Toshiba’s telecommunication division has announced integration of Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 Remote Call Control (RCC) capabilities with its Toshiba Strata CIX family of VoIP business communication systems.
Brian Metherell, vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Information Systems, Telecommunication Systems Division, said that with the integration, enterprise users of Toshiba’s Strata CIX family of VoIP business communication systems can Click-to-Dial from Microsoft OCS 2007 using a Toshiba Strata telephone device.
He said it is compatible with Toshiba’s most popular IP and digital telephones as well as Toshiba’s SoftIPT softphone.
Users also gain telephony status information for other callers on the Strata CIX system, viewable from their Microsoft OCS Enhanced Presence screen.
"In providing an integrated solution with Microsoft OCS 2007, Toshiba is delivering on its promise to expand its Unified Communications offerings by giving customers a choice in how they communicate with their Toshiba Strata CIX VoIP system," he said.
The Toshiba Strata CIX VoIP system is available through authorized Toshiba dealers.
Windows 7’s support for SSDs will not do much to boost sales because the price gap with HDDs is still too high.
That’s according to a report in Digitimes, which spoke to sources at notebook vendors.
Since current SSDs are priced around USD $4-5 per GB, while HDDs cost less than USD $0.50 per GB, the sources don’t expect SSDs to become the mainstream specification for at least three years.
This is despite Windows 7 including several optimizations specifically targeted at SSD-equipped systems.
The sources estimated the penetration rate of SSDs in notebooks in 2009 will only be around 1 per cent, equivalent to a volume of 1.5 million units.
There are already more digital delivery devices connected to HDTVs in US homes than Blu-ray players, thanks largely to the Xbox 360 and the likes of TiVo, Roku, AppleTV and Vudu.
Yet despite the numerical supremacy of players capable of streaming HD content, digital downloads are not expected to be a serious competitor to the Blu-ray format anytime soon.
Why not? Well most consumers don’t have fast enough broadband connections to stream HD video. And the amount of content available is limited.
Even without these factors, most companies say HD streams can’t yet match the quality of Blu-ray.
Despite this, Vudu, Apple iTunes and Amazon Video on Demand have all added high-def titles in the last six months.
They will be joined shortly by Microsoft, via the Xbox 360, and Roxio CinemaNow in a major high-def push.
But because of broadband limitations, most companies in the space are positioning HD downloads as a complement to Blu-ray.
Their rationale for this is covered in detail by Jennifer Netherby at Video Business, who quotes a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report predicting that digital sales won’t come near that of Blu-ray in the next five years.
She goes on to explain that many digital services are planning to deliver them through Blu-ray players in an attempt to expand their reach into the home.
Sonic and Netflix already have deals with LG Electronics to offer their services on BD players coming this fall.
Vudu’s director of content acquisitions Rob Holmes acknowledges that HD streaming and Blu-ray can co-exist.
"We certainly don’t see ourselves as competing with Blu-ray," he told Video Business.
Some comfort for Blu-ray then, but it is surely just a breathing space?
Microsoft has just unveiled what it describes as a revolutionary new way to play Xbox 360 video games on HDTVs without the need for a controller.
Called Project Natal, the sensor, which combines an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor in one device, could have uses far beyond just gaming.
One analyst, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, said he thought Project Natal is intended less as a game control scheme than it is as an easy-to-use dashboard control scheme.
He also sees it as a means for Microsoft to dampen the launch of an expected high definition upgrade to Nintendo’s Wii console.
Unlike 2-D cameras and controllers, Project Natal tracks a user’s full body movement in 3-D, while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in the voice.
The idea that the device could have an impact far beyond gaming was echoed by filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Introducing the device at the recent the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), he said it was a "pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games".
Microsoft says that what sets the Project Natal sensor apart is the fact it’s not light-dependent. It can recognize users just by looking at their face, and it doesn’t just react to key words but understands what is being said.
So, for example, if a user calls a play in a football game, players will actually respond.
Spielberg said the next step in interactive entertainment is to make the controller disappear.
"With Project Natal, we’ll see games that bring everyone together through technology that actually recognizes us," he said.
During its briefing, signalled its strategy of turning the Xbox 360 into an internet and media hub for the living room by opening the Xbox Live dashboard up to the internet.
It announced new Xbox LIVE services, including instant on 1080p HD streaming movies and television to Facebook and Last.fm tailor-made for a user’s TV.
Starting this fall, a selection of movies and TV shows from Zune video on Xbox 360 will be available to start and stream instantly.
Microsoft also announced it will more than double the number of markets where Xbox LIVE offers its TV shows and movies, growing from eight to 18, by adding Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
Xbox LIVE members in these markets will have access to instant on 1080p video.
New Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace advancements also came for the US,UK and Ireland.
Microsoft also announced a new lineup of Xbox 360 games, including Forza Motorsport 3, Alan Wake, Halo 3: ODST and The Beatles: Rock Band.
Microsoft is to launch the Zune HD this autumn and the device will have access to TV, movies and games through the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.
Essentially being lined up as a rival to Apple’s iPod Touch, the new PMP will have a built-in HD Radio receiver, an OLED touch screen interface, wi-fi, a multi-touch UI for Internet Explorer.
The new Zune will feature a 16:9 widescreen format display (480 x 272 resolution) and have HD video output to allow video to be played on an HDTV.
While the new features are certainly an improvement on the original Zune, it will be interesting to see whether consumers like the fact a Zune dock has also to be bought for outputting HD video.
The HDMI audiovisual docking station connects to an HDTV in 720p.
The apparent lack of an app store also seems to be a potential stumbling block for the Microsoft device.
Microsoft Vista users can now stream films from Netflix through the Windows Media Center.
The development comes after Microsoft announced that it has expanded its partnership with the movie service.
Vista users can also stream Netflix movies on PCs by going to the Netflix site.
The arrangement is part of Microsoft’s plans to develop its Media Center as an online video hub.
Microsoft offers Media Center with the Vista operating system.
By selecting the new Netflix tab in "TV+Movies" Vista users can start streaming films immediately.
They will also be able to search and watch programs from Netflix’s online library of 12,000 movies and TV shows.
Microsoft’s partnership with Netflix began last year when it began offering the movie service’s streaming movies through the Xbox 360 game console.
Microsoft is to ban apps that enable VoIP services over carriers’ networks from its Windows MarketPlace for Mobile store when it launches in the second half of this year.
The VoIP app restriction is among the 12 application types forbidden in a list of "rules" announced by Microsoft.
Earlier this week, a Gartner report forecast that traditional network-based mobile carriers face the real prospect of losing a major slice of their voice traffic and revenue to new non-infrastructure players that use VoIP.
While the Microsoft ban is limited to VoIP services it is unclear whether developers will be able to offer VoIP apps using Wi-Fi.
That will not be known for sure until the store is up and running with apps.
InformationWeek points out, however, that Skype already works over 3G on Windows Mobile phones.
It suggests the ban on them must be a concession that the carriers wrung out of Microsoft in return for carrier billing.
Other prohibited apps include those larger than 10MB, those that promote or send users to alternative app stores for the same application, and ones that change the default browser, search client or media player on the device.
