Information, Knowledge, Science & Technology

Web applications tool NetWeaver and xApps will be the next push for the enterprise software company in 2006. December 5, 2005 German software giant SAP on Monday detailed its road map for the next year, emphasizing the importance of transforming its technology platform NetWeaver from a tool for building web applications to a tool for combining them. In a keynote speech to a gathering of industry analysts in Las Vegas, Shai Agassi, president of SAP’s product and technology group, said the company’s platform would usher in the next wave of web services. Mr. Agassi called this next phase in business applications “enterprise 3.0,” which emerges after the mainframe, client/server, and Internet periods. Shares of SAP closed down $0.04 to $45.55. Launched by SAP in 2004, NetWeaver is an application builder platform for integrating business processes across various systems, databases, and sources. It is the technological foundation for all SAP products. SAP’s new push for the NetWeaver network...

Class action lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court After several reports of overheating issues with the Xbox 360, one consumer has accused Microsoft of releasing the machine with systematic defects in the development and manufacturing process. In a class action lawsuit filed against the Redmond giant at the Illinois federal court, Robert Buyers of Chicago is seeking undisclosed damages, court costs and a recall of the newly launched console. It is unclear at this stage how many other consumers have joined Byers in the action. Reports of overheating issues in the power supply and central processor unit began to surface shortly after the console's US launch on November 22nd, and were quickly dismissed at the time by Microsoft. The company stated that the number of complaints related to a "very, very small fraction of the total shipment," adding that Microsoft had received "a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected." While the number of incidents...