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HyperOffice up Against Google Apps, Zoho With Updated Suite

Jonathan James — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:55:43 +0000

Google Apps, Zoho and other online collaboration players got a fresh dose of competition Tuesday, as HyperOffice announced that a major overhaul of its online collaboration suite is now in private beta.

HyperOffice bundles calendaring, e-mail, document and project management, forums, portals and other features.

The company’s target market is new entrepreneurs who need a software suite quickly, as well as small and midsized companies that want to expand without adding hardware and on-premises software.

But the updated application faces stiff competition from the likes of Google Apps Premier Edition, IBM LotusLive and Zoho. HyperOffice is hoping to win its share of business through incentives like free support and training. Subscription pricing is roughly US$7 per user per month.

The beta comes following two years of research and development, according to HyperOffice, which has a long history in the online collaboration space.

It was first formed in the late 1990s under the name WebOS, with a focus on personal information management, and relaunched about six years ago as HyperOffice, shifting strategies to groupware, said Shahab Kaviani, vice president of sales and marketing.

Meanwhile, the new version of HyperOffice has a more flexible and polished interface, but will still look familiar to seasoned users, the company said. The software also has a new Java-based back-end that replaces one built with ColdFusion.

HyperOffice purposely took plenty of time to build the update, in order to incorporate feedback from users and tighten integrations between the suite’s components, Kaviani said.

Most data migration chores, such as moving over e-mail messages, can be done with self-service tools, according to Kaviani.

The new version is currently available in English only, with further localization work expected in the second quarter of 2010, he said.

HyperOffice is still a small business compared to vendors like Google, but should see some fringe benefits, he said.

“We don’t have the funding to create the awareness Google can. [But] we’re happy to see Google being successful. What we’re doing is latching onto that. … It’s such a huge market that just getting a percentage of people who prefer us because of our interface will make us a success.”

The company is hoping to complete the beta by early February.

Sony to launch online entertainment service in 2010

Jonathan James — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:55:46 +0000

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp said on Friday that its planned entertainment content distribution service for network-compatible TVs and other devices will be launched next year.

Sony plans to launch a new online service to distribute movies, music, books and other content to network-capable TVs, Blu-ray players, ebooks and others in a bid to add value to its hardware.

Sony Executive Vice President Kazuo Hirai also told reporters that he is confident sales of its PlayStation 3 game console will hit the official target of 13 million units in the year ending March 2010.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka)

Driverless cars and Helicopters – A Reality of the Future ?

Jonathan James — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:43:52 +0000

Professor Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, wants to cut the number of cars on planet earth by 50%.

He said: “Today we have about 600 million cars worldwide. It turns out almost every car is parked at any point in time.

“It’s a huge waste of money and resources to do so – we use cars about 3% of the time.

“Just imagine in the future you pull up your smart phone and you say, (using GPS) I need a car now. And around the corner comes your car.”

Professor Thrun is a leader in the field of driverless cars and has built two robotic vehicles called Stanley and Junior.

The cars have no human driver and no remote control system – everything from sensors to navigation is handled by an onboard computer.

They were both entered into the DARPA Grand Challenge – a race for autonomous vehicles. Stanley won in 2004 and Junior took second place in 2007.

But the ultimate goal is to create a world where self-aware vehicles can drive passengers around without hitting pedestrians or bumping into other vehicles.

“To be able to understand the environment as deep as humans do is the holy grail of artificial intelligence.

“It’s a huge amount of work to make computers understand what is the behaviour of the two people on the right, both waiting at an intersection – will they walk or not? It is a really hard question.”

Perfect missions

The next step is a self-piloted aircraft. Researchers at Stanford are trying to programme helicopters to fly perfect missions every time including loops.

Imagine, for example, a search and rescue chopper that can descend into a narrow canyon countless times without its rotors ever touching the edges.

Andrew Ng, an associate professor in the Computer Science Department, said it would be very difficult to write software to make a helicopter carry out stunts in the air.

Instead, researchers asked an expert human pilot to demonstrate the stunts. The computer learned from the demonstrations how to fly by itself.

It is called apprenticeship learning – the computer figures out what the human pilot is trying to do and then uses algorithms to correct or perfect the manoeuvre.

The software is also able to take into account random events like updraughts.

Professor Ng said: “The accelerometers of the helicopter will feel the force of the wind pushing the helicopter aside and what the helicopter has learned to do is how to adjust the controls to move itself back onto the desired flight path.

Kodak Introduces Money-Saving Photo Printers

Jonathan James — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:43:15 +0000

Kodak has introduced two all-in-one inkjets that it says can yield lab-quality photos and sip, rather than gulp, printer ink. In fact, Kodak says the new models can save an average of $110 a year on ink when compared with similar inkjets, although there is no way to verify this claim (more on that later).

The $130 ESP 3250 and the $170 ESP 5250 all-in-one printers (they print, copy, and scan but do not fax) are meant for home users who require photo printing and whose overall printing duties are relatively lightweight.

The ESP 3250 has a 1.5-inch color LCD for image previews and navigation, as well as the usual memory card slots for computer-less printing. The ESP 5250 adds built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and a larger 2.4-inch color LCD. Both include software to improve facial skin tones and an optical character-recognition app to translate text images into editable text; they also offer manual double-sided printing (a paper-saving move).

The Kodak printers employ two cartridges, one black, for $10, and the other a five-color combo, for $15. While it’s impossible to gauge consumables without hands-on testing (and lots of math), the cartridges do seem to be reasonably priced when compared with those from other vendors.

For instance, when evaluating only the cost to refill printer tanks — and not page yield or quality — Kodak comes out on top at only $25. By comparison, the $150 HP Photosmart Plus All-in-One Printer uses one black cartridge and three color cartridges. The black cartridge is $12 and the cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges are $10 each or $27 for a three-pack. Sum: It will cost you $39 to fill up this printer’s tanks.

Another similar model, the $180 Canon Pixma MP600, uses an $18.50 black cartridge and four separate color cartridges that sell for $57 (in a pack of four). That’s $75.50 to fill all the tanks.

Of course, comparisons of ink usage are typically pretty imprecise and, as the manufacturers say, actual results may vary. Kodak explains its methodology here.

The new Kodak printers just may be a tempting deal, assuming their image quality is on par with others. I haven’t seen output, though, and I’d wait for hands-on reviews before clicking that buy button.

Microsoft developing new tablet PC

Jonathan James — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:53:11 +0000

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is developing a small tablet-style PC to rival a similar product that may be launched by Apple Inc, technology blog Gizmodo reported on Tuesday.

The booklet-shaped device, called Courier, is in the “late prototype” stage of development, Gizmodo reported, without identifying the source of its information.

Microsoft did not immediately answer a request for comment.

The Courier device has dual 7-inch screens that are touch sensitive and can be used in conjunction with a stylus, Gizmodo reported.

Apple has long been expected to launch its own tablet PC — essentially a large version of its iPhone — but has so far announced no plans to do so.