Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • JAJAH Brings SIP Trunking Services to the Enterprise

    JAJAH, the IP communications company, is working with Microsoft to provide SIP Trunking services to Microsoft enterprise customers globally. According to the firm this will allow companies to make high quality voice calls over JAJAH’s IP Platform in the cloud, without requiring an infrastructure upgrade.

    Enterprises using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 can now connect directly with JAJAH’s global carrier-grade IP network to make high quality voice calls.

    The company says that in addition to the ‘significant’ cost-benefits, JAJAH’s extensive range of calling solutions integrate seamlessly into the enterprise, so voice calls can be made from computers and landlines.

    JAJAH’s SIP Trunking services connect phone calls from computers, IP-phones and mobile phones to virtually any device in the world.

    SIP Trunking is the delivery mechanism that underpins unified communications, providing the function of connecting an organization’s PBX(s) to the necessary service providers. In doing so, it ensures phone calls and other IP-based communications originating from an employees’ phone or computer are connected to the destination.

    "The combination of JAJAH and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 gives enterprises a powerful and rich external telephony solution," said Warren Barkley, Microsoft Senior Director Unified Communications.

    "Enterprises across the world can implement VoIP and unified communication easily and cost effectively with Microsoft and JAJAH," added JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy.

  • Save the Date for Motorola’s Android Sholes and Morrison

    With the giants of the mobile phone industry battling it out at the top, little has been said about the struggling Android platform that was rumored to be a unique way users could interface with their phones. While not entirely without its merit Motorola has suffered with the few struggling Windows Mobile platform phone it’s tried to release, making little impact in the cellular market.

    It’s unfortunate that the power players in the mobile market have literally ousted some of the more well known brand names in the industry, specifically Motorola, which does not even rank in the top ten of most used phones. Will they be relegated to focus on the less expensive consumer market or is there room for them to still make a splash?

    Mark your calendars friends, because September 10th will see a huge announcement regarding Motorola’s unveiling of their own Android phone line. This announcement is the planned cornerstone for the rebirth of Motorola.

    The event which will take place in San Francisco, CA has had little information released on just what the announcements will be. Still, rumors say that the announcement of the Sholes and the Morrison phones will be the first out of the gate.

    The first, Sholes, will be a high end phone focusing on the professional power user focusing on high processing speeds and a 5 megapixel camera. The second, Morrison, will be a more economically based Android phone which will end up on the T-Mobile network and support 3G.

    These phones are just the first in what is expected to be a long line of phones on various networks in order to regain some of the market share lost to the bigger brand names in play.

    Motorola looks to increase excitement with their innovation and the possibility of a glimpse into Android 2.0 which could very well power these new phones and offer such extras as entire phone search, multi-gesture shortcuts and multi-touch.

    For now, it’s stated that the phones will come activated with the Blur interface which looks to tie every social aspect of the individual into a unique experience with the OS. This would definitely attract a vast majority of mobile users as connectivity through various networks has been on the rise, and would be a high selling point if the platform is able to show ease of use.

  • Innovation Come to BlackBerry as RIM Acquires Torch Mobile

    There’s no doubt that the mobile market is a hot market. Competition is stiff, but the so far the clear winner by leaps and bounds has been the Apple iPhone.

    The market for second is easily becoming close with Blackberry fighting to keep its position and Palm looking to break into the market but eating some of Blackberry’s market share with the Palm Pre.

    Still, the iPhone may not stay on top forever and Blackberry has taken a bold step in the right direction. If one thing has kept the iPhone ahead of the game, it’s been its clear dominance in the ease of use market.

    Blackberry has always had dependable technology and has also established itself amongst the corporate market, something iPhone has been unable to do in recent years. As Blackberry users look for innovation, Research in Motion (RIM) take a bold step in redefining their browser by acquiring browser development company, Torch.

    The Toronto based developer has created an open-source browser called Iris, which like Mozilla, has offered innovative design for mobile browsers, to include tabbed interface. This tabbed interface has worked well for the various mobile devices that Iris has been put on, and now with the ability to be included on Blackberry devices, the acquisition could prove beneficial for both parties.

    In what is sure to be a step forward in tackling Apple, RIM released a statement stating that Torch will work closely with RIM developers to “contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry platform.”

    Torch has gone further to state on their own website that any contributors, Committers and Reviewers will remain on board as active participants in the WebKit development community.

    It remains to be seen if Blackberry can truly take on the overwhelming lead that Apple has with their iPhone, but with unique innovation that Torch can bring to the table, RIM has the ability to increase the ease of use to all their devices.

  • Verizon to Offer New Encryption Services For Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

    Verizon is expanding its encryption service to cover documents and e-mail and launches new services for small and medium-sized businesses.

    Encrypted Docs enables the user to encrypt files and folders and determine who can access, read and write to the file or folder, enforcing privacy policies. As a result, important data – such as intellectual property, customer records, contracts, human resource files and highly sensitive negotiations – can be safeguarded via encryption.

    According to the company, e-mail encryption and newly added data encryption services will help prevent privacy leaks, unauthorized access and help keep documents private in case of theft or loss.

    Verizon Encrypted Mail service, which has been available since December 2005, verifies and authenticates that the message has not been altered, allows it to be opened only by the intended recipient, and allows users to lock e-mail that they receive so it cannot be viewed by others.

    Both services, available through the privacy packages (such as Data Protection Paks) offered by Verizon, are based on PKI, X.509 and S/MIME encryption standards.

    The company claims the services are best suited for businesses that have to comply with government regulations, and businesses that have employees who work at remote locations, where data should be kept private at all times to prevent loss or theft.

    "Typically, small businesses do not have the IT staff of large enterprises to manage the complexity involved with encryption services," said Mark Grosso, senior manager of business security products for Verizon.

    "Verizon is like a SMB’s CIO, offering small and medium-sized businesses an affordable, cost-effective suite of important Internet security services such as anti-virus protection, a remote backup and storage solution, and encryption services that will help ensure safeguarding the privacy of business’ data at every level. Plus, we offer our SMB customers 24 x 7 technical support," he added.

    How it works?

    For the encryption service, a user registers and downloads one plug-in for Encrypted Mail and Encrypted Docs. Before sending an e-mail message, users just click on the "Secure" button on their toolbar, and their message – along with any attachments – is immediately encrypted, digitally signed and sent to the recipient. If the recipient is another registered Encrypted Mail user, the user can open the message after entering his or her password.

    See a demonstration of Encrypted Mail here, and Encrypted Docs here.

    According to Verizon, the most robust privacy package is Data Protection Premium. Starting at $9.99 per month, it includes Encrypted Mail and Encrypted Docs together with the Verizon Internet Security Suite for Internet protection of up to 3 PCs, plus Online Backup and Sharing. This offer combines data encryption services with anti-virus, firewall, anti-spyware, fraud protection and content management, plus online storage and much more, whether in the office or on-the-go.

    "An organization needs to address its IT security at every layer, Grosso said. "While cost cutting is what all companies – particularly, the smaller ones – strive for these days, it’s important to not cut privacy solutions. That’s a surefire way to kill a business."

  • BTI Receives Brocade Data Center Ready Status for Storage Networking Modules


    BTI Systems has announced that the BTI 7000 Series has additional client services modules, verified by Brocade Communications Systems, as compatible with Brocade-based SAN infrastructure.

    The Brocade Data Center Ready program is a testing and configuration initiative designed to foster end-to-end SAN interoperability. As part of the program, testing is conducted in SAN configurations that include a heterogeneous mix of servers, storage systems, Brocade switches, SAN management and enterprise applications, and other SAN technologies.

    Vendors receive Brocade Data Center Ready qualification after completing tests to confirm that vendors’ products meet interoperability guidelines.

    “Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapid rate as a scalable, high-performance networking foundation for storage environments. The Brocade Data Center Ready program is an example of our continued commitment to delivering end-to-end interoperability to customers,” said Ben Taft, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at Brocade.

    BTI Systems certified the Dual 4G Multiprotocol Transponder (1, 2, 4G Fibre Channel), Dual 10G Multiprotocol Transponder (10G Fibre Channel), and the 10-port Multiprotocol Muxponder (1, 2, 4G Fibre Channel), complementing the Dual 1G and 2.5G Multiprotocol Transponders previously certified.

    Jason Smith    , Solutions Marketing and Certifications Program Manager of BTI Systems, claims the Brocade Data Center certification is a key industry stamp that is important to their customers.

    “They know that BTI Systems’ platforms meet the high standards of Brocade’s rigorous testing and they can be confident about the performance we deliver,” he said.

    The BTI 7000 Series delivers all the capabilities of large core network platforms in the industry’s most compact, modular, low power consumption, easy-to-use packet optical network system.

    BTI’s Intelligent Service Edge solutions provide wavelength and packet-level delivery of high capacity services such as video, storage, wired data, wireless data and voice, and media to the network edge.

  • Surround 3-D TV to Take Over the Living Rooms

    For the first time, a team of researchers at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), have designed a 9-panel, 3-D visualization display from HDTV LCD flat-screens developed by JVC.

    The technology, dubbed "NexCAVE," was inspired by Calit2’s StarCAVE virtual reality environment. The StarCAVE’s pentagon shape and 360-degree views make it possible for groups of scientists to venture into worlds as small as nanoparticles and as big as the cosmos.

    "It’s always been our dream to make a projector-free LCD flat panel CAVE," says Tom DeFanti, Calit2 Research Scientist. "The trick was to get the form of the huge StarCAVE into the space of a living room. We took a speculative leap by overlapping 9 panels, and it turned out better than we thought."

    When paired with polarized stereoscopic glasses, the NexCAVE’s modular, micropolarized panels and related software will make it possible for a broad range of scientists — from geologists and oceanographers to archaeologists and astronomers — to visualize massive datasets in three dimensions, at unprecedented speeds and at a level of detail impossible to obtain on a myopic desktop display.

    The NexCAVE’s data resolution is close to human visual acuity (or 20/20 vision). The 9-panel, 3-column prototype that the team developed for Calit2’s VirtuLab has a 6000×1500 pixel resolution, while the 21-panel, 7-column version boasts 15,000×1500-pixel resolution.

    "The NexCAVE’s technology delivers a faithful, deep 3-D experience with great color saturation, contrast and really good stereo separation," explains DeFanti. "The JVC panels’ xpol technology circularly polarizes successive lines of the screen clockwise and anticlockwise and the glasses you wear make you see, in each eye, either the clockwise or anticlockwise images. This way, the data appears in three dimensions. Since these HDTVs are very bright, 3-D data in motion can be viewed in a very bright environment, even with the lights in the room on”.

    The NexCAVE’s LCD screens are scalloped "like turtle shells," which allows the screens’ bezels (frames) to be minimized by half because the screens are tucked behind one another.

    DeFanti and his colleagues developed the NexCAVE technology at the behest of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which established a special partnership with UC San Diego last year to collaborate on visualization and virtual-reality research.

    The KAUST campus includes a Geometric Modeling and Scientific Visualization Research Center featuring a 21-panel NexCAVE and several other new visualization displays developed at Calit2.

    According to DeFanti the team’s next goal is to make a screens that won’t require the use of special glasses. "And someday we hope to have organic LED screens with no bezels,” he concludes.

  • Samsung to Incorporate Rovi’s IPG Technology into Its HDTVs

    Rovi and Samsung announced a multi-year, multi-country technology and patent licensing agreement that allows Samsung to incorporate Rovi’s interactive program guide (IPG) technologies into its next-generation TVs and other consumer electronics devices.

    Rovi’s IPG technologies enable CE manufacturers to integrate interactive, on-screen listings into their products to help viewers navigate, sort, select, and schedule television programming.

    According to the company, Rovi’s guide technologies are designed to provide consumers with “simple and intuitive” access to digital media content of all types as well as a personalized home entertainment experience “that makes it easy for consumers to find what they want, when they want it”.

    Third party guide developers can license Rovi interactive program guide products and technologies. Rovi IPGs are incorporated into consumer electronics products, including plasma, DLP, and LCD televisions as well as DVD recorder-based products. Patent licensing is also available to online and mobile providers.

    “As the choices in content, channels and viewing platforms increase exponentially, consumers need advanced guidance technologies that will help them find out ‘what’s on’,” said Tom Carson, executive vice president, sales and services of Rovi Corporation.

    Kyung Shik Lee, vice president of Samsung Electronics added: “by working with Rovi, we are dedicated to bringing an advanced digital home entertainment experience that empowers consumers to find their favorite content on the television while also enabling them to discover new programming quickly and easily.”

    Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

    Rovi holds over 4,000 issued or pending patents and patent applications worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom.

  • Huawei to Deploy First Solar-Powered Base Transceiver Stations in Bangladesh

    Huawei, a provider of next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators, has been selected by Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Telenor, to deploy Bangladesh’s first solar-powered base transceiver stations.

    To provide mobile connectivity in rural areas, Huawei will install its fourth-generation base stations, using a solar and diesel generator hybrid power solution. The base stations will primarily be powered by harnessing solar energy without having to be linked to an electricity grid. The diesel generator will be used as a backup.

    Once deployed, the new system will improve GP’ s network performance by preventing service interruption, a previously persistent challenge in Bangladesh due to power instability. It will also lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and reduce the cost of refueling and site visits, thereby lowering GP’ s total cost of ownership. The company claims these savings will offset GP’ s capital investment in just two-to-three years.

    "Huawei’ s competitive green power solution helps us utilize renewable energy and reduce our CO2 emissions while providing even better broadband services to our customers," said Oddvar Hesjedal, Chief Executive Officer of GP.

    According to Tony Zhang, President of Huawei Bangladesh, green technology is one of the company’s most important strategies and they will continue to pursue “cutting-edge, cost-lowering” green solutions for all of their operator customers in Bangladesh and around the world.

    Oddvar Hesjedal and Tony Zhang at the signing ceremony
     

    Huawei’s green solutions for wireless broadband networks use a combination of solar energy, wind power and diesel fuel and, to date, have been adopted by some telecom operators around the world, e.g. Vodafone, Warid and China Mobile.

    Grameenphone, a joint venture between Telenor of Norway (62%) and Grameen Telecom of Bangladesh (38%), is the largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh with more than 21 million subscribers as of March 2009. It has a nationwide EDGE-enabled network, covering nearly the entire population.

  • Core Logic to Deliver HD Graphics for Next-Generation Portable Media

    ARM announced that Core Logic, a Korea-based fabless semiconductor manufacturer, has licensed the ARM Mali-400 MP multicore graphics processing unit (GPU) to enable enhanced, high-definition entertainment and browsing experiences on smartphones, fully-featured multimedia phones, portable media players and personal navigation devices without compromising battery life.

    Four-core Mali-400 MP supports complex 2D and 3D multimedia applications at up to 1080p resolution and offers pixel processing rates from 300 million to more than 1G pixels per second. This enables manufacturers of mobile phones, PMPs and PNDs to deliver console-quality gaming, high-quality navigation, spectacular user interfaces and web-browsing to their end users, while benefiting from the lowest memory bandwidth usage of any embedded GPU, leading to very low power consumption.

    The new Mali-400 also supports Khronos OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG standards, further enhancing user experiences on a wide range of digital devices.

    Kwang Pyuk Suh, CEO of Core Logic, said that the company is seeing massive demand for ever higher specification graphics on all multimedia mobile devices, PMPs and PNDs.

    “Device manufacturers are continually looking for technologies that enable them to develop the next high-end, must-have gadget to set them apart from the competition. Additionally, users are becoming increasingly discerning about getting the best out of their chosen applications at home and on the go,” he added.

    Core Logic, whose customers include several major Korean manufacturers, will also become part of the ARM Mali Graphics Ecosystem that brings together a community of developers, technology partners, software vendors and content companies to collaborate and reduce the cost of graphics ownership.

    According to Lance Howarth, general manager of ARM Media Processing Division, the new GPU will enable Core Logic to develop the highest quality multimedia system-on-a-chip technology “that will lie at the heart of next generation digital entertainment and communication devices”.

    “Mali-400 MP and other Mali GPUs are fully compatible with the ARM CPUs that power billions of digital devices around the world. This, combined with the complete Mali graphics stack and the ARM Mali Ecosystem, brings lowered development costs and reduced time to market,” said Howarth.

  • Xyratex First to Announce Support for Hitachi’s 2TB HD

    Xyratex, a provider of enterprise-class data storage subsystems and storage process technology, announced support for Hitachi GST’s enterprise-class 7,200 RPM 2TB offering, the Ultrastar A7K2000 hard disk drive.

    Xyratex claims new Hitachi’s drive have been fully integrated into Xyratex’s family of storage systems “making it the industry’s first, fully integrated external storage subsystem to deliver the highest-capacity, most energy efficient drives per capacity available for enterprise storage systems”.

    The Ultrastar A7K2000 will be available for Xyratex products over the next quarter.

    Hitachi announced its first enterprise version of 2TB drive – the Ultrastar A7K2000, earlier this month. It is now possible to achieve 1.2 petabytes (PB) in the footprint of a standard 19-inch enterprise storage rack by deploying the 2TB A7K2000 in a stack of ten 4U, 60-bay enclosures. It has a 1.2 million hours MTBF (mean time before failure) rating, a bulk data encryption option and SATA 3Gb/s interface.

    “Xyratex and Hitachi are committed to meeting the explosive capacity growth in enterprise data centers while advancing reduced power consumption and improved system performance,” said Brendan Collins, vice president of marketing, Hitachi GST.

    UK-based Xyratex designs and manufactures enabling technology that provides OEM and disk drive manufacturer customers with data storage products to support high-performance storage and data communication networks.

    Xyratex OEMs are able to customize the system to meet a diverse set of application workloads and environments ranging from data centers to distributed operations. Xyratex also delivers a storage server platform that allows the convergence of servers and storage in a single, highly available system.