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Have you ever sent an email full of love, only to have it interpreted by the receiver as if it were full of boiling hate? Fired off an innocuous late night note to a customer only to read a reply in the morning that would suggest you’d asked about murdering their first born?
Yep, it’s happened to all of us at some point: you read your composition one way but somewhere along the line the meaning gets totally lost in translation.
Of course, you may also have written an email whilst feeling a little hot under the collar (or, even worse, having been on the bottle!), with very similar consequences.
Well fret no more, fellow email monsters. Allow me to introduce ToneCheck! Launched in Beta today, ToneCheck is “an e-mail plug-in that flags sentences with words or phrases that may convey unintended emotion or tone, then helps you re-write them. Just like Spell Check… but for Tone.”
ToneCheck evaluates words and phrases for the intensity of 8 primary emotions, allowing you to make corrections and adjust the overall tone before you send the wrong message.
Available as a plugin for use with Microsoft Outlook ToneCheck is currently available as a free trial. Further plugins and interfaces are apparently on the way.
Now then … “Dear Fishface, …”
 Super strong results from Apple today for their third-quarter (to the end of June) period. The Company posted record revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.73 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion, or $2.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.1 percent compared to 40.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 52 percent of the quarter’s revenue. You can find the full press release here, but below are some of the edited highlights:
- New all time record for quarterly Mac sales.
- Highest quarterly revenue ever. $15.7 billion — 61% over the previous June.
- Net income up 78% over a year ago.
- 33% year over year growth for Macs. We’ve outgrown the global market.
- Double-digit Mac growth in all geographies.
- 9.4 million iPods versus 10.2 million a year ago
- iPod touch grew 48% year over year
- iPod share is over 70% — best selling MP3 player in nearly every country we track
- iTunes store rev exceeded $1 billion
- 225,000 apps — now over 11,000 apps for iPad
- Over 5,000,000,000 apps downloaded.
- 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the 5 initial countries.
- Strong growth in Asia, Europe, and Japan for iPhone
- Over 100 million iOS devices out there now
- 3.27 million iPads in 10 countries
- Apple Store revenue also a record. Revenue up 73% versus a year ago
- Half Macs sold in store are to new Mac customers
- 293 stores now
- Average 287 stores open — Average rev per store was $9 million
- 60.5 million visitors in our stores during the quarter.
- 24 new stores this quarter
- 39.1 percent gross margin — down, but we knew this. Mainly due to iPad sales
- $45.8 billion in cash now
- Will be giving free cases to all iPhone 4 customers, so we’re deferring revenue for this. This will be about $175 million — deferral
- Expect revenues to be about $18 billion next quarter. 35% margins — lower due to iPhone 4 and iPad sales — and the cases.
IDG News Service — IBM’s second-quarter profits were up 9 percent from a year earlier, the company announced on Monday, with increased sales in the U.S. and Asia helping to offset weaker spending in Europe.
Net profit for the quarter ended June 30 was US$3.4 billion, or $2.61 per share, up from $3.1 billion, or $2.32 per share, in the same quarter last year, IBM said. Revenue was $23.7 billion, up 2 percent year over year.
IBM also raised its earnings outlook for the year to at least $11.25 per share, up $.05 from its previous guidance.
Big Blue expects to achieve that through a shift to selling more high-value products and the rollout of new mainframes and Power-based systems later this year, among other factors, CEO Samuel Palmisano said in a statement.
Second-quarter software revenue was up 2 percent, or 6 percent when taking into account the recent divestiture of IBM’s project lifecycle management business, the company said.
Global services revenue also increased by 2 percent, but the segment contained one notable weak spot: Contract signings in the quarter fell 12 percent to $12.3 billion, an indication that companies could be slowing down on new IT projects amid fresh uncertainties in the global economy, such as the European debt crisis.
However, IBM also signed 15 services pacts during the quarter worth more than $100 million, up from 13 in the previous quarter.
Revenue from IBM’s Systems & Technology segment, including its server hardware, increased by 3 percent. Sales of its industry-standard System x servers jumped 30 percent, but revenue from Power systems was down 10 percent, and System z mainframe sales fell 24 percent.
Sales of some hardware products may have fallen because customers are waiting for upcoming product releases, Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said during a conference call.
For example, its next System Z mainframe is “not just a new Z,” according to Loughridge. “It’s a Z in a ’system of systems’ implementation.”
The results were mixed on a geographic basis. Revenue increased by 3 percent in the Americas to $10.2 billion, and by 9 percent in the Asia-Pacific to $5.4 billion, but sales were down 6 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to $7.4 billion, IBM said.
IBM’s shares ended the normal day’s trading at $129.79 ahead of the earnings announcement, up slightly from their previous close.
Microsoft today announced the Windows Azure platform appliance—a Windows Azure cloud-in-a-box system enabling the creation of private Windows Azure systems.
The platform appliance will be an all-in-one combination of server hardware, networking infrastructure, storage, and software. Whilst the exact form of the appliance is still to be determined, the scale will be large: hundreds or thousands of servers - Microsoft’s own Windows Azure data centers use self-contained shipping containers packed full of hardware.
Unsurprisingly, given this uncertainty over system specifics, exact pricing and availability are presently unknown. Dell, HP, and Fujitsu will all be developing and selling Windows Azure platform appliances. Initially, the companies will be selling services hosted from their own data centers; this will then be expanded to include private sale and hosting of platform appliances. Dell hopes to have appliances running within its own data centers by January, and expects to be selling the systems to third parties within 12 months.
One early customer is eBay. eBay already uses Microsoft’s public Windows Azure hosting for its iPad listings, an early pilot deployment to prove the viability of the platform. eBay plans to expand this, first using Windows Azure appliances to host internal business applications, and ultimately hosting all business operations on a privately owned Windows Azure-powered cloud.
Though such systems will not be an option for smaller customers, they should give Windows Azure much broader reach into markets such as government and financial services. They should also help to alleviate some lock-in concerns; users of public clouds can be left in the lurch when their provider decides to shut up shop—no such problem exists for private systems.
[update: Microsoft's Bob Muglia has a few more details on the devices. Initial deployments looking to target the big end of town at 1000+ server installs]
iTNews has posted an interesting interview with Nick Holdsworth, Comm Bank’s EGM of Service Support. In it, Holdsworth talks about the bank’s approach to Cloud Computing and how they deal with the sheer scale of such a challenge – covering multiple data centres, geographies, systems and an extensive user base.
The bank has settled on a standard, virtualised infrastructure stack, to be deployed both in-house and mandated for private cloud providers wanting to do business with the bank.
The bank will outsource the lion’s share of its IT infrastructure needs to a service provider that is prepared to offer favourable pricing to win the bulkiest block of the bank’s data-crunching business.
But unlike past outsourcing agreements, the CBA will ask that these services be delivered on the bank’s mandated ‘cloud’ architecture and under a contract that allows the CBA to rapidly shift to another provider if competitors offer better value.
The full story can be found over at iTnews, and the video of the interview is embedded below:
.
 Cisco announced today the Cius, an Android-based seven-inch tablet computer aimed at the enterprise.
The device will feature both front and rear-facing cameras, Cisco TelePresence-compatible video conferencing and access to applications such as Cisco Quad, WebEx and AnyConnect Security VPN Client, as well as access to the Android app store. The launch further diversifies Cisco’s offerings.
The device will weigh 1.15 pounds and feature Wi-Fi, 3G/4G data, Bluetooth, and HD audio and video. In addition to its phone-like docking station, the Cius will support Bluetooth keyboards and mice.
Cisco says the tablet will be available for customer trials Q3 2010, followed by general availability Q1 2011.
Cisco has been diversifying its product line beyond networking equipment in recent years, and this tablet complements the company’s cloud computing, collaboration and conferencing initiatives. Cisco has been selling VoIP and video-conferencing hardware for some years now, and entered the consumer video market with its Flip Video acquisition last year, but this is the first time the company has offered its own computing device.
Cisco also announced a partnership today with MobileAccess to provide in-building cellular coverage over an organization’s existing network infrastructure.
 [HT to RWW]
Salesforce’s foray into injecting social features into the enterprise world,Chatter, is finally open to the public after four months in private beta.
Announced last November, Chatter leverages what Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff calls the Cloud 2, delivering realtime access to data and information, using social sources, such as YouTube and Twitter.
In Feburary, Chatter was launched in private beta to 100 companies and eventually expanded to more than 5,000 customers. Today, Chatter will be available to Salesforce’s 77,300 customers and the rest of the enterprise world.
Similar to Facebook, employees can create business profiles with professional information like personal contact data, area of expertise, and work history. Searching other people’s profiles, colleagues can quickly identify individuals who are relevant to their enterprise needs. Users can post status updates to share communications, files and links around a project, sales deal or customer support case. And users can see realtime feeds of personalized updates from people, applications and documents. 
[ht: TechCrunch]
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an expansion of IBM Lotus messaging and collaboration software with the delivery of secure enterprise mail for the Apple iPad. The news was announced at both the Deutsche Notes User Group in Berlin and the Apple Developers Conference in San Francisco.
IBM Lotus Notes Traveler is no charge software that can be downloaded by Lotus Notes customers providing two-way, over-the-air synchronization of enterprise e-mail, calendar and contact between Lotus Domino servers and mobile devices, including the iPad. This means that Lotus Notes based information will automatically synchronize and be up to date on the device. Lotus Notes Traveler also allows iPad users to enjoy the security of per message mail encryption.
“IBM is committed to providing the broadest possible collaboration software support on all major mobile platforms. With high anticipation and many requests for iPad compatibility for Lotus Notes, we’re pleased we can offer this now at a highly secure level,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president, messaging and collaboration, IBM.
“When Lotus Notes Traveler iPad users are in a meeting, they can now have up to date ‘push’ mail and calendar,” said Almar Diehl, Groupware Consultant, e-office.
Also, IBM portal based web pages will display clearly on the iPad through the Safari browser.
IBM Lotus Notes Traveler Companion is a native iPhone OS application that enables the viewing of encrypted mail on the iPad and iPhone. Traveler Companion is available in the App Store at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibm-lotus-notes-traveler-companion/id346633404
 As you know, we’re not a dedicated gadget blog so we’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to check out the full gory details of Apple’s new baby over at sites such as Engadget, Gizmodo etc.
However, it’s hard to completely go past a major iPhone release, so here’s a quick summary of some of the iPhone 4’s goodness:
- 720p video, with onboard video editing
- 5MP camera, 5x zoom, LED flash
- front-facing camera for video-calling using Apple’s new FaceTime app (wi-fi only for now)
- 5-band network support, with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi ‘n’
- True multi-tasking with an ‘expose’ style switcher
- Unified inbox
- Super hi-res screen (960×640)
- A4 processor (same as the iPad)
- Improved battery life (claims of up to 40%)
- Built in gyroscope
- dual-microphones for noise-cancellation, a’lah Nexus One
- smaller footprint than 3GS (4.5 x 2.31 inches, and 0.37 inches thick. It weighs 4.8 ounces or 137 grams)
Release dates are going to be staggered, with US availability at the end of June, followed by a few other countries in July (the UK and Australia being amongst those). The rest of the World will have to hang fire until September to get their hands on one.
From a business perspective there haven’t been too many details released and it’s probably going to take some proper hands-on time to really determine the pertinent changes. However, the unified inbox, video conferencing facility (initially iPhone to iPhone only) and increased battery life are certainly going to be very appealing.
[update: Steve Jobs did actually comment on a few of the improved Enterprise-level functions, here's what he said:
"I wanted to hit for a moment on the enterprise integration - our customers are thrilled," Jobs said. He announced support for multiple Exchange accounts and support for Exchange Server 2010, as well as improved data protection, device management, and VPN support."
]
Having switched from a 3G iPhone to an Android phone recently, I have to say it’s going to be very tempting to switch again. Two phones?!
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.. or so say Siemens Enterprise Communications.
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