Matthew Dorn

Symantec Corp. today released a new version of Norton Online Backup that supports both Windows and Mac operating systems on up to five computers, linked together through the same central account. Backed-up files also can be retrieved from any Web connection, including up to 90 days of file revisions. Norton Online Backup version 2.0 now allows users to transfer files between any of their computers and with other users. With Norton Online Backup's Web browser, users can select and share any of the files they have backed up by generating download links that can be e-mailed to any address.

Norton Online Backup retails for $49.99 per year, which includes 25GB of online storage to back up files from up to five computers. Users who've purchased new computers, for example, will be able to use the file transfer feature to populate their machines from current systems. Additional storage space can be purchased incrementally at any time. "Now consumers can turn to Norton to back up their priceless photos and music collections," Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of consumer products and marketing at Symantec, said in a statement. "With the combination of our brand, worldwide reach, and these latest technical improvements, we intend to bring online backup to consumers in a major way." An advanced search feature also allows users to search for backed-up files by name, date, size or type of file. Also, the file purge and storage management features allow users to remove previously backed-up files in sequential order to clear up available storage space. File backup stores the most current file, even if it's open, which can be handy for e-mail files. Other features include improvements to file migration, automatic initial setup, user settings and a more intuitive redesign of the user interface, Symantec said.

Version 2.0 supports cross-platform functionality for Windows XP, Vista, Window 7 and Mac OS X, including Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The upgraded version is available through retail stores and through Symantec's online store . The new version of Norton Online Backup will be updated automatically for current subscribers within the coming weeks.

LA VEGAS - Four years after buying Ray Ozzie's Groove, Microsoft is making its most significant dive into the technology using the client software to create an offline data store and workplace for SharePoint users. It lets users view and edit both online and offline data from SharePoint and third-party line-of-business applications and synchronize those changes with SharePoint and third-party systems. The company made the announcement during Monday's opening of its annual SharePoint conference, which has attracted 7,000 attendees. 10 things you need to know about Windows 7 SharePoint Server 2010, which will go into its first public beta next month, will include the SharePoint Workplace Client, which is Groove software redesigned as a native SharePoint client. For example, data in an SAP system will look like native SharePoint data, and using the Groove-based SharePoint Workplace Client, that data can be taken offline and edited and then synchronized with the third-party system.

In addition, Microsoft has added to the optional browser-based SharePoint client the ability to read and edit external data. The synchronization is supported by workflow features including check-in and check-out capabilities. In the 2007 version, users could only read external data via the browser client. The access to third-party data is via a SharePoint feature called the Business Data Catalog, which lets users connect to line-of-business applications. "The Workplace Client is a key part of building these kinds of applications where SharePoint ties together different information in your organization," said Jeff Teper, corporate vice president of the Office SharePoint Server group at Microsoft. "It brings the data seamlessly into SharePoint and SharePoint Workspace." The client is available as part of the Office Pro Plus suite. "We have put ton of work in this release that we think will make developers lives easier to bring line-of-business data together with SharePoint data, take it offline and then update it," Teper said. "It is a real pain point for IT organizations to build these business front ends and tie them into collaboration activity." Groove was founded in 1997 by Lotus Notes creator Ozzie, who is now the chief software architect at Microsoft. The 2007 version of SharePoint included a Groove branded client, but it provided a read-only option for external data along with very basic SharePoint integration.

When Microsoft purchased Groove in March 2005, Groove's Virtual Office, peer-to-peer client-side technology supported file sharing and the ability to work with data offline and, most notably, securely collaborate over corporate firewalls. In addition, it added auditing/logging controls, Web services APIs, and integration with Microsoft's Visual Studio development platform for creating custom tools and agents for use within Virtual Office. It also had a host of corporate-class features and servers to turn the Groove Virtual Office environment into a secure, managed universal front-end-to-back-end data repository and a bridge that tied together disparate client technologies used for collaboration. The forthcoming SharePoint Server 2010 also features tighter integration with Visual Studio. Office Groove Server 2007 is a bundle with SharePoint 2007 that includes the former Groove Enterprise Management, Relay and Data Bridge servers that made up the back-end infrastructure of Groove.

The Groove 2007 in SharePoint 2007 included tools for discussion, files, meetings, calendar, forms, issue tracking, Notepad, pictures and sketchpad. Follow John on Twitter: twitter.com/johnfontana

An Indian eye hospital is piloting software that will push to doctors' iPhones retinal images collected from patients in remote locations. Doctors are more likely to have access at all times to their mobile phones than their laptop computers, Vinekar said. Doctors can then quickly send their diagnosis and recommendations from their iPhones, said Anand Vinekar, project coordinator and pediatric retinal surgeon at the Narayana Nethralaya Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology in Bangalore.

The hospital plans to use the technology to test infants for a potentially blinding condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), besides other conditions such as ocular cancers. The problem in India is that the country has about 15 to 20 doctors trained to diagnose and treat patients with ROP, and they are located in the cities, Vinekar said. ROP requires treatment after diagnosis within 48 to 72 hours to prevent blindness, Vinekar said. As part of its village outreach program in rural areas, two years ago the hospital started sending qualified doctors to villages and equipped them with instruments used to examine the eye. These people, who were not doctors or technicians, were also trained to make a preliminary diagnosis, Vinekar said. To improve its reach in rural and semi-urban areas, the hospital trained people to take eye images using a wide-angle retinal digital camera, with 130 degrees field of view.

Once the hospital started using images for a diagnosis, the doctors did not have to go to the rural locations every time for diagnosis, he added. Some months ago, the hospital installed a system that allowed the images to be uploaded to a server using the Internet, and a doctor could access the images from a computer. Images were transferred from the camera to a computer, and then the images were e-mailed to the doctor in Bangalore for final diagnosis and recommendations. Under the new system, images from the computer are uploaded to a server using the Internet, and the software then pushes the images to the doctor's iPhone. Doctors can give their diagnosis, and send their reports from their mobile phones to the server, and from there on through the Internet to the persons at the patient's site.

Doctors from other hospitals in other locations can also download the application to their iPhones, and collaborate in the diagnosis, said Sham Banerji, CEO of i2i TeleSolutions, the company that developed the software, and also hosts the application and the images. The hospital selected the iPhone for its graphics capability and screen resolution, Vinekar said. The ability to create PDF reports on the iPhone also helps doctors to create diagnostic reports and upload them on the Internet, Vinekar said. The iPhone also offers features such as the ability to enlarge images, he added. The software has been submitted by i2i of Singapore for inclusion by Apple in its App Store, Banerji said. The software can also be ported to other mobile phones, and the company may also look at phones using the Android mobile operating system, Banerji added.

Having the software listed on the store will help the company market the software to more hospitals, he added. Vinekar meanwhile hopes to down the line use a mobile phone and the mobile telephone network for collecting images at the patients' end, and transmit them in real-time to the back-end servers and the doctors' iPhones. But first the phones will have to support quality cameras with 130 degrees field of view, he added.

Los Angeles City Council approved a US$7.25 million five-year deal Tuesday in which the city will adopt Gmail and other Google Apps. According to Los Angeles City Council minutes, just over $1.5 million for the project will come from the payout of a 2006 class action lawsuit between the City and Microsoft. Google is touting the deal as a major endorsement of its cloud-based approach to computing, but it turns out that some of the funding is indirectly coming from an unlikely source: Microsoft.

Microsoft paid $70 million three years ago to settle the suit, brought on behalf of six California counties and cities who alleged that Microsoft used its monopoly position to overcharge for software. Los Angeles City Council approved the deal unanimously on Tuesday, according to Google Spokesman Andrew Kovacs. Microsoft has paid out more than $1 billion in other class-action settlements based on similar claims. The migration from the city's Novell GroupWise e-mail servers will be handled by contractor Computer Sciences Corp. The five-year contract will cost Los Angeles about $1.5 million more than simply sticking with Novell. Other applications such as calendaring, document sharing and chat will be handled by Google Apps too.

But because the city will get extra storage capacity from Google, while at the same time being able to run other software on the Novell servers, it's worth the cost, according to an Oct. 7 city finance committee memo written by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana. The Los Angeles deal may hint at how this product will work. Google has pushed Google Apps as an option for government agencies, promising to ship a product called Government Cloud, which will be certified under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), sometime next year. According to a Sept. 15 memo from the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency, Google will "provide a new separate data environment called 'GovCloud.' The GovCloud will store both applications and data in a completely segregated environment that will only be used by public agencies." This GovCloud would be encrypted and "physically and logically segregated" from Google's standard applications. Because data would be encrypted and then stored on many different servers, Google's administrators wouldn't typically be able to access the information, although there would be so-called "Super Administrators" who would be able to recompile the data and read it.

The data would be stored only in the U.S. and only accessible to U.S citizens who have undergone security clearance. The city would own the data and would be notified of "any request of data or security breach," the memo states. They convinced Los Angeles council members to tack on a "liquidated damages" clause to the contract that would award the city a payout in the event of a data breach. Critics are still worried about security and privacy, though. Kovacs of Google downplayed privacy and security concerns over the project. "One thing that was very clear in council today," he said. "They believe that Google Apps will make the city more secure than their current solution."

Microsoft Corp. may have ditched the three application limit on the Windows 7 Starter Edition, but other restrictions on the netbook-only version of the operating system will be an unwelcome surprise for many netbook buyers, according to a survey published Monday. Other higher-end features Windows 7 Starter lacks include the advanced Aero interface, multi-touch, Windows Media Center, and XP Mode virtualization. Sixty-one percent of consumers do not know that Windows 7 Starter lacks some features standard in any version of Windows XP, such as support for multiple monitors, DVD playback - even the ability to change the desktop image from the Microsoft logo, according to a survey by electronics shopping site,Retrevo.com. Informed of these missing features, 56% of the 1,100 randomly surveyed respondents (95% likely to fall within plus or minus 6.5% of the overall population results, says Retrevo) said that they would not be satisfied with Windows 7 Starter.

Microsoft may be counting on upselling users to to an $80 upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. The problem, according to Retrevo, is that 23 out of 28 netbooks available today on Amazon.com are installed with Windows 7 Starter. That is done via the Anytime Upgrade program on Microsoft's e-commerce Web site. It could also boost demand for Linux netbooks, which are expected to grab nearly one-third of the booming worldwide market this year for netbooks. But it could also create ill will toward Microsoft, said Andrew Eisner, director of content for Retrevo. "I think most users will feel angry with having to pay the $80 for an upgrade to get those features," he said. Microsoft declined to comment specifically on Retrevo's survey.

Rather, it pointed to a statement it made back in February when it announced the six versions of Windows 7. "Small notebook PCs can run any version of Windows 7. For OEMs that build lower-cost small notebook PCs, Windows 7 Starter will now be available in developed markets," it said. "For the most enhanced, full-functioning Windows experience on small notebook PCs, however, consumers will want to go with Windows 7 Home Premium, which lets you get the most out of your digital media and easily connect with other PCs."

Dell's bid for outsourcer Perot Systems marks a significant move for the hardware vendor, but industry watchers say the pending acquisition won't do much to alter the current IT services market. The deal marks a very deliberate strategy from Dell to add IT services expertise to its mostly products business, industry watchers say. "Dell has been a bit more gradual embarking on its services strategy, but it has been very deliberate in determining who is the right player at the right time," says Dane Anderson, research vice president at Gartner. "Perot offers something that can be complementary to the Dell business and at the same time, it is very digestible and integrate-able." Slideshow: Recapping the hottest tech M&A deals of 2009 Perot, which is already a Dell partner and delivered a healthcare solution based on a Dell platform earlier this year, does business just shy of $3 billion, according to Anderson. Dell buying Perot Systems for $3.9 billion Dell Monday announced it would pay $3.9 billion to acquire existing partner and IT services provider Perot Systems. A deal would enable Dell to sell products into Perot accounts and vice versa.

For one, Dell needs to maintain its foothold in the small and midsize enterprise market and not yet attempt to become an "anywhere, anytime global services provider," Anderson says. "This deal increases Dell's footprint, but it doesn't give them a license to play anywhere. If the two companies can stay focused, analysts say, the opportunity for a successful integration is large. They have to be selective and disciplined about the markets the combined company addresses." That means Dell could excel in vertical markets such as healthcare and government, considering Perot's strong history in both areas. The acquisition will impact Dell and Perot and their customers, and it is interesting, but it's not game-changing for the industry." Others say the deal represents an aggressive move on Dell's part that impacts both the hardware and IT services market, and vendors such as HP and IBM specifically.  HP and IBM have long been able to couple their product offerings with professional services, and HP recently upped the ante by acquiring EDS. Dell being a pure-play hardware vendor with partnerships in software and services wasn't able to effectively compete with the market-leading services vendors. Industry watchers say with proper execution the acquisition could be the beginning of Dell expanding beyond being a product maker to becoming a provider of IT services, which would benefit both companies involved in the pending deal. "Perot Systems is a conglomerate of goods and services outside the scope of IT. This acquisition is a first step in Dell's long-held desire to provide more than just desktop solutions," says Steve Brasen, principal analyst with Enterprise Management Associates. "Leveraging Perot's broad market base, however, Dell will likely find direct marketing opportunities to expand its core IT business – particularly among government, financial and healthcare institutions." Dell is planning to keep the leadership team at Perot in place, which could bode well for the success of the acquisition, says Mark Mayo, partner and president of global resources management at TPI. But aside from the deal representing a trend toward consolidation in the IT services market, Mayo doesn't see the final acquisition as having a big impact on the competition or the market in general. "We expect to see more consolidation because it is a very competitive market and a surge of new players came into the market globally in the late 1990s and early 2000s," Mayo explains. "But this is not an industry-leading or industry-making event.

Now with Perot's services business, Dell is on track to better compete with the likes of Accenture, CSC, HP and IBM, analysts say. "Perot and Dell together are able to compete with HP and IBM, specifically, in ways that neither was able to before. Dell was on a losing path as a pure-play hardware vendor," says Andi Mann, vice president of research at Enterprise Management Associates. HP and IBM (and to a lesser extent Sun) have been able to offer a complete data center infrastructure - from facilities, through server and storage hardware, to software, and implementation and operational services – for some time. Acquiring an IT services arm will help Dell better compete and expand into new markets, but it won't be enough to enable it to fully compete head-on with the likes of HP and IBM, Mann adds. "If Dell really wants to compete on even footing with HP and IBM, it is going to need a software stack of its own. Do you Tweet?

It can continue to cede solution revenues to its partners for some time, and this buy will cause significant indigestion and inertia that will hold up any new acquisition, but eventually Dell must pick up a software stack," Mann says. Follow Denise Dubie on Twitter

Do you wish your iSight were more like the unblinking, ever-vigilant Eye of Sauron? RemoteSight can act as an integrated camera source for Ben Software's SecuritySpy, which aggregates video feeds from multiple cameras into a heads-up multi-video display. Then you might be interested in Ben Software's new RemoteSight, an application that turns an iSight camera into a CCTV-style security camera, accessible over a network via Web browser. RemoteSight captures both audio and video from the host Mac's iSight camera (or any attached video input device), and streams it out through an integrated Web server; video is accompanied by a live timestamp.

Any Web browser has the ability to connect to the Web server across an internal network, and Internet remote viewing should be possible if the nonstandard additional ports used by the Web server are opened on the router to allow this traffic. The Web server also provides an option to remotely view what is happening on the Mac's monitor as well. Administrative users can turn off monitoring feeds individually, and you can protect all connections to the Web server by username and password registration. RemoteSight costs $27, and a fully functional demo is available as well, so you can give it a try. RemoteSight runs as a faceless application, with no indication in the Dock that it is operating; however, a menu-bar item appears that cannot be easily removed, and (where available) the iSight LED light is turned on to indicate that the camera is in use. System requirements call for OS X 10.4.11 or later, 512GB of RAM (I'll assume that's a typo and you only need 512MB), and a video input device, such as a built-in iSight camera or external FireWire or USB camera.