IBM's storage virtualizer wins speed trials

HIGHLIGHTS

News: IBM's storage virtualizer wins speed trials
News: Oracle will release 46 patches next week
News: HP's India lab secures paper documents
News: NTT DoCoMo targets 300M bps in Super 3G experiment
News: Logitech gets air time with new mouse
News: Overcharging suit against Cingular goes forward
News: Spam filter costs lawyers their day in court
News: MS WPC: Microsoft puts partner muscle behind Office Live
News: NetSuite makes its apps available via iPhone
News: Itheon launches desktop network simulator
News: Work-around puts Skype on the iPhone
News: Greek spying case uncovers first phone switch rootkit
Q&A: John Chambers on collaboration, avatars and mashups
Green IT: Time to power down
ITWhirled: Geek Comic of the Week:The Non-Adventures of Wonderella


NEWS UPDATES

IBM's storage virtualizer wins speed trials
IBM's storage virtualizing SAN Volume Controller performs faster than any competing product, according to benchmarks -- and it's greener, because it uses less energy.


Oracle will release 46 patches next week
Oracle Corp. will release 46 patches on Tuesday for products including its Oracle Database 10g, Application Server and E-Business Suite.


HP's India lab secures paper documents
Hewlett-Packard Co. has developed a technology at its labs in Bangalore that secures paper documents against fraud, and integrates paper documents with electronic processes by allowing them to be used as a medium for transferring data.


NTT DoCoMo targets 300M bps in Super 3G experiment
NTT DoCoMo Inc. has embarked on a month-long experiment of a Super 3G (third-generation) cellular system.


Logitech gets air time with new mouse
Logitech fused the old with the new on Thursday, launching a wireless laser mouse that doesn't need a surface to sit on, combining features of the traditional mouse and remote control.


Overcharging suit against Cingular goes forward
Washington State's highest court on Thursday let a class-action lawsuit alleging overcharging by Cingular Wireless LLC go forward.


Spam filter costs lawyers their day in court
The trouble at Franklin D. Azar & Associates PC began with pornographic spam.


MS WPC: Microsoft puts partner muscle behind Office Live
Microsoft Corp. this week unveiled a partner program for its Office Live hosted service for small businesses, a product Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner predicted will one day be nearly as important to the company as its Windows client OS.


NetSuite makes its apps available via iPhone
NetSuite Inc.'s users can start accessing the company's hosted midmarket applications suite via their iPhones as businesses start to investigate the possibilities of using the much hyped Apple Inc. mobile device at work.


Itheon launches desktop network simulator
Itheon Networks has announced a compact network simulator which can check, on a desktop, how applications will perform over a wide area network.


Work-around puts Skype on the iPhone
A complex remote-control work around has achieved what every geek wants: running Skype on an iPhone.


Greek spying case uncovers first phone switch rootkit
A highly sophisticated spying operation that tapped into the mobile phones of Greece's prime minister and other top government officials has highlighted weaknesses in telecommunications systems that still use decades-old computer code, according to a report by two computer scientists.


Q&A

John Chambers on collaboration, avatars and mashups
John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems Inc., spoke with Computerworld Hong Hong (CWHK) about the SMB market, the company's new TelePresence high-definition video-conferencing technology, Web 2.0 and a lesson learned about avatars.


GREEN IT

Time to power down
Despite datacenters heating up as their electricity demands skyrocket, Hong Kong enterprises may find it difficult to implement "green" initiatives.


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week:The Non-Adventures of Wonderella
Super-hero ladies! With super powers! Engaging in ... non-adventures! This funny send-up is a great read for fans of superhero comics and those who mock them.

Apple fixes serious QuickTime flaws

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Apple fixes serious QuickTime flaws
News: Nokia adds Skype to N800 tablet
News: Microsoft OOXML spec 'dangerously flawed'
News: Suspense mounts for San Francisco Wi-Fi plan
News: HP designing cheaper servers for Asia
News: 3Com pins hopes on China's low labor costs
News: Motorola sees slowdown in mobile sales
News: Vendors push quad-core desktops on wary users
News: Study: US, Japan have best IT environments
News: Oracle 11g for Linux to debut in August
News: Lawmakers: New wireless rules needed
News: Synchronica evades iPhone corporate e-mail barrier
Q&A: The future of the Web as seen by its creator
ITWhirled: Paris welcomes World Cup ... of video games


NEWS UPDATES

Apple fixes serious QuickTime flaws
With the 7.2 update, users can now view videos on the full screen with the QuickTime player, but the software also contains a number of critical security fixes. In total, Apple has addressed eight security vulnerabilities with the release, which was made public on Wednesday.


Nokia adds Skype to N800 tablet
Nokia Corp. introduced Skype Internet-calling software for its N800 Wi-Fi tablet on Wednesday, providing another alternative to using a cell phone, while a debate in the U.S. over what networks such devices may be able to use in the future heated up.


Microsoft OOXML spec 'dangerously flawed'
Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format specification is fatally flawed where it comes to spreadsheets, with many functions filled with careless errors, according to a critic.


Suspense mounts for San Francisco Wi-Fi plan
Two important votes concerning San Francisco's plan for citywide Wi-Fi that were set for this week have been pushed back, delaying what may be life-or-death decisions on the controversial network.


HP designing cheaper servers for Asia
Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced an entry-level rack server in India on Thursday, part of its strategy to design lower-cost servers specifically for Asian countries.


3Com pins hopes on China's low labor costs
Networking equipment vendor 3Com Corp. is counting on low labor costs in China to help the company earn better margins on its products and compete against rivals like Cisco Systems Inc., the company's chief executive officer said Wednesday.


Motorola sees slowdown in mobile sales
Amid increasing competition in a fickle cell phone market, Motorola Inc. expects to report a loss for its mobile devices business in 2007 and now estimates that second quarter sales will be lower than expected.


Vendors push quad-core desktops on wary users
PC vendors are launching more and more computers with dual-core and quad-core processors, promising users that the expensive machines can juggle more applications at work or play better games at home.


Study: US, Japan have best IT environments
The U.S. and Japan have the top national environments for their IT industries to grow and flourish, including intellectual-property protections and IT infrastructure, according to a study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Wednesday.


Oracle 11g for Linux to debut in August
While Wednesday marked the official unveiling of Oracle Corp.'s 11g database and a look at its new features, pricing and availability information was pretty thin on the ground. All the vendor would confirm is that the Linux version of 11g will ship this quarter, probably in August.


Lawmakers: New wireless rules needed
U.S. consumers should be allowed to take phones along with them when they switch wireless carriers, and spectrum to be auctioned through the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should include rules requiring the winning bidders to sell access to competitors at wholesale rates, some U.S. lawmakers said Wednesday.


Synchronica evades iPhone corporate e-mail barrier
Synchronica has updated its Mobile Gateway 3.0 middleware to let iPhone users synchronize email with Microsoft Exchange, the company said.


Q&A

The future of the Web as seen by its creator
According to Webster's Online Dictionary semantic means "the relationships between symbols and what they represent." Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web in 1989 at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, has used the term to christen the Internet of the future.

In this exclusive interview, he explains his vision of the future Semantic Web, which he says will be much more powerful than anything we have seen before.


ITWHIRLED

Paris welcomes World Cup ... of video games
Video games are moving into the mainstream, and perhaps there's no better indication than the Electronic Sports World Cup final, held in Paris this past weekend. More than 750 players -- both men and women -- competed for $200,000 in prizes in CounterStrike, Quake, World of Warcraft, Pro Evolution Soccer. 5,000 people were expected to turn out to watch the games live, for whatever "live" might mean in this context.

MS WPC: Microsoft debuts ERP for small businesses

HIGHLIGHTS

News: MS WPC: Microsoft debuts ERP for small businesses
News: Who's to blame for browser bug? IE or Firefox?
News: Google lets users customize their own maps
News: Infosys forecasts over 29 percent annual revenue growth
News: HP looks to add color to cell phones
News: EEye: Sun update system exposes users
News: Active Directory flaw patched in Microsoft's July updates
News: Dell's Vostro aims to ease PC use for small businesses
News: Samba switches to GPLv3
News: Phishing tool constructs new sites in two seconds
News: MS WPC: Ballmer gives his take on software-plus-services plan
News: MS WPC: Microsoft: Search wins tied to sales compensation
News: MS WPC: Microsoft to launch next product wave in February 2008
News: MS WPC: Microsoft sets initial pricing, rollout for CRM Live
News: MS WPC: Microsoft launches OBA partner program
Green IT: Europeans mandate public-sector Energy Star purchases
Green IT: Fujitsu Siemens launches low-carbon server
Feature: WORLDBEAT: Common sense tops SMS alert system
ITWhirled: Top 10 billboard advertisements


NEWS UPDATES

MS WPC: Microsoft debuts ERP for small businesses
Microsoft Corp. hopes to better meet the back-office needs of smaller businesses with a new take on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software called Dynamics Entrepreneur Solution.

For more news from Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), being held this week in Denver, see MS WPC, below.


Who's to blame for browser bug? IE or Firefox?
A security researcher has found a security bug that could be attacked in Internet Explorer. Mozilla Corp. said it plans to patch the problem in its next Firefox software update.


Google lets users customize their own maps
Google Inc. introduced a feature to its mapping service on Wednesday that allows people to create their own customized maps, by adding information such as the location of cheap gas stations or property for sale.


Infosys forecasts over 29 percent annual revenue growth
India’s outsourcing industry continues to do well despite the appreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar and higher staff costs.


HP looks to add color to cell phones
Hewlett-Packard Co. could soon turn mobile phones into shopping advisors with a color-matching prototype technology it demonstrated on Wednesday.


EEye: Sun update system exposes users
Sun Microsystems Inc. is putting millions of Java users at risk by staggering the release of security patches for the software, security vendor eEye Digital Security Inc. said Monday.


Active Directory flaw patched in Microsoft's July updates
Microsoft Corp. released six sets of security patches Tuesday that address critical flaws in its products, including a bug in Active Directory software.


Dell's Vostro aims to ease PC use for small businesses
Dell Inc. reached for a larger share of the small business market Tuesday, launching the "Vostro" brand of notebook and desktop PCs designed to simplify tech support, an area that has attracted complaints and lawsuits for Dell in recent months.


Samba switches to GPLv3
Samba developers have definitively switched future versions of the software to the GPL v3 licence, which could have a serious impact on companies maintaining software patent covenants.


Phishing tool constructs new sites in two seconds
Software developers like to make installation of their programs simple and quick. So do hackers.


MS WPC

Ballmer gives his take on software-plus-services plan
Microsoft Corp.'s top executive Tuesday for the first time outlined the company's plan to transition from a traditional software company to offering software plus services, giving some roadmap details for how the strategy will play out in the next year.


Microsoft: Search wins tied to sales compensation
Microsoft Corp. is emphasizing areas of its business where it needs to catch up to competitors by tying partner team compensation to specific product deployments, such as enterprise search, a top executive said Tuesday.


Microsoft to launch next product wave in February 2008
Microsoft Corp. Tuesday said it would formally unveil the next wave of its enterprise products -- including the long-awaited "Longhorn" version of Windows Server -- in February 2008 at a launch event in Los Angeles.


Microsoft sets initial pricing, rollout for CRM Live
Microsoft Corp. continues to prepare for the third-quarter launch of its Dynamics Live CRM service with Tuesday's announcement of initial pricing and product information.


Microsoft launches OBA partner program
Determined to get partners on board to help transform Office 2007 from a productivity suite to a platform for business applications, Microsoft Corp. Tuesday unveiled a program to help partners add functionality to the suite by creating Office Business Applications, or OBAs.


GREEN IT

Europeans mandate public-sector Energy Star purchases
All public-sector purchasers of office equipment in Europe will in future be obliged to buy brands that carry the Energy Star logo, the environmental quality standard agreed on by the U.S. and the European Union, following a vote in the European Parliament Tuesday.


Fujitsu Siemens launches low-carbon server
Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) has launched what it claims is the smallest and quietest server with the lowest carbon footprint currently available.


FEATURE

WORLDBEAT: Common sense tops SMS alert system
After smoke was spotted billowing from a San Francisco subway tunnel on June 5, the city government swung into action, alerting citizens via SMS to not panic and to expect public transport delays.


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top 10 funny iPod videos ... Top 10 billboard advertisements

Cisco, Microsoft, EMC join on gov't data project

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Cisco, Microsoft, EMC join on gov't data project
News: MSN streams Live Earth to 8 million people
News: With Postini, a business case for security at Google
News: AMD cuts chip prices, Intel expected to follow
News: Laptop PC sales hit records in June after Santa Rosa lull
News: Sprint Nextel bid talk 'groundless' says SK Telecom
News: Microsoft customers sour on Software Assurance
News: TurboLinux to help translate Open XML for Asia
News: SF Wi-Fi plan faces key votes
News: CommVault's QiNetix gets new name and refresh
News: Intel Capital to buy $218.5 million share of VMware
Feature: TB case highlights e-mail archiving trend
ITWhirled: Shocker: Webcam actually helps personal security


NEWS UPDATES

Cisco, Microsoft, EMC join on gov't data project
Several technology companies will build a system to let the U.S. government share data securely among its various agencies, a goal it has struggled to achieve since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.


MSN streams Live Earth to 8 million people
Microsoft Corp. says it set a record for streaming an online event to the most customers after offering the Live Earth concerts on MSN over the weekend.


With Postini, a business case for security at Google
Google Inc. believes that its consumer-grade Web applications represent the future of enterprise IT. But while Google is quick to trumpet its products' innovative features, the search giant hasn't said much about their security. Until recently, that is.


AMD cuts chip prices, Intel expected to follow
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) announced its latest round of desktop processor price cuts on Monday, and rival Intel Corp. is expected to follow the move later this month.


Laptop PC sales hit records in June after Santa Rosa lull
Laptop PC shipments by the world's two largest contract makers surged in June, rebounding from a lull in April and part of May as system makers awaited the launch of Intel Corp.'s Santa Rosa laptop chips, an upgrade to its popular Centrino package.


Sprint Nextel bid talk 'groundless' says SK Telecom
South Korea's SK Telecom Co. Ltd. denied on Tuesday a local newspaper report that it is preparing a bid for Sprint Nextel Corp.


Microsoft customers sour on Software Assurance
IT procurement managers are finding that Microsoft Corp.'s Software Assurance maintenance program may not save them money as hoped, according to a survey by Forrester Research Inc.


TurboLinux to help translate Open XML for Asia
Microsoft Corp. is enlisting Linux distributor TurboLinux Inc. to help tailor work being done to translate documents between Open XML and ODF file formats for Japanese and Chinese users.


SF Wi-Fi plan faces key votes
San Francisco city officials could bring the city's proposed Wi-Fi network closer to reality at two meetings this week as a key leader proposes significant changes to the plan.


CommVault's QiNetix gets new name and refresh
There will be no more duplicated files in storage managed by CommVault's QiNetix data management suite. The company has added security, indexing and search too, as well as renaming it Simpana.


Intel Capital to buy $218.5 million share of VMware
Intel Corp. said Monday it plans to buy a US$218.5 million stake in the software firm VMware Inc., bolstering the companies' existing agreement to run VMware's virtualization software on Intel's processors.


FEATURE

TB case highlights e-mail archiving trend
E-mail archiving and recovery software has proved itself useful in the case of the American who flew to Europe even though he had tuberculosis (TB).


ITWHIRLED

Shocker: Webcam actually helps personal security
Remember all those Webcam ads whose text implied that they were a security measure but whose pictures all features women in bikinis for some reason? Well, a Portland man's Webcam actually helped him with the first thing, capturing images of the burglars who ransacked his house.

Google to buy Postini for US$625 million

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Google to buy Postini for US$625 million
News: Clinton urges Indian businesses to invest in U.S.
Related Reading: GE's CEO says India won't grow at the expense of US
News: Dell will sell Linux on PCs outside of U.S.
News: Average zero-day bug has 348-day lifespan, exec says
News: Taiwan companies team up on Microsoft smartphones
News: Google trails in Asian markets
News: Microsoft to study Japan's digital lifestyle
News: Google Earth captures China's new ballistic-missile sub
News: Yahoo sites hit by availability problems
News: Fraudsters use charities to test credit cards
News: Insurer may jump in to cover iPhones
News: Court dismisses lawsuit against US wiretapping
News: Kremlin accused of DDOS cyberbullying
Go Figure: Study: Smaller UK firms reject working at home
ITWhirled: Postal worker unmasked as Netflix scourge!


NEWS UPDATES

Google to buy Postini for US$625 million
Google Inc. has agreed to buy messaging security company Postini Inc. for US$625 million in a move to increase the appeal of Google's hosted applications among big businesses, the companies announced on Monday.


Clinton urges Indian businesses to invest in U.S.
U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. is not just a market for foreign companies to sell into but to invest in as well.

Related Reading: GE's CEO says India won't grow at the expense of US
General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt warned an audience of Indian business leaders Friday that India's strong economic growth wouldn't come at the expense of the economic health of countries like the U.S.


Dell will sell Linux on PCs outside of U.S.
Dell Inc. plans to sell computers with preinstalled Linux outside the U.S. as well as offer the Ubuntu Linux distribution to small business customers.


Average zero-day bug has 348-day lifespan, exec says
The average zero-day bug has a lifespan of 348 days before it is discovered or patched, but some vulnerabilities live on for much longer, according to security vendor Immunity Inc.'s chief executive officer.


Taiwan companies team up on Microsoft smartphones
Two Taiwanese companies have signed a technology agreement to develop 3G (third generation telecommunications) and 3.5G smartphones around the Windows Mobile OS, adding to the growing pool of companies developing mobile phones based on Microsoft Corp. software.


Google trails in Asian markets
Google Inc.'s dominance may seem unassailable in North America, but it's the search giant that is playing catch-up in Asia, according to new survey results released Sunday.


Microsoft to study Japan's digital lifestyle
Microsoft Corp.'s Japan unit plans to study more closely the use of digital technology in the lives of average Japanese to gain insight that it might use overseas, the head of its Japanese unit said Monday.


Google Earth captures China's new ballistic-missile sub
Google Inc. is offering a rare public glimpse of China's new ballistic-missile submarine, according to a researcher at the Federation of American Scientists.


Yahoo sites hit by availability problems
Yahoo Inc. suffered availability problems on Friday that affected its home page as well as other of its Web sites and services for a sustained period of time.


Fraudsters use charities to test credit cards
Credit card thieves are becoming big-time charity donors, but it's not out of the goodness of their hearts.


Insurer may jump in to cover iPhones
A company that insures laptops and smartphones may save the day for iPhone owners worried about their pricey handsets getting stolen or damaged.


Court dismisses lawsuit against US wiretapping
A U.S. appeals court has ordered that a lawsuit against the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for a wiretapping program be dismissed because the plaintiffs haven't been hurt by the agency's actions.


Kremlin accused of DDOS cyberbullying
Russia has been used as the launch-pad for a new wave of cyberattacks aimed at a number of political and media organizations within the country.


GO FIGURE

40%
The share of SMBs that allow telecommuting, compared with 75 percent of large companies, according to a survey by Citrix.
SOURCE: Techworld.com


ITWHIRLED

Postal worker unmasked as Netflix scourge!
DVD delivery services began to flourish once it became clear that people weren't going to start paying to download full-length movies in bulk anytime soon. But there are weak points in the system: a Houston postal clerk was busted after stealing nearly 6,000 Netflix DVDs -- and close to 1,500 Blockbuster DVDs for good measure.