Sony/ATV to raise songwriter Eg White's profile in the US

Sony/ATV Music Publishing has signed an exclusive three-year global publishing deal with hit songwriter Eg White.

The deal will see White working with Sony/ATV’s UK A&R team and, in particular, managing director Rak Sanghvi and Janice Brock, who will serve as White’s creative manager at the publisher in addition to her existing role as SVP operations Sony/ATV UK and VP office of the chairman, Sony/ATV worldwide.

Brock says they are looking to grow White’s activity and presence in the US market.

From : http://www.musicweek.com/

Desktop virtualization promises easier management for IT and an optimal experience for users

Spurred by the business benefits gained from server virtualization, enterprises now are embracing desktop virtualization for many of the same reasons: flexibility, lower costs and ease of management.

The latter has been huge for the University of Maryland in College Park, says Jim Maloney, network applications manager at the school, which has been using desktop virtualization since November 2007. The university hosts 50 -- soon to be 250 -- virtual PC images on two VMware ESX servers running the Sun Ray Server Software and Sun's virtual desktop software. Users access the images from Sun Ray terminals. "Overall, we've saved 30 hours a week in management time -- practically one full-time employee," he says.

Others look to desktop virtualization as a hedge against the cost of future PC upgrades. "Compared with traditional desktops, virtualization is a no-brainer," says Kunal Patel, IT manager at Nina Plastics, a packaging manufacturer in Orlando. Nina hosts 50 virtual PC images on two ESX servers using Pano Logic's Virtual Desktop Solution software. Users access the hosted images from a specialized hardware-only device into which they plug their mice, keyboards, displays and network connections.

"We were spending between $700 and $1,000 per desktop, whereas the Pano device costs just $300. And an actual PC eventually becomes obsolete and has to be replaced. With the Pano, if we want to upgrade the entire company's desktops, we just upgrade the few servers we have and we allot more memory or faster speeds to the images. It's a concrete dollar savings," Patel says.

Plus, users get unprecedented flexibility: They can

access their desktops from virtually any device residing anywhere, as long as they have good network connections. Instead of sharing centrally hosted applications, they access their full desktop images complete with familiar applications and customized wallpaper -- the final fulfillment of the thin-client ideal.

One, two, three approaches

Desktop virtualization requires a hypervisor, such as VMware ESX, Citrix Systems XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V, running on a data-center server to host the desktop images. Vendors differentiate themselves by the overlying desktop virtualization-management software that brokers the connection between the virtual PC image and the actual client, be that a Macintosh, Linux or Windows PC; thin client; RDP

Continues : http://www.networkworld.com/

Dell, Intel and the likes taking steps to cut out Windows Vista all together

Dell, Intel and their various partners have all announced initiatives and new technologies aimed at eliminating and/or reducing the need for an OS all together.  The secret, according to these companies, lies in mobility technology, and apparently cutting out Microsoft all together.

In an industry pushing towards cloud computing and less proprietary-driven environments, Microsoft’s own partners are giving users what they want while Windows lays dormant; such as email, and access to vital information without the need to boot up the OS at all, according to PCWorld.  Not to feed in to the already bad image of Windows Vista, but when companies that are partners are already planning ways of cutting you out, you better evaluate your game plan.

One of the best examples of this shift was Dell’s recent announcement of its new "Latitude ON" feature.  The main idea is allow for the use of e-mail, Web surfing, basic PIM functionality and document reading without the need to boot Windows.  The idea is to enable basic use without having to wait for a boot process, and also to extend battery life on notebooks.  In its development, the main idea was to let users have functionality normally found in a Blackberry- on a notebook where you can use a full-sized keyboard and screen.  Interestingly enough, the codename for the project was "blacktop" which is a combination of Blackberry and laptop.

Latitude ON works by using a low-power Intel Arm processor, flash storage and Linux- separate from the laptop’s main CPU, hard drive and Windows OS.  It essentially turns your laptop into a cloud computing device, by depending on your internet connection for most of its functionality.  In another attempt to thwart the use of anything Microsoft-related, the Latitude ON system uses FireFox for an internet browser, and other non-Microsoft products for email and document support.

Not to be left out, Intel also rolled out a new technology recently, called "Remote Wake."  It’s made up of a chipset and software development kit that enables a PC to be awakened over an internet connection while in sleep mode.  The main idea is to allow the use of a VoIP line without having to leave your power-sucking PC on all the time.  It’s also aimed for use in remote backups, and for downloading media and other files remotely without the need for the PC to be on to accept such a connection.

Silicon Valley VoIP startup JaJah is at the center of the technology, not Microsoft, and is incorporating its software into chipsets found in some upcoming PCs.  It’s more or less an attempt to sell VoIP lines on behalf of JaJah, but it still opens some doors to other software and apps that could use a remote-wake function one way or another.  For example, Orb Networks, Cyberlink and Pando Networks are also Intel partners working on Remote Wake.

While I still have a lot of questions regarding the use of cloud computing, it seems to have no downsides, and these two technologies are prime examples.  I didn’t know companies and vendors would already be putting this idea to work, but I’m glad they are.  It signifies what’s to come, and how we’ll access our information in the future.  Hopefully, without an OS at all.

From : http://vista.blorge.com/

Microsoft: IE losing ground, Vista can’t get off it

Microsoft is losing ground after Internet Explorer lost seven percent of its hold on the web browsing market in the last year. This adds to the pressure of Windows Vista, which is only used by less than 15 percent of PC users, according to Internet research groups.

Jand the IT Productivity Center recently released a white paper finding that IE’s marketshare fell to 58.5 percent in August versus 65.48 percent last August and about 83 percent in 2005.

Mozilla’s Firefox browser remained a distant, yet rising second with almost 19 percent of the market. Google Desktop has captured about 4 percent, and some Netscape users remain, despite the fact that AOL dropped it months ago.

“Both Vista and Netscape show that large companies make huge blunders in technology,” said Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco. ”In the case of Microsoft, they no longer count on moving users to new products as quickly as they want.  Time Warner’s short-sighted decision to abandon Netscape shows technology decisions are long-term ones, and companies that want to create value in that market need to look beyond quarter-to- quarter earnings.  But the real story is the continued erosion of Microsoft’s market share.”

A summary of Janco’s browser market share data can be found on their website and the IT Productivity Center’s website.

From : http://blastmagazine.com/