Michael Hickins

NEW YORK — Microsoft  CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off sales of the consumer version of its new Vista operating system (OS) and Office suite today, calling it “the biggest launch in Microsoft’s history.” Sales of Vista and Office 2007 officially begin tomorrow in North America, although it has already begun shipping new product in New […]

Microsoft  is investigating new public reports of limited “zero-day” attacks using a vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2000. Alexandra Huft, a member of Microsoft’s security team, said the Redmond, Wash.-based vendor posted Microsoft Security Advisory (932114) for an issue “that only affects Microsoft Word 2000.” “We are currently investigating a report of a posting of proof […]

ORLANDO, Fla. — IBM is planning to release a new product it hopes will push the competition in the enterprise content management (ECM) space. The software, Quickr will allow users to access information buried in different content repositories through a single interface via connectors appearing in the task bars of running applications. For instance, a […]

ORLANDO, Fla. — IBM  launched a new social computing site today called Many Eyes, which allows users to upload very large data sets, choose different visual representations for the data sets, and engage in an online discussion of what the data reveals. Each visualization will allow for an active discussion to take place and become […]

SAP  today announced that it increased revenue and earnings for 2006, but that margins took a hit for a better cause. Last year’s revenues rose by 10 percent, to 9.4 billion euro ($12.2 billion), versus 8.5 billion euro ($11.1 billion) in 2005. Net income came in at 1.9 billion euro ($2.5 billion), 25 percent higher […]

UPDATED: ORLANDO, Fla. — IBM ;today detailed its strategy for integrating voice and data communications with the Lotus Connection collaboration tools that it announced yesterday. The application set, which IBM is calling “UC-squared,” is intended to provide an open, extensible software platform that integrates rich presence information, instant messaging, e-mail, Web, voice, video and business […]

ORLANDO — IBM  outlined its opening gambit in what promises to be a fiercely competitive race to bring social computing inside the enterprise firewall. Social computing is a component of Web 2.0  that is characterized by blogs, tagging of Web sites and social networking, and has thus far had a greater impact among consumers than […]

ORLANDO — IBM  said it will deliver a raft of social computing tools that integrate the best features of Web 2.0 for business use. The announcements started with Lotus Notes and Domino 8, formerly known as Hanover, which will ship this summer. A public beta will be available in February. The new iteration of the […]

IBM announced today that customers will be able to attend its annual Lotusphere conference virtually on Second Life, a 3-D virtual-reality world. Taking a MySpace and Facebook page from the consumer world, the company is pushing the use of social-networking software to illustrate how businesses can use lessons learned from virtual worlds to solve real-world […]

SuccessFactors wants to turn its on-demand human capital management (HCM) tool into a strategic application. Typically, HCM applications are used by human resources departments and, perhaps once a year, by all employees during annual review periods. But SuccessFactors is adding new features that will make the tool more applicable to everyday functions throughout the enterprise. […]

You could argue over whether Microsoft’s continued embrace of new alliances, such as in open source and telecommunications, was forced on it or a reflection of a new era of leadership at the software behemoth. Given its antitrust struggles in the U.S., Europe and Asia, some of its partnerships that help settle long-running monopoly abuse […]

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which is responsible for certifying labs that test voting machines, said yesterday it has been advised by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to accredit two new independent testing labs. NIST acts as the technical adviser to the EAC, although the EAC has rejected NIST’s advice in the […]