First Windows XP now Exchange 2003: What happens when the clock stops on support?

The cut-off date for Windows XP support next year has been ruffling feathers but another widely-used Microsoft product, Exchange 2003, shares the same end-of-life deadline — and its demise is prompting some IT departments to rethink their whole approach.

Many of the organisations using the venerable email server, still estimated to account for between one-fifth and one-third of installations, may take the 8 April 2014 deadline as a cue to assess whether to stay on-premise or look to a hosted service, according to experts.

Ovum principal analyst Roy Illsley thinks those organisations now need to face up to the issues that come with unsupported products but is unsurprised that so many have stuck with Exchange 2003 for so long.

"The trouble with those sorts of technologies is they don't get upgraded as a matter of course in lots of organisations. If it's there, it's working, it's doing a job, it's forgotten about," Illsley said.

"All these [end-of-support deadlines] are coming and it's a case of all the organisations recognising that they've got either to do something or put up with the risk," he said.

"I suspect in this case they are not going to put up with the risk of having Exchange 2003 unsupported, because it's got information that could potentially be used by anybody and everybody. So most will probably move to a hosted-type service. Some people might go to Google and Gmail and stuff like that but most will stick with Microsoft but move to a more hosted Microsoft product."

David McLeman, managing director at cloud services firm Ancoris, said the hardware upgrade implicit in a move away from Exchange 2003 will also influence people's decisions and cause them to reassess the arguments in favour of staying on-premise.

"What's happening is that you've still got a substantial base of people who have to make a change — and of course moving from Exchange 2003 is largely for most people going to need a hardware change, as well as an OS change and an application change. So it's quite a big decision," McLeman said.

"Many organisations are now saying, 'Actually this is the time — let's revisit the whole thing. Do we need to be on-premise or not?' We're seeing a substantial uptick of people saying, yes, let's go cloud," he said.

"There are a group of organisations that are staying on-premise and upgrading to Exchange 2010. But particularly when you get into the mid-market a really significant number of people are considering cloud and then that boils down to either going Office 365 or Google."

According to McLeman, whose company is a Google Apps reseller, organisations are also taking next year's end-of-support deadlines as an opportunity to rethink the desktop and the assumption that it is going to be Windows only.

"Most people realise that the future desktop is going to be a mixture of Windows PCs. We're seeing some sectors deploy Macs, we're seeing Chromebooks just starting to uptick now that Google has been promoting them more heavily since Christmas, and of course you have tablets," he said.

Unlike a desktop migration involving Windows XP, there is still time before next April to move away from Exchange 2003 either on-premise or into the cloud, according to Ovum's Roy Illsley.

"In terms of Exchange 2003, you've not missed the boat — you've still got time to do it. I'd say, if you wanted a rough figure, three months would be a fair project timescale to move an average number of mailboxes off and stick them somewhere else, probably in the cloud — Office 365 or something like that," he said.

"There are tools and stuff available to do an Exchange migration much more rapidly. That may be part of their desktop move — that may be part of what they do and it may enforce what they do about XP and what they move with the desktop and what they take off the desktop," he said.

Ancoris's David McLeman said his firm's migration business to Google Apps has doubled in the past 12 months.

"We see the tide is coming in very fast now. One of the factors in many cases is organisations are wanting to change the way people are working. Whereas a lot of these projects kick off as an email migration, they very much become a project about better collaborative working," McLeman said.

Source : zdnet

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iPad 5 release date update from production hints

We have an update for you now, for those who are already thinking about picking up Apple’s iPad 5.

The annual refresh rumors are slowing starting to pick up pace, with a release date for the iPad 5 5th generation now looking to happen sometime in September. The big debate though, is whether Apple will bring out a product that could even tempt iPad 4 and iPad Mini owners to upgrade.

With an iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 also on the way this year and hogging all of the limelight, you could be forgiven for forgetting about an annual refresh to the iPad. Apple shocked some consumers with the iPad 4, whilst at the same time discontinuing the relatively new (at the time) iPad 3.

Production information on the next iPad is now starting to emerge out of Taiwan, with well known publication DigiTimes claiming that a 9.7-inch iPad 5 will begin its volume production as early as July. Their sources within the supply chain have added that volume production in July will then pave the way for “2-3 million units” to start shipping in September.

Detailed specifications of the device are obviously still a mystery at this point, but you can expect Apple to retain their popular Retina Display features that measure in at 2,048 x 1,536 pixels.

However, one possible addition to the design of the iPad 5, could be a slimmer display bezel around the edges, which Apple unveiled last year with the iPad Mini.

It offers a near edge-to-edge factor about the iPad Mini and Apple could be looking to replicate it with their bigger version in September. DigiTimes are also claiming that the iPad 5 could be 25-33% lighter than the iPad 4, which is a huge change in weight if revealed to be accurate.

Apple has been cutting down on weight with each product iteration over the years, so a 25-33% lighter iPad 5 compared to the iPad 4 will definitely raise one or two eyebrows. All eyes are on Apple’s WWDC 2013 event in June, when hopefully Apple will give some hints on their next iPad and iPhone.

If you are planning to upgrade to the iPad 5, let us know what you would like to see in terms of design and features. Do you support copying the slimmer bezel as seen on the iPad Mini?

Source: product-reviews.net

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Galaxy S3 Android 4.2.2 update with Galaxy S4 features

We have some fantastic news for those of you with a Samsung Galaxy S3 handset, as it looks like you are about to get a taste of Android 4.2.2 very early. Samsung has yet to bring the software to the S3 officially, but a early download is now available for those who are willing to install it manually.

You may want to take up this opportunity as well, as installing Android 4.2.2 on the Samsung Galaxy S3 will actually grant you some new features and functionality that are available on the newer S4.

More specifically, users will be granted the new S-Voice features from the S4, new screen modes and also the addition of voice controls as well, which is another previously exclusive feature on the S4.

Perhaps more importantly, you don’t need to have a rooted handset in order to install this. The guys over at Sam Mobile have provided a download link, plus installation instructions to help beginners get Android 4.2.2 up and running on the S4. They make a note to say that this is pre-release software, so it should end up largely the same build that Samsung will officially release in the coming weeks.

If you are interested in downloading this today, make sure you backup your data beforehand, as this will wipe data on the device including the SD card. To give evidence that it works without any problems, Sam Mobile has also provided a video demonstration, letting you see close hand that Android 4.2.2 is able to run on the Samsung Galaxy S3.

It is fantastic news indeed for all Galaxy S3 owners, but hopefully we’ll see some similar news for those looking for an Android 4.2.2 update on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Let us know how you get on with this if you are planning to install. How is your device looking now on Android 4.2.2?

Source: product-reviews.net

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Can Yahoo Ignore Tumblr's Dark Side?

When my daughter begged me a few years ago to go on Tumblr so she could engage with Harry Potter fandom, I said no. I was worried about what else she might encounter on the vast blogging service.

You know what I’m talking about. I feared she’d stumble onto porn.

Tumblr, which Yahoo is buying for $1.1 Billion is not a porn site, far from it. Spend any time on the spotlight page and you see it’s a vast sea of insightful and entertaining posts on every topic imaginable.

One user aptly described it this way:

Tumblr user: Don't do it. It will consume your life.
Tumblr user: It's like having a stoner conversation with the world.
Tumblr user: It's crawling with intellectual knowledge, cats, and fandom.

Yet, like any vast, largely unmoderated social platform, it’s also got a lot of porn (by some measures at least 10%), and a fair amount of potential phishing sites. And as with the rest of the web, all of this is only a search or tag away.

Don’t Ever Change

As rumors of Yahoo’s plans began to leak last week, Tumblr users grew more and more nervous. Some promised to leave Tumblr if Yahoo bought it. Others worried that Yahoo would sanitize the vibrant community.

Many used history as their guide. Geocities was a massive complex of blogs and blog rings that Yahoo bought in 1999 for $3.6 billion. A decade later, Geocities was gone.

Those concerns prompted Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to start her acquisition announcement in a most unusual way: “We promise not to screw it up.”

Considering how different the 2013 Yahoo is from the 1999 one, and even from the 2011 model, I’d say these fears are unfounded. Yahoo and Mayer are promising to use the Facebook-Instagram model, a mostly hands-off approach that accelerates the acquired company’s growth (and its own) by focusing on infrastructure, dev resources and (of course) advertising.

There won’t even be Yahoo branding on Tumblr. So where’s the concern?

Have We Seen This Before

I fear that Yahoo could have a News Corp/MySpace problem with the blogging/social network. When News Corp. bought MySpace in 2005 (for roughly half what Yahoo paid for Tumblr), they had no idea what a mess they had just inherited. It was vast, unorganized and stuffed full of unruly members who did not like to be controlled.

Within a year, it was dealing with headlines like this: Universal sues MySpace for copyright violations. And this: Girl, 14, Sues MySpace.com Over Alleged Sexual Assault.

News Corp didn’t create these problems. But as MySpace’s new parent company, it could not ignore them. The acquisition ultimately proved disastrous. News Corp sold MySpace in 2011 at a significant loss.

Does Marissa Mayer truly understand what she just bought? Tumblr is a felxible, free and great platform and social community. I liked it so much I launched my own blog, Techoti, on it. But just as with MySpace, there is a significant underbelly. In the case of Tumblr, it’s the vast amounts of adult material lurking just beneath the surface.

Tumblr is well aware of this. On its Tumblr iOS app page it warns: “You must be at least 17 years old to download this app. Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity.” The age restriction is from Apple. But the Cupertino company is reacting to what it’s seen on the blog network.

Tumblr’s Terms of Service, however, seems blissfully ignorant of this fact. They will allow anyone older than 13 to use the service. Trust me, there are images on Tumblr that no 13 year-old should see. They’d normally be classified as adult material suitable for users 18 and older.

It’s not that Tumblr is encouraging this kind of content. But they’re also doing nothing to discourage it.

New Audience, New Rules

As a site populated by teens and tweens who are likely more street savvy than their parents, this might not be a problem. But as Marissa Mayer noted, Yahoo and Tumblr have to very different demographics. With the integration of some services, like making Tumblr content visible via Yahoo search and Yahoo’s personalized news feed, some older Yahooers are about to get their first taste of Tumblr-ville.

I don’t expect that search results and news feeds will reveal any objectionable content. However, if someone follows a thread from result, to user, to reblogs and scrolls down to the occasional pornographic images, they may be more than a little shocked.

Mayer did sorta, kinda address this issue in her announcement call on Tuesday. A reporter asked about the kind of content that exists on Tumblr and how the brands she’s hoping to attract to the service might react. "It’s not as brand safe as what’s on our site,” she admitted, adding that Yahoo will address any advertisers concern about brand safety by having “good tools for targeting.”

Put simply, there’s no plan to eradicate non-brand-safe content. They’ll just steer advertisers the other way. That’s probably a good plan for brands, but doesn’t address consumers.

I think there’s tremendous upside to this acquisition: vast amounts of great, creative content, access to fervent fandoms for Harry Potter, Dr. Who, network shows and other nerdy pursuits. That’s what Yahoo doesn’t want to “screw up.”

It’s a good strategy that will last right up until the first time someone sues Yahoo for something they saw on Tumblr.

I did eventually let my daughter, now 15, join Tumblr. She’s been on for a year and loves it. She connected with her fellow Whovians and Potterheads, and thanks to all of them, got hooked on the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes. She also told me she’s learned more about life from Tumblr than she learned in school. I’m not exactly sure what this means. To be honest, I’m a little afraid to ask.

Source : mashable

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The New Flickr: What it Means for Flickr Pro Users

Yahoo unveiled some big changes to Flickr on Monday, both in terms of features and overall design. One of those changes is that free users are no longer limited to a certain number of photos; instead, everyone gets 1TB of space for their full-resolution photos.

With that change comes an end to what used to be the biggest difference between free Flickr accounts and Flickr Pro. As it turns out, that's by design. In addition to lifting the previous upload and storage limits, Flickr is quietly discontinuing its Flickr Pro accounts (existing Pro users can continue to use Flickr Pro) and shifting to a different type of upgrade model.

If you're an existing Flickr Pro user, the new changes might be confusing. We were annoyed when reading the new FAQ on account types. That's why we dug into the changes, and reached out to Yahoo for clarification on what the changes really mean for Flickr Pro users.

Which Flickr Pro Features are Now Available for Free?

The biggest advantage of Flickr Pro was that more than 200 photos were viewable in a photostream, users could only upload 100MB of photos a week and photos were not displayed in full resolution.

With the new Flickr, free users now get 1TB of photo uploads, and the maximum photo size is now 200MB (it was 10MB for free users before). What's more, all users can create collections, post to up to 60 group pools and limit the maximum image size available to others.

Free users can also upload full HD videos up to 1GB each, with playback of three minutes.

Which Features are Still Limited to Flickr Pro?

The old Flickr Pro accounts included unlimited storage space, and that means it can exceed 1TB.

Flickr Pro users also get to view view counts and referrer statistics for their images. Lots of professionals often like this feature because it shows where a photo has been used or linked across the web.

Flickr Pro users can replace photos (without having to reupload), archive high-resolution original images and enjoy an ad-free experience.

Although storage and bandwidth are unlimited, they do come with a caveat. Flickr Pro users are limited to image sizes of 50MB and video sizes of 500MB. If you want to upgrade to the larger file sizes, you'll need to convert from a Flickr Pro to a free account.

Can I Buy a New Flickr Pro Account Now?

No. Flickr Pro accounts stopped being sold as of May 20, 2013. Existing Flickr Pro users can continue to use the service or migrate to a free account.

Can I Still Keep my Flickr Pro Account?

Yes. Last year, Flickr migrated all Flickr Pro accounts into recurring accounts. As long as your account is by way of a recurring subscription (currently quarterly, yearly or for two years), you can continue to renew your account once it expires.

If your Flickr Pro account was the result of a gift certificate, it's possible that because it is not recurring, it and its benefits will end once it expires.

How Long Can I Keep My Pro Account Active?

We asked Flickr how long Flickr Pro users would be able to continue to renew their accounts and were told, "There are no plans for Pro renewals to go away."

Renewal rates will also remain the same as they are now.

What Happens if I Convert to a Free Account

Certain Flickr Pro members have the option to switch to a free account by Aug. 20, 2013.

Switching to a free account will bump users to upload limits of 200MB per photo and 1GB per video, but will also cap users at 1TB of space. Other features such as replacing photos and the ability to look up referrals and statistics will also disappear.

Users will also get ads in their experience.

For users that want to migrate to a free account, you can do so by visiting Flickr.com/Pro, clicking "learn more" and then making your choice.

Users that choose to go to a free account will receive a pro-rated refund for their Flickr Pro account.

What are the New Upgrade Options

Flickr Pro is going away, but Flickr will still offer upgrades for users.

For $49.99 a year, users can remove ads from the Flickr experience. This doesn't add any other features; it just removes ads.

It's worth noting that $49.99 a year is twice what a Flickr Pro membership used to cost.

For $499.99 a year, users can double their Flickr capacity and bring it all the way up to 2TB. Yeah — $500 for another terabyte of storage.

Frankly, if you need more than 1TB of photo storage, we think you're better off either looking at a customized Amazon S3-based solution or at other photo hosts such as SmugMug or 500px

Flickr Pro Users, Will You Stay?

Flickr Pro users, let us know what you think of the new changes to Flickr plans. Will you stay a Pro user, migrate to a free account or are you looking at Flickr alternatives? Tell us in the comments.

Source : mashable

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MacBook Air: Retina vs. Haswell – most likely 2013 release

With WWDC 2013 fast approaching it comes as no surprise that stock of the current MacBook Air is feeling a little constrained. We say this because availability of the device has begun to dry up, which only fuels speculation of a refresh.

What to expect from a 2013 MacBook Air refresh – The most likely MacBook Air upgrade for 2013 would be the Haswell processor, as this is due to hit devices in June, so this would be a perfect opportunity for Apple to unveil their thin notebook with this latest Intel CPU during WWDC next month.

If this were the case, then we should expect a faster MacBook Air in 2013, along with improved battery life. But there is also another feature that could make it onto the Apple’s thinner notebook, Retina.

There’s been speculation for a while now that we could see a 2013 MacBook Air with Retina display.

However, this feature is a controversial one, as some of our readers have expressed they have no need for an improved screen on the Air, although this is not a view shared by all, so where do you stand?

Retina vs. Haswell – Personally, Haswell is almost certain to make it into the 2013 MacBook Air refresh, with the Retina display not happening until 2014, but don’t take my word for it.

Likely 2013 MacBook Air release – According to recent rumors the new model could be released as early as the end of June, although a July release is more possible, as this was the same month the current Max OS X update was released, so it would make sense for the next-generation MacBook Air to come out with OS X 10.9 already installed. However, this would contradict what Tim Cook recently said about no new products until the fall.

Source: product-reviews.net

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YouTube reveals users now upload more than 100 hours of video per minute, as the site turns eight

These days there are few things bigger than Facebook on the Internet, but Google-owned YouTube is one of them, and today the world’s top online video service marked its eight year anniversary by revealing that it is now seeing more than 100 hours of video uploaded every minute.

That’s right, every minute. That’s quite astonishing. It works out as more than four days of video uploaded each minute.

YouTube, like Facebook, is used by more than 1 billion people per month, and it has gone from strength to strength in recent times. Back in 2011, YouTube users were adding 48 hours of video per minute, while that figure jumped to 72 hours per week last year.

YouTube paid tribute to its users and incredible milestones in a blog post (via @hunterwalk) that includes the following comment:

Over the years, you’ve continued to surprise and delight us. And the past year was no exception. Who would have guessed that a tux-rocking K-pop star would shatter records left and right or that Sesame Street would go global with 1 billion views? That’s one of our favorite things about our global audience: you’re as unpredictable as you are creative and irreverent.

This year, Google is taking the service into new territory with the recent launch of paid-for channels that are aimed at rivalling streaming services like Hulu and Netflix.

This isn’t YouTube’s first foray into original content. It kicked off its Channels program in 2011, which provides selected content partners with an undisclosed sum of funding to create content for YouTube channels. The money is not a freebie but instead an up-front payment of future advertising earnings over the next year. That encourages them to invest in equipment and talent to produce compelling shows — that’s the aim, at least.

Channels began in the US, but has since been expanded to a range of new markets, including, the UK, France, Germany and Japan, with more expansions planned.

There was controversy this year as a number of partners were reported to have not been offered fresh terms. But, with YouTube’s subscription plans now public, Channels appears to have refocused on upcoming content makers, which might go towards explaining this.

Note: Thanks to those who picked up on the error in the initial headline. The amount is 100 hours of video per minute, not 100 million…just yet. 

Cue Doctor Evil…via YouTube, of course.

Source: thenextweb.com

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Should your company opt for e-commerce or social commerce?

It's not accident that the successful restaurants in your town (no matter where that happens to be) are probably located in close proximity to each other. Competition is a healthy thing. After all, did you know that the Latin background for the word "compete" means come together. As in, it takes more than one company or business to build a viable market.

On the Internet, of course, you won't necessarily have a guaranteed neighbor to help with building visibility for your company's e-commerce storefront.

Sure, search algorithms are getting smarter every day in their quest to help individuals find products and services that are local to them. But it probably makes sense to place your business in better context. That's why, for example, so many antique dealers flocked to eBay in its early days and why there are specific marketplaces organized across the Amazon platform.

But increasingly, I think that smaller companies will find it beneficial to congregate at sites that are far more attuned to their needs. The quintessential example of this (at least so far for me personally) is probably Etsy, the marketplace built up to support the local crafts movement.

Recently, I had a chance to speak with the CEO of another niche marketplace, one that cropped up to support the burgeoning market for hunting, fishing and outdoor gear. That site, called Wide Open Spaces, hopes to use social media exposure to drive sales for the relatively fragmented community of retailers and manufacturers that serve this space.

"We want to help that guy who makes lures out of his shop in Texas," said Denis O'Dwyer, founder and CEO of the Austin-based company behind the site.

This isn't a small market: as of 2011, some federal government statistics suggest that about 37 million Americans were involved with hunting or fishing. Each sportsperson spent about $2,400 annually on their sport -- an estimately $90 billion per year according to another datapoint cited by O'Dwyer. That has translated into a community of about 125,000 members for Wide Open Spaces, as of the time I interviewed him earlier this spring.

Why in the world would a small company want to use a social commerce site like Wide Open Spaces rather than focusing exclusively on its own e-commerce strategy? Here are several benefits, which are specific to Wide Open Spaces, but represent the core value proposition behind social commerce sites in general:

• Access to a qualified community of buyers: O'Dwyer calls email the "original social channel." Wide Open Spaces uses it regularly to offer deals of anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent off the products and services on the site. Retailers and manufacturers pay the site a percentage on each transaction, depending on their sales commitment.

• Social marketing exposure: One of the biggest gripes among small business owners is that they don't have enough time to nurture social media such as Twitter or Facebook. Wide Open Spaces actually will handle this for its brand partners, writing blog posts on the network and promoting suppliers on Pinterest and Facebook. (Twitter hasn't caught on as quickly, according to O'Dwyer.)

• Built-in distribution: Of the approximately 350 "brand partners" that currently use Wide Open Spaces, O'Dwyer said approximately 225 are small businesses that would otherwise find it difficult to find shelf space with a distributor or retailer. 

Considered in this context, it might not be a bad idea for your company to affiliate itself with a social commerce marketplace for its particular industry, especially if it would like to increase its mix of e-commerce to real-world revenue.

Source : zdnet

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Android 4.3 Release Expected In The ‘Coming Months’

Well before the schedule for Google I/O 2013 was even announced, it was rumored that Google will announce a new Android update at the conference. This was an easy guess, considering that the company has traditionally done so in the past. Back then it was rumored that Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie will be unveiled at this event.

A few days ago contradictory rumors started coming in, claiming Google would be announcing Android 4.3 instead. Day one of I/O 2013 has gone by and Google made no mention of a new Android update in its 3 hour long keynote. However, according to a new rumor, Android 4.3 release is going to take place in ‘the coming months.’

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group claims this in a new press release. They say that Google has committed to add support for Bluetooth Smart in the future versions of Android OS, Bluetooth Smart is a power efficient standard that is already supported by iOS as well as various Android devices such as Galaxy S4, Nexus 4 etc. According to the group, Android 4.3 is going to be the first version of this operating system to support Bluetooth Smart.

That said, Google is still keeping quiet on the release of a new update, and we can’t really be sure until the company makes an official announcement.

Source : ubergizmo

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Is Marissa Mayer About to Buy Tumblr for $1 Billion?

In a deal that would vault Yahoo into the premiere league of social media, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is said to be closing in on a $1 billion acquisition deal with David Karp, the CEO of New York-based Tumblr.

Details of the talks leaked out earlier Thursday via AllThingsD, a site which prides itself on its Yahoo sources in particular. A later report in AdWeek, via its own sources, cited $1 billion as the figure currently under discussion. Coincidentally, that is said to be the valuation Tumblr was going to get at its next funding round.

Both sites were cautious to emphasize that the talks could come to naught. Mayer is clearly interested; she's known and admired Karp's New York-based site for years. Tumblr and its 107 million microblogs would add another 15 billion pageviews a month to Mayer's hoard. Most important of all, it could make Yahoo look cool again.

Given its aging audience, Yahoo's biggest problem with advertisers right now, the hunt for cool companies is high on Mayer's agenda. That would be why she offered $30 million to a startup run by a charismatic 17-year-old.

The question remains whether Karp is ready to sell, and whether he believes Tumblr has a better path ahead of it as a media company without Yahoo's help. (Naturally, we've reached out to both companies.)

Tumblr hasn't put a step wrong in the last few months, as far as investors and marketers are concerned, and it's growing like a weed. It's also hitting all the hot button tech and social media targets. Mobile audience overtaking web audience? Check. Ads on mobile? Check. Great shareable memes such as White Men Wearing Google Glass? Check. A platform so cool the White House is forced to join it? Check.

A $1 billion price tag would make Tumblr the biggest purchase since Facebook bought Instagram last year — although that deal ended up costing closer to $715 million, thanks to slumping Facebook share prices.

While we update this story, let us know in the comments: would these companies make a good match? Or should Karp stay independent? 

Source : mashable

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