News
IT News: LCD TVs May Hamper Holiday PC Sales
Also, Microstrategy wins appeal; Zune details.
PCs will be a tough sell during the holidays, says a Gartner Inc. report. The
research firm forecasts a 2.5 percent decrease in worldwide PC revenue, despite
a 10.5 percent increase in unit sales caused by dramatic price cuts. The report
also predicts that affordably priced LCD TVs, multifunction cell phones and
other consumer electronics will further impact PC sales this upcoming holiday
season.
http://www.gartner.com
Microstrategy vs. Business Objects, Round Two
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled in favor
of MicroStrategy Inc. in a lawsuit brought on by Business Objects, which alleged
that MicroStrategy was infringing one of Business Objects' patents that have
something to do with "using semantically dynamic objects." The ruling
affirms a district court's prior dismissal of Business Objects' lawsuit. http://www.microstrategy.com/
Zune Takes Shape
Microsoft this week revealed more details about Zune, the company's new entertainment
media platform expected to be released this year. The brand will include a 30GB
digital media player capable of storing multiple file formats, wirelessly sharing
files with other Zune devices and uploading files from the Zune Marketplace
music service. The product will also come with accessory packs customized for
home or travel use. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune
Sell Yourself
Before you head out for a job interview, listen to your own sales pitch. A recent
survey by 15secondpitch.com found that 68 percent of survey participants don't
know how to pitch themselves, and nearly a quarter say they don't like attending
networking events. The Web site, which aims to teach professionals how to network
and market themselves effectively, surveyed more than 2,500 people over three
months. http://www.15secondpitch.com/
New Products: Partitioning, Bandwidth Monitoring
On the product front, Paragon Software Group released Partition Manager 8.0,
the newest version of its hard disk management software. This version features
user-friendly wizards and an XP-style interface, and comes in four editions:
Personal, Server, Small Business Server and Enterprise. The Enterprise edition
includes an "Initial Backup" function, which creates a hard disk image
before performing partitioning tasks.
http://www.paragon-gmbh.com/
Neon Software announced CyberGauge 7.0, the latest version of its bandwidth
monitoring software that now supports SNMP v2 and v3. One cool addition: Users
can create customizable .JPEG graphs that depict their bandwidth usage. Prices
start at $395, with upgrades starting at $99. http://www.neon.com
Management solution developer sqlSentry is running a special promotion for
current MaximumASP server clients: Use sqlSentry for free for two months upon
signing a new annual contract. Normally, the standard sqlSentry edition, which
provides scheduling and notifications for database administrators, sells for
$395 per SQL server instance. http://www.sqlSentry.net