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Options IT: Changing the financial services industry with smarter computing

2011-06-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

Options IT is a leading provider of private financial cloud services to more than 120 investment banks, broker dealers, proprietary trading firms, and traditional and alternative investment management firms across Europe, North America and Asia.

Business need:
Provide clients with a hosted market data and trade execution service that offers ultra-low latency connectivity and high throughput systems performance to enable them to act quickly on small changes in price and maximize profit.

Solution:
Options IT deployed new blade servers in its global data center locations to support flexible, scalable private cloud capabilities within its proprietary Options PIPE platform.

Benefits:
Enabled Options IT to provide a custom-built, private cloud computing model for its clients, establishing the PIPE platform as a competitive staple for financial institutions. The PIPE Private Financial Cloud makes it possible for Options IT’s clients to respond rapidly to emerging opportunities in the fast-moving global capital markets system.

Case Study

Options IT is a leading provider of private financial cloud services to more than 120 investment banks, broker dealers, proprietary trading firms, and traditional and alternative investment management firms across Europe, North America and Asia.

Empowering its clients to overcome shrinking margins
During the last several years, increased automated trading volumes and thinner spreads on international stock exchanges had been driving transaction volumes up and per-trade profit margins down for trading firms. Options IT wanted to offer its clients an optimized low-latency market data and connectivity service so they could quickly capitalize on small movements in price and improve trading profit margins.

Transforming IT architecture to offer a flexible, scalable solution
Using IBM systems technology, Options IT deployed new blade servers in its global data center locations to support private cloud capabilities. Branded as the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services platform, these private cloud computing capabilities can facilitate rapid strategy deployments to ensure rapid response to emerging opportunities in the fast-moving global capital market system. The PIPE platform architecture reduces management costs, lowers energy impact and increases scalability for the technology provider. PIPE clients are able to make IT costs an operational expense rather than a capital expenditure, which removes the risk associated with IT ownership, management and maintenance. Clients are able to focus on their service delivery and business objectives.

Integrating the system architecture to accommodate rapid changes in demand
To help deliver the performance, agility and cost-efficiency that clients demand, the PIPE Private Financial Cloud is based on a versatile, redundant hardware infrastructure. The environment includes embedded Ethernet and fabric switches, power supplies and cabling, and a single management console for all systems. This integrated system architecture and consolidated management interface significantly simplifies system administration.

When a client requires more capacity, Options IT can easily plug an additional compatible blade server into an existing chassis in any one of its 18 global data centers, immediately integrating the server with the existing platform. The rapid expansion of the PIPE platform enables the provider to deliver high levels of performance at very short notice.

Paul Bryant, CTO of Options IT says, “The cross-compatibility is excellent; we can run a mixture of different blades within a single chassis without any issues, and we can move workload from one blade to another... As a result, it’s possible for us to meet very precise client requirements as and when they arise, without having to embark on periodic hardware replacement projects.”

High-security, high-performance computing power
In order to deliver the required performance and responsiveness, the Options PIPE platform is built on a highly versatile hardware infrastructure leveraging IBM BladeCenter servers. These systems are accessed via high-quality, low-latency private circuits, providing both excellent performance and a high level of security.

Automating the delivery of new services
Beyond simply adding physical capacity to the PIPE platform, Options IT can also rapidly meet its clients’ changing performance needs by being able to add or remove system capacity and service diversity on-demand.

When a client requires connectivity to a new market or a new trading application through its PIPE Velocity service, Options IT is able to quickly provision the services on the PIPE platform. Velocity provides an ultra-low latency market-data, connectivity and application-hosting service for all major markets across North America, Europe and Asia.

Changing the game by providing high performance trading technology services in the private cloud
The PIPE Velocity service provides clients with a fully optimized ultra-low latency market data and application hosting service for firms executing high frequency trading strategies. Velocity, like all Options PIPE services, is delivered as a private cloud solution. So when a client sees an opportunity, Options IT can help them exploit it quickly.

“The PIPE platform helped us meet demanding deadlines for go-live of our new strategy area,” says the CTO of a U.S. hedge fund manager. “Instead of trying to build the IT infrastructure ourselves we are using a proven platform that already had the characteristics we needed - many of which would otherwise have been outside the project budget.”

Becoming an operational staple for clients seeking a competitive advantage
Options IT helps its clients take advantage of global trading opportunities that previously may have been out of reach due to lack of technology agility or resources. By leveraging a specialized, private cloud computing platform for their most demanding technology requirements, financial institutions can gain a competitive advantage through improved responsiveness and lower IT costs.

“Our partnership with IBM makes a significant contribution to our ability to deliver the levels of service that our clients need,” comments Bryant. “The flexibility and manageability provided by the IBM BladeCenter platform is very important, helping us to provide new systems rapidly and manage them efficiently.”

Designed for Data
A single management console within the systems greatly simplifies systems management, while the cross-compatibility of the solution makes it possible for Options IT to run several different blades within a single chassis or move workload between blades to meet specific clients’ needs with no issues.

Tuned to the Task
Additional capacity can be added in minutes with automated provisioning of network and processor resources.

Managed in the Cloud
The Options PIPE platform is built on a highly secure, versatile hardware infrastructure leveraging IBM BladeCenter servers. Capacity can be adjusted on demand, enabling Options IT to rapidly meet client’s fluctuating needs.

Driving Innovation
Service-level and performance-based offerings enable end-clients to focus on their service delivery and business objectives and not IT management and maintenance.

Freie Universität Berlin

2011-06-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

Working in close collaboration with other institutions, researchers at this university used a massively improved computing environment to create a solution that enables rapid identification of certain cancers so patients can be alerted and treated earlier

Freie Universität Berlin is a leading research institution. It is one of nine German universities successful in all three funding lines in the federal and state Excellence Initiative, thereby receiving additional funding for its institutional future development strategy. The university’s performance in the Excellence Initiative has provided funding for several new graduate schools and transdisciplinary research clusters. Freie Universität Berlin is a member of the IBM Academic Initiative.

Business need:
Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin and MATHEON, both world-class German research institutions, sought better methods for analyzing human blood proteins as a means of detecting diseases earlier than was previously possible. Their focus: cancer. Their general approach: proteomic pattern diagnostics, a relatively new method for the early detection, surveillance and monitoring of diseases through the identification of disease-specific proteomic “fingerprints”—roughly, specific, abnormal mixtures of proteins in the blood.

Solution:
By working closely with mathematicians and other collaborators, computer scientists at the university created a solution enabling scientists to analyze 12,000 patient records in real time—each comprising roughly 2.5 GB of data—at a rate approximately 250 times faster than they had before. The solution analyzes and compares samples of healthy and diseased individuals by applying statistical algorithms that help identify disease-specific features of proteome profiles. When moved to a clinical setting, doctors and their patients will get more test results and more precise diagnoses—faster.

Benefits:
-Increased the speed of analyzing patient records by 250 times -Allowed scientists to examine 12,000 2.5 GB patient records in real time -Detected and validated new “fingerprints” for bladder, kidney and pancreatic cancers—a result that, according to the university’s clinical partners, would not have been possible using current blood-testing techniques -Lent a boost to the search for earlier and less aggressive cancer therapies that have a positive impact on a patient’s quality of life and prognosis, as compared with existing treatments
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Case Study

Freie Universität Berlin is a leading research institution. It is one of nine German universities successful in all three funding lines in the federal and state Excellence Initiative, thereby receiving additional funding for its institutional future development strategy. The university’s performance in the Excellence Initiative has provided funding for several new graduate schools and transdisciplinary research clusters. Freie Universität Berlin is a member of the IBM Academic Initiative.

The Opportunity
Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin and MATHEON, both world-class German research institutions, sought better methods for analyzing human blood proteins as a means of detecting diseases earlier than was previously possible. Their focus: cancer. Their general approach: proteomic pattern diagnostics, a relatively new method for the early detection, surveillance and monitoring of diseases through the identification of disease-specific proteomic “fingerprints”—roughly, specific, abnormal mixtures of proteins in the blood.

What Makes It Smarter
One of the primary challenges in proteomics is dealing with the immense data sets involved in comparing and mapping proteins at a speed that will help save lives. By working closely with mathematicians and other collaborators, computer scientists at the university created a solution enabling scientists to analyze 12,000 patient records in real time—each comprising roughly 2.5 GB of data—at a rate approximately 250 times faster than they had before. The solution analyzes and compares samples of healthy and diseased individuals by applying statistical algorithms that help identify disease-specific features of proteome profiles. When moved to a clinical setting, doctors and their patients will get more test results and more precise diagnoses—faster.

Real Business Results
- Increased the speed of analyzing patient records by 250 times
- Allowed scientists to examine 12,000 2.5 GB patient records in real time
- Detected and validated new “fingerprints” for bladder, kidney and pancreatic cancers—a result that, according to the university’s clinical partners, would not have been possible using current blood-testing techniques
- Lent a boost to the search for earlier and less aggressive cancer therapies that have a positive impact on a patient’s quality of life and prognosis, as compared with existing treatments

NorthgateArinso builds a compact, energy-efficient and scalable solution

2011-06-01T11:50:00.001-07:00

With smarter computing from IBM

NorthgateArinso™ (NGA) provides payroll and human resource services to global corporations. From hosted systems through to fully outsourced solutions, NGA offers a complete range of services to match each customer’s needs.

Business need:
NorthgateArinso needs to deliver the same impeccable level of service to clients regardless of underlying fluctuations in business volumes. Supporting multiple systems to meet varying customer needs with separate physical servers proved expensive to procure and support.

Solution:
Consolidated to an architecture based on IBM Power and IBM BladeCenter technologies. Data storage is provided by IBM System Storage DS8100 and DS4800, configured as a SAN and managed by IBM SAN Volume Controller. The entire infrastructure is controlled, monitored and managed using IBM Tivoli software.

Benefits:
The single shared infrastructure is easier to manage and more flexible in handling fluctuating workload, enabling NGA to adapt its IT response to fit the business need. The company can also follow a single set of governance policies, offering provable regulatory compliance.
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Case Study

Designed for Data

The data generated by the IBM Tivoli software is written to the Tivoli Data Warehouse, and histories are analyzed by Tivoli Common Reporting for trends and service management forecasting. The information generated by Tivoli allows NorthgateArinso to report on service delivery to customers, and to help plan likely growth in capacity needs.

Tuned to the Task
Extensive server virtualization permits simultaneous operation of three operating systems, meaning NGA no longer needs dedicated systems to run high speed applications. The company can assign each customer the most appropriate platform and processor capacity for the agreed service levels and transaction workload

Managed in the Cloud
The solution enables NGA to add instances as required and treat processors, memory, network and storage as a single resource pool; masking the complexity of the underlying components.

Driving Innovation
Leveraging Capacity on Demand agreements with IBM allows NGA the headroom to expand resources by 40 percent in the event of an unexpected surge in demand.

NorthgateArinso™ (NGA) provides payroll and human resource services to global corporations. From hosted systems through to fully outsourced solutions, NGA offers a complete range of services to match each customer’s needs.

Business challenge
Much of the transaction workload is highly time-specific. Customers, not to mention their employees, expect wage calculations and bank transfers to be completed on time, every time. Peak workload varies both predictably, such as at the end of the tax year, and unpredictably, such as during periods of high seasonal demand or temporary staffing. The NGA customers expect the same impeccable level of service delivery regardless of underlying fluctuations in business volumes.

Customers have widely varying needs: some want very fast processing of tens of thousands of employee records, some want more comprehensive analysis and human resource management services. The result is a broad range of payroll and human resources applications and databases, running in the IBM AIX, IBM i and Microsoft Windows operating environments.

In the past, supporting the multiple applications, databases and operating systems would have resulted in separate physical servers and unconnected storage devices. This architecture was expensive to procure and support, and complex dependencies made it difficult to ensure that disaster recovery, backup and archive solutions would perform as expected, raising data governance issues.

Description of solution
To manage these demands, NGA has consolidated to highly integrated primary data centers in London and Brussels, each one twinned with a failover data center. Built with integrated IBM Power and IBM BladeCenter technologies, with extensive server virtualization to permit simultaneous operation of all three operating systems. Data storage is provided by IBM System Storage DS8100 and DS4800 disk arrays, configured as a SAN and managed by IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC). The entire infrastructure is controlled, monitored and managed using IBM Tivoli Systems Manager and related Tivoli software.

For example, an NGA application runs on the IBM i platform, providing very high speed payroll processing. Previously this would have typically required a standalone server running the IBM i operating system with dedicated storage. Now, NGA runs the IBM i operating system as a virtual server on a machine that also runs, simultaneously, IBM AIX. The NGA software makes use of existing processor, memory, network and storage infrastructure, which is itself included in the data center’s comprehensive data backup, archive and disaster recovery solution.

Using virtualization, NGA assigns each customer the most appropriate platform and processor capacity for the agreed service levels and transaction workload. At seasonal peaks such as Christmas, NGA has Capacity on Demand agreements with IBM that allow processing capacity to be added temporarily, by activating additional processors for defined periods. For example, in the UK the primary IBM Power 595 server has 17 POWER6 processors active out of a total of 24 installed, representing an instant 40 percent extra headroom if demand surges unexpectedly.

Similarly, NGA uses SAN Volume Controller as the gateway to the DS8100 and DS4800 devices, making the total storage capacity available to all systems regardless of application or operating system. SVC allows NGA to direct data to the best storage device for the task at hand, without having to make costly or time-consuming changes at the application level.

For example, benchmarking new user services only makes sense if during the test period they are configured for real-world running. Virtualization allows the processing capacity to be adjusted and high-performance disk to be allocated for test duration, and then released to the pool on completion.

Tivoli Monitoring provides a single view of performance, covering file systems, disk capacity limits, processor response and more. The data generated by Tivoli is written to the Tivoli Data Warehouse, and histories are analyzed by Tivoli Common Reporting for trends and service management forecasting. The information generated by Tivoli allows NGA to report on service delivery to customers, and to help plan likely growth in capacity needs.

Benefits
With shared processing and storage capacity, NGA has created an integrated platform that allows it to adapt its IT response to fit the business need. Multiple separate standalone servers, applications and databases have been replaced with a single shared infrastructure that is easier to manage and more flexible in managing very large swings in transaction workload.

Data governance policies and procedures, critical for a company handling payroll and personnel details for international corporations, can be imposed globally on a single architecture. NGA complies with Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70: Service Organizations (commonly abbreviated as SAS 70) and ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) standards, much of which would be difficult in a fragmented environment.

David Gibson, Enterprise Systems Manager at NGA comments, “IBM Capacity on Demand gives us the ability to respond to customer needs from a single platform in a variety of ways. Trial Capacity on Demand allows us to add processors over a defined period to test our need for a larger base load configuration. On/Off Capacity on Demand allows us to add processors at short notice for smaller time periods, to weather the storms if required. Exception Capacity on Demand allows us to activate every processor in a disaster recovery scenario to ensure we are not held back by capacity issues at critical times. Capacity on Demand gives us a flexible way to adjust capacity at any level we choose, assigning the additional power to a specific application or to a range of virtual servers, ensuring we meet our service delivery commitments.

“The ability to run IBM i as a guest operating system has led to the resurgence of high-speed applications such as the one we use for payroll processing. We no longer need dedicated systems to run this application, and for some customers it offers the ideal solution. We can add instances in a very cost-effective manner, sharing processors, memory, network and storage, which makes it a very attractive proposition commercially.”

“Data governance is very high on our agenda, because sensitive Personal data requires that we follow the correct operational procedures. The shared services model in our data centers allows us to follow a single set of data governance and security policies across the infrastructure, offering greater ease of management and provable regulatory compliance.”

Europe Airpost Client Reference

2011-06-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

The successor of Aéropostale, the French aviation company Europe Airpost is as specialized in the transport of mail and in freight as the transport of passengers over medium distances, for all operators. Its method, the “Quick Change” procedure, allows cargo aircraft to be converted into comfortable passenger aircraft.

Business need:
In order to meet the demands of a growing airline, Europe Airpost realized it needed a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure. The datacenter was not organized, with a lot of cables and physical servers which presented too many points of potential failure.

Solution:
Europe Airpost selects and IBM BladeCenter solution and consolidated 70 physical servers to 8 IBM BladeCenter HS22 virtualized servers, reducing the cost of ownership of its computer resources by 60% in 2 months.

Benefits:
• Reduced the cost of ownership of its computer resources by 60% in 2 months
• Power consumption decreased from 18 KVa to 8 KVa, while computing power and storage capacity were increased
• Maintenance costs decreased by 37%
• One-half of the second computer room was freed up for office space

"We were able to reduce our administrative tasks by one half. We have reduced the license, we have reduced maintenance and… we have reduced by two-thirds in two months our TCO." - Fabrice de Biasio, Director of Information Systems, Europe Airpost

IBM BladeCenter HS22 and HS22V

2011-06-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Innovation comes standard

The IBM® BladeCenter® HS22 and HS22V are high-performance blade servers that offer outstanding performance for virtualization with new levels of memory capacity and CPU performance. Featuring the next generation Intel® Xeon® 5600 series processors, the HS22 and HS22V blade servers deliver a 25% performance boost over the previous generation - enabling these efficient workhorse blade servers with six-core performance at the price of yesterday's four-core servers.

These versatile blade servers can help improve the economics of your data center with up to:
17X faster performance
94% reduction in energy costs alone
97% IT footprint reduction
50% lower connectivity costs
92% fewer networking cables

In addition, unparalleled reliability features and innovative management tools that come with every BladeCenter system allows your critical applications to stay up and running longer. And with a broad portfolio of compatible chassis, blades, I/O, storage and management components, BladeCenter is a platform designed to grow with you.

Oil and Gas Industry Sees Boom in High-Tech Collaboration

2011-01-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

The oil and gas industry has realized that keeping information flowing among its workers is key to continued flow in its pipelines.

According to a survey released today at Microsoft’s Global Energy Forum in Houston, oil and gas professionals are relying more than ever on collaboration – and real-time collaboration tools like social networking – to get their jobs done and remain competitive within their industry. The survey, conducted by Microsoft and Accenture, shows that the global nature of the oil and gas industry is driving the demand for real-time information and knowledge sharing, said Craig Hodges, Microsoft’s general manager of U.S. Manufacturing and Resources.

“Whether it’s in the same office building or across the globe, these folks have a strong need for collaboration both inside and outside of their companies,” Hodges said. “This industry is very concerned about safety and security, but these results show big progress in the area of collaboration.”

The survey of 205 professionals at oil- and gas-related companies from around the world found that nearly three-fourths are using social media tools for business collaboration, a significant increase over last year’s survey responses (62 percent). Overall, professionals are collaborating more than ever, with 34 percent reporting that they are collaborating more this year than last.

“Only 24 months ago, none of this would have been on people's radar screens,” Hodges said. “But today 84 percent of respondents said that they have the ability to contact colleagues anytime, from anyplace, on any device. To me, that's a pretty strong indicator of great momentum in adoption of these tools.”

The goal of the survey, the third annual survey commissioned by Microsoft and Accenture, was to capture what is driving increased collaboration among oil and gas professionals and determine current thinking about the business value of collaboration tools to enhance processes and workflows. Hodges said the results support industry trends and build upon the feedback from last year’s survey. They also helped identify areas where cloud services can drive collaboration and innovation.

“The industry is beginning to wake up to see the cloud as a vehicle to drive their business and increase collaboration,” he said. "Cloud computing holds enormous promise not only in accelerating the implementation and adoption of technology, but also in creating the ability for oil and gas professionals to collaborate around the world.” That means greater business agility and increased operational efficiency and profitability, he added.

As the geographical and demographic landscape of the oil and gas industry continues to evolve, the workforce will require new technologies that better connect people, data and resources across continents and supply chains, Hodges said. The energy sector faces some of the biggest management problems on the planet – wild swings in supply and demand, volatile prices, and shifting worldwide energy policies have made oil and gas exploration and production more complex than ever.

At the Global Energy Forum, Microsoft is showcasing how its products can help companies face these challenges. “Our technology toolkit is well-suited to be applied to the problems these companies face day in and day out,” Hodges said.

At the conference, companies will learn how they can use Windows Phone 7 to build applications that enable them to do business on a smartphone, for example. Microsoft Lync will be used to illustrate the benefits of unified communications and presence. And attendees will see how Microsoft StreamInsight can help companies uncover hidden patterns of data to provide insights and help solve problems.

Several Microsoft partners will talk about their experiences with Microsoft technologies. For example, a member of the board of directors at Bharat Petroleum, one of India’s largest companies, will use Lync to give a video presentation on its use of Microsoft’s unified communications tools. Shell will talk about its use of Microsoft Online Services to drive its vision for increased collaboration. And Chevron and industry standards group Energistics will showcase their experience with the Windows Azure platform and SQL Azure to utilize data more effectively.

Hodges said that the push toward unifying communications in the cloud will likely continue as oil and gas professionals becoming increasingly spread out around the world.

“Like every other industry, oil and gas companies are trying to do more with less, and it becomes even more important to move strategically and swiftly,” he said. “This is especially true in the oil and gas industries, where the availability of natural resources is constantly in flux and decision-making – often between business units spread across the globe – needs to happen swiftly. The cloud can address this need with flexibility, agility and cost efficiency.”

Adoption of Real-Time Collaboration Technologies Continues to Grow Among Oil and Gas Professionals, According to Microsoft and Accenture Survey

2011-01-23T00:43:00.001-08:00

Oil and gas professionals are collaborating more than they did one year ago and are adopting the use of social media tools into their daily work, according to a Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) survey released today at the Microsoft Global Energy Forum 2011 in Houston.

The survey of 205 professionals within international, national and independent oil- and gas-related companies found that nearly three-fourths (74 percent) are using social media for business collaboration — a significant increase over last year’s survey responses (62 percent). Public instant-messaging tools are used the most for business collaboration (38 percent, an 11 percent increase over last year), followed by internal company social networks (33 percent, a 17 percent increase over last year).

Overall, professionals are working together more than ever, with 34 percent reporting that they are collaborating more this year than in the previous year. This trend is anticipated to grow in coming years, primarily because of the aging oil and gas industry work force that must prepare its younger generation to take on leadership roles. Almost a third of respondents (31 percent) said that improved technology-driven access to information could lessen the business impact resulting from the scarcity of skills and talent stemming from the aging work force.

In addition, the global nature of the oil and gas industry is driving the demand for the ability to collaborate from anywhere, at any time, using any device for real-time information and knowledge sharing. However, this ability is often hindered by what survey respondents identified as the biggest barriers for collaboration: broken workflows that prevent information flow (47 percent) and no unified solution for knowledge sharing (45 percent).

To address these collaboration barriers, respondents identified that the following technology enhancements are needed to further a company’s success: improved timing to streamline decision-making (52 percent), improved interaction capability through any device (42 percent), and improved computing power for data analysis and computer simulation (35 percent).

“As the industry continues to expand globally with workers dispersed across multiple regions, oil and gas companies are challenged to find new, innovative ways to help employees collaborate and share information remotely, in a security-enhanced manner,” said Craig Hodges, general manager of U.S. Manufacturing and Resources at Microsoft. “The cloud is driving this business transformation, providing flexibility, agility and cost reductions to the enterprise and providing information workers with anytime, anyplace access to information, across a wide variety of connected smart devices, powered by Windows.”

“Diversification, developments in oil and gas technology, talent, and regulatory policies are just a few factors demanding oil and gas companies to make information available to their work forces and partners in a timely and efficient manner,” said Brian Miller, senior executive in the energy industry group at Accenture. “The survey results show the industry’s recognition of the strategic benefits in utilizing IT solutions such as cloud computing, enabling easier accessibility to data and knowledge sharing within a security-enhanced environment. Companies need to accelerate the implementation of these solutions to help them innovate, operate more successfully in dynamic environments, and increase their productivity and business performance.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 211,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010.

Organizations Speed Business Results With New Appliances From HP and Microsoft

2011-01-23T00:39:00.000-08:00

HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced a portfolio of four new converged application appliances that fuse applications, infrastructure and productivity tools into a single system. These solutions help organizations optimize employee productivity and decision-making, while simplifying the delivery of applications for IT. The HP Business Decision Appliance is available now to run business intelligence services, and the HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft Exchange Server is planned to be available in 45 days to run messaging services. Two other appliances are expected to be available later this year.

Until now there have been two ways to deploy critical business applications: highly customized deployments that take too long or proprietary stacks of applications and infrastructure that are inherently rigid and slow to change. The result is only 32 percent of IT projects that deliver critical business applications are rated as “successful” by the organizations implementing them.

Delivering on the companies’ extended partnership announced a year ago, the new converged application appliances from HP and Microsoft are the industry’s first systems designed for IT, as well as end users. They deliver application services such as business intelligence, data warehousing, online transaction processing and messaging. The jointly engineered appliances, and related consulting and support services, enable IT to deliver critical business applications in as little as one hour, compared with potentially months needed for traditional systems. One of the solutions already offered by HP and Microsoft — the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance — delivers up to 200 times faster queries and 10 times the scalability of traditional Microsoft SQL Server deployments.4

“Customers are looking to significantly reduce implementation and decision times,” said Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP. “With our converged application appliances, HP and Microsoft enable customers to shorten the time required to deliver information, which helps to reduce risk and cost.”

“Microsoft and HP are helping IT professionals fight their biggest foes — time and complexity,” said Ted Kummert, senior vice president, Business Platform Division, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft. “With these appliances, we’re helping to put critical business information in our customers’ hands when they need it.”

Expanding the Reach of Business Intelligence

With the HP Business Decision Appliance, HP and Microsoft have greatly reduced the time and effort it takes for IT to configure, deploy and manage a comprehensive business intelligence solution, compared with a traditional business intelligence solution where applications, infrastructure and productivity tools are not pre-integrated. This appliance is optimized for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint and can be installed and configured by IT in less than one hour.

The solution enables end users to share data analyses built with Microsoft’s award-winning5 PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and collaborate with others in SharePoint 2010. It allows IT to centrally audit, monitor and manage solutions created by end users from a single dashboard.

Red Wing Shoe Company, a worldwide manufacturer and retailer of premium work shoes and boots, was an early adopter of the HP Business Decision Appliance through GNet, an HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partner.

“We were intrigued by the idea that we could implement a turnkey solution that was fully integrated into our environment with minimal effort,” said Mike Cleary, director, IT Architecture and Operations, Red Wing Shoe Company. “Previously, to install all the required software and configure the components would have taken us several days. Now not only our business analysts but the broader user community can use a familiar tool, Microsoft Excel, to create and analyze data in new and unique ways.”

Scalable from midsize organizations to large enterprise environments, converged application appliances also offer HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners such as GNet significant sales opportunities. Because the appliances are open, based on industry standards, and can be integrated into heterogeneous data centers, they are ideal offerings for channel partners.

The HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance is a data store designed for small and midsize businesses that delivers enterprise-class functionality with increased simplicity and administrator-free operation. This appliance complements the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance, which is designed for large organizations, is optimized for SQL Server 2008 R2, and was introduced in November. The HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance improves data access with massive scalability and faster queries than traditional SQL Server databases. Through interoperability with the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform, customers can deliver managed business intelligence solutions to everyone in an organization.

Enterprise-Class Messaging in Hours

The new HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is the industry’s first self-contained, preconfigured platform for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that delivers enterprise-class messaging to businesses of all sizes. This messaging system, which can be deployed in as little as a few hours, delivers large mailboxes at a low cost, centralized archiving and 24x7 access from any device, and it can scale as business needs grow.

Customers benefit from built-in features such as the HP Quick Deployment tool, which validates configuration and active directory permissions to enable faster implementation. In addition, compatibility between management tools such as HP Systems Insight Manager and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, as well as support, help reduce the amount of time required to implement the solution.

To help ensure uninterrupted service, the appliance features designed-in best practices with fully redundant hardware and Database Availability Groups, a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 feature that continuously replicates data.

Delivering on the Promise of Private Clouds

In addition to workload-specific appliances, HP and Microsoft plan to deliver the HP Database Consolidation Appliance. This appliance consolidates hundreds of databases into a single, virtual environment, providing customers with a private cloud database solution that offers self-service, on-demand scalability and dynamic elasticity with the additional control offered through an on-premises deployment.

Optimized for SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud, the appliance will be delivered as complete, pre-installed, pretuned hardware with rapid deployment and enhanced manageability. Similar capabilities of the appliance will be offered as a reference architecture to customers who have advanced IT skills and prefer to build their own appliance with best practice guidance from HP and Microsoft.

Accelerating Business Service Delivery

HP and Microsoft will offer support and consulting services for the converged application appliances to help customers accelerate business service delivery. The services portfolios include assessment, design, proof of concept and implementation, as well as ongoing support. The services use HP and Microsoft’s expertise in delivering comprehensive, simplified solutions for data management, business intelligence, data warehouse and messaging.

Availability and Pricing

• The HP Business Decision Appliance with three years of HP 24x7 hardware and software support services is available today from HP and HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners for less than $28,000 (ERP). Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 are licensed separately.

• The HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance with services for site assessment, installation and startup, as well as three years of HP 24x7 hardware and software support services, is available today from HP and HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners starting at less than $2 million. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse is licensed separately.

• The HP E5000 Messaging System with three years of HP 24x7 hardware and software support services is expected to be available in March from HP and HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners starting at $36,000. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is licensed separately.

• The HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance is expected to be available in June, and the HP Database Consolidation Appliance is planned to be available in the second half of this year.

Introducing the T-Mobile G2 with Google — the First Smartphone Delivering 4G Speeds on T-Mobile’s Super-Fast HSPA+ Network

2010-09-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

Introducing the T-Mobile G2 with Google — the First Smartphone Delivering 4G Speeds on T-Mobile’s Super-Fast HSPA+ Network

T-Mobile, Google and HTC re-team to deliver the groundbreaking successor to the T-Mobile G1; Exclusive preorder for current T-Mobile customers begins later this month

T-Mobile USA, Inc. today unveiled the T-Mobile® G2™ with Google™, delivering downloads at 4G speeds1, a blazing fast web browsing experience and tight integration with Google services. The G2 breaks new ground as the first Smartphone specifically designed for T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network2, which covers 100 million Americans in more than 55 major metropolitan areas across the country. The G2 is an ultra-powerful Smartphone designed by HTC and is the highly anticipated successor to the T-Mobile G1, the world’s first Android™ powered mobile phone, pairing a large 3.7-inch screen with a unique hinge design that opens to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Current T-Mobile customers will get exclusive access to preorder the G2 starting later this month.

“T-Mobile ignited the spark that set the Android world ablaze two years ago with the launch of the world’s first Android-powered mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1, which remains an important milestone for both T-Mobile and the Android operating system,” said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer, T-Mobile USA. “Now, with the launch of the T-Mobile G2, we are re-teaming with our partners at Google and HTC to provide T-Mobile customers with another first — the first Android Smartphone designed to deliver 4G speeds on our new network.”

“One of the advantages of an open platform is the opportunity for developers to create rich mobile experiences and seamlessly get those experiences into the hands of consumers,” said Andy Rubin, vice president, engineering, Google. “From new services, such as Voice Actions, to mobile applications, developer-led Android innovation is flourishing. On Android Market alone, the number of applications available to consumers has grown from just 50 applications two years ago to more than 80,000 applications today.”

“Two years ago, HTC and T-Mobile worked together to deliver the world’s first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. From that start, Android has grown to be the leading Smartphone platform in the U.S., and one of the most popular globally,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “With today’s announcement of the G2, HTC and T-Mobile are once again bringing a breakthrough Android product to market.”

The first Smartphone specifically designed to deliver 4G speeds on T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network, the G2 is optimized for performance to provide customers with blazing fast access to a world of information through websites, applications, videos, file downloads and more. Built on Android 2.2, the G2 offers seven customizable home screen panels, including a dedicated panel with one-click access to your favorite Google applications such as Android Market™, which currently offers more than 80,000 applications.

The T-Mobile G2 delivers a powerful mobile data experience that is tightly integrated with Google Voice™, as well as packed with Google applications such as Voice Actions™ from Google, Google Goggles™ and more. It is one of the first Smartphones in the industry to offer the new Voice Actions feature of Google Search™, which allows you to control your phone with your voice for calling contacts and businesses, sending messages, browsing the Web, listening to music and completing common tasks. It is also the first Smartphone to offer integrated access to Google Voice™, allowing customers to create a new account using their current mobile number right from the home screen. Google Voice then automatically transcribes voicemails to text so customers can read them like an e-mail or text message from their phone or online. Additional pre-loaded Google services include Google Search, Gmail™, Google Maps™ with Places and Navigation, YouTube™, Google Talk™ and Google Earth™, among others.

Adding fuel to the G2’s speed is its Snapdragon™ MSM7230 mobile processor which combines Qualcomm’s new HSPA+ capabilities and second generation applications processor. The Snapdragon MSM7230 offers an 800 MHz CPU and is optimized to deliver exceptional performance, long battery life and leading edge multimedia and web browsing — with download speeds faster than other solutions currently in the market.

The G2 delivers advanced Smartphone features including an HD video camera for recording crystal-clear, high-definition (720p) videos that can be automatically uploaded to your Photobucket account and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. The G2 also offers Smartphone essentials such as easy access to personal and work e-mail, including support for Microsoft® Exchange e-mail, contacts and calendar; social networking; and instant messaging. In addition, the G2 features a pre-installed 8GB microSD memory card with support for up to 32 GB, as well as a music player.

Additional features of the G2 include the following:

· Dedicated Quick Keys for one-touch access to your favorite Google shortcuts and applications
· Adobe Flash Player enabled Web browsing experience
· Pinch and zoom functionality for Web browsing and photo gallery
· 4GB internal memory with pre-installed 8GB micro SD card, with support for up to 32 GB of external memory
· Built-in 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo headset and Bluetooth support
· Swype® text input for fast, accurate communication

Availability

The T-Mobile G2 with Google will be available in the U.S. exclusively from T-Mobile, and current T-Mobile customers will have the opportunity to preorder the G2 in limited quantities later this month. Additional availability details will be shared in the coming weeks.

About T-Mobile’s HSPA+ Network

T-Mobile continues to expand its super-fast HSPA+ mobile broadband network, which now covers 100 million Americans in more than 55 major metropolitan areas. T-Mobile’s new HSPA+ network — which offers theoretical peak throughput speeds of 21 Mbps — offers today’s available 4G speeds to more people than any other wireless network in the country, with plans to reach more than 200 million people this year.

64-bit Support

2010-08-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

64-bit editions of Windows 7 are designed to take full advantage of the increased RAM and multi-tasking capabilities of 64-bit PCs.

If you’ve gone PC shopping lately, you've probably noticed more computers with 64-bit processors, and you may have wondered what advantages they offer.

Put simply, a 64-bit PC can handle larger amounts of information than a 32-bit system. Since it can use more RAM—4 GB and up—a 64-bit computer can be more responsive when you're running lots of programs at once.

Which should you buy? If you tend to have a lot of programs open simultaneously or need to switch frequently between programs—or if you just want to be sure your PC can take advantage of the larger amounts of memory available today—64-bit is a great choice. If you run only one or two programs at a time or have older hardware and software that isn't supported by a 64-bit PC, a 32-bit system is a good choice.

Whether you choose the 32-bit or the 64-bit system, Windows 7 is ready.

Install Microsoft My Phone on your phone

2010-07-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

The My Phone application may be used with Windows Mobile 6 phones and is pre-loaded on most newer Windows phones. If the software is not already on your phone, enter http://myphone.microsoft.com/install into your mobile phone’s browser to download the software.

Once the software has been downloaded to your phone, select the "Microsoft My Phone" application from the Programs or Settings menu on your phone to complete setup.

After syncing, return to web site at anytime to access all of your contacts, photos, text messages, and more.

Provision OTP through ILM 2 or Microsoft Forefront Ident

2010-06-24T02:41:00.001-07:00

Marvin Tansley Deploy OTP authentication in your organization without deploying and managing a second administration product.

Migrating to ILM 2 or Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager

2010-06-24T02:39:00.000-07:00

Craig Martin Youve already created a metadirectory now find the best migration path.

Microsoft Forefront IAG Server

2010-06-24T02:38:00.001-07:00

This video demonstrate a FULL Single Sign On to the IAG portal with Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) and Smart Card.

Installing Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server version 10

2010-06-24T02:36:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Forefront codename "Stirling"

2010-06-24T02:35:00.001-07:00

KIN’s Inspiration

2010-06-17T06:06:00.001-07:00

Meet the people who inspired KIN.

Gen Y Gets a Seat at the Table for New KIN Phone

2010-06-17T06:03:00.001-07:00

Stephanie Camp, KIN Social Media manager, talks with a member of Project KIN about what it was like to be a part of building the KIN phone and brand.

The New IT Paradigm: Bob Muglia on Cloud Computing

2010-06-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hear Bob Muglia, President, Microsoft Server & Tools Division, talk about some of the key issues for IT raised by the emergence of cloud computing.

Law firm provides disaster recovery while reducing costs with e-mail upgrade

2010-06-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP offers legal counsel in 40 different areas of practice, including corporate, financial services, litigation, real estate, commercial finance, tax, intellectual property, and trusts and estates. E-mail is a critical communication tool for its 1,350 employees, 650 attorneys and 700 administrative and support staff, who work in offices across the United States and in an affiliate in London. Katten wanted to improve site resiliency to avoid extended e-mail system outages that were imposed by property management at their buildings for electrical and HVAC maintenance. Working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Project Leadership Associates, Katten deployed Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 to provide a highly available messaging environment that supported the compliance requirements of legal communications. The firm expects high e-mail availability, savings in storage costs, and a decrease in compliance costs.

Situation

Founded in 1974, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP employs 650 attorneys who provide an extensive range of legal services across numerous industries. The firm’s clients include one-third of the Fortune 100, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals.

Katten depends on secure and effective communication between attorneys and clients. Alexander Diaz, Enterprise Development Manager at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, says, “As a law firm, e-mail is one of the critical applications that we can’t live without.” Maximizing e-mail availability at Katten is important to help maintain a high level of client service and reduce response time for critical inquires.

The firm was using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, and employees accessed e-mail through the Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 messaging and collaboration client. The company had e-mail servers in its Chicago office and five other locations. Each site used a two-node cluster for high availability, but there was no replication of data among the sites. Diaz says, “Some sites, such as Los Angeles, face brownouts as well as scheduled electrical outages. So we might have a complete system outage at a given site, which directly impacts business in those locations. They can still work on local documents, but e-mail is down for them.” Katten had begun using servers at a co-location facility to store a redundant copy of their litigation practice data and wanted to be able to use that site to provide disaster recovery for e-mail as well.

Without a robust disaster-recovery solution in place, Katten could only provide e-mail users with a brand-new mailbox on an alternative server via a third-party hosted service until their regular firm-provided e-mail service could be restored. However, this presented several issues around access and security. First, a new mailbox without data did not enable attorneys to continue working effectively, which precluded the ability to provide good client service. Second, when a work e-mail mailbox was down, an attorney might be tempted to use personal e-mail for urgent communication instead of waiting for IT to provision a new mailbox, putting sensitive legal information at risk. Diaz says, “Downtime costs us a lot in productivity, so redundancy is very important for the firm. The attorneys need access to e-mail to continue providing timely services to their clients.”

Since mailbox sizes at Katten average approximately 30 gigabytes (GB), a lot of storage is required. Katten uses a storage area network (SAN) storage system with fiber channel disks and redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) 10 redundancy for storage. This system is expensive but necessary to provide the performance the firm requires in its Exchange Server 2003 environment. “The vast majority of our mobile devices are BlackBerry. They are so I/O [input/output] intensive that it requires the need to be on fast disks to minimize the impact,” explains Diaz. The large mailbox sizes also affected the performance of the Office Outlook 2003 client. Attorneys complained that starting Outlook could take as long as five minutes, and Katten was looking for a way to improve performance.

As a law firm, Katten has stringent compliance, security, and litigation requirements. Diaz says, “We struggled with litigation holds. There have been times we needed to be able to search across multiple mailboxes, which was not easy in the previous environment. IT should be able to offload these tasks to the conflicts and records departments.”

Solution

To investigate a way to resolve its e-mail performance, storage, and compliance issues, Katten decided to participate in the Rapid Deployment Program for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. With the help of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Project Leadership Associates, Katten began testing Exchange Server 2010 in April 2009 and found that the solution was just what it was looking for. “Exchange Server 2010 has increased our ability to provide our customers with a very flexible and reliable messaging infrastructure,” explains Forrest McDuffie, Senior Consultant with Project Leadership Associates. “Exchange Server 2010 enables us to provide these options more cost effectively than we could with previous versions of Exchange Server.”

A key Exchange Server 2010 capability that has helped improve resiliency for Katten is Database Availability Groups. Database Availability Groups combines on-site and off-site data replication into a single high-availability solution that helps protect its Exchange Server environment from downtime. Using Database Availability Groups, Katten can implement high-availability and disaster-recovery solutions for each office so that employees will not face interruptions in service even if their sites experience a planned outage. Diaz says, “We will have a redundant copy within each site and a replicated copy at the co-location facility. With Exchange Server 2010, the failover is seamless.”

All Internet mail will be routed through two Hub Transport servers running Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server. These servers will perform antivirus checks on all e-mail traffic destined in or out of the firm. In order to provide redundancy for external e-mail this role will have a redundant counterpart at the firm’s co-location site.

With Database Availability Groups resolving its high-availability and disaster-recovery needs, Katten began looking at the other capabilities Exchange Server 2010 could provide. With Exchange Server 2010, Katten administrators and compliance officers with the correct permissions can now use the Exchange Control Panel to perform multi-mailbox searches for items such as messages, attachments, contacts, or calendar entries. During conflict searches or litigation investigations, administrators can save the search results to a specified mailbox or store them for further investigation.

Katten also will take advantage of improved retention policies in Exchange Server 2010 to help satisfy corporate policy requirements on communications. Administrators can apply retention or expiration settings to specific items or folders in a mailbox, at an organizational or user level. The administrator configures the policies, which are displayed inside each e-mail, along with a header message describing the policy that has been applied. These headers make it easier for employees to identify when an e-mail is set for expiration and move it to another folder if they need to retain it beyond the expiration policy. Katten also plans to use Information Rights Management to help safeguard sensitive information.

With Role Based Access Control (RBAC), Katten can delegate Exchange Server 2010 administration capabilities by creating specialty roles with predetermined functions. Diaz says, “We found RBAC to be a huge benefit. That is something I have needed for a long time—to have more granular rights for administrators and lower-level IT staff to do targeted tasks. Today we have a lot of low-level administrators who execute mailbox moves or perform other Exchange Server related administrative tasks. Previous versions of Exchange Server would require giving them full Exchange Server administrator rights to perform some of these routine tasks. Now we can easily provide the help desk additional access to create or modify distribution lists—some of the routine tasks that would otherwise burden your more experienced Exchange Server administrators.”

The firm will take advantage of the 90-percent reduction in disk input/output (I/O) compared to Exchange Server 2003, by reducing the cost of the storage it uses on its SAN. “We’ll be able to use less expensive disks for the redundant copy at each site and in the co-location. We will use SATA [Serial Advanced Technology Attachment] instead of fiber channel disks and will also use RAID 5 instead of RAID 10 for the secondary copies,” says Diaz. The use of RAID 5 will reduce the amount of storage needed to help protect against hardware or site failures.

Attorneys at Katten will benefit from some of the new user capabilities provided by Exchange Server 2010. The Conversation View is useful because it collapses the conversation and can even pull together messages that have been saved in different folders. Diaz says, “Let’s say you are out of the office and you get ten e-mails on the same thread. Before, you would spend time looking for the end of the thread. With Exchange Server 2010 even when someone breaks the conversation, the conversation view maintains the thread and brings an otherwise disjointed conversation back in line.” He continues, “I also really like the new user interface in Outlook 2010. One of my favorite features is QuickSteps. With QuickSteps, I can easily automate some of the actions that I do frequently.”

Katten has been testing the client performance of Outlook 2010 along with the Windows 7 operating system. “Regarding performance, if you are running 64-bit Windows 7, it is blazingly fast. Microsoft did a bang-up job with these products. Performance with large mailboxes greatly exceeds our expectations. With the growing amount of data that needs to be retained, it is not uncommon for us to have 30-gigabyte plus mailboxes, making these performance improvements crucial to our business. I have been using Exchange Server 2010 and Outlook 2010 for e-mail since June and have been extremely satisfied with the performance and the user experience. It is a robust, very stable platform,” says Diaz.

Katten also would like to increase the number of employees using Windows phones with Windows Mobile 6.5 to reduce the I/O impact and security concerns of mobile devices accessing mail on its e-mail servers. Diaz says, “We are trying to expand the use of Windows phones and would like to expand the use of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology. During the development of our new Exchange Server 2010 environment we have also been testing the features and functionality of Windows Mobile 6.5. Overall, the experience has been nicer on Windows Mobile 6.5 than experienced on previous versions. The phones are receiving e-mail as quickly as it shows up on the mailbox server. It is almost instantaneous.” Windows Mobile 6.5 also delivers many of the same new features included in Outlook 2010 and Outlook Web App, providing a consistent user experience across the clients.

Benefits

With its deployment of Exchange Server 2010, Katten looks forward to several benefits that will improve its attorneys’ ability to serve clients. The firm expects less e-mail downtime, decreased compliance costs, reduced storage costs, and reduced administrative time.

Reduced E-mail Downtime

Diaz says, “The main goal for the Exchange Server 2010 deployment is to provide high-availability and business continuity functionality.” He continues, “With Exchange Server 2010, failover is seamless.” With improvements enabled by the use of Database Availability Groups to provide site redundancy at its co-location facility, Katten attorneys can continue to use e-mail without interruption, making them more responsive to client needs and enabling them to meet critical deadlines.

Decreased Compliance Costs

With Exchange Server 2010, Katten is reducing the time and cost of e-mail and records compliance. With the Exchange Control Panel for multi-mailbox searches and RBAC, compliance officers and administrators can better track, investigate, and manage the communications related to litigation holds. The time spent on compliance activities related to e-mail will decrease, reducing the need for IT involvement. With improved rights management and retention policies, the firm will enhance the ability to protect its intellectual property.

Reduced Storage Costs

With the upgrade to Exchange Server 2010, Katten will use less expensive storage for redundant copies of the data while maintaining similar performance to the primary copy. Diaz says, “Our storage costs for e-mail will be considerably less. The number of disks in the RAID sets will be much greater, with 1-terabyte drives in a RAID 5 configuration providing more available storage. With RAID 10, we used up a lot of disks. Exchange Server 2010 eliminates the need to use more costly storage configurations.”

Reduced IT Administration

With Exchange Server 2010, IT can safely delegate many of the less complex administrative tasks such as distribution lists or mailbox moves to the help desk personnel or less experienced IT staff. More experienced administrators would then be free to spend additional time resolving complex support issues. Thanks to Exchange Server 2010, Katten administrators can move mailboxes between databases without taking users offline. Employees will be happy because they can continue to send and receive mail without interruption, and IT administrators will appreciate the ability to perform mailbox moves during normal business hours.

“With the help of Project Leadership Associates, Katten has created a unified communications environment that helps to improve the quality and reliability of its e-mail platform for its attorneys and support staff. This solution will provide the firm with improved client servicing and productivity,” says Diaz.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Exchange Server 2010 can help you achieve better business outcomes while controlling the costs of deployment, administration, and compliance. Exchange Server delivers the widest range of deployment options, integrated information leakage protection, and advanced compliance capabilities, which combine to form the best messaging and collaboration solution available.

Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Launch Keynote

2010-05-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop keynotes the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in New York.

Palm Pixi Plus in 10 minutes

2010-05-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

If you're brand new to webOS, take a quick look at what's in store for you. The majority of the time is spent on the Pre, but pretty much all of it applies to the Pixi (with the exception of 3D Gaming).

HTC's most exciting Windows phone is here

2010-04-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

HTC HD2 delivers an experience your senses have been waiting for. The unprecedented 4.3-inch pixel-packed display is stunning. The world's first capacitive touch technology on a Windows phone along with a 1 GHz processing power ensure a smooth and lightning-fast response to the lightest touch of your finger.

Your phone, your way
Customise your phone to suit you. Choose from animated backgrounds to match your personality – and arrange the content tabs to allow easy access to your email, calendar, applications, games and shortcuts.

Stay updated

The HTC HD2 doesn't only reflect your personality; it also adapts to your location. The clock automatically updates to the local time wherever you are. You can see the outside temperature and weather at a glance. And, if you choose the weather wallpaper, you'll get a brilliantly lifelike animation that lets you virtually feel the sun’s rays or the chill of the breeze without setting a foot outside.

Bigger is better

With the HTC HD2, you get an impressive 4.3" TFT-LCD touch screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution. Enjoy the cinematic experience of the world’s largest mobile touch screen in the palm of your hand.

Peace of Mind

Thanks to the My Phone service, you can quickly and easily back-up all your contacts, emails, photos and text messages. My Phone allows you to access all of your uploaded phone data online – even if you can’t access your phone.

Capture the moment

The 5 megapixel auto-focus camera is perfect for capturing the beauty of the great outdoors; combined with the dual LED flash it’s also ideal for photographing in dim conditions.

Multimedia

Synch your phone and your PC to capture all your favourite music, videos and TV shows with Windows Media Player. Zoom in and out of documents, web pages, pictures or emails with just a simple pinch. Type up responses faster and more accurately on the large onscreen keyboard.

The Mono Project

2010-04-08T00:43:00.000-07:00

Mono is a free and open source implementation of .NET that runs on Windows, Unix, and Macintosh. In more than 5 years since the first version of Mono was released, the Mono project has continued to add support for new functionality, such as C# 3.0, LINQ, and Silverlight; and has continued to see adoption.

Cross-Browser Best Practices

2010-04-08T00:39:00.001-07:00

Creating complex sites that work well across browsers is a constant challenge for developers. Internet Explorer 9 makes it easier to create Web sites using interoperable HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Building Document Generation Systems from Templates with Word 2010 and Word 2007

2010-04-08T00:36:00.001-07:00

Summary: Some business scenarios require generation of many documents by using a template document and a data source.

Building Document Generation Systems from Templates

Sometimes software systems must automatically generate documents to support various scenarios. The design of the system may include the ability for a subject matter expert to create a template document that drives the generation. The template document must determine specific areas of the document for replacement with automatically-generated content. For example, a placeholder in the document must be replaced with the salutation and name of the addressee of a letter. In addition, the template document may delineate specific sections of the template to remove from the generated document. For example, a template for a legal document may include all possible legal clauses, but based on the specific circumstances, certain legal clauses are omitted in the generated document. The numbering of headings and sections in the resulting document should be automatically adjusted as necessary.

Content controls are ideally suited to this scenario. You can make it easy to insert content controls by including macros to do the insertion. You can automatically set the title and tag of the content control in the macro. Or, you can develop a managed add-in that creates a custom Ribbon with buttons to insert various instances of content controls. You could have buttons that insert content controls with one of a specific set of tags such as Name, Address, Phone, and Legal_Clause.

Sometimes you want to maintain auxiliary information about each content control. You may want to allow the document designer to set a specific set of properties for each one. Content controls do not have a facility such as a special element or attribute in the markup for storing such information. In addition, the Microsoft Word 2010 user interface (UI) and Microsoft Office Word 2007 UI do not allow the document designer to maintain auxiliary information for a content control. However, there is an approach where you can easily allow the document designer to create and configure information associated with each content control. For more information about this process, see Associating Data with Content Controls. This blog entry shows a managed add-in that creates a custom task pane for maintaining this information. This auxiliary information is stored in a custom XML part. The information for each content control is associated by a unique ID that Word automatically generates for each content control. The following figure from this example shows a task pane that allows the content author to set auxiliary information about a content control.

Tip:

The blog entry, Associating Data with Content Controls, shows how to create an application-level task pane. Another approach is to create a task pane associated with each document. This may be more appropriate for some scenarios, such as if you have many document types, and you want to maintain different information for content controls in each document type.

When you create a custom task pane in an application that uses multiple windows to display documents and other items, you must take additional steps to ensure that the task pane is visible when the user expects it to be. The article, Managing Custom Task Panes in Multiple Application Windows, explains what you must know about how to make task panes work with multiple document interfaces (MDI). The article, Managing Task Panes in Multiple Word and InfoPath Documents provides more detail and sample code.

Replacing Content Controls with Content

There are two approaches that you can take when you use content controls to replace content. You can completely replace the content control with the content, or you can bind the content control to XML in a custom XML part. The following sections explore each approach in more detail.

Sometimes you want to completely remove the content controls from the generated document, and replace them with the specific text or content. The following resources provide guidance and examples about how to implement this scenario.

Binding Content Controls to XML in Custom XML Parts

Another approach for using content controls to generate documents is to bind the content controls to custom XML data. This approach has the advantage that when generating the custom document, you do not have to form WordprocessingML to replace the content controls. Instead, if you start with a document that already has content controls that are bound to custom XML data, you only have to replace the custom XML part with XML that contains the data for the new document. The data-bound content controls are automatically updated with the new data.

Handling Events when Manipulating Content Controls

In your solution, you may want to take specific action when a content control is inserted, deleted, or updated. For example, you can write an event handler that is called when the user moves out of a content control. You can then validate the data that is entered by the user.

Content control events are associated with the Document object.

Conclusion

Document generation systems are one of the most compelling uses of Open XML WordprocessingML. Content controls provide a great way to give structure to your content and to make it easier to build document generation systems.

Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office

2010-04-08T00:31:00.001-07:00

Brief Description

Open XML is an open ECMA 376 standard and is also approved as the ISO/IEC 29500 standard that defines a set of XML schemas for representing spreadsheets, charts, presentations, and word processing documents. Microsoft Office Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 all use Open XML as the default file format.

The Open XML file formats are useful for developers because they use an open standard and are based on well-known technologies: ZIP and XML.

The Open XML SDK 2.0 for Microsoft Office is built on top of the System.IO.Packaging API and provides strongly typed part classes to manipulate Open XML documents. The SDK also uses the .NET Framework Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) technology to provide strongly typed object access to the XML content inside the parts of Open XML documents.

The Open XML SDK 2.0 simplifies the task of manipulating Open XML packages and the underlying Open XML schema elements within a package. The Open XML Application Programming Interface (API) encapsulates many common tasks that developers perform on Open XML packages, so you can perform complex operations with just a few lines of code.

Building a Next-Generation Web Application with Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2 and jQuery

2010-04-08T00:25:00.001-07:00

ASP.NET MVC is a great foundation for building AJAX-driven web applications. Come hear a talk about building Agile Zen, a lean project management application. Learn how easy it is to make ASP.NET MVC and jQuery play nice together, as well as talk about why building on ASP.NET MVC is a great choice, both from a business and technical standpoint.

View Video

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

2010-04-08T00:10:00.001-07:00

The new Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 simplifies the entire development process, from design to deployment. New prototyping, modeling, and design tools help unleash your creativity and bring your vision to life. Coding is faster than ever, since you can leverage existing code and skills to write applications targeting different platforms, including SharePoint and Windows Azure applications. What’s more, developers and testers will work better together and save time with integrated testing and debugging tools. You’ll find and fix bugs quickly to make sure your solution is at the highest possible quality.

Intel

Intel brings 25 years of software experience to advanced tools designed for the end-to-end development lifecycle. Developers are taking advantage of Intel tools to create, debug, and optimize performance for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X applications.
From high-performance computing to MIDs, from threading serial applications to embedded, Intel software products enable Fortran and C/C++ developers to scale for multicore. The breakthrough Intel Parallel Studio enables Microsoft Visual Studio C/C++ developers to simplify parallelism for the full range of Windows applications.

ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities.

ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

Infragistics

As the world leader in user interface development tools and experts in the User Centric Design, Infragistics empowers developers to build and style User Interfaces that are the foundation for developing killer apps— applications with extreme functionality, complete usability and the “wow-factor!”

Infragistics enables immersive user experiences and rich data visualization in line of business applications across all .NET platforms — Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET and Silverlight, with innovative UI components; a range of value-added services including UI testing tools, support, training and consulting; and UX tools-Quince and Quince Pro.

GrapeCity

Founded in 1980, GrapeCity is an Award-Winning Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a Premier Visual Studio Industry Partner and the world’s largest provider of developer components and tools. Along with Data Dynamics ActiveReports and FarPoint Spread, our PowerTools line of products typically are deep in functionality, unleash real business value and are driven by an unwavering commitment to the highest quality standards. We have more than 850 employees and tens of thousands of global customers.

For over 25 years, GrapeCity has provided enterprises around the world with state-of-the-art developer tools and components, software services and solutions.

Accusoft Pegasus

Accusoft Pegasus provides imaging software development kits (SDKs) for application development. Our code works reliably behind the scenes when an application calls for capturing, storing, or viewing images. Use our SDKs to build document, photo, and healthcare applications. Features include barcode, compression, DICOM, editing, forms processing, OCR, PDF, scanning, video, and viewing.

Technology is delivered for multiple 32-bit/64-bit platforms and development environments, including Microsoft Windows, .NET, .NET CF, Silverlight, ASP.NET, ActiveX, Java, Linux, and Sun Solaris.

OpenMake Software

OpenMake Software is the trusted advisor for enterprise continuous integration and build management solutions. Over 100,000 users at 400 companies worldwide use its two principal products, Mojo and Meister. These solutions enable customers to implement and manage distributed ALM processes that reduce software development cycle times, increase developer productivity, and provide management with actionable audit and traceability reports.

LearnDevNow

LearnDevNow.com provides the most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers – all for less than the cost of just one technical book!

The library includes 2,500 videos (over 1,100 hours of training) for Visual Studio, SQL Server, SharePoint and more, all written and presented by Microsoft MVPs and experts. Future video releases are included free and include Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint 2010, ASP.NET 4.0, WPF and MVC 2.0.

Whether used for in-depth training within a particular subject matter, or as on-the-spot reference material, the LearnDevNow.com library is an affordable, engaging way to stay on cutting edge of new technologies.

Visual Guard

Novalys is an ISV specializing in security solutions, featuring Visual Guard.

Visual Guard is a security solution that combines end-user authentication and permissions.

You can enable Windows Authentication or opt for User name/Password authentication with a ready to use login form. Then, you can grant application permissions to user accounts.

When a user opens the application, their access rights are automatically applied.

A dedicated UI allows you to manage roles and create permissions for all your applications.

Advanced features include dynamic permissions created without coding, web administration console for business administrators, security log and reports, and security deployment features.

InishTech

InishTech Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services is a software activation service that enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to adopt flexible licensing terms for their customers. InishTech SLP Services has a unique protection method that protects your application and licensing, allowing you to get to market faster while increasing customer compliance.

You need innovative ways to License, Manage and Protect your products. SLP Services are designed provide flexible license models to increase sales and reduce development costs, while also protecting intellectual property and safeguarding against revenue leakage. SLP Services also helps ISVs reduce development, test and QA costs.

Quest Software

Now more than ever, organizations need to work smart and improve efficiency. Quest Software creates and supports smart systems management products—helping our customers solve everyday IT challenges easier and faster.

At Quest, we focus on our customers first. Our products and people are dedicated to helping customers manage their critical applications, databases, Windows infrastructure and virtual environments. The combination of our award-winning software and strong customer relationships makes Quest a smart, reliable technology partner.

With consistent annual growth for 10 years, and 100,000 customers, Quest is a stable, global company that is positioned for long-term success.

Windows Phone 7 Series Developer

2010-04-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

Windows Phone 7 Series promises to be an amazing mobile phone operating system given its innovative user interface and functionality, as well as its great development platform upon which you can quickly and easily build games and applications. With a myriad of new devices, a powerful and immersive software platform, and a new marketplace to attract developers and provide easy access to applications, consumer demand for Windows Phones will be high, and developers will quickly adopt the Windows Phone platform to capitalize on this growing mobile marketplace.

Getting Started with Windows Phone

Windows Phone development platform supports both XNA Framework and Silverlight. This unit takes you through the step-by-step creation of your first Windows Phone Silverlight application.

Silverlight for Windows Phone

While Silverlight runs on the phone, there are some differences between Silverlight and Silverlight for the Windows Phone, not to mention some new controls and concepts. This unit focuses on all the new Silverlight controls, concepts, and tools for Windows Phones.

XNA Framework 4.0 for Windows Phones

XNA Game Studio 4.0 supports multiple platforms, including XBox 360, several Windows OS versions, and the latest addition, Windows Phone. While this unit doesn't offer a complete XNA Framework tutorial, it does introduce you to the basics of programming XNA Framework games with XNA Game Studio for Windows Phone.

Palm Pre games

2010-03-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Experience Gameloft's top games on your Palm Pre! Asphalt 5, The Oregon Trail, Let's Golf! and Brain Challenge are now available.

Eric Rudder Playing Indiana Jones On Stage

2010-03-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

TechEd Middle East Dubai 2010 Opening Keynote, Eric Rudder

Windows Phone 7 Series theme for iPhone and iPod touch!

2010-03-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Windows Phone 7 Demo

2010-03-03T15:44:00.001-08:00

Windows Phone 7 Series Demo

2010-03-03T15:41:00.000-08:00

The entire Windows Phone 7 Series demo, live on Sways Innovations.

Windows Phone 7 vs iPhone

2010-03-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Windows Mobile & Windows Phone 7

2010-03-03T15:37:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has said that Windows Mobile users will not be able to upgrade to its spiffy new Windows Phone 7. To discuss this move, we talked to JG Mason.

Sygic Aura - First official preview

2010-03-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

Professional car navigation meets pedestrian-centric application with social networking in a single real 3-D futuristic product from Sygic, equipped with voice-guided voice assistance in more than 20 languages. Within Sygics AURA, a comprehensive pre-installed data set encompasses detailed maps, far-reaching points of interest, geo-tagged wiki and city guide information.

Full 3-D content displays elevation, buildings and landscapes attractively, and AURA responds smoothly to changing location, whether users are driving or walking. Sygics proven car navigation delivers quick route calculation, turn-by-turn features, lane assistance, highway symbols, speed alerts and safety cameras. AURA features contacts and buddy search with a direct call option. A community package permits AURA users to share experiences with other Aura users, by voting on a local restaurant or far-flung destinations.

Sygics choice of a pre-loaded data strategy joins cheap on-board storage with more stable, reliable and faster knowledge access than any Internet connection worldwide. For users who want to enjoy the online experience, AURA offers connected features for real-time information. By switching the data stream on, one can chat, see a friends location or status, share a location or a pre-selected destination, and look up weather or traffic information.

AURA is designed for the next generation of smartphones and personal navigation devices such as the iPhone, Google Android, Windows Phone 7 and others.

LG show first Windows Phone 7 handset

2010-03-03T15:33:00.001-08:00

It may be a long way from actually hitting the streets, but LG have given the first glimpse of a Windows Phone 7 handset, due for release later this year.

LG Windows Phone 7 Revealed!

2010-03-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7

2010-03-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

At Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took center stage to announce a redesign of its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. The fresh approach is a response to Microsofts dwindling market.

Windows Phone 7 Series

2010-03-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

Exclusive First Windows Phone 7 Series partner device unveiled with video!

2010-03-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 @ MWC 2010

2010-03-03T15:23:00.001-08:00

Windows Phone 7

2010-03-03T15:20:00.001-08:00

This Windows Phone 7 UI Skin Makes WinMo Phones Feel Young

2010-03-02T15:20:00.001-08:00

Palm Updates Guidance

2010-02-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

Palm, Inc. today indicated that it expects that revenues for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010 will be in the range of $285 million to $310 million on a GAAP basis and in the range of $300 million to $320 million on a non-GAAP basis.1 Revenues for the quarter and full year are being impacted by slower than expected consumer adoption of the company's products that has resulted in lower than expected order volumes from carriers and the deferral of orders to future periods. Accordingly, Palm expects fiscal year 2010 revenues to be well below its previously forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. The company will provide more detail on its financial results during Palm's third-quarter financial results conference call currently scheduled for Thursday, March 18.

"Palm webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today, and our work to evolve the platform and bring industry-leading technology to market continues. However, driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated," said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer. "Our carrier partners remain committed, and we are working closely with them to increase awareness and drive sales of our differentiated Palm products."

The Company expects to close its third fiscal quarter with a cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance in excess of $500 million.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. creates intuitive and powerful mobile experiences that enable consumers and businesses to connect to their information in more useful and usable ways. The company's groundbreaking Palm webOS platform, designed exclusively for mobile application, introduces true multitasking and Palm Synergy, which brings your information from the many places it resides into a single, more comprehensive view of your life.

If you're serious about photography or video, look no further than SanDisk

2010-01-18T23:51:00.000-08:00

Imagine always having the power and performance necessary to capture that perfect shot or film that spur-of-the-moment scene. Proven durability and a great warranty are icing on the cake!

Toshiba TG01

2010-01-16T20:02:00.001-08:00

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 Movie

2010-01-14T21:52:00.001-08:00

Synopsis

“Alvin and The Chipmunks 2” brings back our favorite furry brothers, Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Those world’s favorite talking, singing and dancing chipmunks meet their matches when the Chipettes show up in school. When the boys and girls go head to head, it’s twice the mischief, mayhem and fun as they ultimately team up to save the day in this big family comedy event!

Director : Betty Thomas
Cast : Jason Lee, Cameron Richardson
Duration : 89 mins

Black Ransom Movie

2010-01-14T21:47:00.000-08:00

Synopsis

Director : KEUNG KWOK MAN
Cast : SIMON YAM, MIU KIU WAI, FALA CHAN
Duration : 93 mins

Best of Times Movie

2010-01-14T21:42:00.000-08:00

Synopsis

Director : ---
Cast : Arak Amornsuppasiri, Yarinda Boonnag
Duration : 118 mins

Mr Brain Theme Song

2010-01-08T07:55:00.001-08:00

Verizon Palm Pre Plus Hands-On

2010-01-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

Acer neoTouch S200 unboxing

2010-01-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays

2009-12-29T05:49:00.000-08:00

Visio 2010 and Windows Touch

2009-12-29T05:36:00.000-08:00

Visio 2010: Advanced diagramming made simple.

2009-12-29T05:33:00.001-08:00

The advanced diagramming tools of Visio 2010 help you simplify complexity with intuitive and professional-looking diagrams, dynamic and data-driven visuals, and new ways to share on the Web in real-time. Simply connect your diagram to popular data files (such as Excel), publish your data-linked diagram to SharePoint, and provide access to others on the web.

New Windows Phones

2009-11-11T19:05:00.001-08:00

Microsoft is unveiling the next generation of Windows phones, which will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and feature a new user interface and a richer browsing experience. In addition, Windows phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video and contacts to the Web; and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications that can be controlled from both the phone and the Web.

Help protect your phone's information

2009-11-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

Ever wish that somebody, anybody could force your lost and (of course) in silent-mode mobile phone to ring out loud until you find it? Microsoft My Phone has an ingenious new service that does just that. Although this premium feature will eventually cost a small amount, it’s available for free through November 30, 2009!

Most My Phone features, like backing up your phone’s content automatically, are available at no charge. Back up the information on your phone today!

Prince of Tears Movie

2009-10-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

It happened in 1950s Taiwan, during the period called “White Terror,” when an anti-Communist campaign swept up the island in a hysteria. On one autumn afternoon, two sisters returned from school to find their once-happy home ransacked by military police and their parents arrested and accused of being Communist spies. The film follows a quartet of characters - the dashing air force officer father, his beautiful devoted wife, a mysterious scar-faced bureaucrat and a general’s glamorous wife. Their lives and loves intertwined until everything erupts in a rhapsody.
Amid life in that turbulent era, friendship, passion, high-minded ideals and dignity are all put on trial in the court room of human desire.

Director : ---
Cast : ---
Duration : 123 mins

Rebellion Movie

2009-10-07T20:01:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Notorious of its unpeace, the East district is ruled by five gangs. The five leaders, Jimmy, Café (Paul Wong), Jupiter (Conroy Chan), Sa Chi (Jun Kung) and Man Sing share the same power over the area. Seemingly, everything remains calm, each gang owning its territory and conflicts rarely rising in-between. However, as Jimmy’s wife Wah (Ada Choi) is so talented in managing their business which has been expanding in recent years, gradually they are the most affluent among all. Adversely, Man Sing is facing down turn of his empire, business shrinking in scale and its power narrowing down.

Director : Herman Yau
Cast : Shawn Yue, Elanne Kong, Chapman To
Duration : 100 mins

Split Second Murders Movie

2009-10-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

Director : Herman Yau
Cast : Kay Tse, Vincy Chan, Baihao Zhou, Yung Cheng, Terence Chi Ieong Tsui, Siu-Wong Fan, Maggie Siu, Weiting Chen, Gin Oy, Andy Hui Chi-On
Duration : 91 mins

Phobia 2 Movie

2009-10-07T01:26:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

The screaming experience from 2008 is about to return again with a portmanteau horror film by the most talented film directors – Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter, Alone, 4BIA – In the Middle), Paween Purijitpanya (Body, 4BIA- Tit for Tat), Songyos Sugmakanan (Dorm, Hormones), Parkpoom Wongpoom (Shutter, Alone, 4BIA – Last Fright), and a new director Visute Poolvoralaks the man behind the success of Shutter, Alone, 4BIA, and Coming Soon.

Director : ---
Cast : ---
Duration : 126 mins

April Bride Movie

2009-10-07T01:04:00.001-07:00

On April 5, 2007, a couple married in a church. At first glance, it was a typical wedding. The bride, however, was suffering from late-stage breast cancer and had been given only a month to live.

Cast: Nana Eikura, Eita, Akira Emoto, Satomi Tezuka, Misako Yasuda
Director: Ryuichi Hiroki
Producer: Takashi Hirano
Director of photography: Koichi Saito
Production designer: Tomoyuki Maruo
Music: Yoshinori Ohashi
Editor: Junichi Kikuchi

HTC Tattoo Brings Android To All

2009-09-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Tattoo embodies three core principles of HTC Sense: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected

HTC Corporation today introduced the HTC Tattoo, an Android-based phone that brings broad personalization to the masses. With its distinct design and ability to personalize all aspects of the phone, from its hardware to its applications and content, people are able to express themselves and create their own individual mobile experience.

"Everyone wants their own phone to feel like it was specifically made for them. The Tattoo, with HTC Sense represents an easy way to shape your own distinct mobile experience and really make it your own," said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. "The HTC Tattoo ensures that you can create the most engaging and appropriate mobile experience through simple yet powerful personalization."

HTC Tattoo is the second phone to embody HTC Sense, a mobile experience focused on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. Designed by listening and observing how people live and communicate, HTC Sense revolves around three fundamental principles Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

With HTC Tattoo, you stay close to the important people in your life by integrating your communications and applications including voice calls, emails, texts, photos and status updates into one consolidated view, providing innovative and fun phone experiences.

The stylish HTC Tattoo is small and compact, fitting snugly into your hand or pocket. People are able to design and purchase their own unique covers or search and select from popular cover designs, altering the look of the phone to reflect their mood or individual tastes.

HTC Tattoo integrates Google’s innovative mobile services including: Google Maps, Google Search, Google Mail, and Android Market where users can download thousands of popular applications and games. It also comes complete with a broad variety of hardware features including a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm stereo headset jack and expandable microSD memory.

Availability

The HTC Tattoo will be available in Europe first at the beginning of October, and will roll out in markets around the world in the following months.

About HTC

HTC Corporation is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that is sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498.

Palm, Inc. Announces Closing of Public Offering

2009-09-28T21:19:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today announced the closing of the previously announced public offering of common stock. In total, 23 million shares were sold in the offering for a public offering price of $16.25 per share, including shares subject to the over-allotment option and approximately 2.15 million common shares acquired by Elevation Partners.

"We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of Palm's public equity offering," said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer of Palm. "We achieved all of our objectives and now have a stronger balance sheet, a stronger shareholder base and a stronger foundation for future growth."

Palm received net proceeds of approximately $359.9 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. creates intuitive and powerful mobile experiences that enable consumers and businesses to connect to their information in more useful and useable ways. The company's groundbreaking Palm webOS platform, designed exclusively for mobile application, introduces true multitasking and Palm Synergy, which brings your information from the many places it resides into a single, more comprehensive view of your life.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels, and at Palm online stores.

Palm, webOS and Synergy are trademarks of Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

Lorna's Silence Movie

2009-09-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

The destiny of a woman caught between love and the law of the underworld. Lorna, (Arta Dobroshi), a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, has her sights set on opening a snack bar with her boyfriend, Sokol (Alban Ukaj). In order to do so, she becomes an accomplice in a diabolical plan devised by mobster Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione). Fabio has set up a false marriage between Lorna and Claudy (Jérémie Renier) allowing Lorna to get her Belgian citizenship. However, she is then asked to marry a Russian mafioso who's ready to pay hard cash to also get his hands on those vital Belgian identity papers. Fabio intends to kill Claudy in order to speed up the second marriage. But will Lorna remain silent? the film is the 2 time Palm d’Or recipient (Rosetta / L’enfant) Dardenne brothers’ usual blend of low-key realist cinematography and intensely gripping narrative.

Director : Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Cast : Arta Dobroshi , Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione
Duration : 101 mins

Palm, Inc. Announces Exercise of Over-allotment Option

2009-09-24T21:33:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today announced that the underwriters of its previously announced public offering of common stock have fully exercised their over-allotment option to purchase 3,000,000 additional shares of common stock. The option was granted in connection with the public offering of 20,000,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $16.25 per share. The exercise of the over-allotment option brings the expected total net proceeds of the public offering to $359.9 million. Palm expects to use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes. Palm also reaffirmed its fiscal year 2010 outlook and its planned product and carrier launches in the second half of Palm's fiscal year ending in May 2010.

The offering is being made solely by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. are serving as the joint bookrunners of this offering and RBC Capital Markets is serving as co-manager. A copy of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained by contacting Goldman, Sachs & Co., 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, Attn: Prospectus Department, by calling 866-471-2526, or by emailing prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com, or from J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., 4 Chase Metrotech Center, CS Level, Brooklyn, NY 11425 Attn: Chase Distribution & Support Service, Northeast Statement Processing, by calling 718-242-8002.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. creates intuitive and powerful mobile experiences that enable consumers and businesses to connect to their information in more useful and useable ways. The company's groundbreaking Palm webOS(TM) platform, designed exclusively for mobile application, introduces true multitasking and Palm Synergy(TM), which brings your information from the many places it resides into a single, more comprehensive view of your life.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels, and at Palm online stores.

Palm, webOS and Synergy are trademarks of Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

Palm, Inc. Announces Pricing of Public Offering

2009-09-23T10:30:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today announced that it increased the size of its previously announced public offering of common stock to 20,000,000 shares. The public offering price will be $16.25 per share. The underwriters will also have a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase 3,000,000 additional shares of common stock from Palm at the public offering price. Upon the closing of the offering, Palm will receive net proceeds of approximately $313.1 million, assuming no exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option. Palm expects to use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The offering is being made solely by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. are serving as the joint bookrunners of this offering and RBC Capital Markets is serving as co-manager. A copy of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained by contacting Goldman, Sachs & Co., 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004, Attn: Prospectus Department, by calling 866-471-2526, or by emailing prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com, or from J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., 4 Chase Metrotech Center, CS Level, Brooklyn, NY 11425 Attn: Chase Distribution & Support Service, Northeast Statement Processing, by calling 718-242-8002.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. creates intuitive and powerful mobile experiences that enable consumers and businesses to connect to their information in more useful and useable ways. The company's groundbreaking Palm webOS platform, designed exclusively for mobile application, introduces true multitasking and Palm Synergy, which brings your information from the many places it resides into a single, more comprehensive view of your life.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels, and at Palm online stores.

Palm, Inc. Announces Common Stock Offering

2009-09-18T09:42:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today announced that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, approximately 16 million shares of common stock. In connection with this offering, the underwriters will have an option to purchase up to an additional 2.4 million shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. The company is conducting the offering pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933.

The company plans to use the net proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Elevation Partners has indicated its intention to buy $35 million of Palm shares in the offering, at the publicoffering price.

Palm Reports Q1 FY 2010 Results

2009-09-18T09:41:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today reported that total revenues in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended Aug. 28, 2009, were $68.0 million. Gross profit was ($2.8) million, and gross margin was (4.1) percent. These results include the effects of subscription accounting applied to Palm webOS products as required by GAAP. In accordance with this methodology, revenues and direct cost of revenues for Palm webOS products (currently Palm Pre smartphone) are deferred and recognized over the product's estimated economic life.

To facilitate comparisons to Palm's historical results, Palm has included non-GAAP adjusted measures, which exclude the impact of subscription accounting, stock-based compensation and other items detailed later in this release. The company believes this information will help investors better evaluate its current period performance and trends in its business.

Non-GAAP Adjusted Revenues in the first quarter totaled $360.7 million, non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit was $100.6 million and non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin was 27.9 percent.

Tracking fall football schedules with Windows Mobile

2009-09-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

I’m one of those people who sings “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”—not in December—but in August, when football preseason begins. Between cheering on my beloved Seattle Seahawks and University of Washington Huskies, fall shakes out to be my most hectic season.

Fortunately, my Windows Mobile phone is a big help in the scheduling department. I use it to track pro and college football schedules and to coordinate game day tailgating with friends. There’s also the fall football road trip I take with my beau and a few pals each year to a Huskies away game (preferably in a climate dryer than Seattle's). On the road, my phone comes in handy for everything from locating the nearest rest stop to figuring out when we’ve crossed into a new time zone. Here’s how I keep it all straight.

Tracking pro and college games

Up first, fleshing out my calendar with the Seahawks and Huskies schedules so I don’t make other plans on game days, because I intend to either be at the game or glued to the largest flat screen I can find. To set up your football calendar:

1. Go to your team’s web site, and download the team schedule to your PC’s Microsoft Office Outlook calendar.

2. Sync your PC with your Windows Mobile phone.

3. To access your phone’s calendar, click Menu > All Programs > Calendar. Click Week or Month to change the view. Here’s the month view:

Next up, inviting friends to tailgate with my boyfriend and me at the Huskies home games (we have season tickets):

1. Open the game date, and select your game from the list of calendar appointments.

2. Click Menu, and select Edit. Scroll down to Attendees, and press the right navigation key.

3. Select Add Optional Attendees. Scroll to the contact you want to invite to your tailgate party, and click Select. To add more attendees, rinse and repeat.

4. Click Done.

5. Scroll down to the Notes section of the Edit screen, and type a message to your fellow fans:

6. Click Done. A message appears on your phone asking if you want to save changes and send an update to the attendees you’ve added to the item. Click Yes. Your friends will get your invitation to tailgate as an e-mail message, and if they accept, the item will automatically be added to their Outlook calendars.

Planning an away-game road trip

On road trips, my Windows Mobile phone has more uses than a Swiss Army Knife. For starters, the GPS feature has saved me from getting lost—and from having to ask a gas station attendant for directions (over my boyfriend’s protests)—on numerous occasions.

I plan to use the AT&T Maps GPS application that came on my phone to find the place where we’re staying in Tempe, Arizona, to see the Huskies trounce Arizona State this fall. (You may have a different GPS application on your phone. Alternatively, you can download Bing for mobile directly to your phone at http://m.bing.com/download/ and use its GPS features, which include a voice-activation option.)
Here’s how AT&T Maps works:

1. Click Start > All Programs > AT&T GPS.
2. Click Contacts, and select the person you’re visiting or the hotel where you're staying. (Ensure that the contact's street address is included in the contact profile.)
3. From within the contact's profile, click Menu and then select Drive To.
4. A message appears which warns you not to use the application while driving. Press Go. Select Get Route. Here’s what the application looks like:

Note AT&T Maps offers verbal directions, too—a feature which is extra handy if you’re alone. But, to be safe, you still need to launch the program before you start driving.

5. For a step-by-step summary of your route—complete with turns, mileage, and estimated driving time—click Options and select Route Summary. This is the view you’ll see:

6. If you need gas, coffee, or an ATM along the way, click Options and select Search Along. Then, choose your pleasure, and click Go.

For a detail-minded traveler like me, the accessories included in Windows Mobile (accessible through Start > All Programs) are another godsend. I’ve used the calculator to figure out how much gas money each passenger owes the driver, the alarm to make sure we don’t sleep through the game, the tasks and voice notes features to make the world’s most comprehensive tailgating shopping lists, and more.

I also love the Windows Mobile World Time feature, which lets you pick three time zones to check whenever you want and lets you adjust them for Daylight Saving Time. (The thought of never again having to wonder what time it actually is in Arizona—most of which does not observe Daylight Saving Time—thrills me no end.)

To set a time zone in the world clock:

1. Scroll up or down to select a time zone to change. Click Menu, and select Edit.

2. Press the navigation key to the right or left to select the location on the world map that you want. To turn off Daylight Saving Time, click DST Off.

Note Daylight Saving Time ends at 2:00 a.m. local time on the first Sunday of November each year (November 1 in 2009).

3. To save the time zone you've selected, click Done. To change that time zone to your phone’s default, click Local time. Your new local time will appear at the bottom of the world map on the screen.

Of course, no game day would be complete without a last-minute weather and player injury check, both accessible from my browser’s Home page (Start > All Programs > Internet Explorer). And if, during the game, I want to check any team stats or news or to see the real-time scores of other games being played that day, I need look no further than my favorite sports page. To add my favorite sports page to my browser’s Home page, I scroll to the bottom of the sports page and select the Add to Home Page link. (This is a feature of AT&T MEdia Net; you may have a different browser application on your phone.)

Thanks to my Windows Mobile phone, I can enjoy the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”—cheering on my teams, tailgating with my friends, and taking a perfectly planned football road trip. If only my Windows Mobile phone could guarantee that my favorite teams will win every game…

Trick or Cheat Movie

2009-09-10T01:46:00.000-07:00

Director : ---
Cast : G.E.M, WILLIAM CHAN, MICHELLE, RENEE LEE
Duration : 94 mins

The Unbelievable Movie

2009-09-10T01:40:00.001-07:00

Director : ---
Cast : ---
Duration : 81 mins

The Nun Movie

2009-09-10T00:33:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Six 15-year old girls are boarders in a sinister school where they spend every single day terrorised and maltreated by a fearsome nun. One day the nun discovers that one of the girls is pregnant. Totally scandalised by this turn of events, she tries to purify her. Her friends watch as their friend is tortured and, consumed by their own fear and anger, they decide to help her.
The nun was never seen again and the school suddenly closed a few weeks afterwards.
17 years later, each of the 6 girls has rebuilt their individual lives in their own way. They have all followed their own paths through life hoping that by not having any contact with each other, they would become distanced from this terrible secret and manage to bury it for ever.

Director : Luis de la Madrid
Cast : Anita Briem, Cristina Piaget
Duration : 102 mins

Crazy Racer Movie

2009-09-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Following in the hyper–kinetic comedic style of Crazy Stone, Ning Hao’s Crazy Racer follows the misadventures of Geng Hao, a former champion cyclist who is barred from competition for unknowingly failing a drug test. Now a bicycle courier, he must think on his feet (er - wheels) when he stumbles into an elaborate plot involving drug traffickers, ruthless businessmen, a Thai kickboxer and far too many mistaken identities. Told with inventive characters and breathless slapstick timing, Crazy Racer outdoes Guy Ritchie’s oeuvres at every turn.

Director : Ning Hao
Cast : ---
Duration : 105 mins

Microsoft OneApp Demo With Tim McDonough, Senior Director, Unlimited Potential Group

2009-08-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

Palm Announces Q1 FY 2010 Results Conference Call Details

2009-08-27T01:47:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today said it will announce its first-quarter fiscal year 2010 financial results on Thursday, Sept. 17, shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Pacific), followed by a conference call for the public at 4:30 p.m. Eastern (1:30 p.m. Pacific). The conference call will be hosted by Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, and Doug Jeffries, chief financial officer.

Investors and other interested parties are encouraged to listen to the call via audio webcast at Palm's Investor Relations website. Investors wishing to listen to the conference call via telephone may dial 866.700.6979 (domestic) or 617.213.8836 (international). There is no pass code required for the live call. A telephone replay of the conference call will be available through Sept. 24, 2009. The dial-in number for the replay will be 888.286.8010 (domestic) and 617.801.6888 (international). The pass code 41831354 is required for the replay.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage their lives on the go. The company's products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm Pre, Palm Treo and Palm Centro phones, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm online stores.

Palm, Treo, Pre and Centro are trademarks of Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

Happily Ever After Movie

2009-08-24T20:43:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Nan Au-Yeung and Sze Tso-chi share the same birthday, go to the same school, love photography, and are just as competitive. But they did not know of each other’s existence until they “crossed swords” at a debate tournament. And they both felt as if the fairytale prince and princess finally found each other.

Director : Y.Y. Kong, Azrael Chung
Cast : Ken Hung, Michelle Wai, Carlos Chan
Duration : 92 mins

High Road Sports and HTC Announce Partnership to debut at 2009 Tour de France

2009-08-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

"Team Columbia-HTC" will ride the 2009 Tour de France under new three-year sponsorship agreement

High Road Sports, Inc., the owner of Team Columbia-Highroad and HTC Corporation, a designer of mobile phones, today announced a three-year sponsorship agreement that prominently places the HTC brand at the starting line of the 2009 Tour de France in Monaco.

"High Road Sports is elated to be partnering with HTC, a recognized leader and growing global brand in mobile phones," said Bob Stapleton, Owner, Team Columbia-HTC. "Team Columbia-HTC is now sponsored by two leading companies in their related industries and we are ready to show the growing power of our partnership at this years Tour de France.

The team currently called Columbia-Highroad, and known in 2008 and 2009 as the team with the most victories in professional cycling, will compete as "Team Columbia-HTC" and will present the new team uniform in Monaco on July 3, the day before the start of the 96th Tour de France.

"The HTC High Road Sports partnership is a great match of like minded organizations driven by innovation, excellence and competitiveness and we are excited about the opportunity to communicate HTCs brand value through the great sport of cycling," said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. "HTCs sponsorship of Team Columbia-HTC is one step in HTCs commitment to increasing its global brand value and recognition."

Recognized in Business Weeks 2009 InfoTech 100 as the 13th best-performing tech company in the world, HTC focuses on putting people at the centre by making their phones work in a more simple and natural way. This drives HTCs choice of partners, product creations and platforms. HTCs global team of designers, researchers and engineers quietly listen and observe people with their phones and in life so they can better understand and anticipate peoples needs to create a more personalized experience. This is central to HTCs culture, spanning across its more than 9,000 employees worldwide.

The three-year sponsorship agreement runs through 2011 and includes both the mens and womens professional cycling teams, which are top ranked worldwide and have won over 80 races combined in 2009 – the most wins of any competing team.

About HTC

HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that is sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498.

About High Road Sports

High Road Sports, Inc., based in San Luis Obispo, California, operates elite-level professional mens and womens cycling teams that have won more victories than any other teams in the 2008 and 2009. High Roads athletes include 36 men and women, and staff members from 20 different nations making it the most international team in the sport.

High Road is founded on the principles of clean and fair sport, and focuses on developing young athletes under veteran leadership and an experienced management team. The team is a leader in best methods and practices, technology development, and self-improvement.

HTC sense debuts on new HTC Hero

2009-08-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, today debuted HTC Sense, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones beginning with the new HTC Hero. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, Hero introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.

HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly listening and observing how people live and communicate.

"HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to the people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of todays phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life," said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. "HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use, leaving them saying, it just makes sense."

HTC Hero

HTC Hero continues HTCs leadership in cutting-edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality. Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while youre on a call. The HTC Hero is built to last beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display.

With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including a GPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable MicroSD memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

HTC Sense

Built on a culture of innovation and a passion to enhance peoples lives, HTC shapes the mobile experience around the individual. Debuting on the HTC Hero and available on all new HTC devices moving forward, Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine

Make It Mine, is about feeling your HTC phone was created for and by you. To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organize how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. For some, this means adding glance view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times. HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called scenes that enables you to create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.

Stay Close

Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls, emails, texts, photos, status updates and more. HTC Sense takes a different approach by integrating these communication channels and applications into one single view enabling you to stay closer to your important people. With HTC Sense, friends Facebook status updates and photos along with their Flickr photos are included along side their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

Discover the Unexpected

Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is focused on providing a variety of these simple yet innovative experiences on your HTC phone that will sometimes bring you moments of joy and delight. It can be something as basic as turning the phone over to silence a ring or as simple as improving the smart dialler for making calls quicker. HTC Sense also includes perspectives, a new way for viewing your content such as email, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.

Availability

The HTC Hero will be available to people across Europe in July and in Asia later in the summer. A distinct North American version will be available later in 2009.

Adobe and HTC Bring Flash Platform to Android

2009-08-21T03:45:00.000-07:00

New HTC Hero Delivers More Complete Web Browsing Experience with Adobe Flash Technology

Adobe Systems Incorporated and HTC, a global designer of mobile phones, today announced that the new HTC Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe Flash Platform technology. The new phone delivers a more complete Web browsing experience and provides access to a broad variety of Flash technology based content available on the Web today.

"As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go." said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future."

The new HTC Hero is a key element of the HTC experience and a new generation of HTC mobile phones and devices. Users can browse and discover a broad set of Web content and applications not supported by mobile phones in the past. People can also view YouTube videos using Flash technology, and enable full screen viewing mode by simply double tapping the screen.

"Adobe Flash is an important core technology for people interacting and experiencing the Web, it is only natural to be offering it on the new HTC Hero first," said John Wang, chief marketing officer, HTC Corporation. "We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Adobe and to bringing Flash Player 10 support to our phones in the future."

The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript® 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC Hero provides a seamless audio experience. Support for Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs enables higher quality video and playback of existing Web content. A demo of the user experience enabled by the Flash Platform on the HTC Hero and the Android operating system.

HTC Participates in Open Screen Project

HTC also announced its participation in the Open Screen Project, a broad industry effort to deliver a consistent runtime across screens and to provide access to all Flash technology based Web content in the future. As a contributor to the initiative, HTC is collaborating with Adobe and more than 25 other industry leaders to bring Flash Player 10 and full Web browsing to the next generation of Android based smartphones and other mobile computing platforms and devices.

About Adobe Flash Platform

The Adobe Flash Platform is a complete system of integrated tools, frameworks, clients and servers for the development of Web applications, content and video that runs consistently across operating systems and devices. Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops, and Adobe Flash technology is the No.1 platform for video on the Web. In addition, the mobile runtime has shipped and delivered Flash technology based content on close to 40 percent of all new mobile phones and devices in 2008.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium.

About HTC

HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that is sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498.

HTC and CHT Unveiled First Traditional Chinese-language Android-Powered Device HTC Magic

2009-08-21T03:38:00.000-07:00

Taiwan’s leading operator Chunghwa Telecom and HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled the world’s first traditional Chinese-language Android-powered mobile phone, the HTC Magic. The HTC Magic will be available on various price plans offering CHT customers an unbeatable mobile internet experience.

Providing broad flexibility for personalization

The HTC Magic has a 3.2” HVGA touch screen display and features a trackball for easy access, a 3.2 mega-pixel camera and GPS. It also provides access to Android Market, where users can find and download unique applications to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.

“HTC is proud to launch the world’s first mobile phone powered by Android. The introduction of HTC Magic represents another demonstration of HTC’s leading position in mobile technology, mobile entertainment, and highly personalized mobile devices. It is our ambition to fulfill the needs of various types of customers. Also, we are very pleased to partner with CHT to offer local customers a superior mobile internet experience,” said Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC Corporation.

“CHT is delighted to collaborate with HTC again in launching the world’s first traditional Chinese-language device powered by Android, the HTC Magic. We offer a variety of mobile services far more than just voice. Through our popular mPro services, with a simple click on the home screen, HTC Magic users can access a broad range of information including the latest news, stocks, weather and horoscopes. mPro also allows users to synchronize Exchange mail, calendar and contacts with their PC. In addition, through Hami services on the home screen tailored for the HTC Magic, users can enjoy a ticketing and ringback tone sampling service, or watching highlights of important SBL or NBA games. CHT aims not only to enrich customers’ personal lives but also get their work done!” said Dr. Shyue-Ching Lu Chairman & CEO of CHT.

Superior support and unbeatable mobile internet experience

HTC Magic features a trackball with zoom in/out function for easy navigation and internet browsing. It also provides popular Google applications such as Google Search and Google Maps.

Multiple email options

The HTC Magic offers a variety of email options such as Gmail, POP3 and IMAP as well as Google Talk for instant messaging. It helps users to separate their personal and work emails for efficient communication.

Android Market

From Android Market HTC Magic users can search and download unique applications such as MP3 applications, calendar, Skype, and mobile phone games to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.

The HTC Magic is scheduled to be available in Taiwan from May 2009 with the suggested price of NT$20,900. Customers can ensure that they are the first to receive information about the HTC Magic’s availability, pricing and pre-ordering by registering their interest via CHT’s website from today. HTC will also deliver a series of HTC Magic consumer experience gatherings starting from May.

About HTC

Founded in 1997, HTC Corporation (HTC) is a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design. Since its establishment, HTC has developed strong R&D capabilities, pioneered many new designs and product innovations and launched state-of-the-art mobile phones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the US, Asia and around the world. HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498.

Vodafone and HTC unveil Android-powered HTC Magic

2009-08-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

The stylish new handset is exclusive to Vodafone in the UK, Spain, Germany and France (SFR) and available on a non-exclusive basis in Italy. Customers can ensure that they are the first to receive information about the HTC Magic’s availability, pricing and pre-ordering by registering their interest via their local Vodafone website from today.

•Vodafone extends world-class range of Internet phones with latest Android-powered smartphone from HTC
•HTC Magic smartphone exclusive to Vodafone customers initially in UK, Spain, Germany and France (SFR) and non-exclusively in Italy. More countries to follow.
•Online registration for early information on pricing and availability now open for customers
•Android platform gives customers easy-to-access downloads from Vodafone and Android Market

Vodafone and HTC Corporation today announced the HTC Magic smartphone, Vodafone’s first Android-powered mobile, which will be available in the spring.

The introduction of the HTC Magic is the result of a successful relationship between Vodafone and HTC, and Vodafone’s joining, late last year, of the Open Handset Alliance.

A tablet-style device, with a sleek design and unprecedented compactness for a smartphone featuring the Android platform, the HTC Magic enables a superior mobile internet experience, providing broad flexibility for personalisation via the application-rich Android Market. Available in white in the UK, Spain and France, black in Germany and in both colours in Italy, the HTC Magic will be for sale in several other Vodafone markets over the next few months.

“Delivering an unbeatable mobile internet experience for our customers is a priority for Vodafone, so we are very excited to be introducing our first Android-powered smartphone in the spring,” says Patrick Chomet, Global Director of Terminals, Vodafone Group. “Following our joining of the Open Handset Alliance, we have worked very closely with HTC to bring this cool new phone to the market. Our customers want to access a wide range of the most attractive mobile devices to help them make the most of their time - the HTC Magic helps meet that need.”

“The HTC Magic embodies the compact style and sophistication for which HTC has come to be known, with the powerful and intuitive internet experience for which the Android platform was designed,” says Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corporation. “We are proud of our partnership with Vodafone and excited about making the Android-powered HTC Magic available to Vodafone customers in Europe.”

"The announcement of the HTC Magic is an important step for Android and the Open Handset Alliance," says Andy Rubin, Senior Director of Mobile Platforms at Google. "With it, Vodafone is opening up the mobile web for consumers across Europe and giving more third-party developers a platform on which they can build the next wave of killer applications."

Available for free on various price plans, the HTC Magic has a 3.2” HVGA touch screen display and features a trackball and navigational buttons for quick, easy access. The HTC Magic includes a variety of email options such as Google Mail, POP3 and IMAP as well as Google Talk for instant messaging.

The HTC Magic has a variety of powerful mobile internet capabilities beginning with an Android-optimised Webkit browser. It also features the popular Google applications, Google Maps and Google Search as well as favourites like YouTube. In addition, Android Market allows for quick and easy downloading of games and applications utilising Vodafone’s fast and reliable network.

Britney Spears Photo: August

2009-08-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Laughing Gor Turning Point Movie

2009-08-14T18:40:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Brother Laughing (Michael Tse Tin Wah) is supposedly an undercover police officer who has infiltrated a triad organization. During a drug-trafficking operation he is caused by Superintendent Poon (Felix Wong Yuet Wa).
Before he became a police officer, Brother Laughing was a member of the triads and worked for the big boss man No. 1 (Anthony Wong Chau Sang). No. 1 was very good to Laughing, and Laughing looked up to No. 1 as his elder brother. In order to strengthen his business and illegal activities, No. 1 arranges for Laughing to join the Police Force and become his mole to gather information about the plans and counter-plans for operations by the police.

Laughing graduated from Police Academy with outstanding results but before he was assigned to a post as a police officer, his “bad boy” image attracted the attention of the Head of District Anti-Triad Squad, Superintendent Sin (Yuen Biao) who arranges his assignment as an undercover cop to infiltrate the mob syndicate.

Laughing was now a “double” mole. No. 1 was happy with this turn of events as Laughing was assigned to infiltrate the “mob” of his triad rival sibling (Francis Ng Chun Yu). To further complicate the situation, Laughing falls in love with Francis’ sister, Karen (Fala Chen).

How will Laughing contend with the law, the triad brotherhood, and his love affair? No matter which camp he sides with, he is doomed to be a traitor to the other. Which path will Laughing ultimately choose to follow?

Director : Herman Yau
Cast : Michael Tse, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng

FC Barcelona Scores with Tour of Microsoft

2009-08-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

Players, coaches, and management of the world-renowned Football Club Barcelona visited Microsoft's Redmond headquarters Tuesday as part of the club's U.S. tour. Wednesday night, FC Barcelona, also called FCB, FC Barça, or Barça, played a friendly game against the Xbox-sponsored Seattle Sounders Football Club and won 4-0 before a record-breaking crowd of 67,000 at Qwest Field.

Cameras flashed, and a small crowd cheered as Football Club Barcelona players filed off of buses and into Microsoft's Executive Briefing Center (EBC), where they spent more than two hours touring the Home of the Future and interacting with Surface machines and Xbox Project Natal.

Once off their buses, there was no flying below the radar for the internationally famous soccer players, who walked around the EBC clad in matching neon yellow shirts and navy-colored jackets and shorts. A small crowd who had caught wind of the team's visit waited outside, memorabilia and Sharpie markers in hand, hoping for a glimpse of their favorite players, or better yet, an autograph or photograph.

"I've been a Barça fan since '92," said Microsoft employee Rod Lopez.

"I was born with a Barcelona shirt on," said employee Mohamad Arabo, one-upping his friend. Arabo had a jersey and ball he hoped to get signed.

The men found out about the team's visit to Redmond because they closely follow the FC Barcelona Web site, which mentioned the team would be visiting Microsoft's Redmond campus on Tuesday afternoon. "It's the best players in the world coming here," Lopez said. "Barça is the best because they play the way the game is supposed to be played. They are the masters of their craft."

Their favorite player: Lionel Messi. "He's the best player in the world by far," Lopez said.

"I think I have a man crush on him," Arabo said. Both men said they had tickets to see the Barça-Sounders game.

Inside the EBC, the Barça players and staff, followed closely by dozens of local and international journalists, were welcomed by Microsoft executives. Tour guide Oscar Murillo led the players through the Home of the Future, explaining in Spanish details of the technology and innovations that enhance the concept house. The model home is complete with a front door, entry/foyer, kitchen, family room, dining room, entertainment room, and bedroom. Murillo showed the players a talking front door, an interactive kitchen experience where the computer provides recipe help projected onto the kitchen counter, a Surface dining room table where the whole family can play a game together, a children's bedroom with digital wallpaper, and a den with lighting and wall illustrations that respond special-effects style when Murillo reads a children's book aloud.

Next, SpawnPoint Studios studio manager Shannon Loftis, who works for Microsoft game studios, showed the players a new Xbox game due this fall, Forza Motorsports, and Project Natal, which allows users to bypass the game controller and interact with an Xbox 360 using gestures and voice activation.

The players were a bit shy about volunteering to play games in front of the group, but with some coaxing, defender Gerard Piqué Bernabeu accepted the challenge. First Piqué, as he is known, raced a Lamborghini on a mountainous track, making his teammates groan every time he hit orange cones or other cars on the raceway. Then Piqué played Ricochet, a Project Natal demonstration game where players try to use their arms, legs, and body to hit balls and break walls. His teammates chuckled and jeered as the balls on-screen hit him in the arms and legs, and even head. Other members of the FC Barça management followed, much to the entertainment of the soccer players, who applauded.

Thierry Henry, largely considered one of the top forwards in the world, stood in the back of the room smiling at the scene. Henry said he used to play video games, "a long, long time ago," and added that he had already seen a demonstration for Project Natal. "It's great," he said.

Dennis Durkin, a Microsoft general manager in gaming finance, said it was fun to see all types of people enjoying Project Natal, be it professional soccer players or team managers and their wives. "Fun is what it's all about," Durkin said. "It was pretty amazing. These are world-class athletes, and we are pretty excited to show them some world-class technology."

Orlando Ayala, Microsoft senior vice president, and Carlos Grau, general manager in Catalonia, Spain, helped host the campus tour. Grau said FC Barcelona is a growing Microsoft customer, using products including Office, Exchange Server, and soon SharePoint. The club is currently pursuing other Microsoft technology as well. "They are already known as a very innovative club, but I think they are looking for even more opportunities in the future," Grau said.

FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta said one of his main goals since arriving in 2003 was to modernize the club. "We need it not just for being efficient and faster and to execute the direction we are taking, but I think it's important to match the way the world is progressing," Laporta said, adding that access to technology is just as important for the fortunate as for the less fortunate.

Laporta said FC Barcelona is deeply rooted in the community. The club's slogan of "Mes que un club," which means "More than a club," refers in part to the way it has passed on corporate sponsors. Instead, its red-and-blue jerseys are emblazoned with UNICEF, a worldwide charity. "I believe the evolution of technology makes it possible for society to be better," he said.

FC Barcelona's Microsoft visit and U.S. tour come after the most successful season in 110 years. The club won the Copa del Rey in Spain, the Spanish League, and the Union of European Football Associations Champions League.

Marc Drieu, a board member for Microsoft Soccer League, said FC Barcelona's popularity comes from its long-standing success, its major victories, its support of UNICEF, and "contrary to other big club teams in Europe, [Barça] prides themselves on developing great players, instead of just buying them."

"Finally, they simply play the most beautiful, flowing soccer we've seen in 20 years," said Drieu, who was born in the suburbs of France and has been playing soccer for 40 years. "So, if you combine all those elements, you'll realize that for the soccer community in the Pacific Northwest and at Microsoft, having Barça visiting is a rare opportunity."

There is a vibrant soccer culture at Microsoft, both in its avid soccer fans worldwide and its soccer league, where dozens of nationalities are represented. Though soccer is slow to catch on in the United States, Drieu is glad to see Seattle embracing the world's game and FC Barcelona. "As kids in Europe and Central and South America, we mostly live for soccer. We play it in the streets, in the parks, on the pavement, down between the tower blocks, and in the parking lots," Drieu said. "We live for it."

Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 Makes Everyday Tasks Easier with Smart Features for Windows 7

2009-08-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

More than seven in 10 Americans have felt discomfort from computer use, so today Microsoft Corp. debuts the ergonomist-approved Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000, which utilizes a Comfort Curve layout that encourages natural wrist posture with a slight six-degree curve. This new desktop set combines the Microsoft Comfort Curve keyboard layout with a soft-touch palm rest to make the PC experience more comfortable. Since the Comfort Curve design launched five years ago, more than 10 million units have been sold, and the design’s ease of use continues to draw praise, with 94 percent of users recommending the keyboards. To complement the comfort, the Microsoft Hardware Group also created smart one-touch features for Windows 7 to help consumers make the most of their new Windows 7-based PCs.

The ergonomist-approved Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 utilizes a Comfort Curve layout that encourages natural wrist posture with a slight six-degree curve.
Click for high-res version.

“People are spending more time on computers than ever before, so comfort is very important,” said Dan Odell, lead ergonomist and user researcher at Microsoft Hardware. “A Comfort Curve keyboard, like the Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000, provides an easy way to improve your typing ergonomics while maintaining your productivity.”

Full Package: Comfort, Style and BlueTrack Technology

The design elements of the keyboard enhance its look and feel with an updated soft-touch palm rest; low-profile quiet touch keys; and a contoured, compact shape that looks great on any desk. The included Wireless Mouse 5000, with rubber side grips and an ambidextrous shape for comfort in either hand, features Microsoft BlueTrack Technology, which lets consumers go anywhere and work with confidence on more surfaces than when using optical and laser mice. Both the mouse and keyboard wirelessly connect to the computer via a reliable 2.4GHz mini-transceiver that works up to 30 feet away.

Smart Features for Windows 7

The Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 is the perfect companion for Windows 7 because it gives people smart ways to make everyday computing tasks easier. A new time-saving feature called Taskbar Favorites gives Microsoft keyboard users an easy way to access their open programs. Instead of the traditional My Favorites Keys with stored locations, Taskbar Favorites will map to the location of open applications on the improved Windows taskbar. The icons in the taskbar can be easily rearranged just by clicking and dragging; Taskbar Favorites will instantly adapt to the new icon locations. Other Windows 7 integration features include these:

• Device Stage. Microsoft Hardware mouse and keyboard products will support Device Stage, a Windows 7 feature that gives customers quick and easy access to common tasks, including product information, registration, settings and more for popular device categories such as cell phones, cameras, printers, portable media players and input devices.

• Windows Flip. Microsoft mouse and keyboard users can easily see a thumbnail preview of all open windows with the press of a button. A full-screen preview of the application will automatically display, enabling the user to better identify and select the desired application.

“Our goal is to have a strong ecosystem of compatible and innovative products,” said Gary Schare, director of Hardware Ecosystem Product Management at Microsoft. “We’re excited about the work Microsoft Hardware has done to light up the key features of Windows 7. For example, the Taskbar Favorites keys on the Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 complement our improved taskbar — helping to deliver a full end-to-end experience to make life on a Windows 7-based PC easier and more enjoyable.”

Pricing and Availability

The Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 will be available later this month for an estimated retail price of $79.95 (U.S.). The product is available now for presale on Amazon.com and will ship when it is widely released. The Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 is backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty from Microsoft.

About Microsoft Hardware

For more than 26 years, the Hardware Group has employed innovative engineering, cutting-edge industrial design and extensive usability testing to create products of exceptional quality and durability that enhance the software experience and strengthen the connection between consumers and their PC. Microsoft Hardware leads the industry in ergonomic engineering, industrial design and hardware/software compatibility, offering consumers an easier, more convenient and more enjoyable computing experience. In 2008, the Hardware Group debuted the world’s most advanced tracking technology — Microsoft BlueTrack Technology — allowing consumers to track on more surfaces than optical and laser mice.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Buy Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 Keyboard and Mouse Set (Black)

Palm to Present at Investor Conference

2009-08-04T18:26:00.001-07:00

Palm, Inc. today announced that Palm's Chief Financial Officer Douglas Jeffries is scheduled to present at the Pacific Crest Technology Forum in Vail, Colo. on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. Mountain Time.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage their lives on the go. The company's products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm Pre, Palm Treo and Palm Centro phones, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm online stores.

Palm, Treo, Pre and Centro are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

Jennifer Lopez Photo Gallery

2009-07-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Lopez Photo

2009-07-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

LeAnn Rimes Photo

2009-07-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Jessica Simpson Photo Gallery

2009-07-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Jessica Simpson Photo

2009-07-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Mariah Carey Photo Gallery

2009-07-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Michelle Branch Photo Gallery

2009-07-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Mandy Moore Photo Gallery

2009-07-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Gwen Stefani Photo Gallery

2009-07-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Pink Photo Galleries

2009-07-17T05:58:00.000-07:00