MS accused of virtualisation foul play

VMware, the incumbent power in the blossoming realm of virtualisation, has accused Microsoft of using foul play to promote its own competing products, according to CNet News.com.

In a white paper, the EMC subsidiary says Microsoft is using Windows licensing terms to prevent customers from taking full advantage of virtualisation.

"Microsoft is trying to restrict customers' flexibility and freedom to choose virtualisation software by limiting who can run their software and how they can run it," VMware says.

Google's e-mail and office software is a genuine - and much cheaper - alternative to Microsoft for business users, according to UK IT chiefs.

ZDNet reports the reaction is in response to the launch this week of enterprise versions of Google's online software. The Google Apps Premier Edition will cost $50 per year for every end-user and offers e-mail, word processing and spreadsheets, with 24-hour phone support and 10GB of storage per user.

Three-quarters of silicon.com's 12-strong CIO Jury IT user panel said they would consider using the enterprise version of Google's software in their corporate IT infrastructure.

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile phone operator, plans to offer electronic payment services at McDonald's outlets in Japan, with special promotions for some users, Reuters.

The companies said in a joint statement they will set up a $2.48 million joint venture in July.

More and more Japanese are using mobile phones equipped with an electronic chip that lets them swipe their handsets over special readers to pay for train tickets and snacks at retailers.

Corel yesterday released a free public beta of WordPerfect Lightning, a word processor that blends a desktop-based application with online collaboration and storage features, writes PC World.

WordPerfect Lightening has a "Notes" tool to save text and images from the Internet, in addition to a "Viewer" that can handle the portable document format (.pdf), WordPerfect and Microsoft's Word documents. It also has a "Navigator" to organise files.

The desktop application is 20Mb and is compatible with Microsoft's new Vista OS and XP, Corel said.