Tag: java

  • Opera Launches the Opera Mobile Store

    Opera Software has just announced that the Opera Mobile Store is now open and available at mobilestore.opera.com. The Opera Mobile Store has been built and delivered through a partnership with Appia and offers both free and paid applications for virtually any mobile platform and device.

    The Opera Mobile Store is available to Opera users and users of other mobile browsers, on almost all mobile phone platforms in more than 200 countries. According to the company, the Store uses Appia’s storefront commerce technology and leverages a wide catalog of applications for phones with Java, Symbian, BlackBerry and Android operating systems. The storefront experience is customized to each user’s phone, providing a tailored catalog based on the phone’s operating system, local language and currency.

    "The launch of the Opera Mobile Store supports Opera’s core belief in an open, cross-platform mobile Internet experience by providing Opera users with an integrated storefront of mobile applications," said Mahi de Silva, EVP, Consumer Mobile, Opera Software. "Our partnership with Appia delivers to all Opera Mobile and Opera Mini users easy access to a wide variety of great content, on any device, all over the world."

    To support the Opera Mobile Store, Opera Software has also launched the Opera Publisher Portal, providing developers with an easy way to get their applications onto the Opera Mobile Store. In its pre-launch state, the Opera Mobile Store attracted more than 15 million users in February, from 200 countries, achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day. These metrics establish the Opera Mobile Store as a top 10 mobile application store around the world.

    "The Opera Mobile Store presents a remarkable opportunity for mobile application developers to distribute localized content through a single, far-reaching marketplace," said Jud Bowman, CEO of Appia. "Appia is thrilled to partner with Opera to deliver an incredible storefront of applications to Opera users and beyond."

  • Rubberduck Launches Support for Touch Phones

    Rubberduck, a provider of streaming mobile TV services, announced support for a wide range of new touch phones, through an in-house developed Java application.

    Rubberduck already supports smartphones such as the iPhone and Android-based devices through downloadable apps and offers various services through its recently announced HTTP-streaming architecture.

    According to Rubberduck, the Java app is a natural extension of this product portfolio, and supports touch phones from a wide range of manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Nokia and SonyEricsson. The app is fully compatible with the company’s content management system and streaming infrastructure.

    “Our new Java app extends support for our mobile-TV services to a wide range of touch phones, which are wide spread in the market. This will extend our reach and make it more attractive to watch TV on your mobile also for those who don’t have the most expensive high-end phones,” said Managing Director of Rubberduck, Erling Paulsen.

    The company also said that they had experienced a brisk upturn in traffic in 2009, where streaming numbers increased by some 75 percent, much due to the launch of a new iPhone client.

    The Java client also runs on Symbian devices from Nokia and Sony Ericsson ahead of a dedicated app, expected with the launch of Symbian^4 in 2011.

    Rubberduck claims that the combination of touch interface and large screen has been a catalyst for mobile-TV adoption, “and with ever more competing platforms, ensuring a base level of touch support via Java is a crucial step to delivering a premium experience to the widest possible audience.”

    Related articles
    Rubberduck’s Mobile TV Solution Now Supports HTTP Streaming
    SPB TV for Windows Mobile Smartphones Gets a Major Update
    MWC 2010: Interview with Miguel Silva, CCO of Rubberduck

  • Sun Expands Unified Storage Family


    Sun Microsystems is extending its Unified Storage family with an array that allows solid state disk (SSD) drives and hard disk drives to be used in the same chassis and under the same management interface.

    The Sun Storage 7310 is a comprehensive, Flash-powered storage system that includes leverages Hybrid Storage Pool capabilities.

    In addition to the maximum 64GB of DRAM cache, it can be configured with up to an additional 600GB of SSD cache (1.2TB for cluster version) for enhanced application performance.

    John Fowler, executive vice-president, Systems, Sun Microsystems, said the Storage 7310 opens up a door for customers to more widely deploy high availability clustered storage and experience the power and economic benefits of Unified Storage.

    Other features within the Sun Storage 7310 storage system include:

    • Three times (3x) less power consumption than traditional storage solutions
    • Scalability up from 12TB to 96TB capacity with no interruption to system availability
    • High network throughput with four 1Gb Ethernet ports per controller and optional 10Gb connectivity
    • Single controller offers two PCI slots for additional network or tape-backup connectivity for easy plug and play integration

    The Storage 7310 is available immediately and costs from USD $40,165

  • Oracle Readies Take-Over As Sun's Loss Grows


    As Oracle prepares its USD $7.4bn acquistion of Sun Microsystem, figures have emerged about the server and software maker’s latest quarter losses.

    Sun announced on Tuesday that it lost USD $201 million in the three months ended March 29. A year ago, Sun lost USD $34 million.

    The surprise deal, announced last week, takes Oracle into a whole new area – hardware, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    In a letter to partners and customers Oracle president, Charles Phillips, wrote: "Our customers have been asking us to step up to a broader role to reduce complexity, risk and cost by delivering a highly-optimized standards-based product stack.

    "Oracle plans to deliver these benefits by offering a broad range of products, including servers and storage, with all the integrated pieces: hardware operating system, database, middleware and applications."

    The general opinion in the market, however, is that IBM was a better fit for Sun than Oracle. IBM was already in the storage business.

    Wedbush Morgan’s analyst, Kaushik Roy, said Oracle is getting into totally new markets in which they have no expertise or history.

    "I am skeptical. Oracle is more likely to hold on to the entire storage business," he said.

    "Sun bought StorageTek and destroyed the company because of poor execution. But Oracle has been much better in execution, and it is very likely that the current storage group within Sun will have a better opportunity to grow."

    Oracle president, Charles Phillips

    The impact on other storage players and their relationship with Oracle will be determined in time.

    EMC–Oracle had a good relationship. Now they will be competitors.

    Kaushik Roy said: "But now with Oracle and Sun selling HDS at the high end, it would compete with EMC.

    "We will wait to see how those relationships pan out."

    As a result of this merger, Oracle is likely to wind up Sun’s storage hardware business in the long term.

    However, for the present the operation may continue.

    Illuminata analyst John Webster said that he is going on the assumption that Oracle runs Sun as Sun for a while before it starts restructuring.

    Also unknown as yet, is the positon of Sun-NetApp and the patent dispute over the ZFS file system.

    Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers said that Sun’s Open storage may also hit a question mark.

    "We have often been intrigued by some of Sun’s storage technologies," he wrote in a research note.

    "However, we have continued to see limited traction from an execution standpoint."

    It is expected that the presence of Oracle in the storage market will enliven the scenario. NetApp, EMC or 3PAR must be feeling the heat.

  • Storage Market Slows, Modest Growth Forecast


    Well, it was only a matter of time. The data storage market has slowed down – and much more than anticipated, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    IDC revealed last week that global external disk storage systems’ factory revenues dropped by a half per cent in the fourth quarter.
    This is the first quarterly drop for data storage in more than 5 years.

    According to IDC, EMC, HP, Dell and Hitachi did grow a little in the last quarter, as expected.

    However, IBM, NetApp and Sun Microsystems all posted year-over-year sales declines.

    In the 4th quarter, external system revenues dropped slightly to USD $5.3 billion, while the total disk storage system market dropped 5.9 per cent to USD $7.3 billion chiefly due to limitations in server system sales.

    The other big decline was seen in the total disc storage system capacity, which peaked at 2,460 petabytes, a growth of only 27.3 per cent, but this was down by 50 per cent compared to the growth rate in the past.

    Natalya Yezkhova, IDC research manager for storage systems, said: "Because of the global economic crisis, the last quarter of 2008 was tough for the disk storage systems market, resulting in a market decline from the same quarter last year."

    She said that high-end storage sales were upset by a chill in the end-user expenditures and longer acquisition cycles.

    But some low-end and midrange storage sectors have continued to sale well, "as end users broadened their search for storage solutions in these lower-cost segments to satisfy their increasing storage needs while optimizing investments in storage infrastructure."

    EMC continues to hold the leadership with its external systems market share lead of nearly 23.3 per cent of revenue in the fourth quarter, followed by IBM and HP, with 15.7 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

    Dell did not fare well and ended the quarter in the fourth position with a 9.3 per cent share.

    Hitachi and NetApp followed with 7 per cent growth, while Sun had 5.2 per cent.

    In the Open SAN market, which only grew 2.2 per cent, EMC was again in the lead with 24.2 per cent of the market.

    IBM followed next with 16.5 per cent.

    The NAS market has grown steadily and recorded a 8.6 per cent rise.

    Again, EMC led the pack with 43.8 per cent, followed by NetApp at 24.1 per cent.

    The sum network disk storage market (NAS combined with Open SAN) grew a modest 3.6 pe cent to USD $4.1 billion in revenues.

    EMC again claimed a 28.6 per cent revenue share, followed by IBM at 14.5 per cent.

    So what are the expectations for the rest of 2009?

    Enterprise Strategy Group and IDC both speculate a modest growth of 2-3 per cent for both the data storage industry overall IT spending.

    In an industry, which has always seen green, adjustment to single digit profits may not sit well for many people.

  • EMC Being Investigated by the Feds


    The Federal government has just announced in a statement that Data Storage giant, EMC is being investigated over its pricing and improper contract practices.

    EMC revealed in its annual report with the SEC several days ago that the US justice Department had filed a lawsuit against the company, writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz.news.

    According to the Justice Department press release, the lawsuit accuses EMC of failing to disclose its commercial pricing practices during negotiation of its General Services Administration (GSA) contracts.

    It also says EMC provided improper payments and other things of value to Systems Integrators and other Alliance Partners on contracts with government agencies.

    The lawsuit alleges that EMC tendered false claims for hardware and services on “numerous government contracts from the late 90s to the present”.

    It is believed that the lawsuit is based on insider information as the suit was filed in US District Court in Little Rock, Ark under the Whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.

    Among other allegations in the lawsuit are that EMC, "made payments of money and other things of value (alliance benefits) to a number of systems integration consultants and other alliance partners with whom it had alliance relationships".

    The Justice Department further states "that these alliance relationships and the resulting alliance benefits paid by EMC amount to kickbacks and undisclosed conflict of interest relationships".

    The government press release also declares that EMC has been charged with making false statements to the General Accounting Service about its profit-making pricing customs to collect better proceeds on contracts, "thereby overcharging federal agencies purchasing EMC products and services".

    The report filed by EMC to the SEC mentions that the Justice Department is scrutinizing the company’s fee planning with systems integrators and other associates in federal government dealings.

    It is also looking at the company’s "compliance with the terms and conditions of certain agreements pursuant to which we sold products and services to the federal government, including potential violations of the False Claims Act".

    The investigation partly covers a previous audit by the GSA "concerning our recordkeeping and pricing practices under a schedule agreement we entered into with GSA in November 1999, which, following several extensions, expired in June 2007".

    To date, EMC says it has worked together with the inquiry and assessment and engaged in discussions aimed at resolving this matter without any admission or finding of liability on the part of EMC.

    "We believe that we have meritorious factual and legal defenses to the allegations raised and, if the matter is not resolved and proceeds to litigation, we intend to defend vigorously," the company said.

    "If the matter proceeds to litigation, possible sanctions include an award of damages, including treble damages, fines, penalties and other sanctions, including suspension or debarment from sales to the federal government."

    To keep things in perspective, EMC is not the first IT Corporation to face such allegations. Just a year ago IBM did clear up similar charges with a $ 3 million fine. Other companies that have gone through the same process include Accenture, HP and Sun Microsystems.

    StorageIO Group founder and senior analyst Greg Schulz speculates if the new Administration is just getting started.

    "If that’s the case, one has to wonder who’s next, and how big the boiler will be when the government finally gets around to the really big fish," he said.

  • Sun Microsystems and The World's First Open Storage Appliance


    Just a few months ago, Sun Microsystems revealed the availability of its new Unified Storage System – the Sun Storage 7000 family.

    Described as the world’s first Open Storage Appliance, Sun claims the Storage 7000 family is the "biggest thing to happen to storage in decades", writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz-news.

    Quite a brag – though the product’s creativity and innovation speaks volumes for Sun’s group of engineers.

    The Storage 7000 family has three different versions – the 7110, 7210, and 7410 – which have an overall capacity ranging from 2 Tbytes to 288 Tbytes.

    However, the 7410 offers a collected configuration (for advanced accessibility) and is typically aimed for enterprise class configurations, whereas the 7110 and 7210 are better designed for less significant fittings.

    The Sun Storage Unified system can run both NAS and SAN solutions, and Sun pulls seriously on its well-respected ZFS (Zettabyte File System) in the Storage 7000 family.

    Unified storage space rivals EMC Corp, NetApp Inc and IBM Corp have so far focused their attention on IT environments that have a strong NAS presence – but they would very much like to manage SAN as well.

    Sun, meanwhile, has put a major emphasis on facilitating the Storage 7000 family to provide universal function storage requirements.
    The major thrust of Sun’s message for the Storage 7000 is that it makes life a lot easier for storage administrators.

    Sun caims the installations process only takes a few minutes, but persists with key courses of action such as thin provisioning, a function which is embedded in ZFS (as logical storage pools can be enlarged or diminished transparently as long as there is sufficient physical storage to carry them).

    Another feature of the Storage 7000 technology that is of benefit to administration is the concept of DTrace, a collection of analysis that permits real-time system diagnostics.

    Engineers at Sun feel that DTrace can significantly advance storage system troubleshooting to a level never seen before in the industry.

    Another aspect of the Sun Storage 7000 is its performance.

    The company appropriately calls it Hybrid Storage Pools, which shares DRAM, read, and write optimized flash devices that work in working in combination with hard disc drives.

    Sun maintains that the innovative use of SSD technology can help flash memory combine with disc technology resulting in a mega performance that is very cost effective.

    While all that is great, Sun Microsystems continues to show a financial downturn having lost more than USD $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2009 that ended in Sept 2008.

    With the ongoing financial crises and global recession, the question remains – how well does the Storage 7000 system fit in with other Sun storage products and how does the company plan to market and sell them in a cost efficient method?

    Only time will tell.

  • Bitstream Launches "Fastest Mobile Browser"


    Bitstream is launching its new BOLT mobile browser today with the claim that it is the fastest on the market.

    Sampo Kaasila, VP of R&D at Bitstream told smartphone.biz-news, that the new browser was "25-50 per cent faster" than competitor Opera.

    Speaking at Showstoppers on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona he said this was backed up by tests carried out in India.

    While he admitted the tests weren’t done independently of Bitstream, he was confident user experience would bear out the company’s claims.

    Kaasila said the BOLT beta provides a PC desktop-like view of Web pages on even the most basic feature phones.

    It will not, however, be available on the iPhone and Bitstream has no plans at the moment to change that.

    Bitstream is hoping to appeal to hordes of non-iPhone handset owners, of whom only around 15 per cent regularly browse the internet on their mobiles.

    "We are hoping to increase that percentage with BOLT," said Kaasila.

    The mobile browser includes high standards compliance such as AJAX and flash video support.

    Kaasila said it also both optimized to conserve battery life and to minimize data transmissions – so allowing people to browse longer without recharging batteries while consuming less data.

    BOLT supports streaming video from the likes of YouTube, vids.myspace.com, video.yahoo.com, blip.tv, dailymotion.com, and metacafe.com.

    Features of the BOLT public beta release include:

    • Fast, secure, desktop-style web browsing on both high-end and low-end handsets
    • Streaming flash video capabilities
    • WebKit rendering engine offers high standards compliance
    • Support for XML, ATOM and RDF formats of RSS feeds
    • Support for JavaScript and AJAX
    • Split screen and full screen modes for easy navigation and viewing
    • Intuitive keystroke shortcuts for easier navigation and content selection
    • 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for secure access to web pages
    • Server filtering to protect users from spyware and other malware
    • Certificate error notification
    • Easily add and select favorites and view browsing history
    • Ability to clear history and cookies
  • Increase Revenue Share – Or Games Developers May Exit Java


    Games publishers and developers will give up on Java unless operators follow Apple’s lead in offering more appealing revenue shares.

    That’s according to a report by analyst Windsor Holden, of Juniper Research, who warns that as well as being a lost opportunity for developers it would seriously reduce the variety of games for players.

    In his report Holden shows that the value of the global mobile games market is expected to rise from USD $5.4 billion this year to more than USD $10 billion in 2013.

    However, he says the volume of paid mobile game downloads has stagnated across North America and Western Europe.

    This is despite the positive response from mobile games publishers and developers to Apple’s iPhone.

    Developers and gamers have reacted strongly to the possibilities handsets such as Apple’s offer for sophisticated games that were previously only possible on consoles.

    Holden believes growth is being hindered by a combination of limited on-portal revenue share for publishers, causing some to leave the market, and poor marketing of games.

    The report author said that the revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive.

    “The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term,” he said.

    The report also found that ad-funded downloads have become increasingly popular, but that revenues generated from that model are not likely to provide developers and operators with a sufficient primary revenue stream.