But the move also looks like the first indications of cracks in the high-end video conferencing space, as companies weigh the costs versus the benefits of deploying high-end, expensive telepresence when they could offer good-enough solutions via Skype, Polycom or others. Plus, with its LifeSize division, Polycom’s no slouch at providing decent-quality video conferencing. And those are far cheaper, which means workers can actually telecommute from home offices using them as opposed to driving into a satellite office to use the fancy Halo or teleprescence gear. Using a cheaper desktop videoconferencing or even an application on a mobile device makes sense for the way the future of work and communications is heading.

But back to this deal, which was rumored to be worth a paltry $89 million, a real come down for the Halo business. With the acquisition, the two companies have also agreed to enter into a broad strategic alliance in which Polycom will serve as an exclusive partner to HP for telepresence and certain video UC solutions for both resale and internal HP deployments. Additionally, Polycom’s video applications will be made available for HP’s WebOS platform. This could be the beginning of an application as opposed to a high-end video conferencing system.

HP had only just launched a new line of HD videoconferencing products last November, but Polycom is a leader in the unified communications market with a much broader range of UC products that work on Polycom hardware as well as eventually working on other devices. This begs the question of how long Cisco might push telepresence?

The deal will give Polycom access to HP’s technology while extending its reach to HP’s installed base of visual collaboration products, while HP will be able to resell Polycom’s broad range of UC equipment, infrastructure and software. The deal is due to close in the third quarter of this year.

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The new HP products include:

• HP Visual Collaboration Desktop. A client that can be installed on users’ own laptops and desktops. The software offers flexible bandwidth management with scalable video coding.
• HP Visual Collaboration Executive Desktop. A bundled touchscreen product. It features an HP TouchSmart 600Qm All-in-One pre-loaded with the HP Visual Collaboration software, and includes a camera and headset accessories.
• HP Visual Collaboration Room 100 and Room 220 provide high-quality video in conference rooms. As it’s portable, it can be moved from room to room if required.
• HP Visual Collaboration Studio. A top-of-the-range offering that offers three-screen immersive solutions and features broadcast-quality cameras and lenses.

Because the server infrastructure is software-based, HP says that it should reduce total cost of ownership and eliminate the need for a multipoint control unit (MCU). This infrastructure can be on-premise, hosted or offered in the cloud by service providers. The Visual Collaboration Gateway can interface with both H.323 and SIP protocols, so it will offer a migration path for companies wanting to continue to use their legacy videoconferencing equipment. HP’s existing Halo products, which run on a dedicated network, will continue to be offered as an option for customers looking for a fully managed solution.

HP’s Visual Collaboration line will be sold by HP and selected partners. It’s available now; full details of the product line can be found here.

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Quite simply, HP’s new range of “ePrint” products enable any device to print to any printer, anywhere, as long as they’re all connected to the Internet.

Cleverly, HP will be issuing all of its ePrint-based printers with a unique email address; to print a document, users simply send documents to that address. Harnessing the ubiquity of email ensures that you will be able to print from devices that don’t even support printing!

It’s easy to consider the downside of web-connected printers; from a new generation of “printer spam” to transposing inbox overload into even more unmanageable paper form. However, I think the development is exciting for a number of reasons:

• The potential for a “social letterbox” perhaps limited to really close family and friends — sending a tangible, printed letter, article or photo could return value and intimacy to the printed word.
• Being able to use existing email filters and tools to determine what arrives at your printer’s inbox. I can envisage “print@yourdomain.com” becoming a useful communication end point for individuals and companies; finally killing the fax.
• A new means of permission marketing where the sender pays me to send me a printed flier.
• Postal services that transcode snail mail to electronically delivered prints that are also archived digitally.
• iPhone apps that locate the nearest available printer when you’re on the move and need a hard copy.

Looking further ahead it’s not difficult to envisage a time when a range of email-able “HP Deskfab” 3D printers will allow users to email real objects to each other, transforming bits into atoms. ePrint’s simple innovation of an email inbox for printers can inspire a multitude other ideas and is a true platform opportunity.

See also:

• Jan Chipchase’s “Thoughts on Cloud Printing“
• BERG’s “My printer, my social letterbox“
• HP’s ePrintCenter
• Google Cloud Print
  

(Editor’s note: If you’re interested in learning more about cloud computing and how it enables web apps like this, check out our Structure conference in San Francisco later this month).

Bowness used the apps in his business for about a year each, and his in-depth, insightful observations of the merits and issues with each of the services are based on long-term, real-world usage and worth noting.

Especially interesting are his notes of problems or quirks with each of the apps, which could be very handy when it comes to picking the right service for your business. According to Bowness, Freshbooks’ time tracking is “difficult when you have multiple employees,” its project management is “dismal” and its reports “suck.” Blinksale, meanwhile, offers neither integrated time tracking nor the ability to integrate with a payment gateway, he says, and cannot create estimates. Harvest is similarly unable to create estimates or integrate with a payment gateway, according to Bowness, and recurring invoices are not handled that well. And he finds it “ridiculous” that SSL support is only available with the $90-per-month plan.

Freshbooks is the most feature-rich, Bowness notes, but while it does everything, he says that it “doesn’t do anything particularly well” and its interface is not intuitive. And Blinksale is perfect if you are a freelancer, but not if you have staff. Bowness’ personal favorite is Harvest, which delivers simplicity while boasting a substantial feature set (although not as complete as Freshbooks’).

Which do you prefer: Harvest, Freshbooks or Blinksale?

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Back in April of last year HP decided to reinvent the online storage wheel by introducing their own backup service, named HP Upline. It came. It never quite got off the ground. And now, it’s officially joining the deadpool.

Just in case there is anyone out there who actually put data on Upline and didn’t get the email from HP announcing its departure, it says in part:

HP continually evaluates product lines and has decided to discontinue the HP Upline service on March 31, 2009.

HP will no longer be backing up your files to the HP Upline servers as of Feb 26, 2009 at 8 am Pacific time. HP will keep the file restore feature of the Upline service operational through March 31, 2009 Pacific time in order for you to download any files you have backed up to Upline.

If you have a paid subscription to HP Upline, you will be refunded the full amount of the fees you paid for the service. That refund will be credited to the credit card account or PayPal account that you used to subscribe to the Upline service. If you do not receive the refund prior to March 31, 2009, please contact our customer service team at http://www.upline.com/support/email.aspx.

HP looks forward to offering you additional technology products and services in the future.

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The jkOnTheRun portion starts on December 16th but you can start entering on the other sites today. More details are available from HP and on each of the sponsoring blogs.

Good Luck!!

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Back in 2004, Intel set itself the goal of achieving eight-hour battery life by 2010, using a combination of battery innovation, software optimisation and power management technologies.

Though Intel has succeeded in continual innovation of its chipsets, and users have become accustomed to carry multiple or more powerful batteries amongst other power management strategies, it doesn’t seem as though we’re any closer to the goal of all-day computing…and Intel only has a little over a year to get there!

Each of the six or seven notebooks I’ve purchased over the last year have all purported to doubling or tripling battery time, but in reality I seem to only get two or three hours of typical use; as battery and power management have improved, we’ve demanded more and more from our computers.

However, in recent weeks we’ve seen the launch of HP’s EliteBook 6930p, which the iconic company claim breaks the twenty-four hour barrier (HP Breaks the 24-hour Battery Life Barrier, HP EliteBook 6930p Lasts All Day, Literally, Laptop delivers all-day computing). The EliteBook uses a combination of solid-state hard drives, LED screens and an optional high-capacity battery to achieve its power profile. I’m curious to hear from users of the EliteBook to understand whether HP’s claim of a full day’s charge is genuine or simply the best case scenario.

Regardless, it’s worth exploring whether the need for all-day computing is indeed necessary, or diminishing in the face of altering and fragmented usage patterns. As mobile workers use devices like the iPhone and lower-powered netbooks, perhaps Intel’s 2010 goal will simply be moot.

Beyond 2010, perhaps innovations in blood and sugar powered devices will mean we simply need to feed our computers when they’re hungry…or maybe by then we’ll all have a Mr. Fusion ;)

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The plan doesn’t eliminate all packaging; the laptops still get to Walmart in large cardboard cartons, 3 to a box. But they do say it saves 97% of the packaging, the equivalent of eliminating the CO2 from 1/4 of the delivery trucks that bring them to the stores. While web workers aren’t the core market for this “entertainment notebook,” if it sells we can expect to see this approach spread.

Does the amount of packaging influence your own computer-buying decisions?

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You can find the video presentations listed by event and country delivered in here. There are also accompanying slides on the various topics, as seen on the right, here.

Google’s AJAX APIs are useful for many people who want to put Gadgets and other UI tools on their web pages. Here’s a discussion with Google’s Derek Collison on how to go about it, and a PDF presentation.

Here’s another video on Google Gears for Mobile. It’s focused on people doing their own mobile applications, for deployment directly to mobile browsers.

You can also find quite a bit of video content pertaining to OpenSocial. These tackle topics such as scaling,  and mashing up applications for MySpace.

By the way, as I’ve been looking through the video presentations from Asia, such as the ones from China,  I’ve noticed that some of the folks introducing the presenters aren’t speaking English in the introductions. The presenters, though, are speaking English.

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Why now? By the end of May, you should have some sense of whether you’re having a good year (or not). In the US, tax time is safely past, and there are even those “economic stimulus” checks coming to encourage us all to pump up the consumer economy a bit. Personally, I’ve never been shy about spending money to make my immediate surroundings a bit nicer. I spend long hours at this desk working on the web; if it’s a nice place to work, I mind those hours less and can bill correspondingly more. If you’re of the same mind, here are four things to think about.1. Another monitor. The productivity benefits of multiple monitors are very real. If you haven’t discovered them yet, why not now? You can get a top of the line widescreen 23″ or 24″ monitor from Apple or Dell in the $700-900 range, but you don’t have to spend that much to get a boost. Reasonable brands like ViewSonic or Acer have pushed the price of these monitors below $400. They aren’t as spiffy as the high-end ones, but still plenty good enough to move secondary applications out of your main focus.

2. A good desktop scanner. For me, “desktop zero” is as important as “inbox zero” in staying on top of things and not getting distracted. After six months with it, I’m still loving my $430 Fujitsu ScanSnap. Coupled with a copy of EagleFiler and a cheap shredder, it gets me as close to the paperless office as I ever expect to get. If you’re a digital worker, it makes good sense to turn paper into bits so you can integrate it with the rest of your workflow.

3. A single-serve coffee maker. Many web workers are fueled by caffeine. If you’re one of them, you likely know how nasty the coffee is at the bottom of the pot in the afternoon. You can get rid of that nastiness once and for all by buying a single-serve coffee maker that churns out one cup at a time when you want it, fresh. There are a variety of these machines on the market at prices ranging from about $30 to $300. If you want to try one cheap, check out the Share Senseo promotion, which will score you one for $15 if you fill in the right answers for their survey (hint: tell them you belong to lots of clubs and are influential with your friends and family). One thing to watch out for – the special coffee packets that these machines take are more expensive than regular grounds; you can beat that by purchasing aftermarket refillable packets.

4. Noise-cancelling headphones. Here again you have a variety of choices, ranging from $5 to $500. To a certain extent, you get what you pay for, but the $100-$150 range will get you something nice enough if you’re not a die-hard audiophile. I haven’t found anything better for helping tune out distractions so that you can get “into the zone” and focus your concentration on tricky work. One drawback: noise-cancelling makes it harder to hear the phone ring, so you either need a loud ringer or something like Skype that will pipe the ring right into your headphones.

Have you upgraded your own personal workspace lately? What did you get? Any recommendations for your fellow web workers?

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