Michael Hickins

Microsoft  today announced a multi-million dollar settlement with French disk replicator MPO Group. The French company admitted that its Thai subsidiary inadvertently relied on a fake Microsoft licensing agreement, and then replicated thousands of Microsoft server software disks in violation of Microsoft’s copyrights and trademarks. Also as part of the settlement, MPO acknowledged that it […]

It probably says a lot about the state of the IT software market that eProject, a rejuvenated software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor of project management applications, is considered by some as a viable challenger to Salesforce.com. eProject had $16 million in revenues this year, while Salesforce , expects to generate as much as $720 million at the end […]

It’s been a December to remember for Microsoft’s  Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU). Microsoft developers last week inadvertently published a patch for Macintosh Office users that included untested security elements. The company made matters worse by removing the patch from its servers — after a number of users had already downloaded it. To further muddy the […]

IBM introduced the Product Integration Development Framework (PDIF), its new product lifecycle management (PLM) platform. The release set the stage for fiercer competition with platform vendors Microsoft , HP , Oracle  and SAP . Traditionally, enterprises have used PLM , usually in engineering-centric industries like automotive and aerospace, to create component lists that are then […]

Microsoft  is addressing two developer issues simultaneously. Tomorrow at noon EST, the company will release a service pack (SP1) to address recurring issues associated with Visual Studio 2005. It will also release a temporary patch to SP1 to address a Vista-related problem. Prashant Sridharan, group product manager of Visual Studio, explained that a particular feature […]

Microsoft  announced that it is heeding complaints from its partners and will make higher payouts and make a broader set of deals eligible for its Security Software Advisor (SSA) program. The SSA program, launched in July, is intended to give security partners incentives to incorporate Microsoft’s Forefront products into their security practices Channel partners are […]

HAWTHORNE, N.Y. — IBM  is launching a new framework to help companies better link product design and development to core business processes. The Product Development Integration Framework (PDIF) will make use of Big Blue’s many assets, from services to business process and product data management applications developed internally and through acquisitions, all tied together using […]

Salesforce.com  is announcing AppStore, a new set of services it will use to squeeze more revenue from its AppExchange platform. AppExchange, launched in January 2006, is a marketplace of on-demand application vendors which Salesforce.com has used to create an ecosystem around its own core offering, a customer relationship management application. The company says AppStore […]

As Microsoft goes, so goes the country? If a new report from IDC is to be believed, Microsoft  will ship more than 90 million units of Vista throughout the world next year, 35 million of which will go in the United States. The fact that Microsoft stands to earn $4 billion in revenues from Windows […]

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) approved a new voluntary program, which will begin in January, to test and certify voting systems. Not only that, pending federal and state legislation could change the ground rules by requiring election machines to produce some kind of paper-based audit trail. Under the new program, the National Institute of Standards […]

Unified threat management (UTM) software vendor Untangle, known as Metavize until this morning, is allowing companies with 10 employees or less to use its applications free of charge. That market represents less than 5 percent of its customer base, but the company is also slashing its prices for companies with up to 30 employees by […]

Content archiving applications vendor Zantaz acquired privately-held Singlecast for an undisclosed sum. Singlecast makes electronic data classification, policy management and supervision technologies software, which complement Zantaz’s existing applications in e-mail and instant message (IM) archiving and electronic discovery. Zantaz said Singlecast’s software will provide users with enhanced workflow, review and electronic data control functionality to […]