VISTA, California — For those who think the iPhone can’t meet all important human needs, Directed Electronics begs to differ. The car security and audio company has released an iPhone app that allows owners to control their vehicle from the comfort of a phone or an iPod Touch.
As long have you have one of the aforementioned devices and a Viper SmartStart-equipped vehicle, you will never have a need for a key fob again. The app will control the locking mechanism of your car, open the trunk and even activate the alarm. A “Smart Start” button right in the middle of the screen also acts as a remote starter.
The coolest feature of this application is the fact that, as long as you have a signal on AT&T’s 3G network (or are connected to WiFi, for Touch users), you have control of these functions. You will no longer have to worry about not being in range to activate the alarm or even remotely start your car during the wintertime.
The deal between Cisco, EMC and VMware announced last week may look familiar enough on paper. Technology companies join forces all the time, and in the vast majority of cases it never amounts to anything except a press release and a “free” lunch for anyone brave enough to sit through the initial presentation.
This one may be different, though, and it’s not just because of the players involved. It’s the technology itself–the maturity of enough pieces to make everything work together–coupled with a real business need for change within data centers. Timing is everything, and this one looks like a bulls-eye. Good timing is what made the deal between Intel ( INTC - news - people ) andMicrosoft ( MSFT - news - people ) so significant for the PC. It’s also what made the combination of AT&T ( T - news -people ) and Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) work so well for the iPhone.
The business case is simple enough. Many IT departments have been stockpiling technology for decades. Some of it is incompatible, some of it is unnecessary, and rarely does any CIO know exactly what everything does or how it interacts. Even worse, most of it is incredibly inefficient, which has raised the operating expenses to the point where even the CFO has to take notice.
This is why almost every CIO on the planet is looking at virtualization, cloud computing (private or public) and anything else that will simplify the internal mess, reduce redundancy and improve security. And after nearly a decade, all of these technologies have been banged around enough to attain a reasonable level of confidence.
What’s new in this whole scheme is flexible utilization, and it’s been a piece that has been sorely lacking. Amazon’s cloud approach is a great example of this. A customer can provision servers or turn them off within minutes, rather than the usual weeks or months it takes for an internal IT department. Cisco‘s( CSCO - news - people ) approach is to do just that with its Vblock technology, which can add virtual machines as needed and lop them off when they’re not needed.
“Storage is underutilized 40% to 60%,” said Gary Moore, senior vice president for services at Cisco. “And when you go to provision new applications, it takes four to six months. We can do 250 applications in a weekend.”
On Monday, Cisco ( CSCO - news - people ) plans to announce a broad set of new collaboration software tools for instant messaging, e-mail, social networking, videoconferencing, document and video sharing, many of which go head to head with similar offerings from Microsoft‘s (MSFT - news - people ) Live Meeting and Exchange messaging products, as well as enterprise collaboration tools from IBM (IBM - news - people ).
Most threatening to Microsoft among those announcements, according to Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala, may be a new online e-mail offering that Cisco calls Webex Email, an integration of the Postpath e-mail service it acquired last year with the Webex online conferencing platform it bought in 2007. The goal: to catch Microsoft customers in the middle of their move from the on-premises to cloud-based e-mail offerings and woo them to Cisco’s platform. “If Cisco can catch users in the middle of this transition, it gives them a real shot at this market,” Kerravala says.
Google ( GOOG - news - people ) and IBM have both launched their own attempts to own the Web-based mail box of the future with Gmail and IBM’s iNotes (See: “IBM Aims To Undercut Gmail“). But Cisco has a new trick: Its software-as-a-service e-mail uses the same protocol as Microsoft Outlook, allowing users to read their e-mail through the same interface that they’re accustomed to, despite the fact that their e-mail will now be hosted on the Web and also viewable through Cisco’s online software from any location. “Users can rip out their exchange server and retain the same experience,” says Murali Sitaram, a Cisco vice president for collaboration products. Cisco declined to reveal the pricing for any of its products ahead of their official launch.
Cisco’s wide-ranging launch extends well beyond e-mail. The company is planning to offer what it calls internally an Enterprise Collaboration Platform, a shared workspace that can be hosted online or within a company’s firewalls for security purposes. The platform will function as a sort of hybrid of Google Apps and Facebook, allowing users to blog or share documents, instant message and video conference.
Like Facebook or other social platforms, the real value of the Enterprise Collaboration Platform will come when third-party developers create more applications for the service, says Burton Group ( BURUY.PK - news - people ) analyst Mike Gotta. Cisco is offering an application programming interface to programmers who want to sell their apps through the platform. “Right now it’s really just a plate,” says Gotta. “We’re waiting for the food.”
Google Blog post and Engadget post both discuss how Google Voice (sign up here; the new requests are happening more quickly these days!) can take over for the voicemail on your cell phone. (current google voice folks : hit this, then choose “Activate Google voicemail on this phone” by your cell number listed there; follow instructions carefully)
Extremely handy, since you can now check those voicemails over the phone (@ your GV number), or via email as a clickable audio link. In addition, if you need to keep a copy of the message, you can download it from GB as an .mp3 file.
Application Development Addresses Voice Services and Data
Voice services continue to play a central role in mobile communications, even as data grows. Application developers have created a number of voicemail and messaging services that take advantage of call forwarding capabilities. Sprint announced today that it will not charge customers for certain types of call forwarding. Conditional call forwarding for busy calls or calls not answered using the customer’s wireless phone will be free, beginning mid-November. (Standard charges will continue to apply for immediate call forwarding.)3 This change will give Sprint customers the opportunity to access third-party voice services, including the new voicemail feature in Google VoiceTM.
Google Voice lets users manage and control their voice communications and comes with a suite of voicemail and text messaging features. On Monday, Google announced it will offer a Google Voice feature that allows mobile phone users to take advantage of Google Voice without having to sign up for a Google Voice phone number. Further illustrating its open, collaborative approach, Sprint is working with Google to develop additional functionality to support services such as Google Voice that will deliver an even richer experience to Sprint customers.
“We’re excited Sprint customers will be able to take advantage of Google Voice voicemail with their mobile phones. We look forward to continuing this relationship and working closely with Sprint in the future,” said Bradley Horowitz, vice president of Product Management at Google. “Free call forwarding and Sprint’s Open approach create more opportunities for developers, large and small, to build innovative and useful applications.”
Here’s the small print:
3 Although no charges will be applied for conditional call forwarding (meaning busy calls or calls not answered), some Sprint customers may incur a $0.20 per-minute charge if they choose to forward calls directly into voicemail or to another number without first allowing the call to try to reach the number and getting a busy signal/no answer. This is called unconditional call forwarding (immediate).
Also :
“Looks like it will be free on 11/08/09! ”
“Google Voice™ – starting 11/8/09, all Sprint price plans will include free conditional (no answer/busy) call forwarding (*73,*74,*28). ”
“As of now we only officially support the following carriers listed on our site (Alltel, AT&T, Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon). We are working on extending the support to more carriers soon. Please note that Google voicemail for your existing number won’t work with phone plans that don’t support conditional call forwarding. Currently, T-mobile prepaid plans do not support this feature. Please contact your phone carrier for more information.”
For all IPhone and IPod Touch users!! Michael Roberts and 3 friends have just launched a new application (game) for your ipod and phone. Please check it out!! It’s really fun & cool and if you like it, please send this on to all your friends that have an IPhone or ITouch!! Please download it and see what you think! Thanks!
Let Mike Roberts know what you think of it; he hasn’t had time to do much on his website lately with work and family, but his contact info at the bottom is still good
