Microsoft has announced it is expanding the availability of its Microsoft Online Services for businesses, throwing open the doors of its Exchange and Sharepoint services to businesses of any size. Previously, the services had been restricted to businesses with 5,000 or more employees, but now Microsoft is accepting registrations from all businesses with services set to start up in the second half of 2008.
"The combination of software plus services gives customers advanced choice and flexibility in how they access and manage software," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, in a release. "With Microsoft Online Services, businesses can deploy software as a subscription service, from servers they manage on-site, or a combination of the two, depending on their specific needs. In the future, customers and partners should expect to see this kind of choice and flexibility for all of Microsoft’s software and server products."
Microsoft has not disclosed any pricing information for these subscription-based services, noting only that it will offer a "flexible" licensing model that will include per-user subscription options, as well as including Exchange Online and SharePoint Online with other subscription service options. To attract its existing enterprise customers, Microsoft says it will credit any company who wants to switch to hosted services for any remaining portion of an existing software contract.
Hosted computing services are becoming more commonplace and popular with companies and enterprises, who increasingly look to outsource the deployment of and maintenance of communications and collaboration software rather than having to support the services using in-house personnel or servers. Microsoft’s move comes as rivals like Google and SalesForce.com increasingly look to offer traditional business tools as well as online collaboration suites to businesses and organizations that have historically been Microsoft customers. Google claims more than 500,000 businesses have signed up for its Google Apps suite of hosted, Web-based services.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.