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Microsoft's future is all .Net Microsoft's future is all .Net
Artisoft introduces TeleVantage 3.5 Artisoft released TeleVantage 3.5, the newest version of its software-based phone system. Features of the new release include: Windows 2000 and NT compatibility, BRI, Analog, T-1, E-1 and PRI support, Localization Toolkit supporting multiple languages, IP enhancements including support for a low-cost four-port VoIP card and new IP gateway administration, E-911 Technology, identifying the precise location and direct phone number of a caller for businesses that occupy multiple floors or buildings, and finally PCI support TeleVantage 3.5 is now available. It supports up to 264 extensions and up to 96 trunk lines. Suggested end-user prices are $200 for each trunk or $100 for each station or client. The end-user price for server software is $200. Voice-over-IP licenses are available at $250 per port.
New speech-recognition products from IBM IBM intends to expand speech-recognition technology beyond mobile devices through new products unveiled on June 22nd. VoiceXML, an industry-standard programming language that will let application developers build voice interfaces for call centers and mobile Internet applications, is driving IBM's initiative, the company says. Three of the VoiceXML-based products bear noting: - WebSphere Voice Server can be used for call centers and mobile Internet applications. A free software developers' kit for the server is immediately available. The server itself will ship in the United States on Windows NT in the fall, starting at $15,000. - ViaVoice Dictation for Linux lets users dictate and read documents using natural speech. - CallPath Enterprise Foundation version 6.3 is call-center software that integrates with Siebel Systems customer-relationship management applications to give operators access to customer databases on corporate systems in order to better handle incoming calls and Internet transactions.
Intel and AMD return to slower pace While PC chip makers Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. drove pedal-to-the-metal to reach the 1GHz mark for their desktop processors, the two are looking to return to a more normal (read: slower) pace for the introduction of new chips. The titans are preparing gigahertz-plus desktop chips, but consumers shouldn't expect to see them right away. Instead, most of the action will come with price reductions on 1GHz PCs, a benefit of ramping production. AMD will begin revving up its new 1GHz Athlon, code-name Thunderbird, with versions over the gigahertz mark later in the year. AMD is planning a 1.1GHz Athlon chip, based on Thunderbird, in the third quarter, sources said. Thunderbird's performance improvements consist mainly of a new 256KB cache integrated into the chip, as opposed to the external, much slower, 512KB cache present in previous Athlons. PCs using the T-bird chip will be labeled with a sticker that says, "Performance Enhancing Cache Memory" to distinguish the two Athlon flavors for consumers. Competitor Intel is also eyeing gigahertz-plus speeds for its Pentium III chip. However, it is unlikely the company will offer more than two more speed upgrades for the chip. Here's where it gets somewhat tricky. The two speed grades described by Otellini would likely be 1066MHz and 1133MHz, based on the Pentium III's system bus multiplier. As a result Intel will offer, later in the second half, only one more clock speed grade, labeled as "1.1GHz," sources said. It is likely that the 1.1GHz chip will be a clocked-down version of the 1133MHz chip, although the company is still in discussions with PC makers as to what to do about the situation.
Amazon crumbles on debt Source: ZDii Amazon.com was hit with a double whammy as the Lehman Brothers flag the company's debt load and prominent Wall Street analysts are predicting light sales in the second and third quarters. Simply put, Amazon is looking more and more like a plain-old retailer. Despite Amazon's recent pledge to produce profits, Wall Street analysts said the e-tailer is seeing the effects of its growth-at-all costs strategy. At midday, shares were down 20 percent to 33 7/16, a 52-week low. Losses picked up through morning trading. Debt is beginning to pile up at Amazon, and Lehman Brothers convertible bond analyst Ravi Suria said Friday morning in a research report that "the company is displaying the operational and cash flow characteristics of a normal retailer, despite its 'virtual' pedigree."
The Internet may prove catalytic for satellite industry Satellites could assist also television by providing consumers with direct access to the Internet and electronic entertainment. Due to growth in the industry, satellite transponder providers are leading the way toward promoting satellites as a solution to providing Internet capabilities to customers. Larger companies, including Microsoft and America Online are also directing resources toward satellite use. Wireless telephone companies are also looking to the faltering space industry. Eagle River Investments purchased the bankrupt ICO Global Communications for $1.4 billion and will use that service to complement the company's yet to be launched Teledesic Internet-in-the-Sky venture. Space industry technologies can now be utilized to reach customers and businesses and have become a major piece of satellite-delivered broadband movement.
Creating the future internet The government provides financial backing for many agencies and the academic and corporate worlds are partnering in a consortium called Internet2 to determine how to find and utilize commercially marketable products for the future online environment. New tools are being created that will assist e-meetings by providing real-time language translations. Wireless devices with high-speed connections to the Internet will enhance these services, such as the ability to transmit data within and through firewalls via mobile devices.
Web group debuts privacy platform prototype The World Wide Web Consortium debuted a long-awaited technology that is intended to give Internet users more control over their personal information. The consortium's interoperability session in New York gave companies and privacy advocates the opportunity to add input to the prototype design of the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P), which will be available in the coming year. P3P technology makes privacy statements understandable when users want to know how the sites they visit use their personal information. The protocol is designed to allow consumers to express their privacy preferences through their browser, which communicates those preferences to Web sites in a machine-readable format. P3P offers a technological alternative to having consumers read the privacy policy at each site. A user's browser would automatically "read" the site's privacy policy to see whether it meets the user's preferences. If a site shares data in ways that go beyond the user's preferences, the user can terminate the connection. But some privacy groups said in a report coinciding with the demonstration that the technology was hyped and unlikely to improve privacy. The groups, including Junkbusters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said P3P does not meet baseline standards for privacy protection.
NECA study gives most accurate DSL estimate It will take about $11 billion to connect remote, rural areas with the most common advanced digital telephone connection, according to a study released by the National Exchange Carriers' Association (NECA), a not-for-profit association that represents small telephone companies throughout the United States. The amount is the most informed guess ever made on the costs of connecting rural areas with digital subscriber line (DSL) services, according to Bob Anderson, NECA president. The total cost--$10.9 billion--is an important piece of the puzzle of making advanced digital connections available to everyone in the United States, as specified by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Anderson said at a press briefing. The study, compiled from surveys of hundreds of rural telephone companies over the last six months, not only put a more precise price tag on the costs of connecting rural areas, but said telephone companies serving those areas aren't lagging behind in installing advanced digital connections, as many had believed. It showed that by 2002, 65 percent of rural lines will be capable of providing broadband services. The cost for rural telephone companies to install DSL facilities is extraordinarily high in areas that lie some distance from population centers. Costs to provide the services run from $493 on average to make a line between a central office (CO) and a customer DSL-capable in a small town, to $4,100 for a line to the outskirts of town, to an average of $9,000 per line for remote locations that aren't near population centers, according to Victor Glass, director of demand forecasting and rate development at NECA and author of the study.
Intel introduces Web appliance Designed by Intel, the 'Dot.Station" device would be built by overseas consumer electronics manufacturers. It will run on the upstart Linux operating system that has emerged as a rival to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software. "This is the first in a family of products,” Greg Welch, director of marketing for Intel’s home products group, said in an interview. He said Intel expects to be shipping hundreds of thousands of the devices by year-end. Besides Internet access and e-mail, the Intel Dot.Station would provide features such as a built-in calendar, address books and note-posting capabilities, Intel said. The Dot.Station, which consists of a single free-standing unit with a monitor and a separate keyboard, has a high-resolution screen that can show the full width of a Web page and includes a built-in phone. The appliance comes with software that
allows service providers to remotely manage and upgrade the devices.
BT claims it owns patents for Internet hyperlinks The technology was used in the British Post Office’s Viewdata product, an information system predating the wide use of PCs that allowed movement from page to page. BT was separated from the Post Office in 1980. The inventor of what BT is calling the "hidden page patent," Desmond Sargent, worked in the Post Office’s research and development unit. He is now retired. A firm hired by BT to handle the patent enforcement says the property could be worth several hundred million pound sterling to BT, but analysts expect ISPs to fight BT in court. The patent abstract can be seen on the Web at http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?&pn=US04873662
IBM makes 1 Gigabyte microdrive
IPirion offers VoIP over satellite IPirion AG a subsidiary of the Red Cube Group has launched a commercial offering VoIP via satellite technology. With this additional means of IP transmission, IPirion is now able to serve destinations that were otherwise difficult and expensive to reach by traditional networks. IPirion has also entered the South and Central American plus East and South Asian markets. Two new Caribbean gateways in Guadeloupe and Martinique give IPirion entry into the Central and South American market, while another gateway in Colombo, Sri Lanka provides entry into the South and East Asian markets. IPirion's satellite connection will also be fed by a new PoP in La Ciotat, France. From this PoP traffic will be sent via Gensats Atlantic and Indic Satellites, thus expanding the Ipirion's calling footprint.
Court rules for AT&T on open access In 1998, the city of Portland, Ore., demanded that AT&T allow a variety of Internet providers to sell services over AT&T's cable-based high-speed Internet system in the city. A federal District Court upheld Portland's right to do this, but on June 23rd, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The court held that AT&T's Internet service is a telecommunications service similar to a telephone company. Such services are covered by the Telecommunications Act passed by Congress in 1996. Cities cannot issue regulations that preempt federal authority in this area, the court said. AT&T hailed the ruling, saying it would liberate the company from having to apply different business policies in hundreds of cities across the country. ''This decision, whatever else it says, makes it explicit that local authorities cannot impose these kinds of access requirements,'' said Mark Rosenblum, AT&T's vice president of law.
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