs will be offered without DRM; the entire catalog is expected to go DRM-free by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2009.New pricing structure Since going online, the iTunes Store has retained one pricing model: 99 cents per track, with many albums priced at $9.99. That's changing in April, said Schiller; there will then be three pricing tiers: 99 cents, 69 cents, and $1.29. Schiller assured the crowd that more songs are going to be offered at 69 cents than at $1.29, however.iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store goes 3G The iTunes Music Store previously was limited to allowing purchases on the iPhone only over Wi-Fi; that restriction has been lifted, at least for iPhone 3G users, who can now purchase and download content to their iPhones over a 3G connection. That feature is being implemented today, and provides iPhone users with the same price and selection on the iPhone as they would find on iTunes on the Mac or PC.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.macworld.com/">Macworld</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=9b1e25c89d3bd845d452bba3c0c67ff0&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=9b1e25c89d3bd845d452bba3c0c67ff0&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=9b1e25c89d3bd845d452bba3c0c67ff0" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:32:32 GMT

'Leap second' snafu affects Oracle clusterware
<div class="rxbodyfield">The additional second that time-tracking scientists added to 2008 to adjust for the slowing of the earth's rotation is causing problems with Oracle's CRS (Cluster Ready Services) clusterware, but a pair of fixes are available, said an Oracle document dated Monday.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>CRS is used in conjunction with Oracle's Real Application Clusters software, which allows one Oracle database to be deployed on a group of servers or "nodes," providing fault tolerance and scalability.[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr">InfoWorld Test Center</a>. ]The "leap second event" is causing CRS nodes to reboot, according to an Oracle document detailing the problem. Among the affected platforms are Oracle Server Enterprise Edition Version 10.1.0.2 to 11.1.0.7; Sun Solaris SPARC (64-bit); and Oracle CRS and patchsets 10.2.0.1 to 11.1.0.7.Coordinated UTC (Universal Time) is the world's standard for time. UTC is "regularly adjusted by introducing a leap second based on the accumulated difference between the atomic clock time and UT1, the time reflecting the Earth's rotational speed," Oracle said.Leap seconds are handled by the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS), which added one second to Dec. 31.Due to this, "NTP daemons had to adjust time accordingly and CRS product stack has encountered problems resulting in node reboots," the Oracle document states.NTP, which stands for Network Time Protocol, is the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ntp.org/ntpfaq/NTP-s-def.htm">standard</a> used for synchronizing the clocks of computers. NTP employs UTC for a reference time.The reboots will occur on affected nodes only when two specific conditions are present, which are detailed in Oracle's announcement. The document also includes two methods for fixing the issue, including available patches.A spokesman for Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.The rebooting issue prompted some <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?do=post_view_flat;post=110928;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;list=nanog">discussion</a> on user <a target="_blank" href="http://www.freelists.org/post/oracle-l/Leap-Second-cause-Cluster-crashes-for-anyone">forums</a> and lists in recent days."This begs the question -- how the heck do timekeepers and politicians get away with last minute time changes?" one user posted. "Surely there's some pushback from technology-related interest groups to try and get more than four weeks warning?"Other posters, however, pointed out that the IERS announcement regarding the most recent leap second was made in <a target="_blank" href="http://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/bulletinc.36">July 2008</a>.Oracle's announcement is one of the latest leap-year related bugs to surface. Last week, one involved Microsoft's Zune media player.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=7c75676d1e5c9801ac10610eed1f461a&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=7c75676d1e5c9801ac10610eed1f461a&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=7c75676d1e5c9801ac10610eed1f461a" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:17:00 GMT

Apple adds productivity features to iWork
<div class="rxbodyfield">Apple announced a new version of iWork, its collection of business productivity tools, during Tuesday's <a target="_blank" href="http://www.macworld.com/article/137730/2009/01/expo_live.html">Macworld Expo keynote</a>. iWork '09 features new versions of Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>The updated version of Keynote, iWork's presentation component, adds a Magic Move feature in which users set a start and endpoint for slides and the program figures out the options for moving objects between them. The update also adds new transitions and themes.[ Special report: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/t.jsp?N=s&V=121433&source=fssr">Macworld Expo 2009</a> ]Another new feature -- Keynote Remote -- is an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that lets you control your presentation from your mobile device. The application will cost $1.Pages '09 is highlighted by the addition of full-screen view that lets users focus completely on their writing project. Moving the mouse up to the top of the screen gives users access to Pages' menus.The new version of Pages also adds a dynamic outline feature for organizing writing projects. The page view reflects any changes you make to the outline.Other additions to Pages include support for MathType and EndNote formulas for scientists and academics and new templates.Finally, Numbers '09 adds table categories to the spreadsheet application. Select a "categorize by this column" choice, and Numbers automatically creates a table based on that category.A new formula window in Numbers lets you choose from many different functions -- more than 250 -- with variables.Numbers also features new chart options, including mixed chart types, multi-axis charts, charts with trendlines, and error bars. Users can link charts into Pages as well, with changes reflected in both iWork apps.iWork '09 is shipping now. It costs $79, with a family pack available for $99. Apple is also bundling iWork '09 with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.macworld.com/article/137943/2009/01/ilife09.html">iLife '09</a> in a $169 Mac Box Set that also includes Leopard. The box set ships later this month.More information about iWork '09 will be posted shortly.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.macworld.com/">Macworld</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=0a1b97b7d6d76108bf6abc32d6084e80&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=0a1b97b7d6d76108bf6abc32d6084e80&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=0a1b97b7d6d76108bf6abc32d6084e80" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:08:28 GMT

Apple lacks broad corporate strategy but sees gains
<div class="rxbodyfield">You won't hear much talk about corporate IT at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/search/tagresults.html?t=2&s=MacWorld&ap1=tg">Apple's Macworld Conference</a> this week, but the maker of the iPhone and the Mac is nonetheless making steady progress in the enterprise technology world.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>More companies are bringing Macs within their networks and increasing support for the iPhone, recent surveys show. Macs are generally pricier than <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/topics/windows.html">Windows PCs</a> but an increasing number of companies are letting employees choose their own desktops and many of them are choosing Macs, says Pund-IT analyst Charles King.[ InfoWorld explains <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/06/01FE-mac-business-adoption_1.html?source=fssr">why businesses are embracing Macs</a>, and offers these <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/06/01FE-mac-windows-mix_1.html?source=fssr">real-life stories about companies that have added Macs to the mix</a>, including the good and bad lessons learned along the way. ]"We're seeing an increasing number of companies that are allowing their employees much broader latitude in the computers they use for business," King says. "Personally, I'm seeing more and more Macs on the road when I travel."Several surveys back up King's statement. In one <a target="_blank" href="http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,46545,00.html">report</a>, Forrester Research chided Apple for not having an enterprise strategy, but said Mac usage among Forrester clients has still quadrupled since October 2006, moving from 1.1 to 4.5 percent of desktops."Apple's singular focus on user experience has resulted in some success in the enterprise -- without even trying to break into the market," Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray writes. Gray says the success of the iPhone is driving desktop operations professionals to seek better end-to-end experiences with the Mac, and younger, tech-savvy workers are choosing Macs because they feel the Apple computers enhance productivity.While Macs represent fewer than one in 20 corporate desktops, more than two-thirds of companies responding to a survey by ITIC analyst Laura DiDio say they are likely to let users deploy Macs within the next year. Nearly one-quarter of the 700 survey participants had at least 50 Macintoshes in their organizations, DiDio writes.Moreover, 50 percent of ITIC survey respondents plan to increase integration with Apple consumer products such as the iPhone to give users access to corporate <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/topics/messaging.html">e-mail</a> and other applications, DiDio writes.When the iPhone first appeared, analysts at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/061907-apple-iphone-gartner.html">Gartner</a> warned enterprises that the device lacked crucial security features and support for widely used e-mail systems such as Microsoft Exchange.King says he's not convinced the iPhone offers productivity benefits over the BlackBerry, but says concerns about merging the iPhone with existing e-mail systems seem to have disappeared.Forrester predicts that 10 percent of small and midsize businesses (SMB) will deploy iPhones in 2009, but adoption won't be as strong among large enterprises, which have stricter IT requirements."Now that the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/102607-arguments-lotus-notes-microsoft-exchange.html?nwwpkg=50arguments">iPhone 3G supports</a> Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, push e-mail, contacts and calendar, and can be remotely wiped if lost or stolen, it does indeed address key business mobility requirements," Forrester analyst Michele Pelino writes. "As a result, we believe that the iPhone will make a more significant dent in the enterprise mobility market, primarily among SMBs, which typically don't have as strict IT requirements as large enterprises or widespread line-of-business application deployments."Apple has not had as much success with its line of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.apple.com/server/">business servers</a>, including the Mac OS X Server, the Mac Pro and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/heisler">Xserve</a>.Apple's server revenue market share was just one-tenth of one percent in the third quarter of 2008, with revenue of $13 million on 7,403 server shipments, according to Gartner data. Apple's number of shipments was higher than in 2007 but revenue still dropped slightly.Apple recently lured server expert <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/103108-ibm-apple.html">Mark Papermaster</a> away from IBM, where he had worked for 26 years and was the company's top official working on Power microprocessors and the vice president of IBM's blade server development unit.IBM sued Apple to block it from hiring Papermaster, saying he had signed a noncompetition agreement and that Apple competes against IBM in developing servers, PCs and microprocessors. (Compare <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/productguides/?notabs=1&pg=881355 products">server products.</a>)  The case is still working its way through court, but Apple says it hired Papermaster not to help it develop better servers but to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/11/04papermaster.html">lead engineering</a> for iPods and iPhones. Apple may want to tap Papermaster's market and partnering expertise to broaden the reach of the iPhone further into the enterprise, says Gartner analyst Jeffrey Hewitt.In terms of servers, Apple has made multiple attempts over the years to penetrate that market with limited success, says Forrester analyst James Staten. The servers are attractive for needs such as video and photo editing and publishing, and video game development, he says. IT folks who already use Mac desktops sometimes want a "Mac-like server" that's easy to use and install, Hewitt adds.But while Apple servers are competitive in terms of horsepower they don't meet typical enterprise standards, according to Staten, who notes a lack of integration with remote management tools that make it easier to identify failures and potential fixes."It's a big leap to assume an Apple would be able to become a Tier 1 server provider," he says.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/">Network World</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=33c111ca7660409d68612bb0b9ae5869&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=33c111ca7660409d68612bb0b9ae5869&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=33c111ca7660409d68612bb0b9ae5869" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:52:01 GMT

Microsoft bangs 'Apple tax' drum once again
<div class="rxbodyfield">Microsoft on Monday again pushed its claim that consumers pay an "Apple tax" when they buy Mac hardware rather than PCs running the Windows operating system.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>In an e-mail to reporters Monday, Microsoft repeated the argument it first made last October, a day before rival <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=search&searchTerms=Apple+Inc.">Apple Inc.</a> was slated to make a major product announcement. The next day, Apple <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=macintosh_os&articleId=9117145">unveiled new MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks</a>.[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr">InfoWorld Test Center</a>. ]Microsoft again pitted Mac prices against similarly configured Windows PCs from the likes of Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Not surprisingly, Microsoft's comparisons put Apple's hardware at a disadvantage, with the "tax" ranging from 16 percent, or $100, for the entry-level Mac Mini to 25 percent, or $300, for the lowest-priced iMac desktop.Microsoft also played the recession card as it knocked Apple's prices. "We're in the midst of difficult economic times -- declining retail sales and lower consumer confidence," a Microsoft spokeswoman said. "People are...demanding more substance with their style in a computer. They simply do not have the luxury of spending more for less."Windows PCs are offering the best value on the market," she argued, "while Apple continues to impose high price premiums on their Mac designs, offering only modest discounts of 5 to 10 percent."Prior to the holidays, some retailers did <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=laptops&articleId=9121339">cut Mac prices</a>, including the newest <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=search&searchTerms=Apple+MacBook">MacBook</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=search&searchTerms=Apple+MacBook+Pro">MacBook Pro</a> laptops, by up to 10 percent.Microsoft's tax-talk timing was not coincidental: Apple will likely <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9124918">make several product announcements later Tuesday</a> when Philip Schiller, the company's head marketing executive, gives the keynote to open this year's Macworld Conference & Expo.CEO <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=search&searchTerms=Steve+Jobs">Steve Jobs</a>, who has traditionally handled the duty, bowed out last month. Yesterday, Jobs announced that he is <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9124799">undergoing treatment</a> for what he described as a hormone imbalance that has caused him to lose weight.Ironically, Microsoft, whose Office 2008 suite is one of the best selling Mac programs, also hung the "Apple tax" label on software. "It's more expensive to replace your applications on a Mac and more difficult to find applications that work with a Mac," said the Microsoft spokeswoman.According to the NPD Group, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Retail&articleId=9123603">Apple's prices may be impacting sales</a>. Retail Mac sales fell 1 percent in November compared to the year before, the research company said last month. "Apple's not immune to the economy," said NPD analyst Stephen Baker at the time.Sales of Windows PCs during November, however, were up 7 percent over the same time the year before. "If December looks similar, if [Apple doesn't] crush the rest of the market [in growth], then that might convince me to say that they need to lower prices," Baker said two weeks ago.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/">Computerworld</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=b7dad72dc5bfc1a54fa38d891fb0cc12&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=b7dad72dc5bfc1a54fa38d891fb0cc12&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=b7dad72dc5bfc1a54fa38d891fb0cc12" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:40:25 GMT

The CAN-SPAM Act as a warning
<div class="rxbodyfield">It is widely expected that the new Congress and administration will be passing a lot of regulations to deal with all sorts of perceived problems. It may be that the now 5-year-old CAN-SPAM Act is one of the better examples of what not to do as far as regulations go.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>When it was passed, the act (official name: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) was touted -- by the politicians at least -- as a tool to help control the growth of spam. Few of us in the tech world thought it would do any good, and in fact, the general feeling was that it was actually designed to legitimize unsolicited e-mail (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.sobco.com/nww/2003/bradner-2003-12-08.html">see</a> "Can: to be enabled by law").[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/securityadviser/?source=fssr">Security Adviser blog</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr">newsletter</a>, both from InfoWorld. ]Back in October, Network World's Carolyn Duffy Marsan <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/100608-can-spam.html">reviewed the legislation</a> and asked, "What went wrong?" Her article did a good job of covering the act and its status as a failure. It may be, however, that some important lessons were more hinted at than articulated.The most important lesson is to not let the industry you are claiming to regulate write the regulations. The CAN-SPAM Act was written to legitimize the business of spam, and it was written to satisfy the spammers themselves. A spam-related regulation that really was aimed at providing relief for Internet users would have started with an opt-in requirement -- an opt-in requirement that did not have an exemption for a theoretical previous business relationship.The next most important lesson is to give enforcement to somebody who cares. The Network World article reported that as of a year ago, the Federal Trade Commission had brought about 30 law-enforcement actions. In the face of more than 100 billion spam messages per year, 30 actions barely qualify as a pin prick. It is clear that the FTC either just does not care about the law or has actively decided it should ignore spam. (Along the same line, it might not be a good thing for federal regulations to override stronger state regulations.)Yet another important lesson is that legislation should address the people who benefit from bad behavior. A far more effective antispam act would have gone after the companies using spam to advertise their wares and services, as well as after the ISPs supporting the spammers.Having an antispam act that really was designed to fight spam would not have stopped it, but in looking at what happened when McColo was taken down last November (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/gwm/2008/111708msg1.html">see</a> "The spam problem was mostly solved last Tuesday"), one can see what could have happened if there had been a concerned enforcement agency and a law that went after spam supporters.Government regulations all too frequently do far more damage than god -- as the CAN-SPAN Act did. Thus it's often better not to regulate -- but in view of the lessons from the banking and too many other crises, not regulating essentially is a non-option.So, I expect the Obama crowd will have plenty of chances over the next few years to do better than CAN-SPAM. How well they do will be a good indicator of the relative strengths of the impulse to do something good for Internet users and the impulse to do something good for well-heeled lobbyists promising campaign donations.Disclaimer: I know of no university position on the CAN-SPAM Act or on the altruism of the lobbyists who helped shape it, so the above is my own set of lessons to be learned.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.networkworld.com/">Network World</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=3878dbeeb5370a5fdeeed8691ac70eac&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=3878dbeeb5370a5fdeeed8691ac70eac&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=3878dbeeb5370a5fdeeed8691ac70eac" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:01:08 GMT

Videoconferencing services pick up where travel budgets leave off
<div class="rxbodyfield">The first <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9120323">round of layoffs</a> has taken hold, your <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=325980">annual bonus</a> seems like a cruel joke, and travel is off-limits. So how are you going to give your presentation next week in Omaha to show off your company's upcoming products to your biggest customer?<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>I have one word for you: videoconferencing. By combining video and audio over the Internet, businesspeople can present ideas and work together digitally. In other words, it's time to collaborate and interact with people across the planet without leaving the office.[ Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/news/?source=fssr">InfoWorld News</a>, or subscribe to the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr">Today's Headlines newsletter</a>. ]"As travel gets squeezed out of budgets, videoconferences are increasingly becoming the way business is being done," explains Roopam Jain, principal analyst at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/frost-home.pag">Frost & Sullivan</a>. "It can provide face time without getting in the way of working."In fact, videoconferencing is already having an effect on business. Rip Curl, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based maker of surfing equipment, conducts video calls so that its designers, marketers, and manufacturers can collaborate on new products. 1-800-Flowers.com conducts video meetings to make sure that seasonal employees can consistently create its most elaborate holiday decorations. Executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International conducts video interviews to screen potential candidates before presenting them to clients.Getting better In the past, videoconferencing wasn't much of an alternative. Desktop videoconferencing systems rightfully got a black eye for choppy video, out-of-sync audio, and a lack of reliability. The only way to conduct a high-quality videoconference was to use a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028109">dedicated video room</a> that required an investment upward of $100,000, or rental fees between $500 and $1,000 an hour.Today's videoconferencing services have improved to the point where they can give the dedicated rooms a run for their money. These services provide the ability to talk face-to-face with someone across town or across the globe, share documents and make annotations, at a fraction the cost of a dedicated video room.It helps that most current desktop and notebook computers have sufficient power for decent videoconferencing. Obviously, the machine needs to have video camera, audio and reasonably up-to-date graphics, but these are becoming standard on even the cheapest notebooks these days.A 50Kbps or 100Kbps Internet connection is adequate. This allows the peripatetic among us to use a Wi-Fi connection at a hotel or cafe and even a cell-network data card to connect.To get a handle on the state of the art of videoconferencing services, I signed up for three business services that let people talk, see one another, interact and exchange ideas online: SightSpeed Business, InterCall Genesys Meeting Center, and WebEx Meeting Center. They all put businesspeople face to face and offer the ability to collaborate with each other. They differ, however, on price, how easy they are to use and the quality of the video they display.InterCall Genesys Meeting Center By integrating the ability to view each participant while sharing any application with the group, InterCall's Genesys Meeting Center points the way to a future where we won't have to travel as much. Unfortunately, Meeting Center sells for three times what the other products go for.To get started, Genesys requires that you download and install a 14MB application. It takes about 10 minutes to load, set up, and be ready to make your first video call, but the software is only for PCs, not Macs or Linux computers like the others are. Non-PC conference participants can view the action via any up-to-date browser, but they can't be seen by the conference's other participants.Once the software is installed, Genesys adds buttons to Microsoft Outlook and Messenger as well as Lotus Notes for setting up a conference, making it the quickest and easiest in this roundup for getting a videoconference started.However, it doesn't set up the system's hardware as completely as SightSpeed does -- you'll need to tell the application where your camera is, as well as adjust parameters such as frame rate and resolution to suit your circumstances.A Genesys videoconference starts with a traditional phone call, with either the host calling in or the server automatically calling the host. Other participants can use VoIP for audio. There's no limit to the number of conference participants, but you can see only nine at a time.As host, you can choose to open with a rather bland welcome screen or a presentation. After that, you can advance slides and annotate them with excellent tools, including lines and symbols. In testing, there was a slight delay between the actual annotation and the broadcast, and the movement of the pen or cursor was not as smooth as it was with WebEx.Unfortunately, while Genesys excels in application sharing, its video is from the Dark Ages. The best it can do is about 10 frames per second; at times during testing, it displayed no better than 3 or 4 frames per second. The video is restricted to a small window, and you can't see both sending and receiving videos at once, a feature that's available on SightSpeed and WebEx.Genesys has a polling feature and a mute button; however, you can't freeze the video or put up a gray screen to protect your privacy. Unlike SightSpeed, you can't have a video chat with a support technician, although the company's support hot line is open 24 hours a day.Genesys was not only able to work on wired and Wi-Fi connections but did well with a cell-network data connection. The most expensive of the three, it costs $75 a month to use, although that comes down to $50 a month if a company buys 50 subscriptions. You can also set up conferences on the fly for 35 cents per minute. A 15-day free trial is available.All told, Genesys Meeting Center lives up to its name by providing a place to support interaction and collaboration, but it falls short on video quality.SightSpeed Business The newest of the three services, SightSpeed Business has been designed from the ground up to deliver top-quality video -- and makes the most of it with an incredibly easy interface that puts everything needed at your fingertips. While it provides the user with a variety of video features, SightSpeed doesn't allow participants to share what's on their desktops, but they can send files in the background that can be run locally.Compatible with Windows and Mac systems, the SightSpeed application takes about five minutes to download and install. (Linux users can attend conferences via a Web browser.) After setup, the program searches your system, locates the webcam and optimizes its own settings for the hardware at hand.If you don't like the result, you can manually tweak all the settings. At any time, you can type Control-S to see statistics like frames per second, resolution and bandwidth, which are excellent for optimizing the video or troubleshooting a problem.While WebEx and Genesys hide some major functions in a traditional Windows menu structure (it can take three or more mouse clicks to get to them), SightSpeed places them on buttons right out in front where you can't miss them. For example, it takes only one click to record a videoconference, while the others require you to wade through a traditional menu structure.My favorite feature is SightSpeed's address book, which has photos of all your contacts. Just click on the camera icon, and you're making a call; alternatively, you can set up an audioconference or text chat, or send the person a video e-mail. At the bottom of the screen are controls for the current call, audio and video; at any time, you can mute the audio or freeze the video.You can see up to nine participants at all times, along with an inset of the video your system is sending -- something that Genesys' Meeting Center doesn't have. There is also a feature that lets the moderator take a poll of those connected.The service can handle video at up to 640-by-480 resolution; it automatically scales back if your available bandwidth declines. During test conferences, the video was limited to roughly 320-by-240 resolution but still looked good, without any choppiness or out-of-sync audio. SightSpeed's video showed good color balance, although the image could get washed out by bright lights in the background.There's a slight delay in switching from one participant to another, but the whole system worked surprisingly well, regardless of whether it was connected via a LAN cable, Wi-Fi or a cell-network data card.If something goes wrong, SightSpeed has tech support people available from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Pacific) weekdays for a video chat. The other two videoconferencing services reviewed here have support personnel available 24/7 but rely on e-mail and phone calls to troubleshoot problems.Logitech, the computer peripheral maker, recently bought SightSpeed, but the company says it has no plans to change the basic offering or pricing. At $20 for a monthly subscription, this service is cheap but limited in what it can do. You can cut that to $14 per seat if you buy 50 subscriptions. On top of video, SightSpeed offers inexpensive VoIP phone calls, and the monthly plan includes 500 minutes of talk time within the U.S. and Canada; after that, it costs 2 cents per minute.Overall, SightSpeed is a great offering for those who want to see who they're talking to, but it won't work for users who need the ability to work together on a document or presentation.WebEx Meeting Center A division of networking giant Cisco, WebEx is the industry leader in desktop videoconferencing -- the company hosts 125,000 videoconferences a month. While the WebEx Meeting Center service does a great job of providing a place to collaborate, it lags on video.It took me less than five minutes to download and install the WebEx client, which is available for a full range of systems, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and even Sun's Solaris flavor of Unix. This is the only product in its class with such a wide variety of client software.As with Genesys, WebEx allows conference participants to attend via a Web browser instead of downloading the client, although only as passive viewers and listeners.On the downside, there's a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_security_advisory09186a00809e2006.shtml">known vulnerability</a> with WebEx's ActiveX component that might allow outsiders to take control of your computer. I hope that it will be plugged sometime soon.Also, like Genesys', WebEx's software requires that you do some manual configuration of the video stream after installation. You'll need to pick the frame rate (up to 15 frames per second) and video resolution (128-by-96, 176-by-144, or 352-by-288). These choices are quite a bit lower resolution than the others'.The video stream is relegated to a small window but, unlike with Genesys, you can see yourself as well as the other participants at the same time. While the program's interface has a mute button, you'll need to use the computer's controls to adjust the volume, and there's no blank screen or video-freeze option.As with the other applications in this round, in addition to scheduling a conference, you can start one right away or attend an existing one. Scheduling isn't as easy as the one-click Outlook, Messenger and Notes integration that Genesys has. The hardest part for WebEx is entering the nine-digit code number and password to attend a conference.Any participant can see up to six other people (the other two let you see nine). A conference starts with a plain old telephone call, but participants can use VoIP to hear what's going on.As host, you can start the show with a presentation slide or a video stream. At any time, you can share your desktop or any document or file. With a nice set of annotation tools, participants can mark up whatever is on-screen and point to interesting areas. In testing, the action was smoother than with Genesys, but there was a slight delay.At $69 a month, WebEx's service is between SightSpeed and Genesys on price; an annual subscription costs $59, and a volume discount for 50 seats cuts the cost to $50 per user.Overall, if your company values collaborating on presentations and other documents more than seeing a sharp and vivid view of the participants, Meeting Manager can help get you all on the same virtual page.How we tested To see how well these videoconferencing services worked, I set up two video workstations: a Dell Vostro 1510 with Windows Vista, and a Lenovo IdeaBook S-10 with Windows XP. Each had a built-in webcam. One system was set up with a wired Ethernet connection to a cable data connection, and the other to either a Wi-Fi connection at a Starbucks or AT&T's 3G mobile data connection.After loading in each videoconferencing application and familiarizing myself with the service and interface, I initiated a call between the two stations and evaluated each, taking into consideration video delay, audio echo, and the quality of synchronization and video.Then I tried to freeze the video, mute the audio and record the call (assuming these features were available). Finally, I sent files and transferred or shared an application between the systems while continuing the conference.Conclusions SightSpeed Business provides excellent video but lacks the ability to share an active application or what's on a desktop; you can send a file to other participants, however. In contrast, the similarly named InterCall Genesys Meeting Center and WebEx Meeting Center let you share whatever application is running as well as video and audio, but both lag on video quality and are quite a bit more expensive.If I had my way (and I rarely do), I'd create an amalgam of the three services that is equally good at displaying video as it is at sharing applications and has a client for every major computer platform. After all, every successful meeting is a combination of personal interaction and the work at hand.Still, videoconferencing is the best way to go to a meeting anywhere in the world and still sleep in your own bed at night. Compare these three and pick the one that's best for your business.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/">Computerworld</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=b4e094160eaf85a97ef9a650814283d8&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=b4e094160eaf85a97ef9a650814283d8&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=b4e094160eaf85a97ef9a650814283d8" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:39:47 GMT

Landing interviews in a tough market
<div class="rxbodyfield">Even when the economy is thriving, landing interviews for IT positions can be daunting. Under today's challenging conditions, it may feel like a distant possibility. While <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110724">market realities</a> have indeed made it more difficult to secure <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=112244&pageNumber=1">job interviews</a>, they don't affect every job seeker equally. The fact is that some companies are conducting interviews. The candidates who approach their search in a persistent, strategic and positive way are the ones most likely to be taking advantage of those opportunities.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>Challenge your assumptions The first mistake many job seekers make is to assume that companies aren't hiring. There's always a need for skilled IT professionals, even when cutbacks affect other business areas. Keep your eyes and ears open, and don't discount any possibilities. Think of past positions you've held -- did they come about in an orderly, predictable way, or through an <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9112730">unexpected connection</a> or chain of events?[ Don't forget to <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/22/52NF-tech-resume-tips_1.html?source=fssr">buff up your resume</a>. InfoWorld has tips to spiff up your CV. | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld's <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/lewis/?source=fssr">Advice Line blog</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr">newsletter</a>. ]Likewise, you never know which contact will lead to another contact who ultimately leads you to a promising opportunity. Word of mouth is at its most valuable during turbulent times. Make a list of people in -- or near -- your network who might be able to provide job leads or move your resume to the top of the pile. Use <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Development&articleId=9121299&taxonomyId=11&pageNumber=1">online tools such as Facebook</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9065398">LinkedIn</a> to augment your in-person efforts, and bring people on the outskirts of your network inside it.Also consider expanding your search. If your area of the country has been hit especially hard, are you willing to search for employment elsewhere? If so, take some time to identify regions where the economy has remained relatively strong. Sources such as the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/portal/site/rht-us/menuitem.e4ac4ca54cc4ad003ebda20c02f3dfa0/?vgnextoid=9f2d9926053d8010VgnVCM1000002d3ffd0aRCRD">Robert Half Technology Salary Guide</a> can help you identify areas where demand might be higher for your skills and experience.Do your homework Especially during difficult economic conditions, hiring managers are likely to favor candidates who have made an effort to learn about the firm's challenges rather than merely sending out generic pleas for employment. Before applying for a position, learn about the employer and its needs. Your cover letter and resume should clearly convey how your skills and experience can help meet those needs.Start by doing some research online about the company's history, industry, market, chief competitors, and business objectives. Because most of your competition for a position will also have done at least a little homework about the company, try to find information that isn't widely available. Use your network to gain a more intimate sense of the business from people who have worked there.Get face time IT job candidates who are focused exclusively on quickly landing an offer often neglect informational interviews, which can be set up with a simple call or e-mail.While you shouldn't approach such interviews with the express purpose of landing a job, meeting with a hiring manager at a company you're interested in can provide you with a valuable connection and help you identify skills that you need to improve. It's also a relatively nonstressful way to build your confidence and hone your <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=286682">interviewing skills</a>. And even if it does neither of those things, simply making personal contact with employers can prevent feelings of frustration and isolation when you're unemployed.An informational interview is one chance to differentiate yourself from the competition -- not only with your skills and experience, but also with your attitude. During tight markets, hiring managers meet a lot of candidates who unconsciously exude desperation or resignation -- hardly the attributes that help a company weather difficult times.Why to expect success A positive outlook doesn't mean hiding your frustration with a smile and a hearty handshake. Instead, it should inform all your actions. For example, if you submit a resume and don't hear back promptly, don't assume that the opportunity is dead. Follow up to emphasize your continued interest in the position, and reassert how you think you can help the company. This simple step can dramatically increase your chances of being called in for an interview.Of course, acting as if you expect instant results won't guarantee you a raft of interview invitations or <a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005602">job offers</a>. But if you persist, it will ultimately give you an edge on the competition. It will also help you maintain your focus on your long-term career growth, rather than on your immediate desires or fears. That way, when a promising opportunity does arise, you'll be in the best possible position to seize it.Katherine Spencer Lee is executive director of Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis. Robert Half Technology has more than 100 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at <a href="http://www.rht.com/">www.rht.com</a>.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/">Computerworld</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=8a254b323338ae04214f95bfecbdcd6f&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=8a254b323338ae04214f95bfecbdcd6f&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=8a254b323338ae04214f95bfecbdcd6f" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:21:25 GMT

CES: HTC S743 smartphone is sleek but pricey
<div class="rxbodyfield">One of the many smartphone rumors that have been floating around prior to this year's CES is that T-Mobile will unveil the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/155881/android_g2_rumors_blaze.html">G2</a>, the successor to the Google Android-based G1. People have speculated that the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/154636/hands_on_with_the_htc_touch_hd.html">HTC Touch HD</a>, already available overseas, will be rebranded for the United States as the next Android phone. But so far the only new HTC phone announced at CES is a Windows Mobile phone, the HTC S743.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>Already available in other regions, the HTC S743 handset takes some design cues from last year's <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/32187/review/touch_diamond.html">HTC Touch Diamond</a>. Though the S743 is not a touch-screen device, it does have a distinctive and sophisticated design.[ See how the newest smartphones, including the iPhone 3G, the T-Mobile G1, and the BlackBerry Storm, stack up in <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/11/176-infoworld_s_gui-1.html?source=fssr">InfoWorld's guide to next-gen mobile</a>. | Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr">InfoWorld Test Center</a>. ]This ultraslim smart phone (4.6 by 1.7 by 0.6 inches, 4.9 ounces) features a 12-key number pad and a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Instant messaging and SMS are easily accessible from both the 12-key interface and the keyboard. The handset also has a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera with a second VGA camera for video calling, and Bluetooth compatibility.The biggest drawback of the HTC S743 is its hefty price. The handset will be sold <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/135768/joys_of_unlocked_cell_phones.html">unlocked</a>, which presents both pros and cons. On the upside, it will work on any U.S. GSM network, so it isn't tied to a carrier. On the downside, it won't have a subsidized carrier price, so retailers will determine its cost. HTC is estimating that the phone will cost somewhere between $600 and $700. The company confirms that the S743 will be available later this quarter.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.pcworld.com/">PC World</a> is an InfoWorld affiliate.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=423ae675dc40a0ac75fa87b053a7ad65&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=423ae675dc40a0ac75fa87b053a7ad65&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=423ae675dc40a0ac75fa87b053a7ad65" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:15:08 GMT

IP call centers will do well despite VoIP slowdown
<div class="rxbodyfield">Sales of <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/120508-contact-centers.html ">IP contact centers</a> will grow in 2009, but probably not as dramatically as they did in 2008 due to an expected slowdown in sales of IP telephony gear, according to a new Infonetics report.<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"/></a>Worldwide, businesses bought $851 million in IP contact center equipment, up 37% from $622 million in 2007, based on the report, Unified Communications and IP Contact Center Market Share and Forecasts. The 2008 numbers are based on actual sales numbers for the first half of the year and projections for the second half, says Matthias Machowinski, the author of the report.[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr">InfoWorld Test Center</a>. ]That blistering pace will likely not be matched this year because sales of IP phone equipment will drop off due to the overall economic climate. "We expect companies to scrutinize expenditures a lot in 2009," Machowinski says, with some areas such as networking gear to face less dramatic reductions than IP phone systems.Within IP telephony, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/121808-call-center.html">contact centers</a> will do relatively well however for two reasons. First, the transition between TDM phone systems and IP phone systems is still in progress, and will continue. IP contact centers ride that trend, he says.And second, improved efficiency and capability that IP contact centers can deliver promise a better bottom line for businesses that rely on the centers for sales and customer service, he says. "IP contact centers can drive costs out of customer interactions," by making them quicker and tying up agents for less time per call so they can handle more calls, he says."We still expect IP contact center sales to grow," Machowinski says, "But if you go from 37% to 5%, let's say, it could be considered a disappointment."Avaya leads competitors in both the number of seats sold and in revenues, controlling 40% of the seats and 35% of the revenues, with Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent lagging behind. Cisco, however, is gaining, perhaps as a consequence of its success selling IP PBXs. "[An IP contact center] is a logical follow-up sale to an IP PBX," Machowinski says.</div> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=6a98ba56767490d926c53afed6834ba5&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=6a98ba56767490d926c53afed6834ba5&p=1"/></a> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=6a98ba56767490d926c53afed6834ba5" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:10:17 GMT