Microsoft certifications get more expensive

On the first of July, it is going to take a little bit more cash to become Microsoft Certified Professional in specific areas.

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According to an announcement from Microsoft, the retail price of mid-range Microsoft Certification exams will increase worldwide. The exams slated for a price increase are: Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD), Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST), Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA).

Meanwhile, the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA), and Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams are expected to remain the same.

"This change reflects the significant value that our certifications provide to our customers and our continual investment in new and enhanced Microsoft Certifications and other program improvements," the company said on Microsoft Learning.

Microsoft has posted a Silverlight-based pricing tool calculator (click here) to determine the price increase based upon test type and world region.

For example, current high school or university students in the United States pay $60 for a Microsoft Certification exam. After July first, this will cost $83, representing a 22% increase. For non-students it goes from $125 to $150, or an even 20% increase. The increases differ by region.

Microsoft says the new fees will let the company improve testing flexibility and security in various ways and develop new certification tiers.

Cisco spawns small CRS-1 sibling

In a move that could be a boon for ISPs, companies with remote offices, and end-users and organizations craving faster streaming media, Cisco today unveiled a compact four-slot version of its CRS-1 routing line.

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This four-slot CRS-1 model delivers 320Gbps of total switching capacity in a 40Gbps-per-slot chassis. It's aimed at providing quick deployment in locations such as regional POPs, MSO hub locations, and data-center peering sites. The purpose: to support the growing demands for IPTV, digital video, and other advanced business and residential IP services.

"Cisco developed the four-slot CRS-1 in direct response to requests from our service provider customers, who wanted to be able to deploy the 40Gbps CRS-1 with a smaller form factor and less capital expenditure per deployment," said Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager of the Service Provider Routing Technology Group at Cisco.

InfoWorld Contributing Editor Brian Chee shared positive predictions for the four-slot CRS-1. "Finally, this is the son (or daughter) of the old GSRs [gigabit switch routers] that have been at the core of many networks for many years. Juniper has been eating Cisco for quite a while because the GSR has become long in the tooth," said Chee, author of the Geeks in Paradise blog and founder of the Advanced Network Computing Laboratory at the University of Hawaii's Department of Information and Computer Sciences.

"This will most likely become the core switch/router for most future Cisco solutions," Chee added.

Among companies expressing an interest in the new diminutive member of the Cisco CRS-1 family is Sprint, which plans to deploy it in Q4 of this year. "By creating a smaller form factor for the CRS-1 platform, Cisco is enabling us to lower costs and more efficiently handle the convergence of voice, video, data and mobility services, while still gaining the scalability, reliability and service flexibility that the platform provides," said Iyad Tarazi, vice president of network development at Sprint.

Microsoft Explains Its Phone Location-Data Policy

Microsoft moved to explain how and when its Windows Phone devices collect location data, even as Apple moved to squash chatter about iOS location-tracking.

As Apple wrestled with controversy over iOS devices storing location data, Microsoft moved to offer its own explanation for when and how its Windows Phone devices collect information on a user’s physical location.

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“When you allow an application or game to access your device’s location, the application or game will connect to Microsoft’s location services and request the approximate location of the device,” reads the FAQ posted on Microsoft’s corporate Website. “The location service will respond by providing the application or game with the location coordinates of the user’s device (when available), which the application or game can then use to enrich the user experience.”

Microsoft’s location services apparently rely on a database of local cell towers and known WiFi access points to “provide an approximate location of the user’s device.” (Microsoft insists the “managed driving” it uses to collect information about WiFi access points will not take any emails or passwords transmitted by those hotspots.) Users can also deny applications access to their location information.

“Applications that use your location are required to provide the ability to turn off that application’s access to your location,” reads another part of the FAQ. “And you can always turn off access for all applications by turning off location services.”

In addition to WiFi access points, Microsoft’s location services can leverage a device’s GPS to provide observed longitude, latitude, direction and speed.

Furthermore, Microsoft’s location services “will only collect information when you allow a particular application to request location information and that particular application requests location information.” While Microsoft apparently creates a randomly generated ID to identify mobile devices sending information to its location services, the FAQ makes no mention of whether such transmissions are encrypted in transit. Microsoft also claims the location information “is not shared with mobile operators.”

Windows Phones don’t seem to store the user’s location data on the smartphone itself, a marked departure from iOS or Google Android.

Both Apple and Google are under additional government pressure to reveal how they collect and store location data, after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked to meet with executives from both companies to discuss privacy issues. Apple is also facing inquiries from U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who fired off letters to Apple CEO Steve Jobs asking for greater clarification on news that the iPhone and 3G-enabled iPad running iOS 4 have been saving location data to a hidden database file.

Researcher Alasdair Allan wrote about iOS 4’s supposed location-sniffing abilities in an April 20 posting on the O’Reilly Radar blog. Working with co-researcher Pete Warden, he released an open-source iPhone Tracker application that can plot stored location data on a map.

“The database of your locations is stored on your iPhone as well as in any of the automatic backups that are made when you sync it with iTunes,” Allan wrote as part of a FAQ about removing the data. “One thing that will help is choosing encrypted backups, since that will prevent other users or programs on your machine from viewing the data, but there will still be a copy on your device.”

Location data saved by iOS 4 apparently includes information gleaned from cell towers and the names of WiFi access points, and not actual GPS data from a tablet or smartphone. Other recent news reports have suggested that smartphones running Android are transmitting location data to Google.

In a FAQ posted on its corporate Website, Apple attempted to clarify its position on location-logging.

“The iPhone is not logging your location,” reads one section. “Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.”

Apple goes on to insist that the iPhone only stores a protected subset of that total crowd-sourced database. “The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of WiFi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location,” reads the FAQ, “which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone.”

Apple apparently plans to stop backing up this cache “soon,” courtesy of a future software update.

Microsoft Promises Multitasking, Augmented Reality Apps for Windows Phone

Microsoft showcased the next version of its Windows Phone platform at the MIX11 conference in Las Vegas Wednesday. The upcoming iteration should bring several important improvements, including support for application multitasking.

The new platform will become available to developers in May. Besides multitasking, key improvements should enable developers to take advantage of audio and file transfer, fast app switching, deeper OS integration and access to the camera and motion sensor library, which will enable augmented reality apps similar to those we’ve seen on other platforms such as iOS and Android.

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To showcase the capabilities of the new platform, Microsoft gave visitors an early look into new concepts for several popular apps from Skype, Spotify, Layar, Qantas, Amazon Shopping and Kik Messenger.

Microsoft also announced the the new Microsoft Silverlight 5 beta, available now, providing support for hardware video decoding, a new XNA-based interface for delivering 3D visualizations within apps and something Microsoft calls Trickplay, a feature that provides variable-rate video playback with audio pitch correction. The new beta version is available for download at microsoft.com/silverlight.

Finally, Microsoft showcased some new features from the Kinect for Windows Beta SDK coming this spring. It includes Robust Skeletal Tracking, which tracks the skeleton image of one or two people moving within Kinect’s view; an XYZ depth camera that indicates the distance of the object from Kinect’s sensor; and advanced audio capabilities that include a four-element microphone array with sophisticated acoustic noise and echo cancellation as well as beam formation to identify the sound source.

Developers can sign up at research.microsoft.com/kinectsdk to be notified when the SDK is released.

Finally...CRM Idol 2011

(PG Note: The post you see below represents the “official” launch of CRM Idol 2011 and is one that all eight primary judges endorse. For me personally, this is my “angelic” side – the side of me that wants to support an industry that has been good to me. On my more edgy side, some of the reason that this was hatched was because of PR agents who basically don’t do their homework and pitch me all day long without an inkling about me as an actual human. They think I’m an influential CRM cyborg. Dealing with that from the other side, Brent Leary and I will be launching a music video in a few months from Playaz Productions. Heh. Heh.

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But the side of me that’s grateful to an industry and friends and those companies that actually have honored me by listening to me blather all these years, is enthralled by the idea that we may be able to give back to all of you through CRM Idol. So, thank you for everything over the years and welcome to CRM Idol 2011: the Open Season!!)

Okay, everyone this is the big one. CRM Idol 2011: The Open Season is here and we’re ready to take your companies and find out which one of you in the Americas and which one of you in EMEA is not the next CRM Idol but the FIRST CRM Idol.
The Idea

Most of what we’re trying to do was outlined in the pre-announcement announcement of CRM Idol last week. But it bears some repeating:

Small companies – at least in the CRM software related world – and that means social software world, in this case, too – abound. There are thousands of companies out there that are possibly innovative, possibly commercially viable in a big way, possibly the next big thing. But, as we said, there are thousands of them. And, no matter how great your product is, if no one knows about it, well, then, oops. Not a good thing.

These small companies are all making efforts to get into the ecosystem that could benefit them – one which includes investors, influencers, technology/strategic partners, media connections, etc. While getting support from this powerful ecosystem is by no means a guarantee of success, it can be enormously helpful in getting well down the road there. But, those small companies are often thwarted in that effort by either really bad PR people, or just the incredible amount of companies out there trying to reach into the ecosystem who are pummeling the small amount of influencers, etc. every week with requests to demo or talk.

Now, to be fair to the influencers, they are human beings with lives that aren’t built around supporting this one company that really thinks they are it. All they know is that each of them is getting between 20-50 requests a week to take a demo or conversation with someone who owns or represents a company they’ve never heard of and never talked to yet. In addition to those that they know. Often enough, they are pitched by a public relations person who is either inexperienced or not really good at their job who makes no effort to find anything out about the person that they are pitching to. So the influencer, journalist, venture capitalist gets a generic curve thrown at them that doesn’t even break over the plate – guaranteeing that the email is going to be discarded as a matter of course before the first paragraph is even read. Or it could be that on a particular day the influencer got 10 pitches and had a headache and didn’t want to see any of them.

As unfair as generic pitches and high volumes of noise are to the influencers in the highly desirable ecosystem we are chatting about here, it is a problem because what are probably a lot of good companies are never given a chance to move ahead because of the difficulties inherent in the process and the vagaries of bad luck on any given day.

Which is why CRM Idol 2011: The Open Season exists.

The concept is simple, small companies out there. If you meet the submission criteria outlined below, you will be given the opportunity, first come first serve, to secure a time slot on a specific day that will put you in front of some of the most influential people in the CRM/SCRM world. They will spend an hour with you in a demo to hear about your technology product – software only – and they will write a jointly signed review of what they saw of you – that will be published in multiple venues as soon as its written. It can be a good review, a bad one, a mix or indifferent. There’s risk on your part to be taken here. But it is something that you need to be aware of. The reviews will go up as soon as the 5 judge sign off on the final content. They won’t be exhaustive reviews but they will be opinionated and fair.

Forty companies from the Americas and twenty companies from EMEA (that means ONLY Europe, the Middle East and Africa) will get a shot at this – again first come first serve (more later on what that means). Of the 40 in the Americas, 4 finalists will be chosen. (NOTE: There will be an APAC edition hopefully late in the year or if not, early 2012, depending on the success of these two events. Sorry, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, et.al. Logistics made it impossible at this juncture.) Out of the 20 in EMEA, 3 finalists will be chosen. Each of the finalists will be REQUIRED to do a ten minute video about their company and the product. Not a repeat of the demo but a video. Note I used the word REQUIRED here. Let me put it this way. If you make the finals and don’t do the video, we will publicly skewer your company. Know why? Because our judges are giving up what little free time they actually have in a summer to do this and it will take us 4 hours a day for 3 business weeks to do it. So if you can’t or won’t put in the effort to do the video, don’t bother to apply. Seriously. We’re trying to help out here and we want you guys all to succeed but it’s a two way street.

Okay, that rant out of the way. Once the finalists are chosen and the videos done, they will be posted online in multiple media outlets. They will be voted on in two ways:

1. Popular vote – see, crowdsourcing is important. All the votes for the one winner from the Americas and the one winner from EMEA will be tallied from the public sites – in aggregate. That’s 50% of the vote.
2. Extended Judges Panels – as you can see below, we may have assembled the greatest panels of judges – both leading vendors and influencers ever assembled in the history of CRM – not to be hyperbolic or anything. Each judge will select a specific winner in each of the Americas and EMEA from the 7 finalists. That’s the other 50% of the vote. The original judges will be voting as panel members.

The winners in each will get a major array of prizes, some of which are below, and be declared “CRM Idol 2011 Winner.”

Not too shabby is it? Vast amounts of media attention even if you don’t make the finals. If you make the finals at all, some prizes to you. The winners get everything that the ecosystem can offer but guaranteed success. But they do get all the accoutrements they need to support their increased likelihood of it.

That way, you small companies out there who have been victimized by bad approaches or just circumstance have the opportunity to bypass all of that and make something happen. It’s up to you to take the reins in hand but once you do, you have at least a serious chance at making yourself successful.
The Criteria

This competition is for small companies in the CRMish/SocialCRMish world. – see the categories below for some guidelines though please feel free to make the case if you don’t see yourself in the guidelines.

1. You have to have software that is commercially available by the time of the demo – that would be in August – again see below. No betas, alphas, release candidates allowed. If we find that you’re not commercially available, and you have a time slot, you’re out and someone else will fill the slot. So please be sure that you can verify the claim if you want to participate.
2. You have to have 3 referenceable customers that, if we care to, we can contact and ask about you.
3. You have to have revenue under $12 million U.S. your last fiscal year. As far as disclosure goes, you have the choice of making the claim that you do – though that will have to be stated in your submission and we’ll trust you or you can disclose your revenue in the submission with the knowledge that only the permanent judges will know what it is. If you make the claim, please be prepared to back it up if we ask. Your call on how.
4. You have to be willing to make a ten minute video if you get to the finals. More on that later.
5. You have to fit a category – though there is some leeway there.

The Categories

The categories that we’ve identified to start are:

1. Traditional CRM Suites
2. Social CRM
3. Sales - Sales Force Automation, Sales Optimization, Sales Effectiveness
4. Marketing – Marketing Automation, Revenue Performance Management, Social Marketing, Email Marketing, Enterprise Marketing Management, Database Marketing
5. Customer Service – all permutations
6. Mobile CRM
7. Customer Experience Management
8. Social Media Monitoring – requires the possibility of integrating with a CRM technology
9. Customer Analytics – including text/sentiment analytics; voice based analytics; social media analytics, influencer scoring, etc.
10. Enterprise Feedback Management
11. Innovation Management
12. Community Platforms
13. Enterprise 2.0 – collaboration, activity streams etc.
14. Social Business
15. Knowledge Management – this one requires the possibility of integrating with CRM systems
16. Vendor Relationship Management
17. Partner Relationship Management

Once again, if you don’t see yourself in this list, don’t worry. Just make the case as to why you have some customer-facing possibilities and the likelihood is that we’ll be cool with it. We’re trying to make this easier for you, not hard.
The Rules

They are numbered to be entirely clear.
Submissions

1. There will be 40 slots made available in the Americas and 20 in EMEA.
2. The submission will be by email ONLY to: nextbigthing@crmidol.com. (See below to see this again and what to do if there are problems). Any other attempt at submission will be rejected out of hand with the problem exception mentioned below.
3. The submissions will occur starting today – Monday, April 25 and will continue until Friday May 13 or until all slots are filled, whichever is first (watch #crmidol on twitter for updates on that as it occurs). On May 13, should any slots be left, the remaining specific dates and times will be made publicly available and another final round of submissions for those remaining slots will occur from May 13 through May 20. After that the submissions will be closed.
4. Each submission will include the following:
1. Your company contact and named person contact information Two date and time specific slot requests. ONLY two. If your slots are not available, you’re out of luck until May 14 – and then you can resubmit to any time slots that are publicly announced as still available. Though there is no guarantee that there will be any available slots at that time. (see below for examples of how to submit the dates/times)
2. The category you feel you fit into - or if you don’t but think that you qualify – why.
3. A description of what the product is/the company is. Be persuasive here that you meet the criteria, not that you have a great product. This is merely a qualifying discussion. URLs cannot be used as substitutes for this description. The submission needs to be all inclusive. However, they can be used as supporting documentation.
4. The names of the three (3) referenceable customers – the company, the contact and the way to communicate with them – minimum of email and phone, please.
5. A statement that says that you meet the revenue requirement along the lines of “our company states truthfully that our revenues in our last fiscal year 2010 were under $12 million U.S”. OR you can state the actual number with the knowledge that the primary judges in each of the Americas and EMEA will treat it as under non-disclosure. But please be aware those designated primary judges below will see the actual figures if you choose to reveal them.
6. A statement that says, “if (you) make the finals, you are committed to making a 10 minute video for submission and public viewing as part of the conditions for entry.” Word it anyway you prefer but make the commitment clear.
5. If you are accepted, you’ll be notified privately but it will be posted that you’ve been accepted on the Twitter #crmidol stream. The time will only be sent to you privately. Just your acceptance will be posted. Please allow some time between your submission and the posting of it to the hashtag and your private notification, since we all still have to work for a living. Smile
6. If you don’t include everything specified in the rules for submission, it means automatic disqualification and you cannot resubmit.

The Demo

The demo has few rules. Just be prepared to a. explain your company; b. show your product – live please c. answer questions from the influencers/experts. Not much more than that. I’m sure many of you are experienced at this already so wed don’t have to tell you this, but just in case… A site for the demos with login etc. will be announced to the timeslot owners in early August.
The Video

The standards for the video will be mentioned to the finalists once they are named. To rest any unease, you won’t be required to spend lots of money to get it done. How much you spend and on what will be up to you as will the content and how you present it. We’ll issue guidelines when the time gets near, including how the video is going to be distributed for posting and voting.
The Judges

Here are the lists of all the judges. As you can see, we have what is likely to be the heaviest hitting list in the history of anything done in CRM when it comes to awards or competitions. Click on their names to get to their LinkedIn bios. They are in alphabetical order.
Primary Judges
The Americas

These five judges will handle the 40 entries for the Americas which consists of the United States, Canada, South and Central America. They will all be involved in the one hour reviews each of the days over the two weeks and will jointly sign off on each review which will be posted to multiple media sites. They will also solely choose the four finalists for the Americas.

1. Paul Greenberg – Managing Principal, The 56 Group, LLC
2. Jesus Hoyos – Managing Partner, JesusHoyos.com, LLC
3. Esteban Kolsky – Principal and Founder, Thinkjar LLC
4. Brent Leary – Managing Partner, CRM Essentials
5. Denis Pombriant – CEO, Beagle Research Group

EMEA

These four judges will handle the 20 entries from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia etc. They will all be involved in the each of the 1 hour demos/discussions from Sept 5 through 9 and will write and jointly sign off on each review which will be posted to multiple media sites. They will also solely choose the three finalists for EMEA.

1. Laurence Buchanan – Vice President, CRM & Social CRM, EMEA, Capgemini
2. Silvana Buljan – Founder & Managing Director, Buljan & Partners
3. Paul Greenberg – see above
4. Mark Tamis – Social Business Strategist, NET-7

Mentors

This is an exciting part of CRM Idol 2011. Each of these fine human beings has volunteered a day of their time – two during the finals and one with the winners – to provide the benefit of their experience to the contestants. What they will do is noted by their name. This is an awesome idea that Anthony Lye actually cooked up. Each of these mentors has decades of experience in the software and venture capital world and is considered a leader in the CRM space. So if you make it to the finals, you have the benefit of their knowledge and their valuable time. Amazing.

1. Anthony Lye – Anthony will provide one day for the Americas finalists and one day for the EMEA finalists for consultation on how to best do the content for the contending videos and whatever other pertinent advice the finalists need. Anthony has had years of experience as a senior management person for enterprise CRM and a thought leader.
2. Joe Hughes – Joe will provide one day for the Americas finalists and one day for the EMEA finalists for consultation on how to best do the content for the contending videos and whatever other pertinent advice the finalists need. Joe has been a leader in the CRM space for as long as we can remember and one of the more foresighted when it comes to the value of Social CRM
3. Larry Augustin – This is a prize for the winner of EMEA and the winner of the Americas. Larry who has years of experience as an executive in the software space and has been a successful venture capitalist will work with the winner to prepare them for dealing with possible investors including doing a VC matching with the winners.

There will most likely be other mentors announced as the competition gets closer to the demo dates. We might try to make some mentors available to prepare you if you need them for the one hour demos but that’s still up in the air. We’ll keep you posted.
Extended Judges Panels
The Influencer Panel

1. William Band – Vice President & Principal Analyst, CRM, Forrester Research
2. Jim Berkowitz – CEO, CRM Mastery
3. Bruce Culbert – Chief Service Officer, The Pedowitz Group
4. Zoli Erdos - Publisher/Editor, CloudAve and Enterprise Irregulars
5. Mike Fauscette – Group Vice President, Software Business Solutions, IDC
6. Josh Greenbaum – Principal, Enterprise Applications Consulting
7. Dr. Graham Hill – Partner, Optima Partners
8. Dennis Howlett - Buyer Advocate
9. Ian Jacobs – Senior Analyst, Customer Interaction, Ovum/Datamonitor
10. Michael Krigsman – CEO, Asuret
11. Marshall Lager – Managing Principal, Third Idea Consulting
12. Kate Leggett – Senior Analyst, CRM, Forrester Research
13. Maribel Lopez – Principal Analyst and VP, Constellation Research Founder Lopez Research LLC
14. Jeremiah Owyang -Managing Partner, Altimeter Group
15. Sameer Patel – Managing Partner, Sovos Group
16. Scott Rogers – Customer Evangelist
17. Robert Scoble – Managing Director, Rackspace Hosting
18. Brian Solis – Principal, Altimeter Group
19. Dilip Soman – Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
20. Ray Wang – CEO, Constellation Research
21. Mary Wardley – Vice President, CRM Applications, IDC

The Vendor Panel

1. Larry Augustin – CEO, SugarCRM
2. Anthony Lye – Senior Vice President & GM, CRM, Oracle
3. Phil Fernandez – CEO, Marketo
4. John Hernandez – General Manager, Customer Care Business, Cisco
5. Jonathan Hornby – Director, Worldwide Marketing, SAS
6. Joseph Hughes - Senior Executive, CRM Service, Support and Social System Integration Lead, Accenture
7. Charlie Isaacs, VP, eServices and Social Media Strategy Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
8. Vinay Iyer – Vice President, Marketing CRM, SAP
9. Katy Keim - CMO, Lithium
10. Marcel Lebrun,- CEO, Radian6
11. Mitch Lieberman, Vice President, Marketing, Sword-Ciboodle
12. Chris Morace- Senior Vice President, Business Development, Jive
13. Zach Nelson – CEO, NetSuite
14. Bill Patterson- Director, CRM Product Management, Microsoft
15. Dileep Srinivasan - AVP - CRM & Social CRM, Digital Marketing & MDM, Cognizant
16. John Taschek –Vice President, Market Strategy, Salesforce

The Journalist Panel

1. Elsa Basile – Director, Callcenternews (Argentina)
2. Barney Beal – Managing Editor, SearchCRM,
3. Anita Campbell – Publisher, SmallBizTrends.com
4. Robin Carey – CEO, Social Media Today
5. Neil Davey – Group Editor, Sift Media
6. David Myron – Editorial Director, CRM Magazine, Speech Technology Magazine
7. Valdir Ugalde – Board, Member, mundocontact (Mexico)
8. Ann Van Den Berg – Senior Editor, CustomerTalk (Netherlands)

Media Partners

You’ll note that we have 8 journalists on a panel of judges. Well, each of them represents a media partner that will be broadcasting the competition and posting the videos for voting in the finals for the popular vote. They are an awesome array of the most influential media sites in social media, CRM, and small business as well as local influencers in CRM in Latin America and Europe. They will be significant in the lives of the contestants, the finalists, and the winners giving each what may be an unprecedented breadth and depth of coverage. Their coverage will be supplemented by posts to the blogs and other sites that are owned by many of the judges so there will be significant reach for all 60 of the initial contenders. Each of these partners will be getting exclusives from the judges and hopefully some of the companies too so that we can add a quality of coverage that would enhance the value to the SMBs participating. in all areas – CRM, social and small business directly.

We expect to add more media partners as we continue on throughout the competition.

The current partners and links to their sites (in alphabetical order, like every list here):

1. Call Center News (Argentina)
2. CRM Magazine/DestinationCRM
3. CustomerTalk (Netherlands)
4. Mundocontact (Mexico)
5. MyCustomer.com/Sift Media
6. SearchCRM
7. Social Media Today
8. SmallBizTrends.com

The Prizes…So Far

These are the prizes as of launch today. There are several others in the works that will be announced as the contest rolls out.
All Finalists

All 7 finalists will get to choose one day of consulting from the list of Influencer consultants below. The order of choice will be based on the popular vote on the video which will be kept confidential but used for the choosing. There will be more consultants added to the list as contest moves forward.
The Americas and EMEA Winners

Each winner will get to choose four prizes from the list. Note – in the case where multiple prizes are being offered by a single vendor – the vendor counts as a single prize with all the items as part of that.

1. Accenture
1. A full day workshop with CRM leaders in Accenture for possible partnership and/or possible investment.
2. Capgemini (for EMEA winners only)
1. A half day workshop with Patrick James, Global VP CRM and Laurence Buchanan to explore joint go to market opportunities and help you refine and test your value proposition.
3. Social Media Today
1. A blog post featuring the winner of the contest to run on both The Customer Collective and Social Media Today
2. A single blast to the Social Media Today opt-in list (approximately 50,000 names) which will conform to their minimum standards (valued at $10,500)
4. Microsoft
1. 12 mos. of CRM Online Free for developing extensions to CRM
2. 12 mos. of Windows Azure Free for developing web-based portals and BI solutions
3. Access to the Office 365 Beta for building collaborative applications and services
4. Access to the BizSpark One program -a program designed to connect emerging businesses and their investors with a Microsoft advisor to help them identify unique opportunities and expand its business presence
5. SugarCRM
1. Free 10 user subscription to SugarCRM Professional or Enterprise
2. Membership in the Sugar Exchange and free consulting on product integration with SugarCRM
3. CEO Larry Augustin, a successful venture capitalist in his own right, does a mentoring & VC matchmaking session with the winners
6. Brian Solis
1. One hour internal webinar on how to use SCRM and social media to your advantage
7. Paul Greenberg
1. One hour pro bono external webinar on a subject TBD for lead gen, mindshare, etc.
8. Ray Wang
1. One hour pro bono external webinar on a subject TBD for lead gen, mindshare, etc.
9. Sameer Patel
1. One hour pro bono external webinar on a subject TBD for lead gen, mindshare, etc.
10. Influencer Consulting– free strategic consulting for 1 day or 8 hours from a variety of judges (in person travel expenses to be covered by winners)
1. Esteban Kolsky (in person only)
2. Paul Greenberg (on phone or in person)
3. Denis Pombriant (on phone or in person)
4. Mark Tamis (on phone or in person)
5. Jesus Hoyos (on phone or in person)
6. Brent Leary (on phone or in person)

The Times, Dates, Hashtag and Email

Okay here’s the hardcore stuff:

1. The hashtag is #crmidol
2. The email for submission is nextbigthing@crmidol.com
1. If you have a problem submitting to that email send your submission and a report of the specific problem to pgreenbe@gmail.com

Dates and Times Table for the Americas and EMEA

We’ve put together an easy little table with all the relevant dates and times that you’ll need as you progress through the competition.
Dates/Times Americas EMEA
Submission Dates August 15-19; August 22-26 September 5-9
Submission Times 3pm ET; 4pm ET; 5pm ET; 6pm ET 3pm GMT; 4pm GMT; 5pm GMT; 6pm GMT
Finalist Video Submission Date September 30 October 14
Winner Announcement October 17 October 31

A Note or Two

A little bit of unfinished stuff that will sort itself out as time goes forward.

* There will likely be a CRM Idol site (Joomla based) coming in the next month or so that will be an aggregate site for all the media outlets and streams. However, this remains a work in progress that’s still under discussion.
* There will be more mentors and prizes added and possibly a judge or two.
* For now ongoing news will be found at the twitter hashtag #crimidol.

In Closing

That’s about it. Now its time to bring it. First come, first serve. See you, maybe as the 1st ever CRM Idol, in Vegas, Hollywood. London or on the Social Web. Somewhere anyway.

Researchers: Police Already Using iPhone Tracking Data

A pair of mobile forensic researchers who independently identified a location tracking system on the iPhone 4 several months before it was publicized by O'Reilly Radar this week say that law enforcement agencies are currently using data from a hidden iOS file called "consolidated.db" in criminal investigations.

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Evidence from the location tracking database stored on iPhones "has been used in actual criminal investigations and yes, it's led to convictions," said Alex Levinson, a Rochester Institute of Technology researcher and technical lead for iOS forensics consultant Katana Forensics.

But Levinson and Christopher Vance, a Marshall University digital forensics specialist, also contend that Apple probably included the technology in its iOS operating system to deliver location-based services like iAds rather than to create dossiers on the whereabouts of iPhone users.

A great deal of buzz has surrounded a Wednesday O'Reilly Radar blog post by researchers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan that highlighted a hidden file on iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad which includes latitude-longitude coordinates and a timestamp to track where such devices have been geographically and when. (PCMag.com's Sascha Segan recently documented how his iPhone tracked his summer vacation without his knowledge.)

But Warden and Allan apparently weren't the first to discover the file.

Vance told PCMag.com Thursday that he came across the location tracking database shortly after running some forensics software on the iPhone 4 he purchased in the summer of 2010.

"I just happened to get an early release of a forensic product in beta and all of a sudden it pulled out this database," Vance said. He wrote about his discovery in a September 2010 blog post that erroneously stated that GPS data was being stored in the consolidated.db file.

Instead, the database collects location data on iOS devices by tracking connections to cell towers. Vance corrected his earlier post in a February update on his blog.

While he has gone back and forth over Apple's purpose in storing the location tracking data, Vance now says it's likely done to deliver the location-based services that Apple defended in a letter sent to Congress last year.

And the reason Apple uses cell tower connections rather than more precise location tracking data that could be delivered by a built-in GPS?

"If I had to guess, it's probably a matter of OS efficiency," Vance said. "The database is probably there to decrease the amount of time needed to generate GPS information for the location services or iAds built into the apps on iOS. Using assisted GPS is much faster and less of a strain on your battery life."

Vance, who is also a forensics consultant to the West Virginia State Police, said he has checked the consolidated.db file at the request of law enforcement officers but that so far no iPhone's location tracking database he has examined has produced a "smoking gun" that broke open an investigation.

"But it's been helpful," he added. "And that's not to say that we haven't found a 'smoking gun' in our forensics on iPhones or other phones, just not anything directly connected to the [location tracking] database."

The fact that the consolidated.db files have created such an uproar is a bit confusing to Vance and Levinson, who also discovered the database shortly after the iPhone's release in 2010.

(Click "Next" below to learn what mobile device data is invaluable to police in criminal investigations.)

'Anonymous' Plans Sony Boycott on April 16

Say you're a hacker trying to cripple a major electronics company for suing its own users: how do you launch a cyberattack without harming the people you're trying to protect?

In the case of hactivist group 'Anonymous,' which has spent the week targeting Sony to retaliate against Sony's ongoing lawsuits against PlayStation 3 modifiers, you take it offline.

Anonymous is staging a 24-hour, in-store boycott at Sony stores around world on Saturday, April 16. So far over 1,000 people have RSVP'd through Facebook.

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On Monday, Anonymous launched a DDoS attack on Sony that rendered the PlayStation Network (PSN) inaccessible for most of the day (while an Anonymous offshoot calling itself "SonyRecon" targeted individual Sony employees). But after consumers complained that the takedown was doing more harm than good to gamers, Anonymous reversed the hack and took down the Sony Careers page instead. Sony has remained tight-lipped about the hack, only acknowledging the "possibility" of an attack to GameSpot.

"Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time. Sony's official position is that the PSN is undergoing maintenance. We realize that targeting the PSN is not a good idea. We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers," Anonymous wrote in a blog post.

What does Anonymous want from Sony? For starters, to allow PS3 owners to be able to modify their own consoles and share their findings online. It also wants Sony to stop pursuing lawsuits against several well-known PS3 hackers:

In January, Sony sued 23-year-old George 'Geohot' Hotz for exposing the root key to a PS3, allowing users to develop and play homebrew games. His case has been well-documented, partly due to Hotz' appearances on talk shows and homemade anti-Sony rap videos posted on YouTube. Unphased by consumer anger, Sony recently received permission to subpoena PayPal for Hotz' records.

Meanwhile in late February, German police raided the home of Egorenkov, who is best known for reverse-engineering the PS3 and researching security loopholes in the console. Sony later sued Egorenkov for one million euros ($1.4 million) for publishing the findings of his research, known as the "Hypervisor Bible," online.

Anonymous is a coalition of hackers operating under the name "Operation Payback." It has taken on such targets as Broadcast Music International, former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, the Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Copyright Office, and the Motion Picture Association of America.

The Top 40 Free iPhone Apps 2010

1. Apple iBooks 1.1


1. Apple iBooks 1.1
Apple Inc., www.apple.com
Apple's iBooks isn't just an e-book reader; it's also an excellent PDF reader. The app uses an attractive bookshelf metaphor to arrange your virtual books and PDFs, and Apple makes quite a few older books available for free through its online store. As with many Apple apps, iBooks becomes more useful if you have more Apple devices; you can sync your bookmarks and notations with your iPhones, iPod Touch, and iPad.


2. AT&T myWireless 1.3.2


2. AT&T myWireless 1.3.2
AT&T Services Inc., www.att.com
AT&T's myWireless app tells you if you're coming close to your monthly 200MB or 2GB data limit, how many minutes you've used, and when your next bill is due. It also allows you to upgrade your plan if you're using your iPhone much more than you expected. Checking this app periodically is the best way to protect yourself from unexpected AT&T charges.

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3. Bing 1.2


3. Bing 1.2
Microsoft Corp., www.bing.com
On the desktop I prefer Google, but on the iPhone I prefer Bing. Why? Because Bing offers more than just simple search. This app provides a scrolling photo search, voice search, and local shopping searches; it even has a bar code scanner to look up prices on goods in stores. The Social tool lets you connect to Facebook and Twitter and search your results from friends. Search engines might be a matter of preference but Bing actually makes search look fun.


4. CNBC Real-Time 1.3


4. CNBC Real-Time 1.3
NBC Universal Inc., www.cnbc.com
One of the best business news sites has one of the best free business apps on the iPhone. CNBC's app starts with business news alerts, but we really like it because of its detailed stock portfolio tracker. Plus, we dig its well-rendered graphics.


5. Cube Runner 1.5


5. Cube Runner 1.5
Andy Qua, andyqua.co.uk/CubeRunner/Welcome.html
This diabolically simple and addictive game lets you control an arrow that flies through rows of digital cubes. The point of the game is to avoid the cubes and fly for as long as you can. In the background, fun electronic music jams along as you pilot your arrow. Sure, the graphics look like a 1983-era arcade game, but that's what you get for zero dollars, and some older iPhone users might enjoy the resemblance to the Atari games of yesteryear. Another decent free game in a similar vein is Alpha Runner.


6. Dragon Dictation 1.3.4


6. Dragon Dictation 1.3.4
Nuance Communications, Inc., www.nuance.com
Ever wanted to dictate a long series of notes and then e-mail or text them? Dragon Dictation can do that for you. Just load up the app, tap the red button, and dictate for a one minute at a time. One downside: Some users have complained that Nuance goes through your contacts to ensure accuracy when you speak names. It's a breach of privacy, but is it any worse than Facebook? Probably not. And we'd rather have the names spelled correctly.


7. Dropbox 1.2.2


7. Dropbox 1.2.2
Evenflow, Inc., www.dropbox.com
I assume you have a lot of gadgets and computers. Dropbox lets you access your personal files on any of them. Dropbox gives you 2GB of file storage that can be accessed from any computer. On iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the app allows you to view documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and some videos and photos that you've put into your personal file space. Occasionally, we've seen some instances where it simply won't work, but it's useful enough that we're willing to overlook a few glitches.


8. eBay Mobile 1.7.0


8. eBay Mobile 1.7.0
eBay Inc., www.ebay.com
Have you been losing eBay auctions because you weren't in front of your PC? Pick up eBay Mobile, and you'll be able to swoop in at the last second from anywhere with an Internet connection. The app lets users search, bid on items, update their info, check bids on items being sold, and much more. Power sellers and frequent bidders should consider this an essential tool for keeping up with auctions.


9. eBuddy Messenger 3.6.0


9. eBuddy Messenger 3.6.0
eBuddy B.V., www.ebuddy.com
Instant messaging may not have the buzz of Twitter and Facebook, but many people (and businesses) rely on it. Nowadays, people use many instant-messaging clients, so it's important to have a multiplatform solution. eBuddy is the best free app we've found on the iPhone. It lets you log in to multiple services at once, including AIM, Yahoo, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, MySpace, and MSN. It will push you notification of new instant messages even when it isn't running, and you can tell it to log out automatically after a set period of time.


10. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List 2.1


10. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List 2.1
Condé Nast, www.epicurious.com
If you're a foodie, you probably know about Epicurious and its more than 100,000 recipes. The site's iPhone app lets you turn your favorite recipes into a shopping list that you check off. If you miss flipping through food-stained pages, you can turn your favorite recipes into a paginated cookbook. There are a few ads here that can be annoying, but we're willing to put up with them for a free app. Epicurious is also a very good iPad app.

Verizon study: data breaches quintupled in 2010

Criminals carried out more but smaller data thefts last year than in previous years, indicating a shift toward simpler exploits that run lower risk of punishment, according to Verizon's latest data breach report.

In 2010 the number of breaches skyrocketed to 760 from 141 the year before, according to the "2011 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report." At the same time the number of actual records compromised by the breaches plummeted from 144 million in 2009 to 4 million in 2010.

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TIPS: Verizon's 12-Step security program

On average, then, in 2009 the number of records stolen per breach was about 1.02 million. For 2010 that number was 5,263.


What's going on? The type of data being sought by criminals shifted from payment card numbers to intellectual property, information about business processes and deals being made between businesses, says David Ostertag, global investigations manager for Verizon.

"With intellectual property they may get one record but it will have a much higher value than one payment card record," Ostertag says.

In cases where payment card information was stolen, the number of records taken per breach was much less, indicating that criminals are trying to minimize the attention they draw, he says. "There's less chance of being caught because fewer resources are being applied to catch them," he says.

That may already be changing, though, with early results from 2011 indicating a surge in high-volume data breaches. The motivation may be that stockpiles of stolen card data have been depleted over the past year and more are needed to replenish them. "Supply and demand has a lot to do with it," he says. "The bad guys need a new supply."

HISTORY: Smartphone security follies

Also anecdotally, there seems to be a recent uptick in unauthorized peer-to-peer traffic on networks, Ostertag says, which could be criminals doing research and development on ways to send data out once it has been compromised.

"They're better at getting in, but not at exfiltrating the data," he says.

Threats from outside businesses has also jumped dramatically from 70% to 92%, which may be due to commoditized attack tools that are simpler to use and therefore used more often, he says.

Hospitality, retail and financial services industries accounted for 87% of all the investigated data breaches.

Financial institutions in previous years accounted for 90% or more of compromised records, but that fell dramatically in 2010 to 35%. The reason is some breaches in past years that involved millions of records were from financial institutions. Also, criminals may be focusing more on other thefts than credit card numbers. These include theft of intellectual property, authentication data, and turning machines into bots to serve botnets, the report says.

One deceptive result is the 17% of attacks involving insiders. That is a drop from 48% in 2009, but the actual number of insider breaches remains about the same. So the threat to businesses from insiders has stayed relatively constant; it's just the total number of breaches that has dramatically increased to skew the percentage, the report says.

Mozilla Switches Firefox to 18-Week Development Cycle; Firefox 5 Expected June 21

Didn't we just get Firefox 4 a little bit ago?

Mozilla is borrowing a page from Google Chrome and speeding up the development cycle for Firefox releases, setting new iterations of the browser for fixed time periods and bulldozing over features that just aren't ready to make it into a new browser release.

And if Mozilla sticks by its newly proposed plan, that means that we'll be seeing Firefox 5 on June 21—following a shortened 13-week development cycle instead of the proposed 18-week cycle for all future Firefox builds.

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Within this 18-week cycle comes a new development stage that adds on to Mozilla's three previous update channels: Nightly, or builds created from the mozilla-central-repository that are highly unstable, but incorporate the latest texts and fixes; Beta, which ups the quality demands of features and tweaks added via the nightly builds; and Release, which becomes the version of Firefox that most consumers are used to using.

Mozilla's new stage, Aurora, will be a nightly update that splits the difference between the chaos of the company's Mozilla-central build (or Nightly build), and its Beta build.

That's a lot of gobbledygook for non-developer types, so here's a general walkthrough of how Mozilla development is going to be handled in the future. Developers will have a given window to write patches and improvements as part of Mozilla's initial nightly Firefox builds. As this build switches over to the new channel, Aurora, features will be analyzed and dropped off if they're deemed ineligible for the current release cycle—no new features will be added directly into the Aurora build.

However, Mozilla recognizes that some Firefox changes might take longer to develop than the six weeks they're sitting in the Nightly channel.

"Features that end up disabled or miss the scheduled transition to the experimental channel can be pulled again the next time the schedule permits," reads Mozilla's Developmental Process draft. "This policy does allow for features that take a long time to develop. It's just that they'll be present only on mozilla-central until they're ready."

Mozilla will pull code from its Nightly database at set intervals instead of a, "when it's ready" approach, which will allow developers to quickly analyze and eliminate problematic features at these critical junctures.

"Since mozilla-central will be pulled into the firefox-experimental channel at week 6 and week 12, such features will need to have a mechanism allowing them to be easily disabled. Essentially, it needs to be easy to get the code on mozilla-central into a shippable state by disabling new code," reads Mozilla's draft.

Mozilla estimates that it'll be able to pull 100,000 users to test and tweak its nightly Firefox builds. This number increases to one million for the Aurora build and ten million for the Beta build, which would be a weekly update that's intended to fine-tune the browser for full release. Release managers make a determination on Week 14 as to whether a Firefox release is possible and, if so, the build is scheduled for a full launch to Firefox's complete user base on Week 16.

That said, mark your calendars for a Firefox 6 release around mid-August. And as for what you might see in Firefox 5, PCMag.com's Michael Muchmore has taken a look at some of the proposed features for browser's next iteration.

iPad 2 Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts

While some might argue that it can almost replace a full-fledged computer, the iPad was designed to be simple. Even if you have very little tech savvy, you can probably pick up Apple's latest tablet and master most of the basic features in a matter of minutes. And the longer you spend swiping your way around the touch-based iOS operating system, the more you'll learn. Like it is with any OS, though, there are just some things that aren't obvious. You could (gasp!) pore through the 22-chapter iPad 2 User Guide (it's got three appendices too), to make sure you're not missing out on anything, but where's the fun in that?

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After almost a month of testing and using the iPad 2, we've learned some cool tricks and we want to share them with you. In the slideshow, you'll find general tips that apply to multiple applications, along with those specific to Safari, Maps, iPod, and Photos. Whether you're a seasoned Mac or iOS user, or even an Apple newbie, there's something here to help you get the most out of your iPad 2. (Actually, come to think of it, a lot of these tips also apply to the original iPad.) Have a tip, trick, or shortcut of your own to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Windows (Mobile) Phone OS 6.5 coming October 6th

There are few good reasons for Microsoft to be happy at the moment. Windows Mobile 6.5 Phone Final– New UI, Zune like has at last been announced for availability from October 6th.

Also opening Oct. 6 is the Windows Marketplace, Microsoft’s app store for all 6.X Windows phones, which we’re interested to see how it pans out.

And yes, they renamed it from Windows Mobile 6.5 to Windows Phone OS 6.5, my o my, why was that done? Doesn’t it look like iPhone OS, Palm WebOS, Android OS ? Anyway, there are good things to discuss about.

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Phone Availability

Which models will receive updates, it’s not precisely known, but most new phones will ship with Windows Phone 6.5

North America, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus will have phones from HP, HTC, LG, Samsung and Toshiba; while in Europe Orange, Deutsche Telekom AG and Vodafone will have devices from Acer, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba.

Asia will be supported by the same manufacturers as Europe, but the mobile operators will include: NTT DoCoMo, Softbank, SK Telecom, Telestra, and Willcom inc.

Latin America so far only has support from TIM Brazil, but that carrier will have phones from HTC, LG, and Samsung.

Stephanie Ferguson, General Manager of Business Experience on Microsoft’s Mobile team this morning said,

“You’ll see new Windows phones designed for a variety of tastes, needs and price points – with or without keyboards, with or without touch screens, as well as your choice of GPS, accelerometer and high resolution camera. There are a lot of great options and we can’t wait to show them to you. Until then, keep an eye on our partners as they announce details on new Windows phones and where you can find them this fall.”

Technology On The Cricket Pitch

"Yes, Hawk-Eye confirms that the ball is just missing the off stump, so the umpire was right in giving the Not Out decision," said Ravi Shastri, ex-cricketer and well known television commentator, while commenting on a cricket match for a national TV audience.

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Hawk-Eye, the computer system used to track the path of the cricket ball, was first introduced in 2001. It uses computer software to combine the view from six or more cameras to construct a three dimensional representation of the cricket ball's path. So when the ball hits the batsman's pads, it predicts how the ball would have continued to travel had it not hit the pads. Today, it is used to enhance the viewing experience for television audiences. While the umpire's decision is final, commentators use Hawk-Eye's prediction to evaluate LBW decisions and provide technical analysis.

Bowling analysis

Increasingly, the virtual strip pops up on the television screen, to show the ball's motion and a ball pitch map. A computer rendering of the pitch is made where every ball is mapped from the real field to the computer rendered field. It now becomes possible to compare every ball with other balls in the over and in the match. Bowler-level statistics can then be aggregated to show where a bowler has been pitching the ball. Similarly, for the batsman, an aggregated view of his shots, the wagon wheel, is shown.

Most of the technology in cricket has been introduced by broadcasters to enhance the viewing pleasure for television audiences.

The speed gun

Statistics like bowling speed, measured using a speed gun, are of great interest to viewers. A speed gun uses radar technology to measure how radio waves are reflected by the ball, as it travels through the air after leaving the bowler's hand; and the speed is immediately displayed on our TV screens.

The eyes and ears of the stump!

The 'Stump Vision' camera was another innovative use of technology that made its entry in the late 1990s. A small camera is fitted on the stump, connected using an underground wire, to give a stump-level view of the playing field.

{quotes}The snick-o-meter is used to determine whether the ball had hit the bat, in contentious caught-behind decisions.{/quotes} A stump mike picks up all the sounds in the vicinity. Audio processing software is used to analyse the sounds that this mike picks up. Ambient noise (like crowd noise) is cancelled out from the sound picked up by this mike, to highlight relevant sounds like faint nicks of the ball on the bat.

These are technologies that we have all become familiar with. And television broadcasters are looking at yet newer technologies that can enhance the kind of technical analysis provided to the viewers.

Imperfect technology

Like all computer technology, the aids used in cricket too can make mistakes. Hawk-Eye, for all the numerous cameras it uses, can still be incorrect. Pitches have uneven bounce, the amount of spin imparted to the ball cannot be measured by cameras, there is ball movement through the air; so even though Hawk-Eye tracks the ball through the 18 or so yards before it hits the batsman's pads, it can still make errors in predicting the trajectory through the remaining distance before hitting the stumps.

Similarly, the snick-o-meter can pick up sounds other than the ball hitting the bat-- like the boot movement (of the batsman or keeper), pads rubbing etc. Even the speed gun is not totally accurate. For example, the ball speed when it reaches the batsman can be different from when the ball was dispatched by the bowler.

Google could be headed for a Microsoft-size anti-trust headache

Accusations of monopolistic practices have been lobbed at Google for years, but now they are reaching a fever pitch, and investigations may be coming

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Google may soon face allegations of anti-competitive behavior in the United States similar to the way Microsoft was examined in the 1990s. The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly considering a "broad antitrust investigation" of Google, according to Bloomberg. Accusations of monopolistic practices have been lobbed at Google for several years, but now they are reaching a fever pitch following the European Commission's launch of an antitrust investigation of Google in November. Microsoft recently announced it would join the antitrust complaint against Google in Europe.

Antitrust concerns have also been raised over the search giant's plans for expanding Google Books and the company's intent to purchase ITA, a flight data aggregation company. The FTC is reportedly waiting on the Department of Justice to consider possible antitrust implications from Google's ITA deal before launching a broader investigation. The DOJ in January was said to be preparing to file an antitrust challenge against Google, but that threat has yet to materialize.

[ Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. ]

Beyond search
Google owns about 66 percent of the U.S. search market, according to the latest numbers from comScore. But Google has moved beyond search to become a dominant player in mobile phones with the Android operating system. The company is also hoping to create the largest digitized library of the world's books that is completely searchable with Google Books. Google is working on a music retail service to compete with Apple's iTunes, and a recent report by the Guardian said Google's YouTube is hoping to become "the home of live sports broadcasting online" for major North American sports leagues, such as the NBA and NHL.

Add to all that the massive amounts of user data Google has on its servers, and it's no surprise that regulators want to consider reining in the company.

Dell updates PowerConnect switches

Dell updated its enterprise Ethernet switch lineup on Thursday with the PowerConnect 7000 series, adding high-availability features, low power consumption and POE (power over Ethernet) to its equipment offerings for use in several parts of a LAN.

The 7000 series consists of stackable Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches in a variety of configurations with 24 or 48 ports. The 7000 line does not replace the PowerConnect 6000 line, which has been on the market since 2004, but brings in new features that some enterprises need in edge, aggregation and data-center top-of-rack switches, said Larry Hart, senior director of network marketing.

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Dell accounted for only about 1 percent of global Ethernet switch revenue in 2010, according to research company Dell'Oro Group. But the company is focused on being a full-line supplier of IT gear even as rivals such as Cisco and Hewlett-Packard extend their own lineups to span enterprises. In this rivalry, Dell claims as its selling point the ability to build a complete infrastructure that can accommodate products from a variety of vendors.

Though the 6000 line was based on Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet and related technologies have seen many advances in the past several years. Dell took advantage of these in the new set of six switches. They meet the IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet standard, which reduces power consumption through techniques such as putting individual ports into sleep mode during periods of low traffic, Hart said. This can cut per-port power consumption by as much as 50 percent, according to Dell.

Dell is also including both 24-port and 48-port switches in the line with IEEE 802.3at Power over Ethernet+, a standard for delivering as much as 30 watts of power over Ethernet cables. This technology can power devices including robotic surveillance cameras, video phones and dual-band Wi-Fi access points, without the need for separate cables, Hart said.

Versions of the 7000 switches designed for enterprise data centers come with an auto-configuration utility for iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface), which allows administrators to set up iSCSI arrays using Dell EqualLogic products with just one click.

The 7000 series also comes with several features for high availability, including redundant and hot-swappable fans and power supplies. The PowerConnect 7048R can be reconfigured to reverse the airflow through the switch depending on the data-center layout being used.

Each switch comes with four 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports that can be used as uplinks or as interconnects among the switches. As many as 12 of the switches can be linked together and assigned a single IP address so they can be managed as a single switch with as many as 576 Gigabit Ethernet ports using the 48-port switches, Hart said. The line also includes options for fiber Ethernet interfaces.

The 7000 series is available immediately worldwide, with starting prices ranging from about US$3,300 to $6,500. The 6000 series remains on the market for customers who don't need the features of the 7000 line. The older switches have starting prices between $1,750 and $3,600.

IBM's New Software Platform To Help Create Intelligent Products
IBM's new software platform and related services will help manufacturers create more intelligent products at low cost.

To help manufacturers and designers create products that enable people to live and work in a smarter manner, IBM has launched a new software platform.


To help manufacturers and designers create products that enable people to live and work in a smarter manner, IBM has launched a new software platform. The software, with related services, will provide capabilities that support collaboration, and help reduce the cost and risk of bringing more intelligent, instrumented and interconnected products to market, the company claims.

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It will provide a fully integrated software delivery platform that addresses requirements, design, development and management -- across electrical, mechanical and software technologies.

The platforms and services launched include:

* IBM Rational Team Webtop -- the integrated user front-end to increase communication and productivity

* IBM Rational DOORS -- that enables an expanded set of stakeholders to review, analyse and modify requirements

* IBM Rational Change and IBM Rational Synergy -- that help companies improve application quality

* IBM Rational Team Concert -- that provides new levels of scalability and security to enable collaborative and agile development among distributed product teams, and

* IBM Rational Rhapsody -- that helps identify and correct potential design flaws as early as possible.

All these platforms and services will allow manufacturers to bring out low-cost but intelligent products.