Cisco, Haier collaborate

Cisco and the Haier Group, China's largest manufacturer of white goods, announced a wide-ranging collaborative co-operation that will see the companies work together on a broad range of opportunities in both the Chinese and international markets, reports CNN Money.

Under the terms of the co-operation, Cisco and Haier announced their intention to explore sharing best practices in group management and processes, financial management and controls, strategic investments and capitalisation co-operation, construction of information infrastructure and home networking systems.

The Haier Group says it is expanding its brand in international markets. Over the past two years, the group has ventured into the networked appliance market by combining its advantages in product development, marketing and channels operations, aided largely by networked information technology.

Windows Home Server promises to make the task of managing and storing information easier, but Microsoft is experiencing a few challenges in getting its latest home technology vision out the door, reports Australian IT News.

Its vision derives from a simple but profound truth: nobody ever spends their nights dreaming of being a network administrator or data centre manager.

However, as home WiFi networks proliferate and lounge rooms fill with consoles and media-centre PCs, technology fun can start to seem frighteningly like technology work.

From 12 to 26 November, the US-based One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) is selling its XO laptops from its first production run to North Americans, although its core market consists of millions of schoolchildren on the other side of the digital divide, says Canada.com,

The catch is that a North American buyer must shell out $399 US to purchase two XO machines, one for him or herself, and another for a child in the developing world.

While Nortel has no direct financial stake in the OLPC project, it is rooting for it. Nortel is the only Canadian company on the OLPC's board, sitting at the table with the likes of Google, eBay, News, Red Hat, Intel, AMD and several other businesses. Each company has reportedly contributed $2.5 million to the OLPC initiative.