ePostal News articles from October 2004

ePostal News archives from October 2004

USPS Halts PhotoStamps Pending Evaluation.
October 4, 2004... The US Postal Service said Wednesday that Stamps.com would not be allowed to commercialize its popular new PhotoStamps after test marketing ends on September 30 until the USPS evaluates the test results. The decision dashed Stamps.com...

UK Start-up Reprises Mail Scheme That's Failed Before.
October 4, 2004... AUK start-up is pitching a new hybrid mail system called L-Mail at business and consumers promising to make their sending postal letters easier. The basic premise behind L-Mail, which stands for Letter Mail, is hardly new -- log on to a...

TPG Bids for Stake in Danish Post.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... Dutch postal services provider TPG has made a bid for a 25% stake in Post Danmark, the Danish post. TPG described the bid as a non-binding preliminary offer. It said it was bound by confidentiality and would not provide details on the status of...

Deutsche Post To Spend $616m on Prague IT Center.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... Deutsche Post plans to invest $616 million over the next five years on DHL's new IT service center in Prague. The post said about 800 people would be working there by early next year. The DHL brand covers Deutsche Post's national and...

Frenchman is New UPU Chief.(Universal Postal Union )(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... The member countries of the Universal Postal Union elected Edouard Dayan the organization's new director general at a meeting in Bucharest. Dayan, the director of European and international affairs for France's La Poste, reportedly got 102...

Pitney Names Martin COO.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... Pitney Bowes said Wednesday that it was consolidating the reporting structure of its operating segments and naming Murray Martin its president and COO. Martin, a 17-year company veteran, was most recently executive VP and group president...

Microsoft Chases Stay.
October 4, 2004... Microsoft appeared in the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg Thursday seeking a stay of the European Commission's March order until its appeal is heard. The EC told it to share more of its interoperability secrets with server rivals and...

PeopleSoft Watch.(mergers)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... The European Commission, which put its own review of the proposed Oracle-PeopleSoft merger on a peg while a US court pondered the matter, is supposedly going to docilely follow the court's decision and not try to block the takeover, according...

Reactions to the IBM-PeopleSoft Deal.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... "PeopleSoft will OEM IBM's middleware stack at no additional charge. We believe IBM is undertaking an initiative to tighten its relationships with key ISVs in order to head off various consolidation scenarios. We believe IBM's determination to...

Microsoft Adds Office to Government Shared Source Initiative.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... Microsoft has added Office 2003 to the shared source Windows source code it offers government a peek at, presumably in answer to government's flirtation with Linux and open source code like Sun's StarOffice and its freebie companion OpenOffice....

AOL Pinpoints Comparison Pricing.(America Online Inc's new online shopping service)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... America Online has unveiled a new online shopping service called Pinpoint under its In-Store portal. The new service lets shoppers compare features and prices of rival products. In-Store is featured in the company's AOL, Netscape and CompuServe...

AOL, Industry Reject Microsoft's Anti-spam Proposal.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... AOL rejected Microsoft's proposal that the computer industry use Microsoft's SenderID specification to reduce spam. SenderID is an e-mail authentication program that attempts to verify an e-mail's actual source before passing it on through the...

Broadband on its Way to 147m by Year-end.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... The number of broadband connections worldwide at midyear stood at 123 million -- up about 55% -- looked en route to make 147 million connections by year-end, according to the UK's Point Topic. At the end of 2003 there were about 100 million....

DSL Dominates the World Broadband Market.(digital subscriber line)(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... In terms of broadband penetration per 100 people, Korea is no longer as far ahead of the rest of the world as it used to be. With 21 broadband lines per 100 people, Hong Kong is gaining ground on Korea's 24.4. Denmark, Canada, Holland, Taiwan...

Faster DSL Later & Slower than Expected.(Digital subscriber line)
October 4, 2004... DSL Prime says it was wrong in projecting a big switch to the faster ADSL2+ in 2004. It says that phone companies want to install it, but "the gear isn't ready." The newsletter says that France Telecom will be the first large telco to...

Web Marketing Growing Fast.(Brief Article)
October 4, 2004... Advertising on the web, including paid search and e-mail promos, is the fastest-growing kind of advertising, Mitsubishi senior VP of marketing Ian Beavis told an Advertising.com-sponsored conference. He said that marketers have to develop an...

Lockheed Martin Group Lands USPS Mega Deal.(US Postal Service)(Universal Computing Connectivity)
October 11, 2004... A Lockheed Martin-led group has landed a contract worth a potential $3 billion from the US Postal Service to provide managed network services across the entire postal organization of some 37,000 locations. Data, voice, video, wireless and...

IBM Plans Postal Center.(International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... IBM is opening a new global Center of Excellence (COE) for Postal Counter Automation in Houston, Texas according to one of its partners, the Escher Group. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Escher said the facility would specifically support...

Postbank Rolls out New Software.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Deutsche Post's Postbank unit has rolled out a new software program to manage its consumer lending business. Postbank plans to use the application, jointly developed with SAP, to process all mortgage lending and annuity loans for its private...

PhotoStamps Were Well Received: Stamps.com.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Stamps.com said customer response to its novel PhotoStamps was very positive and that 2.6 million individual PhotoStamps were ordered during the pilot program which ran from August 10-September 30 only to be shelved by the post office while it...

DHL To Launch Parcel Pickup Pilot.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Deutsche Post's DHL Express unit plans to launch a pilot delivery service called Depotservice at the end of this month so that folks who get mail but are rarely home during the day can have their parcels sent to selected Deutsche Post retail...

Kenya To Host Next UPU Congress.(Universal Postal Union)(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Members of the Universal Postal Union at the just-concluded UPU Congress in Bucharest voted to have the next conference in Nairobi in 2008. Kenya beat out the United Arab Emirates. Kenya's selection marks the first time that the Congress will...

Microsoft Debuts New Business Intelligence Tools.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Microsoft has put out new reporting tools for its Exchange Server and CRM 1.2 applications. The new SQL Server Report Packs, which can be downloaded for nothing, are designed to provide customers with templates of commonly used SQL Server...

Microsoft Expands RFID Push.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Microsoft said it has expanded its RFID initiative by putting the functionality in a bunch of its upcoming ERP products like Axapta 4.0, Navision 5.0 and the next major release of Great Plains. Microsoft Business Solutions plans to provide...

UK Passes 5m Broadband Users ...(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... The number of British broadband subscribers passed five million in September, according to the Telecom Markets' Broadband Subscriber Database (BSD). "With some 50,000 new subscribers joining every week, the five-million barrier was...

... As Blair Promises Broadband in Every Home.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... British Prime Minister Tony Blair says that his Labor Party's manifesto will promise that every home in the country will have a broadband connection by 2008. The current pledge is broadband in every school. Cost and who will pay were not...

Heading Towards a Bandwidth-on-Demand World.
October 11, 2004... Bandwidth-on-demand (BoD), also called broadband-ondemand, refers to the concept of letting customers increase/decrease their bandwidth speed as needed, such as ramping up the speed temporarily while downloading a large high-definition file or...

Europeans Call for 'No Frills' Cheap Cellular.(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Anew survey from consulting group Cap Gemini in Europe shows that over half of all consumers would give up all the advanced features on mobile phones in return for cheaper calls. It also found that many people would be happy to give up...

Internet Important in Daily Life.(survey reports)(Brief Article)
October 11, 2004... Astudy from the Online Publishers Association shows the importance of the Internet in people's lives. More than 70% of the 18-to-54-year-olds surveyed say they consider time spent online an important part of their day. More than 60% say the web...

Parascript Pushes the Envelope with New App.(AddressScript Parcel)
October 18, 2004... Parascript has launched a new software program called AddressScript Parcel meant to help postal organizations address the challenges of automating package processing. Positioned as a complement to the company's existing AddressScript letter and...

Emirates Post Renews Pact with Microsoft.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... The Emirates Post has extended its enterprise license agreement with Microsoft for three more years. The deal is supposed to provide Emirates Post with substantial discounts on the price of software and entitles it to free upgrades of its...

Deutsche Post Debuts eBay Assistance Service.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... Deutsche Post and its DHL express and logistics unit have embarked on a pilot project in Berlin to make it easy for sellers to participate in eBay auctions without even using a PC. The post said 12 Deutsche Post retail outlets in Berlin-...

Top Royal Mail Official Quits.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... Royal Mail's executive deputy chairman Elmar Toime has quit. The post said Toime, who joined Royal Mail in March 2003 from New Zealand Post where he was chief executive, was leaving to pursue opportunities as a consultant to the...

USPS Puts Customs Forms Online.(United States. Postal Service)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... The US Postal Service is making customs forms available on its web site. Customers planning to mail packages overseas can now enter customs information online and print the appropriate forms from their PCs. Before the new service was...

Group 1 Hires Top Services Exec.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... Pitney Bowes' postal software subsidiary Group 1 Software has named Michael Overturf VP of professional services for its Enterprise Solutions Division. Overturf will be responsible for all of Group 1's data quality, data integration,...

Newgistics Names Operations Chief.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... Newgistics, the returns management service provider, has brought in John McAlpin as VP of operations. McAlpin's background is in manufacturing and supply chain optimization with stints at FedEx and First Union. Most recently, he was VP,...

More Intel Servers Selling But For Less.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... Prudential is modeling a 19.5% year over- year global increase in server shipments this year, a 24.2% increase next year and a 13.8% increase in 2006. Its numbers are based on continued strength in SMB demand and large corporate spending...

Free VoIP for EarthLink Broadband Customers.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... EarthLink is offering free computer-to-computer Internet telephony (VoIP) to its 1.2 million broadband subscribers. The service doesn't include the ability to call or get calls from traditional phones, however. It does include voicemail...

Microsoft To Launch New POS Software.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... Microsoft plans to put out a version of its embedded Windows operating system called Windows Embedded for Point of Service tailored to retail and hospitality POS systems. The new product will be based on the upcoming Windows XP Embedded...

The Eternal Battle against the Three-headed Monster that Threatens the Internet.
October 18, 2004... Spam, viruses and hackers are the three-headed monster that threatens the Internet's existence. This paper has long contended that unless computer leaders such as Intel, Microsoft and Cisco clean up the Internet and rid it of its afflictions...

In a Move Out of the 'Godfather,' Ellison Bumps Off PeopleSoft Chief.
October 18, 2004... The industry is witnessing one of its great occasional psychodramas, the kind of stuff people dine out on for years. Two weeks ago the PeopleSoft board up and fired CEO Craig Conway, the architect of its defenses against Oracle's hostile...

Broadband Expansion in India.(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... India's government-owned phone company BSNL has earmarked $140 million to expand its broadband network to 198 cities, according to DSL Prime. Service will include video-on-demand, unified messaging and video conferencing. It's raising...

Hackers of Mass Destruction.(South Korea's defense ministry)(cyber war against the US, Japan and South Korea)(Brief Article)
October 18, 2004... South Korea's defense ministry says that North Korea has trained more than 500 hackers capable of launching a cyber war against the US, Japan and South Korea. They have reportedly been put through a five-year university hacking course.

Stamps.com Hits a Milestone - Profitability.(financial reports)
October 25, 2004... After a rocky journey, PC postage vendor Stamps.com finally reached a milestone and reported a surprise firstever profit for the September quarter. The Los Angeles start-up earned $700,000, or three cents a share, on revenues up 101%...

SingPost Debuts a New Scheme for eBay Sellers.(Singapore Post Private Ltd.)
October 25, 2004... Singapore Post and online auctioneer eBay have paired up to offer value-added services to eBay's high-volume and most successful PowerSellers. The two companies said that when PowerSellers register with Singapore Post, they will be offered...

NamPost Debuts Hybrid Mail Center.(Namibia Telecommunications and Postal Services)(Brief Article)
October 25, 2004... Namibia Telecommunications and Postal Services (NamPost) has rolled out a hybrid mail center targeted at business customers. The center is supposed to provide value-added business communications services. NamPost officials say the...

USPS Official To Head Global Postal Group.(United States. Postal Service)(Brief Article)
October 25, 2004... The US Postal Service's international business VP James Wade has been elected chairman of the Universal Postal Union's Postal Operations Council. Made up of representatives from 40 member countries, the council oversees technical,...

Microsoft Floods Users with Security Patches.(Brief Article)
October 25, 2004... Microsoft, sort of bringing new meaning to the expression "batch computing," overwhelmed its users recently by unleashing a barrage of patches to fix a new collection of security holes in a range of products including Windows Server 2003,...

Intel Chip Sales Down, Inventory a Stumbling Block.
October 25, 2004... Intel earned $1.9 billion, or 30 cents a share, on revenues of $8.5 billion in the third quarter after it lowered guidance. Now we know why it lowered guidance. Processor demand was down and on top of that there was all that inventory that...

AOL Asks: 'Want a Better Internet?'.(Brief Article)
October 25, 2004... AOL has launched a new TV and print ad campaign that centers on the question, "Want a better Internet?" The total ad spend hasn't been disclosed, but about $30 million will be spent this quarter. The ads will ballyhoo AOL's broadband, Internet...

China Becomes World's Largest DSL Nation.(Brief Article)
October 25, 2004... The DSL Forum says that China has the largest number of subscribers using DSL technology to make a broadband connection to the Internet. China's 13 million DSL users are still only 6% of its total number of phone lines. In the last year DSL use...

12% of Europe's Homes Have Broadband.(Brief Article)
October 25, 2004... The number of homes in Europe with broadband access has increased to 12% from 5% in 2003 according to the EC's "Telecoms Services Indicators 2004" report. It also says that 81% of European households have at least one mobile phone and that,...

Nokia, Intel, Symbian Team Up on 3G Platform.
October 25, 2004... Nokia will use Intel chips in its future Series 60 Platform smart phones. To accommodate the initiative, Intel will work with Nokia-controlled Symbian, whose operating system Nokia uses. Intel and Nokia will jointly invest in developing a...