Mediaboss Marketing

By Shira Ovide

Microsoft announced Tuesday the updated version of its Windows 8 operating systemwhich had been code-named Windows Bluewill be called Windows 8.1, and it will be available for free to encourage as many people as possible to take up the new software.

The software expected in coming months will effectively be a second launch of Windows 8, the operating system that debuted last October to great fanfare but fairly tepid sales. But the Windows 8.1 name underscores that Microsoft considers the revised software a relatively minor update and not a do-over, which would point to fundamental problems with the original product.

Tami Reller, chief marketing officer and chief financial officer of Microsofts Windows division, offered details about Windows 8.1 at a J.P. Morgan investor conference Tuesday morning. She earlier had discussed the plans in an interview on Monday.

It is an update, which is why its called Windows 8.1, Reller said at the Boston conference, which was available via a Webcast.The operating system just keeps getting better and better every day, she said Monday.

Executives at Microsoft, PC makers and other allies have said Windows 8 hasnt sparked a hoped-for sales surge for Windows-powered computers, tablets and new kinds of in-between devices called convertibles that could exploit its touch-based interface. Microsoft, PC makers and chip company Intel each is tinkering to make the software and Windows-powered hardware more appealing.

Microsoft executives have acknowledged missteps with Windows 8, and the company has said it is working hard to encourage hardware companies to offer more devices with touchscreens, which Microsoft and others say is a better experience than computers operated with a keyboard and mouse. Microsoft also is pushing changes to the retail-shopping experience, offering price breaks on software for smaller computer devices and pushing hard to convince more companies to write apps tailored for Windows 8.

Both Windows 8 and Windows RTa variant designed to run with ARM Holdings chip designs used on iPads and Android-powered tabletswill get the Windows 8.1 update, Reller said. She said its important that people feel confident buying Windows computing devices now knowing fresh software is coming soon, even as Microsoft and PC makers have promised a wave of improved and new types of Windows-powered PCs and tablets later this year.

We dont want customers to hesitate in any way, Reller said in the interivew.

Reller reiterated that a test version of Windows 8.1 will be released to the public in late June, as Microsoft hosts a major event for software developers. Windows 8.1 is slated to be rolled out before the holiday shopping seasonin time for a planned wave of new touchscreen Windows computers that Microsoft and its allies hope will be more appealing than the current offerings.

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Microsoft to Name New Software Windows 8.1, and It’s Free

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - May 14, 2013) - To help businesses use predictive analytics to improve decision-making across the enterprise, TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) today announced the availability of free software and a rich community site. These resources are aimed at R developers tasked with expanding the use of predictive analytics within major enterprises. TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R Developers Edition is a free version of the TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R engine that makes its power available to the entire Open Source R community. The associated TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R (TERR) Community Site is an important resource that provides enterprise developers with community-based technical support and a peer forum to help them build and deploy best practice analytics for their organization.

Although commonly referred to as the default programming language of statistics, R has never achieved mainstream acceptance in the enterprise. R was not built for enterprise usage and integration, but began as an academic tool for research and teaching. Moreover, while the R language is known for its low cost of entry, it can be costly to maintain due to version incompatibilities and the lack of enterprise-level technical support. With TERR, TIBCO makes the R language enterprise-ready.

"The open-source R language provides great value for statisticians, but the enterprises in which they work have struggled to extend that value beyond those individual statisticians.At the same time, predictive analytics is gaining traction for business decision-making," said Lou Bajuk-Yorgan, senior director of product management for TIBCO Spotfire."Our TERR initiative is focused on bringing the value of R to enterprises, and helping all enterprise users interested in leveraging predictive analytics tools for better decision-making.Users will notice increased performance, scalability, enterprise support and system-wide integration never before seen for the R language."

Quickly Deploy Powerful, Consistent Analytics Across the Enterprise

TERR,announcedlast September as a part of TIBCO Spotfire Professional 5.0, combines scalability and stability with the agility of R, through a unique, enterprise-quality runtime for the R language. With the release of the free TERR Developer Edition, TIBCO aims to provide R statisticians with a powerful platform for the development and testing of their R analytics, which can then be deployed and integrated using commercial versions of TERR, without wasting time and effort re-implementing in a different language -- and enabling a far more agile response to emerging opportunities and threats.

"Increasingly, we hear from customers that the ground work and innovation of modern statistics is happening in the R language," said Bajuk-Yorgan. "Yet most statisticians are doubling or tripling their work by having to re-code and re-evaluate their work in other languages prior to moving it into production. What we've done is build a completely new R-compatible engine with a brand new architecture, creating a more scalable, stable and integrated experience that enables the rapid iteration of prototyping to production."

"The integration of Paragon's platform with the TERR engine will enable drug licensing decision makers to query internal and external data simultaneously, driving the right information into the decision process to rapidly determine whether or not to pursue or abandon an opportunity," said John D'Antonio, director life sciences advisory services, Paragon Pharmaceuticals. "This can reduce the time to market for successful drugs by months or even years, which is paramount to life sciences organizations."

Bringing the Agility of R to Enterprise Applications

TERR was developed by TIBCO from the ground up based on the company's history and expertise with S+. It allows programmers and data scientists writing R scripts to continue developing code in R, and then directly deploy the code on TERR. Researchers can then integrate their analytics into other TIBCO products such as Spotfire for advanced data visualization and predictive modeling, or TIBCO BusinessEvents for complex event processing. The result gives data scientists a rapidly iterated prototype that can be put into production without the need for recoding/retesting, effortlessly integrating predictive analytics consistently across the whole organization.

"Historically, many customers have been reticent to adopt open source solutions without enterprise-grade support. What TIBCO has done is bring R closer to enterprise acceptance by building a much more efficient, R-compatible engine, cutting out steps in the programming process by speaking a language that's already being spoken, but not leveraged," said Imran Hussain, managing consultant, Agilexi. "By incorporating the R language into the TIBCO family of products, TIBCO is making a major statement about the future of predictive analytics and R, for both the individual researcher and the enterprise user."

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TIBCO Delivers Cutting-Edge Predictive Analytics for All, With Complimentary Software and Powerful Online Resource

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Calamitous computer glitches, such as those that led to the loss of NASAs 82 million Mars Climate Orbiter Spacecraft, could be prevented thanks to research by University of Strathclyde academics, says the university.

Dr Patricia Johann and Professor Neil Ghani, of Strathclydes Department of Computer and Information Sciences, aim to develop software that guarantees programs perform the computations they are designed to carry out.

Crucially, the software aims to stop programs performing unintended tasks, thus improving the reliability of safety-critical systems, such as those running nuclear facilities, aeroplanes and credit card transactions.

Professor Ghani, co-investigator on the 440,000 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded project, said: In an economy as relentlessly digital as the modern worldwide one - in which everything from toasters to interpersonal communications and global financial services are computerised - the need for formally-verified software cannot be overestimated."

Ghani said formal verification uses mathematical techniques to prove that programs actually perform the computations they are intended to perform, for example, that text editors really do save a file when a "save" command is issued, or that automatic pilots really do correctly execute flight plans.

Formal verification also ensures programs avoid performing unintended computations, such as leaking credit card details or launching nuclear weapons without authorisation.

Ghani said, Since programmers make 15 to 50 errors per 1,000 lines of code, and since repairing them accounts for some 80 percent of project expenses, the ever-increasing size and sophistication of programs makes formal verification increasingly critical to modern software development.

We aim to revolutionise a key technology within program verification, namely logical relations, by providing a framework for their development and use that is principled, conceptually simple, reusable and uniform, rather than ad hoc.

The Mars Climate Orbiter Spacecraft was lost in September 1999 because one NASA team used imperial units while another used metric units for a key spacecraft operation. Ghani believes Strathclydes formal verification research could lead to similar errors being averted in the future.

He added that current testing procedures for software - which involve repeatedly running programs hundreds of times to detect errors - are "inadequate". Ghani said: Most software is tested by running it a certain number of times, which is cheap and easy to do. However, it is not very certain as it might have failed on the next test had one more been run.

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Strathclyde University makes planes, nuclear reactors and spacecraft bug free

Zoostr has released its software for small businesses in India. Zoostr is a free business software that, as claimed, helps very small business owners in becoming more productive whether it's creating invoices, price quotations, meeting notes or even SMS Marketing campaigns.

Zoostr is designed to make all small business admin and marketing tasks as simple and as quick as possible so business owners can concentrate on generating revenue and getting new clients through the door.

"Zoostr is out to shake up the small business software market. We are providing a great software free of charge and will be offering valuable premium features in the future at a reasonable low monthly or yearly cost." says Gal Ofel, founder and CEO of Zoostr. "Our mission at Zoostr is to always strive to help our users be more effective and more successful and we have some big plans for future features to do just that."

Zoostr allows anytime, anywhere access on PC, tablet, or smartphone, giving the small business owners the ability to carry out admin tasks on the move. For example creating a price quotation or recording meeting notes or checking who has outstanding invoices, and calling a customer direct from inside the software. It also provides SMS marketing tool that lets small business owners send bulk SMS messages for free to their customers to help drive new business.

"Zoostr is unique in a number of ways," says Spencer Waldron, CMO, Zoostr. "Firstly, it is designed for very small business owners like the self-employed, partnerships, micro businesses, independent professionals, and small scale units, etc. To our knowledge this has never been done before. Secondly, we have been building the product based on user feedback from the beginning, and lastly it is designed 100% for the Indian market. We are seeing people reacting to it in a very positive way and have seen 1000's of sign-ups in the first couple of weeks of it being released."

In planning for more than a year, Zoostr has been designed with Mobile in mind, while supporting PC. Although smartphone penetration is still low in India it is growing at a breath-taking pace. Smartphones and Tablets represent a huge opportunity for small businesses in India to be more effective and more successful. Zoostr intends to help independent professionals and micro business owners take advantage of this in the coming months and years.

You can sign up for a free account at the Zoostr website.

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A free Biz Software for Pros and Micro Biz Owners in India