Apple iPhone Considered by Bank of America, Citigroup: Report - eWeek

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By: Nicholas Kolakowski
2010-11-06
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Apple?s iPhone is under consideration as a BlackBerry alternative by Bank of America and Citigroup, according to a Nov. 5 Bloomberg report. Unnamed sources suggested that both companies were testing the iPhone?s software security, and that Android was also under consideration as a corporate mobile platform.  

Both banking groups were reluctant to comment on any Apple iPhone or Android action, beyond a spokesperson for Bank of America telling Bloomberg: ?We continuously evaluate new and innovative technologies.? The four- to six-week testing at both companies reportedly involve 1,000 employees. 

Research In Motion?s BlackBerry, with its reputation for security, has long been the smartphone mainstay of many large enterprises.

Apple is making a more concerted push into the enterprise space. ?We?ve seen extraordinary growth from 60 percent to 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies,? Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during the company?s Oct. 18 earnings call. He cited companies such as Procter & Gamble that had ?made iPhone available to their employees.? The iPad is also under heavy consideration by large enterprises? CIOs and IT departments.

To boost that enterprise push, Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Unisys to increase its corporate and government footprint. Under the terms of that agreement, Unisys will provide maintenance and support for Apple products in use by those enterprises.

?Most of those organizations are still heavily PC-based,? Gene Zapfel, a managing partner at Unisys, told Bloomberg in an interview published Oct. 25. ?Apple is going to crack the nut and clients are going to start buying a lot more.? Terms of the deal remain undisclosed; reports suggest, though, that Unisys will also begin constructing more Apple apps for government use.

With the rise of consumer-device use in the enterprise space, security and compatibility concerns among IT administrators has also sharply increased. ?Employees and employers both agree?a Device and App Revolution exists although perceptions regarding extent of that revolution differ,? reads a June report prepared by research firm IDC for Unisys. ?Younger employees (iWorkers) are not demanding change ? they are driving it [through] Consensus Usage (IT Shop and Corp liability issues be damned).?

That report also suggested that around 50 percent of workplace devices end up used in both personal and business contexts: ?Data is freely mingled.?

Which may not be the best situation for institutions such as Bank of America and Citigroup?hence the reported testing.

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Fear of volcanic ash cancels flights to Jakarta - The Associated Press

Fear of volcanic ash cancels flights to Jakarta(AP) – 5 hours ago

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) — International airlines fearful of volcanic ash canceled flights Saturday into Indonesia's capital, while the closure of airports nearest Mount Merapi has delayed the arrival of burn cream and ventilators for those whose skin and lungs were singed by searing gases. The series of eruptions, including the deadliest in decades, has killed 138 people.

In the area's only burn unit, one patient lies mummified in thick, white bandages from neck to toe, his face a patchwork of black and ashen splotches. He never blinks his milky gray eyes. The only sign of life is the shallow rising and falling of his chest.

He has little company: Of the 31 burn victims taken to Sardjito hospital, at the foot of the volcano, the burn unit has room for just nine. Of those, only eight get a ventilator.

With nearby airports closed because of poor visibility, hospital officials said lots of supplies — including burn cream, oxygen masks and saline solution for IVs — were stuck in Jakarta. Dr. Ishandono Dahlan said he needed at least four more ventilators to protect the delicate, inflamed lung tissue of patients from the ash hanging in the air. In the meantime, nursing students were pumping emergency respirators — normally only used in short ambulance trips — by hand.

Indonesia's most volatile mountain unleashed nearly two billion cubic feet (50 million cubic meters) of gas, rocks and ash Friday that raced down its slopes at highway speeds, mowing down a slope-side village and leaving a trail of charred corpses in its path. Photos taken by a disaster management team afterward showed bodies frozen in their last moments, covered in a thick charcoal-like ash. Several showed bodies welded together, as mothers and fathers clutched their children.

The number of people killed by Mount Merapi in the last two weeks climbed to 138, according to Sigit Priohutomo, a senior hospital official. The volcano continued to rumble and groan Saturday, at times spitting ash up to five miles (eight kilometers) in the air, dusting windshields, rooftops and leaves on trees hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.

Just days before President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia, international carriers canceled flights to the capital, Jakarta, over concerns about the volcano, 280 miles (450 kilometers) away.

"The volcanic ash presence in the airways surrounding Jakarta could cause severe damage to our aircraft and engines which could impair the safety of our operations including passengers and crew," said Azharuddin Osman, director of operations for Malaysia Airlines.

Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa and Etihad Airways also temporarily suspended flights, taking the national disaster international. Flights to Frankfurt, Abu Dhabi, Tokyo and Hong Kong, as well as many regional destinations, were among those affected.

Domestic flights were running normally, except for those going to airports near the volcano that shut.

The eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano in April forced the closure of most European airports for a week and led to the cancellation of over 100,000 flights.

Tia Wanti, an information officer at the Jakarta airport, implied Saturday's move by airlines was premature, saying the dust wasn't causing problems either in the skies above the airport or on its runways. About 10 percent of the 1,200 flights Jakarta handles a day were canceled.

The Indonesian government, meanwhile, has expanded a "danger zone" to a ring 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the peak, bringing it to the edge of the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta, which has been put on its highest alert.

The biggest threat is the Code River, which flows into the city of 400,000 from the 9,700-foot (3,000-meter) mountain and could act as a conduit for deadly volcanic mudflows that form in heavy rains.

Racing at speeds of 60 mph (100 kph), the molten lava, rocks and other debris, can destroy everything in their path. People living near the river's banks have been advised to stay away.

With the deaths of at least 94 people, Friday was Merapi's deadliest day in decades. More than 200 others were injured with burns, respiratory problems, broken bones and cuts, leaving the tiny hospital of Sardjito — the most sophisticated in the area — overwhelmed.

The hospital's tiny burn unit has been forced to turn away all but the most severe cases, officials said. Those with the worst smoke inhalation — which scorches and inflames lung tissue, making breathing difficult if not impossible — get top priority. Next, the severity and extent of burns is considered.

Sudarjo is one of the worst cases. He was burned over 60 percent of his body while trying to return to his house to rescue his 100-year-old mother, who was later saved by a relative. He had ferried his wife, Saminah, to safety and now she keeps watch over him, talking to him by his bed when she's allowed into the ward and keeping vigil in the hallway when she isn't.

"I will stay here (until he's discharged). Who else if not me?" said Saminah, whose face crinkles when she smiles, indicating her age, though she cannot remember when she was born.

The unit is supposed to be the most sterile in the hospital since burns are essentially open wounds and prone to infection. While a pass code restricts entry, Dahlan, a plastic surgeon, said it's a struggle to keep the unit hermetic.

The air conditioning frequently breaks, so someone opens a window. The entryway has double doors, but the interior set are often left open, meaning the whole unit is exposed whenever anyone enters. Visitors are asked to come in one at a time, and to don cotton gowns and masks, but the rules are easily broken and the gowns have begun to feel grimy.

Still, conditions on the unit are far better than in the rest of the hospital. Many wards are not sealed off at all, with only a swinging door to the outside. Families crowd the hallways, sleeping on mats, and a sprinkling of dust covers everything, from the stretchers to the doctors' white coats.

Conditions were also deteriorating at emergency shelters in the shadow of the volcano that were crammed with more than 200,000 people evacuated from the mountain.

With muddy floors, flies landing on the faces of sleeping refugees, many complained of poor sanitation, saying there were not enough toilets or clean drinking water.

Merapi's latest round of eruptions began Oct. 26, followed by more than a dozen other powerful blasts and thousands of tremors.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.

Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus, Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Black Ops Features You Might Not Know - Just Push Start

Here’s a bunch of new features in Call of Duty: Black Ops that many players will not have heard about. They range from things about equipment to perks and all make me personally look forward to Black Ops even more. So lets kick of this list of features!

Re-Use Equipment

Like in Modern Warfare 2 players will only get one claymore to use but in Black Ops players will have the ability to pick up their own claymores. This will work in the same way that players can pick up camera spikes, motion detectors and jammers. It is currently unknown whether players will also be able to pick up C4 but as it seems most of the equipment can be it would be a safe bet too.

Mistakes Were Made

Rather than just saying that a player has committed suicide Black Ops has the rather different approach and say Mistakes Were Made next to the player in the killfeed. Ways to get this range from the normal falling to running through a mine field on the multiplayer map Jungle.

Zooming Scopes

Black Ops hosts a scope which players can actually zoom in and it seemed that it was possible to zoom in 4 times, allowing for some rather long range sniper action. The name of the scope is currently unknown but the game is just around the corner so we will find out very soon.

Invisible Walls

Unfortunately these make their unwanted return in Call of Duty: Black Ops; while it isn’t yet proven how many will be inside the maps, at the edge of all the maps there are a number of entrances for the Attack Dogs. This means a big gap in a fence that looks possible to crawl through has an invisible wall stopping players. While I can see why they have added these I hope they haven’t plastered them all over the maps stopping players getting on the top of buildings when it seems possible.

Depth To Maps

On most if not all levels there is something going on around the map or even on the map in the case of launch. Like with launch where the rocket goes up other maps also include moving sections from a moving belt over a crusher to a train outside of the map. This is a feature which helps add depth to the maps which hasn’t really been seen as much in Call of Duty as other shooter titles.

How To Unlock Pro Perks

On Call of Duty: Black Ops regular perks will be brought using the Cod Point system but the Pro version of each will still be only available by completing challenges for that perk and that is also where it differs from Modern Warfare 2. Instead of just one challenge players will now have to complete three separate challenges to unlock the Pro version of a perk. For example to unlock Marathon Pro players will have to run 26 miles using marathon, get 10 first bloods kills and capture 15 flags in Capture The Flag mode. Clearly this is a way of making them slightly more specialised for the players that use them and could possibly make them slightly harder for players to get.

Well hopefully you are now even more clued up on Call of Duty Black Ops and it will make you even more pumped for the launch on November 9th.

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