Xbox 360 Gives TV a New Voice — Yours

What if you could find your favorite games, music, movies and TV shows, just with the sound of your voice? What if you could ask your TV to find “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” and it did — instantly? What if you wanted to listen to Coldplay and all you had to do was tell your TV and it responded by playing the Coldplay songs you love? Only on Xbox 360 is your entertainment together in one place — and now you will be able to find it with your voice.

Microsoft Corp. today kicked off the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) by solving the challenge of finding the entertainment you want, quickly and easily. The solution: voice search with Bing on Xbox 360. Bing on Xbox searches Netflix, Hulu Plus and ESPN, as well as music, video and Xbox LIVE Marketplace to find exactly the entertainment you want to enjoy. With Bing on Xbox and Kinect for Xbox 360, you can effortlessly find the games, movies, TV shows, sports and music you want. You say it, Xbox finds it.

Read More....
Xbox 360 Gives TV a New Voice — Yours

Gartner Says 15 Percent of Enterprises Will Adopt Layered Fraud Prevention Techniques by 2014

By 2014, 15 percent of enterprises will adopt layered fraud prevention techniques for their internal systems to compensate for weaknesses inherent in using only authentication methods, according to Gartner, Inc.

Gartner analysts said no single layer of fraud prevention or authentication is enough to keep determined fraudsters out of enterprise systems. Multiple layers must be employed to defend against today's attacks and those that have yet to appear.

"Malware-based attacks against bank customers and company employees are levying severe reputational and financial damage on their victims. They are fast becoming a prevalent tool for attacking customer and corporate accounts, and stealing sensitive information or funds," said Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Fighting these and future types of attacks requires a layered fraud prevention approach."

Read More....
Gartner Says 15 Percent of Enterprises Will Adopt Layered Fraud Prevention Techniques by 2014

Cloud Computing: A Sustaining or Disruptive Innovation?

If you've read this blog over the past couple of years, it should be no surprise that I am a huge advocate of the theories of Clayton Christensen, author of "The Innovator's Dilemma." Christensen and his book were brought to mind this week by the cover story in Forbes about his severe health problems, his experience with the U..S healthcare system, and his prescriptions for how to fix it.

Christensen posits two type of innovation: sustaining and disruptive. Sustaining innovation is that which extends existing technologies, improving them incrementally. As an example, at one point auto manufacturing moved from body-on-frame to unibody construction. Christensen points out that it is very difficult for a new market entrant to gain traction with an incremental innovation, since the market incumbents can easily incorporate the new technology while maintaining their other advantages like brand awareness, cost efficiency, and so on.

By contrast, disruptive innovation represents entirely new technology solutions that bring a new twist to an existing market — typically at a far lower price point. Christensen offers numerous examples of disruptive innovation; for instance, transistor radios disrupted the existing market for vacuum tube-based radios. Christensen notes that typically, disruptive innovations come to market and are considered inadequate substitutes for existing solutions by the largest users of those solutions. Tube radio manufacturers evaluated transistor capability and found that transistors could not run table radios with large speakers that required significant power to generate sound volume.

Consequently, disruptive innovations must seek out new users who are, in Christensen's term, overserved by existing solutions and are willing to embrace less capable, cheaper offerings. Transistor radios were first embraced by teenagers who wanted to listen to rock and roll with their friends and wouldn't be caught dead listening to it in the company of their parents, at home, in front of the vacuum tube-powered table radio. They didn't mind that their cheap transistor radios sounded tinny. They were affordable and allowed teenagers to listen to their music in the company of friends.

Read More....
Cloud Computing: A Sustaining or Disruptive Innovation?

Apple to unveil iCloud and new iOS, Mac software

(CNN) -- Apple's Steve Jobs took the stage to a standing ovation at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday.

Apple started the event by highlighting features for a new version of its operating system, called Mac OS X Lion.

The operating system, due out for Mac computers this summer, will cost $30. It takes major cues from Apple's mobile operating systems for the iPhone and iPad.

Read More.....
Apple to unveil iCloud and new iOS, Mac software

TCS BaNCS retains its position as Global Challenger

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions firm, announced today that TCS BaNCS has been named a Global Challenger by Forrester Research Inc. Close on the heels of being named a leader in the December 2010 report “The Forrester Wave™: Global Banking Platforms, Q4 2010,” TCS BaNCS continued its momentum by again being named as a Global Challenger in the March 2011 report entitled “Global Banking Platform Deals 2010.”

Read More....
TCS BaNCS retains its position as Global Challenger

Steve Jobs to headline Apple event as it unveils iCloud

(CNN) -- For a guy who is on medical leave, Steve Jobs is keeping a pretty high profile.

Three months after surprising observers by stepping onstage to introduce the iPad 2, the Apple CEO will headline the keynote at the company's annual developers' conference Monday.

Jobs will join a team of executives in unveiling Apple's next generation of software, including iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering, the company said.

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and had a liver transplant in 2009. In January, he took an indefinite medical leave "so I can focus on my health" -- his second leave from the company in the past two years.

Read More....
Steve Jobs to headline Apple event as it unveils iCloud

The Housing Bank for Trade & Finance partners with Finacle

he Housing Bank for Trade & Finance (HBTF) and Infosys Technologies Ltd today announced that HBTF selected Finacle™ core banking solution to power the Bank’s innovation and customer experience–led growth agenda. Finacle™ will empower the Bank’s 112 home country branches with a unified, future-proof technology platform delivering all the benefits of Straight Through Processing and support for true 24X7 multi-channel and multi-currency transactions.

Built on new generation technology, Finacle™ will enable The Housing Bank for Trade & Finance to stay ahead of emerging customer demands with greater agility. Leveraging Finacle™, the Bank can accelerate innovation through the launch of personalized offerings, bundled products and enriched segment-specific portfolios. The unified 360 degree view of customers that Finacle™ will bring to the Bank’s relationship managers will help the Bank to institutionalize its retail and corporate client relationships and exponentially enhance its service experience.

Read More....
The Housing Bank for Trade & Finance partners with Finacle

Zynga IPO coming soon

Zynga is preparing for an initial public offering, and a filing could come as early as next week, according to those with knowledge of the company's plans.

The creator of the -Ville online game franchise will make its public debut in a fast-thawing tech IPO market.

"I think Zynga has had this in the works for many months," says Nitsan Hargil, director of research at GreenCrest Capital. Two other sources confirmed that the IPO filing is coming soon. It will offer the first public look at the four-year-old company's finances.

Hargil estimates that Zynga is worth $14.5 billion. The company has seen massive success with FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars and many other games on Facebook.

Read More.....
Zynga IPO coming soon

Groupon: Doomed to Fail or Worth a Leap?

Among those debating the value of Groupon as it filed for its hotly-awaited initial public offering — which could give it a market capitalization as high as $30 billion — were two startup entrepreneurs who took to Twitter on Thursday night. On the “Groupon is doomed to fail” side of the question was David Heinemeier Hansson, a partner at 37signals and creator of Ruby on Rails, and on the “give Groupon a chance” side of the debate was SimpleGeo co-founder Joe Stump. Who won? You will have to judge for yourself. Their conversation is embedded below.

Hansson started the debate by tearing apart Groupon’s financials, noting that the company had not only lost more than $500 million so far, but that its losses and spending were actually accelerating, and that it was costing the company far more than $1 to make $1 in revenue — a fundamentally unsustainable situation. After a series of tweets on that topic, Stump joined the debate by saying Groupon should get some credit for being able to generate revenues of $600 million or so every quarter, and that this would give the company some breathing room to figure out how to generate a profit.

Read More....
Groupon: Doomed to Fail or Worth a Leap?

IBM Expands Smarter Commerce Initiative for Business Partners to Seize New Market Opportunity

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an expansion of its Smarter Commerce initiative to help Business Partners seize the growing market opportunity created by shifting buying patterns brought on by mobile and social computing. In addition to sales, marketing and technical guidance, Business Partners can qualify to earn incentives of up to 50 percent of the software sales transaction and receive zero percent financing.

With today's news, IBM is making it easier and more cost effective to offer Smarter Commerce solutions. IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative delivers software and services to help companies transform their business processes to more quickly respond to shifting customer demands in today's digital marketplace.

Read More.....
IBM Expands Smarter Commerce Initiative for Business Partners to Seize New Market Opportunity