Microsoft small business server software now widely available
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Edition is now available through all Microsoft channels, including OEMs and volume licensing. The company announced all-channel availability earlier today. As the name implies, the server software is specifically intended for small businesses. There is a user account cap and prohibition against connecting to network domains (to prevent larger businesses from buying the lower-cost, integrated suite rather than separate products like Exchange and Windows Server).
Microsoft offers three SBS 2011 versions: Essentials, Standard and Premium Add-On. Essentials, which supports up to 25 user accounts, isn't yet available. Standard supports up to 75 user accounts, either people or devices. SBS 2011 Standard Edition retails for $1,096 with five client-access licenses (CALs). Additional five-packs are $361 -- or $1,447 for 20. Premium Add-On CAL packs retail for $457 for five or $1,831 for 20. Microsoft also provides a trial version of the software good for 90 days.
New York Times digital subscriptions & the impossible fight against free content
On March 28, the New York Times will put a new "freemium" subscription model in place for users accessing news on NYTimes.com. Every month, 20 articles are free, and all further articles are locked unless the user pays a subscription charge: $15 every four weeks for the website and a mobile app, $20 for Web access and an iPad-specific app, or $35 for all access.
In a letter to readers, New York Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said, "It's an important step that we hope you will see as an investment in The Times, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world and on any platform. The change will primarily affect those who are heavy consumers of the content on our Web site and on mobile applications."
Is Microsoft more ethical than Apple or Google?
Ethisphere has chosen its list of the 2011 Most Ethical Companies. Microsoft, which has a somewhat seedy reputation steaming from its European and U.S. antitrust cases, made the list of 110 companies. Many other successful tech companies -- Apple, Facebook and Google among them -- are absent. Of course, who would really expect Facebook to be regarded as ethical?
Microsoft joins the 36 companies new to Ethisphere's list. I'm not so surprised to see Microsoft on the list so much as not seeing it sooner -- at least since 2008 (that's how far back I looked). The company really cleaned up its corporate behavior during the new millennium and even has taken a leadership role among tech companies. It's what I heard Chairman Bill Gates pledge Microsoft would do when he testified in court in Spring 2002. I actually regard Microsoft to be a highly ethical company on many fronts. Then there is the shadow of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations' philanthropic work.
Microsoft cleans up in both U.S. search and video traffic
Online market research company comScore released its Video Metrix online video content ranking for the month of February. The rating tallies up the total online video audience for the U.S., determines how much it consumes per capita, and ranks the top video content providers.
February's total 170 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content for an average of 13.6 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5.0 billion viewing sessions in February.
Study says Android surfs the web faster than the iPhone
A new study released Thursday claims that Android loads webpages on average 52 percent faster than iPhone, while also throwing cold water on claims that enhancements to the JavaScript engines of either platform made web surfing faster.
The study from website optimization company Blaze involved an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3 and a Nexus S running Android 2.3. Tests were performed over 45,000 times using Fortune 1000 websites, and 84 percent of the time the Nexus phone loaded the page faster. Median load time was 2.144 seconds for Android versus 3.254 seconds for the iPhone.
Opera 11.10 beta available, Opera Mini 6 preview coming to CTIA
Today, Opera released a public beta of its browser of the same name. Opera 11.10 beta, codenamed "Barracuda," features a much improved Speed Dial, more seamless experience loading certain required plug-ins and updated support for various web standards.
The standout among this list of changes is the improved Speed Dial feature, which now supports an unlimited number of dials thanks to a new button that allows the user to add new sites to the list, either by typing the address manually or by picking from a list of selections made by Opera. Existing entries can now also be edited to change the site address or display name.
Sprint outlines new features of CDMA Push-to-Talk service
Sprint has announced it will launch CDMA-based Push-to-Talk technology in the fourth quarter of this year, the network operator announced it would be phasing out its iDEN technology over the next two years, and the new service, called Sprint Direct Connect, is intended to be its replacement.
Sprint began discussing CDMA-based Push-to-Talk communications more than three years ago, and briefly attempted to replace Nextel's iDEN-based PTT with a service from Qualcomm called QChat. Ultimately, though, the carrier abandoned the technology and moved on.
Which is faster -- Copy Handler or FastCopy?
Copying files in Windows can be slow and inflexible, so it makes sense to look for a little third-party help. And as we found out recently, it can make a real difference: FastCopy was able to copy files up to 30 percent faster than Windows, in some situations.
There are plenty of similar tools around, though, and one of the oldest, Copy Handler, recently saw its first release of 2011. Could the experience behind this nine-year-old open source project improve on FastCopy's excellent performance? We went back to the benchmarks in an effort to find out.
Sky News releases app for iPad -- free now but not for long
To accompany its various other iOS apps, Sky News has released a dedicated iPad news app that provides access to the 24 hour news station and a range of other content. The app is currently free of charge to everyone, but in the future access will be free to Sky subscribers, while a monthly fee with be payable by anyone who does not have a satellite package. The app is more varied that other news services, providing a number of different ways to access the latest and recent news.
As Sky News is a 24 hour rolling news channel, the option to view the channel live is to be expected. There is also the option of browsing through the news in Timeline mode which provides access to a collection of news video from the last 24 hours. Whether you are watching live or recorded video, a rewind option is always available so you can review sections you have missed.
Google iOS app gets new name, more search focus
Google's iOS app has undergone a makeover and rebadging. Previously known as Google Mobile App, Google Search still provides easy access to all of Google's online tools, such as Google Docs and Gmail, but the search interface has been redesigned and gesture support has been added. The main focus of the app, as reflected in the name change, is web searching, but links to other online services are still available via a button.
Web searches can be performed in a number of ways -- typing in the usual way, by using voice commands or by taking photographs with your iPhone's camera. However a search is performed, once the results are displayed, a swipe to the right provides access to options that can be used to refine your search, limiting results to images, news, videos and a number of other categories.
It's time to end the e-commerce sales tax holiday
When I buy a book at the book store in my town they charge me 7 percent extra to send to the state of New Jersey. But when I buy it from Amazon.com I don't pay the 7 percent. It's a great deal for Amazon.com and for me, but it's fundamentally unfair. It's time to end the distinction.
I'm one who believes that taxes, as a general matter, should be kept as low as possible. This isn't about revenue -- it's about fairness. There's no logical reason why retail businesses with a physical presence should have to collect sales taxes but e-commerce (and phone/catalog) retailers don't.
Internet Explorer 9 takes back the web -- 2.35M downloads during first 24 hours
Way back when, Mozilla used slogan "Take back the web!" to promote Firefox. Internet Explorer 9 aims to do just that. Today at Microdoft's Windows Team Blog, Ryan Gavin pronounced, not 1, not 2, but 2.35 million IE9 downloads in 24 hours. It's an impressive number. Internet Explorer 9 has exploded onto the web, as Microsoft makes a grab to take it back from upstarts. We'll see if Mozilla can do as well when Firefox 4 officially launches next week.
Internet Explorer 9 is by far Microsoft's most ambitious browser since v3 launched to great fanfare in summer 1996. Microsoft browser development was ferocious and fast as the software giant sought to take the web away from Netscape. Microsoft would later win the browser wars but lose the fire in its belly. All realistic browser development stopped with IE6's release in October 2001 and didn't resume until after Mozilla launched Firefox in late 2004.
Exchange Online 2010, Office 365 to get free BlackBerry services
Microsoft on Wednesday announced that BlackBerry mobile e-mail for Exchange Online 2010 is now free for all new customers to the Business Productivity Online Suite, and when Office 365 launches later this year, it will include Hosted Blackberry Services for free.
Previously, Microsoft placed an additional $10 per month per user charge for syncing Exchange Online with BlackBerry devices. According to the company's announcement on Wednesday, current paying customers will soon be given options to take advantage of this change.
Google expands social collaboration features in Docs
Expanding on moves first made last April to make Google Docs more collaborative, Google on Wednesday further expanded on social aspects of the online document service. Comments are now "seamless," the company says, and easier to manage through new e-mail functionality.
Previously users had to check the document itself to view new comments, which the company admitted was not the best solution. Google has changed this so that a new comment would be directly e-mailed to the document owner. Replying to the comment would be as easy as replying to the email. Also, new participants can be added through the use of an @mention.
Frenzy makes your Dropbox social
Dropbox is a handy online service that can be used to synchronize files between multiple computers, share files with others and backup important documents. Using Frenzy for Mac, it can also be transformed into a personal social networking tool that makes it easy to share files and links with friends and colleagues. The app is available as a free beta version and it is compatible with both free and paid-for Dropbox accounts.
Setting up the app is a breeze. Simply launch the software and indicate which of your Dropbox folders should be used for sharing, and the content you choose to share can only be seen by friends with Macs running Frenzy. To make it as easy as possible to share with others, keyboard shortcuts can be used to share files and web links without the need to explicitly launch an app. Once something has been shared, Frenzy returns focus to the app you were using so you can get straight back to what you were doing.
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