Facebook heats up the competitive e-mail landscape with Project Titan, a replacement for its outdated messaging service.   Rumors are that Project Titan will have POP/IMA support allowing it to have configurability with virtually any e-mail client including popular choices such as Entourage, Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail.   Some analysts see this as a move that will allow Facebook to compete head-to-head with Google Gmail.   In January, Google expanded its territory a bit by including social search a feature into its beta product.  

At this week’s Black hacking and security conference in Washington D.C, security researchers disclosed vulnerably to a Zero-Day bug that could affect both Microsoft IE as well as the 11 G database.  After the Black Hat disclosure of the exposure to the zero-day bug, Microsoft provided a warning to its users.   "Microsoft is aware of the presentation at Black Hat … which describes proof-of-concept code on an information disclosure vulnerability in Internet Explorer," a Microsoft spokesperson told InternetNews.com in an e-mail. "  This hole can impact customers running Windows XP or who have disabled Internet Explorer Protected Mode."  Microsoft recommended that users upgrade to IE 8.

Cisco announced boosted its unified communications capabilities by adding voice-over-Wi-Fi to its current iPhone support by April 2010. Although Cisco mobile currently provides iPhone users with standard Cisco IP capabilities including Mobile connect and visual voicemail, it now wants to provide voice over Wi-Fi as a lower cost way to communicate.    According to Laurent Philonenko, general manager of Cisco's unified communications business unit, the new capability will allow iPhone users to place a call within a Wi-Fi zone without using cellular minutes.   The new version will be free and will be called Cisco Mobile Voice.

The smart phones has been a driving force of cell phone industry over the past few years however, with many new vendors entering the market over the next year, the competition is expected to greatly increase even further in 2010.  Neil Mawston from the research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) confirms the expected competition in the smartphone industry stating "The smartphone market will become ultra-competitive in 2010.  The smartphone wars will be good news for consumers, but the fierce competition will inevitably place downward pressure on vendors' pricing and margins." 

According to a blog on Tuesday, Twitter’s director of trust and safety, Del Harvey, explained that Twitter had to take action to reset passwords when it discovered that torrent Web sites were running a scam.   A number of torrent sites were built that required a log-in and password.  As these Web sites and forums were sold to people who wanted to own their own torrent site, the buyers did not realize that the sites were compromised with security leaks that allowed the cybercriminals access to the buyers’ log-in info for Twitter and other sites.   As users tried to log-in to forums, they were sent to third-party Web sites where the users’ passwords were obtained.  "These sites came with a little extra--security exploits and backdoors throughout the system," Harvey stated. "This person then waited for the forums and sites to get popular and then used those exploits to get access to the username, email address, and password of every person who had signed up."

Apple is known for their quality products ranging from their tiny iPod Shuffle to large iMac desktop and TV systems.  Most consumers do not have any doubt of quality when buying Apple products however, the unmarked territory of the iPad is different for there is no other like products to compare it with. Apple has made a reputation of delivering quality products with hefty price tags however, the iPad is a way to get computer-like functions and abilities in a product priced just under $500 dollars.  The iPad is marketed by Apple as "the best way to experience the web, email, and video."  Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, once said, "“we don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk.” Well obviously he has disproved that statement with the upcoming arrival of the iPad.  The iPad runs programs, games, has email ability, internet browser access, and comes with a sleek screen and keyboard.  Those features pretty much sums up what qualifies as a computer to most people.    Its size, low entry price point, ease of use, functionality, and portability make it strong potential candidate for use by enterprise customers.   It’s not hard to imagine a host of enterprise software that can be written for this device that will usher it into the enterprise world.

Makara officially launched this week as company providing technology that facilitates speedy deployment of applications, allowing migration between cloud platforms.  The company has some notable backers including Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen.  The Makara product is an application management tool for virtual environments.   The tool provides flexibility and makes it easy to port applications across virtual environments and the cloud as it is designed to fit under the application stack, but above the hypervisor.   CEO Isaac Roth and CTO Tobias Kunze Briseno say that platform approach is similar to a “capsule” that envelopes the applications, making it possible for developers to provision applications between cloud providers or across clusters.   The company offers a free two node developer version or an “on-demand” pay as you go product based on hourly usage.   An Enterprise Version is available with volume pricing ranging from $2,250 to $3000 per node.

Informatica, a leader in data integration software, acknowledged late last week that it has completed its acquisition of Siperian, known for its Master Data Management (MDM) infrastructure technology.   Informatica will acquire Siperian by paying approximately $130 million in cash, on a fully diluted basis.   The company also announced its financial results for Q4, with a 25% increase in license revenue, and 10% increase in total revenues for the year.    The Q4 results helped Informatica reach $500 million in total revenue for year, a first for the company.    Informatica’s revenue growth runs contrary to industry trends declining revenues and the company is very optimistic about the future with the Siperian acquisition. “Our acquisition of Siperian will expand Informatica’s addressable market with an additional high-growth, adjacent technology category, MDM infrastructure, and will further strengthen our key strategic partnerships,” stated Sohaib Abbasi, chairman and CEO, Informatica. “Informatica Data Integration and Data Quality have a proven track record of enabling successful MDM projects. Together, we will advance Informatica as a leader in this exciting MDM Infrastructure category.”   The move bolsters Informatica’s market position relative to IBM and OEM partner Oracle.

Telecom, finance, transportation, petroleum, water and power companies indicate that their networks are subject to widespread attacks from foreign governments and cybercriminals.   McAfee published its cyber security report which was written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).   The report entitled "In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyberwar," looks at seven industrial sectors in 14 different countries.  The survey was conducted by U.K. research firm Vanson Bourne, Ltd., and involved interviews with 600 IT and security executives. It found general concern the security threats in the future may get even worse.    The report found that cyber attacks that resemble the attack reported by Google from China are being experienced by companies across many industries.

Microsoft’s free test period comes to an end on February 1^st, as it will start to bill customers that use its pay-as-you-go Windows based Azure cloud computing services.   Microsoft offers companies the choice of a pay per use “consumption" pricing plan or a “commitment” option where companies can obtain discounts for a six month commitment.   To help potential customers estimate their costs and compare programs, Microsoft is providing calculators.   The company makes “no warranties” about the results that the calculators generate.