Ephraim Schwartz

Microsoft Corp.'s launch of an ad campaign that will cost more than US$1 million to lure Apple Computer Inc. Macintosh users to its Office suite appears to be only the beginning of the Redmond giant's efforts to build links between Windows-based applications and services with Apple hardware.

Every year, IBM Corp.'s Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, Calif., hosts a day where scientists and technologists from various companies mix with the media and present some of their latest work.

On Aug. 5, Northrop Grumman IT, an US$18 billion company in aerospace and defense, announced a plan to create a converged wireless IP network for voice, video and data called the Secure Wireless Network for Homeland Security.

In a major deal that will lend credibility to Palm Inc.'s promise to make its devices relevant to enterprise-level companies, the handheld manufacturer will partner with IBM Corp. to interoperate with WebSphere application servers and to deploy a WebSphere Everyplace Access software stack on Palm 5 and Palm wireless devices.

In a major deal that will lend credibility to Palm Inc.'s promise to make its devices relevant to enterprise-level companies, the handheld manufacturer will partner with IBM Corp. to interoperate with WebSphere application servers and to deploy a WebSphere Everyplace Access software stack on Palm 5 and Palm wireless devices.

At a keynote address delivered by Rob Hammond, a leading member of Sprint Corp.'s National Integrated Solutions division, at the VOX 2002 speech technology conference Monday, the executive announced Sprint's plans to partner with system integrators and hardware manufacturers to voice-enable corporate applications and to host the applications on the Sprint network. The strategy will go under the name VAP3 (Voice Applications for Preferred Partner Program).

Sprint's plans to partner with system integrators and hardware manufacturers to voice-enable corporate applications and to host the applications on the Sprint network.

The brief description of the technology sounds like something from a science-fiction movie where the robots take over: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. says it will offer a wireless LAN technology that is self-organizing, decentralized, and capable of reconfiguring itself without the aid of access points and access servers.