ePostal News articles from February 2005

ePostal News archives from February 2005

Oce makes digital mailroom foray.
February 7, 2005... Oce, the digital documents manager, is pushing into the mailroom to expand its opportunities. The Dutch outfit is developing a digital mailroom that automates mailroom activities and manages digital documents and records. In Oce's...

Czech post deploys APOST on Linux.(operations software installed)
February 7, 2005... The Czech Post says it's deployed its core APOST operations software on Novell's SuSE Linux at 3,400 branches across the country. The post is said to have turned to Linux to cut costs and reduce downtime and security issues. APOST...

Finland Post merges 9 subsidiaries.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Finland Post has brought together nine subsidiaries focused on information logistics under a single Itella brand. By information logistics, the post means the complete management of both electronic and paper-based information. Itella's...

Tumbleweed CEO to leave.(Resignation)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Secure electronic messaging software and services provider Tumbleweed Communications said its CEO Jeffrey Smith would step down once the company identifies a successor. Smith will continue to chair the Redwood City, California outfit. ...

Oracle & SAP: it's war.(SAP America Inc.)
February 7, 2005... To listen to him, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, afloat on a post-PeopleSoft testosterone wave, is itching for a war with business applications giant SAP, which has been taking market share in America. And SAP is ready to accommodate him. ...

Microsoft to crack down on piracy.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Microsoft is going to tighten the screws on people using pirated copies of Windows, reportedly some 25% of Windows users in the United States, by denying them access to upgrades. Microsoft said that starting in the second half visitors to...

Microsoft juggernaut rolls on; profits double.
February 7, 2005... The Microsoft money machine continues churning out the dough with profits more than doubling to $3.46 billion, or 32 cents a share, in the company's fiscal second quarter ended December 31. A strong showing in servers and tools as well as...

UK mobile phone ownership exceeds one per person.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... There is now more than one mobile phone in use per person in the UK, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA). It said that based on contract and pre-paid subscriptions, mobile phone penetration in Britain now exceeds 100%. Many UK...

SBC targets cable TV users with $29.95, 3 Mbps deal.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... SBC dropped the monthly rate for its 3 Mbps DSL broadband to $29.95 from $36.99 with a one-year commitment. It's bundled with SBC's local and long distance service. SBC is the largest US DSL provider with 5.1 million subscribers, but it trails...

Google may add Internet telephony.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Reports are circulating that Google, which credited with half of all Internet searches, may add Internet telephony (VoIP) to its search capabilities. Once a Google search turns up a retailer's web site, the searcher could call the store.

RCN adds home/work monitoring service.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... RCN has added a new service called WebWatch that it claims is a "first-of-its-kind" home monitoring system that will let customers remotely view real-time video of their house or business through any broadband-connected PC. "RCN is using...

Pitney launches package management software for SMBs.
February 14, 2005... Pitney Bowes has added a new multi-carrier application to its suite of package management products. Dubbed Package Manager PM3000, the program is the latest PC-based addition to Pitney's high-end package management software. It's...

Zix launches new secure e-mail package.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Zix Corporation (ZixCorp), the secure electronic messaging software and services provider, has released a new e-mail security package. Dubbed ZixMail Executive, the package bundles 10 or 20 seats of the ZixMail desktop encryption...

Canfone.com to use Canada post online app.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Canadian e-commerce services provider Canfone.com Web Services has teamed up with Canada Post to implement the post's new shipping application to simplify order fulfillment. The post's Sell Online application provides e-tailers with a...

More eBay days at the post office.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... The US Postal Service said that hundreds of post offices nationwide would host eBay Days this year. eBay Days, which were held at a few post offices last year, are meant to explain to people how to sell items online and answer questions...

Sigaba beefs up executive team.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Sigaba has strengthened its top management with the addition of three executives. The San Mateo, California outfit, which provides secure e-mail, instant messaging and electronic document delivery services, named Brandon Brown senior VP of...

Fortinet debuts new secure messaging system.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Fortinet is expanding its network security portfolio with a new secure electronic messaging system called FortiMail. FortiMail is built on the company's FortiOS technology and includes an anti-virus detection engine for virus and spyware...

HP's Carly finally gets the boot; critics dance on her grave.(Hewlett-Packard Co. dismissed Carly Fiorina)
February 14, 2005... The HP board has finally ousted CEO Carly Fiorina. The board asked her to step down yesterday after weeks of soul-searching, according to Carly's replacement as chairman Patricia Dunn, an HP director since 1998. The move, however, is...

Microsoft's new Linux defense.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Microsoft has created a new program to reassure governments around the world that it's really committed to security so they won't all flock to Linux. Dubbed the Security Cooperation Program, the new initiative is designed to provide a...

MSN search debuts; rival Google profits jump 7-fold.
February 14, 2005... Microsoft moved its new MSN Search service out of beta and into formal release on the same day its rival, Google, the leader in search, reported that its profits jumped seven-fold in Q4. In beta since November 11, Microsoft built MSN Search...

As I live & breathe, Microsoft, the interoperator!
February 14, 2005... Microsoft is circulating an e-mail over Bill Gates' signature embracing interoperability and pulling the nose of middleware (read IBM) as a solution around heterogeneity. Microsoft's goal, it says, is "to harness all the power inherent in...

AOL, Time Warner operation cut jointly beneficial deal.(America Online Inc. )
February 14, 2005... "This agreement aligns the strategies of America Online and Time Warner Cable and will enable each to focus on its key areas of growth." Now that must have been the kind of statement that Steve Case and Gerald Levin dreamed about back in 2000...

Broadband approaching cable TV penetration rates.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... In some parts of the world, the number of homes using broadband to access the net will achieve the same penetration rate over the next five years as cable TV got in North America over the past 20 and that dial-up got in 10 years, according to...

2b cell phones by year-end.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... There'll be over two billion mobile phone users by year-end, according to Deloitte's Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group. The bulk of the growth will be in new markets such as Asia and Latin America. Some countries will have...

Comcast approaching 7m broadband users.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Comcast, the largest US cable company, increased its revenue from high-speed Internet services 36% to $855 million. It added more than 437,000 subscribers last quarter to almost seven million broadband users. Comcast and the other cable...

Photography, gaming to drive 'place-shifting' market.(wireless communications)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Digital photography and multiplayer gaming will drive consumer interest in newfangled "place-shifting" solutions--the ability to access stuff like pictures and games from other rooms at home or outside the home, according to Parks Associates....

Anti-spam law made things worse.(Stanford University reports)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Spam, the hackles-raising unsolicited e-mail sent out in bulk, now represents upwards of 80% of all e-mail sent, up from 50%-60% before the Can Spam Act went into effect in January 2004 in the US, according to the New York Times. Anti-spam...

Lynching's too good for them.(mi2g Intelligence Unit reports)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... The total economic damage from viruses, worms and Trojans in 2004 came to somewhere between $169 billion and $204 billion, according to Britain's mi2g Intelligence Unit. With an installed base of around 600 million Windows PCs worldwide,...

Fifth anniversary of the Dot.com boom.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Five years ago, in March 2000, the Nasdaq hit the peak of the dot.com boom. Lots of people wrote off the commercial opportunities that the net offered in the months that followed. Not so today with Amazon, Google and eBay showing the way. The...

AuthentiDate, USPS still at odds.
February 21, 2005... AuthentiDate, the electronic postmark supplier, has yet to make headway in renegotiating its contract with the US Postal Service but remains optimistic that it will resolve its differences with the post. AuthentiDate has been trying to...

In the Internet age, the US Post 'delivers'.(magazine)(United States Postal Service)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... With the Internet, when e-mail zips across continents in the blink of an eye, and instant messaging and SMS are getting ubiquitous, the post's direct mail franchise is in clear and present danger. But embattled postal operators are fighting...

PostX debuts PxMail.(new e-mail offering )(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Secure electronic communications software and services provider PostX has rolled out a new e-mail offering called PxMail. The new product leverages PostX' Registered Envelope push technology to encrypt ad hoc e-mail and securely deliver the...

Pitney expands in India, Brazil.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Postal meter outfit Pitney Bowes said it had completed two transactions that would expand its operations in the growing economies of India and Brazil. In India, Pitney has acquired certain assets of Kilburn Associates and set up a direct...

Fortiva rolls out e-mail archival suite.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Fortiva has rolled out a hybrid offering for e-mail archiving, compliance and legal discovery. The Archiving and Compliance Suite consists of five components--policy, archiving, discovery, supervision and reports and is designed to...

AOL UK doubles broadband speed, knocks Wanadoo out of Dixon's.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... AOL UK is doubling its broadband speeds for no additional charge. It will be rolling out the upgrade to its 750,000 UK broadband users over the next six months. The company has also signed a deal with Dixon's Group, the electronics chain....

Asia-Pac to see 28% broadband growth.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Asia-Pac residential broadband subscriptions are expected to grow 28% this year, according to Sandra Ng of IDC Asia-Pacific. There are currently 39 million broadband homes in the area, excluding Japan. She forecasts that the number will be 50...

European broadband penetration to top 45% by 2010.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... By 2010 residential broadband penetration will top 45% in Europe, according to Forrester Research. It says that Europe's Big Five economies will see penetration rates of 35%-45%, Scandinavia and Benelux will be even higher. Portugal, Greece and...

Dell wants to be an IBM-like $80b-a-year company.
February 21, 2005... Dell earnings dropped 11% to $667 million, or 26 cents a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter ended January 28 because of a $280 million tax charge that worked out to 11 cents a share. Dell is taking the charge in anticipation of...

COAST consortium disintegrates.(Computer Associates )(Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Computer Associates reluctantly pulled out of COAST, the nascent Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors, after two of COAST's four founders abandoned it. Sam Curry, VP of CA's eTrust security management operation, said CA pulled out...

The legacy of Carly Fiorina.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Prudential thinks it could be at least six months before HP finds a replacement for ousted CEO Carly Fiorina and at least nine months before "a new CEO takes the reins and a concrete strategy is articulated." It warns that business could drift...

Mobile AIM, MSN Messenger available via Sprint PCS.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Sprint is doing its part to keep cell phone users in touch even if they feel like typing, not talking. The wireless operator is launching new Java-based instant messaging apps for AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. It already offers an...

Nokia intros mobile audio messaging.(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... Sending a picture message with an accompanying voice message is a fairly common practice for folks with camera phones. Other mobile phone users who want to send a message are pretty much limited to text, instant messaging or placing a call and...

Give them away.(Nicholas Negroponte, Wiesner Professor of media technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology)(computers to developing countries)(Brief Article)
February 21, 2005... "In Cambodia, the first English word out of their mouth is Google."--Nicholas Negroponte, Wiesner Professor of media technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding chairman of MIT's famed Media Laboratory. Negroponte...

Stamps.com dumbs down v5; delays upgrade.(PC postage service)
February 28, 2005... Stamps.com, the PC postage vendor, has hit a nasty speed bump, forcing it to scale back the capabilities going into the next rev of its PC postage service and push back its launch to the second quarter. Stamps CEO Ken McBride told Wall...

Deutsche Post launches Stampit Web.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Deutsche Post is rolling out a new version of its Stampit electronic postage service that won't require the user to download any dedicated client software. Dubbed Stampit Web, the new service is designed to let customers use the free Adobe...

Stamps.com R&D chief quits.(JP Leon replaces Craig Ogg)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Stamps.com VP of R&D Craig Ogg has quit. The company said Ogg left to pursue other endeavors. The company's VP of advanced technology JP Leon will now head the R&D group. Leon is a PC postage veteran and previously worked for...

NZ Post unit deploys new CRM software.(Customer relationship management software)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... The New Zealand Post's document solutions subsidiary, Datamail, has deployed new CRM software to streamline its core sales processes. Datamail is using RightNow Sales from RightNow Technologies to enhance forecasting, opportunity...

Microsoft to launch standalone IE 7.(Internet Explorer 7)
February 28, 2005... In a change of mind, Microsoft says it will release the next version of its browser Internet Explorer 7 ahead of the delayed Longhorn operating system, which is now supposedly due some time next year. Microsoft says IE7 will make the world...

W3C makes the world a little smaller.(World Wide Web Consortium new standards)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... The World Wide Web Consortium has standardized the "Character Model of the Word Web: Fundamentals," saying it provides a well-defined, well understood way for web applications to transmit and process the characters of the world's languages. ...

Xerox debuts new archiving drives.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Xerox has rolled out new storage gear designed to let companies store and retain important corporate information for several years and meet regulatory compliance requirements. Xerox executives say the new Ultra Density Optical drive, storage...

Gartner expects PC sales to slow.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Gartner looked into its crystal ball and decided that worldwide PC shipments would total 199 million units this year, up 9% over 2004, which in turn was up 11.6% over 2003. It expects mobile PCs, which won the popularity contest long ago,...

Will BigPond snack on smaller ISPs?(Graeme Samuel says)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Graeme Samuel said last month that he is concerned that if Telstra were allowed to buy exclusive broadband rights to sporting events, the company would use its deep pockets to kill...

Oz government puts $300m into broadband rollout.(Australia)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... The Australian government has announced a $300 million (US $236 million) program to accelerate the rollout of broadband nationwide. The government's communications minister Senator Helen Coonan announced the initiative at the Australian...

Competitive future ahead for Telcos.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... There's no open road to profits and market dominance for the phone companies even if they merge into two or three remaining companies. A two-company phone market would likely result from SBC acquiring both BellSouth and Qwest or acquiring one...

Voice-over-satellite coming to Europe, Middle East.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... The satellite TV companies may be able to assemble a real triple play by adding phone-over-satellite service. Broadband satellite solutions provider Hughes Network Systems Europe and retail voice-over-IP (VoIP) services provider Net to...

BT increasing broadband speeds for no extra charge.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... BT is increasing the speed of its retail broadband service up to a maximum of 2 Mbps, about four times the current rate--at no additional charge. For example, BT will increase the Broadband Basic speed from 512 Kbps to 1 Mbps. The increase...

Rogers credits Yahoo for broadband growth.(Rogers Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Rogers Communications, Canada's largest cable TV service, added 57,100 broadband subscribers in the December quarter. It said the growth was driven by the introduction of its Yahoo-based high-speed Internet service in Q3 and packages that...

DSL shipments up 38% to Europe, down 32% to Asia.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2005... Shipments of DSL Access Concentrator ports to countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) increased 38% last year, according to research outfit Dell'Oro Group. Shipments to Asia dropped 32% during the same time. "The strength in...