IBM Unveils New Version of Its Web Conferencing Service

BusinessGreen reports that IBM is getting into the hosted Web conferencing game through the latest version of its Lotus Sametime Unyte service.

IBM also struck a partnership deal with InterCall, which will offer Lotus Sametime Unyte to its 400,000 customers beginning January 1, when the program launches. A differentiating factor to IBM’s offering, says this eWeek article, is that IBM supports Sametime Unyte on its own servers, eliminating the need to for customers to have the application installed on their premises.

The service is available in Brazilian, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish with prices ranging from $48 per month to $99 per month. In addition, the new version of the application also supports Lotus Notes and Sametime instant messaging programs.

Environmentally Friendly Batteries Coming to HP Laptops

After working together on it for three years, Hewlett-Packard and Boston Power have announced that environmentally friendly batteries will be an upgrade option on HP laptops, reports The Boston Globe.

The Sonata lithium-ion batteries are designed to last longer and don’t contain PVC plastic or heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic or mercury. They also can be recycled.

The batteries, which will be available early next year, will cost $20 to $30 more than traditional batteries, reports CNET News.

Intel to announce latest processor plans

Next week’s Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai will see the manufacturer outline its plans for the latest desktop PC and server processors for 2008.

Among the highlights will be a multi-processor, six-core chip codenamed Dunnington, that will boost the processing capacity of virtualised environments.

The new chip is significant because it allows the migration of live virtual machines based on different software micro-architectures from one computer to another with no downtime, continuous server availability and no adverse affect on application transactions.

“The instruction sets in different virtualisation software platforms are slightly different,” said Boyd Davis, general manager of Intel’s server platform group marketing at its digital enterprise group.

One feature not yet supported by virtualisation software is input/output (I/O) virtualisation. A standard specification is currently being defined for the technology, which can isolate individual tasks such as graphics processing, anti-virus scanning or network connectivity from other system tasks.

This can boost performance, reliability and security in desktop PCs and replace multiple server network cards used for LAN links.

Intel claims to have the hardware. It says it is simply waiting for suppliers, such as VMware, Microsoft, Red Hat and Novell, to deliver the software to take advantage of the capability.

“The specification is not complete ­ the I/O cards are compliant, but we have yet to see virtual machine monitor software to take advantage of it,” said Davis.
The Dunnington chip is expected to ship later this year.

Skin-tenna: Antenna That Uses Skin To Transmit Signals

OCTOBER 17th, 2008 |

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed a wireless antenna that channels signals along human skin could broadcast signals over your body to connect up medical implants or portable gadgets. The new power-efficient approach could make more of established medical devices like pacemakers or help future implants distributed around the body work together.

Skin-tenna works by taking advantage of the creeping wave effect that allows waves to travel along a surface, due to mismatches between the air and the surface, and allows wireless devices (like pacemakers) to communicate more efficiently with devices anywhere on the body. Signals are channeled out sideways along the skin by this reflection and the conducting plate. That makes the antenna more efficient, which could double the battery life of body-worn gadgets.

The future may be filled with wearable device are powered by body heat or water or bacteria and communicate by sending signals along the surface of our skin. Now that’s a future that sounds exciting.