NetFlipper.com

Sunnyvale, California, June 2, 2009 — IP Infusion, an ACCESS company and provider of intelligent software for Next Generation Network (NGN) equipment that enables service providers to offer state-of-the art Ethernet services, today began shipping its ZebOS Network Platform version 7.7 software which supports PBB-TE functionality.

ZebOS 7.7 provides full support for MPLS and for Carrier Ethernet, allowing router and switch OEMs to lower their software engineering costs. ZebOS 7.7 provides breakthrough time to market for equipment manufacturers in delivering next-generation transport hardware and allows customers to develop and promote their own brand.

“The demand for internet bandwidth is exploding, driven by Web 2.0 applications, IPTV and the new generation of smartphones,” said Koichi Narasaki, president and CEO, IP Infusion. “Carriers and providers are looking to upgrade their networks so they can provide and manage services at a lower cost per bit. ZebOS 7.7 is targeted at filling the needs of equipment manufacturers and service providers faced with these challenges.”

Specific features in ZebOS 7.7 include:

• Support for Provider Backbone Bridge-Traffic Engineering

• Support for OpenSAF, the industry’s leading high-availability (HA) middleware

• Hardened implementation of BGP Route Server for deployment in Carrier Networks utilizing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware

• Enhanced resiliency for IP routing with the support for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)

• Ability of MPLS solution to support pseudowires across multiple Packet Switched Networks (PSNs)

• Complete non-stop forwarding (NSF) functionality for IP and MPLS

Besides a comprehensive suite of robust, standards-based software products, IP Infusion provides professional services to assist customers in their product development and deployment support. With a strong product portfolio and professional services, IP Infusion can ensure the most efficient time to market advantage for customers.

About ACCESS

ACCESS CO., LTD. is a global company providing leading technology, software products and platforms for Web browsing, mobile phones, wireless handhelds…

Confirming one of the more open secrets of the tech industry this spring, Microsoft announced Tuesday that the launch date for Windows 7 is Oct. 22. That is several months earlier than the software giant forecast last year, when it projected a launch in the first quarter of 2010.

The likelihood of a 2009 release increased significantly this spring, when Microsoft sent out its official release candidate and hinted at a the possibility of a “holiday 2009 launch.” The actual release will be some weeks ahead of even that optimistic target.

News of the formal launch date broke Tuesday in Ina Fried’s Beyond Binary column on Cnet, following an interview she did with Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte.

According to Veghte, Fried said, “the feedback from the release candidate has been good.” In a separate interview with Fried, Phil McKinney, head of HP’s computer unit, went even farther: “We’re locked and loaded for the launch,” he said. “The quality of code is just absolutely stellar.”

Lucky 7?

One hint of a possible fall launch showed up in the inboxes of Windows 7 beta testers Monday. Stephen Rose Sr., community manager for the Microsoft Windows Client IT Pro Division, and the editor of Microsoft’s Springboard Insider Series newsletter, warned testers that the functionality of the beta software will end this summer.

“Please be aware,” Rose said, “that the Windows 7 beta expires on Aug. 1 and that, beginning July 1, your machine will reboot every two hours (nice reminder, huh?).”

Microsoft’s accelerated schedule for the release of Windows 7 is a clear sign of the company’s eagerness to give customers and tech reporters something else to talk about besides the frustrations of working with Windows Vista. The poor sales of the memory-glutton software, particularly in the business community, has allowed other operating systems, including Mac OS…

Twitter investors may be speculating about the value of social-networking sites, but no one is speculating about their popularity.

In the U.S. alone, the number of minutes people spend on social-networking sites has increased 83 percent year over year, according to Nielsen Online. In fact, total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700 percent year over year, growing from 1.7 billion minutes in April 2008 to 13.9 billion in April 2009, making it the number-one social-networking site for the month.

“We have seen some major growth in Facebook during the past year, and a subsequent decline in MySpace. Twitter has come on the scene in an explosive way, perhaps changing the outlook for the entire space,” said Jon Gibs, vice president of online media and agency insights for Nielsen.

“The one thing that is clear about social networking is that regardless of how fast a site is growing or how big it is, it can quickly fall out of favor with consumers,” he said. “Remember Friendster? Remember when MySpace was an unbeatable force? Neither Facebook nor Twitter are immune. Consumers have shown that they are willing to pick up their networks and move them to another platform, seemingly at a moment’s notice.”

MySpace Wins with Video

It seems Facebook has become the top dog in the social-networking space — April was the fourth month in a row that Facebook held the top spot in both unique visitors and total minutes — but MySpace has been winning in online video.

With 120.8 million video streams, MySpace.com was the number-one social-networking destination when ranked by streams and total minutes spent viewing video. MySpace visitors spent 384 million minutes viewing video on the site, with an average of 38.8 minutes per viewer. In comparison, Facebook visitors spent only 113.5 million minutes viewing…

Microsoft had the honor of the first major keynote at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles Monday, and got the much-anticipated conference off to a rousing start. The Redmond-based software giant introduced a number of new innovative features for its high-end gaming console, the Xbox 360, including social-networking features, a controllerless system for interacting with games, and 10 new titles.

“Today with cultural visionaries at our side and controller-free gaming on our horizon, Xbox 360 authored a new page in home entertainment history,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president for the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft. “For us, this E3 is about breaking down barriers — between generations, between games and entertainment, and, most important, between video-game players and everyone else — in a way that only Xbox 360 can.”

Tweet Hot Lead, Alien Scum!

Already widely (and somewhat unfairly) mocked for its use as a diary of the banal, the micro-blog site Twitter is on the verge of being invaded by Xbox 360 high scores, running battle updates, and Easter egg tips. Microsoft said Monday that users will be able to post directly to the service from the Xbox 360 Live Dashboard.

Twitter isn’t the only social-networking service to come on board. In addition, the Xbox 360 will take advantage of the Facebook Connect service to allow gamers to link Xbox Live Friends with Facebook Friends, and to post updates to that service as well. Beginning with an upcoming edition of the golf game Tiger Woods, for instance, users will be able to share their favorite video-game screenshots with their online buddies.

Finally, Microsoft said, the Xbox 360 is getting music capability through a new partnership with Live.fm, an Internet radio provider. The service will be automatically available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers at the end of the year.

One existing partnership — with…

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows users to post neutral information, has blocked several Church of Scientology IP addresses from posting content after the group allegedly posted content pushing its agenda.

The Web site, which is run by the Wikipedia Foundation and touts itself as being a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, has taken editing tools away from the controversial religious group sometimes referred to as a brainwashing cult.

Wikipedia’s action is the first of its kind, according to the U.K.-based publication, The Register, which first broke the story.

10 Votes To Block Content

Wikipedia administrators found multiple persons editing Scientology-related content from church machines and coordinating their work. What remains unclear is whether one person or several are using multiple Wikipedia accounts.

The Wikipedia arbitration committee voted to block the group, with 10 supporting the ban and none opposing it. One member of the committee abstained.

“All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies. Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses,” said a statement on Wikipedia’s site.

Wikipedia explained its action in an effort to maintain neutrality and because the posters were slanting postings in a particular way.

Remaining Neutral

Wikipedia has already started to get backlash from some observers who say the Web site isn’t staying open to edits.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, however, said the process, not the outcome, is what is significant.

“As an abstract matter, certainly we can understand where Wikipedia might need to take action to block a particular poster,” said John Morris, the center’s director of Internet standards. “If someone continues to put up hateful content, it seems to be within Wikipedia’s right to take this action. The idea of this…

Sony Ericsson took a step closer to integrating with parent Sony on Thursday by announcing the Aino, a touchscreen mobile phone that synchronizes with Sony PlayStation 3 video-game consoles.

The Aino comes with an eight-megapixel camera and connects to the PlayStation through an included charging stand. It offers wireless connectivity through GSM, UMTA, HSPA and Wi-Fi. The phone also has a microSD card slot.

The handset maker also showed off the Satio mobile phone, which it had previously announced as the Idou. The Satio has an unusual 12-megapixel high-resolution camera and a 3.5-inch touchscreen. It will be the first Sony Ericsson smartphone to use the Symbian Foundation operating system.

Also introduced at an event in London was the Yari, a 4.1-ounce mobile phone built for gaming. It has a slider keyboard and an accelerometer so the user can wave it like a Nintendo Wii controller to interact with games. The phone also has a five-megapixel camera and GPS. It can use GSM, UMTS and HSPA wireless services.

All three phones are expected to become available in the third quarter. Prices were not given.