Salesforce's Message to Europe

Salesforce's Message to Europe

Unknown   3:18 AM

SAlesforce last week said it would invest US$100 million in emerging sales force partners in Europe. The company previously announced a similar program for the Americas, and it hopes to discover valuable new companies and business solutions.



Paul Greenberg and the team at CRM Idol (of which I have been a part) have been doing the same thing -- trying to discover interesting emerging companies in the CRM space for several years now, minus the money.

Even without millions of bucks at stake, the casting call always brings in some cool ideas from around the world, so I have no doubt there are plenty of companies in Europe that will vie for a chance at an investment.

PRM's Next Act

PRM's Next Act

Unknown   3:17 AM

Partner relationship management, or PRM, has seen its ups and downs over the first part of this century.



Running an indirect channel is vitally important to any vendor trying to extend its reach without incurring the high costs of building up a sales team and all that supports it. Many vendors figure it's more economical to pay partners for performance than to endure the corporate buildout, and they have a good point.

That said, it's important to understand that the indirect channel isn't for every business. Some need to field large sales teams to ensure that their messages are delivered accurately. This is especially true where a vendor continuously has to bring to market new products that need to be sold rather than purchased.

One great example is pharmaceuticals, where patents give the inventor a set number of years to exploit a new drug. After the patent expires, the secondary market can make and distribute very similar products. Doctors and allied healthcare professionals really need the continuous education that pharmaceutical reps provide.

That's not the case with a wide variety of products and services that may not be on any particular patent and that approach commodity status except that they have specific attributes that might be key to assemblies of larger offerings -- for instance, electric motors.

No, they're not all the same and specific applications call for very specific types. If you're in such a market, selling through an indirect channel makes a great deal of sense.

Sony Shears PS4's Price

Sony Shears PS4's Price

Unknown   3:11 AM

Sony last week knocked US$50 off the price of the PlayStation 4, putting the console on par with the $349 Xbox from rival Microsoft.

A cost cut also went into effect in Canada, where the price dropped from Sony's recommended price point of CA$449.99 to $429.99.

Touting upcoming multiplatform games Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Star Wars: Battlefront, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden asserted that there never has been a better time to pick up the PS4.

Sony is delivering on its commitment to make the PS4 the "best place to play," he said, by cutting its MSRP and putting the console within reach of more consumers heading into the holidays.

The highly anticipated PS4 exclusive, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was still "on the horizon" after being delayed a while back, Layden noted.

That delay left Sony touting exclusive content on multiplatform games, such as timed exclusivity on Black Ops 3 DLC, noted George T. Chronis, director of qualitative analysis at DFC Intelligence.

Another Day, Another Billion Android Users at Risk

Another Day, Another Billion Android Users at Risk

Unknown   3:10 AM

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Google on Monday released an over-the-air update for Nexus devices, which includes patches for the latest Stagefright vulnerabilities and other flaws.

Android's Stagefright media processing feature, which recently imperiled 1 billion devices around the world, was once again putting them at risk, Zimperium revealed last week.

Zimperium found two new vulnerabilities that manifest when Android's Stagefright media playback engine handles specially crafted MP3 audio or MP video files.

The first vulnerability, which Google named "CVE-2015-6602," is in libutils. It exists in "all versions of Android since the very first AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code push," said Zuk Avraham, Zimperium's CTO.

The second vulnerability, in libstagefright, impacts only devices running Android 5.0 and higher, he told LinuxInsider.

It has been named "CVE-2015-3876," Google spokesperson Elizabeth Markman said.

Google will post its latest patches to AOSP as well as on its Android Security Updates forum, Markman told LinuxInsider.

No exploit has been found in the wild for either vulnerability, Avraham said.

Apple TV Reviews: Kinda Buggy, Kinda Great

Apple TV Reviews: Kinda Buggy, Kinda Great

Unknown   3:07 AM

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The latest version of Apple's streaming media set-top box, expected to hit U.S. retail stores on Friday, has gathered a bundle of mixed early reviews.

Some reviewers saw great potential in the US$149 diminutive black box designed to pump movies, TV shows, games and apps from the Internet to a television set. Others found plenty to criticize

ONOS Project Gets Linux Foundation Bump

ONOS Project Gets Linux Foundation Bump

Unknown   3:05 AM

e Linux Foundation on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership withON.Lab and its ONOS project community to develop open source network services.



They will build infrastructure for software-defined networking and network function virtualization technology. The foundation will provide its global reach, experience and infrastructure to seed ONOS' growing community.

This latest LF-sponsored collaborative project will help ONOS, or Open Network Operating System, better monetize its open source networking platforms for service providers. It also will help vendors and service providers invent new business models, according to the Linux Foundation.

"It is a natural evolution for the ONOS Project. We are at a point where we are scaling to the next level with partners, use cases, [proof of concept], trials and community," said William Snow, vice president of engineering for ON.Lab, the Open Networking Lab.

Google's Nexus 6P and 5X Win Some Love

Google's Nexus 6P and 5X Win Some Love

Unknown   3:03 AM

The reviews are out for Google's Nexus 6P and 5X, unveiled late last month, and they can be summed up in two words: Love them!

They're described as "the best Nexus devices ever produced" and "Google's answer to Apple's iPhones," but those tired phrases are rolled out with every new Nexus or flagship Android smartphone, so what else is new?

The camera, for one. The phones' cameras apparently are a big improvement over previous Nexus cameras.

Speed and the improved security offered by the fingerprint sensor are other plus points.

Google and its partners -- Huawei for the 6P and LG for the 5X -- finally havenailed the camera and battery life -- two of the features that traditionally have been weak in Nexus devices, wrote Ron Amadeo for Ars Technica.