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Tag: enterprise

  • Star Trek Town in Canada Crowdfunds Building Functional, Full-Size Enterprise

    In the Canadian Badlands, in the province of Alberta, there is a little town called Vulcan. The folks in Vulcan take the responsibility inherent in their name seriously. Every year, they host a mid-summer Star Trek celebration and festival called Spock Days. They are the Official Star Trek Capital of Canada, and the spiritual center of the Star Trek universe.

    Star Trek fans and personalities alike make the pilgrimage to Vulcan. The town has developed a Tourism and Trek Station to welcome visitors, and is also home to a stunning collection of authentic costumes and props from Star Trek television programs and films located at the Trekcetera museum.

    But the little town is looking to the future, beyond the fandom distinction of holding yet another festival. They want to become the real deal. They want to build a full-size, functional, warp-capable Starship Enterprise. And they’re not just chatting about it. They’re in early fundraising stages, and you can be a part of history by helping them launch their project.

    The plan is a 40-year, $1.132 Trillion project to build a 1:1 scale fully functional U.S.S. Enterprise starship. The founders are aware that they face certain huge obstacles to realizing their goal. But, unlike other space programs, they are seriously and earnestly looking to overcome these with research and planning.

    To that end, they have set up an IndieGogo fundraiser to collect their first funding goal of $2 billion in order to fund important research into the creation, and development, of warp-drive technology.

    Super-luminal (faster-than-light) travel is critical to interstellar space travel. So research is key. Even if this ends up looking different than the fictional “warp travel” of the Star Trek franchise, there are possibilities already being looked at by NASA and others.

    So the folks of Vulcan want to establish The Vulcan Super-Luminal Research Center that will become, as they say:

    “[It] will become a repository for everything we, as a species, know about faster-than-light travel, gravity control and more. Most importantly, though, the VSLRC will also become home to an advisory panel comprised of the world’s foremost thinkers on the subject, who will be tasked with determining which research projects into warp-related fields will be funded through the VSLRC.”

    But knowing how to get to the stars is one thing. You also need to build a vessel that can actually get there. The folks of Vulcan envision a Vulcan Spaceport, and they know just where they want it.

    “Just outside the town of Vulcan AB, lies the decommissioned Vulcan Aerodrome. As a former Royal Canadian Air Force base, this historic site provides a unique foundation upon which the entire project can be built … [T]he site will be expanded … and will become the permanent home to the production facilities required to construct the Enterprise, as well the spaceport required to service the mighty ship.”

    If you believe in this ambitious project that Vulcan is embarking on, you can contribute. Even just $10 will get your name included on a permanent monument located at the future home of the Vulcan Super-Luminal Research Center.

    For $10K, you will be invited to the warp-drive debut. For $500 million, they will name the Research Center in your honor. And for $1 billion, they will name the spaceport itself in your honor.

  • Amazon Opens Up Enterprise Storage Service Zocalo

    Last month, Amazon introduced a new enterprise storage service called Amazon Zocalo. Until now, it has been in limited preview, but the company just announced its general availability.

    Amazon previously described Zocalo as a “fully managed, secure enterprise storage and sharing service with strong administrative controls and feedback capabilities that improve user productivity.” Here’s a look:

    Zocalo lets customers store, share, and gather feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presenations, webpages, images, PDFs, and text files from laptops, iPads, Kindle Fires, or Android tablets.

    The offering costs $5 per user per month for 200 GB of storage per user for up to 50 users. You can see the full pricing here.

    As part of the move to general availability, Amazon also announced that AWS CloudTrail now records calls made to the Zocalo API. The API is currently internal, but Amazon says it intends to expose it in the future.

    Jeff Barr, chief evangelist for Amazon Web Services, says, “I have become a regular user of Zocalo, and also a big fan! I generally have between 5 and 10 blog post drafts under way at any given time. I write the first draft, upload it to Zocalo, and share it with the Product Manager for initial review. We iterate on the early drafts to smooth out any kinks, and then share it with a wider audience for final review. When multiple reviewers provide feedback on the same document, Zocalo’s Feedback tab lets me scan, summarize, and respond to the feedback quickly and efficiently.”

    So at least the evangelist likes it.

    When Amazon first introduced Zocalo, it also added new mobile services to improve developers’ abilities to build, deploy, and scale their apps. These included Amazon Cognito, a way to store, manage, and sync user identifies and data securely.
    More on that and Zocalo here.

    Image via YouTube

  • Star Trek Controls Going into New U.S. Spacecraft

    Star Trek-style technology is becoming reality around us everyday. We have cell phones that look like the old communicators that Kirk flipped open. E-readers like the Kindle and tablets like the iPad are a lot like the Next Generation-era padds (Personal Access Display Device) that Picard and others used. There are lots of things that we are bringing from Trek’s future into our present.

    There was a two-part episode of Voyager called “Future’s End” that even flirted with the idea that someone in the mid-20th century found Trek technology from the future and used it to launch the micro-computer revolution we are living in today. That episode itself used lots of themes and jokes from the Voyage Home feature film. The Trek folks are meta like that.

    A 1993 study from Purdue University found that children learn more about science from Star Trek than from any other source.

    And now we have the news from Air & Space Smithsonian that a new American spacecraft is being built that will utilize another Star Trek feature. Not warp nacelles or tractor beams, but something very familiar to all Trek fans from Next Generation forward.

    The Orion capsule will feature very few control switches, as were in NASA craft of the past, and instead move to a touchscreen interface. The system is called “eProc” (electronic procedures), and is programmed to bring up the needed pages of icons as the user navigates the interface.

    Trek fans will remember LCARS, the interface used in Trek computers, that was all touchscreen. LCARS is an acronym for Library Computer Access/Retrieval System. Scenic art supervisor and technical consultant Michael Okuda designed the LCARS interface to make the bridge of the newest Enterprise look clean and sleek.

    “I came up with the LCARS style in part because of Gene Roddenberry’s directive that he wanted his new Enterprise to be so advanced that it looked simple and clean,” Okuda said. “The other part of the LCARS style was that it had to be something that could be manufactured quickly and easily on a television budget.”

    The original setup on TNG was a simple plexiglass front with backlit printouts of the buttons needed. Later they installed video monitors within the panels so the interface could be changed at will.

    Nowadays, we are used to the notion of touchscreen interfaces. They are in most smartphones, thanks to Apple leading the way with the iPhone. You can even get apps and wallpapers that will make your smartphone look like it is sporting the LCARS system.

    There is even a very geek-centric website that is designed around the LCARS interface.

    Image via YouTube

  • Star Trek for Real: 5 Trek Gadgets That Came True

    The television series Star Trek — now referred to by fans as The Original Series, or TOS — cast a vision for the future that has endured for almost 50 years now. Between TOS and the spinoffs that followed — The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and all the feature films based thereon — the world was treated to the notions of space travel at warp speed, dematerialization transportation, and even time travel.

    Many of the fantastic notions from Star Trek are still firmly in the realm of science fiction. But there are some things that have found their way into our real world, right off the screen.

    Padds

    This is perhaps the easiest one to point out. The typical Star Trek “padd” was passed around with reports and other written communication. Now we have tablets and e-readers galore: Kindle, iPad, Android tablets, you name it.

    Universal Translator

    This is a bit different than it was envisioned by Roddenberry and gang, but we do have apps that can translate from one spoken language to another, acting as a translator. Examples include Voice Translate Pro and SayHi Translate.

    Vocal Computer Interface

    Majel Barrett’s familiar computer voice has become the stuff of Trek canon. The computers aboard the Enterprise and every other Federation Starship could accept voice commands, answer questions, and even off suggestions.

    And now we have Siri. It can’t initiate a self-destruct sequence or help you program a holonovel, yet. But Siri and its non-Apple cousins are certainly pieces in a puzzle that we no doubt will put together one day.

    Hypospray

    Believe it or not, this one actually predates Star Trek. It is called a jet injector and was used for administering vaccines to the masses without the use of needles. Nowadays they are used for insulin and other applications.

    Transparent Aluminum

    When Scotty cavalierly violated what we would later call the “temporal Prime Directive” and handed a 20th-century engineer the formula for transparent aluminum in exchange for some Plexiglas thick enough to contain some whales and sea water, most people probably just chuckled. But not everybody.

    Introducing ALON, a substance that is made much like a ceramic material, with aluminum, oxygen and nitrogen. The resultant material is clear, can be polished, and is used for armor, sandwiched with regular glass and polymer. It can stop a bullet.

    Image via YouTube

  • Apple Partners With IBM For Enterprise Mobility

    Apple just announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with IBM to bring the latter’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad.

    Included are a new class of over 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions, including native apps for both devices, IBM cloud services specifically optimized for iOS (device management, security, analytics, mobile integration), a new AppleCare service and support offering for the enterprise, and new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management.

    Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today. For the first time ever we’re putting IBM’s renowned big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”

    IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty added, “Mobility—combined with the phenomena of data and cloud—is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries and professions. This alliance with Apple will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally, and leverages IBM’s leadership in analytics, cloud, software and services. We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can’t imagine living without. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform.”

    I bet you didn’t see that coming.

    Image via Apple

  • Star Trek 3: Boldly Going … Where?

    Star Trek 3: Boldly Going … Where?

    Space … the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds; To seek out new life and new civilizations; To boldly go where no man has gone before!

    Star Trek: The Original Series, started in 1966, and ended its run in 1969. That’s only three years out of its intended “five-year mission”. Here in the real world, the space race was well underway, but no one had set foot on the Moon just yet.

    For the films that followed the original series run, as well as the Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine and all the attendant films since, the duration of the series has been left open-ended. The Next Generation announced a “continuing mission”, and ran from 1987 to 1994, a full seven seasons. Voyager started with the understanding that it could take 75 years for the crew to get back home. It, too, ran seven seasons.

    But the notion of that “five-year mission” is still part of the Star Trek lore. And now, with the Star Trek reboot movies, we just may be visiting that mission once more, with Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, Chekhov, and a handful of redshirts to round out the away team.

    Actor Zachary Quinto, who plays the role of Spock in the new movies, told attendees at the Television Critics Press Tour:

    “I think the five-year mission will be a part of this next film in some way. We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic sci-fi series in entertainment history, so it’s inherently an ongoing story. But I do think that we’ll feel some sense of evolution in these characters that’s been building through the first few films.”

    Since the conceit behind Star Trek (2009) and Into Darkness (2013) is that this Trek universe is an alternate timeline to the original, the construct of a five-year mission could easily be filled with old, familiar characters and species (e.g. Klingons, Romulans, etc.), as well as things that weren’t encountered until the Next Generation (Borg, Bajorans, etc.). And, of course, there is always the possibility of all-new encounters.

    “The script is being tightened and polished and finished,” Quinto said, “and I imagine that the phone will be ringing in the next few months to see when we’ll go back into production.”

    Robert Orci is set to direct.

    Image via YouTube

  • Star Trek Fan Has $500,000 Trek Man Cave

    Star Trek fans will do a lot of embarrassing stuff. They’ll travel thousands of miles to conventions and meet-ups. They’ll buy and make costumes that get worn on days other than Halloween.

    Then there’s the paragon of parenting virtue who only spoke Klingon to his son for the first three years of his life.

    Now comes the tale of a man who has spent three years and nearly half a million dollars fixing up his basement like a Star Trek shrine.

    Anthony Sforza of Long Island went to great lengths — perhaps where no one had gone before — to get materials for his basement Enterprise.

    “It was very difficult at first to find the materials that they used on the show,” Sforza said. “I tried to call them but getting an answer was impossible.”

    “Fortunately I was able to purchase a piece of the original set which I pulled apart to find out the exact paint and materials that were used,” he said. “That’s how I created the basement.”

    Sforza recreated the captain’s conn and other pieces of the Enterprise bridge — NCC-1701, no bloody A, B, C, or D. But he also collects costumes, badges, tricorders, action figures, latex masks, and weapons.

    “My collection probably has about 300 pieces in it,” Sforza explained. “The most notable pieces of the collection are the Captain’s costume, which is called the Monster Maroon.”

    Sforza’s kids love the Star Trek obsession. But his sister thinks it’s a little weird.

    “Anthony’s been obsessed with Star Trek for as long as I think I’ve been alive,” she said. “I don’t remember him ever not being obsessed with it, even when he was a little boy. I think he’s a freak, but he loves it, and he could be into worse things. So if that’s what makes him happy then that’s great.”

    Image via Youtube

  • Google Announces Glass at Work Certified Partners

    Google announced its first round of “Glass at Work” certified partners, getting Google Glass into the workplace for some companies.

    “We’ve been searching for developers who are creating Glassware to help businesses reach their goals,” the company said in a Google+ post. “We heard from hundreds of enterprise developers and today we’re excited to announce our first round of Glass at Work Certified Partners. Congrats to APX, Augmedix, Crowdoptic, GuidiGO and Wearable Intelligence.”

    The Glass at Work program is designed to spark enterprise solutions for Google’s wearable technology. So far, it doesn’t even include Salesforce, which last week announced its own efforts for wearable technology in the enterprise. It did cite Google Glass as one such platform it’s working on.

    APX Labs makes business software for Glass, providing workers with hands-free, real-time access to enterprise data. It’s being used by Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries.

    Augmedix provides a services for doctors, shortening the amount of time they have to spend pushing and pulling info from the Electronic Health Record.

    CrowdOptic has software that detects significatn broadcast events from mobile and wearable devices.

    GuidiGo partners with museums and cultural institutions on making art more accessible with Glass.

    Wearable Intelligence crates Glassware for energy, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. It provides workflow, communications, training, and data access products.

    Google provides a place for both developers and enterprises to request involvement with Glass at Work here.

    Image via Google

  • Salesforce Takes Wearable Computing To Enterprise With Salesforce Wear

    Salesforce Takes Wearable Computing To Enterprise With Salesforce Wear

    Salesforce announced the launch of a new Salesforce Wear developer pack as it aims to bring enterprise services to wearable computing devices. The pack will help developers get companies connected to their customers through apps for wearables.

    The company has already partnered with ARM, Fitbit, Pebble, Philips, Samsung, and others to get started. Its building support for Android Wear, ARM, Fitbit, Google Glass, Myo from Thalmic, Nymi from Bionym, OMsignal, Pebble, Philips, and Samsung Gear 2.

    About 50 million wearable devices are expected to be sold this year, with that number predicted to be more like 180 million in 2018.

    “Wearables are the next phase of the mobile revolution,” said Daniel Debow, SVP, emerging technologies, salesforce.com. “With Salesforce Wear, companies can now capture the massive opportunity these devices offer to connect with customers in new ways.”

    The company is envisioning “connected 1:1 experiences,” contextually aware sales apps, faster and safer service resolution, and of course, “endless possibilities”.

    “With a connected wearable, going to a favorite casino, resort or amusement park will mean never having to pull out your wallet, juggle a hotel card key or search for an app,” the company says. “What if it was possible to anticipate needs and give VIP treatment to any visitor? With wearable devices like a wristband seamlessly connected to customer data, destinations can deliver customized journeys for every guest.”

    The developer pack is available to over 1.5 million Salesforce1 developers. It’s included with all user licenses of Salesforce CRM and the Salesforce Platform.

    Image via PR Newswire

  • eBay Touts Enterprise Omnichannel Commerce Momentum

    eBay Touts Enterprise Omnichannel Commerce Momentum

    eBay announced increased adoption of omnichannel commerce technologies globally for eBay Enterprise. It has secured 451 clients and 862 extension and renewals in the first half of the year. These stretch across its various services. Alex and Ani, BOXPARK, Destination XL, Karmaloop, MailPix and StubHub are listed as brands using eBay Enterprise.

    “We are leading local commerce with close to 4,000 stores enabled with store-based fulfillment globally,” said Tobias Hartmann, interim president of eBay Enterprise. “We continue to help merchants compete in a global marketplace having recently launched our ship-from-store solution for a leading retailer in North America, Europe, and China, which is an industry first.”

    The company lists the following achievements for the year to date:

    • In January, eBay Enterprise announced the ability to implement ship-from-store technologies for retailers in 99 days and offer clients who have implemented this solution with additional freight discounts of up to 50% off published rates.
    • In March, eBay Enterprise announced its expanded operations in Canada with a new fulfillment center.
    • In April, Advertising Age ranked eBay Enterprise within the top 15 in its “50 Largest U.S. Digital-Agency Networks” report for the fifth year in a row.
    • eBay Enterprise was recently recognized as the #1 commerce provider to the mid-market according to the 2014 Internet Retailer Top 500. For the fourth consecutive year, Magento remains the most popular platform, with a 34 percent increase in online retail sites since last year, according to a recent study by Tom Robertshaw.
    • In May, eBay Enterprise announced the availability of two new extensions for Magento merchants now available in the Magento Connect Marketplace: the eBay Enterprise Display Extension, enabling retailers to deliver personalized product-specific ads to retarget lost customers; and the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Extension, offering best-in-class reporting tools to analyze, track and launch affiliate programs and easy integration with eBay Enterprise’s network of more than 200,000 affiliates.
    • Magento Enterprise 1.14 and Community Edition 1.9 were launched in May, drastically reducing the barrier for merchants to get a tablet and smart phone friendly responsive site. The new editions also integrate Bill Me Later and PayPal Express Checkout empowering merchants to further streamline checkout. Initial customers on the Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14 include Shop3M and Hallhuber.

    “Our strategy of enabling commerce innovation for fast-growing companies through our eBay Enterprise and Magento solutions is clearly proving successful with initial synergies between Magento customers and our marketing solutions,” said Hartmann.

    The company will be showcasing its technologies at the Internet Retailer Conference next week, with CEO John Donahoe delivering a keynote session.

    Image via eBay

  • Hootsuite Launches Program To Help Businesses Educate Employees About Social Media

    Hootsuite has launched a new Custom Education program aimed at helping enterprise businesses address what it refers to as the “growing skills gap,” and accelerate their social media success.

    A spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews, “According to Altimeter, while 85% of companies have a corporate social media policy, only 18% of companies said that their employees’ knowledge about social media usage and the social media policy was “good” or ‘very good’.”

    “The program offers organizations tailored social media training programs to empower their workforce – as innovation leaders in the social media education space, we offer content and industry-leading experts on a scalable platform that other vendors simply cannot,” the spokesperson adds.

    The offering is meant to help employees become brand advocates, mitigate “social media risk,” develop an understanding of how social media impacts business, and help them get a better grasp on best practices.

    On its website, Hootsuite cites another stat fro the Altimeter Group: 43% of companies identified internal social media education as a top social business priority, while only 38% indicate having such a program in place, or in progress.

    Included in the Custom Education offering are what are described as flexible learning packages, which include the ability for businesses to select lessons from a large library of content addressing specific social media topics. Businesses can also work with “experts” to develop customized lessons based on specific company needs.

    Businesses can use the offering to roll out an education program through a private platform complete with analytics.

    The company says it has already educated over 60,000 businesses and professionals.

    For the heck of it, here’s Hootsuite’s recreation of the Game of Thrones title sequence for social networks.

    Image via YouTube

  • Google Gives Businesses A Hangout Button To Let Customers Video Chat From Their Sites

    Google Gives Businesses A Hangout Button To Let Customers Video Chat From Their Sites

    Google launched a new Hangout start button for businesses and developers, which can be embedded in any app or website.

    Google has already worked with a few enterprise software companies including Zendesk and Freshdesk for customer support hangouts, Zoho for recruiting hangouts, Lucidchart and Smartsheet for document and team collaboration.

    “Hangouts change the way employees connect and collaborate,” a spokesperson for Google tells WebProNews. “Both large and small companies like The Weather Channel or Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream — where the company’s COO lives in Los Angeles but is on Hangouts multiple times each day to stay connected with the Ohio-based company and its employees — are making great use of Hangouts to communicate just like in real life. Of course earlier this year we also launched Chromebox for meetings, which runs Hangouts to transform the meeting room experience.”

    Chromeboxes come in the form of hardware from companies like Asus and Dell

    “Whether you’re a sales rep working in a CRM app or an engineer in a project management tool, it only takes one click to launch a Hangout and your team will automatically be invited,” says Stephen Cho, head of Google Apps and Hangouts Technology Partnerships of the new button. “You can even improve customer service with the ability to quickly launch into a video Hangout with a client to resolve an issue.”

    “With this new Hangouts button, apps everywhere will let colleagues, partners, and customers meet face-to-face anytime, anywhere, and work more effectively together with just one click,” he adds.

    Here’s a video from Esna showing how you can start a hangout from within Salesforce.

    Barb Darrow at GigaOm suggests sites use the feature in place of live chat buttons that are often used throughout the web, though as a commenter points out, website chats don’t typically require a Google account.

    Either way, the button provides site owners with a new way to capture engagement on their sites – engagement between colleagues related to your content, or even among friends, depending on just what kind of content you actually provide.

    You can find the code for the button here. There is a variety of options, including markup, JavaScript, and HTML5.

    Back in November, Google added global address list support to Hangouts for Google Apps users to make it easier for business people to have conversations with their colleagues. They also added settings to let Google Apps admins customize which Hangouts feature were actually available to employees.

    Image via YouTube

  • IBM Partners With SAP To Get Enterprise Apps On SoftLayer Cloud

    IBM Partners With SAP To Get Enterprise Apps On SoftLayer Cloud

    IBM and SAP have expanded a global partnership, which will see the latter deliver its SAP Hana platform, SAP Hana One service and other applications on IBM’s SoftLayer cloud platform, which has been verified to run SAP Business Suite software and SAP BusinessObjects solutions.

    Businesses will have access to 40 data centers in five continents for running SAP enterprise apps. According to IBM, they’ll be able to more quickly expand their businesses into new geographies with more consistent global deployments. These will improve security and improve compliance with local laws, the company says.

    “Businesses today are looking for ways to lower the cost of deployment and greater efficiency in addressing new market opportunity,” said IBM General Manager of Cloud Services James Comfort. “By delivering SAP applications via IBM cloud technologies, companies will have consistent access to a global infrastructure that will assist them in tackling business needs with the speed and efficiency needed in today’s business climate.”

    “Delivering SAP applications via the IBM cloud provides customers the choice they desire to respond in real time to changing industry dynamics that impact their business,” added Robert Enslin, president of Global Customer Operations at SAP. “We anticipate that this approach will prove valuable to enable customers to easily scale to constantly increasing business requirements.”

    The companies say that businesses will see reduced support costs as a result of the partnership, and also that they’ll be able to speed up development and test instantly.

    IBM is also working with Virtustream on a new option for managing environments running SAP solutions on the SoftLayer platform. IBM will use Virtustream’s xStream cloud management platform software, and Virtustream will use SoftLayer to expand its own services into additional locations.

    Image via SoftLayer

  • Google Apps Gets New Android Device Management Features

    Google announced the launch of some new Google Apps Mobile Management features for Android to help organizations manage BYOD policies.

    These include inactive account wipe, support for EAP-based WiFi networks, compromised device detection, and additional reporting fields.

    “Bring your own device (BYOD) is no longer just a trend — it’s how business gets done,” says Google Enterprise product manager Clayton Jones. “With thousands of mobile applications to choose from and an increasing number of websites optimized for mobile, today’s employees can work whenever and wherever they choose. It also means IT organizations now have the dual challenge of both helping employees be more productive and protecting corporate data.”

    These features are aimed at helping businesses meet such challenges.

    You can set policies to wipe an inactive account from a device if it hasn’t been synced for a predetermined number of days. This way, a lot device that wasn’t reported or an old device no longer in use doesn’t create a security risk.

    Google says you can configure settings and distribute certificate authority based certs for EAP networks. You can also set policies to detect signals for common forms a compromised device, like “rooting” or installing a custom “ROM”, and block the device.

    “Access new reporting fields via the API and Admin console to better understand the devices that are in use and troubleshoot issues,” says Jones. “Additional fields include: Serial number, IMEI, MEID, WiFi MAC address, baseband version, kernel version, build number, mobile operator/carrier, language settings, and account ownership/management.”

    Earlier this week, we learned that Google acquired Divide, which provides a platform combining cloud-based management and device-level technology to help get the most out of mobile technology and corporate BYOD policies.

    Image via Google

  • Google Acquires Divide To Get Android In The Enterprise

    Google has made another acquisition.

    This time it’s Divide, which provides a platform combining cloud-based management and device-level technology to help companies “get the most out of mobile technology and corporate BYOD policies”.

    Google was already an investor in Divide by way of Google Ventures, as were Comcast Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and Harmony Partners.

    The move appears to be aimed at getting Android in more workplaces.

    In a post on the Divide website (via Re/code), the company says:

    We’re thrilled to announce that Divide is joining Google! Divide was founded with a simple mission: Give people the best mobile experience at work. As part of the Android team, we’re excited to continue developing solutions that our users love.

    For existing customers, Divide will work as it always has. Thank you to everyone who has downloaded our app, partnered with us, invested in us and provided feedback along the way; we truly appreciate all your support.

    More on what Divide is all about here. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

  • Google Starts To Put Enterprise Focus On Glass

    It’s no surprise that Google wants to see Glass in use in the enterprise, and now the company is starting to focus some of its efforts there.

    Google is calling on enterprises to sign up to get involved with Google Glass-based business initiatives.

    “In the last year we’ve seen our Explorers use Glass in really inspiring and practical day-to-day ways,” the company says. “Something we’ve also noticed recently and are very excited about is how Explorers are using Glass to drive their businesses forward. A number of companies have already teamed up with enterprise software developers to create new ways to serve their customers and to reach their business goals.”

    “The Washington Capitals and Schlumberger are just two of the companies that are at the forefront of exploring new possibilities with Glass,” Google adds. “The Washington Capitals partnered with APX Labs to create a fan experience where real time stats, instant replay and different camera angles are all brought directly to Capitals fans via Glass. Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company, partnered with Wearable Intelligence and is using Glass to increase safety and efficiency for their employees in the field.”

    According to Google, it’s “only the beginning” of what’s possible for Glass and business. That seems fairly accurate given that the product hasn’t even hit hit the market yet.

    If you want to sign up to let Google know you’re interested in Glass for business purposes, you can fill out this form.

    Image via YouTube

  • Microsoft Is About To End Windows XP Support

    The final countdown for Windows XP support is upon us (There’s literally a countdown. You can see it here). It’s had a good twelve-year run, but on April 8th, Microsoft will support the OS no more.

    This means there will be no more security updates or technical support.

    “Security updates patch vulnerabilities that may be exploited by malware and help keep users and their data safer,” says Microsoft. “PCs running Windows XP after April 8, 2014, should not be considered to be protected, and it is important that you migrate to a current supported operating system – such as Windows 8.1 – so you can receive regular security updates to protect their computer from malicious attacks.”

    The company notes that antivirus software will not be able to fully protect your PC when the operating system itself is unsupported.

    “Businesses that are governed by regulatory obligations such as HIPAA may find that they are no longer able to satisfy compliance requirements,” the company says.

    Windows XP will still be able to be installed and activated, and activations will still be required for retail installations. Existing updates will still be available via Windows Update.

    Microsoft is also ending support for the following: Office 2003, Windows XP Mode in Windows 7, Windows XP used with MED-V, Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP, System Center, Windows Intune and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit for Windows XP
    Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool will be provided for Windows XP through July 14th, 2015.

    People using machines with Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional, who receive updates via Windows Update, will be notified about the end of support.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Internet Explorer 11 Gets Enterprise Mode

    Microsoft announced that it has launched an update to Internet Explorer 11 with an Enterprise Mode feature aimed at helping businesses keep up to date with software, service, and device releases. It’s available on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Microsoft says it provides better compatibility for older versions of IE and tools to manage which Web apps use it.

    “Businesses can benefit from the modern Web standards, better performance, and increased security of our latest browser, while extending existing investments in legacy Web apps. And by decreasing dependencies on older versions, Internet Explorer is helping customers stay up-to-date with Windows 8.1, services like Office 365, and devices like the Surface Pro 2,” say IE program manager lead Kevin Miller and product marketing manager Fred Pullen in a joint blog post.

    “Many businesses are experiencing tension between today’s Web apps and services—which may require modern standards like HTML5 and CSS3—and older Web apps and services, designed for older versions of Internet Explorer,” the add. “Legacy apps often represent a significant investment and have long, multi-year lifecycles, effectively making these customers dependent on an older version of Internet Explorer until they can upgrade these Web apps to modern Web standards.”

    Enterprise Mode

    They note that many businesses are still using Internet Explorer 8, and that IE 11 with Enterprise Mode can provide better backward compatibility. They get into more technical details about how it does this in the post.

    You’ll also learn more about the feature from this session from Microsoft’s Build conference called “Better APp Compat with Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11” when it becomes available.

    A Windows 8.1 update for iE 11 is available for download, with automatic updates starting April 8th for Windows 7 and 8.1. A Windows Phone 8.1 version was also announced. More on the browser itself here.

    Images via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Announces Office For iPad, New Enterprise Tools

    Microsoft made some major announcements on Thursday including Microsoft Office for iPad, free Office Mobile apps for iPhone and Android, and the Enterprise Mobility Suite of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on various devices.

    The company also announced the upcoming availability of Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium and enhancements to Windows Intune.

    CEO Satya Nadella said, “Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It’s a unique approach that centers on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers.”

    “We reimagined Office on the iPad, while retaining what people love about Office,” said Microsoft’s John Case. “We hope you’ll be as pleased with the results as we are. In the future, we will bring Office apps to the Windows Store and other popular platforms. In addition to Office for iPad, we’ve gone a step further in our mobile first and cloud first approach, and like Windows Phone, we’ve now made Office Mobile for iPhone and Android phones available for free.”

    Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad are available in the App Store.

    Office 365 subscribers can add an iPad as one of their chosen devices, and use the apps.

    The Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) provides device, identity and access management with data protection from the cloud. It includes Windows Intune, Azure Active Directory Premium and Azure Rights Management Services. Windows Intune now supports the Samsung KNOX platform, Remote to My PC for Android and iOS devices, and the next update to Windows Phone.

    Office for iPad is available today in 29 languages for iOS 7.0 or later. The new Windows Intune features and Azure Active Directory Premium will be available in April, and the Enterprise Mobility Suite will be available on May 1st.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Enterprise Connect: Google And Cisco Partner For Chromebook Offerings

    Enterprise Connect: Google And Cisco Partner For Chromebook Offerings

    Google and Cisco have partnered up to offer Cisco WebEx and Cisco UC on Chromebooks. Rajen Sheth, Googles’s Director of Product Management on Chrome for Business announced the news at Enterprise Connect, where he demonstrated a proof of concept of the WebEx offering.

    Chromebooks with Cisco

    “We’re also integrating Cisco UC technologies into Google Apps, helping our joint customers work better together,” writes Chrome for Business Product Manager Saswat Panigrahi. “Imagine joining a WebEx meeting directly from Calendar, or starting an instant meeting from Contacts or the Gmail People widget. Starting today, if you use Cisco and Google Apps, features you love, like messaging, fax, click-to-call and Cisco presence, are visible alongside Gmail.”

    Google is telling Cisco customers to get in touch with the Google sales team or Google Enterprise sales via this form to see about getting set up.

    In case you’re wondering how long Chrome OS for enterprise devices is supported, it’s four years.

    Images via Google

  • Flash Played Extended Support Upgrades To Version 13 In May

    Flash Played Extended Support Upgrades To Version 13 In May

    If you want to be secure on the Web, it’s best that you keep all your extensions upgraded. Flash Player is no exception as its does occasionally fall to zero day attacks and other exploits. While continuously upgrading to the latest version is the best course of action, that’s not exactly feasible in an enterprise environment. That’s where Flash Player extend support comes in.

    Adobe announced on Wednesday that Flash Player extended support will be upgrading from version 11.7 to version 13 on May 13. On that day, enterprise and IT customers who use extended support releases will find version 13 on Adobe’s distribution channel.

    So, what’s the benefit of using the extended support release? Instead of having to adapt to new features with every new release, extended support versions of Flash Player don’t include any new features of bug fixes. These releases focus exclusively on security fixes so enterprise customers can ensure all the computers on their network stay secure without having to introduce new features every few weeks.

    Of course, enterprise and IT managers will want to start testing Flash Player 13 now before rolling it out to everybody to ensure everything works. For that, Adobe offers a Flash Player 13 beta on their Web site. You can grab it here.

    As an aside, it should be noted that the extended support release of Flash Player has finally moved to the new numbering scheme Adobe adopted back in November of last year. No more will Adobe use minor numbers, like 11.x, when referring to updates as each updated version of Flash Player will now have a nice whole number for every update. In other words, Flash Player 13 will become Flash Player 14 instead of something like 13.2.

    Image via Adobe