Joe Hewitt who built the initial version of Facebook for the iPhone, left the social networking company today. Hewitt, who has had incredible influence over Facebook's mobile success, left to work on his own focusing on tools for developers and designers.

Dish Network Corp. is about a month away from starting to offer its own wireline broadband in service bundles sold in Colorado.

Visa is planning to provide details next week about its mobile payments strategy. In recent months Visa has invested in Square, which provides an accessory allowing an iPhone to accept credit card payments.

Rather than scaling back on its plans for its own NFC payments network, the carrier-led Isis joint venture is ramping up and welcoming more credit card companies and banks. And that, Isis believes, will make the carrier venture even more critical to the success of NFC.

British researchers have built a cheap, fully-functioning computer the size of a USB stick. But while efforts to bring low-cost computing to the masses are laudable, do they misunderstand the reality of the way the world uses computers in the 21st century

Last week, Facebook formally announced "Hackamonth," an internal initiative that allows some engineers to leave their team to work on a side project of their choosing. The goal is to prevent burnout among the staff and should result in some cool new products.

digg_url = "http://unified-communications.blogspot.com/2011/05/training-training-and-training.html";digg_title = "Training, Training and Training";digg_bgcolor = "#FFFFFF";digg_skin = "normal";digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor = undefined;digg_skin = undefined;Lots of extra training material is published on Microsoft Downloads. #lync #training #rgs #voice Microsoft Lync

Among the fears communication service provider executives sometimes have is that customers will not pay for better service or new features. A new survey of 2,500 mobile subscribers by Amdocs, including mobile consumers in five European nations suggests subscribers are willing to pay for an improved customer experience and new services.

Fully 90 percent of Russian subscribers indicated they are willing to pay higher premiums to receive the products and services they want.

Only 30 percent of subscribers from all of the surveyed countries said they would be unwilling to pay for additional services.

Connectivity and the ability to make mobile payments were cited by European consumers as the top reasons they would increase their mobile usage. Subscribers also expressed a willingness to pay a
premium for the ability to consume all services from any device and for a single data bundle option.

Forty-three percent of respondents from all five European countries viewed connectivity as the most important industry development of the next decade.

Fifty-two percent of surveyed Russians and more than half of the Germans felt connectivity and synchronization between all devices would be the most important development of the next 10 years, and
almost 50 percent of German end users felt that the connected world would encourage them to increase their mobile usage.

In the U.K., more than 70 percent of respondents cited connection to other devices as the first or second most influential factor in increasing their mobile consumption.

European respondents chose improved network quality as the service they would be most likely to pay a premium for and 46 percent said this is the aspect they would most like to change or improve about their current mobile reality.

Users in the United Kingdom are most likely to pay a premium for increased network quality (39 percent) and 50 percent of surveyed consumers in the United Kingdom cited network improvements as their top concern, reflecting a growing reliance on access to mobile communication and information wherever they are.

The survey also included subscribers in France, Germany and Sweden.

As with all such surveys, there often is a difference between what consumers ay they will do, and the ways they actually behave.

Still, as with any product, the notion that customers will not buy new features, products or applications can be wrong. Whether they will, or will not, depends on the value of the innovations and the cost of using those new innovations.

Nobody seems to think "paying" is an issue with iPhones, iPads or virtual goods used in online games. What service providers must do is what all suppliers must do: create more compelling products.

read more here

IP communications provider AltiGen adds the Via Group to its partner network Telephony World (press release) The Via Group is recognized as a global leader in providing Microsoft Unified Communications expertise to their customers. By leveraging strategic relationships with industry-leading manufacturers, The Via Group is able to provide customers with ...

ShoreTel Expands Technology Partner Program Techzone360 May 06, 2011 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- ShoreTel, a provider of brilliantly simple IP phone systems with fully integrated unified communications (UC), announced the evolution of the Technology Partner and Developer Network programs into the single ... and more »

New York Daily News

With Budget Unveiling, Bloomberg Draws the Battle Lines WNYC "We are forced to do the best we can with what we've got. The state has shifted the burden from them to us." Following the unveiling of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's final budget, the battle lines are now drawn between the mayor and City ... Bloomberg to cut more than 6000 NYC teaching positionsCNN International Bloomberg's $65.7 Billion New York City Budget Proposes 6000 Teacher CutsBloomberg NYC Mayor's Budget Would Cut 1 Out Of 12 TeachersNPR Brooklyn Daily Eagle -Patch.com -The Associated Press all 331 news articles »

Social Media Optimization Conference (SMOC), produced by SocialTimes and Mediabistro, will take place May 23-24 in San Francisco. The conference will teach marketing and business leaders how to go beyond SEO to create organic user engagement on the social web. Save 15% with code SXGO.

Mobile advertising is ramping up quickly and is poised to grow by more than 40 percent over the next several years, outpacing traditional online advertising. And that is fueling a spate of funding announcements and deals as the competition in this space heats up.

Washington Post publisher Philip Graham called journalism the "first rough draft of history," but as a new research paper from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism notes, that role is increasingly being played by social media such as Twitter,

It's not really a surprise that we're beginning to hear more and more about “incubators.” If you've been around the block as many times as I have, you may remember the sharp increase in such experiments about a decade ago.

digg_url = "http://unified-communications.blogspot.com/2011/05/lync-phone-edition-rollout-and-tips.html";digg_title = "Lync Phone Edition rollout and TIPS";digg_bgcolor = "#FFFFFF";digg_skin = "normal";digg_url = undefined;digg_title = undefined;digg_bgcolor = undefined;digg_skin = undefined;Today I really got a nice opportunity to configure and install the Microsoft Lync Phone Edition 2010 (

Videoconferencing Bucks Trend eWeek After all, its business-focused Skype Connect voice over IP service has been generally available since August 2010, and allows PBX and unified communications systems to connect to Skype's network. Early this year, Skype added group video calling to its ... and more »

Unified comm paves way for better schools, more telework GCN.com The state is using Verizon's advanced unified communications tools for the consolidation. School districts needed more bandwidth for online testing and real-time evaluation, while agencies needed more capacity to handle increased e-mail and a new ... and more »

Looks like Skype is in play, again. Unlike last time, both the suitors have good business reasons. Between Google and Facebook, the social networking giant makes perfect sense. We actually suggested this deal six months ago. Question is: why does Skype want to sell?

[click the image for a birds eye view with Photosynth overlays]

During this week you’ve gotten to see just a few places on Microsoft Campus and over the next weeks and months I’ll endeavor to show you more – with photographs, videos and Photosynth's. My dream is to have some sort of Willy Wonka style golden ticket draw where a few folks who read the blog get to come to Redmond and I take them on what I call the underground tour.

In the meantime, I’ve been asked Softies to geotag photographs they have on to Bing Maps to help give you a view inside of Redmond. I also asked for Photosynth's to add to the Visitor Center one I created. There are a few already – one of the Microsoft Company Store for example and another impressive synth of the piece of Berlin Wall that sits inside Building 33.

Take a Photosynth view of Microsoft Campus.

I hope you enjoyed the week of places – please post any feedback in the comments on other places you’d like to see either here in Redmond or around the Microsoft world.

BBC News

Jobs Report Has More Bad News Than Good News CNBC.com AP There was more bad news than met the eye to Friday's jobs report, even beyond the bump up in the unemployment rate. While the top-line number of 244000 jobs created sounded great when it came off the tape, the internals were somewhat weaker. ... Snap Analysis: Jobs report shows strength with a caveatReuters Strong Job Report Shows US Economy Gaining SteamNew York Times US Economy Adds Jobs, but Unemployment Rate RisesWall Street Journal Bloomberg -Los Angeles Times -TheStreet.com all 699 news articles »

Along with the Fortune 500, comes the list of the biggest losers. Avaya came in 15th place! Meanwhile, its distant sister or mother or something AT&T came in 2nd place on the most profitable list.

Money/CNN on Avaya:

Private-equity firms Silver Lake Partners and TPG took Avaya private in 2007 for $8.3 billion. That buyout, along with the acquisition of the Nortel assets, led to more than $500 million in charges and saddled the company with almost $6 billion in debt as of the end of its fiscal year. As a result, the company was required to pay several million dollars in interest during the year.

If they just sold 10 more desktop video devices, they would have been profitable too. So close.

It really boils down to how you define a customer. The Avaya/Nortel deal resulted with a 22% increase in revenue, but the majority of Nortel customers aren’t opening their wallets. They count as only installed base today but will they tomorrow? The plan is to convert that installed base into revenue, knowing sooner or later they will open their wallets. When they do, the question is will Avaya offer the smoothest, easiest, cheapest, etc. upgrade path? Will Nortel customers (or Avaya customers for that matter) feel any loyalty?

I’m not convinced Avaya has any better chance of winning those upgrades than others do. For example, Microsoft just released their white paper exactly how to connect Lync to an Avaya S8300. In fact, UC without a forklift strategy is an option from many vendors including Mitel, Aastra, and Siemen Enterprise. In a word, the competition can be described as fierce. Not a bad time to be a buyer – or a vendor with cash that can afford to buy market share. And that’s what many are doing – buying market share. Huge incentives and discounts, especially to Nortelers, seems the norm these days. It could just be a question of who has the most cash to give away. Cisco and Avaya are a bit short.

Nortel may be gone, but overall there are more competitors than there were. Microsoft is one example, but don’t forget the hosted offerings. IBM is still bring your own voice, but IBM’s SameTime integrates nicely with several brands. Also, Cisco just launched a new system at the mid market Nortel base.

Then there is the channel part of the equation. A colleague pointed out to me that many of the Nortel dealers are defecting to other brands. On one hand this is reasonable, most mergers result with some redundancies and both Avaya and Nortel had a lot of dealers that the combined company would not need.

On the other hand, those dealers have customer relationships – deeper than Avaya in many cases. They know the customers, their pains, their history, their decision making processes and their calendars. If they are hawking alternative solutions, that certainly decreases the odds of retention.

Whatever happens, don’t expect it to happen quickly. Nortel declared bankruptcy in Jan 2009. VoIP has been up and coming since about 2002. Whatever is keeping the TDM Nortels in place isn’t going to stop tomorrow. Most companies are smaller than they were a few years ago, and growth is the number one reason to buy a new system.

So the good news for now is they made a top 20 list. “Avaya, a global leader in enterprise communication systems was recognized by Fortune for their financial performance….”

 

Приведу несколько источников данных:

 

1-Object Permissions Report for Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Это excel файл, который можно выкачать с Partnersource (требуется авторизованный доступ)
https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/ordering/orderingnews/msdnavobjectperreport.htm

P.S.
Файл раз в несколько месяцев обновляется международной командой.

 

2-Некий публичный аналог можно получить, воспользовавшись популярной тулой "Find Granule" от Luc Van Dyck http://www.mibuso.com/dlinfo.asp?FileID=336

P.S.
Файл для тулы стараюсь ежемесячно обновлять на своем блоге, последнее обновление (Справочный файл по русской версии для "Find Granule" 03-May-2011):
http://blogs.technet.com/b/alexef/archive/2011/05/03/findgranulerugranules030511.aspx

P.S.2 В целом на alexef блоге много полезных постов именно по лицензиям:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/alexef/archive/tags/navlicense/

 

3-Если требуется как бы более сырые, но и более полные данные можно воспользоваться внутренним (требуется авторизованный доступ) порталом (www.mbspartners.ru   (он же https://sharepoint.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/sites/ruptswebMBS)) для русских партнеров и выкачать оттуда excel файл “grandesc_navision_BR”, свежий файл https://sharepoint.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/sites/ruptswebMBS/nav/Licensing/grandesc_navision_BR_03052011.zip

P.S.
Так же стараюсь обновлять файл ежемесячно.

P.S.2 В целом на mbspartners.ru в нужной папке есть много полезной информации по лицензиям:
https://sharepoint.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/sites/ruptswebMBS/nav/Licensing/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Toshiba Strata Call Manager Receives Unified Communications Magazine's 2010 ... PR-USA.net (press release) Unified Communications is pleased to grant a 2010 Product of the Year Award for Strata Call Manager," said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. "We're proud to honor their hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from Toshiba in ... and more »

New York Post

President meets a 'harsh' critic New York Post A 10-year-old boy whose firefighter dad died on 9/11 was thrilled to meet President Obama during yesterday's wreath-laying ceremony, but that didn't stop him from offering the commander in chief a critique of the raid that killed ... Thousands converge on Ground Zero, await President Obama's arrivalThe Star-Ledger - NJ.com At Firehouse in Midtown, a VIP Stops By for LunchNew York Times 10-year-old whose father died on 9/11 shares emotional moment with President ...New York Daily News Washington Post -Atlanta Journal Constitution -SILive.com all 275 news articles »

Sydney Morning Herald

Former Marine Found Guilty in Wife, Sons' Murder Case Fox News | AP WATERLOO, Ill. -- A jury has convicted a former Marine of three counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths two years ago of his wife and their two sons. The jury returned the verdict Thursday against 34-year-old Christopher Coleman ... Coleman guilty of killing familyUPI.com Coleman guilty on three counts of murderSTLtoday.com Lawsuit filed against televangelist for 3 murdersChicago Tribune phillyBurbs.com -KSDK -KMOX.com all 372 news articles »

Is the man who live-tweeted the bin Laden attack a "citizen journalist?" Some argue that he is not, but the reality is that what we call journalism is being unbundled into its component parts, and anyone can now perform some or all of those functions.

Israel is quickly becoming a hotspot for mobile innovation. Today, 15 of Israel's new mobile startups strutted their stuff in front of an audience of American investors and tech industry leaders at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View. Here are four to watch.

Kansas City Star

Worried investors dump raw materials Financial Times A record plunge in oil prices led the sharpest sell-off in commodities in two years on Thursday as investors fled the market amid mounting concern over the strength of the global recovery. Investors dumped dollar-denominated commodities that would ... Crude, Gasoline, Heating Oil Tumble on Economy: Oil ProductsBloomberg Oil's Plunge, Dollar's Rise Trigger Broad SelloffWall Street Journal Oil drops below $100 on worry of weaker US demandFayetteville Observer Transport Topics Online -Sydney Morning Herald -Los Angeles Times all 1,738 news articles »

USA Today

Osama bin Laden death: Intelligence reveals US rail threat from al-Qaida The Guardian Pakistanis walk by the house where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Information found at the scene has revealed a desire by al-Qaida to attack the US rail network. Photograph: Nathalie Bardou/AP The first intelligence from the treasure trove ... Osama Bin Laden Evidence: Al Qaeda Considered 9/11 Anniversary AttackABC News Osama bin Laden dead: al-Qaeda 'planning to attack trains on 9/11 anniversary'Telegraph.co.uk Al-Qaeda weighed train attack to mark Sept 11AFP Monsters and Critics.com -New York Daily News -NBC New York all 384 news articles »

As Cisco revealed its somewhat opaque plans to restructure itself, two things became clear: Marthin De Beer will take on a new role and the company is continuing to bet big on its nebulous Medianet strategy.

Around half of all tablet owners reported being the only ones in their household using their particular tablet, while 43 percent said they shared the tablet with others, according to Nielsen. Eight percent said that while they own a tablet used by other household members, they do not use it themselves.

Vendors selected for the “Cool Vendor” report are innovative, impactful and intriguing REDMOND, WA — May 5, 2011 — Browsium, Inc. has been named a Cool Vendor by Gartner in the Cool Vendors in Personal Computing, 2011 report, published by...

AltiGen Communications Expands Partner Network With the Addition of The Via Group Marketwire (press release) The Via Group is recognized as a global leader in providing Microsoft Unified Communications expertise to their customers. By leveraging strategic relationships with industry-leading manufacturers, The Via Group is able to provide customers with ... and more »

Dimension Data held their analyst day in Boston this week. Six months past the acquisition of Dimension Data by NTT, the day was a blend of catching up on Dimension Data, results of the NTT acquisition, and initiatives in the industry trends of the day - most appropriately, cloud, for example, but thankfully not overhyped. The [...]

New York Daily News

Obama Visits Ground Zero msnbc.com President Barack Obama and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, left, meet with police officers and first responders at the First Precinct before visiting the National Sept. 11 Memorial at Ground Zero. When using Facebook Connect your image and ... AP Source: Obama to meet some from bin Laden raidSan Jose Mercury News Witnesses say man may have pulled gun as Obama motorcade passed near Ground ZeroThe Star-Ledger - NJ.com Obama thanks officers at NYC police stationSeattle Post Intelligencer Politico -The Week Magazine -New York Daily News all 322 news articles »

Bharti Airtel's profit continues to be weighed down by the cost of debt it took on to make investments in 3G spectrum in India and to acquire the African operations of Zain.

Global spending on enterprise software grew 8.5 percent in 2010 to US$245 billion following a 2.5 percent drop-off in 2009, suggesting the industry is shaking off the effects of the economic downturn and starting more new projects, according to figures released by analyst firm Gartner on Thursday.

Symantec says the new offerings are designed to improve service manageability and increase flexibility for customers.

Hackers are facing a tough job in jailbreaking iPad 2 because of the way its new dual-core processor and firmware are protected. One hacker working on the problem has challenged well-known hacker George Hotz to a race.

A new crop of software tools lets Volkswagen and other companies show their wares to customers in 3D and more effectively train service techs.

A look at how Research in Motion wants to make social networks an integral part of its BlackBerry devices.

The European Payments Council (EPC), which represents the European banking industry, has released a draft version of guidelines it hopes will give the use of NFC (Near Field Communications) for payments a boost.

As Red Hat grows, it attracts more lawsuits from patent trolls and has to settle many of them, CEO says.

Tablets are cutting into PC usage and are also stealing time from ereaders and gaming machines, according to a Nielsen survey. Tablets have started to shift the computing load away from more traditional machines and now present a significant challenge to hardware makers.

Join GigaOM Pro and Skype for our free, one-hour webinar, The Future of Work: How New Technology Platforms are Reinventing the Workplace, on May 11, 2011 at 10 a.m. PDT. We'll explore challenges and opportunities presented by a new culture of work.

AOL continues to pour money into its Patch.com "hyperlocal" news venture, and is also rolling out a Huffington Post-style aggregation effort called Local Voices aimed at pulling in local bloggers. But can any of this help AOL dig itself out of the financial hole it's in?

I don't know of an instance where a new medium was not initially seen through the lens of the old. Among the perhaps obvious examples is the tendency of early movies to be "filmed stage performances." So to the extent that the "mobile web" is a new medium, and not merely a small-screen version of a PC, one would expect that the medium still is developing, and that we do not yet realize the potential.

Gov't crisis systems not yet unified JoongAng Daily Eight years later, Korea still doesn't have a plan to put into a place an integrated and unified communication system, which would enable policemen, firefighters, local government officials and medical workers to use the same radio equipment for rescue ...