sharing

This week Vyew released version 3 of its browser-based collaboration tool. Freshly added are really useful things for online meetings like a push-to-talk VoIP system and Webcam support to take some of the chatter away from text and the corresponding telephone-based conference call. More importantly, there's now an API, meaning others can develop special applications that run within the service, expanding what Vyew's own developers are able to create.

One of those new applications is a built-in poll creator, where you can set up something for a vote and have others in the meeting choose which of the options they want. For something like a 10-person meeting this is a far better solution than clogging up the conference call or chat box with extra clamor.

There's also a new status menu where you can interrupt a meeting without actually interrupting it with a virtual "slow down" or applause message that will pop up for the presenter to see. You can use the same status message to tell other people you're temporarily away.

The smartest addition of version 3 is actually one of the most subtle. Users can now leave little text or voice notes on documents that sit both on the document and on the side. You can toggle which view you'd like to see, but either way it performs like some of the asynchronous collaboration tools we've seen like ConceptShare and ProofHQ. Others can then come back to the hosted documents and both see and leave their own feedback.

The company is pitching this as an alternative to sending attachments around the office, or to a client, and to a certain degree it's great for that, although missing is the option to view a timeline of revisions, which is where similar tools shine.

I still think Vyew is one of the simplest screen-sharing tools out there. The fact that it only requires you to have Java installed on your machine to make that happen is a much smarter way to go about compatibility than requiring a special proprietary plug-in or download. Vyew's Todd Lane goes over some of the new features in a YouTube video, which I've embedded after the break. You can also go make your own room and play around with them by clicking here.… Read more

Quest Software announced Friday it acquired NetPro Computing in a $78.7 million cash transaction.

With the acquisition, Quest Software aims to enlarge its offerings in such products designed to integrate and manage Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server.

Quest will continue to develop, market, and support NetPro products while it develops an integration plan and road map. The combined company expects to unveil a new technology roadmap around October 15.

Back in 1998, NetPro attracted the attention of Novell, which invested $1 million in the company.

Turns out, the sky isn't falling on the PC industry.

That's according to an update from IDC, an analyst firm that tracks the global PC market. Despite economic sluggishness in the U.S., PC shipments have actually increased worldwide more than expected.

Worldwide PC shipments are expected to grow by 15.7 percent this year to reach 311 million units, according to a report released Wednesday by IDC. Growth will slow slightly, but remain above 9 percent through 2012. IDC says that amounts to annual PC shipments reaching more than 482 million in 2012.

This growth is to … Read more

Goldman Sachs September 2008 IT spending survey delivers a sobering blow to suggestions of the rise of Ubuntu:

The enterprise isn't seeing it yet.

I've seen indications of Ubuntu adoption within customer surveys that Alfresco and others have done, but this survey of 100 IT executives from a range of Fortune 1000 companies suggests that perhaps the Ubuntu revolution still has a ways to go to make it in the stodgy old enterprise.

Granted, with CIOs representing 48 percent of survey respondents, and vice presidents of IT representing another 33 percent, we're unlikely to get a very good view of grassroots IT adoption. … Read more

It's surprising how many people are still asleep at the wheel while Microsoft continues to nurture perhaps its fastest-growing product (in terms of revenue) ever: SharePoint.

The Web has been aflutter with Google Chrome discussions since it was released last week, much of it centering on Google's strategy to drive a stake through the heart of Microsoft's Windows business by shifting the operating system to the cloud, rendered in a browser.

Such talk overlooks the fact that Microsoft has already started to move its own Windows business to the cloud, rendered in SharePoint.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has singled out SharePoint as Microsoft's next operating system. CMS Watch calls out SharePoint as inseparable from Office in its next iteration. Small wonder, then, that SharePoint renders the traditional content-management vendors comparatively obsolete, as a quick Google Trends review of popular search terms suggests:

Microsoft has been moving enterprise data off hard drives and into its proprietary, server-based SharePoint repositories for several years now. It's moving at a blistering pace, "steamrolling" other enterprise 2.0 products (to use Forrester's word).

Google, meanwhile, is also going to need to attract enterprise IT groups to adopt its Chrome browser by making it easy to develop applications to run in Chrome. Guess what? Microsoft is already doing much the same with SharePoint, except that those content-rich applications work better (or only) in Internet Explorer.… Read more

The mobile handset market is going from bad to worse as Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones, said Friday that it's lowering its third-quarter market share outlook due to the weakening global economy.

The Finnish company has dominated the mobile handset market over the past few years. Last quarter, it reported it had grabbed 40 percent of the entire worldwide market. At the time, executives were confident that the company would maintain this level. But now, as the worldwide economy worsens, executives say they expect Nokia's market share to slip slightly in the third quarter. … Read more

Online document-hosting service Docstoc on Thursday is introducing a useful new tool for PCs and Macs that will automatically back up and sync documents from your hard drive to your Docstoc account.

Considering the growing trend of Netbooks with relatively little built-in storage, users with this desktop application installed with be able to offload whatever they created without having worry about running out of room.

By default, the syncing application goes for your documents folder, though you can set it to sync up with other folders on your hard drive or folders within your home network. Documents that are automatically … Read more

The rollout of the iPhone 3G has seen a large increase in the iPhone's global Web share, according to figures released Monday.

The figures, collected by Web analytics company Net Applications, show that in June 2008, before the launch of the iPhone 3G, the iPhone had 0.16 percent share of the operating system market, as measured by OS detection during Web browsing; and in July, it had 0.19 percent.

However, as of September 1, the iPhone had 0.3 percent of global market share, an increase of 58 percent in one month. According to Net Applications, this was due to the July launch of the iPhone 3G.

"The release of the iPhone 3G has brought large gains in Web-browsing share," said a Net Applications report. "Prior to the launch, iPhone usage share had leveled off, but has since resumed its upward trend."

In the operating system market, Microsoft Windows has had dominance for many years. However, a Net Applications report showed that dominance steadily, if slowly, decreasing. Whereas in October 2007 Microsoft Windows had 92.49 percent of the operating system market, in August 2008 that figure had dropped to 90.66 percent. … Read more

While it's significant that the Mac has risen to nearly 8 percent market share in operating systems (with Windows dropping from its lofty heights to a still-lofty 90.66 percent), according to Net Applications, I find the iPhone's rapid increase even more impressive:

While still a small player, it is amazing how fast the iPhone is growing as a web browsing device, and the increase is a steady trend, not merely a momentary rise.

If any other device manages to catch up with the iPhone, we could well be seeing the future of most web browsing going forward, … Read more