WINDOWS 7

CREATE A WIRELESS HOTSPOT

With some free software, you can convert your Windows 7 laptop (or desktop with a Wi-Fi card) into a wireless router to share internet with others. Just get Connectify (connectify.me) or Virtual Router (virtualrouter. codeplex.com) to enable this feature. Connectify and Virtual Router will not work on older editions of Windows.

VIRTUAL WINDOWS XP

There are several reasons why you would want to run Windows XP virtually within Windows 7. Maybe you have programs that only work in XP or maybe you’re nostalgic. Whatever your reasons, you can download the necessary files from goo.gl/DCOSq.

WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER

Windows Media Center (built into Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions) offers more than just multimedia. It offers a 10 foot interface so that you can connect your PC to a TV and enjoy your content on a larger screen. Plus, it displays album art nicely and can stream all sorts of free content.

LAUNCH APPS QUICKLY

Users of older editions of Windows probably don’t know that with Windows 7, you can launch programs by just typing their name. Just click the Start button, start typing the name of the program you want to launch and the results will appear in real time as you type. Just highlight the correct one and hit the enter button.

PLAY NICE WITH XBOX

If you have a Xbox 360 connected to the same network as your Windows 7 PC, you can use Windows Media Center (WMC) to stream photos, music and videos. On the Xbox, note down the 8-digit key from the WMC section in Apps. In WMC, click Tasks > Add Extender and enter the 8-digit key. Now you can access content on the Xbox.

PLAY GOD FOR YOUR PC

There are various settings available for Windows 7, sometimes in various places (like control panel, personalisation, network settings menu and so on. With God Mode, you can have all settings in one place. Create a folder & name it GodMode. {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. More info at goo.gl/qdMFT.

THE PROBLEM STEPS RECORDER

Sometimes when something goes wrong with your PC, you could spend all day trying to figure out the problem. Instead, use the Problem Steps Recorder to record what’s going wrong and send it to someone more knowledgeable for a quick diagnosis. Click the start button and type PSR to bring up the Problem Steps Recorder (psr.exe) – click on ‘Start Record’ and run through the problem again.

MAC OS X LION

GET THE DICTIONARY MEANING

If you want to get the dictionary meaning for a particular word, simply take the cursor over the word and double tap the trackpad using three fingers. The text will get highlighted in yellow and a pop up box will show you the dictionary definition and synonyms from the built in thesaurus.

SEARCH SPECIFIC FILE TYPES ONLY

While searching using the search box in Finder, type ‘kind:’ followed by the first alphabet of the file type you are searching for (example, type P for PDF or D for DOC). A drop down menu will show you a list of various file types to choose from. Select the file type you are looking for and then type in the name of the file to search.

REMOTELY WIPE DATA

If you have setup an iCloud account on OSX Lion, just by logging in to your account from another system, you can send a remote wipe command. This is useful to remotely wipe all the data from the hard drive in case of theft. Note that FileVault encryption service should be activated for this to work.

ADD DIGITAL SIGNATURES TO A PDF

Open a pdf file in the Preview application instead of Adobe Reader and press Shift + Command + A to bring up the annotations toolbar. Click on Signatures and select ‘Create signature from iSight’. Now, sign on a blank piece of paper and hold it up in front of the webcam – it will save your signature digitally. Whenever you want to include your signature in a PDF, just select it from the toolbar and insert it on the page.

PREVIEW YOUR SEARCH RESULTS

When you search for anything in OS X Lion using the desktop Spotlight search icon in the top bar, you can get a preview of the search results. Simply move the pointer over one of the search results and it will show you a quick look panel with a preview of the particular file’s contents. Note that this works with documents and images only.

LAUNCHPAD WALLPAPER STYLE

By default, LaunchPad displays the installed applications over a blurred image of your desktop wallpaper. If you don’t like that look, then simply press ‘Control + Option + Command + B’ to switch between various background effect styles.

SECURE EMPTY TRASH

Hold the Command button on the keyboard and then alternate (right) click on the Trash icon on the icon dock. The pop up menu will display ‘Secure Empty Trash’ instead of just ‘Empty trash’. The benefit of Secure Empty Trash is that the deleted files cannot be recovered by anyone using basic data recovery tools. Note that using the Secure Empty Trash feature takes more time to empty the trash than normal.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/seven-hidden-tricks-about-your-operating-system/articleshow/11866800.cms?curpg=1

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone maker, said it may combine its Bada mobile- phone operating system with the Intel Corp.-backed Tizen software under development.

“We are carefully looking at it as an option to make the platforms serve better,” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in a statement today.

The comments follow a Forbes report that said efforts to merge Bada with the open-source Tizen operating system are under way, citing Tae-Jin Kang, senior vice president of Samsung’s content-planning team. Tizen will support mobile applications written with Bada’s software after the integration, the magazine reported on its website.

Samsung, the biggest seller of mobile devices running Google Inc.’s open-source Android software, uses Bada in some of its lower-end smartphones.

Executives from companies including Intel Corp., Samsung, NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc formed the Tizen association on Jan. 1 to support development of the open-source software. The software development groups LiMo Foundation and Linux Foundation said in September they will jointly develop Tizen for use in a range of devices from mobile phones to televisions.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-17/samsung-may-combine-bada-operating-system-with-tizen-software.html

The battle over the virtual machine software market, also known as the hypervisor market, has just heated up a notch. Oracle has leaped onto the field with guns blazing hoping to take down the almighty at VMware. Oracle joins Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat, the Xen open source community, the KVM open source community in the effort to take on the leading supplier of virtual machine software, VMware. In this announcement, Oracle is trying to one-up VMware in a number of key areas.

What did Oracle announce?
Oracle announced Oracle VM 3.0, Oracle’s own distribution of Xen virtual machine software. It also announced the Oracle VM Storage connect to improve how virtual servers interact with storage.

Here’s how Oracle describes the key features of Oracle VM 3.0:

Storage Connect plug-in framework: lets administrators transparently manage virtualization and attached storage arrays together through Oracle VM Manager while fully leveraging their investments in advanced storage functionality, such as deduplication and fast clone. Plug-ins are being developed by Oracle for its Pillar Axiom SAN storage system and Sun ZFS Storage Appliance, and by other and leading storage providers, including Fujitsu, Hitachi Data Systems, and NetApp.
Centralized network configuration and management: enables configuration of all server and VM networking from the Oracle VM Manager GUI, including advanced options such as bridging, bonding, VLANs and multi-pathing.
Improved ease-of-use: new features including server and storage discovery help speed infrastructure set-up while a new, dynamic “real-time” HTML user interface and comprehensive event tracking capabilities facilitate management over time.
Advanced, policy-based management capabilities: automates dynamic resource scheduling and server power management to improve application quality of service and reduce cost and power consumption in support of “green IT” initiatives.
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) industry standard support: enables customers to use Oracle VM Manager to import OVF based software assemblies to accelerate application deployment.
Snapshot analysis
Since Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, we’ve seen an increased emphasis on a complete stack of Oracle products including the following:

A family of systems
An operating system (Linux)
A virtual machine software product (Oracle VM)
Development environment
Management tools for the entire Oracle environment
Database engine
Applications
I find myself reminded of IBM in the early 1970s.

When surveyed, Oracle’s customers and partners have complained about Oracle’s tactics in trying to take over the complete IT environment in its customer’s data centers. Oracle has dropped support of its products on some competitive systems, has said that it will not test and support opposing virtual machine technology and now appears to be attacking VMware straight on on the eve of VMware’s bash, VMworld.

Oracle’s VM 3.0 clearly is designed to out gun VMware in a number of key areas: management, connections with storage, scalability, and, of course, support of Oracle’s applications and tools. Will this be enough to turn VMware hypervisor customers into Oracle hypervisor customers? I don’t think so. We’ll need to read more customer success stories, learn more about whether Oracle VM really out performs VMware, and learn if Oracle’s hypervisor support is really enterprise-class.
Since Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat, the Xen open source community, the KVM open source community and a few others are also charging up the hill towards VMware, it is going to be an interesting battle.

It appears to me that all of this direct competition is going to force VMware to do the following things:

Revise its recently revised pricing strategy to more directly deal with the competition
Revise its terms and conditions (I’ve been hearing people talk about the VMware Hypervisor tax on their organization. Could Oracle’s announcement force a change?)
Support policies for operating systems, third party applications and third party tools
Let’s see what VMware does next week. I’ll be at VMworld and will post what I learn.

Source:http://www.zdnet.com/blog/virtualization/oracle-vm-30-launch-the-hypervisor-battle-heats-up/3665

The market of Operating system software is on roll, as it witnessed a hike to almost 7.8 percent to $ 30.4 million in 2010 from $28.14 billion in 2009, said a research report form Gartner. And Microsoft Windows is undoubtedly the king of operating systems (OS). Almost 8 out of every $10 dollar are spent in U.S. on Microsoft’s operating system .

The dominant presence of windows in the market can be felt by its market share. As per March 2011, Windows XP records a market share of 54.39 percent, Windows 7 is 24.17 percent. Thus Microsoft captured the overall market with staggering 78.6 percent market share.

An operating system is software that runs on computers and mobiles, and manages hardware resources consisting of programs and data, and provides common services for execution of various software applications.

Mac OS records the second position in operating system market. It is the fastest growing OS in the year 2010. As far the clients are concerned, Windows is leading the market at top position with the adoption of Windows 7, followed by Mac OS. Windows revealed that it sold 350 million licenses of Windows 7 and its client revenue increased to 9.2 percent in 2010 to 7.5 percent in 2009.

The strong sales of Apple Mac desktops and laptops including Apple tablets and mobile services Mac OS grew to 15.8 percent to a size of $520 million in 2010.

Within the Unix OS market, IBM AIX registered high single digit growth but Unix had a comparatively modest growth.

Apart these leaders in the OS world, Linux is among the fastest growing sub segments in the server as the end users looked out for more open standard systems. IBM stood with 7.5 percent share and HP with 3.7 percent. Most striking was Oracles fourth position in 2010 from eight in 2009.

This competition among these bigges is expected to be stiffer, as companies gear up to introduce exciting and innovating operating system software.

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Operating_System_Software_booms_Microsoft_leads-nid-82796.html

With the official launch today of Geek Squad Tech Support, Best Buy’s 24-hour tech support task force now gives people another hassle-free way to depend on Geek Squad for help. The new service provides ongoing virus removal, and operating system and software installation and repair on gear purchased at Best Buy or anywhere else, at Geek Squad Precincts in every Best Buy store, online and over the phone.
Geek Squad Tech Support covers virus, software and operating system issues for periods of one-to-two years. The service protects a new PC, Mac or tablet, as well as two additional PCs, Macs or tablets, so clients can avoid problems integrating their new gear into their current setup.
Geek Squad Agents are available in-store, and 24/7 via online chat, remote or over the phone to provide common computer fixes such as virus removal; operating system and software installation and repair; troubleshooting assistance for computer-related issues; and basic hardware installation (memory, hard drive, sound and video cards).
“We’re excited about giving people an opportunity to have an ongoing relationship with Geek Squad on their terms,” said Matt Bonin, director of Geek Squad Services. “With this service, clients can contact us when they want, in the way they feel most comfortable – in-store, online or over the phone.”

While Geek Squad Tech Support is available on computing gear purchased from any retailer, those who buy their hardware at Best Buy receive special discounts on the service. With the purchase of a new PC, Mac or tablet at Best Buy, Geek Squad Tech Support costs $99.99 for one year and $179.99 for two years. Clients can also purchase the service for the PC, Mac or tablet they have purchased elsewhere, for $199.99 for one year, and $279.99 for two years. In all cases, up to three PCs, Macs or tablets are covered by the service.

For those clients who want complete protection for their new computer purchase at Best Buy, Geek Squad Tech Support also can be combined with both Geek Squad Black Tie Protection service plans and PC set-up with restore CD to cover new computer start-up for $229.99 annually. Similarly attractive savings are available through a “Pick 2” option that enables people to pair Geek Squad Tech Support with either Geek Squad Black Tie Protection or PC Set-Up for just $169.97 a year. With these options, clients are protected from virtually any computer or tablet problems that might occur – from hardware mishaps to malware concerns.

Source:http://www.iewy.com/21798-new-geek-squad-tech-support-service-offers-access-to-software-and-operating-system-help-for-pcs-macs-and-tablets.html

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday announced that it is adding its own operating software to personal computers to augment the capabilities of Microsoft’s Windows.

HP executives said webOS software from freshly-acquired Palm would complement Windows in machines designed to synch with the computer giant’s smartphones, printers and a new TouchPad tablet computer built on the platform.

“It indicates, at least somewhat, an HP rejection of Microsoft,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg.

“The fact that they said webOS is coming to PCs (personal computers) is indicative that there is something they are not getting from Microsoft right now.”

HP bought Palm last year in a $1.2-billion deal evidently driven by a desire to get its hands on Palm’s webOS software platform.

Palm began working on webOS five years ago and a Palm Pre smartphone running on the software was a hit at the major Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early last year.

Since webOS is optimized for touchscreen controls as well as keyboards, it is likely that computers built with the software will take advantage of that increasingly popular user interface.

“The reason they would do this is presumably the Touch Smart line,” Gartenberg said, referring to HP computers with touchscreen controls.

Building webOS into personal computers is part of a strategy to let HP gadgets easily swap or synchronize data, sometimes as easily as touching one device to another with a feature called “Touch To Share.”

“Clearly, HP has something that is going to set them apart and that is scale,” said NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker.

“Touch To Share is pretty cool, but it is something you can’t do unless you are the hardware and the software guy.”

HP boasts a billion customers in 174 countries and said it ships two personal computers and two printers each second.

HP executive vice president of personal systems Todd Bradley described the webOS smartphone, tablet, and computer innovations unveiled on Wednesday as building blocks in a long term plan to provide “connected experiences.”

“With device proliferation and an explosion in online services and Web-based content we consume, more people are accessing more cloud-based content from more devices,” Bradley said.

“No one has a consistent experience across devices,” he continued, maintaining that HP was out to change that with webOS devices.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/1109791/1/.html

Apple is giving a preview of new software that runs on its Mac computers.

The new version, called Mac OS X Lion, will include a store for Mac software. It’s similar to the iTunes store that sells apps for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Apple also is adding FaceTime video chatting to Macs. That feature debuted this summer on the iPhone 4.

Other features mimic those on the iPhone or iPad. Mac users can move from the main desktop to a “dashboard” filled with widgets by swiping a multitouch mouse or trackpad. People can drag one program icon on top of another to create a new folder.

Lion is expected during summer 2011. Apple didn’t say how much it would cost.

Source:http://www.wral.com/business/story/8483242/

Defense Research and Development Organization (DROD) of India is putting a dedicated team of 50 software professionals in the Bangalore and Delhi software development centers to develop an operating system (OS) of its own.

Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defense Minister of India told India times that he just set up a software center in Delhi for that task.

The effort will be headed by DROD in partnership with software companies and academic institutions.

Saraswat, told India times that the efforts to build India own operating system is based on security needs to thwart attempts of cyber attacks and data theft, rather than relying on western Operating systems “Only way to protect it is to have a home-grown system, the complete architecture…source code is with you and then nobody knows what’s that.”

Source:http://arabcrunch.com/2010/10/india-planning-its-own-computer-operating-system.html

You can install two or more than two operating systems on your single computer.

This is called multiple booting or dual boot configurations. You can use this method to enhance your business work and security.

Installing of Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows and Linux, and Mac and windows XP are the examples of dual booting or multiple booting. This depends upon your machine.

Source:http://www.booshnews.com/2010/10/02/dual-boot-operating-systems/

I must begin with a confession: It’s been awhile since I sat down with Eset CEO Anton Zajac to get an update on the privately held IT security and anti-virus software developer based in Bratislava, Slovakia, and San Diego.

While the company’s security software products are well-known in Europe, Eset is not as well-recognized in the United States; I described Eset last year as “the fastest growing anti-virus software developer you’ve never heard of.” Zajac said that while 2009 proved to be more difficult than expected, Eset still managed to grow its sales about 15 percent over 2008. “The good news is that this year it is basically double 2009,” Zajac said, meaning sales growth in North America has been running at better than 30 percent—and higher in Latin America and Asia and Pacific markets. The security software developer has more than 500 employees worldwide, including roughly 180 in San Diego.

What prompted me to return to my notes, though, was the $7.7 billion acquisition of McAfee that Intel announced two weeks ago. By most accounts, Intel’s McAfee deal is all about bringing computer security into the future of Internet-connected smartphones and other mobile devices. (It’s a significant development in the wireless technology industry, where San Diego-based Qualcomm plays a prominent role—especially after Intel followed its McAfee deal with its $1.4 billion purchase of Infineon Technologies’ wireless chip business earlier this week. And lest we forget, Intel paid $884 million last year to buy Wind River Systems, the Alameda, CA-based embedded-software developer.)

During our conversation, Zajac told me Eset also has been moving to develop security software for smartphones, saying, “Increasingly, as the use of smartphones becomes more prevalent, the [malicious] attacks will target mobile devices.”

Eset has been working to update its existing mobile security software for Microsoft Windows Phone 7. The company also is on the verge of introducing new security software for the Symbian OS, which had almost 47 percent of the smartphone operating system market globally in 2009, according to Gartner.

“We have a huge market share in Spain, and Symbian is the domininant mobile platform there,” Zajac explained.

“When you have a smartphone, regardless of the platform, your entire life is in the palm of your hand,” Zajac said. A knowledgeable hacker can track your movements. Malware surreptitiously installed on your smartphone can actually transmit your calls so that a third-party listener can eavesdrop on your conversations. At a security conference in May, Zajac says there was a proof-of-concept demonstration of a hacker rootkit installation on a smartphone, and the rootkit could be triggered by a text message so that the activation of the program would be invisible to the user.

In thinking about it, though, I realized I’m always reading about Internet-based attacks on financial computer networks, online shopping networks, and other commercial IT networks—but when do we hear about hacker attacks on mobile phones? Or enslaved smartphones taking part in botnet attacks?

Such attacks are indeed rare—but only for the time being, Zajac said, “This is all about making money for cyber criminals and organized crime. If the platform is prevalent and has sufficient computing power, it will be attacked for purposes of cyber crime.”

Cyber criminals have not focused their resources on mobile technologies just yet, Zajac said, in part because there are many different mobile operating systems—Symbian, Research in Motion, iPhone OS, Windows Phone, Linux, and Android. Smartphones and other mobile devices also don’t store much data of value to cyber criminals. That’s because smartphones typically don’t store databases, and instead accessing information from databases in the cloud, according to Zajac. Still, smartphones are increasingly carrying around more data, and more and more apps have built-in databases. So it won’t be too long before you can put a laptop’s worth of information onto a phone.

But he predicts mobile systems will come under attack as the wireless industry develops technology that enables people to make retail purchases and conduct other business transactions using smartcards or other near-field communications technology embedded in their smartphones.

“The information flowing in and out of your smartphone can be compromised,” Zajac says, “so you’re at very high risk.”

In short, mobile platforms are not a target yet. But they will be, and that’s the challenge Eset and the wireless industry is moving to address.

Source:http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2010/09/01/eset-readies-mobile-security-software-for-some-smartphone-operating-systems/?single_page=true

Below are the top five companies in the Application Software industry as ranked by operating margin. A healthy operating margin is required for a company to pay for its fixed costs and generate cash.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) has an operating margin of 55.9% on trailing 12 months sales of $3.4 billion and sales growth of 13.4%.

Ebix (NASDAQ:EBIX) has an operating margin of 40.4% on trailing 12 months sales of $108.6 million and sales growth of 52.9%.

ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) has an operating margin of 38% on trailing 12 months sales of $552.4 million and sales growth of 12.9%.

Net 1 UEPS Technologies (NASDAQ:UEPS) has an operating margin of 37.2% on trailing 12 months sales of $273.3 million and sales growth of 29.4%.

Factset Research Systems (NYSE:FDS) has an operating margin of 34.7% on trailing 12 months sales of $628.3 million and sales growth of 3.8%.

SmarTrend is bullish on shares of EBIX and our subscribers were alerted to Buy on May 07, 2010 at $14.88. The stock has risen 13.9% since the alert was issued.

Source:http://www.mysmartrend.com/news-briefs/news-watch/intuit-among-companies-application-software-industry-highest-operating-margin

Microsoft’s ninth iteration of their troublesome Internet browser is set to have a beta released to the public this September, says Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner.

Unlike the test previews currently available to the public, the beta build will feature a more usable user interface, making it more of a browser than a demo of the rendering engine.

IE9 will be far more standards-compliant compared to older versions, which is demonstrated through various demos in the test previews, showing off the new HTML5, SVG 1.1 2nd edition, CSS3 media queries, CSS3 borders & backgrounds, CSS3 selectors, DOM level 3 core, DOM level 3 events and DOM level 2 style abilities.

Neowin has also posted some screenshots of a leak, which can also be seen after the break.

These screenshots only show IE9’s new download manager, and does not feature a new UI, which has remained similar since IE7. Neowin claims that these are genuine.

Source:http://www.geeksmack.net/microsoft/internet-explorer-9-beta-coming-in-september

Consolidates hardware and software infrastructure to eliminate cost inefficiencies. The company today announced it will receive a $2 million investment from Fletcher International Ltd. as part of a previously announced $10 million March 2010 investment agreement. The investment brings Fletcher’s total investment to date at $4 million.

ANTs will use the proceeds for general operating purposes, as well as for the further development of its go-to-market strategy for its database migration solutions.

Per the agreement, the $2 million investment represents Fletcher’s purchase of 1.6 million additional shares at a per share price of $1.25, a 25% percent premium over the closing price of ANTs’ common stock on July 14, 2010.

ANTs and Fletcher also agreed to amend the terms of the previous agreement, reflecting Fletcher’s right to purchase the remainder of its $10 million investment in ANTs software at $1.25 per share for up to $1 million of additional shares and $1.50 per share for up to $5 million of additional shares.

According to the press release, in advance of the recent transaction, ANTs withdrew its registration statement originally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 2, 2010.

The company has agreed to file one or more new registration statements under the revised terms of the transaction.

“Fletcher is an exceptional investment partner. Their commitment, guidance and support have been a key driver of our success.

Their willingness to accommodate modifications to the timing of our capital needs confirms that we made the right decision in choosing Fletcher as our long-term partner. We look forward to a long and mutually successful partnership between our two firms,” Joseph Kozak, CEO of ANTs, stated in the press release.

Source:http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/36169/20100716/ants-software-inc-ants-ob-receives-2m-investment-from-fletcher-international-revises-terms-of-previo.htm

Earlier today, Rim posted a second sneak peek at their new BlackBerry software, titled “BlackBerry 6,” which is due to launch later this summer.

The new operating system is RIM’s answer to critics who state that RIM has lost its edge with the younger demographic. RIM’s stock has taken a beating in recent months due to the success of Apple iPhone and the launch of their new iPhone 4. Critics have been blasting RIM over their aging hardware and software, stating that it’s not up to par with Apple’s offerings, and that they are quickly losing market share to Apple and the Android phones.

With this new preview, it’s apparent that RIM is now going after the touch-based interface market more seriously than before. RIM’s touch screen phones, the Storm and its sequel, Storm 2, were not highly regarded. The Sure-Click technology which RIM had introduced in those phones was a terrible gimmick and the user interface was nowhere near as polished as the iPhone’s.

A lot of what is being previewed by RIM is similar to what the iPhone sports, including pinch to zoom on web pages. However, one of RIMs focal points for the BlackBerry 6 has been social networking. Their new operating system is integrating Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger into their home page and within their inbox, and is making it much easier to connect and post to multiple networks at once. This should help RIM significantly with the younger demographic which Apple has so clearly dominated.

One of the phones which will be launched with their new operating system is the BlackBerry 9800 slider. While the phone has not been officially announced, it has been leaked to several sources online. It’s Blackberry’s first slide phone and will include a full touch screen. RIM hopes that this phone will serve all their customers’ needs with a physical keyboard and a full high-resolution touch screen.

Source:http://www.shalomlife.com/eng/13275/RIM_Shows_Off_New_BlackBerry_6_Operating_System/

Quick: what multisyllable word is associated with the spirit of South Africa? No, it’s not vulvuzela, that love-it-or-hate-it horn that provided a soundtrack for the World Cup, but “ubuntu,” a Bantu term for “humanity to others.” Ubuntu is also the name of — and philosophy behind — the most popular desktop variant of the Linux operating system.

inux was originally developed by a Finnish programmer named Linus Tovalds and is based on UNIX, the open source operating system that’s been used on mainframes and minicomputers for decades (Linux = Linus + Unix). It’s used in web servers, appliances, phones and cars, and runs both Google and Wikipedia. In the consumer operating system market though, it’s occupied a perennial third place, with only two percent of the market share for desktop operating systems.

Ubuntu was first released six years ago and has quickly become the most popular Linux distribution for personal computers. It’s maintained by a company called Canonical Ltd., a South African company which makes money by installing and servicing Ubuntu and Ubuntu-related software for large organizations.

According to the Canonical website, “Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.

Simon Fraser University computer scientist Toby Donaldson says Ubuntu is popular because, unlike some other versions of Linux, it’s designed to be usable “out of the box” by ordinary computer users who are used to the level of user-friendliness you find in Windows and the Mac world. Ubuntu users, he says, are very enthusiastic about the software. “I think the passion comes from the fact that many of the users are early adopters with a pioneering spirit. Plus, since Linux is a community project and not the product of a particular company, the evangelists for it tend to be the users.”

One of those evangelists is Randall Ross, founder of the ubuntu vancouver loco group.
“I knew there must be hundreds (if not thousands) of Ubuntu users across Vancouver,” Ross says. “I envisioned all the fun we could have and positive energy we could build if I could somehow bring them all together. I also envisioned the buzz that could be created if people started seeing large numbers of people meeting because they all get Ubuntu. My ‘aha’ moment was when I realized that I could build an Ubuntu ecosystem where none existed before, catalyzing Ubuntu adoption. Good things can follow from that.

Source:-http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/megabytes/2010/07/10/ubuntu-computer-operating-system-built-around-community

Today, home health agencies using Kinnser’s online software solutions can utilize the iPad for point of care documentation and coordination across the continuum of care.

By upgrading its Web-based home health software solution Agency Manager™ for the Safari Web browser on the iOS mobile operating system for the iPhone and the iPad, Kinnser is first to provide this unique access to home health agencies, physicians and therapy companies.

Home health agencies nationwide can now choose to use tablet based computers for tasks including nursing notes, OASIS forms, signing orders, sending HIPAA-compliant messages and routing clinical documents from wherever they have Internet access.

We are committed to ensuring that Kinnser’s Web-based services are accessible from a wide variety of keyboard and touch screen devices,” said Christopher Hester, Chief Executive Officer of Kinnser Software.

“While desktops, laptops and netbooks are all common ways to access our services today, it is clear that the iPad is the first of the next generation of more affordable touch-based tablet computers.

In the past, a tablet computer cost $2,000, and was out of reach for many agencies. Now with the iPad, an agency can acquire a full featured and easy to use tablet starting at about $500. This provides an additional way for clinicians to use Agency Manager at the point of care.”

According to a June 17, 2010 presentation by Forrester Research analyst Sara Rotman Epps at The Big Money’s “Untethered 2010 Conference”, tablets, including the iPad, will outsell netbook computers by 2012, and desktop computers by 2015.

She estimated that tablet computer sales will be 6 percent of overall computer sales in 2010, grow to 18 percent of computer sales in 2012 and make up 23 percent of all computer sales in 2015, which would equal over 20 million tablets estimated to be sold in that year.

TechCrunch, a web publication offering technology news and analysis, provides a summary of this presentation

Source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/kinnser-software-utilizes/ipad-for-point-of-care/prweb4237974.htm

Red Flag Software, a China based company on June 245 2010 debuted a sweet looking MeeGo operating system based Tablet PC, named the NPad.
We find it very interesting that the NPAD is the first Tablet PC to run the Nokia/Intel operating system on the MeeGo platform.

Right now the MeeGo software is in Late Alpha stage, and has already been announced for a few Smartphones from Nokia later on in the year.

First of all the Red Flag NPad will feature a Moorestown platform that is around 10.1 inches in size, making it larger than the competing Apple iPad. It also is capacitive multi-touch and has a built in accelerometer, so you can switch it between landscape modes.

If you want to connect up to the internet, you can do so in 3G and WI-FI. The battery life is great for tablets, at about 8 hours.

Getting back to the MeeGo Operating system, the NPad is thought to be running the 1.1 MeeGo OS. The benefits of this operating system are to multi-task applications and its great social networking tools.

It will allow users to operate common tasks using a three column view and be very intuitive. The MeeGo operating system is trying to be competitive with the Google Android operating system, and trying to put the Palm WebOS market place to shame.

The only thing is with MeeGo, is whether it will have developer support, right now there are no dedicated development kit for the MeeGo for tablets, but they do have kits for Netbooks. Nokia has a hybrid version of MeeGo for its smartphones.

The Unit will debut in China sometime in August or September for around $350.00

Source:http://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/red-flag-software-to-debut-meego-npad-in-august/

Below are the top five companies in the Internet Software & Services industry as ranked by operating margin. A healthy operating margin is required for a company to pay for its fixed costs and generate cash.

Netease.com (NASDAQ:NTES) has an operating margin of 47.7% on trailing 12 months sales of $607.2 million and sales growth of 50.2%.

IncrediMail (NASDAQ:MAIL) has an operating margin of 39.6% on trailing 12 months sales of $27.8 million and sales growth of 9.7%.

Sohu.com (NASDAQ:SOHU) has an operating margin of 37.2% on trailing 12 months sales of $529 million and sales growth of 11.9%.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has an operating margin of 36.7% on trailing 12 months sales of $24.9 billion and sales growth of 23%.

MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) has an operating margin of 33.8% on trailing 12 months sales of $186.5 million and sales growth of 42.1%.

SmarTrend is bearish on shares of MAIL and our subscribers were alerted to Sell on January 26, 2010 at $8.10. The stock has fallen 35.8% since the alert was issued.

Source:http://www.mysmartrend.com/news-briefs/news-watch/highest-operating-margin-internet-software-services-industry-detected-shares-

Hasso Plattner may be taking a back seat advisory role these days as SAP’s supervisory board chairman. But the co-founder of Germany’s software giant has nonetheless been pulling the strings to revive the company’s fortunes as it suffers increasingly at the hands of Oracle, his US competitor run by arch-rival Larry Ellison.

It was clearly Mr Plattner who decided in February that it was time for Léo Apotheker, SAP’s chief executive, to go as a first step in rebuilding internal morale and revive the confidence of the company’s increasingly disenchanted customers and investors. After all, SAP had seen both its sales and profits steadily fall, while Oracle, as a result of a $42bn acquisition spree during the past five years, seemed to be going from strength to strength. To replace Mr Apotheker, who had avoided embarking on an Oracle-style big acquisition strategy in preference for what turned to be an unpopular cost-cutting one, Mr Plattner decided to go back to the company’s roots by re-establishing a dual chief executive structure. Mr Apotheker was thus replaced by two new co-chief executives – an American, Bill McDermott, and a Dane, Jim Hagemann Snabe.

Mr Plattner justified the decision to revert to a dual chief executive structure on the grounds that this approach had not only marked SAP’s best years, but other information technology champions. Oracle had its Ray Lane and Larry Ellison, Microsoft its Bill Gates and Steve Ballner and, of course, at SAP itself, Mr Plattner shared power with Dietmar Hopp and later with Henning Kagermann.
He suggested at the time that the German company had to act quickly. As he put it: “We are at the advent of the largest and most significant changes in the industry.” So for all the recent declarations claiming the two new co-heads of SAP were now firmly in charge, the duo must nonetheless have been feeling the pressure from Mr Plattner.
Their reaction has been swift. They have not hesitated to pay a bumper $5.8bn to secure the Californian-based Sybase software group that specialises in systems that make it easier for users to access business software via smart phones and other mobile devices. And part of the current revolution in the IT market is the growing use of the mobile internet and smart phone in business.
The speed with which the new SAP duo executed the Sybase deal also seems to have been designed to give customers, investors and employees a clear signal that the German company was now changing – and changing fast, with the new top management intent in injecting a bit more American culture in the way SAP conducts its business.
So far, so good. But the question is whether one quick, smart deal – albeit expensive – will be enough to restore confidence in the German group and provide SAP with the necessary competitive tools to match the likes of Oracle, IBM,Cisco and Hewlett-Packard.
The obvious question is whether SAP will now need to grow in scale even further to yank itself back to the top of the software business pedestal by making more acquisitions or partnerships with other companies that are falling behind the IT industry’s new leaders.
But one thing is certain. Mr Plattner is bound to keep the heat on his two new chief executives. A keen sailor himself, he did not like losing to Mr Ellison in big yachting competitions. And he clearly does not want to see his old Oracle rival sailing ahead in the international software stakes.

Source:-http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f43451a-5eb4-11df-af86-00144feab49a.html

Tideworks has just announced the availability of Intermodal Pro, a comprehensive terminal operating system (TOS) for intermodal terminals.

The system offers automated planning tools that accelerate loading, unloading and gate operations while also maximising space utilisation.

It allows intermodal terminal operators to centralise planning, equipment tracking and gate operations from multiple terminals.

In addition, an electronic data interchange gives terminals the ability to track trade booking and billing data, making it easy to exchange sensitive information with customers, partners and back-office systems.

Source:http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/products-and-services/tideworks-release-intermodal-software