Uriel Rootshtain, Office lead at Microsoft SA. “This release unlocks new scenarios and delivers capabilities that far surpass anything available in browser-only solutions.” A little over a month after unveiling Office and Office 365, Microsoft has released a new version of Office 365 for businesses, with features like SharePoint and Yammer. Billed as Microsoft’s most complete Office cloud service to date, the release has new collaboration features, as well as offerings tailored to the needs and budgets of small, medium-sized and large organisations.
In addition to updated e-mail, video conferencing, instant messaging and calendaring services, business users can now get the Office applications they are familiar with on up to five devices, delivered as an always up-to-date cloud service.
New features in Office 365 include enhanced enterprise social capabilities with SharePoint and Yammer, and by June, it will include Lync-Skype connectivity for presence, IM and voice.
“With Office 365, everyone from large enterprises to small businesses to individual consumers can now benefit from the power of Office and the connectivity of the cloud,” said Uriel Rootshtain, Office lead at Microsoft South Africa. “This release unlocks new scenarios and delivers capabilities that far surpass anything available in browser-only solutions.”
Read More: http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&catid=718&view=article&id=62084:Office-365-targets-local-small-business
South African companies caught using pirated software spent more than R5 million in 2012 in settlement and legal fees, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The BSA is a trade body that represents the interests of the software industry. The BSA works with companies using a process of self-auditing to conduct investigations into whether or not they are using pirated software, says Warren Weertman, manager – legal affairs for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), BSA.
And the body says costs associated with these companies replacing unlicensed software jumped by R4.9 million last year – six times more than what was recorded in 2011.
South African law firm, Adams & Adams, helped the BSA in its investigation and the two organisations found that companies operating in the engineering, graphics and advertising sectors as the top offenders.
The BSA reported that the cost of engineering companies using unlicensed software was estimated at over R1.5 million followed by the graphics and advertising industries at respectively just over R700, 000 and R650, 000.
The costs comprise of settlement and legal fees that have to be paid by the company found to be using pirated software.
Chairman of the BSA South African committee, Drummond Simpson, said, “The results confirm that the use of unlicensed software continues to be a major challenge and many organisations are failing to capitalise on the benefits that a reduction in software piracy could bring.”
“Not only does the use of unlicensed software affect the economy of the country but it also makes the company vulnerable to viruses and other security risks as well as financial and reputational damage if caught,” he explained.
Mervin Miemoukanda research analyst for ICT at Frost & Sullivan told ITWeb Africa that unlicensed software accounts for 20% to 30% of the overall software market in South Africa, which makes the statistics from the BSA close to the reality.
“The number makes sense and it is mainly due to the sales of counterfeit PCs and mobile devices in the country,” he said.
He added, “These PCs and mobile devices are usually loaded with pirated software from Microsoft and other software vendors.”
Miemoukanda and the BSA agree that education is the key to ensuring that companies understand the far reaching implications of using pirated or unlicensed software.
“It is quite a huge task that government institutions and software companies should start educating students in universities and schools, in general the population to use licensed software,” he said.
“Yes, it’ll be very difficult to prevent people and small businesses from using unlicensed software, however education is key because as most people are not aware of adverse consequences of using unlicensed software,” he concluded.
According to the BSA across the EMEA region the use of pirated software cost businesses more than $16.5 million in 2012.
Apple today released iOS 6.1, which adds LTE support for more carriers and the ability to purchase Fandango movie tickets via Siri, among other things. “iOS 6 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and with nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in a Monday statement. “iOS 6.1 brings LTE support to more markets around the world, so even more users can enjoy ultrafast Safari browsing, FaceTime video calls, iCloud services, and iTunes and App Store downloads.”
The update adds 36 iPhone carriers and 23 iPad carriers to the list of those that support LTE, something Apple CEO Tim Cook first tipped during an earnings call last week. LTE is available on iPhone 5 and the cellular versions of the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad.
LTE will now be available from carriers in regions like Italy, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, the Philippines, and several Middle Eastern countries, Cook said last week. A full list of those carriers is available on Apple’s website.
Meanwhile, users with a Siri-enhanced iOS device will be able to purchase movie tickets via the Fandango app using Apple’s voice assistant, but only in the U.S. On the music front, iTunes Match subscribers will also be able to download individual songs from iCloud.
In addition, Apple said iOS 6.1 adds a new button to reset its Advertising Identifier, which controls how your Web activity on the iOS device is shared with advertisers. You can find it via Settings > General > About > Advertising.
To see if iOS 6.1 is available for your phone, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update. The update requires at least 1GB of storage to download and will take about a half hour over Wi-Fi. You can also connect your device to your PC and download via iTunes.
Your device will need to reboot once the update is installed. You will then have to re-enter your Apple ID credentials for iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime purposes.
Apple released its last update, iOS 6.0.2, in December, which addressed problems with Wi-Fi connectivity.
With a week to go to the launch of BlackBerry 10, Research In Motion (RIM) has announced that BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10) is now available for download. Given RIM’s previous dominance in the corporate mobility space, BES 10 is a vital component of the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem. A challenge for RIM ahead of the BlackBerry 10 launch is to make it as simple as possible for the new devices to be supported in the corporate environment in order to keep existing corporate customers on board.
RIM says BES 10 is the evolution of its enterprise mobile management solutions and offers support for all BlackBerry devices, as well as iOS and Android. Until now, enterprises could use RIM’s Mobile Fusion service to manage PlayBook tablets, iOS and Android devices while using the previous version of BES to manage BlackBerry smartphones. BES 10 now offers the ability to manage these various components from a single Web console.
It has been noted that, while the current version of BES 10 incorporates Mobile Fusion and RIM’s older BlackBerry management software into a single console, organisations still need to run the Mobile Fusion and BlackBerry Enterprise Server on different servers. According to RIM, a BES 10 update (expected to be released in May), will allow for all the infrastructure components to run on the same server.
According to RIM, through its BlackBerry 10 Ready programme, existing customers will be able to trade in their existing BES licences for BES 10 licences at no charge until the end of the year. The BES 10 software is also available as a limited 60-day free-trial and is available here.
RIM says BES 10 offers support for corporate-owned and personal device deployments. “It includes an intuitive, unified, Web-based administration console to manage devices and users. It also supports BlackBerry Balance technology,” says RIM.
BlackBerry Balance separates and secures work applications and data from personal content within a single device.
BES 10 also offers access to RIM’s new corporate app storefront for BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry World for Work. “Administrators can push and install the organisation’s mandatory apps to both corporate and personal-owned devices and publish recommended apps to employees,” says RIM.
Rapid switch
Speaking to Reuters, RIM’s senior head of enterprise software, Peter Devenyi, said BES 10 builds on RIM’s core strength of security but also offers a range of innovations that cater to the latest needs of IT departments.
“We definitely anticipate that [enterprise] customers will be making the switch to BB10 rapidly,” said Devenyi, adding that BlackBerry Balance is a key differentiator which is now built into the core of BlackBerry 10.
“This opens up the world of personally-owned devices in a way that makes IT departments and corporations comfortable, because they can truly manage the corporate side of the device, while not inhibiting the use of the device by the individual who actually owns it.”
The BlackBerry Balance feature has also been welcomed by analysts. Scotiabank analyst Gus Papageorgiou says it could be a big factor in swaying enterprise customers to adopt BlackBerry 10 devices. “The BB10’s ability to segment between corporate and personal settings will be a hit with enterprise IT departments and users alike.”
Next week’s BlackBerry 10 launch is billed as the most important launch in RIM’s history, and will be marked with numerous events around the world.
RIM shares rallied yesterday on the back of comments made by RIM CEO Thorsten Heins during an interview with German newspaper Die Welt. Heins said he would be willing to discuss the possibility of licensing RIM’s BlackBerry 10 OS to other companies and “the sale of hardware production”. Heins, however, emphasised that the current focus is on launching the new OS.
Using the 141,900 speed test results over the last three months from the Johannesburg server, MyBroadband calculated the average download speed, upload speed and latency for tests from 10Mbps ADSL connections.
The ensure accuracy, MyBroadband used IP address filtering, survey input and other mechanisms.
The following table provides an overview of the average 10Mbps ADSL results per network.
| ISP account |
Download (kbps) |
Upload (kbps) |
Latency (ms) |
| Web Africa ADSL |
4,639 |
563 |
80 |
| Internet Solutions Consumer ADSL |
4,279 |
632 |
61 |
| Telkom ADSL |
4,070 |
517 |
70 |
| MWEB |
3,901 |
573 |
59 |
| Cybersmart |
3,146 |
603 |
94 |
