Microsoft on Tuesday theatrically unveiled communications software it claimed would do to business telephones what e-mail did to corporate memos.
"Unified Communications" (UC) technology, made globally available on Tuesday, streamlines workplace communications and cuts the cost of using voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) phones in half, the US software giant said.
"The shift to software-based telephony is as profound as the shift from typewriters to word processing software," Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said onstage during a press conference in San Francisco.
PHOTO: AP
"This is a revolutionary change. Ten years from now when people think about telephony, see the desktop phone and they will go `Oh yeah, we used to have things like that,'" he said.
The software tailored to businesses lets companies merge e-mail, instant messaging, Internet telephone calls, schedule calendars and teleconferencing to enable workers to connect "immersively" through their computers.
"The era of dialing blind ... playing phone tag ... missed communications; that era is ending," Microsoft business division president Jeff Raikes said.
Gates showed off a "Round-Table" device, reminiscent of a table lamp, with microphones embedded in the base and a ring of cameras on top.
The device, priced at US$3,000, can be placed on conference room tables to project everyone there into a virtual meeting with people with like devices in other places, Gates said.
Microsoft's Unified Communications software is seen by some analysts as a wake-up call to telecom giants that technology may loosen their tight grip on the market.
"UC makes all kinds of communications available from users' desktops with just one click," said Etienne de Verdelhan, chief technical officer of French fragrance firm L'Occitane en Provence, which helped test the software.
"What we see is people using the UC technology love it. They would never go back to the old way. More importantly, this technology makes the IT department more popular in the organization," he said.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station