ePostal News articles from July 2006

ePostal News archives from July 2006

China Post pilots symbol RFID Widgetry and, by Jingo, it works.
July 3, 2006... It turns out that the China Post picked Symbol Technologies Inc, the Long Island-based enterprise mobility company, and its eight-year-old Beijing-based solutions partner, Concord Unity International Ltd, to supply it with RFID technology to...

New Web site offers comparation pricing.
July 3, 2006... There's a new web site called redroller.com that compares itself to e-travel sites and says it will do the same for parcels. It's supposed to let you compare rates and service options among the top carriers like DHL, FedEx and the USPS--but not...

Endicia & Dymo tie up.(Endicia)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Endicia, one of the Internet postage players in the states, has tied up with Dymo, the outfit that makes the printers that make labels, and the pair of them has created another way to get Internet postage into the hands of small and home...

Melissa introduces address shortcut.
July 3, 2006... Melissa Data has released Express Entry, a software program that lets call center and service center agents improve the speed and accuracy of data entry. Powered by Melissa Data's CASS Certified address correction engine, Express Entry...

Group 1 geocoding supports UK & Ireland addresses.(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Group 1 Software Inc, a Pitney Bowes Company, says its GeoStan geocoding solution now supports British and Irish addresses, providing multi-country address correction, standardization and high-definition geocoding in one pass. A component...

Neopost clocks postage used.(Neopost Online Services)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Neopost has introduced Neopost Online Services so users can keep track of all of their mailroom activities via a personalized web-based account. Compatible with Neopost's IJ-80, IJ-90, and IJ-110 mailing systems, Neopost Online Services...

An post taps computer guy as CEO.
July 3, 2006... An Post has gone outside for a new CEO, appointing Donal Connell, the former general manager of Maxtor Ireland, the hard drive maker, to replace Donall Curtin, who steps down this month. Before Maxtor, Connell was VP, worldwide supply chain...

DMA & FTC to warn public about identity theft.
July 3, 2006... The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) says it is going to team up with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the agency's new so-called "AvoID Theft" campaign and provide consumers with information on how to avoid getting burned and what to do...

Novell board ousts CEO & CFO.
July 3, 2006... Well, Credit Suisse and other critics of Novell got part of their wish. Novell CEO Jack Messman and CFO Joseph Tibbets are out, although Messman will remains on the board that ousted him until October 31, the end of the company's fiscal year....

Oracle's approach to growth appears to be working.
July 3, 2006... Oracle, whose tickled fiscal fourth-quarter guidance got kinda pre-empted and overlooked because of Bill Gates' long good-bye, came in with earnings of $1.3 billion, or 24 cents a share, up 24% year-over-year, on revenues up 25% to $4.9...

Carly invention dismantled.(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Remember that Global Operations unit that Carly created to handle pretty much everything that wasn't a product or a customer? Well, it's gone. Its functions returned to the product groups from whence they came. HP has given them back...

Adobe's sabers muted.
July 3, 2006... Adobe may be putting a muffler on its saber-rattling. On the other hand, just to stay a touch provocative, like Dell, it's cut a multi-year deal to distribute the Google Toolbar on some of its products, beginning with the Macromedia Shockwave...

VMware buys Akimbi.(acquisition of Akimbi Systems )
July 3, 2006... EMC, which has been making like a Hoover and vacuuming up a few smaller companies, has bought 21-month-old Akimbi Systems for its VMware subsidiary, which VMware will incorporate into its lifecycle solutions so clients can shave what it calls...

EMC, HP, Veritas, Sun & HDS oppose IBM's Aperi effort.
July 3, 2006... EMC, HP, Symantec--for which read Veritas--Hitachi Data Systems and Sun are collectively backing a storage management standard in opposition to IBM and its so-called Eclipse-like open source Aperi initiative, the one that Sun defected from. ...

Microsoft supports creative commons with plug-in.
July 3, 2006... People who use Word, Excel and PowerPoint are going to be able to slap a copyright-alternative Creative Commons license on their work. Microsoft has countenanced a free tool, developed and tested by 3sharp LLC, a Redmond-based ISV, and...

So Where's Martin Taylor?
July 3, 2006... In the middle of a press blitz about the release of Windows Live Messenger, virtually in the middle of a press release, Martin Taylor, the shiny new corporate VP heading up Microsoft's crucial anti-Google MSN and Windows Live marketing efforts,...

IBM opens development lab in Russia.
July 3, 2006... IBM has opened its first development lab in Russia and said it will put $40 million in the place over the next three years. It will focus on mainframe development and should employ up to 200 people by the end of 2008. It's already up 40...

Opera 9 hits the deck running.
July 3, 2006... Opera 9 is out. It's been in beta for a couple of months, it's free in 25 languages for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it support BitTorrent, the file-sharing mojo. This rev is supposed to be faster, with new web standard support and little widget...

Microsoft & the counter-iPod.
July 3, 2006... You've presumably heard the rumors that Microsoft will be going into the counter-iPod business with one of its own--maybe before Christmas--and of course starting a rival to Apple's iTunes shop. Reports say the guy who headed Xbox development...

Swiss Post expands its focus on e-document preparation.(DocumentServices AG acquires Swisscom AG)(Brief article)
July 17, 2006... DocumentServices AG, a subsidiary of Swiss Post and a specialist in customer communications, has taken over Swisscom IT Services' 58-man PrintServices unit, which processes some 100 million letters a year for Swisscom. Terms were not...

Electronic delivery not staunching print & postage costs, research finds.
July 17, 2006... According to some research published by the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF), electronic documents may not reduce print volumes and postage costs and organizations may want to re-examine their current document communication...

Technology seen as key in postal regulation.
July 17, 2006... Government officials, regulatory authorities, postal operators, postal sector decision makers and representatives from the private sector and international organizations gathered recently at the headquarters of the worldwide postal organization...

Portugal Post offers e-mail all around.
July 17, 2006... Correios de Portugal, the Portuguese post, has kicked off a free new ViaCTT service meant to provide all Portuguese citizens, companies and institutions with an e-mail account. According to government officials, "10 million e-mail accounts...

Valassis buys Advo.
July 17, 2006... Valassis Communications, a Detroit marketing outfit, is buying Connecticut-based Advo Inc, the largest American direct mail marketer, for $1.2 billion. Together they are expected to have some 20,000 advertisers, including 94 of the top...

Spanish post adopts PayPal.
July 17, 2006... Correos, the Spanish post, has integrated Ebay's PayPal online payment scheme into its web site.

Window Book prepares for US rate hike.(Window Book Inc.)(Brief article)
July 17, 2006... Window Book Inc, the Massachusetts-based postal mailing and shipping ISV, is touting its new 2007 Rate Analysis Service to prepare mailers for the USPS' upcoming postal rate hike. The service uses Mail.dat files for analysis, calculates the new...

RedPrairie figures its leapfrogged the competition.
July 17, 2006... RedPrairie Corporation, the supply chain solution provider, has got a next-generation transportation management solution that introduces a lightweight enterprise-wide distributable software client that it says significantly improves user...

Intel licenses barcode patents.
July 17, 2006... Without explaining why, Intel has licensed Veritec's multidimensional high data density barcode technology so it can use patents teaching Mtrix symbology held by Veritec subsidiary Vcode Holding LLC. The widgetry is used with documents among...

Red Hat & JBoss sued for patent infringement.
July 17, 2006... Red Hat bought itself a patent suit when it bought the yet-to-turn-a-profit JBoss a few weeks ago for $350 million. Red Hat and JBoss, its new wholly owned subsidiary, have been sued in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas,...

Oh, cripe, Office 2007 is delayed again.
July 17, 2006... It appears that Office 2007 won't make the January consumer launch date that Microsoft set for it three months ago. The date is now some vague time in early 2007. It's because of performance discoveries made in the new beta 2 that's...

WinFS becomes Gates' spruce goose.
July 17, 2006... If the Microsoft entrail readers are interpreting the signs correctly WinFS, the famed Windows File System, sometimes known as Cairo 2 and forever known as Bill Gates' pet project, is dead. The thing has increasingly become a stone in the...

Intel plays catch-up.
July 17, 2006... Woodcrest, aka the Xeon 5100, the 65nm dual-core DP chip based on Intel's new Core microarchitecture that's supposed to save the company's ass, is finally launched. HP and Dell were immediately ready to ship on Monday when the chip was...

Intel dumps its handheld chips.
July 17, 2006... Under Intel's new "leave the dead and wounded behind" resizing policy put into effect by CEO Paul Otellini, it's going to sell its loss-making, low-margin communications and application processor business--the parts used in smart phones and...

Microsoft buys UK digital assets manager.
July 17, 2006... Microsoft has bought London-based iView Multimedia, which does digital asset management (DAM) on both Apple--which is where it got started--and Windows. Terms were not disclosed. iView said the Mac OS X version of its flagship $199 MediaPro...

CA hires another ex-IBMer.
July 17, 2006... CA, which has been going through senior management like tissues, has created the new post of chief administration officer and put James Bryant in it. He will be responsible for IT, facilities and administration, reporting to CEO John...

Google's into wallets in a new way.
July 17, 2006... Google, as anticipated, has launched its online payment scheme, which everyone was calling GBuy. Officially it's called Google Checkout. It's an electronic wallet that's supposed to give eBay and its PayPal unit the willies though PayPal...

Neoware creamed.(Neoware Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
July 17, 2006... Neoware's stock dropped almost 42% after it said that that sales for the June quarter would be around $23 million-$24 million and not the $29 million it thought it could do and certainly not the $30.7 million Wall Street was looking for. It...

There goes another one.
July 17, 2006... Google has poached another Microsoft executive. This time it's Vic Gundotra, who's been at Microsoft 15 years and has been general manager for platform evangelism working with software developers. According to the AP he probably won't be able...

HP develops memory spot.
July 31, 2006... After roughly four years of work, HP researchers in Bristol in England have developed a miniature wireless data chip that can provide broad access to digital content in the physical world. They claim the tiny chip has no equal in terms of...

'Gang of four' lobbies EU for complete postal liberalization by '09.(Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Germany)(Europe )
July 31, 2006... The CEOs of the national postal companies in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Germany are pushing the powers-that-be in Brussels to completely open the postal markets in Europe by 2009. In a three-page policy paper addressed to Internal...

Bull acquires postal automation business from Business Objects.
July 31, 2006... Bull has acquired the former Firstlogic postal automation software business, based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, from Business Objects Americas, the business intelligence (BI) software house. Business Objects, which only bought Firstlogic in...

Australia Post to install SunGard software.
July 31, 2006... Australia Post has picked SunGard's AvantGard Integrity solution for its corporate treasury unit. AvantGard Integrity will be implemented at the post's office in Melbourne. AvantGard Integrity will assist Australia Post to consolidate and...

Postbank offers bank statements online.
July 31, 2006... Germany's Postbank is expanding the range of services it offers to its checking account customers. Private customers will now be able to get their bank statements online. Postbank says it is responding to demand from its online clients for...

Microsoft's latest innovation--Windows principles.
July 31, 2006... Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith gave a speech the other day at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and said the company has adopted 12 guiding principles that it intends to hew to after the US antitrust ruling expires starting in 16...

Canada Post-RCMP form identity theft task force.
July 31, 2006... Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have formed a pilot task force to combat identity theft in parts of British Columbia, saying that it often begins with mail theft. They announced the arrest of 14 people last week when...

Warning: Intel quarter ugly; chip introductions accelerated.
July 31, 2006... Analysts had to don rubber gloves just to listen to Intel's Q2 earnings call; there was blood everywhere. Microprocessor sales were below par--not even reaching seasonal levels and off 14%--ditto ASPs and motherboards. Chipset sales were...

AMD's wounds lighter than Intel's.
July 31, 2006... The early days of Intel's predicted comeback dragged down AMD's second quarter, just as AMD's uppity challenge to Intel's dominance bloodied Intel's quarter. Intel is hurting AMD on the desktop, AMD is killing Intel in servers. AMD said it...

Microsoft--the Ma Bell of the future; Redmond mates with Nortel.
July 31, 2006... Microsoft has decided to partner with beleaguered Canadian telecoms house Nortel Networks Corporation on unified communications (UC) in a deal that will either be the making or breaking of Nortel. It puts Microsoft--and Office and...

SUSE 10 ships.
July 31, 2006... Novell's next-generation SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform has started shipping. It includes both a desktop (SLED) and a server (SLES). Poor beaten-up Novell badly needs it to repair its reputation and improve its numbers. Aside from...

Credit Suisse anticipates "monumental" deal between Oracle & IBM.
July 31, 2006... Credit Suisse says it's been hearing feedback from a number of industry sources that "Oracle and IBM may be close to embarking on a seminal expansion of their partnership involving Oracle's broad application portfolio." It thinks there's a...

Intel machines move at Apple.
July 31, 2006... Mac sales were up 100,000 units year-over-year to 1.32 million boxes in the June quarter, bringing in revenues of $1.87 billion, according to the numbers Apple reported. Apple said 75% of its sales were Intel machines, suggesting it's...

PC returns in.
July 31, 2006... Depending on which school you subscribe to PC shipments were up either 9.7% (IDC) or 11% (Gartner) in Q2. Dell held on to its 19% or 18% worldwide market share, HP was up a hair to 15%, Lenovo was third with 7% and Acer fourth with 5%, but...

Accenture turns SOA advocate.
July 31, 2006... Accenture, the outsourcer, is planning on spending a juicy $450 million over the next three years to develop Service Orient Architecture (SOA) applications, starting with programs for financial houses and healthcare and then proceeding down a...