With one of the most interesting Presidency campaigns coming to a full stop today its interesting to take stock of the way it has affected everything else right down to your iPhone.

Word is that the Ustream video viewer has made it to the App Store today, so you might be able to stream the inaugural coverage. This is a great way for people to stay in touch with this landmark ceremony regardless of where they are.

Another very cool app you might want to add to your collection of applications is the Inauguration Guide iPhone app this  has been developed byPointAbout the idea is to give visitors to the capital everything they need to find their way around the city in the midst of the crowds.

The app has the following information:

1. Countdown times
2. Distance to the Capitol
3. Parking information
4. Public Transportation
5. Restaurants

There are a host of applications that have been developed around this event.

1. Inauguration Report - Which allows you to connect with the team at CBS News so you can send your impressions in text, picture or audio.
2. Guide to the inaugural event schedule
3. Comprehensive photo and speech gallery
4. America Deluxe, a reference app that promises rapid updates after the inauguration.

There are a host of other applications that you can try out, so feel free to mess around ( though there isn’t very much time )

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As with a number of my posts I do occasionally get off the beaten track and talk about other subjects.  Business Process Management just happens to be one of them.

For those of you who want to brush up on what that means i’ve “lifted” a definition from Wikipedia that address that quite well.

“Business process management (BPM) is a method of efficiently aligning an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility and integration with technology. As organizations strive for attainment of their objectives, BPM attempts to continuously improve processes - the process to define, measure and improve your processes – a ‘process optimization’ process.”

Business process management can be broadly grouped into the following categories.

• Design
• Modeling
• Execution
• Monitoring
• Optimization

Benefits of Business Process Management

The hard work here is done by the tools and technologies at ones disposal, dramatically increasing the efficiency gains. Some of the biggest advantages are:

1. Transparency
BPM makes a business process very  transparent, thereby improving visibility and efficiency.  It can show where the most delays are occurring, and where is each transaction stuck as it passes from one stage to another.

2. Process refinement
The initial configuration and design exercise coupled with the data that emerges after running processes for some time can allow refinement.

3. Centralization of Data
Data about each and every transaction is logged and can be retrieved as and when required. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurately what happened. Referencing is also easier as embedded searches allow for data to be picked up as required for study.

Technologies

While there are a number of BPM software providers I’ve decided to focus on one of them. Active Endpoints is a provider of cost-effectively and flexibly use all of the web services infrastructure that has been installed in companies over the last few years to create composite applications.

About the company:

Active Endpoints was founded by software industry veterans committed to delivering standards-based, high-productivity tools and enterprise-class servers to the SOA software market. Building on our success in delivering open, enterprise-scalable services-oriented architecture solutions for OEM customers, Active Endpoints, already well-known for its contributions to the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and BPEL4People open standards, now turns its attentions to a comprehensive system for corporate line of business developers. ActiveVOS is the result.

Active Endpoints.:

Active Endpoints is the world’s first all-in-one, standards-based visual orchestration system.

Active is the only SOA-based process orchestration and business process management (BPM) system that allows enterprises and developers to:

1. Automate business processes
2. Collaborate across IT and business boundaries
3. Control the overall state of the business
4. Adapt rapidly and easily to change

You can read more about what this tool does at the ActiveVos Blog. 

For those of you interested in getting you hands dirty, the company is currently offering free trial versions of their SOA Software.

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For those of you out there who sift through a huge number of websites and blogs for the information you are looking for you might want to check out the following site.

Tech News 2 U

““Tech News 2 U” is a service that brings together the best Technology news from around the World.”

This blog streams content from various sources to a single point making the whole process of having information delivered to you a lot simpler.

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Source : Top Tech News

Blu-ray appears to have won the high-def DVD format war, as Paramount announced on Monday that it would dump HD-DVD in favor of Sony’s Blu-ray format. Last week, Warner Bros. also threw its weight behind Blu-ray.

The developments likely mean the end of HD-DVD as a viable format. Based on the studios’ decision, Japanese content producers and hardware manufacturers said they would likely leave the HD-DVD Promotion Group, according to published reports.

Pony Canyon, a content producer that is part of Fuji Television, predicted it would “choose Blu-ray in the end.” Some 20 members of the HD-DVD coalition said their continued membership was “under review.” Universal is the only remaining U.S. studio backing HD-DVD, along with one other major corporation that continues to support the format: Microsoft .

Convergence Picks Up Steam

When the current DVD format was released, consumers rushed to replace their VHS video collections with the superior digital format. But will consumers care about a better DVD format — be it Blu-ray or HD-DVD — when online delivery of TV shows and Hollywood movies threatens to make physical media obsolete?

In the weeks leading up to the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, industry players were busy cutting deals and rolling out new ways to converge content, the Internet and consumer TV sets. For example, Netflix announced a deal recently with LG to deliver on-demand movies to Internet-connected TVs. It’s rumored that Apple will announce deals with Fox and other studios to sell movie downloads via its iTunes Store. At CES, JVC announced a TV set with an iPod port for playing iTunes video purchases on the big screen. And Google and Matsushita announced plans for a flat-screen TV that can display online videos from YouTube and other sites.

Perhaps most significantly, Comcast Tuesday unveiled Project Infinity, a technology to improve the quality and performance of online video, as part of an effort to deliver its huge catalog of TV shows and movies on demand via the Internet and cable. At CES Tuesday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts demonstrated the technology by downloading the film Batman Begins in four minutes, a download that would take six hours with a standard broadband connection.

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Source : Yahoo News

“Up to three American Airlines jets carrying passengers will be outfitted with anti-missile technology this spring in the latest phase of testing technology to protect commercial planes from attack.

An American Airlines spokesman said Friday that the test will determine how well the anti-missile system holds up under the rigors of flight.

The first Boeing 767-200 will be equipped in April or later, said the airline spokesman, Tim Wagner. American operates that Boeing model mostly between New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles.

American said it is “not in favor” of putting anti-missile systems on commercial planes but agreed to take part in the tests to understand technologies that might be available in the future.

The technology is intended to stop a missile attack by detecting heat given off from the rocket, then firing a laser beam that jams the missile’s guidance system.

The device on the belly of the Boeing 767-200 aircraft will be operational but won’t be tested on regular flights, Wagner said. The use of a signal to mimic a missile attack has already been tested in the air, Wagner said.

American, the nation’s largest carrier, has been working with defense contractor BAE Systems PLC on the project for a couple years. In 2006, BAE installed its hardware on a Boeing 767 that wasn’t used to fly paying passengers.

About a year ago, reporters were invited to American’s maintenance base in Fort Worth to see a jet outfitted with the laser-jamming device on its belly.

“We are now entering the next phase,” Wagner said, which is “to see how the system holds up on an aircraft in real-time conditions — weather, continuous takeoffs and landings, etc. — and to test its maintenance reliability.”

Wagner said American is also collecting more information on how the laser-jamming device affects fuel consumption.

Congress has approved funding for anti-missile research partly out of fear that terrorists armed with shoulder-fired weapons could hit jetliners as they take off and land. U.K.-based BAE won a contract from the Homeland Security Department to test its technology.

Fort Worth-based American, a unit of AMR Corp., has said anti-missile defense is best handled by stopping terrorists from getting missiles that could shoot down commercial jets and by improving security around airports.”

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What the folks at Yahoo Tech think about the 10 worst Tech products of 2007…..

Apple TV: Apple’s foray into the living room seemed like a no-brainer, and this HDMI-packing, Wi-Fi- and Ethernet-enabled set-top box looked like a sure-fire success. From the beginning, however, Apple TV was hamstrung by the meager movie selection (and now dwindling selection of TV shows) on iTunes, plus the fact that you can’t browse or buy videos directly over the box. Even worse, Apple seems to have lost interest in its home theater “hobby,” with a full six months passing since the last Apple TV software update. Short of a sudden infusion of new features, look for this once-promising box to go the way of iPod Hi-Fi.

iPod Battery Replacement Kit: One of the chief complaints I hear about the iPod (and the iPhone, for that matter) is that the battery is sealed in the casing, with Apple adding insult to injury by charging $60 to replace out-of-warranty iPod batteries (or $86 for the iPhone). So here’s Blue Raven’s $30 iPod battery replacement kit, which consists of a new battery, a tiny screwdriver, and a plastic thingy that looks like a mini crowbar (similar kits are available for the iPhone). I tried it with my old iPod, and I replaced the battery all right, but I also managed wreck the crummy plastic tool and scratch the heck out of my once-shiny iPod in the process. Next time I want to scratch up my gadgets, I’ll save $30 and use my own little screwdriver, thanks very much.

Microsoft Surface: Unveiled in May with great fanfare, Microsoft’s jaw-dropping Surface computer—a touch-sensitive tabletop PC that immediately invited comparisons to Tom Cruise’s mid-air dragging-and-dropping in “Minority Report”—whipped the tech press into a frenzy of excitement. But scratch Surface and you’ll something a little shy of elegant, including a full-on Vista PC and five (count ‘em, five) motion-detecting cameras mounted beneath the 30-inch touch-sensitive sheet. Oh, and then there’s the $5,000-to-$10,000 price tag. And of course, in true Microsoft fashion, the first Surface systems (intended primarily as kiosks in retail and hospitality venues) have reportedly been delayed until spring. Something tells me it’ll be a long, long time before we see these babies in our living rooms.

NBC Direct: Give NBC credit for trying a little of everything when it comes to online video, but here’s a service that’s got a few too many restrictions for comfort. Yes, you can download full, free episodes of shows like “Heroes” and “The Office,” but you have to sit through commercials, and you can’t transfer shows to a portable player or another PC, and the videos won’t work on a Mac…and the shows expire in a week, rendering the files unwatchable. Great.

Palm Foleo: It was a two-pound sub-notebook—sorry, smartphone companion—that was supposed to connect to your phone via Bluetooth and let you type emails, surf the Web, and edit documents with a full-size keyboard and screen. As I’ve written before, the Foleo might be a good idea in a decade or so, when our supercharged smartphones become our primary computing devices. But when it was announced in June, reviewers dog-piled on the Foleo, complaining that the $500 gadget would be just another device we’d have to lug around. Smelling a flop, Palm benched the Foleo before it ever saw the inside of a store.

Pear Audio “Anjou” speaker cable: I’m sure this pair of 12-foot speaker cables sounds just fine—but the $7,250 price tag puts it in contention for tech rip-off of the year.

Ringles: The big music labels still think the CD can be saved, and the “ringle”—a a $5.98-to-$6.98 bundle of three songs, plus a ringtone, all in an eye-catching slip cover—was the latest in a line of painfully sad attempts to lure us back into brick-and-mortar music stores. Last time I checked, however, CD sales were still tanking.

SunRocket VoIP: More of a service than a gadget, mind you, but still one of the biggest tech debacles of the year (and one, as many readers pointed out, that I should have mentioned in my recent “10 Tech Train Wrecks” post). SunRocket was, in fact, a perfectly fine VoIP service—that is, until July 16, 2007, when the financially strapped company abruptly closed its doors and disconnected tens of thousands of customers without warning. Well, that’s one way of handling customer service.

Windows Vista: Where to begin? Vista arrived in stores months late, forced untold thousands of users to upgrade their hardware, made mincemeat of software and drivers that worked perfectly well in XP, ended up lacking many of the bold-faced features we’d been promised, and came saddled with new and annoying set of video DRM schemes. At least Vista now boasts an option for downgrading back to XP. (Now, before you Mac fanboys out there begin gloating, let me remind you that Leopard shipped a full six months late, and that many users are still suffering from sluggish, buggy systems after upgrading.)

Wireless USB: Just imagine it—the convenience of USB, without all the wires. Sounds awesome! Too bad the first examples of Wireless USB technology have fallen flat. Case in point: the IoGear Wireless USB Hub & Adapter, a device that’s supposed to deliver speedy wireless connectivity within a range of about 30 feet. Reviewers took a crack at the $200 IoGear hub (including our own Chris Null) suffered slow and spotty connections from only a few feet away, and promptly went back to their old, but reliable, USB cables. Wireless USB may well be the wave of the future, but “future” is the key word.

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This service is a great way to read up on reviews of products which could be a movie, CD, or gadget, all you need to do is type its name into Summize.

Started by two AOL expats a year ago, and launched in a public beta last month, Summize does sentiment analysis across dozens of review sites and more than half-a-million blogs—what CEO Ajaipal Virdy calls the “reviewosphere.”

So what is summize?

“Summize is a new way to find and discover products, based upon the sentiments of millions of user reviews and blog discussions.

Our crawlers constantly scour the web to find the latest and most helpful opinions — from the largest review portals (such as Amazon) to the livliest blogs. (You never know where you’ll find that gem of wisdom in the crowd.) Then, we crunch and summarize all these sentiments to produce the colorful Summize experience.”

How it works :

“We algorithmically analyze the review text to learn the polarizing words that correlate with user-assigned star ratings. We use our knowledge of polarizing words to extract the opinions from unstructured blog posts, and algorithmically assign them ratings.”

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If looks are anything to go by…… MY GOD!!! This is one of the ugliest phones i’ve seen, however the chances are the Mobile OS would be available through multiple vendors so i hope we can expect better phones.

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