Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

One million Safari downloads in 2 days

Apple Insider: 

More than 1 million copies of Apple Inc.'s Safari web browser for Windows were downloaded in its first two days of availability, the company said Thursday.

I've tried it out, and my reaction is mixed.  It is demonstrably faster than Firefox and IE, it is much cleaner in look and feel than IE, but I've gotten used to my Firefox toolbars for Google, LinkedIn, and Skype, as well as plug-ins for weather, forms, and bookmark management.  I would easily switch from IE to Safari if those were my only two choices, but I don't think the speed improvements in Safari justify abandoning FireFox.

I don't see how Apple competes with FireFox without opening up the code, the open source nature of FireFox allows anyone to create useful plug-ins to add additional functionality or improve the browser experience.  I think FireFox demonstrated that extensible open source apps are preferably to closed applications, all else being equal.

Enterprise 2.0 Podcast

An interview I did with Curtis Franklin on the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 conference is now available on the front page of the Enterprise 2.0 web site.

Safari for Windows

I'm running Safari on my Windows laptop.  Wow, this is cool.  Installation went smooth, it imported both my IE and my Firefox bookmarks all by itself, and it is faster and better looking than either IE or Firefox.

Here's some good insight as to why Apple made this move from Ars Technica. (hint: it's all about the iPhone)

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

The Enterprise 2.0 conference is almost upon us.  E 2.0 takes place June 18-21 at the Westin in Boston, MA.  Besides the opportunity to travel to Boston, one of my favorite cities, Enterprise 2.0 is going to provide tremendous opportunity to look at various aspects of collaboration, social computing, and web-based applications under one roof.

As chair of the "Foundations for Enterprise 2.0" track I'm involved with several sessions including:

• Instant Messaging 2.0 - Tuesday: 2:30-3:30
• Skype: The Communications Platform For Web 2.0? - Wednesday: 10:30-11:30
• Organizing The Enterprise: Foundations for Enterprise 2.0 - Thursday: 8:30-9:15
• Video 2.0 - Thursday: 10:45-11:45

In addition, my colleague Johna Till Johnson will moderate a session entitled "Integrating The Mobile Worker" on Tuesday from 1:15-2:15.

Check out the links for session descriptions, participants, and the conference link for the overall program.

 

 

Avaya Buyout Signals Dawn of Change in VOIP Landscape

We just published our Impact Analysis of the Avaya acqusition by Silver Lake and TPG Capital.

Nemertes Impact Analysis: Avaya Buyout Signals Dawn of Change in VOIP Landscape

Site registration is required to read the analysis (it's free).

Rocky Decisions Overturned

This is the funniest thing I've seen on the Internet in a while:

Rocky II, III, IV Decisions Overturned After Stallone Caught With Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Of course it's from The Onion.

 

Telecom Junkies: Avaya Acquisition Stunner

I'm on this week's Telecom Junkies podcast discussing the Avaya acquisition announcement.

Listen: Avaya Acquisition Stunner

Silver Lake and TPG Capital Buy Avaya

It's official - Avaya Enters Into Merger Agreement With Silver Lake and TPG Capital.

We'll issue an Impact Analysis on this announcement at the end of this week.  Sign up to receive it (it's free).

Architectures For Unified Communications

I'm doing a webinar this week with Eric Krapf of BCR/VoiceCon entitled "Architectures For Unified Communications"  Details are below.  Register here.

Overview

Unified Communications will tie together the communications infrastructure and the business applications and user interfaces that drive productivity and business value. But how do you ensure that this communications infrastructure can support UC capabilities seamlessly and with the quality and reliability that users have always demanded, and will continue to require?

In this 60-minute Web-based session, industry analysts and technology leaders will describe the approaches to building a communications infrastructure that supports UC, and will help you understand the most important factors to consider as you create this architecture for your enterprise. They'll offer tips and insights drawn from real-world deployments and discussions with enterprise thought leaders. And they'll respond to your questions and seek your opinions via online polls and comments throughout the session.

You'll leave the Webinar with a clearer idea of what's different about communications architectures in a UC world, what doesn't change, and how you can build the next-generation converged, UC-supporting infrastructure.

The webinar is presented by VoiceCon--the people who bring you the industry’s leading IP-telephony/convergence events. The VoiceCon Webinar series takes the same kind of objective, technically deep, reliable information that our in-person events are known for, and brings them to your desktop in a convenient format that you can participate in without having to leave the office.

 

Google buys FeedBurner to boost RSS services

Via Network World: Google buys FeedBurner to boost RSS services

Feedburner is a terrific and very successful service for managing RSS feeds.  I imagine Google will look for ways to deliver targeted ads at feed subscribers.