ReadWriteEnterprise

The segment of the media delivery industry that may yet take off for consumers consists of programming and services that are delivered to newer HDTVs "over-the-top" (OTT) - meaning, outside of the cable or satellite provider's pipeline. Naturally, the Internet is the delivery medium here. In prior years, analysts have wondered how (or whether) traditional programming from multi-service operators (MSOs) like Comcast would compete.

The answer we may get from CES 2012 is that it won't have to. Semiconductor maker Broadcom is set to demonstrate a new class of system-on-a-chip (SoC) components that could be integrated into set-top boxes (STBs). This new class, numbered BCM72xx, would deliver OTT services alongside cable channels, in a format that would enable MSOs to utilize Android as the operating system, and Sling Media as the streaming provider for wireless devices. It could be the formula behind the phrase, "Goodbye, TiVo."

The notion of app stores is expanding into the world of printers and HP has made some important strides in the past year after it announced its ePrint line of printers. The apps, combined with an Internet-accessible printer, are both actually pretty neat and I will show you what is involved in getting it all to work.

The floods across Thailand earlier this month have been devastating for many people there, and our hearts go out to them. (I have visited twice and will surely go back some day.) One place that these conditions have had an immediate worldwide impact is on hard drive prices. A Western Digital factory outside of Bangkok is responsible for the components that are used in nearly 60% of their hard drives, and the factory had been sitting in a flood-created moat up to five feet deep, as can be seen from this picture care of Scan Computers and posted here.

Those of us who have used email alot, (see my email memories story here) have often wished we could know if our recipients have opened and read our messages. And while there have been read-receipts on various email services for many years, until now there hasn't been a general-purpose tool that can track when someone actually opens your messages. Enter Zendio with their plug-in for Outlook. And while it works, it is probably the creepiest solution that I've seen.

No single Web technology has survived longer on life support than the intranet - the broader goal of employee intercommunication and content management, to which enterprises still aspire. Despite an over-abundance of very capable tools over the years, including content management systems and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint, the element that companies have lacked to date has been inspiration. It's as if a construction firm had dumped all the best building materials into one big pit: With that much treasure in one place, how come no one builds houses with it?

This year's version of the spark for inspiration comes from social media, and the realization that while a low percentage of employees uses the company intranet, a higher percentage uses Facebook. Coinciding with this week's Gartner Symposium/ITExpo in Orlando, Florida, where "the social organization" is a principal topic, CMS market share leader OpenText's latest Social Communities 8.1 upgrade adds a curious new feature that's sure to get businesses talking: social data mining.

With the world's #1 PC maker HP now in full transition mode, now may be the time for Dell to get its full come-uppance. On the enterprise side, it's had two big aces in the hole for a few years now: One is Optimized Deployment, which borrows Microsoft's data imaging technology to enable admins to rapidly deploy fully-configured Windows operating systems and applications to multiple clients in minutes. A 2010 study (PDF available here) showed automated image-based deployment could save businesses up to $337 per PC, in IT management costs alone.

Another is Dell's extraordinary KACE management appliances - literally plug-and-play tools that perform inventory analysis on corporate networks. A KACE tool lets admins deploy applications, patches, and updates to designated systems in the network.

What do you get when you combine gamification, social and beer? No, the answer isn't just "a really geeky party." You get Untappd a social network with the motto, drink socially. Greg Avola, one of the founders for Untappd, was one of the first speakers today at Monktoberfest. Avola shared insights into what people drink, how to motivate trying new beers and Web development for mobile.

If you're not familiar with Untappd, Avola might describe it as "the Foursquare for beer," but with one difference – there's a point to Untappd. That is, instead of just checking into a location, you're checking into a beer and sharing that information with your friends.

Tired of tracking down when you need to refill your printer supplies? Then check out the latest innovation that IT management vendor Spiceworks has implemented today: an automated printer ink and toner reminder and restocking program. The company claims its users are responsible for maintaining more than 10 million printers, and that adds up to a lot of toner cartridges.

For the past three years, I have been doing custom-made video screencasts for private consulting clients. These are moving captures of the images on a PC screen with my own voice-over narrations about IT-related products (you can see the entire collection here). And lately, more vendors have stepped up their own efforts to produce their videos as a way to explain what their products do, or as Mike Lee has said, what they might eventually do. There is also a growing awareness that these screencasts can be used as way of product documentation and support.

Let's talk about what tools you need, some best practices that I have gleaned, and some other places to learn more about this craft.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has been in love with the idea of "all-in-one" and "out-of-the-box" since before the turn of the century. In Matthew Symonds' portrait of Ellison entitled Softwar, he noted how four years prior to the book's publication, Ellison had had an epiphany: the software and hardware industries should never have separated. "If Detroit ran like Silicon Valley," the CEO told the author, "no one would sell cars, just parts."

But Ellison was lacking two key ingredients, which he doesn't lack now. One was Sun Microsystems, whose high-end UltraSPARC processor-based systems are credited with contributing to the very positive growth for Oracle reported just yesterday. The other key ingredient was former HP CEO, now Oracle President, Mark Hurd. Today, they've all come together to produce what Ellison had always envisioned: the Oracle database box.