Oracle Wrangles Cloud Customer Service Outfit RightNow

Oracle has agreed to acquire RightNow Technologies for roughly $1.5 billion, or $43 per share — which would see the IT giant pay a 20 percent premium over RightNow’s closing price on Friday. The Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow offers an online service for powering instant messaging, social networks, and other communication tools among call centers, sales staff, and consumer-facing websites.

While many analysts have said that the purchase fits into Oracle’s recent shift into online service, not every piece of the puzzle lines up as neatly as some would lead you to believe. “Oracle’s bare-knuckle approach to sales and how it treats customers is 180 degrees the opposite to RightNow’s ethos of client-centricity and flexibility,” William Band, a vice president at research outfit Forrester Research, told Wired.com.

“[RightNow's employees] act and feel like they’re from Montana. Oracle feels like they can run you over. Some RightNow customers that purposefully avoid going with giants like Microsoft or Oracle may be unhappy now.”

Should RightNow shareholders approve the company’s sale and Oracle properly integrate the company’s service, the deal will go a long way towards providing the plumbing needed to compete in the cloud computing space — a market Oracle boss Larry Ellison mocked a year ago, but lauded at Oracle OpenWorld earlier this month.

During the expansive expo, Ellison and company announced a number of new products designed to compete on the net, including the Oracle Public Cloud and Oracle Social Network. Both announcements were largely seen as games of catch up. But with its largest acquisition since Sun Microsystems in January of 2010, Oracle is putting its money where its mouth is.

“RightNow’s leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle’s Public Cloud,” Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of Oracle’s development, said in a canned statement. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Kurian’s statement also noted that the Oracle Public Cloud will handle everything from sales force automation, human resources and talent management, social networking, databases, and Java development.

SalesForce.com — whose CEO, Marc Benioff, enjoys publicly bickering with Oracle boss Larry Ellison — offers many of these tools through products like its Chatter social networking service and its Service Cloud, a way of managing customer service tasks. Though Band questions how well RightNow will integrate with Oracle’s operation, Peter Goldmacher of financial analysis outfit Cowen Group believes the RightNow-Oracle deal will put a crimp in SalesForce’s efforts to push Service Cloud. RightNow will benefit, he said, from Oracle’s phalanx of salespeople and myriad existing customers.

“Customer-service management solutions are primarily purchased by larger enterprises, where Oracle has dominant distribution,” he said in an email to Wired.com. “As Oracle becomes more competitive in this market segment, we expect it will slow down sales cycles and reduce win rates for SalesForce.”

Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/oracle-wrangles-rightnow/

How E-Books Are Coming Full Circle, Thanks to Tablets

As tablet sales, led primarily by Apple's (AAPL) iPad, gain momentum, it seems everyone wants in on the market. Not only are traditional computing and smartphone companies launching or announcing new slates, but makers of e-readers look ready to do the same. The Barnes & Noble (BKS) Nook Color, built to run on Google's (GOOG) Android platform, will reportedly gain an app store next month, while Amazon (AMZN) just launched its own app store for Android devices earlier this week, possibly in advance of launching its own tablet. Standalone e-book readers have their benefits, but the shift to reading on multipurpose tablets is on.


Ironically, this situation has come full circle, although I suspect few realize it. I bought my first e-book in October 2003, more than seven years ago. Back then, there were no e-book reading devices. Instead I was reading my digital books on a PDA, or personal digital assistant. At the time, my Toshiba e805 was perfect for reading on the go, with its built-in Wi-Fi and 4-inch VGA color touchscreen. The handheld ran Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile 2003 operating system, so I had the ability to browse the Web and even install apps (yes, before there was an "app store"). In short, I had a great e-book reader that did a lot more besides.


Then the Kindle arrived in the fall of 2007, and with its arrival, the standalone e-book reader went mainstream. Sure, there were earlier attempts at bringing an e-ink device to the masses—Sony's (SNE) PRS-500 Reader made its debut more than a year before the Kindle—but Amazon's strength of brand and ability to negotiate with publishers, plus the inclusion of mobile broadband book delivery for no additional charge, turned the Kindle into Amazon's best-selling product. A number of other standalone e-ink readers have since followed, creating a whole new market. But the trend began to revert back to multipurpose devices with the launch of Apple's first iPad last April. I ended up selling my beloved Kindle because the iPad did so much more, plus it offered a Kindle app.


Slates With Many Functions

There's still a market for e-book readers that do nothing more than show e-book content. Some people will prefer e-ink displays that cause less eye strain and use power only during page turns, which allows the Kindle to last weeks on a single charge. But the growing tablet market, expected by some to sell 24.1 million or more units this year, indicates people are looking for a mobile device that can browse the Web, run various apps, and even be a portable television and movie theater, in addition to providing a solid e-book reading experience.


But why would Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or others even be interested in tablets when they already make a cut of the digital book content purchases? Two answers come to mind: losing control over that revenue stream on other devices and leaving money on the table.


Source: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2011/tc20110325_523054.htm

Beats by Dre to open UK store following headphone success

Beats by Dre UK Store to follow the company's first retail outlet in New York with the high-end headphones firm to touch down on British soil with a shop in London's Shoreditch area

Chart-topping luxury headphones brand Beats by Dre is planning to launch a UK store for avid fans of the cans that have become as iconic as the Apple white ear buds, T3 can reveal.

Speaking at the launch of the new Beats Wireless Solo Bluetooth headphones, Omar Johnson, the company’s US Head of Marketing exclusively leaked to T3 that he and the Beats team are "actively seeking" a UK location for a Beats store.

"We've been looking at the Shoreditch area of London," he said. "We're very excited about how much the UK has embraced Beats."

Meanwhile in the states, Dr Dre's team (not NWA, the new speaker flogging lot) have announced that Beats By Dre will be opening its first ever store, which will be on Mercer Street in lower Manhattan, New York over the Christmas period.

"It's going to be about experiencing Beats the way you should experience it," Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine told us. "We're going to make sure there's the right demonstrations. We want people to feel it right."

Would a Beats branded store further tempt you into splashing out on the high-end headsets? Let us know via the comments box below.
 

Source: http://www.t3.com/news/beats-by-dre-to-open-uk-store-following-headphone-success

The World's Most Failsafe Wireless Bicycle Brake Could Seed a Variety of Super-Safe Technologies

As the world goes increasingly wireless, we’ve learned to tolerate a certain degree of failure in our wireless systems--like when your computer just won’t sync up with the wireless internet at the cafe, or when our phones drop a call. But what about situations when wireless systems simply cannot fail? A failure rate of zero is tough to achieve in any system, but computer scientists at Saarland University in Germany have demonstrated a wireless bicycle brake that works 99.999999999997 percent of the time.

That means in a trillion braking attempts, it fails three times on average. It’s not perfect, mathematically speaking, but for practical purposes it’s pretty close.

The brake isn’t the usual handlebar brake lever customary on most bikes, and because it is wireless it naturally dispenses with the usual brake cable snaking down the frame of the bicycle to the front or rear wheel. To brake with the wireless system, the rider simply squeezes the rubber grip on the handlebar, which is fitted with pressure sensors. The harder the rider grips, the more pressure is applied to the front wheel brake. The signal sender is about the size of a cigarette pack and fixed to the handlebar. The receiver sits at the end of the bicycles fork and turns wireless radio signals from the grip into mechanical pressure on the front wheel.

That all sounds simple enough for a wireless bicycle brake, but the idea is to create a testbed for wireless technologies that absolutely cannot fail, like those envisioned for future train systems or for commercial jetliners. Starting with a simple handbrake, the Saarland team hopes to build the complex technologies necessary to ensure safety in wireless systems.

After all, brake failure on a bicycle is dangerous. But brake failure on a train could be catastrophic. Three failures in a trillion is a pretty good mark to start improving upon.

Source:http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-10/worlds-most-failsafe-wireless-bicycle-brake-could-seed-variety-super-safe-technologies

'iPad Mini' to take on Kindle Fire?

An industry source who speaks with the Asia-based tablet supply chain told CNET that chatter is picking up for a 7-inch Apple tablet. Maybe not coincidentally, that's the same size of Amazon's $199 tablet that's will ship on November 15.


Other reports, however, say that "Mini" doesn't necessarily refer to the size but simply the lower price point, possibly the mid-$200 range.


The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs summarily dismissed the notion of a 7-inch tablet during an earnings conference call in October of last year.


"Apple has done extensive user testing and we really understand this stuff...There are clear limits on how close you can place things on a touch screen, which is why we think 10 inch is the minimum screen size to create great tablet apps," Jobs said at the time.


"It's meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size," he added.


Jobs' protests notwithstanding, at the time more than a few analysts said Apple was close to bringing out a product.


And the tablet market is changing. Apple may have to change along with it. Smaller 7-inch and 8.9-inch tablets from Samsung, HTC, RIM and others are prevalent now. And if the Kindle Fire approaches the iPad in sales--which analysts say is possible--that would make smaller, cheaper tablets a category that rivals the 10-inch iPad in popularity.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20119630-64/ipad-mini-to-take-on-kindle-fire/?tag=hotTopicsBody.1

Apple: New iPhone Good

CUPERTINO, CA—During a highly anticipated media event held today at the Apple corporation’s world headquarters, CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone 4S is good and people should buy it. “It’s a good phone,” said Cook, walking out onto a stage and gesturing at a picture of the device projected on a large screen behind him. "It's got e-mail, the Internet, and you can get apps on it. Everybody should get one. It's good." After standing in place for another four seconds without speaking, Cook walked off stage, at which point the houselights came up and all in attendance were asked to please file out of the auditorium.

Source: http://www.theonion.com/articles/apple-new-iphone-good,26257/

10 Best Math and Science High Schools in America

At a time when America has made it a priority list to build students' science, technology, engineering and math skills, which schools are doing best in these areas? U.S. News & World Report for the first time released a list ranking math- and science-specific high schools.



It looked at nearly 600 schools that qualified for the Gold, Silver, and Honorable Mention lists of the U.S. News Best High Schools. Then the schools' students' participation rates and performances on AP exams in math and science were evaluated. Here are the top 10, according to the list.



1. High Technology High School, Lincroft, N.J.: This school was founded in 1991 and has a pre-engineering academy and science classes with college-level labs. Almost 99 percent of its seniors take AP exams and they all score a 3 out of 5 or higher. 



2. BASIS Tucson, Tucson, Arizona: This school was founded in 1998. Students take a minimum of eight AP courses and about six AP exams between ninth and 12th grades.


3. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.:  At this school students can learn organic chemistry, marine biology and DNA science and must take an introductory computer science class. One hundred percent of seniors take AP exams and 100 percent pass with a 3 or higher.


4. Oxford Academy, Cypress, Calif.: This public school opened in 1998. Its students must take an entrance exam to walk through its doors and maintain a set GPA. It has honors and AP classes as well computer education, digital animation and industrial technology courses. One hundred percent of its seniors take AP exams and 100 percent pass with a 3 or higher.


5. The School of Science and Engineering Magnet, Dallas, Texas: This school was founded in 1982 and is often called the best in the nation. It is the most diverse school in the top 10. It offers AP math and science classes as well as college-level science labs and computer science courses. All its seniors take AP exams and 100 percent score a 3 or higher.



6. The School for the Talented and Gifted, Dallas, Texas.: Also founded in 1982, this school educates about 209 students with more than half its student comprising minority races. About a quarter of its students are from low-income families. Its students are required to take 11 AP courses and enroll in advanced research and technology classes. It always makes it as a top-ranked high school in the U.S.


7. Pacific Collegiate School, Santa Cruz, Calif.: Founded in 1999, this school regularly makes it to the top national "best high school" lists. Students are admitted by a lottery and are required to take a six-year sequence of math and science. They must also pass AP physics, chemistry and biology to graduate. One hundred percent of its seniors take AP exams, and 100 percent earn a 3 or higher.



8. International Community School, Kirkland, Wa.: It was founded in 1997 and educates 381 students admitted on lottery basis. Nearly 94 percent of its seniors take AP exams, and 87.8 percent earn a 3 or higher.




9. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora, Ill.: This school opened in 1986 and educates 637 10th- through 12th-graders. All the courses at this school are taught at the honors level. It is best known math curriculum. Eighty-two percent of its students take AP exams, and 75.2 percent earn a 3 or higher.


10. Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, Calif.: It is the only open enrollment school in the top 10. Mission San Jose was founded in 1963 and educates nearly 2,000 students. The school offers studies in biotechnology and forensic science. Some 92.1 percent of seniors take AP exams with 82.7 earning a 3 or higher.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/223527/20111002/10-best-math-and-science-high-schools-in-america-stem.htm