News
IT Weekly Roundup, Jan. 7
From the business wires this week: Microsoft's antispyware, Xbox 2, management solutions, developer tools and a portable magneto-optical drive.
Microsoft continues to broaden its reach
across industries this past week with a handful of interesting developments.
First, security vendors are seeing the beginnings of an ugly rivalry
as Microsoft launched its highly publicized foray into the security
market with the beta version of
Microsoft Windows
AntiSpyware. Based on the antispyware technology developed
by recently acquired Giant Company Software, the software tool can
regularly search and remove spyware and pop-up ads as well as undo
unwanted changes made to Internet Explorer settings.
And although there was much anticipation leading into the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Bill Gates did not unveil the successor
to Microsoft’s popular Xbox gaming console, Xbox
Next. For interested gamers, however, Gates did drop some
hints in an interview
with News.com that the second-generation Xbox, code-named Xenon,
will be more than just a gaming machine, by deepening the experience
of Xbox Live’s voice communication feature and expanding multimedia
capabilities through possible integration with Windows Media Center.
For the more business-minded, the release of Microsoft
Business Solutions Small Business Financials North America Edition
provides a range of accounting and financial management tools for
small businesses in the United States and Canada. A rebranded and
updated version of Microsoft Business Solutions Business Manager,
the business management solution offers enhanced compatibility with
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 and the ability to import data
from applications like QuickBooks and Peachtree. http://www.microsoft.com
[Click on image for larger view.] |
| Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware
supports Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. |
Vasont Systems is increasing the integration
of its Vasont Content Management System
product with Microsoft Word 2003 by allowing users to access Vasont
directly from Word, combine Word content with XML content stored
in Vasont, and convert Word documents to XML for use across an enterprise.
http://www.vasont.com
Developers will be able to streamline the application development
process with Dataphor 2.0, the latest
version of the development toolset from Alphora.
Based on Microsoft .NET, Dataphor 2.0 features improvements in performance,
security, scalability and usability, including real-time translation
and compensation for all major dialects of SQL, and multi-client
architecture, enabling both Windows and Web access to the same application.
Single developer licenses are $995 per developer and $295 per deployed
Dataphor Server. http://www.alphora.com
 |
Fujitsu DynaMO 1300 Pocket
connects to PCs by Hi-Speed USB 2.0. |
For affordable but reliable backup or archival of critical data,
Fujitsu presents the DynaMO
1300 Pocket Magneto-Optical (MO) drive. The SecureMO Folder
file encryption software that comes bundled with the USB bus-powered
portable drive can encrypt and password-protect files on 3.5-inch
MO disks with capacities from 1.3GB to 128MB. The DynaMO 1300 Pocket
with software is priced at $199 MSRP. http://www.fujitsu.com