Robert J. Mullins

The expression “May you live in interesting times,” can be a Chinese proverb or a Chinese curse, depending on your perspective, and the launch of Windows 8 and its potential impact in the world of Android and iOS is expected to bring interesting times to enterprises in 2013. “We’re looking at a year of tremendous […]

“The information shared by our Czech subsidiary is not accurate. We do not have anything further to share at this time,” Microsoft stated. The Website The Verge repeated a report from the Czech Website IHND that quoted Microsoft product manager Petr Bobek as saying that Office apps would be available natively early next year. The […]

Upstart PDF technology provider Nitro has fired another shot across the bow of its giant rival Adobe Systems with the release of Nitro Reader 3.0, a free tool for creating and reading content using the portable document format (PDF). Reader 3.0 takes a few of the features found in Nitro Pro 8, released in September, […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company can pursue a dual strategy of building products with both Microsoft hardware and software, while also supporting hardware partners that make their own hardware running Microsoft software. The policy statement was contained in an annual letter to shareholders issued Oct. 9 along with Microsoft’s fiscal 2012 annual report. […]

Polycom introduced a number of new video conference systems on Oct. 8 and a Polycom executive says that his company, in partnership with Microsoft, has been gaining market share at the expense of rival Cisco Systems. Polycom introduced several new systems based on more than two years of research to widely revamp its product line, […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Box, a provider of a cloud-delivered document-storing and -sharing service, is introducing Box Embed, which enables users to take content stored in Box and embed it in any Website or browser-based application. Box made the announcement at Boxworks 2012, its annual user conference held here Oct. 8 and 9. Box Embed is […]

Oracle partner NetSuite has introduced the NetSuite Two-Tier enterprise resource planning cloud-based software application that enables corporate subsidiaries to run a smaller-scale application that can run in conjunction with the Oracle ERP platform at the corporate parent’s headquarters. NetSuite announced Two-Tier ERP for Oracle at the Oracle OpenWorld conference held Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 […]

ScaleOut Software has introduced a new Analytics Server that it says does data analytics quickly by using in-memory data grid technology to process rapidly changing data. ScaleOut Analytics Server is a follow-on product to the ScaleOut State Server middleware product that’s been out for about seven years, said Bill Bain, CEO of ScaleOut Software. State […]

Microsoft has acquired mobile security provider PhoneFactor for its two-factor authentication technology to protect business applications that enterprises deploy on smartphones for employees and customers. PhoneFactor, founded in 2001, already works with many Microsoft products and services, including Outlook Web Access, Internet Information Services and Active Directory. Over time, it could also interoperate with Office […]

Microsoft has completed the creation of a partnership with bookseller Barnes & Noble to promote digital content at colleges and universities, including a $300 million investment by Microsoft in the B&N subsidiary Nook Media. Microsoft and Nook Media–a reference to the Nook e-book reader sold by Barnes & Noble–will focus on advancing “digital reading experiences […]