GigaOM » WWD Coffee Break

Google Search Appliance Grows Up and Reaches Out

Derrick Harris — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:04:17 +0000

In the ongoing battle for collaboration domination, Google has struck yet another blow with its suite of new features for the Google Search Appliance. By giving users more searchable locations and more control over both search results and search architecture, Google is using its strengths to its advantage against a group of competitors that includes Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and VMware.

The highlight of the new features probably is Cloud Connect, which lets users search for data within their various Google Apps at the same time they’re searching standard locations such as file systems or the web. In terms of convenience, that capability seems tough to beat; I can’t count the number of times I’ve searched through email, the web and a CMS all to find someone’s name or a piece of information I knew I’d seen somewhere. If Google expands this feature even further, into third-party cloud services, it will be an even bigger deal. Every survey under the sun shows businesses more cloud services by the day, and anything that helps tie them all together will be a big hit.

Other features are worth noting too, particularly Dynamic Navigation and Active-Active Mirroring. According to Google, the former “allows users to drill down into search results based on search modifiers for their queries,” and the latter lets users spread search traffic over multiple Google Search Appliances to increase reliability. This is a strategy pulled from the database world, where active-active architectures ensure that consistency and reliability by having two database instances live and sharing the same information.

Although Google Search Appliance is not the company’s flagship enterprise service, it’s notable that the release coincides with Ray Ozzie’s departure from Microsoft. Google and Microsoft compete across pretty much all things cloud, and, as Om points out, Ozzie is generally considered the innovative brain behind Microsoft’s cloud efforts. The two happenings are hardly of the same importance level, of course, but losing Ozzie while Google continues to show it might have some enterprise chops, after all, still is not a good thing.

Image courtesy of Google.

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What will the iPhone 3G cost current AT&T customers?

James Kendrick — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:41:30 +0000

We’ve all gone gaga over the cheap new US pricing of the iPhone 3G and rightly so. Given the original price of the iPhone, $199/ $299 is downright cheap and has more than a few contemplating purchasing an iPhone for the first time. This feeling of euphoria may be misplaced in current AT&T customers if the information that Gizmodo is getting from the carrier proves accurate. Word has gradually leaked out of AT&T that the cheap iPhone 3G prices that Steve Jobs taunted us with are in fact carrier subsidized prices and that the real price of the iPhone 3G is much higher than that. AT&T is indicating that they are subsidizing quite a bit of the real price, although they have yet to admit what that might be, to get the pricing down to Jobs’ quoted level. This doesn’t matter to new iPhone/ AT&T customers but according to the most recent information Gizmodo has obtained from AT&T it should matter to existing customers of the carrier. They are reporting that AT&T will handle the new iPhone like they handle any other phone which means that if current AT&T customers do not qualify for a low-cost upgrade of their existing phone then they must pay full price for the new iPhone. This price is not yet known but speculation puts it in the $500+ range for customers who don’t meet the detailed qualifying criteria which seems to mean anyone who hasn’t had their current phone for 21 months or so. This frankly sucks and while I’ve been forthcoming that at the low quoted price from Jobs I would almost certainly be picking up an iPhone 3G at full price I can guarantee I will not do so. I suspect that none of the original iPhone customers will be upgrading either at full price. I wonder how Apple can state that the price of the two iPhone 3G models is $199/ $299 if in fact that is a subsidized price. That is false advertising at every level and it also leads me to wonder how they are going to sell the phone in their online store if they can’t guarantee the quoted pricing? Makes you think.

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Nokia gets down to business with the E66 & E71

James Kendrick — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:53:59 +0000

Nokia has unleashed two new phones today aimed squarely at the business market and both the E66 and the E71 have features designed for the mobile professional. The E66 is a slider phone that auto-rotates between portrait and landscape orientations when the phone is turned, not unlike that fruity phone. The E71 is the thinnest phone that Nokia has ever produced and features a Blackberry-like QWERTY keyboard and two integrated cameras. Take a look at this Nokia produced video to see the new phones in action and you’ll find the press release after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/v/IakGWL-jL8A&hl=en

Slim, stylish Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 multimedia computers offereasy access to range of email solutions, including Microsoft Exchange

London, UK – Nokia introduced today the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 –the latest email-optimized devices from the Nokia Eseries productrange. The sleek Nokia E71 with full QWERTY keyboard and the stylish,slide-to-open Nokia E66 easily mobilize a broad range of personal orprofessional messaging needs, including Microsoft Exchange, the world’smost widely adopted corporate email solution. Both devices are expectedto begin shipping in key markets in July. The Nokia E71 and the NokiaE66 are expected to retail at EUR 350, before applicable taxes andsubsidies.

“The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 were designed for people who lead amobile lifestyle and want quick and easy access to their personal andwork email. With both of these devices, we have responded to consumerfeedback by making calendar and contacts available at the touch of abutton,” said Søren Petersen, Senior Vice President, Devices, Nokia.“Equally important, people want well-crafted devices that are asbeautiful to use as they are to behold. Stainless steel was chosen asthe core material for these devices, giving them additional strengthand a touch of class. Furthermore, the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 offerall the latest multimedia features that people desire.”

Easy, one-touch access to email

The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 come fully equipped for easy-to-installand easy-to-use professional and personal email. People who useMicrosoft Exchange at work can access their email using the Mail forExchange mobile email client, which comes pre-loaded with the Nokia E71and Nokia E66. With these Nokia Eseries devices, people can getreliable real-time access to their email, calendar, contacts and tasks,as well as download attachments like Word, Excel, Powerpoint or PDFfiles directly to their devices.

The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 support email accounts from more than athousand internet service providers (ISPs) around the world, as well asGmail, Yahoo! mail and Hotmail. Additionally, the Nokia E71 and NokiaE66 support the Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email solution as well asthird party email solutions like System Seven and Visto Mobile. Bothdevices come with the new switch mode that allows people easily toswitch between personal and work home screens.

"With mobile email penetration and access to wireless applicationsgrowing at a rapid rate, Nokia is well positioned with its extensivelineup of market leading handsets to address the needs of consumers,high-end users and mobile professionals alike," said Andrew Brown,Director, Wireless Enterprise Strategies Global Wireless Practice,Strategy Analytics.

Sophisticated tool, premium design inside and out

With a stainless steel case, etched graphics and available in twocolors – grey steel or white steel – the Nokia E71 bears the hallmarksof Nokia quality and craftsmanship. The cool metallic finish iscomplemented by the bright colour display, which showcases the NokiaE71 device’s brilliantly simple user interface. Designed for bothone-handed and two-handed use, the Nokia E71 pays special attention toergonomics, as evidenced by its narrow shape and specially designedkeypad.

The Nokia E66 offers a premium look and feel with its stainlesssteel accents and smooth sliding design. Sharing the same key featuresas the Nokia E71, including an enhanced calendar, contacts andcustomizable home screen modes, the Nokia E66 offers unique additions,like an orientation sensor that automatically optimizes itself for fullscreen viewing or silences the ringer when the device is turned over.Available in grey steel or white steel version, the Nokia E66 leaves alasting impression as a sophisticated business tool in a distinctdesign.

Always Entertaining

In addition to email and personal information management, the NokiaE71 and Nokia E66 support the latest Ovi services including maps, musicand media sharing that power users expect from their device. Thisincludes fast and seamless browsing with HSDPA, wireless LAN and 3Gconnectivity, Assisted GPS (A-GPS) and Nokia Maps for navigation, amusic player with support for up to 8 GB expandable memory and a 3.2megapixel autofocus camera.

Built for Businesses of all sizes

In addition to serving entrepreneurs and smaller businesses, theNokia E71 and Nokia E66 also come fully equipped with a robust suite ofenterprise grade features, including a built-in encryptionfunctionality for both the device memory and for the memory card. BothNokia E71 and Nokia E66 also include integrated mobile VPN support thatgives mobile professionals access to their company intranet, and devicelock and wipe to protect corporate information. Incorporatingunderlying technologies that allow IT departments to effectively managesecurity settings, corporate applications, data and advanced voicefeatures, the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 expand the range of Nokia Eseriesdevices that support enterprise-specific deployment.

Accessorize with Style

Also announced today were a number of Nokia accessories that supportthe Nokia E71 and Nokia E66. The Nokia Car Kit CK-100 and Nokia DisplayCar Kit CK-600 offer convenient handling, simplified installation andsoftware updatability. The Nokia Car Kit CK-100 features Nokia Talkvoice guidance and a remote control, while the Nokia Display Car KitCK-600 features a removable color display and a remote control withilluminated keys for active call management. For increased mobility,Nokia also announced the sleek Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-212, as wellas the Nokia Mobile Holder CR-106 and Nokia Mobile Holder CR-105designed to complement the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 respectively.

Mr Wong Soon Nam, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, SingTel, said:"Our customers will enjoy a superior, cost-effective wireless emailsolution with SingTel’s Broadband on Mobile and the new Nokia Eseriesdevices. These will give them a competitive edge and the ability toeffortlessly retrieve important information on the move, making theiroffice truly mobile."

“The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 carry the promise of the Nokia brand,which revolves around quality, reliability and usability,” said MrGolinelli, Executive Vice President, Sales, Consumer Domestic MobileServices, Telecom Italia. “Our wide range of customers is interested infuntionality but also in design and the Nokia E71 is the right and newconcept for a new way of working.”

“With the growth of corporate mobility adoption, the users’ demandsfor new solutions and devices get stronger. The new Nokia Eseriesdevices, Nokia E71 and Nokia E66, attend to our consumers’ differentprofiles and needs, due to their design and features, which fit bothusers’ daily work and leisure moments in this connected society,” saidPaulo Cesar Teixeira, VP, Operations, Vivo.

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Palm Centro coming to Verizon this week

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:24:58 +0000

This is unofficial at the moment, but Engadget Mobile reports a tip that Verizon customers can get the Palm Centro experience this Friday, June 13th. Hmm… a phone launch on Friday the 13th? That might not bode well. Actually the pricing may not bode well either if you go by the anticipated pricing: $269 with 2-year contract, $339 with 1-year, and $389 full retail. There’s some hoo-ha in the EngMobile comments about $100 discounts with a data plan coupled with an expected mail-in rebate of $70, so we still might see a $99 Centro on VZW. I’d also expect to see 3G connectivity like the Sprint model… something that the AT&T Centro didn’t have when we took a first look. With EV-DO likely, you’ve got a pretty capable little smartphone, for possibly under $100. I’d still wait until Saturday the 14th before buying though. Just in case.

(via Treonauts)

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Could first-gen iPhone owners benefit with a lowered data plan rate?

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:30:31 +0000

So the big Apple product announcements are over and by now you’ve already seen all of the details of the 3G iPhone that becomes available on July 11th. We’re not going to rehash them here but we will be covering some of the features in terms of what they can do for you, how they compare to similar, non-Apple offerings, etc…

For now, I’m still stymied by no mention of the actual data plan cost for a 3G phone. Yup, it’s possible that the same $20 a month you pay for EDGE service will get you HDSPA. I’m still a "doubting Thomas" on that one considering that the new iPhone prices are $199 and $299 for 8- and 16-GB of storage. In fairness, today’s announcement are at a developer’s conference which isn’t the best platform for all the details of a consumer product.

Here’s one last outrageous thought on the data pricing. If higher priced, EDGE-only iPhones won’t be sold any longer, is it possible that first-gen iPhoners will get a break on their data plan, say: $10 a month going forward? That’s one way to leave open a $20 3G plan. Plus we’ve paid enough, me thinks. ;)

Update: TechCrunch reports that data plans for the 3G iPhone are $30 a month for residential customers, so although you pay less for the iPhone, you’re paying $240 more for the data over the contract life.

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What is the model for cloud computing?

James Kendrick — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:17:50 +0000

I have been watching Kevin’s "working in the cloud" experiment with great interest as it’s an area that has the potential to benefit a great many mobile professionals. Equally as interesting are the comments that are being made about Kevin’s challenge and all of this together has me thinking about the cloud model of working. It is apparent that working in the cloud is so new to so many of us that like many things we often have different views of what it is and why it is important. It’s worth a discussion to see how we all view working in the cloud.

First up we should probably look at defining what working in the cloud is exactly. I know that Kevin and my views on this differ and from the community comments so do those of many of you. So what is it? I view working in the cloud a lot simpler than some I’ve seen. For me it largely entails keeping my data in the cloud so I can access from anywhere and anything. I use a lot of systems in my work and keeping my data in the cloud could allow me to easily pick up where I left off from any system in the mix. In this model of cloud computing applications and OSes don’t really enter into the mix that much. Maybe all the systems are the same OS, maybe not. Maybe the same application software is installed on all the systems in which case the cloud model is just to provide remote access to the data. This is certainly the simplest scenario and in large part what I would look for most in cloud computing.

I won’t speak for Kevin but I know from conversations we have made on the topic he looks for more from the cloud. He is not alone in that thought process based on the commentary we’ve seen so far and we should delve into that a bit. Some folks view cloud computing as being totally OS agnostic, i. e. not just remote data access but also application and OS independent. That is a valid POV and if that is the primary goal of the cloud computing challenge it greatly complicates it. That would basically mean that everything you do must be browser-based since that is the only method that is totally independent of the system being used at the time. Even that approach is not viewed the same for everyone as some have indicated that using browser extensions on a system to increase the local computing capabilities is "cheating". That viewpoint is interesting to me because apparently those who feel that way believe that a plain-jane browser is the only application that you can expect to find on any computer and so that is what you must use to make a serious run at cloud computing. I can understand that POV but I’m not sure I would agree that it is the ultimate goal with cloud computing.

I have long felt that to be the most productive you can be you must use the right tools for the job and use them efficiently. Is foregoing the use of all tools (applications) at your disposal simply to work totally in the cloud the best way to approach your work? See how quickly this whole cloud computing concept gets complicated and I’m not sure there is a "right" answer. What do you think about cloud computing and how would you approach it if you were undertaking the challenge with Kevin? Even further, how do you even define cloud computing and why? This is getting very interesting and we need to share ideas and thoughts on this.

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SanDisk wants you to forget Intel when it comes to SSD

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:33:20 +0000

As I was flying through feeds, I saw this picture of a Solid State Disk module and figured it was the Intel model we just saw this morning. Closer inspection showed the SanDisk logo on it of course, but other than that, there’s not much difference. The SanDisk pSSD offers a very similar form factor and the same parallel ATA interface of Intel’s ~~C3-PO~~ Z-P230. You’ll see 4-, 8- and 16GB pSSD products in August, although SanDisk is mum on the price just yet. Since these are multi-level cell (MLC) flash storage modules, I’d expect them to be relatively price-competitive to Intel in the $6 or $7 a Gigabyte range. Regardless of price, the pSSD does claim faster read and write speeds over Intel’s product: SanDisk says you can expect 39 MBps reads and 17 MBps writes while Intel’s flash maxes out at 35 MBps for reads and 7 MBps for writes.

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SuperTalent’s MasterDrive KX: almost affordable 1.8-inch SSD drives

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:57:51 +0000

Looking for a small form-factor Solid State Disk for that UMPC, sub-notebook or mobile thingamajig? SuperTalent has the goods and the prices are way down from what they were a year ago. The company has MLC or multi-level cell flash-based drives in a 1.8-inch size with a 5mm height that should fit anywhere you can find a micro-SATA interface in these three capacities:

30 GB for $299
60 GB for $449
120 GB for $679

Access time is a speedy 0.1ms and you’ll get sequential read and write speeds of 120- and 40 MBps from the MasterDriveKX. Folks at Computex can see the new drives this week. The rest of us can hit up online retailer NewBiiz and order us some speedy SSD.

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StyleTap’s Palm emulator officially coming to the iPhone, Touch

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:02:00 +0000

Since we were just discussing Palm and their smartphone market share increase, now’s a good time to share the news about StyleTap. Back in February, we saw video of an experimental version of this Palm OS emulator running on an iPhone. As they say: give the people what they want. That video has been watched over 800,000 times, so the StyleTap folks figure there’s a marketable product here. You won’t be able to run your Palm apps on an iPhone our iPod Touch until next month at the absolute earliest: that’s when the deets become available on pricing and availability through the iTunes store.While we wait: what’s the value of such a program for you? $10? Not a dime over $25? Better yet: what are the first Palm apps you’ll be running on your Apple device?(via IntoMobile)

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Western Digital to release faster, bigger notebook drives

James Kendrick — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:50:28 +0000

You can never have enough disk space, something that is even more true with notebook computers than anything. We’re now all carrying more and more data around with us and a big drive is important to have. Western Digital is announcing a solution for that storage problem with the release of the new Scorpio Black drives. These new drives all spin at a fast 7,200 rpm and come in capacities of 80 – 320 GB which is very nice. The Scorpio drives are 2.5 inch drives so you won’t likely see them in the mini-notebooks that are all the rage but most notebooks can use that size peripheral so I expect we’ll start seeing OEMs using them soon.

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