NetFlipper.com

Microsoft’s Office 2010 products are rolling toward the beach, and the first wave hit Wednesday with the public beta release of Exchange Server 2010. The final release version is expected later this year.

The widely used email server has been designed to work well in cloud computing. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant described this Exchange as “the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service.”

‘Improve the User Experience’

The company is also promoting new integrated e-mail archives and features it said will help “reduce costs and improve the user experience.” The integrated archives can make storing and querying e-mail easier, thus helping companies with compliance and other legal requirements.

From an IT manager’s point of view, Microsoft said Exchange 2010 can help lower costs by offering more flexible deployment and management options, such as being deployed on-premises, as a service from Microsoft or its partners, or both.

Enhanced management features include simplified, always-on communications and disaster recovery, and better performance when running lower-cost, direct-attached storage.

The new Exchange also has a number of features to make users’ lives easier. MailTips warns users “before they commit an e-mail faux pas,” such as sending what could be a sensitive subject to a large number of recipients or recipients outside the organization. Voice Mail Previews offers text previews of voice mail in Outlook, and Ignore Conversation features something that could appeal to any busy user — combining related e-mails into a single view to lessen clutter.

‘Evolutionary Step’

Laura DiDio, an analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp., called the new Exchange “an evolutionary step forward, and one that Microsoft had to take.”

She noted in particular that 32-bit and 64-bit versions are “essential” for modern IT departments, and she described the integrated archive functionality as…

Cincinnati – April 15, 2009 – Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a global leader in relationship management, announced today it has won a contract renewal to provide comprehensive, end-to-end customer care for the credit card customers of a global Fortune Top 10 financial services company with over 200 million customer accounts. The three-year contract extends and significantly expands the client’s use of Convergys’ industry-leading customer management solutions. One-third of the contract, which is valued at over $195 million, represents new initiatives.

Convergys will expand its multi-channel support of customer credit inquiries and issue escalations in addition to providing e-services website support and a wide range of collections and back office services for the client through its global delivery network. Convergys will also continue to provide protection services for the client through an expanded live agent program of in-bound and out-bound investigative calls. The client selected Convergys over two competitors for this renewed and expanded business, which nearly doubles the Convergys workforce servicing the client from the Philippines and India.

Like many companies in the financial services sector, this Convergys client is actively seeking innovative ways to take costs out of its business and reduce headcount while providing the high level of service its customers expect. Through the years, Convergys’ knowledgeable and professional customer service agents have consistently exceeded performance targets for this client. The excellent operational results demonstrated the compelling value of Convergys’ relationship management services and prompted the expansion of this contract.

“Recent research conducted by Convergys found that 29 percent of credit card customers note quality of service as key driver for satisfaction. 64 percent of all consumers indicate that first call resolution is a key factor in their satisfaction with a company,” said Jim Boyce, Convergys President, Global Business Units. “This client recognizes the challenges it faces and the superior customer…

Echoing warnings from worried parents, a new study says students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than non-Facebook students.

But Aryn Karpinski, a doctoral student in education at Ohio State University and coauthor of the study, cautioned against finding a cause-and-effect connection between Facebook and lower grades. “We can’t say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying,” Karpinski said, “but we did find a relationship there.”

‘Other Factors Involved’

She added that “there may be other factors involved, such as personality traits, that link Facebook use and lower grades.”

At the same time, Karpinski did say the study showed a “disconnect” between students who “claim that Facebook use doesn’t impact their studies and our finding.” The study, coauthored by Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, will be presented later this week in San Diego at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association.

The difference was significant, showing that Facebook users had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, and nonusers had 3.5 to 4.0. Also, users averaged one to five hours of studying per week, compared to 11 to 15 hours for nonusers.

However, the sample size was relatively small, 219 students at Ohio State. Of those, 148 said they had a Facebook account. About 85 percent of 102 undergrads were Facebook users, as were 52 percent of the 117 graduate students.

The study also found several other differences between users and nonusers. The more hours a student worked at a paying job, the less likely he or she was to use Facebook, but it wasn’t only a factor of having more free time. The more students were involved in extracurricular activities, for example, the more likely they were to use Facebook.

‘A Huge Distraction’

And students whose majors were science, technology, engineering, math or business…

Google has unleashed a preview version of its software development kit for Android 1.5 to give developers an early look at the new features and capabilities coming in the mobile platform’s refresh. The final SDK for Android 1.5 is expected to become available to software developers around the end of this month.

Android 1.5 integrates performance improvements such as faster camera startup and image capture, support for video recording and playback, smoother browser page scrolling, and speedier acquisition of the user’s GPS location. The SDK upgrade introduces APIs for on-screen keyboards and speech-recognition applications, said Android Open Source Project team member Xavier Ducrohet.

A Fully Baked Cupcake

Though Android is an evolving open-source product, some software development has been continuing in a private development branch. During the past few months, the Android Open Source Project began pushing these changes to a read-only mirror of the private Android branch called the cupcake.

Android 1.5 is expected to include all the changes previously featured in the cupcake, together with others not yet specified. “Cupcake is still very much a work in progress,” the Android Open Source Project team said. “It is a development branch, not a release.”

Android 1.5 comes bundled with several home-screen widgets such as an analog clock, calendar, music player, and picture frame. The new SDK offers developers a framework for building their own home-screen widgets as well as the ability to populate live folders with their creations.

The Android Open Source Project also has changed the structure of the SDK. “Future Android SDK releases will include multiple versions of the Android platform,” Ducrohet said. “For example, this early look includes Android platform versions 1.1 and 1.5.”

One benefit of this change, Ducrohet said, is that developers can target different Android platform versions from within a single SDK installation. “Another is that it enables…

According to media summaries of a new survey commissioned by systems management appliance company KACE, 83 percent of the IT decision makers who responded said they will skip Windows Vista and go directly to Windows 7. However, just 17 percent of the survey’s respondents said they are slating their migrations to take place within 12 months of Windows 7′s official release.

Still, the survey results are not nearly as big a surprise as they may appear at first blush. “It’s hard for any large organization to deploy a new OS in the first 12 months after its release,” noted Gartner Vice President and Distinguished Analyst Michael Silver. “It takes many (software providers) the better part of the year to say they’ll support their app on a new OS, and it’s not till then that organizations can really begin their deployments.”

A Big Chance For Success

One initial complaint about Windows Vista was its perceived lack of stability. This time around, Microsoft is heavily relying on the feedback it receives from Windows 7 beta testers to ensure that the new OS is stable and secure right out of the starting gate.

“We’ve had millions of people install and use the beta since January,” noted the Windows 7 test team. “The feedback and telemetry have been of tremendous value as we finalize the product.”

The first Service Pack for Windows 7 is not necessary for the operating system’s stability and security readiness, Silver said in a Gartner report last month. “However, organizations likely won’t be ready to deploy Windows 7 before SP1 ships, so they will include it in their initial deployments,” he said.

With all the organizations skipping Vista, Windows 7 has a big chance to be very successful, Silver thinks. “But it’s unlikely that large organizations will do large deployments within 12 months of…

The iPhone App Store, as much of a game changer as the iPhone itself, is about to reach a new milestone.

Apple’s site features a page with a rapidly changing counter displaying the number of App Store downloads as it approaches one billion. As of midday Monday, the count was about 947 million and counting at about 100 downloads a second. In celebration, Apple is offering a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro as prizes, with everyone downloading an application automatically entered.

20 Percent of Apps Pirated Copies?

The App Store is also posting the all-time Top Paid Apps and Top Free Apps. Included in the first category are Vivendi Games Mobile’s Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, The Blimp Pilots’ Koi Pond, Pangea Software’s Enigmo, PopCap Games’ Bejeweled 2, and Freeverse’s Moto Chaser.

Top Free Apps include Facebook, Google Earth, Pandora Radio, Taplulous’ Tap Tap Revenge, and John Haney Software’s Flashlight.

But popularity breeds imitation, and as many as 20 percent of the applications in the App Store are available elsewhere on the Web as pirated software, according to market researcher Medialets.

Pirated versions are not unknown for successful software ventures, and Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that Apple’s App Store has not only been a success, but has played a defining role in the third and current stage of mobile devices.

In the first stage, he said, services such as voice calling were dominant, and users were simply asking themselves whether they needed a phone and related services. In the second phase, users wanted the services and, he said, “they wanted the device to be pretty.”

‘What Can I Do?’

This third stage, he said, is characterized by users asking themselves, “What else can I do with this device?” In this…