Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • Sprint and Virgin Mobile Introduce "Beyond Talk" Unlimited Data Prepaid Plans

    Since Sprint’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile, the company has rolled out a series of new prepaid products, and today Sprint officially unveiled its new comprehensive multi-segment approach to the prepaid wireless marketplace.

    On May 12, Virgin Mobile will unveil three new "Beyond Talk" plans that all include unlimited messaging, email, data and web:

    • The $25 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 300 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $40 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with 1,200 minutes of voice per month;
    • The $60 plan includes unlimited messaging, email, data and web with unlimited voice.

    Virgin Mobile customers can add Blackberry data service to any of these plans for $10 more, enabling $35 plan consisting of both voice calling and Blackberry data service.

    Virgin will also introduce new handset lineup that will include: Blackberry Curve 8530 (available for $299.99 at the end of May), LG Rumor Touch ($149.99; only available without a contract on "Beyond Talk" plans), LG Rumor 2 QWERTY ($89.99; also only available without a contract) and Kyocera Loft QWERTY ($69.99).

    Sprint’s prepaid portfolio will initially be driven by four brands (Virgin Mobile, Broadband2Go, Boost Mobile and Assurance Gíreles) with each focused on a specific audience. "The launch of this portfolio goes far beyond changing prices," explained Dan Schulman, president of Sprint’s prepaid group.

    "We are introducing innovative and attractive offers for specific groups of customers based on usage and habits – from those who are on limited budgets and use their phones infrequently to those who want high-end devices to use for all their communications, entertainment and social networking."

    According to him, this is the year that prepaid moves to the forefront of the wireless industry.

    "In the first quarter of 2010, more than half of the mobile gross additions in the U.S. selected prepaid, and we predict that approximately 70% of the net adds in 2010 will choose plans without a contract," he said.

    "With almost 60 million people now on prepaid service," Schulman continued, "the no-contract market has clearly moved beyond the credit-challenged and lower income segments. The prepaid market has changed dramatically, with customers across multiple demographics and lifestyles demanding a wide variety of handsets, features, and plans tailored to their specific needs and wants."

  • Skype Introduces New Monthly Calling Subscriptions and Group Video Chat

    Starting tomorrow, Skype is rolling out new calling plans to more than 170 countries.

    1-month, 3-month and 12-month calling plans will be available in 60-, 120-, 400-minute and unlimited packages.

    The range of subscriptions start from $1.09 (€0.89 /£.69) per month and offer effective rates as low as €0.01 ($.01/£.01) per minute to almost any destination around the globe.

    According to Skype, this provides customers with a savings of up to 60 percent compared to Skype’s standard Pay As You Go rates.

    Skype also announced that it will be releasing the new beta of its Windows software next week. It will feature video conference calls for up to five callers.

    Related articles
    Skype Mobile for Verizon Wireless Now Available
    Skype Goes Symbian
    Skype’s On-Net International Traffic Growing Fast

  • StorSimple Announces Integration with Amazon, EMC, Iron Mountain, and Microsoft

    StorSimple today announced integration with Amazon, EMC, Iron Mountain, and Microsoft to enable customers to seamlessly and securely use these cloud storage services with their existing data-center applications.

    By providing an easy on-ramp to cloud storage for application-specific requirements, StorSimple aims to change the game by bringing the operational benefits of the cloud to applications such as SharePoint, Exchange, Windows User Files and Virtual Machines.

    “With the upcoming launch of SharePoint 2010, customers will increasingly look to extend their deployments with cloud-based services,” said Ed English, group product manager, Microsoft SharePoint.

    “The hybrid storage solution from StorSimple is a good example of this; it shows how SharePoint customers can realize cost and scale benefits by using the Windows Azure Platform.”

    “Iron Mountain’s Archive Services platform is a natural fit for enterprises looking for simple but secure cloud storage,” said Jaimin Patel, director of developer programs, Iron Mountain Digital.

    “By combining StorSimple’s robust solution with Iron Mountain’s proven cloud storage solutions, companies can now integrate secure cloud storage into their environments with the confidence that their data is protected by one of the leading information management services brands in the industry.”

    "EMC believes there is an opportunity and approach to cloud storage that delivers financial and functional benefits to both our partners and the customers they serve," said Mike Feinberg, senior vice president of EMC Cloud Infrastructure Group. "By making our cloud infrastructure accessible and allowing easy API integration, we enable our partners to respond to customers’ fast-growing demand for cloud-based solutions with greater scalability, elasticity, and lower costs. We are pleased to work with StorSimple to embrace and deliver these benefits to our joint customers.”

    “Our relationships with Amazon, EMC, Iron Mountain, and Microsoft allow us to deliver the integrated support and operational experience of enterprise storage with the business and operational benefits of cloud storage,” said Ursheet Parikh, co-founder and CEO of StorSimple.

    “Enterprise cloud storage service providers have chosen to partner with StorSimple, because of our differentiated technology that optimizes for application-specific data-access patterns to ensure primary storage performance for target applications.”

    The StorSimple Armada Storage Appliance is a hybrid storage solution that makes cloud storage appear like local data center storage that integrates into customers’ existing storage and data management tools. Armada identifies and stores all the hotspot and bottleneck data on a tier of high-performance Solid State Drives (SSD), enabling the use of lower-cost SATA storage and/or cloud storage as primary storage. StorSimple also performs real-time data de-duplication to minimize the footprint of the data stored and provides the WAN optimization functions for cloud storage. All data that is stored in the cloud is encrypted.

    About StorSimple

    StorSimple has developed an application-optimized hybrid storage controller for SharePoint, Exchange, Windows User Files and Virtual Machines that delivers consistent storage performance at scale, significantly simplifies data protection, and reduces cost by up to 90 percent compared to traditional enterprise storage used with these applications. StorSimple is based in the Silicon Valley and is funded by Redpoint Ventures and Index Ventures.

  • Phone.com and Turbobridge Partner to Offer HD Conferencing to Businesses

    Phone.com and TurboBridge are partnering to make a HD telephone audio conferencing service available to Phone.com’s installed user base. This new HD phone service launch comes 3 months after Phone.com introduced its own HD Business Phone service.

    TurboBridge has also launched its own HD audio conferencing service, which is claimed to be “the world’s first High Definition audio conferencing service.” It is powered by the company’s patent-pending TurboSound technology and offers HD audio combined with standard business conferencing features such as call recording, support for up to 250 conference participants, and lecture and Q&A modes.

    The company claim that its service offers more access methods than any other conferencing service in the world, providing features such as direct connectivity for IP PBX’s and IP telephone handsets via a public SIP URI. The service can be accessed through any IP method (Skype, SIP or TurboPhone).

    Phone.com and TurboBridge say they are partnering to give Phone.com customers their own dedicated conference access number as well as speed dial access from their Phone.com Virtual Office telephone handsets to their own dedicated conference bridges.

    In addition, the companies assure that those Phone.com customers who have the new HD Voice Polycom HD phones will be able to enjoy their conference calls in “crystal clear HD quality audio.”

    Phone.com will initially offer the enhanced TurboBridge conferencing service to its customers free of charge, further reinforcing its “all included” philosophy when it comes to bundling and selling services.

  • Motorola: TD-LTE is Now a Commercial Reality

    Motorola has successfully deployed the world’s first indoor over-the-air (OTA) TD-LTE showcase network at the Expo Center at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Together with China Mobile, Motorola is demonstrating end-to-end TD-LTE solutions at the Information and Communication Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

    Delegates are able to experience the real-life performance of TD-LTE via USB dongles, including video streaming, remote monitoring, video stream session and high-speed internet browsing.

    According to Motorola, a single TD-LTE USB dongle can stream 24 simultaneous video streams while supporting very high-speed internet browsing applications, at a total data rate of 20Mbps.

    A TD-LTE carrier in 20MHz can support transmission of a few hundred video streams simultaneously. Motorola claims that in the near future, TD-LTE subscribers will then be able to access a collection of high-bandwidth and low-latency internet applications including mobile TV, on-demand videos and video blogging anywhere.

    At the show, a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle carrying a camera and a laptop showcases real-time TD-LTE performance on the move. Live video captured by the moving camera can be viewed on other laptops and the main screen within the demonstration area via a TD-LTE USB dongle. Visitors are able to set up a video stream session between the laptop on the vehicle and the laptops within the demonstration area.

    The company informed that they will also integrate and launch the TD-LTE USB dongle that supports 2.3GHz at the event.

    According to Motorola, interest in TD-LTE continues to grow due to several key factors:

    • The tremendous growth of data use while mobile falling prices, more variety and improved ease of use in end user devices
    • Additional spectrum is necessary for serving more users
    • TDD spectrum traditionally auctioned for lower cost/radio frequency/population
    • Global and local roaming between FDD and TDD networks, allowing both networks to be used in the same geographic area.

    In effect, this ability to roam between FDD LTE and TD-LTE means operators can use TD-LTE networks to augment their FDD LTE network for more capacity or other applications such as video broadcasting, while operators choosing to use TD-LTE as their "main" network can still offer their subscribers the ability to roam to other operators’ FDD LTE networks in different countries.

    "We see the growing interest in TD-LTE as the technology delivers increased capacity and a lower cost per bit. Motorola is the leader in TD-LTE through trials and engagements with various operators around the world. The selection by China Mobile today once again demonstrates the reliability and maturity of our TD-LTE solution," said Dr. Mohammad Akhtar, corporate vice president and general manager, Motorola Networks business in Asia Pacific.

    “TD-LTE is now a commercial reality, making LTE a truly encompassing global technology standard,” he added.

  • ERCOM Launches Secure SMS

    ERCOM, a secure communication solutions provider, announced that it has upgraded Cryptosmart Mobile Suite with secure SMS feature.

    Launched in 2008, Cryptosmart Mobile Suite is a patent based and certified solution for mobile communications that protects both voice and data transmission, encrypts data stored on the device, and blocks MMS, SMS and internet attacks.

    It is dedicated to governments and corporations to help them communicate in a confident manner.

    New Secure SMS brings three major security attributes:
    • Confidentiality : SMS are encrypted
    • Integrity : users are sure that the SMS has not been modified
    • Authenticity : the sender identification cannot be falsified

    “Secure SMS is complementary to secure data. Indeed, professional users continue to use SMS for some of their communications. There is no need to have any email address. Moreover, there are some cases where users do not have access to data networks (poor mobile coverage, lack of data roaming agreement, etc.),” according to the company.

    The Cryptosmart is compliant with all existing networks such as mobile networks (2G, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, LTE), satellite networks (Inmarsat, Thuraya, Eutelssat), and wireless IP networks (Wifi, Wimax). It is based on EAL2+ and common criteria technology.

  • Combined VoIP and CRM for Small Businesses

    Ringio, a new company founded by a group of long-time SaaS and Telephony Executives, has launched a new service for small and mid-sized businesses that brings them a combination of CRM and telephony functionality that until now has been available only through call centers and enterprise-level telephony systems.

    Ringio’s Rich Calling service presents calls together with their contextual details, either through the service’s desktop client or through its mobile version (available for Android phones).

    The Ringio team developed Rich Calling as a SaaS with an emphasis on affordability and ease of setup. The company assures that it can be set up in minutes and works with users’ current phones, including mobile devices, with no additional hardware or software required.

    According to Ringio Co-founder and Chairman Michael Zirngibl, Ringio defines ‘rich calling’ as ‘bringing a telephone call and relevant information about the caller together at the same time to enrich communication and information sharing, and – most important — to accelerate speed-to-satisfaction.’

    “By tapping into the cloud for customer data, we bring everything that’s important about the caller to the top of your mind – in real time,” he said.

    “As you take or make a call, you can draw upon the collective notes of everyone in your organization who has dealt with this person. This helps you to connect with customers much more efficiently, professionally and meaningfully than SMBs typically are able to do.”

    Ringio’s call-routing technology, also part of the service, helps direct the caller to the right employee in the organization at the start. If he or she needs to transfer the caller to a colleague, the person handling the call can tell whether that co-worker is available at that moment.

    “This kind of real-time visibility also known as ‘presence’ resolves issues quickly, avoids dumping customers into what they call ‘voice mail jail,’ and produces well-informed, coordinated responses that close the sale or solve the caller’s problem,” Zirngibl added.

    Ringio is launching the service’s own integrated call-control and screen-pop client for the PC, Mac desktop or Linux. Through the client, users view and add to a company store of customer information about contacts as they handle calls. Ringio also automatically retrieves and synchronizes records built using Google’s Contacts database. They also plan to integrate Ringio with Salesforce.com.

    ‘Rich Calling’ details
    Users can accept or redirect incoming calls as they appear on the screen; Ringio then completes the call to the user’s desired 10-digit phone number or sends it to voice mail. If users are not logged into the system, they can still receive calls on the Ringio number; in that case, an audio caller ID gives them the same screening options.

  • QStar Technologies Joins Active Archive Alliance as a Founding Partner

    QStar Technologies announced today that it has joined the Active Archive Alliance as a founding partner.

    The Active Archive Alliance is a non-profit storage industry association dedicated to promoting active archives for simplified, online access to all archived data.

    Organizations are archiving increasing amounts of data as they grapple with data growth, retention compliance rules and the need to leverage the knowledge and information within their organization.

    As organizations archive more data, the challenge of accessing that data when needed has intensified. Active archive solutions resolve this issue by turning offline archives into visible, accessible extensions of online storage systems – enabling fast, easy access to archived data.

    The industry trend toward active archiving is being enabled and accelerated by recent advancements in active archive applications as well as archive tape and disk storage technologies. Today’s innovative applications provide the ability to see and access data on tape through a file system interface, making it easy and affordable to view and search archived data files in large heterogeneous online active tape and disk storage pools.

    “QStar is excited to be a founding member of the Active Archive Alliance,” said Dave Thomson, senior vice president of sales, QStar Technologies.

    “Our company has exclusively offered solutions in the archive world for more than 23 years and completely endorses the messages involved in Active Archiving, namely combining disk and tape technologies to maximize the benefits of each. An active archive offers optimized performance and data security for an organization’s most valuable resource: its data.”

    QStar offers a wide range of data migration and archiving software solutions that allow organizations to tailor-make a cost-effective archive that precisely fits their individual requirements. Specifically designed for mixed system and data types, QStar supports the entire enterprise, including servers and clients using Windows, Linux, UNIX and Mac. The product suite also allows for storage and retrieval to disk and tape solutions situated locally or, for disaster prevention purposes, remotely.

    QStar’s Network Migrator software utilizes advanced policy management for storage virtualization and data lifecycle management. Data Director HSM software, built for enterprise level archives, creates a virtual hard disk system on tape media and mirrors it for disaster prevention. QStar solutions work to create secure archives that allow seamless access to data using standard interfaces and protocols across the network.

    Active archiving eliminates the typical trade-off between keeping data visible in online disk arrays and moving the data to more cost-effective near-line or off-line tape. It enables organizations to keep all archive data online, searchable and quickly accessible, while ensuring media and data integrity and simplified management.

    In addition to QStar, founding technology partners of the Active Archive Alliance include Compellent Technologies, FileTek Inc., and Spectra Logic Corporation.

    The mission of the Active Archive Alliance is to provide organizations with the best practices, tools and information they need to achieve simplified access to the online storage of their archived data. Please visit www.activearchive.com for more information about the Active Archive Alliance and to become a member.

  • SES ASTRA and Samsung to Promote 3D TV

    SES ASTRA and Samsung announced today that they will jointly promote 3D television to the market. Under the terms of the agreement, Samsung will support SES ASTRA with 3D television content for its new 3D demo channel to be launched on 4 May 2010.

    The demo channel will be broadcast free-to-air via ASTRA’s orbital position 23.5 degrees East, and is intended to help retailers promote 3D television to end-consumers at the point of sale.

    Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA, said: “The new ASTRA 3D demo channel demonstrates the huge advantages of satellite for the transmission of high quality 3D TV signals, and the leading role of SES ASTRA in driving innovations in broadcasting technology. We are proud to partner with Samsung, and we are confident that 3D television will become the next driver for the home entertainment market.”

    SH Shin, President and CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe, added: “As the first manufacturer to bring 3D television to the consumer market, Samsung is at the forefront of 3D innovation. By partnering with SES ASTRA, Samsung will be the first manufacturer to demonstrate live streamed 3D content through this free promotional channel, and can showcase the full capability of its innovation in 3D technology. The content we provide to ASTRA’s 3D channel will help consumers to realise the true potential of the 3D television experience.”

    The launch of ASTRA’s 3D channel will take place on 4 May at the ANGA Cable trade show in Cologne, Germany. The transmission details for the channel will be communicated shortly.