Behind Your Business

October 31, 2011 -- Data center real estate firm WiredRE announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Fenwal Protection Systems to offer data center fire suppression services. As a colocation and data center real estate advisor, WiredRE says it will support large and small-scale data center developments with integrated solutions including data center fire suppression.

Getting your app to sell! Is there any proven technique? Do you have an app that is lost in the app store?

Global markets let out a huge sigh of relief last week that resulted in a big buying spree after European leaders agreed on a framework to work through their sovereign debt crisis. The problem, even if the plan is to work, which the markets are starting to doubt, is that the deal doesn't really help [...]

If you think Microsoft's hands-free Kinect controller is just for video games, think again. The company confirmed Monday that it will start a Kinect for business program early next year.

In a posting on the Official Microsoft Blog, Corporate Vice President Frank X. Shaw wrote that the emerging commercial program recognizes "the intense commercial interest in harnessing the capabilities" of the innovative remote control, which uses motion detection, hand-gestures, and voice recognition to control an electronic device.

'Revolutionize Entire Industries'

A beta Software Developers Kit for academic and non-commercial projects was released in June, and a similar one designed for commercial uses with PCs is expected next year. The commercial program will include a new set of tools and APIs, and Shaw said the results could "revolutionize entire industries."

He noted that the commercial pilot program for the Kinect "has already received more than 200 applications from top companies in more than 20 countries spanning 25 unique industries." Companies investigating commercial applications include Toyota, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Razorfish.

Microsoft is trying to capitalize on what it calls The Kinect Effect, which the company's Xbox Web site described as people "using Kinect in ways we never imagined." Far beyond fighting aliens in video games, those uses include helping autistic children, assisting doctors in the operating room, and much more.

At the Royal Berkshire Hospital in the United Kingdom, for example, the controller is being used in rehabilitation exercises. Patients are matched to games, based on the level of their impairment, and the company said the games have helped to improve balance, coordination, and physical movement.

8 Million in 60 Days

The Lakeside Center for Autism in Issaquah, Wash., has used Kinect to help improve social interaction, language development and motor skills.

A Spanish start-up company, Tedesys, is developing an app that will allow doctors to use the device...

Reuters - TMX Group has embraced a Canadian consortium's C$3.8 billion ($3.8 billion) takeover offer, bolstering the chances shareholders will endorse a once-hostile deal that would put the country's largest exchange under the same roof as its largest rival.