'Notion of mistrust' blocking route to home working?
February 9, 2010

As society becomes ever more connected, bosses at businesses across the UK need to change their attitude towards remote working to be able to realise its full potential, according to a panel of experts from the world of technology, transport and the media.

The event, held at the London Transport Museum, discussed Orange's Connected Britain report, which predicts which cities and areas are likely to see their populations grow - or decrease - depending on the quality of broadband available. The panel discussed what impact a more connected Britain may have on everyday working life, with more people moving out of the cities to live in a more rural location. 

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Posted by Steve Evans at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

Morning roundup: pick of the comment
February 8, 2010

Our pick of the morning reading

1. Six year old Facebook heads into uncharted territory (The Guardian)
By the time Google reached its sixth birthday, it was a public company. Amazon, meanwhile, was turning its first profit. So where does Facebook go from here? Bobbie Johnson finds out.

2. Is your CIO making themselves helpless in terms of their people (Gartner)
People are the single biggest factor in determining the effectiveness of IT, but as Mark McDonald says, its more what CIOs and IT executives are doing or more importantly not doing that is shaping their future.

3. Google Nexus One 3G Issues Still Lurking (GigaOm)
Kevin C. Tofel outlines the issues he is having with Google's Nexus One smartphone.

4. SAP's CEO Resigns: Delays in Launching Online Business Software Cited as One Reason for Downfall (ReadWriteWeb)
Alex Williams looks at Leo Apotheker's surprise resignation as boss of SAP - one of the largest software firms in the world.

5. Social Today Feels Like Search A Decade Ago: Lots Of Noise And Lots Of Spam (TechCrunch)
Michael Arrington looks out our decentralised online existence.

Posted by Steve Evans at 3:26 PM | Comments (0)

Morning roundup: our pick of the comment
February 5, 2010

1. Touchscreen Alone on Kindle Isn't Enough to Compete With Future Devices (GigaOm)
Following Amazon's purchase of touchscreen tech firm Touchco, it looks like the retailer could be going head to head with Apple. Kevin C. Tofel looks at that potential battle.

2. Cyber-security and international security (The Financial Times)
Gideon Rachman looks at the rise up the agenda of cyber-security and its place in international security.

3. Microsoft's Creative Destruction (New York Times)
Dick Brass questions why Microsoft 'no longer brings us the future' as it struggles to compete with services offered by the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google and Twitter.

4. SpinVox revelations 'not a surprise' to those in industry (CBR)
Not everyone was surprised by the revelation that SpinVox uses human intervention on its voice-to-text translation technology. Steve Evans speaks to Vlingo's EMEA MD Ashley Griffiths about the news.

5. Flash, mobiles, Firefox and more: following on from the other day... (The Guardian)
Adobe's Flash has been in the news a lot recently, prompted by its non-appearance in Apple's iPad. Charles Arthur examines the details.

Posted by Steve Evans at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)

SpinVox revelations 'not a surprise' to those in industry
February 3, 2010

When it was revealed in July 2009 that voice-to-text firm SpinVox was using humans in call centres all over the world to translate voicemails into text messages - rather than machines, as the company had claimed - it signalled the start of the end for the firm, which was sold to Nuance a few months later.

While the revelations were damaging for SpinVox, Ashley Griffiths, EMEA MD at voice-to-text vendor Vlingo, has told CBR that SpinVox's claims had already raised plenty of questions to those in the same space.

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Posted by Steve Evans at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

In pictures: Sony's revamped business laptop range

Sony's recent refresh of its business laptop range has seen the company focus on portability, reliability, performance and environmentally-friendly features. The S Series, a replacement for the SR, is available now and the Z Series, which has replaced the Z5, will be available from March 2010.

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Posted by Steve Evans at 4:58 PM | Comments (0)

Morning roundup: our pick of the comment

Our pick of the best morning reading

1. Mac or PC: which is safer, or more secure? (The Guardian)
Jack Schofield looks at whether you're safer using Windows or Mac OS X, and which is more secure - two very different questions.

2. Finding app backers - just a Flook? (Financial Times)
In spite of all the excitement around the App Store "gold rush", investors have been wary of backing companies on the basis of a single mobile application, says Tim Bradshaw.

3. Mark Cuban Tells Media "Google Is a Vampire" (GigaOm)
Entrepreneur, basketball team owner and billionaire Mark Cuban has slammed Google and other aggregators. Mathew Ingram takes a look.

4. Did Google Just Multi-Punch Apple In The Face? (TechCrunch)
Google's latest Android update looks set to introduce multi-touch. MG Siegler asks what took Google so long.

5. Do You Want To Use Citrix Receiver To Run Windows 7 From The iPad? (Citrix)
Chris Fleck examines the possibilities of running Apple's iPad as a thin client.

Posted by Steve Evans at 3:10 PM | Comments (0)

In pictures: Sony's new Vaio W Series netbook
February 2, 2010

Sony has unveiled a new netbook (or mini-notebook, as they prefer to call it) that they claim is designed to be kinder to the environment.

The Vaio W Series Eco Edition achieves a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions during production, through the use of recycled plastics, the Intel Atom processor (which reduces power consumption) and the Vaio display with LED backlight, which contribute to an Energy Star 5.0 certification.

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Posted by Steve Evans at 9:11 PM | Comments (0)

Morning roundup: our pick of the comment

1. Google's two-front war; who are the winners and the losers? (Scobleizer)
Robert Scoble looks at the possibility of Google releasing a news feed that will compete with Facebook and Twitter, and what it will mean for the industry as a whole.

2. Why did Informatica purchase Siperian, rather than use Talend's OSS MDM? (Gartner)
Andrew White examines why Informatica spent $130m on master data management software firm Siperian rather than use an open source offering from Talend.

3. Is the iPhone now an enterprise-ready device? (CBR)
Steve Evans looks at iPhone's potential impact in the business space, following new releases from Agito Networks and Vodafone's push into the enterprise arena.

4. WikiLeaks: Top 5 leaks (Telegraph)
Whistleblowing site WikiLeaks has temporarily closed because of lack of funds - these five leaks are among its most widely-reported scoops so far.

5. Don't think Chrome OS will compete with iPad? (TechCrunch)
MG Siegler says Google's operating system will crash head-on with Apple's iPad device in the touchscreen space.

 

Posted by Steve Evans at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)

Is the iPhone now an enterprise-ready device?
February 1, 2010

The release of Agito Global Enterprise, which contains support for the iPhone, validates Apple's device as an enterprise-ready smartphone according to Agito's founder Pejman Roshan, while Vodafone's Peter Kelly has said it is an "outstanding" phone for business use. So is the iPhone ready to take on the BlackBerry as the enterprise phone of choice?

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Posted by Steve Evans at 9:47 PM | Comments (0)

Morning roundup: pick of the comment

Our pick of the best morning reading

1. iPad therefore iWant? Probably. Why? iDunno (The Guardian)
Charlie Brooker's unique take on Apple's latest device.

2. Google Joins Mozilla in "Bucks for Bugs" (Gartner)
Following Google's announce pay for vulnerabilities found by external parties in the Chromium open source code and the Google Chrome browser, Gartne analyst John Pescatore takes a quick look at the wider implications.

3. Amazon is Doing to Publishers What Apple did to Record Labels (GigaOm)
Matthew Ingram looks at the row between Amazon and book publisher Macmillan over the cost of eBooks and says that Amazon's tactics are no different to those of Apple when it launched iTunes.

4. Facebook COO: 175 Million People Log Into Facebook Every Day (TechCrunch)
Michael Arrington interviews the COO of Facebook about the social network's huge popularity - and what it is doing to attract those not yet on the site.

5. Steve Jobs attacks Google, Adobe (Wired)
The Apple boss has launched a scathing attack on Google and Adobe following the launch of the iPad.

Posted by Steve Evans at 7:18 PM | Comments (0)