18 posts tagged “online video conferencing and collaboration”

Microsoft will ship Windows 7 sometime in or near Jan. 2010, according to a letter company senior vice president Bill Veghte sent to Microsoft customers Tuesday.

The letter, sent to enterprise and business customers, will eventually be publicly posted on Microsoft's Web site.
In the letter sent to "Windows Customers" and titled "An Update on the Windows Roadmap," Veghte said "our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista."
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Veghte wrote, "You have told us you want a more regular, predictable Windows release schedule" and he said that was the impetus for setting the 2010 the ship date.

Vista has been slowly gaining steam, but is still drawing fire from critics who say it has not lived up to promises.
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Veghte went further in addressing customer concerns over application compatibility, which had been a problem shortly after Vista's release.

"You've also let us know you don't want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista. As a result, our approach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Windows Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Windows Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7. Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward."

Veghte's discussion of Windows 7 was part of an effort to clarify the June 30 XP deadline that will see the operating system removed from retail shelves and OEM hardware, and to tout the virtues of Windows Vista. Veghte also thanked customers for their loyalty and support.

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How Big Is The Potential Market For the Apple iPhone?

Aw snap. It finally, really happened... kind of. Apple has just dropped a nasty refresh on its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, knocking the processor speeds up, and giving the Pros that tasty multi-touch the MacBook Air has been sporting. Still, they couldn't break off an even slightly new form-factor for us? Both lines are sporting Intel's downsized new Penryn chips, which should make your lap and / or battery quite happy. Right now we're seeing updates to the GPU memory, an LED backlight (option!) for 17-inchers, as well as LEDs on all the rest of the Pros (sorry again MacBookers). New specs on the MBPs include a CPU boost to a base speed of 2.4GHz all the way up to 2.6GHz, that suspiciously new 3MB or 6MB L2 cache on the CPUs, added RAM to the graphics cards (up to 512MB for the higher-end 15-inch, and all 17-inch models), and of course the new trackpad. On the MacBook front, things look even more familiar, with only minor bumps to speed (2.1GHz up to 2.4GHz) and CPUs. Both new lines get hard drive increases, with the MBPs rocking 200GB or 250GB options, while the MBs range from 120GB all the way up to 250GB. Ports, weight, and size all appear to be just the same for both lines, undoubtedly to the chagrin of many readers, and Apple is skimping on the Apple Remote across the line; it's now a $19 add-on. Full SKU rundown after the break.

Update: Just to make it totally clear, Apple confirmed to us that the processors are indeed Penryn, as noted above. As for future updates and notable omissions in this round, they had little to say.

MacBook

• $1,099 - (White) 2.1GHz, 1GB memory, 120GB HDD, Combo drive
• $1,299 - (White) 2.4GHz, 2GB memory, 160GB HDD, Double-layer SuperDrive
• $1,499 - (Black) 2.4GHz, 2GB memory, 250GB HDD, Double-layer SuperDrive

MacBook Pro

• $1,999 - (15-inch) 2.4GHz, 2GB memory, 200GB HDD, Double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB
• $2,499 - (15-inch) 2.5GHz, 2GB memory, 250GB HDD, Double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB
• $2,799 - (17-inch) 2.5GHz, 2GB memory, 250GB HDD, Double-layer SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB

Hi-res LED screen for 17-inch is $100 extra, 2.6GHz processor is another $250.

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Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted a policy this evening that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online.

Peter Suber, an open-access activist with Public Knowledge, a nonprofit group in Washington, said on his blog that the new policy makes Harvard the first university in the United States to mandate open access to its faculty members’ research publications.

Stuart M. Shieber, a professor of computer science at Harvard who proposed the new policy, said after the vote in a news release that the decision “should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated.”

The new policy will allow faculty members to request a waiver, but otherwise they must provide an electronic form of each article to the provost’s office, which will place it in an online repository.

The policy will allow Harvard authors to publish in any journal that permits posting online after publication. According to Mr. Suber, about two-thirds of pay-access journals allow such posting in online repositories. —Lila Guterman

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Aiming to address the privacy concerns of disenchanted users, Facebook.com said on Tuesday that it was trying to make it easier for people to delete their accounts permanently from the social networking site.

Until now, Facebook has offered only a deactivation option, which keeps copies of the account’s personal information on the company’s servers. It is possible to delete an account fully using a cumbersome manual method, but it is difficult; many users complained that Facebook did not provide clear instructions.

On Monday, Facebook modified its help pages to tell people that if they wanted to remove their accounts entirely, they can direct the company by e-mail to have it done. But on Tuesday, representatives of Facebook stopped short of saying the company would introduce a one-step delete account option.

“We’re always working to improve the user experience,” Katie Geminder, director for user experience and design at Facebook, said in a statement sent by e-mail.

“We are measuring the effects of the change we made yesterday, and if we think more needs to be done to improve the user experience for deleting an account, we’ll test different implementations and measure them accordingly,” she added.

The updated Facebook help page now includes the question “How do I delete my account?” The answer: “If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, we can take care of this for you. Keep in mind that you will not be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.”

The entry then says, “If you would like your account deleted, please contact us using the form at the bottom of the page and confirm your request in the text box.”

Ms. Geminder said that Facebook’s policies were a reflection of the fact that many people came back to Facebook after they stopped using the site for a time. “On any given day, the number of users reactivating their accounts is roughly half of the number of users deactivating their accounts,” she said.

As The New York Times reported on Monday, some Facebook users who wished to close their accounts had been unable to do so, even after contacting Facebook’s customer service representatives. Many departing users, who could spend weeks or months trying to erase their accounts without success, turned to unofficial guides like the Facebook users group “How to permanently delete your Facebook account.”

Since Monday, almost 3,000 people have joined the group, which counted more than 7,000 members on Tuesday evening and had been growing by the hour. “I honestly did NOT know they kept your data after you deactivated your account,” one new member wrote on the group’s board. “I’m not leaving until I finish university,” she added, “but I’ll be glad of the info when I do.”

Another new member wrote, “Though I plan to stick around Facebook for a while, I joined this group so I know how to delete my account/profile when I do desire to leave. Thank you!”

Magnus Wallin, the Swedish patent examiner who founded the group, said his reaction to the company’s policy change was mixed. “Information on how to do it is great,” he said in an e-mail message. “But it should be really easily available. Not at the bottom of the help pages. And a ‘form’ sounds like you have to explain yourself. A regular delete button would be preferable, in my opinion.”

Facebook blamed a technical snag for the predicament of Nipon Das, a business consultant in Manhattan who spent two months trying to delete his account but nevertheless continued to receive messages and notes from friends through Facebook.

“Mr. Das appears to have an active account on Facebook, which is why you are able to view his mostly empty profile and why he still may be receiving messages or friend requests,” Ms. Geminder said. “If Mr. Das wishes to deactivate or delete his account from Facebook, his profile will not be viewable by anyone.”

Mr. Das — who described his plight by quoting lyrics from the Eagles song “Hotel California” that say, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave” — has found himself cast as an unlikely mascot for disgruntled Facebook users. Several of them have found his empty profile and sent him messages, “ranging from Eagles song quotes to those of support,” he said.

“I have turned into the test case,” he said.

MySpace has just announced that they will be launching their developer platform on February 5th. You can pre-register now by going to http://developer.myspace.com (requires login).

Earlier this evening, I spoke with Amit Kapur, who the company is also announcing has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer and will oversee the platform. While MySpace may be a little late to the platform party, it’s clear that they have been closely watching developments in the space and will be addressing many of the growing pains that chief rival Facebook has dealt with from the get-go; most notably privacy, monetization, and data ownership.

On the privacy front, Kapur tells me that the user experience will be a “top priority” and that the company will avoid the feed spam issues that have plagued “other players in the space” (he wouldn’t mention Facebook by name, but he didn’t have to). Additionally, don’t expect anything like Facebook Beacon to be a part of the MySpace Developer Platform.

Instead, MySpace plans to help developers monetize their applications, potentially through a revenue share program. Kapur believes that his company is “differentiated by our robust and mature monetization platform,” and he wants developers to be able to take advantage of it. This means that unlike Facebook, where we have dozens of ad networks competing for inventory on applications, MySpace may play an active role, presumably utilizing its large ad sales force to help developers get premium revenue.

From a technology perspective, Kapur says most of the specific details will be released on the 5th, but he did emphasize that the company has maintained an open relationship with widget developers, and wants them to be able to use data from MySpace in their applications, potentially including your friend’s list. With Facebook moving to allow developers to host applications on third-party sites and DataPortability continuing to gain traction, this seems like the only way to go.

Finally, Kapur told me that the MySpace Developer Program will support Google OpenSocial from day one. This may provide a much needed boost for OpenSocial, which has received criticism for offering very little in the way of tangible products since being announced.

Overall, it sounds like MySpace has been paying attention to what’s working on other social networking developer platforms and what user’s ultimately want. We’ll see if they can deliver the goods when they show the rest of their hand next week.

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A first look into the books of Al Gore’s cable network: Current Media (parent of Al Gore-backed Current TV) has filed for a $100 million NASDAQ IPO, trading under the ticker “CRTM”. The network, which launched in 2005, had 2007 annual revenue of $63.7 million, up 68 percent from $37.8 million in 2006. Net losses grew to $17 million, from $14.3 million. Meanwhile, the company has $2.2 million in cash on hand and $36.1 million in debt, which will be paid down upon completion of the IPO. The rest of the cash will go towards general operations. Reading through the management’s discussion and the risks section highlights Current’s challenge, as it attempts to pitch a cable channel to a crowd increasingly watching video online. While it talks about innovating in TV news and offering an integrated TV/digital platform, it also identifies as one of its key risk: “New distribution technologies may fundamentally change the way programming is distributed and our inability to adapt to them may adversely affect our business. Some highlights:…

-- Institutions owning at least 5 percent of the company include Blum Capital Partners, Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa (former president Bill Clinton is unwinding his stake in that), DirectTV, and Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) CTV Holdings. As with other cable networks, some of the company’s cable partners receive equity.

-- In 2007, Gore, its executive chairman, and CEO Joel Hyatt each made $1.05 million in salary and bonus. (That would be the difference between a net start-up and a new TV net.)

-- Current acquired predecessor NWI for $70.9 million, entirely for its relationships with television carriers.

-- The network pases a total of 51 million homes, 41 million of which are in the US.

-- At the moment, Current.com is not a source of meaningful ad revenue for the company, though it expects it will be in the future.

-- JPMorgan, Pacific Crest and Lehman Brothers are listed as underwriters

-- There’s no information yet on the number of shares, the time-frame for the filing or its expected net proceeds after underwriting fees.
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