Oracle picks up speed with transportation app
Oracle has unveiled a transportation application for its E-Business Suite 11i that uses technology acquired when it bought supply chain and logistics management software maker Global Logistics Technologies Inc. last fall. Transportation Management has out-of-the-box integration with E-Business Suite 11i-based workflows and supports, among other things, order entry, procurement and supply chain event management processes. It also allows users to track and trace items, make freight payments and perform historical analysis. Oracle also intends to stop selling or developing its two existing logistics packages, Oracle Transportation Planning and Oracle Transportation Execution. Pre-built connectors are not planned for Oracle’s PeopleSoft or J.D. Edwards applications.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: Can be purchased separately or as part of the E-Business Suite, starting at US$14,000.
Samsung sets Q3 launch for 1GB MMCmicro card
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to begin selling an MMCmicro memory card with 1GB of storage capacity in the third quarter of this year. MMCmicro is one of three new memory card formats that have been designed for use in cell phones and other small, portable electronics gadgets. It was largely developed by Samsung Electronics and is competing against microSD backed by SanDisk Corp. and Memory Stick Micro, which was developed by Sony Corp. and SanDisk. The new cards are smaller than existing memory cards so they and the companion card slots require less space inside devices and help manufacturers keep the size of their gadgets small. Samsung announced no price for the new card.
Available. Third quarter 2006 URL: www.samsung.com
Adobe releases Flex 2.0 beta products
Adobe Systems has announced the public beta of its Adobe Flex 2.0 product line and Adobe Flash Player 8.5, an application development solution designed to deliver rich Internet applications. The company said the tools would allow developers to build next-generation Web experiences that improve the user experience. The Flex 2.0 product line aims to provide developers with an extensible application framework, intuitive programming model, standards-based data integration and an Eclipse-based integrated development environment for application development and UI design. With an extensive component library, advanced data integration, and support for standard back-end server infrastructures, Flex 2.0 is designed to enable developers to build virtually any type of rich Internet application, from simple interactive sites to rich data dashboards and portals to data-intensive enterprise applications.
Availability: Available now. URL: www.adobe.com
Xerox goes wide
Xerox Canada has launched the Xerox 6204 Wide Format Solution, a black-and-white copier and printer designed for commercial print shops and architectural, engineering and construction companies. It’s designed to produce engineering renderings, topographic and aerial maps, and mechanical and architectural drawings, and the company said it’s ideal for customers transitioning from analogue to digital printing or for those entering the wide-format printing market for the first time. It prints large documents at widths from 11 inches to 36 inches at 600 x 600 dpi.
Availability: Available now. Pricing: Printer-only configuration starts at $20,995, printer-copier starts at $23,995 URL: www.xerox.ca
Mustang Java release jumps on Web 2.0 and scripting
The next version of Java, code-named Mustang, is expected to feature Web 2.0 functionality in the form of expanded support for scripting languages. Officially known as Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) 6, this beta release will later emerge as a basis for Project GlassFish and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (EE) 5. GlassFish is an application server project that will implement Java EE 5. Sun Microsystems said enabling use of scripting languages gives Mustang a Web 2.0 bent. Currently, Java developers must hand-code to use non-Java scripting languages, a headache that will go away in Mustang, which will let developers more easily use languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, JavaScript, and Ruby. Mustang also will make it easier to develop and publish Web services. A final release of Mustang is due this fall.
Availability: Beta release available now. URL: www.sun.com
Better warehouse management
Tecsys Inc., a Montreal-based developer of supply chain management software, has announced the upcoming release of EliteSeries Warehouse Management System for iSeries 4.1, updating its January 2006 release of version 4.0. Designed for warehouse operations that run on the IBM platform, 4.0 included features such as advanced kitting with multi-level bills of materials and work orders, enhanced pallet and load building, wave picking and TMS courier integration for major providers such as UPS and FedEx. In 4.1, Tecsys is adding a browser-based user interface, new queries on key reporting indicators, proof-of-delivery applications, Web-based order life cycle tracking and tracing, a flexible third-party billing component and activity-based costing.
Availability: June 2006 URL: www.tecsys.com
Entrust secures e-mail, Web mail and IMs
Entrust, Inc. has introduced Entrust Entelligence Content Control Server 8.0, a tool designed to go beyond e-mail to help companies monitor, protect and report on content as it flows across a range of communication protocols, including instant messaging, file transfer protocol, file uploads and web mail applications such as MSN Hotmail, GMail and Yahoo. The tool monitors and analyzes communication flowing through a network, and lets network administrators set automatic policies for actions like encrypting, restricting, archiving or reporting.
Availability: April 2006 URL: www.entrust.com
CSI unwires the desktop phone
Calgary’s CSI Wireless Inc., a designer and manufacturer of advanced wireless and GPS products, has launched two new fixed wireless telephones featuring GSM technology. At the entry level, CSI said the Series 405 phone is designed for consumers looking for affordable voice and text-messaging services. The new Series 415 phone also features Internet and e-mail (via a PC connection) and speakerphone capability. Because CSI’s fixed wireless products utilize existing cellular networks, the company said they’re ideal for use in regions where conventional copper-wire landline phone service is unavailable or unaffordable. The devices are designed to closely resemble traditional desktop or wall-mounted phones
Availability: Available now. URL: www.csi-wireless.com
CA integrates enterprise protection tools
CA has launched CA Integrated Threat Management r8, featuring tools for enterprise protection against malware, spyware, rootkits, blended threats and other forms of malicious code. The suite unifies new versions of CA PestPatrol Anti-Spyware Corporate Edition and CA Antivirus through a centralized Web-based console for IT administrators. It can also automatically alert security technicians as new threats are detected in their environment. A range of 75 graphical reports can be generated, and other new features include improved agent communications, an improved automated signature update engine, and a new “phone home” feature that helps ensure all desktops are updated by enabling PCs to broadcast their status to a central management console.
Availability: Available now. Pricing: Starting at US$60/seat URL: www.ca.com
SWsoft virtualization targets high availability
SWsoft has announced upgraded Linux-based software that it says enables customers to move a virtual server and its contents to a new physical server without service interruption. The company takes a different approach to server virtualization than VMware and Microsoft, whose products work at the hardware level, enabling multiple operating systems to run on a single physical machine. With Virtuozzo for Linux 3.0, multiple virtual servers run on top of a single operating system. Its virtual servers are software files that include memory, I/O, configuration files and more. Other updates include templates for provisioning virtual servers, streamlined resource management to create and manage virtual servers, and support for Linux distributions based on the 2.6 kernel, including Red Hat Enterprise Server 4.0.
Availability: Available now. URL: www.swsoft.com
Pricing: Starts at US$1,000 per CPU socket. Virtuozzo Management tools are priced at US$1,000 per seat for an unlimited number of servers.
IBM unveils new BladeCenter chassis, blades
IBM Corp. has rolled out a new BladeCenter chassis and several blade servers, including a blade based on the Cell processor IBM is developing with Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. that is used in Sony’s PlayStation game console. IBM said the new chassis, dubbed the BladeCenter H, increases the amount of I/O bandwidth available to blade servers, allowing data to travel 10 times faster than in previous systems. It also comes with a new management tool that integrates with IBM’s Director and Tivoli products. IBM is targeting its forthcoming Cell processor-based blade, which boasts nine dual cores, for computation-intensive workloads and broadband-media applications. Also on tap is IBM’s next Power processor-based blade, the JS21, built with IBM’s dual-core PowerPC 970MP processor. The blade also includes built-in virtualization capabilities. IBM also introduced a low-power, dual-core, Intel Xeon-based blade, the BladeCenter HS20, geared to help users control data centre power and cooling. The new blades can be used in any IBM BladeCenter chassis model.
Availability: BladeCenter H & JS21 available this month, HS20 available in April
Pricing: Starting prices, BladeCenter H US$3,849, HS20 US$1,749, JS21 US$2,499
URL: www.ibm.com
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