InfoWorld Applications News

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;SAS Institute announced on Thursdaya new toolset aimed at giving business users the ability to work with predictive analytics software, which has historically been the province of specialized statisticians. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;Predictive analytics refers to the practice of crunching existing data sets in an effort to determine patterns and predict future outcomes. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Google and AOL have renewed a long-term partnership that gives AOL Web properties access to Google search and advertising services. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The partnership, in place since May 2002 and renewed for the third time, provides revenue-sharing from AOL in exchange for search services. The new deal will expand to give AOL access to Google & #039;s mobile search products and Google subsidiary YouTube access to AOL & #039;s video content, the companies said in a statement. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;An information security company will soon release a tool that will allow companies to test their ERP (enterprise resource planning) software for security threats. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.onapsis.com/x1 & quot; & gt;first version of X1 & lt;/a & gt; works with SAP business platforms, said Mariano Nuñez Di Croce, director of research and development for Onapsis. The company eventually plans to add modules for Siebel, Oracle and PeopleSoft ERP applications, he said. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt; & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/category/tags/salesforcecom-0 & quot; & gt;Salesforce.com & lt;/a & gt; rolled out a new service on Wednesday that integrates business-contact information with its own & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/customer-relationship-management & quot; & gt;CRM (customer relationship management) & lt;/a & gt; application and Chatter & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/collaboration & quot; & gt;collaboration software & lt;/a & gt;. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Virtual appliances are great for the same reasons physical appliances took the IT world by storm: They make deployment a snap -- even instantaneous -- while at the same time reducing costs. It & #039;s a formula that made hardware-based appliances immensely popular for network security, backup, storage networking, file services, email, and many other single-focus solutions. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Can you remember the first type of CRM tool you used years back (before computers)? Maybe you worked with a Rolodex, invented in 1954. Maybe a simple black book of names and information. Today, most people use the contacts facility in Outlook or the built-in contacts application in Windows. But for ultimate contacts management, there & #039;s CRM software. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Google has made its fifth acquisition since the start of August, this time & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.socialdeck.com/index.html & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;scooping up SocialDeck & lt;/a & gt;, a company that develops games that people can play against friends using iPhones, BlackBerry devices, or via Facebook on a PC. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;Most of Google & #039;s recent acquisitions have been related to social networking and games, fueling speculation that the company plans to release a new social networking service, potentially centered on games, to compete with Facebook. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt; & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/category/tags/google-0 & quot; & gt;Google & lt;/a & gt; plans to begin rolling out to & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/category/tags/google-gmail & quot; & gt;Gmail & lt;/a & gt; users on Tuesday a new feature designed to automatically rearrange messages in their inbox so that the most important and pressing ones appear at the top. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;Called Priority Inbox, the feature will be released with the beta, or test, label and is being described for now as & quot;experimental & quot; by the company. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Autodesk is bringing its AutoCAD architecture, design, and engineering software back to the Mac OS after an 18-year absence, the company announced this evening. But the company plans to do more than offer a Mac OS X version of AutoCAD: It says it will release a free version of the software, dubbed AutoCAD WS, for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch that lets users review, edit, and share AutoCAD files on those popular mobile devices. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;To determine whether or not the Office2 word processing and spreadsheet apps from & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.bytesquared.com/products/office/iphone/ & quot; & gt;Byte2 & lt;/a & gt; are a good fit for you, it’s important to understand your needs and Office2’s limitations. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Google has added & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.pcworld.com/article/204233/google_improves_realtime_search_engine.html & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;new functionality to its real-time search & lt;/a & gt; engine, and moved it from an obscure feature buried in the options on the left pane of the standard Google search, to its own website. The & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.pcworld.com/article/204246/googles_realtime_search_update_does_what_twitter_wont.html & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;new Google Realtime & lt;/a & gt; can be a powerful tool for businesses that know how to use it. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Apple & #039;s release of iWork 9.04 this week has a significant capability that could help transform document distribution: You can now export EPUB files from the productivity suite & #039;s Pages word processor. (The folks at Macworld & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.macworld.com/article/153697/2010/08/iwork_904.html & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;explain how that works & lt;/a & gt;, if you & #039;re interested.) & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/what-you-should-know-about-apples-tablet-246 & quot; & gt;EPUB is the standard format for e-books & lt;/a & gt; used by a range of devices, including of course Apple & #039;s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;div style= & quot;padding: 8px; background: none no-repeat scroll center top #ffffff; position: relative; float: right; width: 243px; height: 182px; & quot; & gt; & lt;img src= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/phone_voice_hp.jpg & quot; alt= & quot;Google & #039;s melding of voice and mail offers lessons to Cisco and Microsoft & quot; width= & quot;243 & quot; height= & quot;182 & quot; align= & quot;right & quot; / & gt; & lt;/div & gt; & lt;p & gt;Microsoft and Cisco may just have an unexpected competitor to their respective unified communications offerings: Google, with its newly announced integration of Google Voice with Gmail, is effectively opening up UC to the mobile masse & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Rumors swirled & lt;a href= & quot;http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/opinion/blogpost/8180415/ & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;once again & lt;/a & gt; this week regarding a possible takeover of Red Hat, this time by SAP, but a number of industry observers said Thursday that the prospect is unlikely at best. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;With & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137060/Microsoft_Update_Latest_news_features_reviews_opinions_and_more & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;Microsoft & lt;/a & gt; and & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9156378/Yahoo_update & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;Yahoo & lt;/a & gt; officially teaming up in the search market this week, it & #039;s time to wait and see if this move could eat into & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136345/Google_Update & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;Google & lt;/a & gt; & #039;s hearty lead over its top opponents. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Motorola appears ready to do more development on top of Android, with its acquisition of & lt;a href= & quot;http://280north.com/ & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;280 North & lt;/a & gt;, a company that develops Web applications. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The deal happened & quot;earlier this summer, & quot; according to Motorola, and was & lt;a href= & quot;http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/24/motorola-snaps-up-280-north-for-20-million/ & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;first reported & lt;/a & gt; on Wednesday by TechCrunch. Motorola did not disclose the purchase price. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;As the industry call for cloud interoperability grows more & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/070609-cloud-interoperability.html?page=1 & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;fervent & lt;/a & gt;, open source enterprise software company Red Hat has submitted its cloud platform, Deltacloud, to the & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.dmtf.org/ & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;DMTF & lt;/a & gt; (Distributed Management Task Force) as a potential standard for cloud interoperability, the company said Wednesday. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Microsoft & #039;s Russian website today revealed details about the new Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) user interface, touting new features such as quick-release tabs and a Chrome-like address-cum-search bar. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;Although the company has issued several developer previews of IE9 since March, those builds have lacked any UI, and instead have presented the rendering and JavaScript engines in a wrapper that lacks even the most basic navigational aids, such as a Back button. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Viralheat, a San Jose, Calif.-based startup that mines & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/social networking & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;social networks & lt;/a & gt; to help companies gauge public sentiment about their business, this week announced plans to distribute some of its social media & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/business-intelligenceanalytics & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;analytics & lt;/a & gt; data to users without charge. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt; & lt;a href= & quot;http://infoworld.com/category/tags/mozilla & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;Mozilla & lt;/a & gt; on Tuesday launched the fourth beta of & lt;a href= & quot;http://infoworld.com/category/tags/firefox & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;Firefox & lt;/a & gt; 4, adding bookmark and password synchronization, and revamping how people wrestle tabs. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The latest build also sported the first attempt at accelerating Firefox 4 & #039;s page rendering by tapping the graphics processor. The hardware acceleration, available only in Windows Vista and Windows 7, is disabled by default. & lt;/p & gt;