Jim Wagner

A pair of studies shows video on demand (VoD) is beginning to make headway, with IPTV a key factor in the service’s popularity. ABI Research reports VoD will start to make an impact on television programming within five years, a move that will trump traditional TV scheduling as people choose their own times to watch […]

Microsoft’s new Web application development tool, code named Atlas, is out in the open in the form of a developer preview and Web site. Atlas is the company’s answer to developing Web applications using the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) style of programming. Not for faint-hearted programmers, AJAX requires a firm grasp of server-side as […]

AT&T announced customer trials of a managed radio frequency identification (RFID) service it intends to deploy in the future, officials announced Tuesday. The 90-day trials, which will begin in early 2006, will determine whether Ma Bell can effectively act as a broker for managed RFID services, laying down the infrastructure and deploying the service with […]

Software vendor Tibco released the first major update to its rich Internet application (RIA) developer tool since acquiring the technology last year, officials said this week. General Interface 3.0 (GI 3.0), originally developed by a privately held company of the same name, was acquired by Tibco in October 2004 to round out its service-oriented architecture […]

UPDATE: IBM officials introduced new distributed computing software to take information out of the department and on to the corporate network. The tools will include three new WebSphere-based applications that handle service-oriented architecture (SOA) , through Web services , from design implementation to monitoring. The Armonk, N.Y. vendor’s SOA move — a combination of software, […]

As the faithful descend on the Los Angeles Convention Center for the four-day technology fest that is the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005, one of the biggest draws will likely be its next-generation file system: WinFS. Considered by many as nearly dead in the water because of an expected final release well after the […]

The $5.85 billion acquisition bid of CRM giant Siebel Systems by database big shot Oracle is a reunion of sorts for its two famous founders, Tom Siebel and Larry Ellison. It remains to be seen whether the two billionaires will be able to maintain a leadership role, and its customers, in the enterprise application arena […]

The net effect of the commonwealth of Massachusetts proposal to switch its software to open standards support could be huge for government workers, as well as Microsoft . The commonwealth is inviting public comment until today on its plan to switch software only to those applications that support the OpenDocument standard for XML-based text, spreadsheets […]

UPDATED: Security officials at Microsoft will not be releasing a critical fix to the Windows operating system this month as previously promised, the company’s advanced notification Web site stated Friday afternoon. “Late in the testing process, Microsoft encountered a quality issue that necessitated the update to go through additional testing and development before it is […]

Voice over IP manufacturer VoIP, Inc., launched what it says is the industry’s first private network 911 service for Internet-based telephony, officials said Thursday. The service is available today on a trial basis, with general availability of the entire product in October, to be showcased at the CompTel/ASCENT Fall 2005 Convention and Expo in Orlando, […]

The Baby Bells are claiming victory in their efforts to bypass local IPTV franchise requirements in Texas. Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 5 into law Wednesday, which allows telecommunications companies to provide cable TV service over their fiber optic networks without going to every community in the Lone Star state. Before the legislation […]

Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect, outlined his company’s business process automation strategy Wednesday. At a keynote speech for the company’s first business summit for midsized businesses, Gates outlined plans for Microsoft Dynamics, formerly Project Green. “If we’re going to empower people in the best way possible, we’ve got to get into actual […]