Synaptics Introduces Advanced Touch Experience in Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820

Press release:

Synaptics Introduces Advanced Touch Experience in Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820

Super Sensitive Touch™ built on ClearPad™ Series 3 enables enhanced touch support on Nokia’s first Windows Phone 8 smartphones

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Sept. 5, 2012 – Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA), a leading developer of human interface solutions, today announced that the new Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 will be the first smartphones in the world to use a new advanced multi-touch experience based on the Synaptics ClearPad capacitive touchscreen sensing technology.

Synaptics ClearPad Series 3, the premier mobile touch solution for premium high end smartphones, has raised the bar for high performance touch on the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 with the introduction of support for gloves and fingernails.

Previously, people were unable to use their smartphone touchscreens with gloved fingers or long fingernails, requiring them to remove their gloves, or awkwardly position their fingers with long nails in order to operate their phones. For the first time ever, ClearPad Series 3 technology instantly optimizes the touch experience by automatically detecting the presence of skin, gloved fingers, or fingernails, giving users a seamless multi-touch experience regardless of input methods.

“With Synaptics’ continuous innovation on touch, we are able to pioneer new technologies that improve smartphone user experience,” said Kevin Shields, senior vice president, Smart Devices, Nokia. “Nokia has been a leader in display technology, and we are setting a new standard with Super Sensitive Touch technology on the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820.”
Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone 8 device, the Lumia 920, features an impressive smartphone display based on exclusive technology called Nokia PureMotion HD+. With better than HD resolution, overdrive technology for keeping moving images pixel-perfect and sunlight enhancements for easy viewing even in the brightest sunlight, the 4.5 inch display of the Lumia 920 produces a totally immersive experience. PureMotion displays are super-sensitive with any touch interaction, enabled by the ClearPad Series 3 technology.

“We are excited to participate with Nokia as they unveil their first Windows Phone 8 devices by enabling advanced features such as gloved finger support,” said Kevin Barber, senior vice president and general manager of Synaptics Handheld Division. “Synaptics and Nokia have partnered for many years and we’re pleased to continue the innovation with the introduction of these new devices.”

ClearPad Series 3 offers up to 10 finger full-time tracking and fast refresh rates, with industry leading signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), delivering high performance to the most demanding smartphones. Synaptics’ patented SignalClarity™ technology improves tracking accuracy, finger separation, and environmental and electrical noise robustness for an unmatched user experience. Synaptics’ Design Studio™4 (DS4) accelerates the ClearPad development cycle by enabling customers to evaluate and optimize the performance of their touch experience, enabling OEMS to implement their custom ClearPad sensor solution more efficiently.

For up-to-the-minute Synaptics news, follow @SynaCorp on Twitter. For more information on Synaptics’ products and solutions, please visit www.synaptics.com.

About Synaptics
As a leading developer of human interface solutions which enhance the user experience, Synaptics provides the broadest touch solutions portfolio in the industry. The ClearPad™ family supports touchscreen solutions for devices ranging from entry-level mobile phones to flagship premium smartphones, tablets and notebook PCs. The TouchPad™ family, including ClickPad™ and ForcePad™, is integrated into the majority of today's notebook PCs. Synaptics’ wide portfolio also includes ThinTouch™ supporting thin and light keyboard solutions, as well as key technologies for next generation touch-enabled video and display applications.
(NASDAQ: SYNA) www.synaptics.com

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Oracle Press Release

Leading Technology Vendors Announce New Specification Designed to Ease Management of Applications Across Public and Private Clouds

First Platform-as-a-Service Management API Specification to be Submitted to OASIS to Develop Industry Standard

Redwood Shores, Calif. – August 30, 2012

News Facts

Leading technology vendors, including CloudBees, Cloudsoft Corporation, Huawei, Oracle, Rackspace, Red Hat, and Software AG, today announced Cloud Application Management for Platforms (CAMP), a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) management Application Programming Interface (API) specification.

Designed for managing both public and private cloud applications, including packaging and deployment of the applications, CAMP will be submitted to Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for development of an industry standard, in an effort to help ensure interoperability for deploying and managing applications across cloud environments.

As the first effort to standardize a PaaS management interface, CAMP is intended to provide a common basis for developing multi-cloud management tools as well as offering cloud providers and consumers a REST-based approach to application management.

CAMP provides a common development vocabulary and API that can work across multiple clouds without excessive adaptation and is compatible with PaaS-aware and PaaS-unaware application development environments, both offline and in the cloud.

Common use cases for CAMP include moving an on-premise application to the cloud (private or public) as well as redeployment of such applications across cloud platforms from multiple vendors. CAMP reduces the effort to move applications between clouds and provides service assurance through interoperability.

Supporting Quotes

“Even though the PaaS marketplace is in its infancy, and vendors like CloudBees are driving innovation incredibly rapidly, customers are already concerned about lock-in and demanding interoperability. CAMP is an important first step toward that important goal,” said Steven Harris, senior vice president of products, CloudBees Inc.

“Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are emerging as the norm for the enterprise with PaaS trending rapidly as the natural entry point. CAMP will accelerate this trend as cloud-agnostic application management is key to cloud interoperability at this level,” said Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO, Cloudsoft Corporation.

“Oracle’s commitment to driving industry standards that are crucial to our customers’ cloud environments, and to adopting these standards in Oracle products, is demonstrated by our CAMP collaboration. CAMP defines a simple API that enables customers to have an interoperable solution across multiple vendors’ offerings, manage application lifecycles easily, and move applications between clouds," said Don Deutsch, vice president, Chief Standards Officer, Oracle.

"Rackspace wants clouds to be open to give customers freedom and choice. CAMP offers a way to enable application portability between public and private clouds, and even between cloud service providers offering similar Platform-as-a-Service solutions," said Adrian Otto, senior technology strategist, Rackspace.

"Red Hat has long believed in collaboration with the industry and open source community to drive the delivery of compelling technology to meet the needs of developers and enterprises around the world, and our participation in CAMP is another proof point," said Mark Little, senior director of Engineering, Middleware at Red Hat. "Platform-as-a-Service offerings like Red Hat's OpenShift offer developers an easy on-ramp to developing applications. A specification like CAMP represents a considerable step towards lowering the barrier of entry new developers perceive when it comes to migrate their workloads to PaaS."

Software AG is at the forefront of leading industry standards, recognizing the need for interoperable and portable solutions for our customers. Thus far, cloud standards have been limited to the infrastructure (IaaS) space. As an interoperable standard for management of applications on hosted platforms (PaaS), the CAMP specification takes it to the next level in the cloud space. We are pleased to have collaborated in this work and look forward to the CAMP specification in an OASIS TC in the future," said Hans-Christoph Rohland, Senior Vice President - Research & Development, Software AG.

Supporting Resources

CAMP website

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center.  For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com

VMware Announces VMware Workstation™ 9

VMware News Releases

VMware Announces VMware Workstation™ 9

Best-in-class Windows 8 support, innovative Web interface and restricted virtual machines now available

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 23, 2012 —VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced VMware Workstation™ 9, the latest version of its award-winning personal virtualization software. VMware Workstation 9 delivers best-in-class Windows 8 support and innovative new features that transform the way technical professionals work with virtual machines whether they reside on the PC or on enterprise private clouds.  

“For over a decade we have consistently delivered innovative new technologies with each Workstation release and Workstation 9 continues this tradition,” said Vittorio Viarengo, vice president, End-User Computing, VMware. “Workstation 9 brings the power of VMware virtualization to any IT professional desk and enables them to leverage the latest evolution of operating systems, processors and other technologies to be more productive and effective.”

Key new features in VMware Workstation 9 include:

• Windows 8 Support– Easy install simplifies the task of creating virtual machines for Windows 8 that can run simultaneously with a variety of legacy operating systems. Unity mode intelligently works with Windows 8 applications, and multi-touch support ensures a true Windows 8 experience. 
• More Powerful Virtual Machines – Faster startup performance, USB 3.0 support for Windows 8 virtual machines, Intel™ Ivy Bridge compatibility, more powerful virtualization extensions, virtual performance counters, support for OpenGL 2.1 on Linux and improved 3D graphics performance make running highly demanding applications simple and efficient.
• Increased Mobility – A new Web interface allows access to virtual machines running in Workstation or on VMware vSphere® from tablets, smart phones, laptops or desktop PCs.  This high performance, Web-based interface delivers a native desktop experience and does not require flash or browser-based plug-ins.
• Restricted Virtual Machines – IT administrators and instructors can create virtual machines and configure them to prevent employees or students from dragging and dropping files between virtual and physical desktops, attaching devices, or tampering with the virtual machine settings.  Once restrictions are configured, the virtual machines can be encrypted and distributed to run on Mac, Windows, or Linux PCs with VMware Fusion® 5 Professional, Workstation 9, or VMware Player™ 5.

Pricing and Availability
VMware Workstation 9 is currently available for purchase for $249. Upgrades from VMware Workstation 7.x and 8.x are available for $119. VMware customers who have purchased VMware Workstation 8 between Aug. 1, 2012 and Sept. 30, 2012 are eligible for a complimentary electronic upgrade to VMware Workstation 9. For more details on VMware’s complimentary electronic upgrade program please go here.
Workstation can also be purchased through VMware’s network of resellers and distributors. Download a free trial here.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about VMware Workstation 9 on the Workstation Zealot Blog
• Read more about the new features in VMware Workstation 9
• Viewand download screen shots of VMware Workstation 9
• Follow the VMware Workstation team on Twitter and Facebook

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 300,000 customers and 25,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

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Synaptics ForcePad Technology Chosen for Prestigious UIST Contest

Press release:

Synaptics ForcePad Technology Chosen for Prestigious UIST Contest

Next-Generation ForcePad Touch Solution Delivers Industry-Changing Performance

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Aug. 20, 2012 – Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA), a leading developer of human interface solutions for mobile computing, communications and entertainment devices, today confirmed that Synaptics ForcePad™, the next generation of TouchPad™ touch solutions, has been chosen as the hardware technology for the fourth annual User Interface Software & Technology (UIST) Student Innovation Contest (SIC). Originally released to UIST under the codename “Jedeye,” Synaptics’ ForcePad solution joins three-time hardware supplier Microsoft in supporting the contest.

As a multi-finger, capacitive TouchPad with variable force detection and a large “modern touchpad” gesture area, ForcePad promises to redefine the touch interaction experience for notebook and desktop PC users. Ideal for the rapidly growing ultrabook trend, it is up to 40 percent thinner than today’s ClickPads™, enabling thinner and lighter ultrabooks. ForcePad is ideal for the fast and fluid Windows 8 touch experience because it adds an exciting new dimension of control to the user’s interaction.

The acclaimed UIST conference covers a variety of topics including graphical and web user interfaces, tangible and ubiquitous computing, virtual and augmented reality and multimedia supported by new input and output devices. Teams of one to four students are given hardware kits for six weeks to develop new implementations for the next-generation TouchPad. With final presentations planned during the UIST Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts from October 7-10, contestants are vying for cash awards in the “Most Creative”, “Most Useful”, and “People’s Choice” categories.

"We're delighted to be working with Synaptics, an industry leader in human interface technology," said Rob Miller, general chair of the ACM UIST 2012 conference and professor of computer science at MIT. "Synaptics has given generous support to this year's UIST Student Innovation Contest, including the use of its technology. Synaptics understands that today's students will invent tomorrow's great ideas."

“ForcePad is the most significant development in touch technology since Synaptics invented the first TouchPad in 1995. We believe ForcePad delivers the world’s best touch experience, opening up a new array of exciting usage models,” said Godfrey Cheng, vice president of marketing for Synaptics PC Division. “UIST is an exemplary organization dedicated to expanding human interaction models, which makes them a perfect partner to advance new technologies based on ForcePad.”

ForcePad adds a new dimension of control utilizing capacitive image sensing technology that detects the pressure of five fingers with up to 1,000 grams of dynamic range in force sensitivity. The ability to detect varying amounts of pressure per finger enables new usage paradigms in virtually every software genre, making ForcePad a great tool for the UIST Student Innovation Contest.

ForcePad features a universal auto-calibration capability for adjusting to varying notebook designs with variable flex tolerances. There are no mechanical hinges or tactile button switches. It can maintain consistent performance through the notebook product life, as well as a consistent experience across different OEM chassis makes and models.

Details for the UIST SIC Contest:

• Contest and conference in Cambridge, Mass.
• Contest registration deadline: Aug. 24
• Registration: http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2012/contest.html
• UIST conference registration deadline: Aug. 26
• Registration: http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2012/registration.html
• Contest hardware shipped: Aug. 27
• Presentation of demos and judging at conference: Oct. 8
• Winners announced at conference: Oct. 9
• Email: contest@uist.org
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uistcontest
• Twitter: @uistcontest

To learn more about ForcePad, please visit www.synaptics.com/go/forcepad.

For up-to-the-minute Synaptics news, follow @SynaCorp on Twitter. For more information on Synaptics’ products and solutions, please visit www.synaptics.com.

About Synaptics
Synaptics delivers intelligent touch solutions for intelligent devices. As a leading developer of human interface solutions for the mobile computing, communications and digital home entertainment markets, Synaptics solutions enhance the user experience. The ClearPad™ touchscreen product family supports devices ranging from entry-level mobile phones to tablets. The TouchPad™ family, including ClickPad™, is integrated into the majority of today's notebook PCs. Synaptics has shipped over one billion capacitive touch solutions to date. (NASDAQ: SYNA) www.synaptics.com

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Videotron Launches illico TV New Generation with Cisco High-Definition Digital Video Recording Services

PRESS RELEASE

Videotron Launches illico TV New Generation with Cisco High-Definition Digital Video Recording Services

Enhanced user interface and new advanced features deliver next-generation viewing experience

Montreal, Quebec – March 27, 2012 – Videotron, a leading Canadian telecommunications operator providing communications and broadband entertainment services, announced today it has chosen Cisco's HD set-top box platform to deploy the next generation of its enhanced illico digital TV service. 

Videotron will use the Cisco Explorer® 8642 HD-DVR and 4642 HD set-top boxes to deliver a best-in-class enhanced entertainment experience. Available in the province of Quebec, illico TV New Generation offers a new customer experience including advanced video services and faster navigation.  

Highlights:

·         illico TV New Generation subscribers can use their remotes to access interactive entertainment and information embedded in particular programs, such as music, weather, local information, voting and polling, and other services. Subscribers may also benefit from Digital Video Recorder (DVR) functionality, Video-on-Demand, Electronic Program Guide, Pay-Per-View, Caller ID, Weather, and the ability to choose tailor-made entertainment packages. 

·         The Cisco 8642 HD-DVR optimizes Videotron's existing Cisco-powered cable head-end infrastructure and DOCSIS® network to give consumers greater access to broader video and entertainment experiences including broadcast television and video-on-demand.

·         The Cisco Explorer 4642 HD and 8642 HD-DVR set-top boxes give service providers the opportunity to:

·         Advance their video service plans by integrating the quality of high-definition video, digital video recording, and new service application features.

·         Offer consumer innovative features such as a 500-gigabyte DVR hard disc drive that supports up to 280 hours of standard-definition and up to 55 hours of high-definition programming, hybrid video service support, open standard support, multiple tuner support as well as USB 2.0 and Ethernet connectivity.

·         Qualified to meet ENERGY STAR® Tier 1 strict energy-efficiency guidelines, the Cisco 8642 HD-DVR requires less than 1 watt of power consumption in standby mode, and is capable of ‘light sleep' mode.  

Supporting Quotes:

Pierre Roy, vice president, Engineering, Research and Development, Videotron:

"The latest generation of Cisco Explorer set-top boxes supports the Tru2way open standard allowing us to offer a tailored customer experience to a broader audience. The Cisco Explorer set-top boxes help us to differentiate our innovative service and applications while retaining our market leadership."

Mark Kummer, vice president, Service Provider Operations, Cisco Canada:

"Videotron is a leader in bringing the capabilities and convenience of HD and DVR services to Canada, and Cisco is proud to help further the company's vision. With illico TV New Generation, Videotron can continue to advance its video strategy by utilizing its head-end and DOCSIS fibre optic networks combined with Cisco's set-top technology to deliver best-in-class video entertainment   experiences on air, online, on demand."

Additional Resources:

·         About Videotron

·         Cisco Explorer

About Videotron

Videotron, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, and Internet access, cable telephone and mobile telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its interactive Digital TV service and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Canada Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has offices across Canada dedicated to customer support, sales and service. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/canada/.

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