Michael Hickins

This is no April Fool’s Day joke. Microsoft  said during its Management Summit today in San Diego that its System Center Operations Manager 2007 management application will be available this April 1. The software, which has evolved from what Microsoft used to call Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, offers intelligent network monitoring and reporting for Microsoft […]

Microsoft  announced that early sales of Windows Vista are outpacing those that XP experienced, putting it on the road to become the fastest-adopted version of Windows in the company’s history. In the first month of general availability, sales of Vista exceeded 20 million licenses, which is more than double the initial pace of sales for […]

UPDATED: Anyone who has tried to get sports scores or traffic updates using the Web browser on their cell phones can tell you how frustrating the experience can be. Download speeds are maddeningly slow and even eagle-eyed Gen-Yers need a magnifying glass to read the content. ZenZui, a start-up with the backing of Redmond, Wash.-based […]

Analysis: The lawsuit that Oracle  filed against its rival in the enterprise software market yesterday is going to get even worse. When all is said and done, SAP’s  conduct, if proved true, could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties, untold points of market share and even, perhaps, jail time for some executives. […]

Cell phones have evolved from being simple voice transmitters to productivity tools and entertainment devices. Now, as several new services illustrate, they are poised to replace international wire transfers and banks cards as well. U.K. based mobile communications carrier Vodaphone  is launching M-PESA, a new service that allows Kenyans to send money to family members […]

Microsoft is taking yet another step toward its vision of a software-plus-services world. Beginning today, online hosting companies will be able to offer their customers features of Microsoft’s most recent on-premise collaboration and communication tools, SharePoint Services 3.0 and Exchange Server 2007. The Redmond, Wash.-based software vendor said that, by updating its two hosting packages, […]

Handset vendor Nokia announced today that it has asked courts in Germany and the Netherlands to rule that telecommunications technology vendor Qualcomm isn’t entitled to royalties on intellectual property for which it has already collected royalties from a third party. Specifically, Nokia is asking the European courts to rule that Nokia doesn’t owe Qualcomm royalties […]

Facing challenges from free business services offered by Google  and, to a lesser extent, online office tools maker Zoho, Microsoft  is adding more goodies to its menu of offerings to small business owners. The Redmond, Wash,-based software vendor is striking deals with leading chain retailers in order to build a more personalized approach to landing […]

Adobe Systems  has released the alpha version of Apollo, the code-name for a new development environment and runtime that can be used to build and deploy rich Internet applications on the desktop. Both the runtime and the software developer’s kit (SDK) are available immediately for download free of charge. Apollo allows developers and designers to […]

As part of the spring 2007 release of its flagship Salesforce Automation (SFA) customer relationship management application, Salesforce.com  is rolling out what it calls “an enterprise-quality MySpace” application. AppSpace, which allows businesses to create customer-facing portals on demand, will be available in limited release beginning in April. The software, the latest in Salesforce.com’s rapid software-as-a-service […]

Health care providers and the patients they serve have an ever-growing appetite for health care IT. So it’s no wonder that vendors are anxious to jump into the breach with systems that can help satisfy this need and, in the process, fix what most people agree is a dysfunctional system. The Department of Health and […]

BT  wants to ride the VoIP  wave rather than get swamped by it. The British networking giant today announced that it is offering an “out of the box” service that will let Internet service providers (ISPs) offer their customers Internet phone calls. It is available in the U.S. and elsewhere outside the U.K. BT’s IP […]