IBM to Build Asia's Largest Cloud Computing Center

IBM and the China-based Range Technology will build a cloud computing data center near Beijing that the companies claim will be Asia's largest by floor space. The 620,000 square meter facility, which is to be owned by Range Technology, is expected to be completed in 2016, the companies announced on Tuesday. The data center aims to mainly serve government departments from China's capital and across the country, but will also be open to banks and private enterprises.

The cloud computing center will be built in Langfang, a city between Beijing and Tianjin, in northern China. The data center is meant to support the development of a new information technology hub being built in the area, said IBM spokeswoman Harriet Ip.

IBM, the vendor for the project, did not disclose the cost of the data center. But the company said Range Technology is spending about US$1.49 billion on the building of the Langfang Range International Information Hub, of which the data center will be a part.

IBM says there has been growing demand for data centers and cloud computing in China. The company's data-center business in China has tripled in the last four years. In 2010, China overtook Japan as IBM's second largest data center market, with the U.S. as the company's number one market.

Range Technology could not be reached for comment. But the company said in a statement, "This initiative plays a critical role in the economic development of China in light of the pressing demand for managed hosting in the areas of cloud computing and mobile devices," according to its chairman Zhou Chaonan.

Range Technology, an Internet data center services provider, was founded in 2009. Earlier this month, the company and IBM formed a strategic partnership on cloud computing and software services.

Nokia Siemens Networks Expands Global Service Delivery Center

Nokia Siemens Networks has announced the relocation and expansion of its Global Network Solutions Center (GNSC) to a new site in Chennai, India. Since its launch in 2007, the Chennai GNSC has witnessed tremendous growth. This includes a ten-fold increase in the number of subscribers it supports on behalf of operators around the world to 77 million. In addition the center now remotely manages over 87,000 base station sites, 14 times the number when it opened four years ago.

The new facility, occupying 90,000 square feet, was inaugurated by Vishant Vora, Group CTO, Vodafone India in the presence of Armando Almeida, head of Global Services, Nokia Siemens Networks.

The Chennai GNSC was the first center set up by Nokia Siemens Networks in 2007 to pioneer its unique Global Service Delivery model providing remote delivery support across its services businesses including care, network implementation and managed services. It is one of three currently operating GNSCS, with two others in Noida, India and Lisbon, Portugal. Two* further service delivery centers are currently being established in Russia and Brazil as announced in 2010. All five are part of the company’s strategic response to the growing trend of operators outsourcing network management and maintenance as a way to increase efficiency and improve end-user experience.

“The expansion of the Chennai GNSC is a reflection of the success of the global service delivery model we pioneered,” said Armando Almeida. “The Chennai facility, with its vast engineering and telecom talent, has played a significant role in the success of our alternative service delivery model. This model allows us to centralize and consolidate operations for customers around the world. It provides significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency, freeing up resources to allow operators to focus on their business goals.”

Since 2007, the team at Chennai GNSC has grown from 120 people to over 1,000 supporting 77 million subscribers and 87,000 base stations on customers’ networks globally. The center currently provides remote services including planning, optimization services and complete network operation. It is also emerging as a Center of Competence for 3G and, together with Noida GNSC, has delivered 90 projects in 3G/HSPA globally.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ integrated, multi-technology, multi-vendor GNSCs are designed to help operators roll out new services rapidly through round-the-clock project management. The centers ensure high network and service performance through transparent Service Level Agreements and improved service delivery efficiency while reducing risks. By centralizing and consolidating resources at the three GNSCs, Nokia Siemens Networks delivers economies of scale to its customers and drives network efficiency through remote delivery, applying standardized and automated IT tools and processes.

iPad Rival, iTablet set To Start Selling March

So here comes the iPad nemesis! A large onscreen keyboard makes inputting text a simple process and, with 32GB storage capacity, itablet has plenty of room to download and store important documents, pictures, films, music, games, e-books, news and other content.

The integrated SD card reader enables photographs and other files to be viewed or uploaded and an HDMI output provides high quality playback of HD video and pictures through larger TV screens.  Audio playback can be through the built-in stereo speakers or stereo headphones.

Stanley Hsu, General Manager, AHX Global, said: "iTablet provides users with the same full desktop experience on the move that can be achieved with a laptop but in a more compact, lightweight and easy to use form factor."

iTablet is fully equipped with Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi networking enabling users to easily connect to wireless networks to download and edit files or access the internet.

Users can surf the internet, with full  Flash compatibility, using their choice of browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.  An integrated 2 mega-pixel webcam and microphone are also included for video and VoIP conferencing applications.

The company behind iTablet is AHX Global, a joint venture between X2 Computing, one of the UK's leading suppliers of mobile computing solutions and AMtek Systems, the leading Taiwanese designer of tablet computers.

AHX Global also simultaneously launched the W10², which is powered by an Intel Atom Z510 1.3GHz processor with 1GB DDR2 SDRAM running Windows 7 Starter Edition.  It shares the same features as the W10¹ but does not have a webcam or HDMI outputs.

The itablet W10¹  is to retail at $849.99 and itablet W10² will retail at $749.99. Deliveries of the Windows itablets will start in March.

SAS Analytics Lab tackles government’s most pressing issues

The SAS Analytics Lab for State and Local Government plans to add 100 new technology and government experts and arm them with the data analysis power of SAS’ new 38,000 square-foot cloud computing center. 

The lab partners with state and local leaders to improve government services with the latest in advanced analytics technology. It currently devotes the resources of more than 200 professional, mostly doctoral-level SAS experts to devising technology solutions to critical state and local government issues, such as fraud, waste, abuse, tax collection, public safety and education.

"At a time when we must maximize the use of every state dollar, we are grateful to have a company like SAS in the fight against fraud, waste and abuse in state government," said North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue. "Saving tax dollars and creating jobs are certainly high on my priority list."

Confident that interest in analytics by state and local governments will only increase, SAS plans to add more than 100 positions to the lab over the next two years. In addition to North Carolina, SAS plans to place technology and subject matter experts throughout the country, where new projects are announced. 

"The SAS Analytics Lab for State and Local Government focuses some of our most brilliant minds on today's most urgent challenges," said Paula Joshi, Vice President of SAS State and Local Government Practice. "The current model falters in an internationally competitive environment, as state and county governments face daunting budget deficits. Government technology leaders are not just looking for new solutions to old problems, but new strategies for technology investment."

The state and local lab expands the SAS Advanced Analytics Lab, led by John Brocklebank, PhD. The lab has grown at least 35 percent annually since its founding in 2000. "Demand for hosted services among state and local governments has risen sharply," said Brocklebank. "Bolstering our technical capabilities with subject matter experts gives state and local governments powerful and cost-effective options when they really need them."

SAS' Cloud Computing Center will quadruple SAS' capacity for data hosting. "Our ability to host data reduces risk for government customers and saves precious tax dollars on hardware and personnel," adds Joshi. "State and local government leaders have seen the efficiencies that technologies such as cloud computing, analytics and data integration have brought to the private sector, and more recently the government sector."

Several customers already embrace the hosted model:

The North Carolina Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data System (CJLEADS) integrates data from the state's various criminal justice applications, providing up-to-date criminal information in a secure, centralized location for use by state and local government criminal justice professionals. More than 1,000 users from criminal justice organizations in Wake County are currently training on or using the application. Several arrests have been attributed to the system.

Los Angeles County uses the hosted SAS® Fraud Framework for Government, which addresses such government concerns as detecting collusive patterns in entitlement programs, e.g. Medicare and Medicaid, to purchase-card fraud, bid-rigging and terrorist financing. LA County used SAS to uncover child-care benefits fraud, prevent public assistance fraud, and enhance district attorney investigations.

SAS' most enduring hosted solution is SAS® Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS®) for K-12 , with more than 1.7 million log-ins to date. EVAAS was a difference maker in the Race to the Top education reform effort – three winners have statewide implementations of SAS EVAAS for K-12 and six more have widespread use at the district level.

Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio use SAS EVAAS for K-12 statewide to measure the effectiveness of districts, schools and teachers. It also predicts student performance on standardized tests, assessing how likely students are to succeed in milestone courses such as eighth-grade Algebra I.  

SAS is used in all 50 states and more than 115 local governments to transform their operations to deliver the right services, at the right time, with the appropriate resources. SAS offers a wide array of data integration, business intelligence and analytics solutions, and collaborates with government to create innovative offerings tailored to specific departmental and agency goals.

Google in Illegal Source-code saga

A well-known open source advocate has accused Google of copying at least seven and up to as many as 43 Android files directly from Oracle's Java source code. It's unclear whether the files were actually included with the shipping version of Android, but they were open-sourced by Google under an Apache license, and that alone could be legally problematic for the company. The search giant now faces an Oracle patent- and copyright-infringement lawsuit over the use of Java in Android.

"[The alleged copied code] is really about the Android's team's credibility, its approach to intellectual property issues," Florian Mueller, who spotted the files in question said. "This looks arrogant, reckless, aggressive. What does it imply about the team's overall approach?"

Last October, as part of its lawsuit, Oracle handed six pages of Android code to a federal court, claiming they were directly copied from Oracle Java code. This amounted to a single file, and in a court filing of its own, Google claimed Oracle's exhibit had been doctored by Larry Ellison and company.

But with a Friday post, FOSS Patents blogger Florian Mueller pointed to six additional Android files that "show the same pattern of direct copying" – apparently, Google used a decompiler – and he claimed that unlike the file in Oracle's exhibit, these files were part of the open source trees for the most recent Android releases: 2.2 (Froyo) and 3.3 (Ginderbread). He also turned up 37 other files tagged with "PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL" and "DO NOT DISTRIBUTE!" notices by Sun. "Unless Google obtained a license to that code (which is unlikely given the content and tone of those warnings), this constitutes another breach," said Mueller.

Google had also said that Oracle had removed headers from its exhibit, and according to Mueller, the missing headers also read "PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL". "I don't think that the missing parts are favorable to Google. Actually, the opposite is true," he wrote.Google did not respond to a request for comment.

As Google points out in a court filing, Android's Dalvik virtual machine uses a subset of Project Harmony, Apache Foundation's open source Java incarnation. But Apache has said that the code in Oracle's exhibit is not from Harmony. And though we've asked Apache about the other files turned up by Mueller, the foundation has yet to respond.

Oracle's exhibit and the six files where Mueller discovered what he believes to be similar copying are in the "unit test" area of the Android open source code tree. Mueller tells The Register he found the files by looking in the general vicinity of the file pinpointed by Oracle. As ZDNet's Ed Burnette points out, unit test code isn't likely to ship with a final product, and the files in question have been deleted from the tree. But they were still open-sourced.

If Google lifted the code from Sun, this may be problematic – whether Sun eventually open-sourced the code or not. Java was open-sourced under a GPL license, whereas Android uses the incompatible Apache license. "GPL is a one-way street," Mueller points out. "As a third party, you can't just turn a GPL file into an Apache file. It doesn't matter whether the Sun code was proprietary or GPL, because either way there's no way it could be licensed under Apache."

The 37 other files Mueller spotted are part of a zip file and appear to involve native code audio drivers. But these too were open-sourced.

At Last, VIA rolls out Dual-core Microprocessor

VIA Technologies, a developer of affordable low-power computing solutions, has announced its first dual-core central processing units (CPUs). The new chips arrive nearly six years after dual-core microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp. The developer of the processor claims that the Nano X2 chip is suitable for both desktop and mobile applications. Featuring two x86 cores, the VIA Nano X2 processor delivers up to double the performance on multi-thread optimized applications. Based on a 40-nm process, the device is built using its 64-bit, superscalar ''Isaiah'' architecture.

''Isaiah'' is also the architecture used for Via's single-core processors. It features a 64-bit speculative, out-of-order architecture. It also incorporates a front-side bus starting at 800-MHz.

The duo-core device also comes with SSE4, native 64-bit support, VT CPU virtualization technology and so-called PadLock hardware security features. VIA Nano X2 processors are also pin-to-pin compatible with previous VIA Nano, VIA C7, VIA C7-M and VIA Eden processors.

VIA Nano X2 processors are targeted for a range of PC products that include desktop, all-in-one and mobile notebook designs.

"The VIA Nano X2 processor arrives at a time when software architectures are now optimized to for multi-thread computing," said Richard Brown, vice president of international marketing for Taipei-based VIA, in a statement. ''Improvements in semi-conductor fabrication means we can now double the number of processor cores while maintaining the same low energy consumption levels that our customers are used to."

VIA Nano X2 processors samples are currently available for OEMs and motherboard vendors, with systems featuring the processors expected to arrive in Q1 2011.

Acer to launch 7-inch, 10-inch tablets by mid-year

 

Acer will begin selling two or three new tablet PCs in the first half of the year, including one with a seven-inch screen, a company sales manager said on Monday.

The tablet launches will begin a gradual replacement of Acer's small laptop-style netbook computers, in line with market demands, Taiwan sales manager Lu Bing-hsian said.

"They are aimed at phasing out netbooks," he said. "That’s the direction of the market."

They will use Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors and run an Android operating system, Lu said. The largest will have a 10-inch screen, Lu said.

The Taiwan-based computer giant will keep making netbooks, adding to its millions sold to date, but it will stick to simple models and manufacture fewer than in years past as tablets gain popularity, he said

The tablets will run faster than laptops with Windows operating systems, and will use a four-core processor, he said. The company has not revealed any other product details. The tools will be made for common users, Lu said, rather than expressly for gamers.

Lu declined to estimate the sales price or the size of the first production run of new tablets.

Acer’s first tablet, a 12-inch version costing just under $1,000, sold 200 to 300 units per month until it was discontinued in July. Acer’s president and CEO hinted in October that more tablets were on the way.

The tablet market headed toward a boom last year after Apple released the iPad. Other companies have rivaled Acer in following the iPad with comparable products that use touchscreens. One is the Samsung Electronics Galaxy Tab.

Online CRM battle: Microsoft declares war

Microsoft has announced that its Dynamics CRM Online software is now available in 40 markets around the world, bringing it in closer competition with Salesforce.com and Oracle's CRM on Demand. In hopes of poaching customers from both companies, Microsoft is offering a number of financial incentives to switchers. New customers that sign contracts by June 30 can receive promotional pricing of US$34 per user per month for the first year.

That compares to $65 and $125 per user per month for Salesforce.com's Professional and Enterprise editions, respectively. Oracle CRM on Demand pricing starts at $75 per user per month. Microsoft is also offering new customers "in most markets" up to $200 per user until June 30 to offset the cost of migrating to CRM Online. Free trials will be available.

CRM Online is based on the on-premises Dynamics CRM 2011, which has been in beta for some time and will be available on Feb. 28. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to discuss the release and the company's CRM strategy during a speech Monday.

The global availability of CRM Online as well as its hooks into Microsoft's collaboration and productivity software "are going to raise the level of competition in general in CRM," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Dynamics, in an interview.

"The value in CRM 2011 is really about the fact this product was designed with the salesperson in mind, not the manager," said Ray Wang, CEO and principal analyst with Constellation Research. Its features, such as deep integration with Outlook and mobile capabilities are crucial to salespeople's day-to-day jobs, he added. CRM 2011 does not match up feature-for-feature with Salesforce.com but "it's comparable from a salesperson's point of view in terms of what they want to do."

The fact that Microsoft is offering on-premises deployment, something Salesforce.com does not, is another potential advantage, he added.

CRM Online is now available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, Chile, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S., and the U.K.

Dell Rolls Out Streak 7, Venue Smartphone

Dell joined the parade of vendors showcasing new mobile devices at the Consumer Electronics Show, unveiling the Android-powered Streak 7 tablet and Venue smartphone for the T-Mobile 4G network.

The new additions make it clear that Dell is serious about transitioning itself away from its core desktop and laptop PC business to capture a piece of the ever-expanding mobile device market.

The 7-inch Streak 7 features a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra T2 processor, Wi-Fi, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling, support for Flash 10.1 and runs on the Android 2.2 mobile operating system which will eventually be upgradeable to Honeycomb.

Streak 7 will be available through T-Mobile retail stores and Dell's website in the next few weeks. Company officials did not disclose pricing details.

The 4G Venue smartphone, which will also be available in the next couple weeks from the same outlets, also includes a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra T2 processor, the same camera features at the Streak 7, and also runs on Android 2.2 with full Flash support and Qik Video Chat software via Wi-Fi or T-Mobile's 3G and 4G networks.

Both of the new devices also feature Dell Stage, a user interface overlay that silos users' content and applications into simple categories and tiles to make it easier to access specific applications such as Facebook, Twitter and email.

Enterprise Application Software Market to Rebound in Middle East/Africa…IDC

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) enterprise application software (EAS) market is expected to return to double-digit growth rates from 2010 after suffering a considerable slowdown in growth in 2009 due to the impact of the global economic crisis on the region. According to a recent report by market research company IDC, the region is predicted to expand at an average annual growth rate of 12.8% by 2014. 

"Widespread regional liquidity difficulties and the delay or cancellation of EAS projects by organizations that were forced to revisit their spending plans proved particularly troublesome, although the market will soon rebound to former heights," says Dhiraj Daryani, senior analyst for the software market at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. 

As the global economic recovery takes shape, and as governments and businesses in the MENA region proceed with IT modernization efforts and application transformation, high-growth vertical segments like education and healthcare will continue to remain the fastest growth areas for EAS solutions, while other segments that saw a marked reduction in spending in 2009, like business services and telecommunications, will forge ahead with EAS investments. 

Process and discrete manufacturing will continue to be critical drivers of EAS spending, but their share of the total market will gradually slow through 2014, while the finance vertical will rebound strongly from the pounding it took during the crisis. Saudi Arabia will remain the MENA region's largest EAS market, and will also be its fastest growing, while Egypt is also tipped for strong growth as large numbers of businesses migrate to modern EAS suites from the installed base of legacy applications. 

Global giants SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics dominate the MENA region's EAS market. However, the leading vendors must not rest on their laurels as businesses and governments begin to re-examine their wait-and-see approach to investing in innovative IT applications. "Customers are no longer content with just implementing solutions from global vendors," says Daryani. "They also want to see the quantifiable value they derive from adopting such solutions. As such, vendors need to bring in world-class expertise and resources if they are to be seen as long-term players in local markets. Vendors that can both demonstrate their commitment to individual country markets and clearly convey the value of their solutions to customers stand to gain market share." 

IDC's Arab Middle East and North Africa Enterprise Application Software 2010–2014 Forecast and 2009 Vendor Shares (IDC #ZR01S) provides a detailed overview of the region's market for integrated EAS suites. It includes detailed qualitative and quantitative information, analysis, and forecasts that help vendors answer key questions regarding market size, segmentation, market shares, and major economic and political factors affecting the Arab MENA EAS market.

Temenos maintains leadership position in global banking platforms

Temenos, the global provider of banking software, has announced that Forrester Research, Inc. has again named Temenos and its T24 core banking platform a leader in its December 2010 report, The Forrester Wave™ Global Banking Platforms, Q4 2010. Temenos has maintained its leadership position in the report since 2007.
Forrester Research selected vendors based on qualification criteria that included a forward-looking architectural approach, sound success in 2008 and 2009 and global delivery capability. Vendors were evaluated against 80 criteria which were grouped into three key areas: current offering - to assess product strength, strategy – to compare vendor strategies with industry trends and banking needs and market presence – to understand installed base size, implementation capability and revenue growth.
The report cited, ‘Temenos with T24 excelled with the highest marks for support of regulatory requirements and business/metadata parameterization as well as selected product strategy topics such as the process composer and business services ecosystems’.
“The recession slowed down or stalled all kinds of large scale application development and delivery projects in numerous banks. However, even during the recession, many banks continued to prepare and plan to restart their prerecession renewal initiatives or even began new, even broader transformation programs…Today the vast majority of financial services firms in general and banks in particular are either working on modernising their application landscape or plan to do so within the next few years’, explained Jost Hoppermann, Vice President, Forrester in the report, ‘Consider Temenos for your vendor shortlist if you need a banking platform with broad functionality, strong platform agility, and strong service and support capabilities....”
Temenos focuses 100% of its resources on banking platform products and continues to supply core banking systems to all geographies across a wide variety of banking sectors and institutions. In addition, its strong revenues demonstrated full financial capability to support its corporate strategy. 
Andreas Andreades, CEO, Temenos, comments: “This ranking not only reaffirms Temenos as a clear market leader in the global core systems market, but also reinforces our strong performance over the last two years during a time of industry wide uncertainty. Today we observe not only acceleration in strategic IT investment but also an increasing trend towards packaged solutions as banks look for end to end operational support to reduce cost and minimise risk. As a pure play expert in business banking applications, Temenos is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this with an advanced product roadmap driven by unparalleled R&D investment, a robust partner strategy and a
clear acquisition path. Together, these provide a world class combination in bringing new, complementary offerings and best in class services to our 1100 strong client base across the globe today, tomorrow and in the future”.

Microsoft to launch Office Live beta

Microsoft plans to kick off the test version of Office Live, the company's collection of Web hosting and business applications for small companies. The company is targeting businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Although nearly nine in 10 such businesses have Web access, only about half have their own Web site, Microsoft says. "That's a lot of small businesses without a Web site," said Dean Nicolls, senior product manager for Microsoft's information worker services group. In one sign of the demand, Nicolls said, more than 100,000 businesses have signed up for the test. All of those companies are being included in the test of Office Live, while additional companies can sign up on Microsoft's site.

With Office Live, Microsoft is offering e-mail, Web domains, Web site hosting and other services for free during the beta. Once Office Live moves to final status around November, the most basic package of services will remain free. Microsoft will sell other packages on a subscription basis. The company first outlined Office Live as part of its broader Live Services announcement in November. Jeff Raikes, Microsoft's business division president, said in a January interview that more than 70,000 people had signed up for Office Live and that a beta version would launch some time this quarter.

Some of the approaches and manpower for the Office Live effort stem from Microsoft's many prior small-business efforts, including bCentral. Also, Microsoft announced last month plans for "Small Business +" to offer paid online technical support to businesses. Microsoft has grouped the Office Live services into three categories, two of which will eventually require payment, and one of which will be free. All are free during the beta period, Microsoft said.

Office Live Basics, the free entry-level service, offers small businesses their own Internet domain, 2GB of e-mail storage for up to five accounts, 30MB of storage for a Web site and up to 10GB per month of data transfer. Those who set up a site with Office Live Basics also get access to simple site analytics such as page views and which browser customers are using to visit the site. Office Live pages can be built using a variety of customizable templates, and no HTML experience is needed. "We've tried to make it dead simple for the small business owner," Nicolls said.

Office Live Essentials offers similar services to Office Live Basics, but boosts the number of e-mail accounts from five to 50, expands the Web site disk space to 50MB, ups the data transfer bandwidth to 25GB a month and expands the Web analytics to include more information on how customers found the Web site. Office Live Essentials customers also get access to more than 20 online business applications and get toll-free telephone support as opposed to only e-mail-based help.

Microsoft is also selling just the business applications in a separate set of services it calls Office Live Collaboration. The software includes Web-based programs for managing contacts, tracking projects and completing expense reports, among other programs. Nicolls said that most of the target customers for Office Live don't use any such software today to store their information. "It's in filing cabinets," he said. "It's in spreadsheets."

IDC analyst Ray Boggs said that by making such services free and easy, Microsoft is removing two of the main barriers that keep small businesses off the Internet. And once they get their feet wet with a Web site, he said that businesses may find they want to do more. Boggs said that Office Live could help Microsoft win new customers for its MSN adCenter online advertising engine. "There is a broader competitive battlefield rather than just Web site building that Microsoft is interested in maintaining a competitive interest in," he said.

Although today Microsoft is not selling ads to Office Live customers, Nicolls said that the company does plan later this year to start pitching keyword advertising as a paid option for companies that want to draw more traffic to their site. The company plans to offer some sort of e-commerce options as well. The only downside to the free offering, Boggs said, is that it is a bit like giving away free tickets to a concert. People are less committed than if they had their own money on the line, meaning that Microsoft could find a lot of these free Office Live Web sites neglected a few months from now. As for the paid options, Microsoft didn't say how much it will eventually charge for Office Live Collaboration or Office Live Essentials, but said the goal is to be less than $50 per month, or under the price a small business owner might pay for cell phone service or broadband access.

None of the Web sites built using Office Live will carry advertising, though they will have a small logo noting that they are powered by Office Live. Customers of the free Office Live Basics will see advertising themselves when they log into the service to check their e-mail or edit their Web site.

2011 International CES Wows World With Innovation And Optimism

More than 2,700 technology companies across global industries dazzled attendees at the 2011 International CES®, with the ground-breaking event energizing the technology world. The 2011 CES set several new records, including 30,000 international attendees and 22 top CEOs participating in keynotes. Owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the 2011 CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, concluded today in Las

Vegas.

“The 2011 International CES was a phenomenal worldwide event that spanned global industries including technology, automotive and entertainment markets,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “This global technology gathering featured more innovation, more news, more social media buzz and more international attendance than any other show in CES history.”

Preliminary attendance figures indicate more than 140,000 industry professionals attended the 2011 International CES. More than 30,000 attendees came from outside the United States, with the show attracting more than 80 international delegations. CEA conducts an independent audit of attendance at the International CES and final verified figures will be available in the spring.

Major technology trends emerged from the CES show floor including the launch of more than 80 tablets, wireless 4G LTE, connected TV technologies, smart appliances – featured for the first time in show history – and electric vehicles. Ford’s Alan Mulally unveiled the company’s first electric car at the 2011 International CES with

its Ford Focus Electric.

The 2011 CES brought top CEOs to the CES stage including Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg, Audi’s Rupert Stadler, Samsung’s Boo-Keun Yoon, Ford’s Alan Mulally, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Cisco’s John Chambers, Xerox’s Ursula Burns and GE’s Jeffrey Immelt. These executives were joined onstage by leaders spanning various industries including Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Time Warner Cable’s Glenn

Britt, Dreamworks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Hulu’s Jason Kilar. The 2011 International CES conference program consisted of 250 sessions featuring 900 speakers.

As the relationship between technology and the content community grows in significance, the 2011 CES featured a new program, Entertainment Matters, designed for the Hollywood community. As part of the program, the 2011 CES featured the first-ever Entertainment Matters keynote panel with leaders from Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Akamai Technologies, Interpublic Group and WPP. 

The 2011 International CES featured government leaders from the U.S. and around the world including United States Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk, United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, along with Commissioners Meredith Attwell Baker, Mignon Clyburn and Robert M. McDowell.

The 2011 CES created phenomenal buzz in the social media world with more than 158,000 CES-related tweets since Monday, January 3, and more than 11,000 page views on CEA’s Digital Dialogue blog.

HTC announce new line of 4G smartphones...to Begin AT&T's BREW MP Onslaught

HTC has just announced a new line of 4G smartphones – the ThunderBolt will come out on Verizon, the Evo Shift on Sprint and the Inspire on AT&T. With these new arrivals, HTC’s portfolio of 4G devices has grown to six total, including the original Evo, the G2 and the MyTouch.

The Evo Shift, HTC’s newest Sprint device, features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 5MP rear-facing camera and a low $149 price point that’s sure to attract would-be first-time smartphone buyers. The device has a relatively small, 3.6-inch display and no front-facing camera. The HTC/Verizon ThunderBolt comes with deeply integrated Skype technology and is part of Verizon’s all-new 4G LTE connectivity plans. This device also features an 8MP camera and a 4.3-inch display.

The Inspire, which HTC is partnering with AT&T to bring to market, features a arge 4.3-inch screen, as well as some new advances in HTC’s Sense technology, including an online component that will allow users to locate lost phones or wipe a phone’s data from a website. All three devices will ship with Android 2.2, a.k.a. Froyo; however, release dates for all phones aren’t yet available. Take a look at the gallery below, and in the comments, let us know which model appeals to you most and why.

AT&T this morning announced the HTC Freestyle, a new texting phone that is the first to use a common software platform designed to open up the world of feature phones to apps. The Freestyle runs BREW MP, a Qualcomm-made OS which lets developers write apps for many devices much more easily than the current range of feature-phone OSes, AT&T Mobility chief marketing officer David Christopher said.

"The significant limits of fragmented and proprietary operating systems have left millions of customers with few options for apps," Christopher said.

The Freestyle is an aluminum phone with a 3.2-inch touch screen and HTC's Sense software; it looks kind of like AT&T's HTC Aria Android phone, just without the Android. AT&T will introduce five more BREW MP-powered texting phones, which the carrier calls "quick messaging devices," this year, Christopher said.

"From this point forward, all of our quick messaging phones will be on the BREW MP platform," Christopher said.

He added that Latin American wireless carrier America Movil and Canadian carrier Rogers have agreed to use BREW MP as well, giving app developers a larger market for their software.

The thing is, we've heard this all before. AT&T first announced its BREW MP push at the last CES, in 2010. According to the schedule given last year, AT&T should have had two or three BREW MP phones by now. The carrier has none. The Freestyle will come to AT&T in February, Christopher said.

Sony Rolls Out Budget Ultraportables

Sony isn't done showing off new ultraportable laptops yet, after giving the press a glimpse of the SA series. AT CES 2011, it launched two more that will target budget-conscious shoppers. The first is the YB series, a netbook alternative that will use AMD's latest Fusion APU, which joins the CPU and discrete graphics on a single die. Further up the chain is the Sony VAIO S130, an ultraportable that, similar to the SA series, has a backlit, island-style keyboard and a 13.3-inch widescreen.

Until now, the W-Series and P-series were Sony's answer to the then surging netbook market. Both of these laptops, however, were considered underpowered and too small to get any real work done. The YB series is bigger than your average netbook, bundling an 11.6-inch widescreen and near-full size keyboard. It'll come in silver or pink, fortified by magnesium alloy—a metal found often in ruggedized business laptops. It'll come with three USB, HDMI, and a 320GB hard drive.

Speeds will be faster than what you'll get with the P and W-series, as the YB will be using AMD's first Fusion APU. The 1.6GHz E-350 APU can take on larger workloads, which includes 3D games, than the current Intel Atom processor, without taking a serious hit in battery life. Sony is projecting battery life to be in the 6- to 7-hour range.

For those who don't have the budget for the SA series, there's the S130. Though there's not a single trace of carbon fiber on this unit, the S130 is made from the same magnesium alloy metal found in the YB series. The 13.3-inch widescreen is two sizes bigger that of the YB and matches that of the SA series, though its resolution tops out at 1,366-by-768 (the SA can scale to 1,600-by-900). You'll love the full size keyboard and its backlit function and pick from a handful of design options, including Wavy Black or White.

For SMB customers, there's Windows 7 Professional and a dock option for the S130. And since saving money is essential, Sony will be using Intel Core i3 and i5 processors from the previous year, rather than the new ones that just launched (codenamed Sandy Bridge).

The YB series will start at $549, while the S130 will go for $899. Both will ship in February 2011.

CEA Awards $75,000 Grant To Las Vegas Solar Non-Profit

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, owner and producer of the International CES, today donated $75,000 to Green Chips, a

non-profit organization promoting carbon neutrality, to support sustainable energy in southern Nevada.

“This donation illustrates CEA’s commitment to sustainability in the Las Vegas area as we launch another successful International CES,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. “Green Chips is creating clean energy and showing the power of green innovation and ingenuity in southern Nevada, which mirrors CES’ dedication to being a green tradeshow and to implementing sustainable practices.”

Shapiro presented a check today to Oscar Goodman, chairman of Green Chips and Mayor of Las Vegas, in a ceremony at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the official site of this year’s CES from January 6-9.

The donation was made to Green Chips’ Non-Profit Energy Audit and Retrofit program, which typically covers the cost of a building’s energy efficiency audit and construction retrofit needs. The Shade Tree, a Las Vegas women’s shelter, has utilized this energy efficiency audit and solar retrofit program, along with installing solar panels, to cut energy costs by a projected 10 percent.

“This contribution will enable Green Chips to conduct more audits and prepare more buildings for clean solar energy,” Goodman said. “We applaud CEA’s contribution and welcome another year of the CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow.”

In 2009, CEA was honored by Trade Show Executive Magazine with the “Leader in Green Initiatives” Gold Grand Award for the greening of the CES. At the 2010 International CES, CEA worked with the Las Vegas Convention Center to recycle 68 percent (372.2 tons) of the total solid waste generated by show attendees through diversion of cardboard, paper, metal, wood, carpet padding and plastic from landfills.

Last year at CES, CEA donated $50,000 to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department to purchase seven Vetrix electric motorcycles, which are on the streets of the tourist corridor every day helping to keeping Las Vegas both safe and green.

SAP acquires disclosure management solutions

SAP has announced that it intends to acquire disclosure management solutions from cundus AG – cundus Financial Statement Factory and cundus information Collector – as well as intellectual property, customer contracts and certain employees. According to SAP, the acquisition will help it extend its market-leading portfolio of finance solutions with a collaborative offering that helps enterprises achieve more cost-effective financial close processes.

SAP will take the new solution to market as part of its EPM solutions from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio, while cundus will continue to operate as an independent company delivering strategic business intelligence consulting services in Germany and other European markets, including consulting services for the acquired disclosure management solutions.

Separately priced, the new solution will support customers as part of a complete end-to-end financial close solution for the SAP ERP Financials and SAP BusinessObjects EPM solutions, while also supporting open and heterogeneous non-SAP environments.

The new solution will also incorporate advanced XBRL functionality to support the electronic communication of financial and business data, as mandated by numerous regulators, tax authorities and banks around the world, and will enable users to streamline and automate processes to reduce both compliance risks and costs.

Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager, Business Analytics, Line-of-Business and Industry Solutions, SAP, said disclosure management is a natural fit with the SAP solution portfolio.

“It complements our existing performance management and financial close solutions, and addresses a need that we recognise many customers now have.  

“By acquiring this new and highly differentiated solution that has already had success with SAP customers — and by taking it to market alongside our EPM solutions and SAP Business Suite software that already lead the industry — we will further assert our proven leadership in providing robust solutions that help customers address all the demanding needs of the CFO.”

Barbara Lix, member of the Executive Board, cundus AG, said cundus is extremely excited about the deal. 

“SAP leads the market in delivering financial solutions to global enterprises, and cundus looks forward to supporting SAP as it takes the new solutions to market by continuing to provide implementation and consulting services to our joint customers,” said Lix.