Bitrix24 delivers powerful collaboration to smaller enterprises for free
Enterprise social network and collaboration specialist Bitrix24 has released a new version of its free software for smaller businesses. The new product allows users to create, edit and collaborate on documents online, without having MS Office installed on their PCs.
Bitrix 24 has its own instant messenger for video and group chats, in addition users now have access to video conferencing and screen sharing capabilities. Email connectors allow it to work with MS Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo!, iCloud and other popular mail services.
More than half of tech professionals would take a pay cut to work from home
Working from home is something of a luxury, but it's also not easy -- this is something I know from personal experience. I've been a home worker for around a decade now, but it does take some getting used to. Tell people that you work from home and there's usually a look of jealousy in the eyes the ones who have to stay behind at the office each evening. Home working means being able to pick your own hours, not having to deal with the daily commute, and not having to do the coffee round, but would you be happy to pay for the privilege?
We already know that most people would rather work from home than have to trudge to the office every day, but a new report from GetVoIP reveals that taking a pay cut would be an acceptable compromise for most tech professionals. A survey of 501 workers shows that 53 percent would be willing to earn a smaller pay check each month if it meant they could work from the comfort of their own home.
VictorOps improves collaboration for development teams
With its collaborative platform for DevOps teams, Colorado-based VictorOps aims to combine the power of people and data to solve IT problems in real time.
VictorOps builds on the concept of a live timeline of alert data, platform intelligence and team interaction to create IT situational awareness. In addition it seamlessly orchestrates incident identification, escalation, notification, and remediation among team members regardless of their physical location or the time of day.
Australian decision management software comes to the US
Australia-based software company Hexigo is set to bring its cloud-based decision management tool to the US. But rather than just jumping on the collaboration bandwagon, this software is slightly different from the raft of project management and business social network tools we've seen of late.
Launched in Australia in February/March 2013 and already in use by a number of large organizations including government agencies, Hexigo is a decision tool. It brings people together from across business units, or even across companies, and creates a centralized decision history. This means that once a decision is reached there's a trail showing all of the discussions leading up to it. This helps with knowledge retention when employees leave or move on to other roles. The information can be used to educate new team members, guide strategic planning and keep projects on track.
RealNetworks simplifies video sharing with RealPlayer Cloud
Now here's a blast from the past. RealNetworks (remember it?) is launching RealPlayer Cloud, a new service that aims to make it easier than ever to share videos between devices and across platforms. The service has been developed to help avoid the need to transfer videos from one device to another or upload them to an online storage repository ready to download elsewhere.
The idea is that users do not have to worry about the platform videos will be viewed on, or the format they are saved in. There are a huge number of video codecs in use, so the appeal of something that helps to overcome compatibility issues is understandable. There are plenty of services that already make it possible to stream video wirelessly from a PC to an iPad or other device. This is nothing new, nor is the ability to pick up from where you left off watching when you switch devices.
Clarizen links with JIRA to streamline development
Work collaboration and project management specialist Clarizen has announced that it now provides connectivity to JIRA, Atlassian's bug and issue tracking software. The integration allows users to plan projects, portfolios, resources, budgets and more, while seamlessly integrating research and development activities from JIRA to Clarizen and vice versa.
"While Clarizen customers appreciate our native functionality, they are also looking for ways to seamlessly interact with their other mission-critical systems," says Guy Shani, chief strategy officer at Clarizen. "A core part of our business is to continually support the needs of our customers, so we listened to those who have standardized on JIRA in their R&D environment. Rather than managing bugs and issues in a silo, our new integration allows the data to sync with broader projects and cross-departmental teams using Clarizen. The bi-directional nature of the integration now closes the loop between project management and R&D, allowing teams to fully implement agile methodologies".
SkyDrive swells to even greater size
Microsoft has taken over the tech news today with its Surface 2 launch, but the company doesn't stop there, keeping the ball rolling with a bit more news, this time from the cloud. SkyDrive has become tightly integrated with today's marquee products, Windows and Office, as well as being a competitor to rival services from Google and Amazon. Now the company announces a new storage tier.
"Today, we are happy to introduce a new storage option to add 200 GB of additional storage to your SkyDrive for $100 per year", says Omar Shahine, Group Program Manager for SkyDrive. For perspective, Microsoft describes this as enough space to store one photo per hour from birth through college graduation -- this obviously depends on average image size, which continues to grow.
Google releases a refreshed Quickoffice for Android and iOS -- for free
When I bought the first-generation iPad in 2010, I intended to use it for taking notes in college classes. Unfortunately, the iPad didn't come with an office suite and Microsoft's was not available. And so, I was forced to try a bunch of alternatives. Ultimately, I found one that stood out among the rest -- Quickoffice. I found it to be complete and a pleasure to use.
While my iPad is long gone, Quickoffice has followed me to Android with great results. However, Google bought my beloved Quickoffice in June 2012 and I became very nervous. My concern was that the software development would cease under Google's leadership. I am happy to say that my concerns were for naught -- Google announces today that QuickOffice has been updated and is now free.
New My Yahoo aims to make the internet personal again
Not content with its new logo, Yahoo is now pushing the personal homepage with the relaunch of My Yahoo. It's a blast from the past in many ways. The personalized portal is something that had virtually died off, but Yahoo is keen to dust it off, give it a polish and entice people back into using it.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to be able to access everything in one place, the resurrected My Yahoo just may well appeal. "Resurrected" might not be the right word. My Yahoo never really went away, it just faded into obscurity and everyone forgot about it. But now it's back with knobs on -- and quite a lot of purple.
PowerArchiver 2013 improves performance, adds cloud support and encryption tools
It’s taken a little while, but ConeXware has finally released PowerArchiver 2013 (aka version 14). We’re not really surprised that it’s taken some time to get through beta, though: this is no cosmetic upgrade, rather it’s crammed with significant changes and major new features.
Extensive cloud support means you can upload, add files or download from services like Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Box.et, Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive.
New cloud storage technology expands scalability and performance
San Francisco-based storage specialist Riverbed Technology has announced an expansion of its Whitewater cloud storage appliance family with the launch of new hardware and updates to its operating system. These provide greater capacity, faster speeds and more replication options.
The latest models have up to triple the cache of previous versions and can support up to 14.4 petabytes of logical data. Enhancements to the Whitewater Operating System (WWOS 3.0) include a 10 gigabit network interface and the ability to pair devices in order to replicate data to another location making it ideal for real-time backups and hot recovery sites and for integrating with public cloud services.
AT&T teams with Microsoft to bring enterprise security to the cloud
Microsoft and AT&T have announced a collaboration to allow enterprise customers to connect to Microsoft's cloud platform using a private network. The solution will use cloud integration technology to pair VPN with Azure and allow customers to benefit from enterprise grade security with as much as 50 percent lower latency compared to a normal public Internet connection.
"This is a game changer for businesses that have been seeking a more secure way to reap the benefits of cloud services," says Andy Geisse, CEO, AT&T Business Solutions. "By bringing the security and performance of our virtual private network to Windows Azure, we expect to energize enterprise demand for cloud solutions".
Apple gives iCloud.com an iOS 7 makeover
Today is iOS 7 day! But there is more than just a new operating system for your iPhone, iPad and iPod to look forward to; Apple also has a redesigned iCloud website for you to use. Unsurprisingly the new design takes heavy inspiration from the look of iOS 7, mimicking the floaty, layered styling that graces the new mobile OS.
Log into your account and you'll immediately be greeted by a muted, blurry background, over the top of which various icons appear to float. Apps including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders and Find My iPhone all now sport the iOS 7 look, but the beta editions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote retain their older design. It looks as though there might still be a little work to do -- not all icons have been redesigned, for instance.
Manage your electronic life with doxo
We all have information relating to banks, insurance companies, utilities, retailers and more that we need to keep. But now that we increasingly manage our accounts online how do you cope with saving statements and other important information that you receive electronically?
The online organizer service doxo thinks it has the answer and has added email to the range of information it can collate. The doxo Email Import option automatically imports, organizes and archives all of the emails for key accounts that you receive through your inbox and it works with Gmail, Outlook.com and all the leading mail providers.
Wrike aims to make online work easier and more productive
California-based project management software provider Wrike has launched a new version of its software with a simplified interface and -- no prizes for guessing -- online collaboration features.
The "Graphite" version of Wrike has a redesigned user interface along with innovative task scheduling and time management. Andrew Filev, Wrike's CEO and founder says, "Simple, clean, and lucid -- these were the key topics of our design discussions while we were working our magic on Wrike Graphite. We wanted to find the perfect balance between our users' habits and a new level of efficiency in day-to-day work, which we tried to implement in every element of the new UI".
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