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IT News: LCD TVs May Hamper Holiday PC Sales

Also, Microstrategy wins appeal; Zune details.

PCs will be a tough sell during the holidays, says a Gartner Inc. report. The research firm forecasts a 2.5 percent decrease in worldwide PC revenue, despite a 10.5 percent increase in unit sales caused by dramatic price cuts. The report also predicts that affordably priced LCD TVs, multifunction cell phones and other consumer electronics will further impact PC sales this upcoming holiday season. http://www.gartner.com

Microstrategy vs. Business Objects, Round Two
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled in favor of MicroStrategy Inc. in a lawsuit brought on by Business Objects, which alleged that MicroStrategy was infringing one of Business Objects' patents that have something to do with "using semantically dynamic objects." The ruling affirms a district court's prior dismissal of Business Objects' lawsuit. http://www.microstrategy.com/

Zune Takes Shape
Microsoft this week revealed more details about Zune, the company's new entertainment media platform expected to be released this year. The brand will include a 30GB digital media player capable of storing multiple file formats, wirelessly sharing files with other Zune devices and uploading files from the Zune Marketplace music service. The product will also come with accessory packs customized for home or travel use. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune

Sell Yourself
Before you head out for a job interview, listen to your own sales pitch. A recent survey by 15secondpitch.com found that 68 percent of survey participants don't know how to pitch themselves, and nearly a quarter say they don't like attending networking events. The Web site, which aims to teach professionals how to network and market themselves effectively, surveyed more than 2,500 people over three months. http://www.15secondpitch.com/

New Products: Partitioning, Bandwidth Monitoring
On the product front, Paragon Software Group released Partition Manager 8.0, the newest version of its hard disk management software. This version features user-friendly wizards and an XP-style interface, and comes in four editions: Personal, Server, Small Business Server and Enterprise. The Enterprise edition includes an "Initial Backup" function, which creates a hard disk image before performing partitioning tasks.
http://www.paragon-gmbh.com/

Neon Software announced CyberGauge 7.0, the latest version of its bandwidth monitoring software that now supports SNMP v2 and v3. One cool addition: Users can create customizable .JPEG graphs that depict their bandwidth usage. Prices start at $395, with upgrades starting at $99. http://www.neon.com

Management solution developer sqlSentry is running a special promotion for current MaximumASP server clients: Use sqlSentry for free for two months upon signing a new annual contract. Normally, the standard sqlSentry edition, which provides scheduling and notifications for database administrators, sells for $395 per SQL server instance. http://www.sqlSentry.net

About the Author

Gladys Rama (@GladysRama3) is the editorial director of Converge360.

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