Foundry drives VoIP with FastIron switch
Foundry Networks is giving enterprise VoIP another push with its FastIron Edge X-Series 424-PoE switch, which combines PoE and 10 Gigabit Ethernet to help streamline VoIP migration, as well as aid Wi-Fi deployments. The newest FastIron family member boasts 24 ports of 10/100/1000 PoE with four-port combo GbE; each PoE port is 802.3af compliant. The X-Series 424-PoE also supports several Layer 2 protocols, with the option to include more advanced Layer 3 routing protocols; QoS features include voice, data, and application traffic prioritization.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: US$6,995 to US$13,485, depending on model.
URL: www.foundrynet.com
Alcatel expands WAN options
Casting an eye toward better network performance at the edge, Alcatel recently introduced its OmniAccess 600 line of WAN routers: the OmniAccess 601 and 602, with one and two ports, respectively; the four-port 604; and the 625 chassis, which supports as many as 16 T1/E1 ports or two T3/E3 ports. The routers have built-in 10/100 ports, QoS features, and a “virtual Ethernet” technology allowing users in multiple physical locations to work on a single network. All models include VPNs, stateful inspection firewalls, SSH, and host integrity checking.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: From US$995 for the OmniAccess 601 to US$6,490 for the OmniAccess 625 with eight T1/E1 ports.
URL: www.alcatel.com
Invatron raises PeriScope 3.0
Toronto’s Invatron Systems Corp., a provider of integrated retail enterprise software, has released version 3.0 of its PeriScope DSS Fresh Item Management product, a Web-enabled, thin-client application for managing all the operational functions within the fresh food departments of a grocery store. The application takes a modular approach, letting retailers choose the components they wish to purchase and use, and additions include a backroom manager and enhanced recipe management for the bakery module, including dynamic costing, to let users generate gross margin reports to further support price and product mix optimization to ensure profit targets are met.
Availability: Available now.
URL: www.invatron.com
Tivoli Access Manager 6.0 targets business compliance
A new version of IBM’s Tivoli Access Manager software aims to simplify the job of keeping track of who has access to what applications in your enterprise, according to the company. The release includes new auditing features that can store data about which applications employees can access, and then generate compliance reports from this data. IBM said the software makes it easier for companies to meet regulations with heavy audit requirements like Sarbanes-Oxley, and is designed to reduce the amount of time that harried security professionals spend generating reports.
Availability:Available now.
URL: www.ibm.com/tivoli
Best practices key in software portfolio tool
IBM is upgrading its software for managing enterprise software development projects, emphasizing best practices and integration with Rational tools in Rational Portfolio Manager 6.2, the company’s project and portfolio management application. IBM said the program bridges the gap between developers, testers and businesspersons and also ships with IBM Rational Method Composer. New features include the ability to customize best practices by using templates, graphical capabilities for designing workflows, and a Web services-based API toolkit to enable connections between Rational Portfolio Manager and external systems such as SAP.
Availability: Available now.
URL: www.ibm.com
Finnish vendor launches RFID handheld
Finland’s Nordic ID has launched what it calls a versatile, radio-based handheld computer designed for users in the retail and logistics sectors who prefer to collect and forward data wirelessly. The PL3000 mobile data terminal can collect data from both one-dimensional and two-dimensional bar codes, as well as RFID smart tags, and connect wirelessly to back-office computer systems via 802.11a and g, GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth. Running Microsoft’s Windows CE OS, it has a 3.5-inch VGA color transflective TFT touch-panel display and a backlit keyboard with 29 keys. Weighing 500 grams, it’s equipped with a 200 MHz processor from ARM Ltd. and memory can be adjusted to up to 4 GB with SDRAM and Flash chips.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: Starting at appx. $4000.
URL: www.nordicicid.com
Sonic releases server for multimedia presentations
Sonic Foundry has released a new, enhanced version of its Mediasite EX Server software designed to be more robust and support an enterprise-wide deployment with such features as LDAP integration, improved scalability and better accessibility for the blind and deaf. Mediasite servers get content from Mediasite VL and ML capture devices, which combine audio, video and data into a single presentation. EX now supports multiple content ingestion engines on a single server platform, and an organization can run multiple instances of Mediasite for different departments without additional hardware. For users with new disabilities, EX now includes closed captioning support, text description of slides that work better with screen readers and the ability to toggle from icon to text titles in the slide preview area.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: Starting at US$45,000.
URL: www.sonicfoundry.com
Speedev enhances application lifecycle offering
Speedev has upgraded its application development lifecycle offering geared toward managing software products and projects. A suite of products for application lifecycle management, Web-based Speedev 4.5 features custom common entity definition, a SOAP-based API and custom cross-project reporting. By using entities, users can track tasks such as help desk or workflow. The Web services-based SOAP API allows for integration with legacy systems or third-party tools. Also included in 4.5 are performance improvements and enhancements to existing features such as Linked Custom Fields, Advanced Search, and Configurable Home Page.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: Enterprise suite starts at US$13,000 for a five-user version, which features a Speedev server and support for one administrative user and four named users.
URL: www.speedev.com
Adobe releases new Flash software for mobile devices
Adobe Systems Inc. has introduced Macromedia Flash Lite 2 and Macromedia Flash Player SDK 7, software that lets users of mobile phones and consumer electronics devices view Web sites that use Flash. The software will allow device makers and operators to offer customizable user interfaces and offer consistent experiences to users of a variety of devices that may have different operating systems, processors and screen sizes. Since both are built on Flash Player 7, Adobe said they can support Unicode for international markets, reduced memory consumption, persistent data management and improved XML data handling.
Availability: Available now.
URL: www.adobe.com
PC maker Mirus offers Linux PC line
Computer maker Mirus Innovations LLC and software vendor Linspire Inc. have teamed to offer a line of low-cost, Linux-based desktop PCs. Called Koobox, they’re equipped with Linspire’s Linux OS and a range of open-source applications, including the OpenOffice.org office suite, Internet browser, e-mail, instant messaging, media player and photo manager. The basic model includes AMD’s Sempron processor, 256 MB RAM and a 40 GB hard drive for US$299. A multimedia version includes DVD player software, a 16x Dual Layer DVD-RW drive, 512 MB RAM and a 160 GB hard drive. At the top end, the performance edition includes AMD’s 64-bit Athlon 3000+ processor.
Availability: Only in the U.S.
Pricing: US$299 to $499.
URL: www.koolbox.com
Durabooks enter Canadian reseller channels
Twinhead Canada has made the company’s latest rugged notebooks, the Durabook N15RI and N14RA, available through Canadian computer retailers and value-added resellers. The company said the highly engineered laptops fill the need for durable notebooks that can withstand the knocks, shocks, drops and spills of real life. The N14RA features an AMD Turion 64-bit processor, while the N15RI offers a choice between Intel’s Centrino and Celeron chips. Both are protected in a magnesium alloy case Twinhead says is 20 times stronger than an ordinary ABS plastic notebook casing. Both also feature spill-resistant keyboards, optical disk tray locks and anti-shock LCD screens and hard drives.
Availability: Available now.
URL: www.twinhead.ca
New Xerox machine includes IT tools
Xerox Canada has launched the Xerox 4590 monochrome digital copier-printer for large networked offices and light production environments. With image quality of 2400 x 2400 dots per inch resolution and scanning speeds of up to 100 double-sided pages per minute, Xerox said the system is engineered to produce from 75,000 to 175,000 pages per month. Included is Xerox’s CentreWare Web software, which the company says helps IT staff proactively manage print devices across the enterprise.
Availability: Available now.
Pricing: Copy-only version starts at $55,610, copier-printer starts at $64,180.
URL: www.xerox.ca
Intel formally unveils host of new chips
Intel Corp. has officially announced the pricing and branding for a number of new processors. New on Intel’s pricing list are four dual-core mobile Yonah processors — the T2300, T2400, T2500 and T2600 — and one single-core chip called the T1300. For sales of quantities of 1,000 units to direct Intel customers, the single-core T1300 costs US$209, while the T2300, T2400, T2500 and T2600 are priced at US$241, US$294, US$423 and US$637, respectively. All five chips are produced using a 65-nanometer manufacturing process and include 2MB of L2 cache. Clock speeds range from 1.66GHz for the T1300 to 2.16GHz for the T2600.
Availability: Available now.
URL: www.intel.com
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