unifi

Microsoft to start connecting Skype and Lync by June 2013

Microsoft provided an updated road map for its Lync unified-communications platform today, the opening day of the company's first Lync Conference in San Diego.

The biggest piece of news is that Lync-Skype connectivity/federation is coming later than many expected. The first piece of that connectivity --- sharing of presence, instant messaging, and voice across the two services -- will be available to all Lync users as of June 2013. Video connectivity between Skype and Lync isn't coming until sometime in the next 18 months, executives confirmed today.

Customers who were testing Microsoft's Lync 2013 last year … Read more

TaskUnifier is all about Getting Things Done

Benjamin Leclerc's TaskUnifier is a free task-management tool based on David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) method, which itself is based on the simple premise that recording a task frees the brain to focus on performing the task instead of remembering it. GTD's key concepts include tasks, folders, contexts, and goals; each helps you organize and prioritize your tasks in different ways. For example, contexts help you organize your tasks depending on where you are, such as at home or the office. TaskUnifier can synchronize data with Toodledo, the free to-do list, and similar apps. TaskUnifier requires … Read more

Unified Remote turns your Android into a PC controller

If you've mirrored your computer on your television for Internet video streaming, music playback, or even general computer usage, you know the setup can be cumbersome.

The biggest challenge here is finding a reliable solution for typing and navigating from the seat of your couch.

Unified Remote solves this dilemma and turns your phone into a keyboard and mouse, and also offers "quick launch" functions for doing things like prompting the Start menu, managing files, controlling playback, stopping tasks, and even shutting down the computer.

Previously we shared a simple keyboard and mouse solution for Android, and … Read more

Purge the OS X disk cache to analyze memory usage

The memory in your system, commonly referred to as RAM, is the work space the system uses to store executable code and loaded data. If your system is slowing down then you may be low on RAM. Although you can install more or free some up by quitting some running programs, first it may help to analyze how much RAM your programs actually are using.

If you open up the Activity Monitor utility on your system and go to the Memory section, you can see a pie chart of the system's physical memory usage, where generally the larger the … Read more

CES: RealNetworks attempts to Unifi the cloud

LAS VEGAS--These days, cloud services are all the rage for early adopters and business-minded individuals, but they haven't managed to make their way into the mainstream quite yet. However, companies like RealNetworks are banking on the fact that someday all consumers will want to store their content--media, in particular--up in the cloud.

Today, RealNetworks announced Unifi, a multimedia-centric cloud service that aggregates your photos, music, and video files from across multiple devices and online services. In other words, instead of having to keep track of multiple media libraries, you get a single online interface for organizing and accessing your … Read more

Microsoft to plug 11 holes in Office, VPN software

Microsoft says it will release three security updates on Patch Tuesday next week, fixing 11 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office and its Unified Access Gateway virtual private networking software.

One of the bulletins has a "critical" severity rating and the other two are rated "important," Microsoft said today in a Microsoft Security Response Center blog post.

In addition to Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway, affected software includes Office XP Service Pack 3, Office 2003 Service Pack 3, Office 2007 Service Pack 2, Office for Mac 2011, and the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Office 2010, according to … Read more

Indoor light recharges Logitech solar keyboard

A new wireless keyboard by Logitech reduces power consumption and eliminates the hassle of replacing/recharging batteries--both using next-generation solar technology. Whereas other solar options force you to place the solar panels in direct sunlight to recharge, the Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 features two panels on top of the keys that charge the keyboard using ambient light, so even indoor light can can be used for juice.

Logitech tells us that a full solar charge can power the keyboard for at least three months, and a convenient on/off button conserves energy while it's not being used. Additionally, the … Read more

Is it unified or un-unified storage?

For years, storage vendors have been offering two types of disk storage: block and file. Block-based storage is commonly associated with SANs (storage area networks) while-file based storage is commonly referred to a NAS (network attached storage) and attached to Ethernet networks.

Lately, the vendors of either flavor have developed an interest in selling storage arrays that swing both ways--a storage system that provides both block and file access simultaneously. The moniker for these converged SAN/NAS systems is "unified storage."

With unified storage arrays, block access is accomplished through use of an interface to the array such … Read more

Getting a Windows PC to boot in under 10 seconds

How fast will PCs boot up in the future? I asked industry experts to explain what's involved and what could lead to PCs that boot up in seconds.

One of the key components in getting a PC to start quickly is the BIOS, or basic input/output system. The BIOS, which is present in every Windows PC and Apple computer, is the first piece of code run when the computer starts up, also referred to as firmware. The BIOS serves to initialize and identify system devices such as the hard-disk drive, DVD/CD drive, networking components, USB ports, the video card, keyboard, and mouse.

I chatted with Surendra Arora, vice president of business development at BIOS supplier Phoenix Technologies, and Stephen Jones, the company's chief technical officer, as well as Mark Doran, a senior principal engineer at Intel's Software and Services Group.

And I exchanged e-mail with Fadi Zuhayri, senior manager at the Intel Software & Services Group. Zuhayri said that UEFI, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, provides the foundation for reaching instant-on one day. But a number of factors, including the operating system, need to come together to achieve fast boot times in under 10 seconds. "So we are getting at near-parity to instant on. The technology foundation is there to make it happen," Zuhayri said. (Note that UEFI is already being used in Windows PCs from a number of PC makers.)

Q: What is UEFI and why is this replacing the traditional BIOS and why is it instrumental in achieving faster boot times? Surendra Arora (Phoenix): The reality is UEFI was started for various reasons. I'm not sure boot speed was one of the reasons that UEFI was started. The real reason was to move away from assembly code. That was what the bring-up process used to be. Hard-coded or machine-level coding. Now C [language] is being used. You can do it at an abstracted layer that's built on APIs [application programming interfaces]. This [UEFI] allows you to standardize things, use multi-threading. We've parallelized initialization so you can boot extremely fast.

Q: So how fast can boot times be now? For example, my Dell Adamo [laptop] that has a solid-state drive can boot to the Windows log-in in roughly 20 seconds. Arora: The OS and the components that you use lead to the complete experience. What we at Phoenix can do is hand off what we do to the OS extremely fast. It used to be 10 to 15 seconds and now… Read more