Although I am regularly exposed to impressive whiz-bangery, it does not happen all too often that something comes along and you think: ”Wow! Now that’s pretty cool!„ And you especially don’t expect this to happen at a unified communications launch…

But this is exactly what occurred at Microsoft's Unified Communications launch this morning. In between all the talk about how Unified Communications, or UC (because no communication, unified or otherwise, is complete without acronyms), helps us be more productive and more in touch with our fellow man, or woman, was something I had never seen before, but would love to be able to do.

During a live demo of Microsoft’s new UC offering, Office Communicator 2007, the presenter showed off the usual unified comms tricks like making a phone call directly from a PC (this has been possible since the early VoIP days) and via a PC - at Reseller News HQ we’ve been doing this for years with Performance Solutions Call Manager, now IPFX Live Desktop.

Then he demonstrated something different - he dialled directly into Microsoft Exchange - we know this because the computerised voice at the other end of the line said: ”Welcome to Exchange„.
At first it seemed this was just to clear voice mails remotely, but then the system gave him the option to check his inbox, calendar and contacts.

Using voice prompts he then proceeded to check his calendar, which the system read back to him. Then he went on to tell the system that he would be 10 minutes late for the meeting scheduled on the calendar.

The system asked him to confirm the details of the change to the calendar, which was then automatically updated and all other attendees of the meeting were notified that he would be late.

This is great and is something everyone who is not tied to a desk needs.

Although it possible to view your email and calendar remotely from a smartphone or a laptop, picking up a phone and having the computer read it out to you is quite cool.

And, having Exchange tell your boss that you will be late for that sales meeting is priceless.

Just imagine when this technology is available for home use - I doubt the system would ever say: Why, if you are working late, it sounds like you are in the pub…?

Posted by Louis Van Wyk November 21, 2007 4:58 PM | Comments (0)

In the last Reseller News, we talked to some local industry members about whether their company names, and all those containing 'Technologies', 'Soft', 'Solutions' and the like are a help or a hindrance.

Every sector has words that commonly creep into names as firms define their products or services, but to become too generic is definitely not a good thing.

Like any cliché, your name becomes meaningless and gets lost.

We spoke to some tech companies here that have thought outside the square - such as SnapperNet, Chillisoft and Packet Engines - but even the most originally named ones have had to work to build a brand.

That identity building becomes even harder if you're The Everyday Tech Solutions Co Ltd (apologies to any company actually named that...)

As evidenced by the names above, including some sort of technology related word is sensible so your customers know what you do.

But put a bit of X Factor into the other part, and you're likely to have a livelier business culture and more fun with your marketing too.

Posted by Amanda Sachtleben November 20, 2007 4:50 PM | Comments (0)

The Accident Compensation Corporation is flying the flag trying to warn the MP3 generation about the real possibility of them becoming the ”pardon, what did you say?” generation in 20 or so years.

It surprises me that the companies making these products are doing so little to help ensure the portable music players are used responsibly.

Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to include a decibel level meter on the players so the users - their customers - can see how loud they are playing the music from an audiologist’s point of view. Or what about software to make the music players cut-out if the noise levels were at to high a level over a set period of time.

Expert opinion states that pumping music at 100 decibels into your ears for more than 15 minutes will cause damage to your hearing. Now, doesn’t that make a decibel meter on your music player seem quite a bit more than a novelty add-on?

And, no, I don’t think having a warning in a throw-away booklet with a pointer to more detailed information on a website is showing corporate responsibility to users.

In an earlier blog on this topic I raised the possibility of class action lawsuits landing on these companies’ doorsteps in 25 years’ time. In hindsight, I’m now taking it as given the corporate lawyers of the US manufacturers have considered this possibility.

I’m picking their likely legal reasoning would be that such lawsuits will be unsuccessful on the basis it is common knowledge that long-term exposure to loud noise will damage your hearing. That’s one explanation as to why there has been no attempt to create some controls on volume levels along the lines of the above suggestions.

Another could be that marketing staff are insisting possible risks of long-term hearing impairment be underplayed, to avoid the perception an MP3 player is unsafe. After all it’s the next few years’ profit-performance bonuses that count in their eyes, not the youth of today having good hearing in their 40s.

The manufacturers certainly seem to believe that a few perfunctory paragraphs in the users manual spelling out the obvious will absolve them from all blame further down the road.

Well corporate lawyers and companies making music players, I would say think again. Attitudes change as do points of legal principle, (eg the rights of indigenous people over say the last 50 years), and when governments/health insurance firms start having to pay out bucket loads of money to keep hearing-impaired people hearing, they are going to be asking who or what caused the spike in hearing impairment. And this is when the ‘failure’ of the MP3 manufacturers (for whatever reasons) to install devices/software on the players to help protect users will come back and bite them big-time.

In 20 or so years I’m picking current MP3 users while discovering the delights of digital hearing aids - and the US juries in and around the year 2027 deciding the class action lawsuits - will have quite a jaundiced view of those companies and their ‘failure’ (a decibel meter on MP3 players right now, how hard would that be?) to sell a product without installing reasonable safeguards for users.

As well, Governments of the day and the health insurance firms will be looking to pin the blame (read: recoup their medical costs) on the companies, whose products were a major factor (”crucial” is what the juries will be saying) in creating the hearing impairment 'epidemic'.

R U Hearing Me? (Part 1)

Posted by Rodney Fletcher November 12, 2007 8:57 AM | Comments (0)

Driving recently with Apple's iPod Touch in my car, I passed a billboard advertising an LG media player, which read - "Buttons are so 2006".

About to flick, swipe, pinch and zoom my way around the Touch, the sign got me thinking about whether touch screens will be the tech fad of the decade, or if they're here to stay.

The way they're developing and the seriousness with which the likes of Apple and other phone/laptop/monitor makers (ie Sony Ericsson, Motorola and other Symbian UIQ devices, Microsoft) are treating them suggests they'll facilitate better and more easy to use devices for some time to come.

Around for a good 30 years, and certainly over 20 in a commercial setting, touch screens are now commonplace on phones, PDAs, media players, cameras, and are expanding into notebooks and monitors, even Microsoft's Surface table display. They're no longer the preserve of things like ATMs and kiosks, and fingers are the preferred operating mode over a stylus.

Multi-touch (recognising many, simultaneous touch points and software to interpret them), and gestural interfaces mean we're able to do more than just use one finger to select an item from a navigational menu.

Support for multi-touch is what attracted has so many to buy the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The interaction gets more intuitive, which has to be a good thing when using a device for the first time, and it gives the user a wow factor that makes using it more fun.

The technology is also reaching the affordable stage in its lifecycle.

With its application earlier this year to patent a multi-touch dictionary to define different input gestures in these systems, it seems Apple is in it for the long haul with touch screen development.

Nokia is also reportedly planning an interface which gives the user a physical pulse when they touch the screen.

Posted by Amanda Sachtleben November 7, 2007 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

OK, I’m here today to champion the Apple Macintosh computer - not that the thousands of Windows users out there will probably care. Windows is what everyone uses right?
I beg to differ. If you’re a graphic designer there is a big chance you’ve worked on a Macintosh. Graphic designer job ads often ask for people who have experience as Mac operators. The music industry uses Pro Tools in the studio to help those pop singers sound like they can carry a tune and yes, it’s a Mac programme.

My last job involved working on an iMac and I have to admit missing it. Here are my top five reasons why I prefer a Mac over a PC:

1) Windows attracts viruses like bees to honey. Very few viruses are written for the Mac so if you’re after a secure OS you can’t go wrong.
2) The OS X experience - every programme you need to use can be put in the bar at the bottom of the screen.
3) iTunes. OK, I know it can run on Windows, but it’s not quite the same. Plus the Mac comes with built-in speakers so you don’t need to fork out more money for speakers.
4) The look. You know what I’m talking about. Apple is able to come out with great looking computers. Sadly they stopped making them in bright colours, but their machines are still far sexier than the boring boxes most PCs come in.
5) Having the CD drive in the middle of the monitor. No more bending over to insert a disc.

But, of course I’m not alone in preferring Macs. Apple recently announced it sold 2.2 million Macs worldwide in the third quarter of this year - a new record for the company, breaking the previous best by 400,000 machines.

Many of these sales have probably gone to new converts, but my love for Apple computers stems from spending my formative years with a 1992 Mac IIsi.

Posted by Hamish Barwick November 6, 2007 3:41 PM | Comments (0)