unisys

How do you get from point A to point B without your favorite backseat driver spewing commentary and driving tips? Well, now you can enjoy that familiar nagging even when you're alone in your car.

The new Mary On Board, a humorous dash-top device, gives criticism, driving tips, and navigational "advice" in two languages.

Mary On Board creator Dan Finkelstein said he was inspired by his wife (named Mary) to create a device that would "backseat drive" for him when she wasn't around.

Finkelstein explained that he was distracted by a phone call one day while driving, only to be reminded to move into the right lane by his wife, who was "motioning wildly and saying repeatedly, 'right lane!'"

So Finkelstein, who had been laid off from Unisys after 25 years, took on the task of inventing Mary On Board. The device was developed through the aid of a Utah-based company, Design My Idea.

The device is about as helpful as a Magic 8 Ball when it comes to dispensing actual directions. Instead, it offers about 15 preprogrammed sayings in English or Spanish, including "I so need a brake pedal on my side," "Admit it! You're lost because you wouldn't ask for directions," and "Don't you think you should slow down?"

The gadget retails for $19.95 on the company's Web site and through Things You Never Knew Existed. For every unit purchased, $1 will be donated to the National Kidney Foundation, Finkelstein said.… Read more

Google has won a major contract to provide Google Apps for an entire federal government agency.

Teaming up with Unisys and two other companies, Google will deploy Google Apps for Government to all 17,000 employees and contractors at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA handles business for the entire federal government by providing real estate and building management services along with buying assistance to other agencies, according to a Google blog post.

Awarding the $6.7 million contract to Google and its partners, the GSA becomes the first federal agency to migrate all its e-mail to the cloud, … Read more

If the U.S. were hit by a severe cyberattack, would you want the president to be able to control or even shut down portions of the Internet?

A majority 61 percent of Americans polled by Unisys for a new security study believes the president should have the power to control or effectively "kill" portions of the Internet if key U.S. systems (military, financial, electrical) were hit by a malicious cyberattack from a foreign government.

These findings from the latest biannual Unisys Security Index suggest that the public may support a pending cybersecurity bill that would give … Read more

In a bid to capture more corporate and government customers, Apple is seeking help from IT services provider Unisys.

In deal between the two companies, Unisys will offer maintenance and other services to businesses and government agencies that buy Apple devices, Gene Zapfel, a managing partner at Unisys, told Bloomberg. The contract was signed this month, Bloomberg reported yesterday, but so far no details have been revealed.

Though its focus has traditionally been on consumers, schools, and creative professionals, Apple has found itself pulled more into the enterprise arena, especially as employees are bringing their iPhones to work.

Apple Chief … Read more

If you need further proof that open-source applications are ready for prime time, take today's news from open-source business intelligence company Jaspersoft, which announced that British Telecom is using its business intelligence suite to support more than 8 million voice mail subscribers.

BT and Unisys, a longtime Jaspersoft partner, say they chose Jaspersoft for its modular design, which reduces maintenance and cost and gives them customization abilities that improve capacity planning.

The deal with BT also represents how important a solid channel strategy is for open-source software companies.

Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile has in the past mentioned that the … Read more

Unisys has updated its ClearPath line of mainframe servers, adding a new ePortal engine that allows iPhone users to access applications running on mainframes.

The five new ClearPath Libra and Dorado models introduced on Tuesday range from entry level to high end, the company said. The machines use new chips and I/O subsystems designed to provide performance improvements. The Libra 780 and Libra 790 use Unisys' proprietary CMOS processors, as do the Dorado 740 and 750. The lower-end Dorado 4050 uses an Intel Xeon x64 chip.

The company also released new versions of its MCP and OS 2200 operating … Read more

This should come as no surprise to anyone, but people in the U.S. are worried that as the economy worsens, the chances for identity fraud, particularly with regard to credit card data theft, will increase.

Nearly 75 percent of Americans believe that the global financial crisis increases their risk of identity and related fraud, according to the Unisys Security Index due to be released on Monday.

More than two-thirds surveyed said they are extremely or very concerned about other people obtaining and using their credit and debit card data, with 90 percent at least somewhat concerned.

Credit and debit … Read more

Unisys may have written Itanium's epitaph on Wednesday--at least for some of the largest server vendors.

Colin Lacey, vice president of Systems and Storage at Unisys, discussed in a phone interview why Unisys--one of the top 10 U.S. server vendors--doesn't see a future for Itanium, including the long-delayed quad-core Itanium "Tukwila" processor.

Lacey said Itanium's appeal has almost vanished for many vendors in server industry. "It's appeal has certainly narrowed down. It's almost exclusively down to a single vendor," he said, referring to Hewlett-Packard. "The current shipping platform is … Read more

Internet security isn't a top concern among most average people, says a report released Tuesday by Unisys. What concerns most people is National Security, followed by financial worries.

"Whether it is the headline news that people listen to every day, or whatever is driving it, it's gone up 26 to 32 percent on this survey," said Tim Kelleher, vice president, enterprise security, Unisys. He said the results were surprising since the presidential election came down to where the candidates stood on the economy not the war.

Unisys focused its survey on four broad areas: national security, … Read more