AMD Poised To Launch 6-Core Istanbul
AMD will take Opteron to the next level on June 1, when it formally unveils its 6-core Istanbul processor. The exciting angle for users of high-powered servers (and also viewed from a data-center consolidation perspective) is that Istanbul in 4-socket servers will deliver 24 physical cores. (And you can add virtualization on top of that.) When you add the AMD launch to Intel news last week about its 8-core Nehalem-EX, I'd say we have a have a processing-power revolution on our hands comparable t
Business Owners Need A Holiday
With every dime precious, taking time off from work, much less an actual vacation, might seem to be an unthinkable luxury, but it turns out that small business owners are planning vacations this summer at about the same rate as last year.
Kraft's BPO Guru Says Global Mega Deals Do Not Work
A deep debate over outsourcing dogma could be in the works following a statement by Kraft's SVP of shared services that "there is very little truly global scale advantage" in BPO deals and that the best approach is regional best-of-breeds involving regional pairs, such as North America and Asia-Pacific. The interview with AMR's Phil Fersht is a must-read for anyone involved in outsourcing strategy.
Sprint: The Palm Pre Is All Ours...For 2009
Sprint threw a cold bucket of reality on the pipe dreams of AT&T's Randall Stephenson and Verizon Wireless's Lowell McAdam. It verified that it will be the sole distributor of the Palm Pre "through 2009."
Users Want Virtual Desktops That Match Their Physical PCs
Over the last two years, Intel commissioned a study on how companies were delivering virtualization to end users. It's one of the few indicators of where this confused segment is headed. Several approaches are still on the table, but the fastest growing one is where the virtual machine resides on the end user's PC.
Palm's Pre Emerging As iPhone Threat
Palm's last, best gasp may be in fact a lifesaver. The Pre drew early rave reviews, and the news keeps getting better as the device nears launch date.
Has Omniture's Analytics Push Stalled?
Omniture has created a great vision of how analytics should be the common thread among all Web marketing. But if you're an Omniture customer, are you ready?... I think Web analytics software has evolved more quickly than the ability of most people to use it effectively -- or justify paying for it.
Oh No, Not Another Microsoft Branding Campaign!
There's been a lot of coverage exploring questions about the functionality of Bing, Microsoft's new search engine. Before the company blows $100 million trying to give consumers the answer, I thought I'd give it two branding ideas.
RIM CEO: SurePress Ain't Going Nowhere
Most of the information we've seen about the BlackBerry Storm 2 clearly shows that the clicking SurePress screen of the original Storm is gone. Why, then, did Research In Motion's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis make a point of saying, "SurePress is here to stay"?
Microsoft Changes Tune On Intellectual Property
If the book Burning the Ships by Marshall Phelps and David Kline is any indication, the Microsoft we see today is in the midst of a radical change to the way they do business. Most of the book describes the changes to Microsoft's intellectual property policies that Phelps has championed and implemented during his time at the company; he's
USAir Suffers Collosal Failure During Multiple CRM "Moments of Truth"
Jan Carlzon, former CEO of Scandanavian Airlines (SAS) and author of the bible on customer satisfaction (Moments of Truth) would be rolling his eyes right about now if he could have heard the telephone conversation I just had with a US Air. I've just learned that despite holding a US Air-issued Dividend Miles card (pictured below) in my hand (the one to which I've been applying my last 15+ years of US Air travel), I am a
Cool-er Kindle Competitor Stokes Ebook Mania
I'm not a big fan of David Pogue (this video is one reason, though mainly it's because he has a larger audience than I), but I took notice when he reviewed the latest Kindle alternative. What does it all mean? Ebooks are real, and they'll eventually replace print, but for now I'm ticked there are no good portable PDF readers for smartphones.
Apple, Dell, And P&G Head AMR's Supply Chain Top 25 List
AMR Research released its list of the top 25 supply chains in the manufacturing and retail sectors and said a distinguishing characteristic of all 25 is that they place an intensely customer-centric focus on everything from operations to innovation.
Verizon To AT&T: We Will Crush Your LTE Network
Not only did Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam talk about some upcoming devices for the network, he also took the opportunity to talk some serious smack about the quality of AT&T's network. Ouch!
AT&T CEO: Data Volumes Are Challenging
Walt Mossberg sat down with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to discuss primarily AT&T's wireless business. One of the most talked about subjects was the volume of data that was going over the 3G network, largely due to the popularity of the iPhone. Stephenson knows it is an issue and has plans to address it. Are the other carriers responding as well?
Risk Technology Comes Up Short on Wall Street
I was interested to hear Bank of America/Merrill Lynch executive Jay Morreale talk about next-generation BI last week... But when he started talking about his 20 years of experience building risk-analysis applications in the financial services industry, I was thinking, okay, so was he part of what went wrong on Wall Street?
Linux Kernel, Meet Windows Kernel. Behave.
Here's one for the "only in the Linux world" folder: an attempt to place the Windows NT kernel mechanisms directly in the Linux kernel. Am I the only one who thinks, outside of extremely specialized use cases, this isn't such a hot idea?
AOL-Time Warner: Worst Merger Ever?
Time Warner's decision to spin AOL back out as an independent company is the closest thing we'll get to an admission that the marriage between old-world Time Warner and new world order AOL never worked out.
Palm Pre Gets The Hands-On Treatment
Somehow The Boy Genius got his hands on a Palm Pre before any official review units were distributed and posted his first impressions. His first take? It's "plasticky" and the QWERTY keyboard is "really frustrating."
Google And Mozilla Make Nice
It was a small gesture but it spoke volumes: At the Google IO developer conference, while expounding on the virtues and possibilities of HTML 5, Google engineering VP and head of developer evangelism Vic Gundotra thanked the Mozilla community for advancing the state of browser technology.
From Layoffs To Ripoffs: Wicked New Threats From Ex-Employees
Most companies are "ill-prepared for an onslaught which could prove calamitous" and face "the greatest security threat of our times" from laid-off workers who are "extremely dangerous," say members of a global security-response team. In these dark days, stealing data's old hat; the new threats include tampering with billing systems, changing customer orders, and altering design documents.
Smithsonian Online
With transparency the new government buzzword, the Smithsonian Institution is working hard to figure out how it should make itself and its collection more accessible online, and wants the public to give it an additional push.
Microsoft Zunes Further Into Oblivion
It's hard to see where Microsoft thinks it's going with Zune, part of the Entertainment and Devices Division that continues to tread water as the also-ran of the company's five main divisions.
AT&T Chief Foresees The Palm Pre In Its Future
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson may have let the cat out of the bag a little bit early on this one. In speaking at the All Things Digital conference, he noted that the company will sell the Palm Pre once Sprint's exclusivity runs out.
Who Ever Said Assistants Were Intelligent?
A company called Siri decloaked within sensor range earlier today, promising test drives of its intelligent virtual assistant as an iPhone app this summer, and predicting that most every Internet user will have something like it within five years or so.
Salesforce Says New-Business Signings Dropped In Q1
Salesforce.com's first-quarter new-business signings came in slightly below last year's as customers took longer to sign, opted for smaller deals, and pulled back on add-ons and upgrades. And while Salesforce is still growing nicely, CEO Marc Benioff was more restrained in the comments he made to analysts than he had been after the previous two quarters.
Ramming The iPhone Into The Enterprise
Whatever side of the fence you're on about supporting the iPhone in the Enterprise, you're probably going to have to do it eventually. The question is, can you appease your users and keep your data safe simultaneously? There might be a middle ground to be found.
Android Apps on ... Ubuntu?
Here's a curious open source crossover for you: a Canonical programmer who's authored an emulation system to allow Android mobile apps to run on Ubuntu. I guess it really all is about the programs (stupid).
AT&T Says 7.2Mbps HSPA Network On Track For 2009 Roll-Out
Today AT&T announced that it will begin upgrading its HSDPA/HSUPA-based 3G network to HSPA. If those acronyms don't mean anything to you, don't worry. The bottom line is this: theoretical maximum mobile download speeds will increase from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps.
Intel Nehalem-EX Launch Raises Multicore Ante
Forget four cores -- even though it's the sweet spot of the market. I write that only half in jest, because with announcements from Intel (an 8-core Nehalem) and AMD (6-core Istanbul), the lid has been ripped off the supposed upper limit on cores and threads. Consider that a Nehalem-EX with 8 physical cores and 2 threads per core for 16 total logical threads. In a four-socket server configuration, this can deliver 64 logical cores. [Update: This number has been corrected to 64 logical cor
Palm Pre Business Launch Guide Leaked
The materials Palm is using to educate the Sprint sales force on on selling the Palm Pre was leaked and Engadget has published the full document. There are a number of interesting items in the document.
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