Unified Communication

Unified Communication, the name as given by Microsoft. This is a new Type of communication technique in which there is no use of any Hardware device like PBX to communicate. Microsoft is slowly entering into all the markets by which ever means possible. The hardware market, with its different products including the recent launch of surface computer. After launching its Response Point (as it is code named) and Live Communication Server. Microsoft is all set to enter the voice market. Infact, it is doing so from past few years. Even the upcomming release, The Office Communication Server 2007 is also a big hit, which can be integrated with the present products of Microsoft used in every office. The most advance feature of office communication server is that it can successfully be managed on an existing Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory infrastructure environment.



Last year Microsoft, very cleverly partnered with major PBX service providers like AVAYA, Nortel, Cisco to test its PBX services embedded in communication server 2007. But today this product is competing with those vendors. The main aim of Microsoft is to deploy only soft phones for all the employees in a company. There is no use of a hard phone now and so the huge PBX box vanishes from our server rooms. With the PBX, came the programming and creation of extensions. With the launch of Communication server, this has been nullified. Now an IT administrator can create the extensions with a singly click.

The days have gone when it took hours to create extensions for all the employees in your company, with unified communication, this can be done in a single click. Just follow the screen shots and to your surprise, all the extensions will be created.


Technology

Microsoft is trying to deliver voice based solutions using its product, Office Communication Server 2007 (which is still in Beta) to be released some time this month. Office Communication Server makes use of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) which we have discussed in our post about IP Telephony. But as you say old is gold, the old technology will still be there. There is some more journey to be covered by this technology to wipe out those PBX boxes from our server rooms. Just imagine the power consumption of those huge boxes, and how dramatically it will be reduced when they are transformed into a single server.





Reducing the Overhead

IT can manage the system with all the familiar system administration tools. Certainly, automating the extension creation process will reduce the overhead from IT. Moreover, all the extensions can be centrally managed. Office communication server 2007 can work in synchronization with Exchange Server 2007 and the Active Directory where all the details of the user’s phone number is stored along side his e-mail address. It also reduced overhead from users, they just have to click on the person’s name in outlook whom they would like to call. You can also vew which of your buddy is working to call him. It offers all the features of a normal phone like call forwarding, voicemail etc.. The upcoming product, Live Meeting 2007 can also be integrated with OCS.


There will be a time when the whole world will switch from PSTN to IP based communication. Then you will not find any huge PBX box in your server room. On that day there will not be any use of hard phones at your desk. This place will be taken over by more decoratives.




Download Live Communication Server




Latest from Microsoft

SP 1 for Exchange Server 2007 to be shipped later this year. Presently in beta testing phase. This upgrade will enhance the web experience of viewing mails. There are few fixes as well..

Four Critical updates by Microsoft to be released next Tuesday to fix the flaws in IE Outlook Express, Wedmail.

Latest FromTech Ed 2007

Microsoft Orcas & Katmai names given to upcomming products Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

Microsoft Surface Computer

Last Wednesday, Microsoft surprised us, by officially launching its Surface Computer.

Yes its true……..

It was un-believable at first sight, when I saw the screen getting dissolved with a human touch. Being in news for more than a year now, Microsoft Surface Computer (the name as given by Microsoft) as gained lot of prominence. Just Imagine, ordering a coffee with your fingers in a restaurant.



It is just a touch screen, which is re-designed as a magical screen by Microsoft. You don’t need a keyboard to type and no mouse for pointing. The surface computer acknowledges your gestures, you can slide icons on screen. The devices which it is made up of are (Scanner, touch screen, modem and series of infra-red cameras…) touch screen senses the electronic object placed on the screen, scanner reads the bar code on the objects and modem communicates with any wifi enabled device. For example, if you place your wi fi enabled camera on it, you will get all the photos displayed on the screen without having to do any thing. More over, you can re-size your photos just by squeezing it on the screen, if you want to move this photos onto some other device, you can just place that device on the screen and slide the photos to that device. This computer works with the special version of Windows Vista.




According to Microsoft, Surface computer recognizes multiple gestures at a time. You can place your camera and your friend's camera on the screen. Surface computer recognizes these devices with its scanners and electronic modem and displays all the features beside those devices. Moreover, you can even download features from one device to other just by sliding your fingers on the screen.

Presently Surface is a 30” screen, looks like a 30” screen placed on a table. Microsoft is selling Surface computer in between $5,000 and $10,000, but prices are expected to go down with smart technologies and for home usage and very soon we will be saying buy buy to our traditional laptops.


Availability

You can find Surface computer at few of the Microsoft partners like T-mobiles USA, Harrah’s Entertainment inc, Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide inc, Sheraton Hotels, International Game Technology


Read more

Microsoft's Official Surface Computer Site

Watch the amazing video below

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Google Has Acquired FeedBurner

Not sure whether you have noticed a small change on Feedburner.com about this merge. Yes this is true; I have mentioned in my post earlier that, Google FeedBurner merge is in rumors. This rumor has turn out to be true. You can read all the advantages that Google will be getting with this merge in my post here




I am very happy with this deal, infact evrybody is happy with this deal. Very soon, Google will be integrating FeedBurner with Google Analytics or with Google Adsense. Now we can get all my subscribers at one place. Overall we get following services in one place.


Mails, Spreadsheets, photos, groups etc...

Adsense account and its reports

Analytics reports

The above features already exist. One new and most welcomed feature will be My subscribers count and hits being added to my Google bucket.

Isn’t it a very cool feature? Now you can stick to one resource for Blogging, for Mailing, and for promoting your Blog or site and that resource is Google.


But see the clever fox behind the door, FeedBurner was started in 2003, within last 4 years it has grown only $10M. A 10 Million Dollar company being sold at 10 times its price is like a dream come true for FeedBurner.


Wow.....


This is because FeedBurner has all the inventory of the websites and its subscribers in its database. Looking onto this it will be easier for Google to integrate this service with its existing tools like Analytics or Adsense with some minor modifications. This was the best option instead of starting the all new service name Adsense RSS Burner. No doubt, this deal is not a loss for Google.


This deal brings happiness not only for us (Bloggers) but also for advertisers. If you have read my post about this deal, there I have mentioned about the disadvantage which these advertisers were facing with FeedBurner as FeedBurner will not display any advertisement in whichever reader the visitor is reading your post. Now Google will remove this feature as it will bring lots of bucks in its pocket.



There are lots of developments to come in Google…….

There we go, Aaron Brazell has posted a letter of this Deal, check it out below

Open Letter to Google, FeedBurner

RealPlayer 11 In News

The newly launched RealPlayer Blog reports that RealNetworks have launched their new RealPlayer which can download videos in a single click from Youtube, Google, Yahoo, AOL et… The Beta version of this player will be available in public from this month (dates not specified).

According to RealNetworks, this player has the facility to integrate with video hosting websites like Youtube etc.. Users can download the videos in different formats including Flash, Windows Media, Quick time and offcourse Real. You can also burn CD’s, however, to burn the DVD’s you have to get the full version ($30) for offline viewing.








Legality

The company says, they respect the copyright policies. This Player will download the contents if it not protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). Else it will not download the video. Isn’t it a very legal feature. But I think, unless some legal copyright policies are enforced on websites which offer free contents to its viewer like Youtube, this Player is not used to its extent. Till that time viewers will continue to download free contents on Youtube, which includes movies, music videos and TV shows which is not legal.




RealPlayer is the most downloaded player available on internet, used to view videos or listen to audio for innumerable sites. Real Networks says, about 1.5 Million copies of RealPlayer are downloaded daily. The good feature about this new Player is that, you don’t have to open the player to download the videos and even the website from which you want to download contents do not have to do any thing. All the homework is done by this player which will add a pop up button to the window on the browser (generally on the contents being viewed in Flash or any other player) asking you to download. Also, if the file is protected by DRM, then it will display “This video cannot be downloaded”. You will get the reason if you click on that button.

Future Developments

Real Networks is also planning to develop the upgraded version of this player which can upload the contents on web and can even transfer online contents to their Ipods or any personal media device.

Apple Ipod May Go Wi-Fi This Year

A product which has been rumored for almost a year now.

Earlier this year, Apple, one of the leading manufacturers of ipods and other hardware products announced its new range of ipods, i.e… a Wi-Fi enabled ipod. And here we go, after selling its 100 millionth ipod last month there is a good news from Apple. Apple’s rumorist Digi Times (as pointed out by engadget ) announces the new range of ipods from Apple. But mind you, Digi Times is a site which spreads the news of latest products form Apple which fail to develop. Now it reports that Apple ipods may go Wifi this year. This was in news from quite some time now. Digi Times is the primary manufacturer of most of the Apple’s products. They report that Foxconn will manufacture this finished ipod from Apple which will have Wi-Fi enabled.



But till now, there is no news about the specification of our favourite device with such a nice facility. We would not be able to guess whether the Wi-Fi ipod will be a touch screen or a PDA like device. But imagine, if your ipod is Wi Fi enabled, then you can download music on the go. But I think that if at tall a product like this is developed, it should have a stable battery, not the traditional batteries used in present ipods. There is also a concern about the keypad. Generally Wi Fi networks are authorized zones, to enter into which, you have to enter the key codes and typing it using a small keypad of present ipod is very difficult. Looking into all these concerns, Apple must be bringing some changes in its present models of ipod.

No body knows, What’s going on inside Apple. Also if we look at other launches from Apple this year, the major launch is its iphone to be released in june this year, which has Wi-Fi support.



Microsoft was the first player in the market to enable Wi Fi on a portable device like ipod, that was not an ipod but a music player rather. Seeing this there are couple of other players like Sandisk already showcasing it’s Wi Fi enabled devices while Samsung and Sony are preparing to enter the booming market.


Apple was in news this year with most of the new happening with its launches and products. Also the first virus to infect an ipod was developed by some bad guys. Seeing this Apple has released security updates (offcourse it is not a new service)


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