iPhone Cases Featured in CES 2012

CES 2012 is one of the main technology exhibitions for gadgets such as iPhone, iPad and other electronic gadgets. CES 2012 was held this year in January in Las Vegas, USA. Apple accessories and products including iPhone cases, iPad cases, etc featured extensively at the show this year along with other gadgets and accessories. Some electronic gadgets and accessories featured at the show were still in the conceptual stage of development while some were to be launched in the market at the show or soon after the show.

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Tens of thousands of technology enthusiasts from all over the world attended the show including designers, businesses, Apple and other gadget accessory distributors, customers as well as end users. Among all the products iPhone and iPad accessories really stood out. There was an extensive range of iPad and iPhone cases on display at many of the stalls at the show.

Here are 5 innovative cases that stood out and deserve a mention

1. Self-Healing Case by Nissan
This has been a much talked about case in blogs and forums in recent months.

The so called 'self-healing' iPhone case has received rave reviews. Nissan hope this case will appeal to a large audience as most phones are prone to minor scratches as part of general wear and tear. The case is built from a specialist type of paint where a chemical reaction is initiated to repair any scratches on the surface. It takes approximately one hour for minor scratches to be repaired by this process although the process can continue for more serious damages for up to a week. Nissan calls it the Scratch Shield iPhone case.

2. Skech Trax iPhone 4 case
This iPhone 4 case is unique as it is made from recycled bicycle tires. They are made by a company called Skech. This is a flip style case with a nice soft interior and the exterior is made from recycled tires. The design is cool and the tyres give it a unique texture and a coarse, rugged look. There is easy access to power or the headphone jack.
The flap above the screen also includes a few extra sleeves for storing business cards or bank cards. The magnetic clasp offers a very easy way to secure the case. Additionally, it also includes support for camera strap.


3.Thermo Snap Case
The thermo snap case 4 was on display by Incase who are no strangers to this market. This is a fund to use case with a heat-activated finish that changes colour on contact. This unique design is inspired from thermocramatic clothing that you may have already come across. The case is made from strong hard material. It is user-friendly and provides easy access to all controls and buttons. Available in pink at Incase, It is competitively prices at under $35 USD which should appeal to a wide audience. The case fits the iPhone 4 and 4S models perfectly. The shade can change from dark to light when it comes into contact with your hand. It changes colour whenever it is exposed to temperature changes.

4. SolMate iPhone Solar Charger And Battery Case
It was not surprising to see a number of Solar powered accessories on display at the CES show. General iPhone users looking for a well-designed solar charger and battery pack case for their Smartphone. It was a display as a concept at the exhibition however it is expected to go into production soon. The case includes a 1600mAH slim line battery. This should double the battery life of your iPhone. Additionally, it is supported by a small solar panel. The solar panel will charge your iPhone even in the shade or away from direct sunlight.

5. iPhone battery case with infrared keyboard
This case was on display by Celluon Prodigy. This is one of the most innovative models on display that gives an indication of things to come. The case boasts of an infrared keyboard similar to the ones that existed for some of the Palm models. It can be a good extension to your phone's standard touch screen display. The new Prodigy iPhone 4S battery case basically projects an interactive infrared keyboard onto any flat surface which you can then use for typing. There are some small limitations however. Your iPhone should be stable on preferably a flat surface. It will be rolled out in the market for just under 200 USD.

Bluetooth in Brief

Bluetooth is a radio or wireless technology designed for short range data communications in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. The frequency range is from 2.402Ghz to 2.480Ghz, with the available frequency sprectrum being broken up into 79 x 1Mhz wide bands.
Bluetooth was designed by Ericsson as a short range wireless connectivity solution and is used to build Personal Area Networks, or PANs as they are known so that devices in close proximity can pass information. Typical examples being a mobile phone downloading data to a Personal Computer or a mobile phone earpiece communicating with the phone itself.

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The technology behind Bluetooth is known as FHSS (Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum), where the datastream is broken up into small pieces, each containing several binary bits of data which are transmitted in a pseudo random sequence over a series of up to 79 frequency bands. As Bluetooth has developed and matured, a number of data modulation schemes have been used to modulate the data onto the radio carriers including GFSK (Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying), DQPSK (Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) and 8DPSK (8-ary Differential Phase Shift Keying). The development and use of the different modulation schemes were an attempt to increase the data rates of the system.
So how does Bluetooth operate?
Two or more Bluetooth devices that establish a connection (and share a channel) form a small wireless network known as a Piconet, with up to eight devices, forming the piconet . One device becomes the Master station, can join a Bluetooth piconet. Normally the device which initiates the connection will be the Master and other devices joining the PAN will be slaves. The master passes a Frequency Hopping Synchronisation (FHS) packet to any slaves containing its address and clock. The address of the Master Bluetooth device is used to determine the hop sequence and all slaves use the Master Clock to determine which frequency to transmit or receive on at any given time.
A group of piconets are referred to as a Scatternet, with each individual piconet having a unique hopping sequence, determined by it’s Master’s address. If a collision occurs where two devices transmit on the same frequency, a device will just retransmit the data on the next frequency hop. Although this can ultimately affect the performance and data rate of the transmission, it is the accepted method, just like collisions are a way of life in a shared Ethernet network when a hub is in use.
Devices can be a member of multiple piconets by using each Master address to determine the hopping sequence for each network, but can only be the Master for one piconet. The access method used by Bluetooth devices is known as TDD (Time-Division Duplex) where each device (Master and Slave) share the same frequency and are allocated a timeslot during which to transmit. A master will normally use even-numbered time slots and the slave will use odd numbered timeslots.
There are two types of transmission links normally supported by Bluetooth, known as SCO (Synchronous Connection-Orientated) and ACL (Asynchronous Connectionless Link). General Bluetooth operation uses ACL, where the packet and payload length will determine how many timeslots are required. Because ACL is Connection-Orientated, packets that are not acknowledged will be automatically retransmitted, abeit on a different timeslot or timeslots. Forward error correction can be employed as an option and although the data delivery may be more reliable, the data rate will reduce accordingly depending on how error prone the environment is at the time.
Voice over Bluetooth normally used an SCO link, where the voice data is sent over a number of reserved timeslots within an already established ACL link. Retransmissions do not occur on an SCO link as this could cause a number of problems, least of all latency and jitter. However, forward error correction can be used to provide a degree of reliability. There is an Enhanced version of SCO that can employ retransmission in some circumstances.
The latest version of Bluetooth, version 4 and all previous versions of Bluetooth have been designed to be backward compatible with previous versions, so no worry about using older devices with the newer Bluetooth devices.
The Bluetooth technologies have allowed us to provide fast data communications between devices that are in close proximity (within a few metres) without the need for a cable running RS-232 protocol for example and so have provided us with mobility free from the constraints imposed with the use of copper wiring.

Microsoft seeking open-source expert to help put Linux on Azure

Microsoft is moving steadily ahead with its plan to enable Linux to run on its Windows Azure cloud platform.

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As I blogged earlier this month, Microsoft is preparing to enable Linux to run on its Windows Azure cloud platform. A test build of the coming Linux virtual-machine capability is slated for March, according to my contacts.

For those still doubting this is on the Microsoft roadmap, I’ve got a new piece of evidence. A contact of mine provided me with a link to a Microsoft job posting for a software development engineer at Microsoft that calls for some serious Linux credentials.

The job posting states quite plainly that the person the Server and Tools team is seeking will be charged with “Defin(ing) and scop(ing) open source projects designed to enable Linux on Microsoft’s virtualization and cloud platforms.” (Emphasis mine.)

Here is the pertinent part of the post:

SR Software Development Engineer (SDE) Job
Date: Jan 22, 2012
Location: Redmond, WA, US
Job Category: Software Engineering: Development
Location: Redmond, WA, US
Job ID: 764856-52821
Division: Server & Tools Business

Senior Software Development Engineer/Linux Virtualization

This position requires a proven track record in the open source community.

The Windows Interoperability Team at Microsoft has an immediate opening for a senior software development engineer. The purpose of this position is to become a key member of a highly specialized development team whose mission is to identify, define, scope, implement and drive to completion software projects that promote full, transparent interoperability between Windows and Linux in Microsoft virtual and cloud environments.

The primary responsibilities for this position are the following:

Define and scope open source projects designed to enable Linux on Microsoft’s virtualization and cloud platforms

Work directly with the Linux kernel community to develop Linux device drivers and kernel technology to support Linux on Microsoft platforms

Work with Microsoft product groups to help ensure the design and implementation of Microsoft virtualization and cloud technology will support Linux architectures and runtime paradigms.

The qualifications for this Microsoft job, according to the posting, include the ability to:

Create and implement plans that provide for the testing and quality assurance of software products
Write high-quality Linux kernel code in the C programming language and the associated unit tests.
Demonstrate an understanding of Linux virtualization methods, approaches and deployment. (Including but not limited to Hyper-V, Xen and KVM)
Demonstrate an understanding Linux device driver development and implementation
Demonstrate an understanding of the Linux kernel architecture, including kernel debugging and runtime libraries
Demonstrate an understanding of Linux networking and TCP/IP stack

I’ve also heard from another of my contacts Microsoft is holding an infrastructure-as-a-service workshop for partners in the next few weeks that will allow certain independent software vendors to test out a pre-release of the coming persistent virtual machine capability.

Android is coming to everything ... everywhere

Will Android will lead the way in a ’smart’ revolution?

We spend a lot of time talking about operating system market share and usage share, but could Android explode to the point where it make such data irrelevant?

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When we talk about Android market/usage share, we’re usually thinking about devices like smartphones and tablets. It seems that knowing how many people use a particular thing is important to some people (I’m not sure why, maybe it helps people think they’ve made the right choice or something). But Android isn’t confined to just smartphones and tablets. Chances are that if you have a gadget like a personal media player or an ebook reader or an in-car GPS receiver, it’s powered by Android. It might not say Android anywhere, and people might not know that it’s Android, but it’s there nontheless.

Android is already all around us, and pretty soon the OS is going to be in a whole lot more places. The next device that Android is set to invade is the TV set. Given the operating system’s heritage in media it seems like a good fit. It’s going to take a long time for people to replace their dumb TVs with Android-powered ‘Smart TV’ sets, but it will happen (people on the whole seem to keep their TV sets for a lot longer than they do cellphones, tablets and PCs).

The TV is just the start of things in my opinion, and it’s the beginning of an in-home Android revolution. As the price falls on low-power computers it becomes feasible to fit make things ’smart’ … smart oven, smart microwave, smart refrigerator, smart washing machine. smart thermostat. Heck, why not go the whole hog and have smart lights and smart doors too?

Smart devices are the next step in evolution for devices that have traditionally been dumb devices. And one of the keys to making dumb devices smart is the a flexible operating system.

Android offers just that.

Note: One company is going to absolutely love it if Android is everywhere … Microsoft. The Redmond giant already pulling in millions every year from patent deals struck with smartphones and tablets makers.

I can see Android in other places too … watches (now there’s something that needs revolutionizing), cars, binoculars, telescopes, home automation devices, remote controls and much more. Android’s power is its versatility, and it is that versatility that allows the platform to be customized and tweaked for a whole variety of applications. It’s because of this that I see an explosion in Android usage over the next few years.

Easy Methods to Abolish Computer Viruses

May possibly not be considered a fun activity scanning and removing a virus from your PC. Malicious programs can infect a PC through various mediums, the most prominent which are emails, removable media and wireless networks. Once you know how to get rid of viruses, measures can be taken to make sure that such viruses are identified and removed the moment they infiltrate.

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Getting Rid Of Viruses - Better Safe Than Sorry

One thing to know is what viruses are and what you can perform. Having knowledge about common infections allows the consumer to identify the virus by its symptoms on the PC. It is very important to know how Trojans, worms, spyware and adware infiltrate and infect the operating system. This step will help you prepare to get rid of virus infections quickly considering that the user will then be acquainted with the best way viruses work.

Be armed and ready while using latest available anti-virus. There are hundreds otherwise a large number of anti-virus software that now come in bundles and supply multiple services to your user. A good antivirus program comes full of firewalls, network monitors, file system scanner, anti-spyware, anti-adware, email scanners and internet stealth protection add-ons. Having the latest antivirus program trims the prospect of malicious activity occurring on any PC.


Having excellent anti-virus software will only be lucrative when you are updating it regularly. Automatic updates are readily available with whatever software you are using. Update the virus database weekly and if threat of infection is high, updating daily is suggested. Constant updates will ensure you will get rid of latest virus threats when they infiltrate the system.

Caution need to be taken when surfing websites, with there being some sites that demand installing certain add-ons and plug-ins. Other websites offer free software and screen savers when they're visited. Ensure you don’t download and run software that is certainly either not trusted or even the internet monitor cautions you to download. This usually gets rid of virus threats before they infect the operating system.

Email protection becomes necessary with the frequency of email viruses being greater than any other kind of virus type. Some emails tend to be pretty obvious, being a friendly invitation from a girl or a gift offer from Microsoft. Such emails mustn't be opened or nothing must bedownloaded from them. Viruses might also infiltrate a PC through emails from personal contacts, as a result it is criticalon an email monitor together with youranti-virus software.


Our recommendation is that all email activity should be carried outin rich text format and not inside the HTML format that email services are presently deploying. Viruses can attach themselves easily to HTML emails instead of text emails that are purely text and contain no items whichallow a virus to add itself to the email.

Yet another way viruses descend onto a PC is P2P software. It is highly recommended that software like Limewire, Gnutella, Bearshare and Torrents usually are not used. But if you must, at the very least have your firewall ready and burning to its most. P2P engines are only able to download information in chunks (this means you don’t know very well what is on its way in), hence enhancing the chance of an infiltration. So keep the firewall up rather than disable it, and always scan you’re completed downloads before opening them.

Freeware vs. Commercial

This all talk about having updated anti-virus programs and firewalls sounds a bit geeky, but it’s safer to be safe than allowing a virus epidemic on your PC. It is better to possess a commercial (i.e. paid) anti-virus when compared to a free one. Freeware anti-virus will usually identify viruses, but will lack the ability to clean the virus and can quarantine the files and not delete them, allowing the threat to escalate. Commercial software will always have complete features along with a well-organized virus database to combat the prevailing threats to escalate.

Kindle Fire Tablet Review - New Product from Amazon

On Wednesday Amazon on officially introduced not one, not two, but four new Kindle devices. And of the Main is full color Kindle Fire. This new Tablet is very reasonable, will cost you only $199! This is a killer price for any color tablet. It's cheaper than the iPad

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Amazon's color tablet has a 7-inch 16-million color display same like the iPad. It has wide viewing angle and great color saturation. It is made of Gorilla Glass with multi-touch display screen and a resolution of 1024x600 pixels. This resolution is pretty dense: 169 pixels per inch. The display is chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, making it extra durable and resistant to accidental bumps and scrapes. It has its own unique Android interface. It has Android 2.x. Amazon Kindle Fire is powered by a dual core CPU. Dual-core processor gives fast, powerful performance


Highlights of the Kindle Fire :
• 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
• Amazon Appstore - thousands of popular apps and games

• Ultra-fast web browsing - Amazon Silk
• Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
• Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle
• Fast, powerful dual-core processor
• Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows


Kindle has Wi-Fi connectivity. All synchronization of Data is invisible, on wireless and in the background. It doesn't have cameras or microphone. So there is no videoconferencing available and there is no option of 3G connectivity also. There's only 8GB of storage on the device available.

The Drawback I can see is the device does not feature any Home button and instead of that you have multi-touch capabilities option to help you navigate the tablet's applications and features.

Amazon Kindle Fire's battery life also very good, provides you with eight hours of continuous reading and seven-and-a-half hours of continuous video playback as long as the wireless connection has been turned off. The tablet also has one USB 2.0 port which can be used as both purpose, charger when plugged into your computer and USB. It only weighs 14.6 ounces.


You can enjoy movies, magazines and children's books come alive on a 7" vibrant color touchscreen with high resolution. Kindle Fire uses IPS technology same technology is that used by Apple on the iPad - for an extra-wide viewing angle, perfect for sharing your screen with others. Enjoy your favorite magazines with glossy, full-color layouts, photographs and illustrations.

Android Platform gives you Top game applications like Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, The Weather Channel and more, plus a great paid app for free every day. Amazon digital content is available on the Amazon Cloud. There is free Amazon Cloud Storage So that means you'll be able to start a movie on Kindle Fire and transfer it to your TV. Your books, movies, music and apps are available instantly to stream or download for free, at a touch of your finger. You can enjoy your social life with facebook and twitter and many more apps and also stay in touch using built-in email app that gets your webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc.) into a single inbox. The Kindle Fire can access all the content offered by Amazon (includes MP3 and video streaming)

The main advantage of buying kindle fire that it has all Kindle books, Android apps, and movies and TV shows... Full Entertainment Tablet...

Kindle Fire is best tablet with killer price. If you want to buy Kindle Fire Visit us at Technoeshop.com. At Technoeshop you can find many deals and special offers related all Tablet PCs in different brands.

We also offer deals in Laptops, Gaming Consoles, Digital Camera, Camcorders, Mobile You can find many I.T related products and Consumer products on Technoeshop.com. Technoeshop.com is consumer ecommerce website providing wide range of IT, Consumer Electronics & Office products at best price.

London Business School Executive MBA (Dubai) attracts new talent

London Business School has announced the number of professionals from the media, leisure, sport and entertainment industries has more than doubled for its Executive MBA (Dubai) programme.

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The School, regarded as one of the world’s leading business schools, hosted its orientation week with new students in London this month, welcoming the next generation of business leaders from across the globe.

Student David Hanson, who is from the UK and is Director of Movies and On Demand at Orbit Showtime Network in Dubai, said:

“I think most of us are still buzzing from the orientation week. It was amazing to meet up with such a wide range of professionals and tap into their knowledge and enthusiasm. There was a genuine sense of camaraderie as we quickly realized that we as a group, are as responsible for each other’s development.”

The new Executive MBA class, which has increased in size to be the biggest since 2009, represents 13 industries, with 17 per cent coming from within the media, leisure, sports and entertainment sectors.

Students on the programme include executives who work for some of the region’s highest profile sporting events, including the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Andrew Scott, Deputy Dean of Programmes and Professor of Economics at London Business School, said: “Each year we witness a new trend emerging and this year is no different with some interesting statistics showing just how fast our world is changing. We are delighted to welcome an increase in students from such exciting industries, which reflects the diversity of our Executive MBA has become.”

There are 23 nationalities represented in the class, with the programme welcoming students from South Korea and Senegal for the very first time. Forty per cent of the class will be commuting from outside of the UAE, with students coming from Aberdeen, Almaty, Amman, Athens, Beirut, Cairo, Delhi, Doha, Karachi, Kuwait Moscow and Riyadh, among other cities around the world.

“Our Executive MBA programme is designed for those who want to broaden and strengthen their global approach. The students have taken on an exciting challenge and they can now look forward to enhancing their knowledge and learning the necessary skills and tools to be effective global leaders,” added Professor Scott.

The diversity within the Executive MBA was further enriched last year by the integration of the two London and Dubai based classes during three residential sessions held in London, forging even greater connections and networks throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

“At orientation I was particularly impressed with the school’s involvement and presence in the international business community, the diversity and experiences of my fellow students and the smooth integration of the Dubai and London streams,” said student Bishoy Azmy from Egypt who is CEO of Al Shafar General Contracting in Dubai.

The average length of professional experience for the class is more senior in this intake, with 11 years of experience on average. The School has also welcomed a higher percentage of students working in Abu Dhabi, up from eight per cent in the last intake to 17 per cent.

London Business School’s full-time MBA programme is ranked number one in the world in the Financial Times´ annual survey, and first in the Financial Times´ ranking of European Business Schools´ MBA, EMBA and Executive Education programmes. It launched its Executive MBA programme in Dubai in September 2007. Located over campuses in two of the world’s most dynamic cities – London and Dubai – this programme is taught over 20 months. Ten of the 11 core courses are taught in the Centre of Excellence at the Dubai International Financial Centre, while the majority of elective courses are offered at London Business School’s central London campus.

The programme, taught exclusively by London Business School’s own faculty, gives students a thorough grounding in all key areas of business and management and, through the diverse elective portfolio, also allows them to specialise in their chosen subject areas.

Speedreading Computer Software - On the Web High Schools Make Use of Speed Reading Computer Programs

Not all speedreading applications are created similarly. There are a couple genuinely strong pieces of applications in our world that might assist you out infinitely, and there one or more forms of computer applications that do not do pretty much for you to any degree. I hope that this short examination should support you understand what types of applications are going to be the best for your particular life.

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The first most relevant pieces of speed reading computer programs is that you must have a great deal of assortment in activities. A couple kinds of computer applications do nothing but give you reading passages and time you. The better forms of speedreading softwares should include games that show you diverse ways of chunking, analyzing, and highlighting varied reading quickly techniques. Individuals should challenge you with reading comprehension questions, which are nice for compelling you to concentrate on something and get the most knowledge feasible regardless of what the subject matter is. Visual exercises are at times included, and these are not generally recommended by reading rapidly specialists. Many doctors have cited these as a leading cause of recurring migraines, and perhaps incredibly, they have small effect on how fast you could read.


Books might be traditional, courses may be the most all-encompassing, but more and more, individuals are turning to PC or Mac applications as perhaps the best strategies to discover most forms of stuff. From high school courses, to over the internet science fairs, computer learning is at the forefront of education. There are most forms of things that are clearly better to know in front of a PC or Mac screen, but is reading one out of those?

Speedreading software is one of the completely new ways you could take to ameliorate your reading abilities to the next level. Programs offers you a lot of benefits over a traditional book or pen-and-paper method. First is the accurate reviews tracking and progress meter that tracks your outcomes over time. Software also offer you a distinct best part in allowing the applications producers to illustrate their points in completely new ways. With the numerous tools built in, There's no way to honestly avoid using this is one or more way. So get on board and get yourself a few reading rapidly applications to strengthen your abilities.


The first newest products being offered in schools across the U.S. is an on line high school, where students stay home and log in instead of ending up with on a school bus. Lessons are basically self-driven, with video support from educators, and assignments are largely project-based. These schools offer a number of positives, specifically in sparsely populated areas, or for students who are not able to handle the larger populations of schools. It also lets for another choice for students without having to be sent from school to school.

The first largest benefits of an over the internet high school is the factor of choice in education. instead of having to target what a educator thinks is necessary, on the internet schooler are allowed a lot of independence in what they want to learn. A common most in demand alternatives time and time again in these schools is the choice to know speedreading using reading quickly programs. English teachers are buying into the idea that learning to read fast does not necessarily mean that you are learning to read poorly, and speedreading lessons typically reinforce this concept.

Educators report that after having learned speed reading, ACT test and SAT scores are up, and children are uncommonly driven to understand.

Oracle updates WebLogic for cloud usage

For the new release of its WebLogic, Oracle has tailored the enterprise Java application server so that it can be used more easily in cloud deployments.

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"Many of our customers are running in traditional data centers but they are interested in moving to the cloud. We designed WebLogic 12c to make that happen," said Mike Lehmann, Oracle senior director of product management, noting that the "c" in the name of the new version stands for "cloud."

WebLogic 12c will be available for use within the next few weeks, the company announced Thursday. This edition is the first major update to WebLogic since WebLogic 11g, released in 2009.

With this release, Oracle has updated the software to meet the latest set of Java standards. It runs the latest version of the core Java runtime environment, Java SE (Standard Edition), version 7, released last July.

WebLogic 12c is also the first version to comply with the full Java Enterprise Edition 6 platform profile, including the APIs (application programming interfaces) and libraries for Java EE 6 components such as Java Servlets, JAX (Java API for restful XML Web services), JSF (Java Server Faces) and Enterprise JavaBeans. Java EE 6 also brings Context Dependency Injection, a feature long requested by developers for easily injecting components into applications.

Much of the work Oracle did getting WebLogic ready for the cloud involved integrating the server software with other Oracle and non-Oracle applications.

For instance, WebLogic has been tweaked to run with Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder, which provides a way for an organization to package into a single container all the components in a multitier application. Typically, enterprise Java application components, which include a Web server, traffic management software, the application server and a messaging tier, tend to be spread out across multiple servers. This software packages all of them into a single virtual container, which then can be moved from server to server and managed as a single identity.

The company also paired WebLogic with Oracle Traffic Director, a load balancer that routes inbound traffic across a number of duplicate WebLogic instances. "As they cloud-enable their environment, customers start getting a proliferation of virtual machines. Virtual Assembly Builder minimizes that by collecting them up into assemblies. And Traffic Director then allows them to tailor their network traffic much more cleanly into their back-end infrastructure," Lehmann said.

The software also has been engineered to work more easily with the Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) database clustering software. The application server can pick the best database server to work with at any given moment, and, as a result, can enjoy up to a threefold performance boost, Lehmann said. Other application servers will poll the database for new events to act upon, whereas, for WebLogic, Oracle set up a messaging system that can alert the application server immediately when new information has been ingested into the database. Oracle engineered similar performance enhancing shortcuts wth its Exalogic appliance, which is based on WebLogic.

At the behest of users, Oracle also integrated WebLogic with Apache Maven, which aids developers in managing their applications' dependencies, or the libraries and classes needed for that program to operate. "This makes it easy for our customers to integrate WebLogic into their standard build environment," Lehmann said.

Court rules that HP's Hurd probe document can remain secret

A document tied to an internal Hewlett-Packard sexual harassment investigation of former CEO Mark Hurd will remain sealed, according to a ruling handed down this week by the Delaware Supreme Court.

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HP shareholder Ernesto Espinoza had filed a lawsuit seeking to inspect the document, which was prepared by the law firm Covington and Burling on HP's behalf.

The Delaware Chancery Court had already ruled against Espinoza on grounds his need to see the document wasn't sufficient enough to override "attorney-client privilege and work product immunity protections," the state supreme court said in its ruling, which was handed down Monday. "We affirm, but on the alternative ground that Espinoza has not shown that the Covington Report is essential to his stated purpose, which is to investigate possible corporate wrongdoing."

Hurd resigned from HP in August 2010 and also reached a confidential settlement with a former HP contractor, Jodie Fisher. Shortly thereafter, he took a job as co-president of Oracle.

Although the internal HP investigation did not conclude Hurd was guilty of sexually harassing Fisher, it found he had broken HP's business conduct standards and uncovered a "systematic" series of inaccurate expense reports meant to cover up his relationship with her, the ruling added.

Hurd received a lucrative severance package from HP. Espinoza had argued that if HP's board had reason to fire Hurd "for cause," then the payments shouldn't have been made, the court said.

Apple picks Sharp, dumps Samsung for iPad 3

The Samsung-Apple [AAPL] relationship seems on the rocks, with Apple shifting display production to Sharp, taking advantage of new and potentially cheaper production processes as it readies manufacturing for the iPad 3, iPhone 5 and in future, an Apple television, says Jefferies analyst, Peter Misek.

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Sharp and Apple

Digitimes last week made the claim that Sharp has begun manufacturing for Apple. Today that's confirmed in a fresh research note from Misek.

"We believe Apple has shifted display production and that Sharp has now become a large panel supplier, based on our checks. We believe that the Gen 6 Kameyama facility has been exclusively taken over for Apple purposes with Apple purchasing $500 million to $1 billion of equipment for the manufacturing of iPad 3 and iPhone 5 LTE displays," he said.

Then it gets interesting:

The analyst thinks Sharp has already begun iPad 3 display production (two weeks ago), and adds that the display tech achieved will allow for HD resolution screens on the iPad 3, which he suggests may ship in March. The analyst also thinks Sharp's plant will be used for iPhone 5 production.

Introducing IGZO

The adopted display tech is based on IGZO (indium, gallium, zinc) processes, which offer near-OLED power consumption, is cheaper to make and only 25 percent thicker than displays made using OLED technology. This technology depends on oxide-material-based thin-film transistors, which enables manufacturing advantages.

The analyst has a host of interesting details on the new process, for example: "He believes that Apple and Sharp will jointly develop OLED panels for use in the iPhone and iPad within the next one to two years."

He describes a new printing technology Sharp and Apple have that enables OLED to be printed onto a film that's later stuck to the glass, boosting display yields to a "tremendous" degree.

Why is it less expensive?

Because it produces displays with similar performance to that of LCD, but which can be mass produced on existing amorphous-silicon TFT-LCD production lines. The IGZO transistors feature electron mobility 20-30 times higher than that of amorphous-silicon thin-film transistors, this report claims.

"The IGZO LCD panel’s performance outclasses anything attainable with conventional amorphous-silicon TFT panels," said Shuji Sako, deputy group general manager of Sharp’s Display Device Business Group.

Feeling the pain

Piling on even more agony on Apple's flailing tablet competitors, Misek also warns that Apple may intend keeping the iPad 2 on the market with a lower ($100-200 less) price.

The analyst has a host of interesting details on the new process, for example: "He believes that Apple and Sharp will jointly develop OLED panels for use in the iPhone and iPad within the next one to two years."

This mother-lode of analysis keeps on giving: Misek also believes work has begun on a new Apple television, set for mid-2012 launch, with the display made at another Sharp facility and prompting panic among other TV makers, anxious to avoid becoming irrelevant.

Jaw-jaw, or war-war?

Meanwhile litigation between parties continues. This has driven the relationship between Apple and Samsung to the rocks, while the public relations fallout of all the litigation isn't really doing anyone any favors.

Manufacturers are pouring money into legal teams, consumers are becoming radicalized, variously accusing Apple of being "controlling" and Google et al of being "copycats", and manufacturers are being slowly forced to focus on price, rather than features.

Don't believe that? Consider this: the biggest-selling non-Apple iPad sold in the US in 2011 was the HP TouchPad, on strength of the $99 price HP sold the device at. Just 1.2 million non-iPads were sold this year. Apple sold 11.2 million in the last quarter.

The battle's tough and is raising a new discussion about the value of patent and IP law. Not only this, but regulators in Europe and, presumably, beyond are beginning to look into all this struggle to ascertain if there's anything anti-competitive going on. Samsung's unusual handling of 3G patents, for example.

IBM ASM 92P1168

From a connectivity standpoint the E220s has a good collection of ports. Notably, Lenovo had to leave an optical drive out of the Edge E220s in order to deliver a smaller form factor, but was able to keep the rest of the ports you would expect on a portable business notebook.HP COMPAQ nw8440 Battery
The Edge E220s has a low light webcam that performed well in most situations. You can see a sample image taken with the webcam below. It’s no replacement for a higher quality webcam, but for a notebook of this size it performs as well enough you can see my stubble.HP COMPAQ nw8440 Mobile Workstation Battery

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The real magic comes from the built in VOIP software which allows you to focus the microphone on yourself, ignoring background noise, or to listen to the entire room and act as a speakerphone. We’ve seen this in action on the X220 and the X1, but it is still impressive to have a conversation over the built in Mic without the person on the other end of the call hearing coworkers and background noise.HP COMPAQ nw9440 Battery

We like the fact that the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s sticks to business with a lack of extra software installed from the factory. Our review model came with the ThinkVantage toolbox, which you’ll find on most ThinkPad notebooks, but not much else. This toolbox includes the VOIP optimization software we mentioned above as well as other system tools for controlling security, battery life and backup and restore options.HP COMPAQ nw9440 Mobile Workstation Battery

Like most notebooks the ThinkPad Edge E220s comes with a standard one year warranty, but businesses will appreciate the ability to add an extended warranty up to three years, and opt for extras like accidental damage protection and on site repair service. Warranty pricing varies with coverage, but runs up to $279 for a three-year depot warranty.HP COMPAQ nx7300 Battery

There’s no question that the $800 Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s offers a great value to business users and students. The compact size, hearty performance and wonderful keyboard come together in a package that makes us wonder how Lenovo can offer it all for this price.HP COMPAQ nx7400 Battery

The ThinkPad Edge E220s isn’t the thinnest or lightest business notebook, but the whole package comes together very nicely. We definitely wish that the display wasn’t glossy and that the battery lasted longer than 5 hours, but the great keyboard and sexy looks compensate well. If you want an ultraportable that won’t break your budget, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E220s is one of our top picks.HP COMPAQ nx8200 Battery

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook is an independent, nonprofit news service serving thousands of supporters of the Philadelphia public schools. The Notebook serves as an information source and voice for parents, students, teachers, and other members of the community who are working for quality and equality in Philadelphia's public schools.HP COMPAQ nx8220 Battery

A group of concerned parents, teachers, and community members committed to improving public education founded the Notebook as a quarterly newspaper in 1994. We remain an independent journalistic enterprise, with nonprofit status backed by foundation and donor / member support.HP COMPAQ nx8420 Battery

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook is an independent,HP COMPAQ nx9420 Battery nonprofit news service serving thousands of supporters of the Philadelphia public schools. The Notebook serves as an information source and voice for parents, students, teachers, and other members of the community who are working for quality and equality in Philadelphia's public schools. A group of concerned parents, teachers, and community members committed to improving public education founded the Notebook as a quarterly newspaper in 1994. We remain an independent journalistic enterprise, with nonprofit status backed by foundation and donor / member support.HP COMPAQ 361909-001

Over our 17-year history, we have developed into a widely read and respected resource. Our newspaper has a circulation of 60,000 copies. Most of these are distributed free of charge through each Philadelphia public school and Free Library branch as well as through charter schools and over 250 community organizations.HP COMPAQ 361909-002

Each issue of the Notebook focuses on a theme of vital importance to public education in Philadelphia and contains both news and commentary in English and Spanish. The Notebook publishes the newspaper six times per year, a monthly NEWSFLASH, a daily blog, and community events and dialogues about education and education reform. Learn more about our offerings here.HP COMPAQ 372771-001

El Philadelphia Public School Notebook es un servicio de noticias independiente y sin fines de lucro que les sirve a miles de personas que apoyan las escuelas públicas de Filadelfia. El Notebook sirve como recurso de información y voz para los padres, estudiantes, maestros y otros miembros de la comunidad que están trabajando por tener calidad e igualdad en las escuelas públicas de Filadelfia.HP COMPAQ 381374-001

Un grupo de padres, maestros y miembros de la comunidad preocupados por mejorar la educación pública fundó el Notebook como un periódico trimestral en 1994. Todavía seguimos siendo una empresa periodística independiente sin fines de lucro financiada por el apoyo de donantes y nuestra fundación.HP COMPAQ 395794-001

En nuestros 17 años de historia nos hemos convertido en un recurso ampliamente leido y respetado. Nuestro periódico tiene una circulación de 60,000 copias. La mayoría de ellas se distribuye gratuitamente en cada escuela pública y biblioteca pública de Filadelfia, en cada escuela chárter y en sobre 250 organizaciones de la comunidad.HP COMPAQ 395794-002

Cada edición del Notebook se enfoca en un tema de vital importancia para la educación pública en Filadelfia y contiene tanto noticias como comentarios en inglés y español. El Notebook publica el periódico seis veces al año, un boletín NEWSFLASH mensual, un blog diario y también eventos y diálogos en la comunidad sobre el tema de educación y reforma educativa. Haga clic aquí para saber más sobre lo que ofrecemos.HP COMPAQ 395794-261

The is a portable notebook stand that offers 12 degree angle for ergonomic typing and airflow. The primary selling point of the AViiQ Portable Quick Stand is that it is collapsible, which makes it easy to carry around. However, stability and the high angle weaken what would be an otherwise useful accessory.HP COMPAQ 398875-001

While some notebook stands are too bulky to take with you, the AViiQ’s weighs only 5.5 ounces and collapses flat to fit in the notebook compartment of your computer bag. The AViiQ Portable Quick Stand is so thin, you will barely notice it is there.HP COMPAQ 398876-001

The stand is made from four long slices of plastic that look metallic. They are held together by silicone rubber that comes in five colors, allowing you to find one that fits your style. AViiQ says that the Portable Quick Stand will work with smaller notebooks like the MacBook Air or larger 17? computers.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-DB06

The stand has a 12 degree angle which raises the notebook off the table offering increased airflow for cooling and a higher angle for those who prefer this angle while typing. People who have good touch typing form will like that angle.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-DB11

Unfortunately, like many users, we are lazy and rest our wrists on the front part of the laptop. As a result the angle is a little too high for comfortable typing. Very few of our staff find this kind of angle useful for typing. The good news is the stand can be used at a lower angle, even if it was not designed to be used that way. Below you will see what we mean.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-DB29

As you can see, when you fold the edge with the smaller pieces in on itself instead of putting them at the base of the triangle, the angle is much lower. This is a more comfortable angle to use while typing.The AViiQ Portable Quick Stand is quick and easy to set up, just press along the folded edge and it turns into a triangle that forms the base of the stand.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-I04C

There is a bit of a trick to make the stand work without your notebook sliding off. Our MacBook Air has two rubber feet on the bottom. We positioned the apex of the triangle just below those feet and it stays in place (see above). Another option is to have the top groove grab the back edge of the lid of your laptop (see below). This won’t help if your laptop doesn’t have a lid that folds back as low as the back edge of the MacBook Air’s lid.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-LB11

If you place the top of the Quick Stand against the MacBook Air’s flat metallic base, the notebook will slide off of the stand. Also, the AViiQ Portable Stand is a little unstable while you type, especially for those who bang on a keyboard. If you are a heavy typer the notebook will bounce a little while on the stand. Finally, you cannot use the stand on your lap at all.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-OB06

At $39.99 the AViiQ Portable Quick Stand is on the high side. While the portability is a nice feature, the weaknesses above make the Portable Quick Stand too expensive for us to recommend. Typically stands in this price range offer more functionality and importantly a sturdier base to type on.HP COMPAQ HSTNN-UB11

If you are looking for a way to protect your MacBook Pro keyboard or for a way to learn common application shortcuts, the KB Covers keyboard covers for Apple notebooks are a great solution that won’t feel like you’re trying to type with a sheet of rubber between your fingers and the keyboard.HP COMPAQ PB992A

carries a number of keyboard covers designed to help you master applications like , learnas well as. These covers work with the MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and there are also models available for the Apple keyboard. We had the opportunity to review the Photoshop, Mac OS X shortcuts and Clearskin KB Covers for this review.HP Compaq 6510b Battery

KB Covers come in a variety of models to serve a wide range of users. We believe that Photoshop and other specialized application users will be some of the primary customers, but the inclusion of an OS X keyboard shortcut keyboard means that these covers are also a nice accessory for new Mac owners. The Clearskin covers are a good fit for users that want some keyboard protection without obscuring any keys.HP Compaq 6515b Battery

The KB Covers skins are soft and flexible, allowing for a nice typing experience while on your MacBook Pro keyboard. The edges of the keys are somewhat firm which takes some adjustments in typing styles if you don’t often hit the center of the keys, but within a week we had adapted to the new feel.HP Compaq 6710b Battery

Samsung becomes biggest smartphone vendor as Android's market share grows

Samsung became the biggest smartphone vendor in the world during the third quarter, and Android's market share has surpassed 50% for the first time, market research company Gartner said on Tuesday as it reported on phone sales to end-users.

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Worldwide smartphone sales totaled 115 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 42% from the third quarter of 2010. However, smartphone sales slowed compared to the second quarter, a consequence of the economic situation and of consumers holding out for new models, including the iPhone 4S, according to Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner.

Android and Samsung were the big winners among smartphone operating systems and vendors, respectively.

Samsung became the worldwide number one for the first time, selling 24 million smartphones, three times as many as it sold during the third quarter last year.

Samsung's support for Android, and the availability of a wide variety of low-cost smartphones running the OS, helped Android grab a 52.5% share of the market: 60.5 million smartphones based on the various versions of the OS were sold, according to Cozza.

Worldwide, Nokia is still the second biggest smartphone vendor and Symbian the second most popular smartphone OS. Consumers bought 19.5 million Symbian-based smartphones, giving the OS a 17% market share. Smartphones based on Symbian are still popular in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Nokia's first smartphone running Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, the Lumia 800, has gone on sale in Germany, and will go on sale France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK later this month. Microsoft reached a new low during the third quarter as its operating system software now only has a 1.5% share of the smartphone market.

To compete with the Google camp and Apple, Nokia needs to expand its product portfolio and work with Microsoft on more ways to differentiate from the competition, according to Cozza. At the same time, Microsoft needs to add support for hardware features like LTE (Long-Term Evolution), which is becoming increasingly important.

"We don't expect to see a major impact on sales until the second half of 2012," said Cozza.

Apple sold about 17 million iPhones in the third quarter, an annual increase of 21%, but down nearly 3 million units from the second quarter of 2011, perhaps because potential buyers were waiting for the launch of the iPhone 4S, which came in the fourth quarter. That makes iOS still the third most popular OS, with a 15% market share, and Apple the third biggest smartphone vendor.

Now that the iPhone 4S has been released and is doing well, Cozza expects Apple to bounce back during the last three months of 2011. With the iPhone 4S and the lower pricing of older iPhone models, Apple is a formidable competitor, according to Cozza.

During the fourth quarter, the battle between the Android camp and Apple will be especially cutthroat in the U.S. HTC won the top spot during the third quarter, but Apple in second place and Samsung in third place are just behind, Cozza said.

Microsoft wasn't the only OS vendor heading downward: Research In Motion (RIM) recorded new market share lows in both the U.S. and worldwide, at 10% and 11%, respectively. It sold 12.7 million units, enough to make RIM the fourth-largest smartphone maker, and BlackBerry OS the fourth largest OS, according to Gartner's data.

HTC may the biggest smartphone vendor in the U.S, but the company is only the fifth-largest vendor worldwide. It sold about 12 million smartphones.

Beyond smartphones, worldwide sales of all types of phones totaled 440.5 million units in the third quarter, up 5.6% from the same period last year. The five biggest vendors are Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Apple and ZTE.

Where the heck is iWork '12?

Apple last major update of its venerable office suite — iWork — was almost three years ago and it’s starting to show its age. Is it going 64-bit? Will it get a Final Cut Pro X-style reboot?

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Where the heck is iWork ‘12?

Microsoft Office is an industry standard and a practical requirement for people that need to exchange office documents back and forth. But I tend to launch Keynote, Pages or Numbers when I’m creating a new document for me. Although I’ve done several tours with Office (who hasn’t) I prefer iWork for most tasks and Keynote is hands-down a better application than PowerPoint.

The problem is that Apple’s last major update of its venerable office suite was almost three years ago and it’s starting to show its age. Here’s a breakdown of the major iWork releases since it was announced in 2005:

January 11, 2005 — iWork ‘05
January 10, 2006 –- iWork ‘06
August 7, 2007 — iWork ‘08
January 6, 2009 — iWork ‘09

Although Apple is still promoting ‘09 versions of software on its website…

Many people (including myself) thought that Apple would release iWork ‘12 at its Let’s Talk iPhone event on October 4, but it didn’t come to pass. Apple instead released the iPhone 4S, iOS 5, and iCloud - nothing to sneeze at, mind you. I was almost certain that Apple would release iWork ‘12 alongside iOS 5. It made total sense — at least to me.

Instead of releasing iWork ‘12, Apple decided to release incremental updates to the suite, mostly to support new OS innovations.

On July 20 Apple released updates to iWork desktop apps adding OS X Lion features like full screen, resume, auto save and versions.

On October 12 Apple updated Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iOS to version 1.5, adding support for iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud feature. The updates allow users to automatically store presentations, spreadsheets and word processing files in iCloud and keep them synced among multiple iOS devices.

While iWork for iOS got Documents in the Cloud support, unfortunately the desktop versions didn’t follow suit. This necessitates the following workflow if you want to transfer a Pages document from your iPhone to your Mac (for example):

Pages app > documents screen
Touch Edit (icons start to shake)
Touch Document
Touch Share icon
Touch iWork.com
Oddly you must send an email notification (even if sharing to yourself) or it won’t upload
Visit iWork.com from a browser on your Mac, log in
Download the shared file (options include Pages, PDF or Word format)
Open it in Pages for Mac OS

Once you’ve got the document on your Mac, there’s no way to upload it to iWork.com. The only way to get the document back on your iPhone is to email it to yourself and select “Open with Pages” on your iOS device.

Obtuse, to say the least.

So where, oh where, is iWork ‘12?

Originally iCloud was believed to be holding it up, but Apple released iCloud on October 4, so that’s not it.

A theory being floated on the Apple discussion boards is that iWork ‘11 was being re-written to be 64-bit native and Apple “ran into some significant issues with existing 64-bit-able hardware base” so they’re downgrading it to 32-bit.

One of my favorite rumors is that iWork ‘12 will come with a Final Cut Pro X-style reboot. It apparently started when AppleBitch discovered an Apple job opening for a Senior User Interface Designer that would “rework the iWork suite on both Mac and iOS devices.”

Whatever the reason, Apple needs to ship it soon. Seemless iCloud integration is practically a given but I’m sure that Apple has some other snazzy features up its sleeve, too.

HP makes more executive changes

After a couple of high-profile departures, HP on Wednesday announced some executive appointments, including a new CIO.

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John Hinshaw is now executive vice president of Global Technology and Business Processes, the company said. He'll oversee IT and will be in charge of optimizing business processes across the company. Hinshaw previously worked for Boeing and before that, Verizon Wireless. He'll report to Meg Whitman, HP's new president and CEO.


Craig Flower, an HP veteran since 1984, will take on the role of senior vice president and CIO. He'll report to Hinshaw.

Flower once reported to former HP CIO Randy Mott, who left the company in June as part of a restructuring instituted by short-lived CEO Leo Apotheker. Mott was known for his restructuring of HP's IT, including a massive reduction of data centers.

The appointments follow a number of high-profile departures at HP recently and this year. Last month HP's chief strategy and technology officer, Shane Robison, retired, and the company said it wouldn't replace him. Earlier this week, Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer for HP's Personal Systems Group, said he'd retire at the end of this year. In June, well-known HP veteran Ann Livermore stepped down as head of the Enterprise Business but took on a board seat. Whitman, HP's new CEO, is taking over for Apotheker, who lasted less than a year and who replaced Mark Hurd, who had been ousted after allegations of sexual harassment.

Microsoft signs Android licensing deal with Samsung

Microsoft has signed a cross-license patent agreement with Samsung Electronics that grants Microsoft royalties from Samsung's Android-based smartphones and tablets, Microsoft said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Microsoft didn't disclose details on how much money Samsung will have to pay Microsoft for every Android-based device it sells. Last year, HTC, which together with Samsung dominate the market for Android-based smartphones, also signed a licensing deal with Microsoft.


In the past three months, Microsoft has signed Android deals with Acer, General Dynamics Itronix, Onkyo, Velocity Micro, ViewSonic and Wistron, Microsoft's general council Brad Smith and deputy general council Horacio Gutierrez wrote in a blog post.

That leaves Motorola Mobility, with which Microsoft is currently in litigation, as the only major Android smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. without a license, they said.

It seems unlikely that Microsoft and Motorola Mobility will agree on a licensing deal without litigation. Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google. "Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," Google CEO Larry Page said about the $12.5 billion acquisition.

Smith and Gutierrez had this message for Google in their blog post: "We recognize that some businesses and commentators -- Google chief among them -- have complained about the potential impact of patents on Android and software innovation. To them, we say this: look at today's announcement. If industry leaders such as Samsung and HTC can enter into these agreements, doesn't this provide a clear path forward?"

Samsung signing a deal with Microsoft makes more sense. The company is already busy battling with Apple in courts around the world. Samsung did not reply to questions about the deal.

Also, earlier this week, Samsung announced the Omnia W, its first smartphone based on Windows 7.5, also known as Mango. In addition to the licensing deal, the companies also agreed to cooperate in the development and marketing of Windows Phone, Microsoft said on Wednesday.

Samsung and HTC are close partners to Microsoft, so signing licensing deals make their lives easier, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at IDC.

But, on Tuesday, Samsung joined Intel to help develop Tizen, a new OS that merges MeeGo and Limo. So the company is keeping its options open when it comes to OSes.

Microsoft: Windows Azure will outcompete Amazon Web Services on features, total cost

Despite unveiling prices for its upcoming Windows Azure cloud platform that appear merely on par with incumbent rivals such as Amazon, Microsoft Corp. says Azure will gain ground with Web developers by offering more and better features for the money.

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Free from today until its official launch in November, Azure's still-in-beta services range from a hosted .Net platform to an online version of the SQL Server database called SQL Azure.

At its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on Tuesday, Microsoft detailed three pricing models for Azure: a consumption model, a subscription model for partner resellers, and an option for volume-license customers such as large enterprises.

The first "pay-as-you-go" model aimed at small developers attracted the most attention, though, because the pricing was closely comparable to services offered Amazon.com, Salesforce.com's Force.com and Google Inc.'s Google App Engine.

Microsoft is charging 12 cents per CPU/hour, 15 cents per gigabyte of data per month, and 10 cents per 10,000 transactions for storage purposes.

While The Register declared Azure to be cheaper than Amazon.com's price for hosted Windows and more expensive than a Linux instance, Silicon Valley Insider called Azure's price "not significantly different than either Google or Amazon."

"The actual per-unit pricing is totally uninteresting in my mind," Prashant Ketkar, director of marketing for Windows Azure, told Computerworld on Tuesday. "What will it cost me end-to-end?"

Ketkar says that Azure offers a number of standard features that, if purchased as add-ons for most competing platforms, cause their prices "to be substantially more expensive than us."

He cited Azure's automated service management as a "killer feature" that enables apps on a downed server to be reloaded onto another server with minimal interruption using Microsoft's "fabric controller".

Azure is also able to dynamically scale on demand, and automatically create two extra backups of data, Ketkar said.

Iein Valdez, product development director for Appirio Inc., a SaaS systems integrator that supports both Google App Engine and Force.com, disputed Ketkar's cost calculations.

"On Google App Engine, you're only paying for the resources you use, unlike Azure where you pay for any running compute instances even if your application is unused," Valdez said.

He said also that Google App Engine is easier to use and more scalable than Azure.


"App Engine has completely transparent auto-scaling, with Azure you'd need to correctly provision and tear down instances as demand fluctuates&and this can be real headache," Valdez said. "From the database [datastore] perspective, the business edition of SQL Azure appears to max out at 10GB, unlike App Engine, which has no data limitations. This can be a real problem for even small-scale applications."

Meanwhile, an Amazon.com spokeswoman said that the company's prices are "intended to give users the most flexibility possible in building their applications." She invited developers to use Amazon.com's online calculator to check the cost of running services such as its S3 storage or EC2 application-hosting service.

While Microsoft is counting on the loyalty of legions of .Net developers moving their apps to Azure, Ketkar said, it also believes it can win over developers who have already moved to rival cloud services.

"It's still 15 minutes into the first quarter, as my senior VP likes to say," Ketkar said. "It's still evolving technology. So I don't think any good developer has committed to any platform."

With its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Microsoft is letting third parties such as CSC sell a version that is hosted on their own servers, not Microsoft's data centers.

With Azure, Microsoft is remaining more restrictive. Neither partners nor enterprises will be allowed to host Azure at launch, Ketkar said, but that may come "a few years down the road."

Such services, which would parallel the long-term unification of the Windows Server and Azure roadmaps, would likely be called something other than Azure, he said.

Microsoft aims Office 365 at small businesses

For the launch of its first full-fledged online office suite, Office 365, Microsoft is paying particular attention to how the new service could help small and medium-size businesses.

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"While we launched Office 365 for all customers, we wanted to focus today on the small and mid-sized opportunities," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft corporate vice president within the Microsoft Office Division product management group, in an interview with the IDG News Service.

During his presentation in New York, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped the names of large companies already using Microsoft cloud services, including DuPont, Hyatt, Starbucks and Volvo. However, the company's overall marketing emphasis was centered on making Office 365 as appealing as possible to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), which spend US$800 billion annually on IT products, according to Gartner estimates.

That market is fragmented in terms of what Microsoft products are being used, Koenigsbauer elaborated. Some may be using older versions of Exchange or Microsoft Office, or may just may be using a mish-mash of different products. Worse, many organizations have small, if not non-existent, IT departments.

"Cloud services are a great value propositions for SMBs," Koenigsbauer said. "They have very small IT staffs. They don't have the infrastructure. They don't have the capital to buy new racks of servers."

More than 70 percent of the users of the Office 365 beta versions were small and medium-size businesses, Ballmer said. He ticked off a list of potential types of users for the new service, including real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, cleaning services and auto dealerships.

Office 365 can be exciting "particularly for companies that have little or no IT support and very little time and financial resources to dedicate to technology," he said. "Office 365 ... is a big step forward. These businesses really will be able to let their employees share information in new ways."

At the press event, Microsoft gathered representatives from a number of small and mid-sized organizations that have tried Office 365 in its beta form. Chiefly, these businesses seemed most interested in using Office 365 as a way to avoid maintaining in-house Microsoft Exchange servers.

One company considering its use is the Hendrick Automotive Group, which operates 75 car dealerships throughout the U.S.

"For us, one of the reasons we're looking at Office 365 is that we have a very small IT department. By moving services to the cloud we will be able to realign those resources to those applications that are unique to our industry," said Robert Taylor, who is the director of information technology for Hendrick. "We'll be able to deliver applications faster to our users."

Currently, the company runs a centralized pool of Exchange servers. Its IT services department supports around 4,000 users with a staff of only 13. The company also uses Microsoft SharePoint as an aid to help train employees, and get personnel from new dealerships up to speed.

Another company testing the technology is Perkins Eastman, an architecture firm. Based in New York, the firm has 600 employees across 13 offices worldwide, which are supported by an IT staff of 14. "We're constantly looking for ways to be more efficient," said Hamilton Esi, who is director of practice applications for the firm. "Office 365 was a natural transition for us, because of its value proposition."

The company has been testing the service since December, first with 15 e-mail accounts, then with 50 mailboxes. "Down the road, I see the entire organization moving over to the cloud," Esi said.

Chief to the appeal of Office 365 for Esi is the ability to quickly spin up new accounts for new offices. The company is rapidly expanding, and plans to open two offices this year. With Office 365, the company can centrally provision email accounts without the need to set up separate servers in new locations. Employees can get their email accounts even before the office is fitted with a new Internet connection. "We now have the ability to set up the office in record time," Esi said.

One area in which Microsoft will still have to prove its mettle is with the service's up-time. The company's precursor to Office 365, BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), had experienced a number of outages.

Koenigsbauer has noted that Office 365 apps inherently are different from BPOS ones in that they were designed to work in multi-tenant environments, which should minimize troubles. Ballmer promised that the SLA (Service Level Agreements) for Office 365 will be "the best in the industry."

Office 365 may ultimately prove to be more reliable, agreed Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing for Azaleos. Azaleos offers a service to manage federated Active Directory instances, which will be essential for blending internal office use and Office 365 deployments under a single-sign-on.

The mistakes Microsoft made with BPOS come with the territory of ramping up a new service, he explained. However, Office 365 is a higher profile service for the company, and so Microsoft has probably devoted more resources to keeping it running. Engineers have also probably learned from running BPOS.

"We've been affected by the [downtime], but we don't expect it to be totally without hitches," said Chris Robert, senior manager for information security for Scripps Network Interactive, which runs a number of cable channels such as the HGTV.

When Scripps was spun out from its parent company, Scripps Co., management decided to switch over to BPOS for all employee e-mail needs. The company has been using the service for several years now. "Overall, we're pretty happy with the [BPOS] service. It is quite a bit more stable," than a typical in-house implementation, Robert said, noting that in-house email servers can go offline as well. "People have forgotten. It's not like we've never had downtime," he said.

Microsoft slates IE bug fix for next week

Microsoft today said it will ship eight security updates next week to patch 23 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE) and several other products in its portfolio.

The company sketched out the upcoming patches in an advanced notice of Patch Tuesday's line-up.

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Two of the eight updates, which Microsoft refers to as "bulletins," will be rated "critical," the most-serious threat ranking in its scoring system. The remaining six will be labeled "important," the next-most-severe tag. Most of the bulletins, including four of the six pegged as important, are to patch vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to execute malicious code, and potentially commandeer the computer, the company acknowledged.

Microsoft said that the eight updates will fix 23 security flaws. The company usually delivers a larger number of updates that patch a higher number of vulnerabilities in even-numbered months, leaving a lighter load for odd-numbered months.

In August, for example, Microsoft issued 13 updates that patched 22 vulnerabilities, while in September it delivered five updates that quashed 15 bugs.

This month's tallies were slightly sub-par for an even-numbered month: So far this year, Microsoft has patched an average of 26.2 bugs in those months. In odd-numbered months, Microsoft fixed an average of 9.4 flaws.

"In 2010, the up and down from odd- to even-numbered months was more recognizable," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. "This year, the numbers have been flatter lately. They're in the double digits almost every month. So IE is really the difference. We know we get an IE update every other month."

Storms is right: Since July, Microsoft has patched an average of 18.5 vulnerabilities in the odd-numbered months, and 22.5 bugs in the even-numbered months.

The IE update will probably be the one most users should deploy first, said Storms, advice he and other security experts almost always give every other month. That update is one of the two rated critical by Microsoft, and affects all currently-supported versions of the browser, including this year's IE9.

"I doubt there will be a story this month from Microsoft about how IE9 is more secure than its other browsers," said Storms, referring to the critical label Microsoft assigned to the new version's update.

The other critical bulletin will patch one or more vulnerabilities in the .Net framework included with every version of Windows, from 2001's XP to 2009's Windows 7. The same update will also plug a hole in the Silverlight 4 development tool.

Marcus Carey, a security researcher with Rapid7, pointed out that the .Net and Silverlight update sounds similar to MS11-039, a critical bulletin Microsoft issued in June.

"When exploit developers look for bugs disclosed in products, they usually find similar bugs which result in the same type of vulnerabilities," said Carey in an email. "I'd expect the implications of this one to mirror MS11-039: specifically, that server and client side attacks may be perpetrated through .Net or Silverlight."

Other updates will patch a denial-of-service issue in Microsoft's Host Integration Server, a gateway that connects Windows-based networks with IBM mainframe and mid-range AS/400 systems, and a remote code flaw in Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010, the company's VPN (virtual private networking) platform that lets enterprise workers connect with corporate applications when outside the office.

Microsoft last quashed a bug in the VPN platform in November 2010.

Last month, Microsoft inadvertently published information about September's security updates four days early. Although it caught the embarrassing error and removed the pages from its website inside an hour, some security researchers grabbed copies before they were deleted.

Storms doesn't expect a repeat performance this month.

The eight updates will be released at approximately 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 11.

Certs: Added value or minimum requirement?

I've got a Bachelors Degree in Information Systems Management, my Certified Information Security Systems Professional (CISSP) certification, the SANS GIAC Systems and Network Auditor (GSNA) certificate and I used to be a CCNA. I spent two years getting my B.S. by attending night courses, the CISSP took me 6 months of constant study, the GSNA required a week's worth of intense instructor lead study, and I spent the better part of a school year taking the official Cisco course work at the local junior college before taking the test. And with the exception of the CCNA, the time I spent earning my degree and getting my certifications was aimed strictly at filling in a check box on an HR person's list rather than learning something. Not to say I didn't learn something in studying for each, but my goal was fulfilling a job requirement instead of education.

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I have mixed feelings about certifications in the IT and security professions; certifications show that someone has the minimum knowledge required to pass a particular test. It shows they understand their profession well enough to know what certificates are going to be required to get a job in their field. It shows that the person is dedicated enough to their profession to take and pass these tests. But what it doesn't show is real-world knowledge of security.

Obviously I'm not opposed to certifications, since I hold several myself. But I've never liked the fact that many people think certification and skills are the same thing. The fact that having the right certification can mean a significantly higher level of pay for professionals who otherwise are of the same skill level only further complicates the situation. It encourages people to accumulate as many different certifications as possible to help bolster their income, something I'm as guilty of as anyone else.

I remember the early days of the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and "paper MCSE's" who had passed all the tests, but could barely remember how to change a password when they got their first job in the real world. I often hear accusations that the CISSP is heading in the same direction, despite increased efforts by the ISC2 to validate candidates and verify levels of experience. But I think both of these miss the real point of certification; they show that someone has spent the time and effort to pass a test, not that they have the skills required to work in the real world. After all, no one expects a kid fresh out of college to know everything about their chosen career, so why should a certificate be any different?