Microsoft Joins Online Productivity Battle With Office Live Workspaces

InformationWeek Daily - Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007

The Business Case For An Internet Refrigerator Internet refrigerators were a joke a few years ago, but RFID startup Blue Vector Systems says that it's finding real customers for them. The concept is similar to the vision of household appliances that automatically reorder groceries, only aimed at enterprise supply chains instead of home kitchens. In addition to RFID, the refrigerator contains temperature and door sensors, plus a small box that Blue Vector calls an Edge Manager and which houses its core technology. Using input from the reader and the sensors, the box inventories the refrigerator's contents automatically. It ensures that everything is kept fresh by sounding alarms and generating alerts when the door is open or refrigerated items get too hot or too old. The box also can be hooked up to a display that tells people opening the door which items are closest to their expiration date. The system is based on active (battery-powered) tags that cost about $10 each, which means it's only really cost-effective for monitoring very high-value items. The only customers so far are in the medical industry, where it's used to keep track of clotting agents, blood, and other medical supplies priced at upwards of $200 per dose. It's sold as a service through ASD Healthcare, a division of drug distributor AmerisourceBergen, which has installed the system in more than 50 hospitals and clinics. Blue Vector has competitors, and the big question for all of them is whether item-level tagging will spread beyond very high-value products. RFID adoption has been slower than most in the industry predicted, with much of it driven by regulatory or supplier mandates. The refrigerators are an exception: They sold based on their potential to lower costs and improve reliability. But is there a place for similar technology elsewhere? Read the rest of my blog post and leave a comment. Andy Dornan [email protected] www.informationweek.com
"The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive." -- John Sladek
Microsoft Joins Online Productivity Battle With Office Live Workspaces The software lets people store, share, and collaborate on Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents online and share their desktop with one another. Related Stories: Microsoft's Internet Do Or Die Microsoft Beta Tests 'Tahiti,' Another Collaboration App Google, IBM Take Another Run At Microsoft's Office Suite SAP To Kick Off Developers' Conference With Sun, IBM Partnership The companies are working together to ease government compliance concerns related to data access, and SAP also will have some announcements around its NetWeaver platform. HP Buys SPI Dynamics, Settles Cenzic Patent Dispute A cross-licensing agreement is the outcome of lawsuits filed by security firms SPI Dynamics and Cenzic against one another. Sony Plans To Release OLED TV Display In December If Sony releases the XEL-1 on time, the company would become the first consumer electronics company to offer an organic light-emitting diode TV. Nokia Siemens Networks R&D Outsourced To IBM As part of the deal, about 235 employees will transfer to IBM to work on next generation voice and multimedia services, mobile Internet products and VoIP products. Roomba For The Roof iRobot introduces a gutter-cleaning robot at DigitalLife -- just in time for fall leaf-raking season. Hackers Push Trojan With Promises of 'Nude Angelina Jolie' Pics Malware writers in September were sending out waves of spam in an attempt to infect computers with the Pushdo Trojan horse by offering pictures of naked female celebrities. Nokia Acquires Navteq For $8.1 Billion The mobile handset maker expects its purchase of the electronic mapping company to accelerate its expansion into location-based Internet services. IBM Unveils Upgrade Of Parallel File System Enhancements in the latest version include an accelerated file identification process for managing tiered storage, and support for pools of storage that can be comprised of tape. Sony BMG Offers Free Digital Music Through Imeem Immem's agreement with Sony BMG is the second major-label deal for the ad-supported streaming music and video service. Samsung's Got The Beat, Its Latest Music Phone The Beat also has a 1.3-megapixel camera and a video recorder, and supports MP3 music files and songs in Microsoft's proprietary Windows Media Audio format. Skype Loses Its CEO, eBay Takes A $1.4 Billion Charge Niklas Zennstrom, who has also been working on his Joost Internet TV startup in recent months, will become nonexecutive chairman of Skype's board of directors. Theft Of Gap Laptop Puts 800,000 Job Applicants At Risk The retailer said a contractor had not properly encrypted sensitive information on a laptop that was stolen from one of the vendor's offices. All Our Latest News See InformationWeek's daily breaking news on your mobile device, visit wap.informationweek.com and sign up for daily SMS notifications.	Microsoft Joins Online Productivity Battle With Office Live Workspaces SAP To Kick Off Developers' Conference With Sun, IBM Partnership HP Buys SPI Dynamics, Settles Cenzic Patent Dispute Sony Plans To Release OLED TV Display In December Nokia Siemens Networks R&D Outsourced To IBM Roomba For The Roof Virtualization At The Desktop? Examine how more than 250 companies plan to adopt server virtualization technology in this recent InformationWeek Research report, Server Virtualization. The BI Explosion Examine the business intelligence strategies of 500 companies, including deployment drivers and challenges, spending plans, and vendor selection, in this recent InformationWeek Research report. How Is MSN Losing $1 Billion A Year? According to Henry Blodget (I know, I know, Henry Blodget on a Web company losing money -- insert irony here), Microsoft's MSN is losing $1 billion a year. That's right, $1 billion. Five Reasons Nokia Should Buy Skype From eBay According to Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider (Henry Blodget and Silicon Alley, two great Web 1.0 tastes that go great together?), eBay's acquisition of Skype can now be officially tagged a bomb. How long will it be until Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft buys Skype? Microsoft Joins The Documents-For-Free Movement It seems that online word processing has suddenly become sexy. Within hours of each other, both Microsoft and Adobe have joined Google, Zoho, and other companies in promoting new online document creating/sharing services. What gives? Microsoft's Online Push An Act Of Necessity, Not Desperation Microsoft's launch Sunday of new online software is being widely seen as a desperate, defensive measure against Google, IBM, OpenOffice and other Web 2.0 challengers to its Office franchise. But the numbers show Office is stronger than ever -- what's really going on? Motorola Makes Good On Messenger 5, Delivers Mobile E-Mail First announced earlier this year, Motorola has finally made its Good Mobile Messenger 5 e-mail program available to enterprises looking for an alternative to BlackBerrys. How does it compete? Does AT&T Hate The First Amendment? According to Gizmodo, AT&T has modified its Terms of Service in such a way that could allow the carrier to drop customers who say things that the company doesn't like. Holy 1984, Batman. Nokia's Acquisition Of Navteq Makes It A Major Player In Both Navigaton And The Web So far 2007 has been about the smartphone, and in particular, one smartphone: the iPhone. But if Nokia's deal for Navteq is any indicator, 2008 could be the year of location. Nokia Buys Mapping Company, Pokes Fun At Apple Nokia made its biggest acquisition ever today by picking up Navteq for a cool $8.1 billion. It also unleashed a new ad campaign in NYC touting the benefits of unlocked operating systems. The iPhone 1.1.1 update backlash continues... The Top Five Reasons The Mobile Web Rocks Scott Karp over at Publishing 2.0 last week claimed that, bluntly, the mobile Web sucks. Karp is a blogger for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect, but, on this topic, he's totally wrong. The Business Case For An Internet Refrigerator Internet refrigerators were a joke a few years ago, but RFID startup Blue Vector Systems says that it's finding real customers for them. The concept is similar to the vision of household appliances that automatically reorder groceries, only aimed at enterprise supply chains instead of home kitchens. Sales Performance Alerts: Automated Sales Analysis Technology -- Verix Software In order to stay competitive, organizations need to aggressively reveal business changes as soon as they start emerging. By having capability to detect strategic changes very early, organizations can minimize the damage inflicted by "bad" surprises. This paper explores detection automation in more detail. Featured Jobs: PNC Bank seeking System Engineer III in Pittsburgh, PA IGT seeking Database Programmer in Las Vegas, NV The Mercer Group seeking CIO in Hanover Park, IL International Fund Services seeking Security Master Database Analyst in New York, NY TheMuniCenter seeking Java / B2B Developer in New York, NY For more great jobs, career-related news, features and services, please visit our "Career Center. Try InformationWeek's RSS Feed Discover all InformationWeek's sites and newsletters Recommend This Newsletter To A Friend Do you have friends or colleagues who might enjoy this newsletter? Please forward it to them and point out the subscription page. More than 20,000 IT terms, more than 20,000 definitions: All at your fingertips, all in TechEncyclopedia Saw a TechWeb feature you want to see again? You are subscribed as #emailaddr#. 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