ePostal News articles from June 2006

ePostal News archives from June 2006

Italian post to get new telecom infrastructure.
June 5, 2006... Telecom Italia has won a tender worth upwards of 200 million euros to plan and build the Italian Post a new broadband telecommunications network. The four-year contract is supposed to result in the construction of one of Europe's most...

Unisys taps DHL for customized logistics.
June 5, 2006... Unisys has picked DHL as its global lead logistics provider (LLP) for post-sales replacement and service of parts, or "after-market" service logistics. The contract, with a term of up to seven years, consolidates Unisys logistics service...

ePOSTIT moves to paid services.
June 5, 2006... ePOSTIT, the e-mail-to-postal address delivery start-up, has announced the official opening of its Premium Paid services to stand beside its Free mailing service and said it can be used for customized bulk and business printing and mailing. ...

EchoSign gets backing.(EchoSign )(Brief article)
June 5, 2006... A Silicon Valley start-up by the name of EchoSign that's offering to help people get electronic documents exchanged and signed, currently a free service, has raised $2.57 million, a down payment on a $3 million first round. Its backer is Storm...

What will they think of next.(Talario introduces Xpaper)(Brief article)
June 5, 2006... There is now such a thing as Xpaper, described as getting handwriting on to a computer with a digital pen. A start-up called Talario, headquartered in South Dakota, is pushing it. It says each sheet of paper is pre-printed with a unique...

Belgian Post's online shop sees 500,000 visits.
June 5, 2006... The Belgian Post is bragging about the half-million visitors who have come to its online store in the year it's been open. It says the amount of the average purchase has multiplied over time and is now 130 euros. Twenty percent of the visitors...

FedEx to buy Watkins Motor Lines.
June 5, 2006... FedEx is buying privately held Florida-based Watkins Motor Line for $780 million cash to expand its long-haul business and customer reach in the US, Canada and Mexico. Watkins did roughly a billion in revenues last year. Its US business...

Beta, beta, beta Microsoft admits Vista could be delayed again.
June 5, 2006... At WinHEC Microsoft announced the availability of the second betas of Vista, Office 2007 and the so-called Long Horn Server, the first-ever synchronized release of the Microsoft breadwinners. A second Vista beta was promised by the end of...

Dell to bundle Google.
June 5, 2006... Having ticked Intel off by breaking ranks and going with AMD, a revenue-hungry Dell moved on to kicking Microsoft in the shin and confirmed that it was immediately going to start to bundle Google's Desktop, Toolbar and search on every machine...

Now all AMD's gotta do is pray four-ways are commoditized.
June 5, 2006... Before Dell told Wall Street two weeks ago that its first quarter was fried it told Intel that it was going to use AMD chips. Intel reportedly pulled out all the stops, briefly won the business back then lost it again. It's unclear how many...

Microsoft's plan to close the digital divide.
June 5, 2006... Microsoft has unveiled its concept of a PC for the third world dubbed FlexGo and brought Intel and AMD along for the ride. They're proposing to offer people a full-blown PC on more flexible financing terms: a low entry cost that's supposed...

Ballmer takes blame for Vista's delay.
June 5, 2006... In China Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer blamed "trying to link too much innovation together in Vista" for its years of delay. "It was beyond the state-of-the-art of software development," he said according to Reuters, adding, "Ultimately, I am...

Intel to undercut itself.
June 5, 2006... On the heels of Microsoft's third world-wooing FlexGo announcement, Intel CEO Paul Otellini turned up in India promising Intel machines made by local OEMs priced at "20% less than the lowest-priced Intel-based PCs in India with similar...

Yahoo & eBay cozy up.
June 5, 2006... Having been unable to stomach an anti-Google alliance with Microsoft, Yahoo has instead tied up with eBay in an evidently more modest effort to ward off Google. More modest to start with at any rate. Maybe it'll grow into something. Yahoo...

NCR POS goes with Novell.
June 5, 2006... NCR is going to offer Novell Linux Point of Service on its RealPOS retail POS terminals worldwide. NCR will also use the stuff on its EasyPoint kiosks and FastLane self-checkout down the road sometime.

Apple to replace Dell as Intel purist.
June 5, 2006... Apple is nothing if not thorough. In its determination to wash every vestige of the PowerPC out of its hair, it's going to be moving its PowerPC G5-based servers over to Intel--which means that Intel will again be able to say that at least one...

The Data Center goes to school.(data centers in universities)(Brief article)
June 5, 2006... Carnegie Mellon has set up a Data Center Observatory (DCO), a working 40-rack data center where they'll try to solve the rising cost of data center operations, studying stuff like power, cooling, racking and human administration. The school...

Microsoft & NEC cut patent cross-license in the name of VoIP.
June 5, 2006... Microsoft has signed a patent cross-license with NEC to expand their development and sales cooperation in servers and networking. Aside from meaning NEC will use more Microsoft software with its servers and routers, Microsoft is also going to...

The IBM PC Albatross.
June 5, 2006... Lenovo came in with a fiscal Q4 loss of $116 million, off 85%, and blamed it on costs related to its $1.25 billion acquisition of IBM's PC unit a year ago. There are $70 million in restructuring costs and financial costs 60 times what they...

Piracy marginally down.
June 5, 2006... By cracky, it's amazing what governments can do when they set their minds to it. It seems software piracy dropped last year in China, the second-largest PC market in the world after the US. Of course 86% of the software in use there is...

Pitney goes into personalized postage on its own nickel.
June 19, 2006... Giant Pitney Bowes, which provided the software so Zazzle.com could get into personalized postage, has struck out on its own into the vanity postage space with a little widget that will print the user's own pictures on the "stamps." The...

A little old-fashioned drag never hurt.
June 19, 2006... Direct marketers looking to maximize the impact of their marketing message can now influence the timely delivery of their direct mail pieces as well as track them, according to World Marketing Inc, the direct marketing company whose Confirm...

Yellowworld partners with Intershop.
June 19, 2006... Yellowworld, the e-commerce arm of the Swiss Postt, and German-based Intershop Communications AG have tied up in a strategic alliance intended to bring a more complete electronic trading offering to the Swiss market covering orders, collections...

Postkantoren upgrades.(Postkantoren BV upgrading its Informatica data integration software)(Brief article)
June 19, 2006... Postkantoren BV, the TPG Post-Postbank joint venture and the largest postal outlet service in Holland, is upgrading its Informatica data integration software to PowerCenter Advanced Edition across its operations including 800 post offices in...

RAF buys MidSouth.
June 19, 2006... RAF Technology Inc, which provides OCR software to the mailing industry, has acquired MidSouth Technologies LLC, a privately held supplier of integrated mail processing solutions and services to presort mail companies. Terms were not disclosed....

USPS goes with Meridian software.
June 19, 2006... Meridian Systems, an enterprise project management ISV, says that the US Postal Service has selected its Proliance On Demand software to manage new capital projects and facility renovations, noting that the USPS delivers more than 46% of the...

When 'Return to Sender' doesn't work.(www.fixmymail.com.)(Brief article)
June 19, 2006... A Texan, annoyed at getting mail meant for four other previous residents of his new house, claims to have created a web-based solution to a problem that writing "Return to Sender" and "Not at this Address" on the envelop haven't been able to...

Swiss post takes over Asian franchisee.
June 19, 2006... Swiss Post International (SPI), the international business arm of the Swiss Post, has taken over its franchisee in Asia. A new subsidiary, called SPI Singapore, will operate in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong and sell SPI's products in the...

e-Newspapers are coming.
June 19, 2006... Reuters says that some of the world's top newspapers, whose circulation and advertising have all been suffering for years now, are about to experiment with a form of electronic newspaper that will let users download entire editions from the web...

Vista reaches broad Beta.
June 19, 2006... Microsoft has release the public beta or Customer Preview Program (CPP) of Vista in English, Japanese and German. It's the same build as the technical beta, 5384.4. Whether the OS makes it out in January depends on whether the beta finds any...

Adobe applies double standard to Microsoft.
June 19, 2006... Adobe may sue Microsoft for antitrust or go running off to an accommodating European Commission complaining about Microsoft because Microsoft won't charge Office users to save a document in Adobe's PDF format, an open specification that's...

Google to resell Dell servers.
June 19, 2006... Oh, look, Dell is selling Google servers it can brand and resell to the corporate world as the Google Search Appliance, a little low-volume $30,000 device, first introduced a few years ago, that enterprises can use to search their own databases...

VMware sets its sights on management.
June 19, 2006... Spreading its wings, VMware has packaged up its high-end ESX server with existing widgetry to create what it calls VMware Infrastructure 3, described as a third-generation suite designed so that both enterprises and small businesses can manage...

Brick by brick, Google creates a parallel universe.
June 19, 2006... The PC conquered the world after Wall Street embraced it because of the spreadsheet, the first killer app, and Google is apparently hoping that lightening strikes twice because it's got a test version of a free consumery browser-based...

AMD compared to a butcher with his thumb on the scale.
June 19, 2006... Not everyone is impressed with AMD's plans to conquer the world and leave Intel counting excess inventory. After the analyst meeting at which AMD laid out its plans to "reinvent the commercial client" (Raiden), license its HyperTransport...

Intel talks up new chips & chipsets.
June 19, 2006... Intel, which has been chipset-challenged lately, used the Computex show in Taiwan to officially introduce its P965 Express chipset, a k a Broadwater, and to say that future versions, including one called the G965 Express chipset with graphics...

Dell, like others, upgrades to Woodcrest & Dempsey.
June 19, 2006... With the nuzzle of a gun pressed into the small of its back urging it to preserve its market share, Dell announced what it calls its first server redesign in two years, meaning that it's upgraded to the latest dual-core Woodcrest generation of...

Windows more reliable than Linux: Yankee Group.
June 19, 2006... The Yankee Group has done another one of those annual Reliability Surveys, which by the way have no sponsor, that so infuriate the Linux faithful because again it has found Windows Server 2003 more reliable than Red Hat Enterprise Linux with...

Are Hector's wet dreams turning real?
June 19, 2006... Dell might launch AMD-based desktops by early Q4, according to Credit Suisse's people in Asia who have been checking the supply chain. If true, that would be three quarters ahead of what Credit Suisse has been thinking. The brokerage...

$100 laptop proves impossible.(prices of laptops)(Brief article)
June 19, 2006... Ya know that $100 Linux-based laptop that MIT Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte spec'd out to provision the third world through his altruist One Laptop per Child project? Well, it's now the $135-$140 laptop--and that's a starting price....

Enamored of India, IBM opens its checkbook.
June 19, 2006... IBM is going to up its investment in India to a whopping great $6 billion over the next three years to build service delivery centers and a telecommunications center linking its people. Its budget is way over the $3.9 billion that Microsoft,...

The Tax Man smiles on HP.
June 19, 2006... Hewlett-Packard did way better last quarter than it thought. Thanks to an IRS settlement stemming from 1996 through 1998 it gets to add $443 million, or 15 cents a share, to its earnings. It's now expecting full-year earnings of $2.02-$2.06...

Microsoft opens Developer Center in Zurich.
June 19, 2006... Microsoft has opened a Developer Center in Zurich, its first such thing in Switzerland. It's supposed to use it to develop collaborative technologies and products for Office. The company said it picked the site because it's close to the Swiss...

Finland Post puts meat around Itella brand.
June 26, 2006... The Finland Post, which wants to be the leader, bar none, in what is called intelligent logistics by 2010, less than four years away, has started putting substance around its Itella brand, the mark it's going to take into eight other northern...

Pitney hones eBay support.
June 26, 2006... Pitney Bowes has introduced a new cross-border ClearPath service for US-Canadian eBay transactions, intending to expand it to other countries this year. ClearPath is supposed to help manage and track the shipment of eBay items from a US...

Royal Mail to put door-to-door online.
June 26, 2006... Britain's Royal Mail is supposed to launch a web-based booking system for its door-to-door division early next year, according to a news report. The system being tested, prior to a trial, and will replace the e-mail and phone system...

US Army issues RFI.(Request For Information )(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... The US Army is looking for a few good ways to improve its global mail operations and has issued a request for information (RFI) seeking ideas or approaches that have been developed outside the government that include a comprehensive review of...

Swisscom & PostFinance push electronic billing.
June 26, 2006... PostFinance and Swisscom IT Services have linked their trading platforms yellowbill and Conextrade, so electronic VAT-compliant invoices can be exchanged over the two separate systems for the first time in Switzerland. Effective immediately,...

Wincor Nixdorf to supply ATMs to Chinese Post Office Bank.
June 26, 2006... Wincor Nixdorf has gotten another large order from China and is to supply the Chinese post office bank, the China Postal Savings & Remittance Bureau (CPSRB), with 700 automated teller machines. The systems will be installed in branches...

FedEx earnings up 25%.
June 26, 2006... FedEx Wednesday reported earnings of $1.82 a share or $568 million for the fourth quarter ended May 31, up 25% year-over-year, on revenues of $8.49 billion, up 10%, Its operating income was $927 million, up 25% and its operating margin was...

Gates out.
June 26, 2006... Boy, was Wall Street looking in the wrong direction. For a few weeks there had been speculation that Microsoft might dump CEO Steve Ballmer. Instead--in a surprise announcement--Bill Gates got on the airwaves to say that he's going to ease...

Parallels makes Apple's new Macs Multi-OS.
June 26, 2006... For 50 bucks you can now run a whole passel of operating systems on an Intel-based Mac--Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2 or DOS--whatever your little heart desires--or your memory allows--and flip between them. You're not...

Intel moves up Tulsa, schedules Woodcrest.
June 26, 2006... Intel has set the date for the great official Woodcrest DP server chip launch on which much of its future depends. It's Monday June 26 in New York, where Intel expects to reveal pricing and shipping data. It would be fun to know how...

Kazeon Integrated into Google OneBox.(Kazeon's Information Server 1200)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... In a rare admission that it's not the be all and end all of search, Google is going to lean on Kazeon so that the Search Appliance it sells the enterprise can search storage. Kazeon's Information Server 1200, which classifies and finds...

IBM BladeCenter gets a Sugar Daddy.
June 26, 2006... San Francisco-based Walden International, reportedly the biggest VC in Asia, with interests in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan and holdings in nearly a dozen component and solution developers in the blade market, is...

Long horn: the fat man in the middle seat.
June 26, 2006... Microsoft has been restricting access to downloads of its broad Vista beta reportedly out of concern about the impact high-bandwidth downloading will have on the overall Internet. According to a web log run by the Microsoft Vista...

Microsoft adopts forefront brand for business security.
June 26, 2006... There is now a new Microsoft brand--Forefront--for some of its upcoming security and secure access products for business. The line will include Forefront Client Security, what Microsoft used to call Client Protection, which delivers unified...

Uh-oh.
June 26, 2006... Too big, too slow, and a memory hog. That's the reaction that beta testers have had to the Vista beta according to ChangeWave Research. It's also apparently very buggy (think freezing up or crushing), suggesting that Microsoft isn't going to be...

IBM dangles Web 2.0 Mashup prototype.
June 26, 2006... In a keynote speech at a PHP Conference in New York, IBM's vice president of emerging Internet technologies Rod Smith said that IBM has a new so-called Enterprise Mashup prototype based on Web 2.0 technologies that it says breaks down the...

IBM Chief argues for a new kind of Raj.
June 26, 2006... IBM CEO Sam Palmisano's ghostwriter, penning an op-ed piece in the Financial Times, argued that the multinational corporation as currently structured is a protectionist 20th-century colonial holdover that should be superseded by the...

PC demand better than thought: IDC.
June 26, 2006... PC demand in Q1 was stronger than IDC predicted, translating into 12.6% growth rather than the 11.8% estimated. As a result, IDC has jiggled its 2006 forecasts and is saying shipments for the year will be up 10.8%, not 10.5%. Last year the...

Interoperability or bust.
June 26, 2006... Microsoft has set up an Interoperability Customer Executive Council to identify areas for improved interoperability both in its own product line and across the industry. It claims that it's "committed to building bridges across the...

Google's PayPal rival reportedly due momentarily.
June 26, 2006... Ioogle is gonna ease up on Microsoft for a moment and step on eBay's toes next. Its Gbuy version of PayPal is reportedly due out by the end of the month. Supposedly free at first, it will eventually turn into a web version of a credit card and...