Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Symbol Technologies bought Here's an article in Computerworld with manufacturing relevance. Motorola to buy Symbol Technologies for $3.9B. Motorola said today that it plans to buy handheld device maker Symbol in a $3.9 billion deal expected to close by early 2007. [Computerworld Breaking News] 9:44:26 PM    comment []

Plant to enterprise connectivity Rockwell Automation has add two tools to its FactoryTalk production and performance management software suite. FactoryTalk Integrator expedites connectivity of plant floor applications to higher level business systems. FactoryTalk Portal, allows manufacturers to consolidate their Web-based interfaces into one manageable and configurable launch point. 1:36:25 PM    comment []

ZigBee monitors building and ambient air quality Further evidence that ZigBee wireless sensor network is finding most early traction in building automation comes from this news that Hitachi Wireless Info (a division of Hitachi) is using Ember's ZigBee networking technology to manage air qualigy and temperature-sensitive work environments. The real-time monitoring system helps create controlled environments where temperature, humidity and airborn particles can be managed. Areas expected to benefit include food production plants, healthcare facilities, warehouses and the like. 1:30:16 PM    comment []

New products from Adobe I recently had a conversation with Rak Bhalla who is with Adobe Systems regarding yesterday's announcement of the new Acrobat 8 family of products. These products seem very useful for manufacturing professionals. The Acrobat family consists of Acrobat 8 Professional, Acrobat 8 Standard, Acrobat 8 Elements, Acrobat 3D Version 8, Acrobat Connect and Acrobat Connect Professional. Acrobat 8 features a new user interface making it easier to combine, sign and protect PDF files, as well as interact with PDF forms, review or collaborate on documents and launch a real-time Web conference. Bhalla told me, "We are revolutionizing how the world engages with ideas and information." The idea is to provide for the interaction of both documents and people, he added. The new products revolve around "the five Cs" of create, combine, control, collect and collaborate. Users can create and optimize Adobe PDF documents from many sources and combine files from multiple applications into a single document container. They can control access to a document and preserve content integrity--especially important to engineers who need to share design information with potential suppliers without giving away underlying intellectual property. Users can streamline data collection with Adobe PDF forms. And finally, they can manage, organize and extend feedback to expedite document collaboration. Key benefits cited by Bhalla are the ability to accelerate design collaboration, leverage 3D assets for rich interactive publishing--for service manuals or on the Web, enable CAD interoperability in the supply chain and utilize Adobe Reader for 3D visualization and collaboration. All Acrobat 8 products, including Adobe Reader 8, provide one-button access to Adobe Acrobat Connect. Connect is an easy-to-use, hosted software service that provides immediate access to a personal meeting room for real-time web conferencing. It is said to be the first web conferencing and collaboration solution to offer "always-on" personal meeting rooms. After buying a subscription all that is needed for a web conference is a Web browser with Flash Player software. Acrobat Connect enables users to choose a simple and easy-to-remember web address for their online personal meeting room, with unlimited usage for up to 15 participants for one low monthly fee. The personal meeting rooms in Acrobat Connect are readily available, making it easy for knowledge workers to hold spontaneous, ad-hoc meetings, while helping to save time and increase productivity. A custom URL enables fast and easy-to-remember access to each user's personal meeting room, just like a phone number or e-mail address. The Acrobat Connect hosted service provides users with essential collaboration tools, such as screen sharing, whiteboarding, chat, video conferencing, and audio conferencing. Acrobat Connect enables anyone with a Flash software-enabled web browser to join a web meeting without having to download cumbersome software. Because the Flash Player is installed on more than 97 percent of Internet-connected computers worldwide, the experience of joining an online meeting is hassle-free. Additionally, with one-button "Start Meeting" access from Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader 8 software, users can also launch Acrobat Connect directly from a document to start collaborating immediately. These aren't available until later this year and early next, but watch for them. Especially the 3D design collaboration and Connect conferencing products look cool. 12:03:23 PM    comment []

Special Edition Podcast published I'm knocking myself out with podcasts this week. I just published an interview with Carter Johnson as a special edition podcast. He is a vice president of Visiprise and the Conference Chairman of the MESA International Plant2Enterprise Conference coming up October 9-12 at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando. Check it out. 10:55:00 AM    comment []