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BlackBerry spy software hits the market
Retina-X Studios, LLC, announced the immediate availability of Mobile Spy for RIM BlackBerry devices. Using this groundbreaking BlackBerry technology, users can silently monitor GPS locations, incoming and outgoing text messages (SMS) and call information of children or employees — even if activity logs are erased. Mobile Spy had already been available for the iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS smartphones. The new version for the BlackBerry is now on the market.
Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode and no mentions of the program are shown inside the BlackBerry. After the software is set up on the phone, it silently records GPS locations every fifteen minutes. The entire text of all SMS text messages along with the associated phone number is also recorded. Additionally, inbound and outbound call information with duration of the call is recorded. Immediately after activities are logged, they are silently uploaded to the user’s private online account. Accounts can be checked online from any web browser without needing further access to the phone.
“Mobile Spy is a priceless piece of software. After having some doubts about honesty, this really helped set the record straight and confirmed my suspicions,” says Derrick, a Mobile Spy user. Retina-X Studios CEO James Johns states, “With Mobile Spy, dedicated GPS tracking devices become obsolete. The BlackBerry can become the GPS tracking device and capture text messages and call information at the same time. This gives parents and employers a very effective way to monitor the locations and activities of children or employees.”
This exclusive system helps businesses enforce their Acceptable Use Policy on company-provided phones. The software can also monitor teen or family phones. It gives a parent the ability to remotely monitor their child’s texting activities by logging into a website from any web browser. Another common use is to back up a user’s own cell activity as a record of all important text conversations and travel details.
Mobile Spy runs on all modern BlackBerry devices and is also compatible with the iPhone and other smartphones running the Windows Mobile or Symbian OS operating system. These devices are available from most major mobile carriers. The BlackBerry version of Mobile Spy can be found at http://www.mobile-spy.com/spy-blackberry.html
Source: Retina-X Studios, LLC
Microsoft simplifies the PC with Windows 7
New PC operating system available worldwide today.
Microsoft Corp. announced the worldwide availability of its new Windows 7 operating system. Windows 7 delivers on a simple premise: make it easier for people to do the things they want on a PC. The new operating system offers a streamlined user interface and significant new features that make everyday tasks easier and allow people to get the most out of computers of all styles and sizes.
“With Windows 7, there’s never been a better time to be a PC,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Together with our partners, we’re bringing more choice, flexibility and value to the market than ever before. With Windows 7, you’re sure to find a PC that fits your life.”
Building Windows 7 has been a collaborative process from the beginning, with Microsoft’s engineers and designers working with customers and partners to build an operating system that delivers on the vision of the PC, simplified. In a speech in New York, Ballmer thanked the millions of volunteers who helped improve the product by testing early versions.
“A project with the global customer reach of Windows can only be done as a team,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, speaking at a launch event in Tokyo. “We are grateful for the valuable contributions from customers, partners and developers around the world that helped make Windows 7 such a collaborative project.”
On Sale Worldwide Today
The global availability of Windows 7 is joined by an unprecedented array of new PCs and software programs. With more PC options available for customers today at a wide range of price points starting under $300, customers can choose the PC that fits their personality, style and needs, from netbooks, ultrathin notebooks and highly interactive multitouch laptops to all-in-one desktops and high-end, water-cooled gaming machines.
A newly launched section of Windows.com called PC Scout will guide users through selecting and purchasing the right PC. Customers can purchase PCs with Windows 7 or software upgrades online or in-store from technology retailers or at the new Microsoft Store, launching today in its first retail location in Scottsdale, Ariz., and expanded online. Retailers and technology partners are also featuring a series of limited-time offers for customers looking for great deals on Windows 7-based PCs, devices and software. Information on these offers can be found at http://www.windows.com/.
To show how Windows 7 simplifies the PC, today Microsoft is launching the next wave of its global “I’m a PC” campaign. The global enthusiasm of Windows users is also contributing to the way many people around the world will experience Windows 7 for the first time. Tens of thousands of customers have volunteered to host launch parties or meet-ups beginning today, showing off Windows 7 to friends and family members.
Simplifying the PC
Over the past 18 months, feedback from more than a billion opt-in customer sessions and 8 million beta testers validated Microsoft’s research on how to simplify everyday tasks. Here are a few of the many ways users will experience a more simplified PC with Windows 7:
Simplifies Everyday Tasks
Taskbar. The go-to spot for launching programs and switching windows, the taskbar has been completely redesigned to help users work smarter, cut clutter, and get more done, with features such as thumbnail previews of Web pages, documents — even running video.
HomeGroup. Users can easily share their files and printers with other PCs running Windows 7 in their home.
Windows 7 Device Stage. This shows the status of all connected devices such as cameras and mobile phones, and makes it easier to synchronize and manage them.
Photos and videos. Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker (available via download) offer customers great, free options to edit photos and videos and easily share them with loved ones.
Snap. Users can drag an open window to the screen’s border to automatically re-size it. Snap two different windows to the left and right borders for a perfect comparison.
Shake. Users can click on a window pane and shake the mouse to minimize all other open windows, then shake the pane again to restore the windows to their original sizes.
Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft’s fastest, easiest and safest browser ever offers smart new features such as Instant Search, Accelerators and Web Slices to help users get more out of the Web.
Works the Way Users Want
Faster on, faster off. Every Windows 7 user will benefit from the focus on underlying performance, faster startup, resuming and shut down time, and enhanced power management.
Mobile made easier. All of a user’s mobile computing settings are in one place with the Windows Mobility Center.
Protecting the PC. Safeguarding the data on a PC is easier with advanced backup capabilities and the free Microsoft Security Essentials download to help protect users against viruses, spyware and other malicious software.
Makes New Things Possible
Windows Touch. Users can interact with the PC with a touch-screen monitor, using their fingers and multitouch gestures.
PlayTo. Users can stream their digital music, videos and photos to other PCs or devices such as an Xbox 360 console connected to the TV.
Internet TV. New content providers and an improved interface make it even easier to watch TV on the PC.
Rich gaming and graphics. Windows 7 includes performance enhancements that take power gaming and entertainment to a new level, with 64-bit support and DirectX 11 graphics.
Location-aware printing. Documents are sent to the right printer whether it’s at home or at the office. And with Offline Files users can work offline and automatically synchronize between a PC and documents on their office network.
JoikuBoost: World’s first multiplexing WiFi tethering software for smartphones
Joikusoft, the creator of the world’s most popular WiFi Tethering software JoikuSpot announced a new innovative software solution called JoikuBoost, which enhances the mobile internet connection speed of JoikuBoost-enabled devices. JoikuBoost improves mobile internet connection speed by wirelessly combining 3G data connections between multiple mobile phones in multiple operator 3G networks. The actual internet speed multiplies as the data bits transported in a JoikuBoost WiFi network simultaneously flow through multiple operator 3G networks. JoikuBoost bases on a new communications protocol developed by Joikusoft.
JoikuBoost looks for other JoikuBoost users within close proximity. With user permission, JoikuBoost aggregates the 3G data connections over WiFi and creates a larger, unified and shared bit pipe. Multiple JoikuBoost-enabled phones are able to join and create WiFi Share Hubs, providing the ability to create personal 4G Wifi networks over 3G with friends and associates, meanwhile forming an internet connection which boost the mobile internet user experience to a totally new level.
Nokia has JoikuBoost software installed on many of smartphones. Nokia currently offers Joikusoft’s JoikuSpot Premium software as a preload on Nokia N97 and N97 Mini touch screen smartphones.
“JoikuBoost builds on JoikuSpot innovation, now allowing Nokia phone users to share more 3G with one another, and enjoy surfing the web at vastly higher speeds”, stated Sixten Sandstrom, director of partnerships and business development at Nokia. “Joikusoft software complements the powerful capabilities Nokia designs into its mobile devices.”
“The advanced 3G WiFi sharing capabilities of Nokia smartphones will particularily benefit from JoikuBoost due to new JoikuBoost 3G multiplexing protocol”, commented Tom Ojala, Chairman of the Board and a founder of JoikuSoft.
Lasse Maki, CEO and founder of Joikusoft added: “JoikuBoost solves the radio interface limitation impacting the speed of mobile data transmissions today. By multiplexing various mobile data connections into one larger and unified bit pipe, JoikuBoost multiplies the actual mobile internet speed in operator networks.”
Beta Edition of JoikuBoost is available for free download through Joiku community site at http://www.joiku.com. The site also hosts an online discussion forum and help facility for JoikuBoost. Joikusoft welcomes beta user feedback of JoikuBoost for the final development phases of JoikuBoost to model actual use cases and final feature set.
Source: Joikusoft Ltd
IBM announces new software for managing data centers
IBM introduced ground-breaking new software for managing data centers. The new technology has the potential to dramatically cut the cost of operations while speeding the deployment of new applications from weeks to minutes.
The introduction of IBM’s new VMControl product for enterprises, combined with IBM Tivoli software, gives businesses for the first time a single point of control across multiple types of IT systems and virtualization technologies. It spans UNIX/Linux, mainframe, x86 and storage systems and networks.
VMControl helps companies that have turned to virtualization – the creation of multiple virtual servers or storage on a single physical system – to reduce infrastructure costs, but have encountered new struggles as they try to manage enterprises made up of disparate platforms, each with their own virtualization technology.
VMControl allows combinations of physical and virtual IBM servers to be managed as a single entity. This approach – known as system pooling – expands the benefits of virtualization by helping corporate data centers simplify complex management functions and better share and prioritize use of critical resources such as processing power, memory and storage.
Centralizing control of virtualized environments brings new intelligence to data center operations. Companies can manage their vast pools of information and processing resources and parcel them out to applications when and where they’re needed. This breakthrough capability not only increases the overall capacity utilization of the IT infrastructure to lower capital, operational and energy costs, and improves application availability, but gives IT managers the flexibility to adapt to new demands being prompted by the surge of data from internet-connected devices.
VMControl will also accelerate the deployment of new IT delivery models, like cloud computing, which allows information and processing resources to be tapped from afar.
“IBM has provided Winn-Dixie with many innovative solutions to help us increase productivity, maximize our resources and save money for more than 15 years,” said Charlie Weston, Group Vice President, Information Technology for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based grocer. “We are extremely confident that the launch of the VMControl product will be equally as successful for IBM’s customers.”
The new product, together with IBM Tivoli software, helps companies address and improve service and reduce cost and risk. IBM today announced a new version of Tivoli Provisioning Manager that provides enhanced automation of the manual tasks of provisioning and configuring servers, operating systems, middleware, software applications, storage and network devices.
Whether businesses are moving to the cloud or looking to deliver IT within the data center as cloud services, the sheer scale and velocity of data growth as well as the now-permanent reality of having to do more with less make VMControl essential for data centers. The combination of VMControl and Tivoli offers several benefits, such as:
Faster response to business needs: A reduction in the skills, tools and tasks required to deploy new workloads. With VMControl, companies can offer rapid deployments of new workloads (from weeks to minutes) while maintaining control over IT resources. Businesses can adapt to changing business needs and support new and diverse types of workloads in accordance with service-level agreements.
More efficient use of resources: To configure, operate and monitor physical and virtualized resources across multiple IBM hardware platforms would otherwise require as many as dozens of different management techniques. Buying, building and maintaining disparate management tools take up significant portions of IT budgets. VMControl reduces the management tools to one, cutting costs of operations.
Awareness, consistency and predictability of operations: Business can monitor, maintain and adjust the service levels required by each computing workload handled by the pool of IT resources. It also can help predict and react to system problems. By moving workloads away from failing systems, VMControl can ensure workloads maintain application availability and avoid unplanned down time.
Enabling Smarter Systems: VMControl’s ability to dynamically move workloads and make adjustments allow IBM systems to be more effectively utilized, use less power and cooling and provide a much more resilient infrastructure.
The new product — IBM® Systems Director VMControl(TM) Enterprise Edition — supports IBM’s PowerVM and z/VM as well as x86 virtualization technologies such as VMWare, Hyper-V and open x86 virtualization solutions. VMControl Enterprise Edition will be available on IBM Power Systems running AIX in December, 2009. Additional support for other platforms is planned for next year as part of a dynamic infrastructure.
For more information: http://www.ibm.com/dynamicinfrastructure
Teradata Enterprise Analytics Cloud extends architectural flexibility and business agility
First public and private Cloud Computing offer for rapid analytics
Teradata Corporation, the world’s largest company solely focused on data warehousing and enterprise analytics, announced that the Teradata Enterprise Analytics Cloud(TM) provides Teradata customers architectural flexibility, which enables them to meet their expanding analytic needs by leveraging cloud computing technologies. Initial offerings include the Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud, Teradata Express on Amazon EC2, and Teradata Express for VMware Player.
For the business user, public and private clouds provide flexible, self service for the rapid building of short term analytic data marts, allowing users to pay only for the computing power actually used. More importantly, these cloud solutions offer business users and developers another means of improving decision making with agility and speed.
Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud
The Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud, Teradata’s entry into private Cloud Computing, is a unique set of products, capabilities and services designed to enable agile analytics in a Teradata private cloud environment. This allows for rapid development and sandbox-style analytics. Business users can create data marts inside their Teradata system within minutes. This eliminates the need to build separate, costly physical data marts, because the production data can be accessed directly, without data movement or duplication. Built on the proven Teradata Database and platforms, the Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud combines advanced workload management, the new Teradata Elastic Mart Builder tool, and a services methodology to enable business users to rapidly exploit data marts inside their Teradata System. The Teradata Elastic Mart Builder is a Teradata Viewpoint self-service portlet that makes it easy to create data marts for application development. It is flexible and allows external data to be combined with existing data facilitating the discovery of new insights. The Teradata Elastic Mart Builder is being released as a free tool to be deployed through Teradata Developer Exchange. Teradata Active System Management, the company’s flagship workload management product, is a key enabler because it optimizes priorities between experimental analytics and production workloads.
The Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud allows the business user to rapidly analyze data and respond to market opportunities with speed and confidence. This solution helps chief information officers control data mart proliferation, reduce costs for software licenses and servers, and lower training and labor costs.
“Many IT organizations are under-resourced and under tremendous pressure to cut costs, driving some business users to create their own ’shadow IT’ organizations to meet their needs,” said Scott Gnau, chief developer officer, Teradata Corporation. “These shadow IT groups create conflict between the business users and IT groups. The Teradata Agile Analytics Cloud helps to eliminate the conflicts and brings business and IT together, saving money and enriching their analytical insights.”
Teradata Express Cloud Offerings
The two new Teradata Express cloud offerings are built on Teradata Express, which is a free, non-production version of Teradata Database software intended for developers and evaluation scenarios. The cloud versions of Teradata Express support up to one terabyte of data and are powered by Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.
Teradata Express on Amazon EC2
Teradata Express on Amazon EC2 is available on the flexible Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). This prepackaged edition is a free developer version of the Teradata Database for use in the scalable, robust Amazon EC2 environment. Customers can quickly launch Teradata Express on Amazon EC2 and begin their collaborative work from any location in the world. Customers benefit from the easy self-service, flexible configurations, and the cost effective Amazon Web Services infrastructure, resulting in faster time to value and the quicker completion of projects.
Teradata Express for VMware Player
Teradata Express for VMware Player delivers a fully configured Teradata Database bundled for private cloud analytics. Once VMware software is installed, the Teradata Database can be loaded in minutes, taking advantage of the many features of VMware. For the Teradata Database, VMware is an important stepping stone towards delivering internal private clouds for developers and information technology operations managers. The value for customers will be the easy creation of Teradata test and development environments with a significant reduction in capital costs from server consolidation.
According to Gnau, “Teradata is all about choice that no other vendor can offer. Teradata’s advocated architecture is an integrated data warehouse, but we offer the flexibility for customers to leverage the power of Teradata in any architecture they chose to meet their business need. Our entry into loud Cloud Computing is one alternative and an extension to our Platform Family, which positions ‘Teradata for all your analytical needs.’”
Teradata is the only vendor to offer a broad family of platforms with price and performance that spans the unique business and analytical data warehouse needs of companies, making Teradata suitable to be everywhere in the enterprise. The family is supported by the high performance and dependable Teradata 13 Database, the most significant and technically advanced database for analytics.
Printing with Windows Small Business Server 2008
ThinPrint simplifies Remote Web Workplace printing
Print-optimization specialist ThinPrint is now offering new product versions for the Windows Small Business Server. The .print RDP Engine for Remote Web Workplace 7.6 and .print for Remote Web Workplace 7.6 optimize printing for users who use the Remote Web Workplace to access a remote terminal server or desktop via a web browser.
The Windows Small Business Server tends to be utilized by small and mid-sized companies with up to 75 workstations or users. Remote Web Workplace, a feature of the Small Business Server, allows smaller branch offices, mobile employees and home workstations to access a terminal server or a remote desktop via a secure web session (https).
The .print RDP Engine for Remote Web Workplace provides locally available printers when a user accesses the terminal server with Remote Web Workplace, while the .print for Remote Web Workplace solution provides this when a user connects to a desktop with Remote Web Workplace. Access to the Remote Web Workplace printing functions becomes quick and easy in each case. In addition, the print data transferred by both .print solutions is highly compressed, meaning that it reaches the printer rapidly while conserving bandwidth.
Thanks to ThinPrint’s DRIVER FREE PRINTING technology, no printer drivers have to be installed on the company’s Small Business Server, the terminal server or desktop. All locally available printers can automatically be accessed by users via the internet. Both SBS printing solutions feature plug and play installation.
Available as 32-bit or 64-bit versions, both are already compatible with Windows 7 and support Windows Small Business Server 2003, as well as 2008.
The .print Engine for Remote Web Workplace, which facilitates access to remote desktops and enables Remote Web Workplace printing, is now available for 69 USD from the manufacturer’s online shop at http://www.thinprint.com/shop. The software can also be purchased from any of ThinPrint’s 500 partners worldwide.
Free 30-day demo versions of Remote Web Workplace printing, Remote printing, SBC printing, RDP printing and Virtual printing can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website at http://www.thinprint.com/demo.
WinZip 14 takes advantage of Windows 7 innovations
New WinZip 14 offers many usability enhancements, improved security, and a new Backup Edition
WinZip 14 takes full advantage of the new capabilities in Windows(R) 7, streamlining the zipping and unzipping processes and affirming WinZip’s position at the vanguard of file compression, encryption, packaging and data backup software. In addition to the Standard edition and the full-featured Pro edition, WinZip 14 is now also available in the new Backup edition.
WinZip 14 saves time and space, making it easy to zip and unzip files for quick, efficient, and secure file transfer, email transmission, and data storage. It is the data compression choice for millions of users, including thousands of organizations, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. More than 190 million users have downloaded copies of WinZip from CNET’s download.com alone.
WinZip 14 Incorporates Windows 7 Enhancements
Windows 7 includes many significant enhancements that simplify working with documents, folders, and programs. WinZip 14 takes advantage of these new features to make working with Zip files easier than ever:
Libraries: WinZip 14 provides support for Windows 7 libraries. Libraries group together folders with a common theme; for example, the Pictures library puts all of your folders that contain pictures in one convenient place. With WinZip 14 you can simply select the Pictures library and zip all of your pictures, no matter where they are. And with the advanced JPEG compression supported in the Zipx format you can compress these pictures 20-25% without any loss of quality or data integrity. Backing up your important data is a breeze using libraries via the WinZip Job Wizard.
Jump Lists: WinZip 14 also supports the new Jump Lists. Simply pin the WinZip icon to your taskbar for quick and easy access to frequently used zip features, as well as to recently used Zip files and WinZip jobs.
Windows Touch: If you have a touch screen computer you will love WinZip’s full support for gestures — simple finger movements — on your touch screen PC. Using gestures, you can easily scroll through the contents of your Zip files. You can even pan, zoom, and rotate your images in WinZip Pro’s built-in Image Viewer without touching your keyboard or mouse!
Other interface enhancements include improved Dialogs in the Windows 7 style and new filtering and organizational enhancements for finding files and archives.
Improved Security
A key reason why many users purchase WinZip is its strong, easy-to-use AES encryption. WinZip 14 introduces automatic wiping of temporary copies of encrypted files after viewing, using the U.S. Department of Defense standard (DoD 5220.22-M). In addition, WinZip 14 recognizes Intel-based computers with built-in AES encryption and uses the available hardware support to make encryption operations two to three times faster.
WinZip 14 Backup edition
For the first time WinZip 14 is also available in a Backup edition. With its powerful Job Wizard users can automatically backup important data files and upload data backups to an off-site server using the internal FTP client, or burn backups to CD or DVD. An automated email notification can be sent upon job completion.
Availability
WinZip 14 is available now. Pricing starts at $29.95 (USD) for WinZip 14 Standard edition, $39.95 (USD) for Backup edition and $49.95 (USD) for Pro edition. Attractive volume licensing discounts are available. Existing registered users can upgrade to WinZip 14 at 50% of the new license fee.
Download links and ordering information can be found on the WinZip web site at http://www.winzip.com.
8 safety tips for teens when Hanging Out online
ID Experts Supports National Protect Your Identity Week
Online socializing–Facebook, instant messaging and texting–is the new “hanging out” among teens. When teens interact with friends online, they often share personal information that makes them vulnerable for identity theft. Scam artists are relying on teens to be impulsive and naive to steal personal information for their own gain.
To kick off National Protect Your Identity Week, October 17-24, ID Experts offers eight safety tips for teenagers when online, to protect their identity and their financial future when it’s time to apply for that first credit card or buy that first car:
1. Don’t give out your numbers. This includes your social security number, driver’s license number, debit card, phone card, insurance card, library card, medical ID card, or credit card.
2. Don’t post your personal information online. Nearly 50% of Facebook users put enough personal information–including full name, full date of birth, address, phone number, or school–to enable thieves to fill out credit card applications.(i)
3. Don’t participate in email or social networking quizzes. These seemingly fun personality quizzes can access your personal profile information–your religion, political affiliation, wall posts–that could be used against you.(ii)
4. Don’t be specific about where you are or where you are going. Naming your school, sports team, clubs, or where you work could leave a trail for an identity thief.
5. Set your profile to “private.” Be in control of who can view your content. Only add people you know to your Friends list. A friend of a friend might not be someone you know.
6. Use a different, isolated email just for social networking. Never use the “trusted” email you use to communicate directly with your friends, coworkers and classmates.
7. Secure your connections. Password-protect your phone. Find out from your carrier if additional security features (encryption) or software (a malware protector) are available. Don’t access your social networking sites or email from public Internet connections or public computers.
8. Be selective about what pictures you text or post on your page. Is it a photo you would want your parents to see? Treat your Internet activity like a digital tattoo. Once you post something, it cannot be taken back. Even if you erase the posting, there are cached versions and backups on servers across the country.
(i) http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2007/08/16/12548/
(ii) Identity Theft Resource Center, 2009
Source: idexpertscorp.com
New Bento 3 Personal Database by FileMaker
Brings Innovative New Ways to View, Use and Share Photos, Contacts, Calendars, Files and More
Popular Mac database integrates with iPhoto, provides multi-user sharing, new security options and a limited $20 rebate for existing Bento users
FileMaker, Inc. announced the immediate availability of Bento 3, a breakthrough new version of the popular personal database for the Mac. For the first time ever, Bento 3 integrates with iPhoto from Apple allowing you to store more info about your photos and link them to contacts, projects, events and other information stored in Bento.
“Think of Bento 3 as a powerful, easy way to bring together all of your key Mac information and photos,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “With Bento 3, we’re providing new ways for you to view and interact with your information so you can organize contacts, projects, events and even more details of your life.”
Share and share alike securely with up to five users
Bento 3 also delivers new ways to share your information with other Bento users. Just like sharing iTunes and iPhotos over a local area network (LAN) using Apple’s Bonjour technology, you can now share your Bento libraries with up to five users over a wired or wireless local network. You can also encrypt any field and assign passwords to secure your information in Bento 3.
View information in ways never before possible using a database
The new Grid view in Bento 3 delivers an innovative method of displaying thumbnails of photos, text and numeric-based information, while improved File Lists show image thumbnails, instead of just text.
Get started instantly
With Bento 3, you can choose from 35 pre-designed, ready-to use templates thanks to the addition of 10 more templates for popular uses, including wine collecting, job hunting, home searching, vacation planning and more. In addition, the recently launched Bento Template Exchange shows off hundreds of downloadable templates designed by Bento users, so there is never a shortage of new ideas for ways to use Bento 3.
Special limited time offers available
Bento 3 has a suggested list price of $49, but, for a limited time only, FileMaker is offering a $20 rebate to existing users of Bento 1 and Bento 2. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 through the FileMaker Store will get an instant rebate and pay just $29 for Bento 3. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 at an Apple store or other retailer can request a $20 rebate online.. Customers who have purchased Bento 2 between August 30, 2009 and October 14, 2009 are eligible to receive Bento 3 for free. A 30-day trial version is also available at www.bentotrial.com.
Bento 3 support for Bento for iPhone and iPod touch
Bento 1.0.3 for iPhone and iPod touch resolves compatibility issues related to Bento 3 for Mac and will be available soon. Current users of Bento for iPhone and iPod touch will see a notification on their device when the free update is available for download.
Pricing and system Requirements
Bento 3 is affordably priced at $49 U.S., or $99 U.S. for a family pack of five licenses, and is available on the FileMaker Store. Bento 3 will also be offered at the Apple Online Store and Apple retail stores. It requires Mac OS X v.10.5.7 Leopard and will also run on the recently released OS X v.10.6 Snow Leopard on a Mac computer with an Intel PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor. A minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space is recommended. A CD drive is required for installation of boxed software.
IBM launches new Storage Cloud Solution for the enterprise
Offers Highest Performance, Scalability and Full Standards Support in a Private Cloud Model
At its Information Infrastructure Analyst Summit IBM announced its intention to enter the cloud storage space with the launch of the IBM Smart Business Storage Cloud, IBM Information Archive and new consulting services.
Traditional storage cloud solutions have piqued the interest of many enterprise clients for their very low price points, but these systems have mostly been limited to ’sandbox’ use cases for secondary or tertiary copies of data or for use in development and test environments in which data does not have to be frequently accessed and does not tend to grow into large scales.
The IBM Smart Business Storage Cloud is a private cloud offering that utilizes low cost components in a true scale-out clustered model not offered by its competition. Hallmarks of the solution include support for multiple petabytes of capacity, billions of files, and scale-out performance previously limited to the largest ‘high performance computing’ systems.
Industry-leading technologies like IBM’s General Parallel File System have been combined with the latest advances in storage, virtualization and server technologies like XIV and BladeCenter to provide performance and scalability all under one globally addressable namespace. The solution is highly secure and built to make use of a client’s existing security and authentication infrastructure. In addition to this, IBM offers tightly coupled services for implementation support and an optional ongoing lightweight managed service to help clients manage their cloud environment on an ongoing basis.
Many clients have also expressed concern about vendor lock-in with currently available cloud solutions, especially for data storage where migration costs into and out of the cloud can be costly. IBM has paid careful attention to these concerns and is offering full support for standard file access protocols so that moving data into and out of their storage cloud is as simple as a file copy operation.
Kantana Animation Studios Co., Ltd, one of the leading entertainment companies in Thailand, found that its animation processes were putting increasingly heavy demands on its data storage infrastructure. “Katana has greatly benefited from IBM’s storage services – our animators are now able to gain access to team projects faster and easier,” said Auchara Kijkanjanas, Managing Director of Kantana Animation Studios Co., Ltd. “We also benefit from greatly reduced operational costs and better business flexibility and productivity, critical drivers in a competitive and growing industry.”
IBM Smart Business Storage Cloud is the first of IBM’s cloud-based storage solution, built to be implemented either on the client premise or as part of its strategic outsourcing capabilities. The company will continue to build out this area of the portfolio, including a business-grade public cloud for storage, which will be offered with flexible consumption models and a self-service user interface to fully abstract the technology from the end user.
For clients looking for a single unified platform for information retention, IBM is announcing a new Smart Business System called IBM Information Archive. This integrated hardware and software solution helps organizations address their complete information retention needs, including business, legal and regulatory, and enables organizations to leverage different tiers of storage, including disk and tape, with policy-based management that automatically moves less active information to more cost-effective storage systems. Using a customizable “collections-based” approach, the archived data can be accessed in a private cloud computing environment, even if it’s stored on tape media. This capability is critical as an increasing amount of data is expected to exist in archived formats.
With key contributions from IBM Research, IBM Information Archive addresses one of the key promises of cloud computing; to provide seamless access to information, including archived data, no matter where it resides.
In addition, IBM Global Business Services is adding three new cloud consulting offerings to its business and IT consulting portfolio. These new offerings provide flexible entry points based on client needs, and are priced and delivered for near-term ROI. They are designed to help clients who are looking for an end-to-end cloud business-based IT strategy or to help clients select the right cloud delivery model for their business.
– Strategy and Change Services for Cloud Adoption – IBM consultants can help firms determine how to get started with cloud adoption by quickly identifying priority business areas; acknowledging key gaps in processes, technology, organization and governance; and evaluating the range of new cloud-based delivery models in order to develop a roadmap for piloting cloud.
– IBM Strategy and Change Services for Cloud Providers - For firms looking to enter the cloud provider market, IBM can help define an in-depth roadmap that treats cloud as a new operating model rather than just a method of IT delivery — an essential step in business model evolution.
– IBM Testing Services for Cloud – IBM can also help companies build a business case that quantifies the cost, schedule and quality improvements associated with pursing a cloud application test environment. This can help reduce capital expenses by provisioning test servers on demand, decreasing the cost of test setup and tear-down and associated defects, while shortening overall cycle time.
In June of this year IBM unveiled its cross-company strategy to capture the enterprise cloud computing market, helping clients attack rising costs and complexity by workload. Since then many products and services from the portfolio have entered the market, including Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, which began its public beta on October 1, 2009.
The company will continue to offer clients more cloud consumption and delivery options to balance the advantages of the cloud model (massive scalability at low and flexible costs with little capital expense) with the need for service levels that are enterprise grade; meaning secure, governable, reliable and address operational expense to lower costs over time.
For more about IBM’s cloud computing efforts, please visit www.ibm.com/cloud