Showing posts with label open platform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label open platform. Show all posts

Life Fitness announces an open platform product called LFopen™

By  at 2:36 AM  ,  

With the aim of providing customer with the best workout experience, Life Fitness decided to open its code, also known as API (Application Programming Interface).


In this strategy, they introduced LFopen™, an open platform product. It allows outside developers to access to future Life Fitness equipment software codes and customize applications. For this reason, developers have a lot of chances to create apps while exercisers also have a ton of possibilities to enjoy thousands of apps to personalize their workout experience instead of one application. 




What is more, for gym owners, they can integrate their branded solutions into Life Fitness equipments such as tracking apps and incentive programs so that gym members can update content in an effort to improve their workout experiences.

Visit the site to get further information about this open platform product.

Source: lifefitness



Jumpy - An open platform smartwatch for kids

By  at 12:04 AM  , ,  
With the aim of bring a wonderful smart watch experience to kids with added peace of mind for parents, Joray Tech has announced Jumpy, a cool smart watch for kids. It offers edutainment to their wrists and encourages parent-child interaction. 



According to Founder and CEO Jerry Chang, providing an open SDK and releasing new apps by JoyRay and third-party developers every month is the key to creating a kids’ smartwatch. 

Although kid wearables have a lot of options but a few products gain interest. While Jumpy is an innovative and multi-functional smart watch for kids of age 5 to 8. It is compatible with Android and iOS and interacts with other Jumpy devices. This is wonderful for siblings. 


With Jumpy, parents can feed in daily reminders and messages to make education a fun activity for kids. In addition, Jumpy’s watch head can interact with other devices. At present, this smart watch is on Kickstarter and reportedly shipped in March.

Source: crybytes


Docker – an open platform for distributed applications for sysadmins and developers

By  at 2:36 AM  , , , ,  
How to define Docker?

Docker is an open platform for developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run any application anywhere. It include a portable, lightweight runtime and packaging tool called Docker Engine and a cloud service for sharing applications and automating workflows called Docker Hub. 



Docker lets you to assemble quickly apps from components and eliminate the friction between development, QA, and production environments. 


What benefits do developers receive when using Docker?


Docker lets developers build any app in any language using any toolchain. The app is completely portable and can run anywhere. By starting with one of the 13,000+ apps available on Docker Hub, developers can get going quickly. Docker Hub also allows developers to automate their build pipeline and share artifacts with collaborators through public or private repositories.

With Docker, developers can build and ship higher-quality applications faster.


What benefits do sysadmins receive when using Docker?


With Docker, sysadmins can provide standardized environments for their development, QA, and production teams and eliminate differences in OS distributions and underlying infrastructure. Due to standardizing on the Docker Engine, sysadmins are given flexibility in where workloads run. Importantly, with Docker sysadmins can deploy and run any app on anywhere, reliably and quickly.


Source: docker



Which Computing Platforms Are Not Open?

By  at 6:22 PM  ,  
While a lot of open platforms are popular, closed platforms have increased for few years. But do you distinguish open platforms and closed platforms? Continue to read this article to know which computing platforms are not open.

padlock

Windows Modern

windows pc and windows phone

Normally, we can only install Modern software from the Windows Store. If an application is banned from Microsoft, it will be removed from the Windows Store. This means that we cannot install or run this application on our system. 

Apple iOS

iphones ipods and ipad

This closed platform is extremely famous. iOS users can only applications from Apple Store. If an application is violates any guidelines of Apple, Apple will remove it. 

Windows Phone

lumia-920

Windows Phone is not an open platform. Thus, you only install apps from the Windows Phone Store. 

Popular Game Consoles

xbox-playstation-and-wii

Popular game consoles have been not open platforms for a long time. They requires to be licensed before running on the console.

Source: howtogeek

Which Computing Platforms Are Open?

By  at 12:38 AM  , ,  
It is a fact that many popular platforms are still open platforms while closed platforms have increased for few years. But which computing platforms are open? Continue to read this article. 

Apple Mac OS X

macbook

This computing platform is open. Its store has various restrictions on developers and subjects their apps to sandboxing. However, developers can leave it and deliver their products directly to users. Additionally, users can disable a setting restricting to install apps from outside the store. 

Linux & Google Chrome OS


You can install anything you want on Linux and chrome OS which is a platform based on Linux. You can tog on developer mode and install other software alongside your Chrome OS system. What is more, users still can install apps and extensions from outside the store though Chrome can only install web apps and extensions from the Chrome Web Store by default. 

Google Android

Google Android is an open platform. As you are aware, you only can install software from Google Play by default but there is still a way to install Android apps from outside the store.

Amazon Kindle Fire

image

Due to being based on an Android, Amazon Kindle Fire is also offers the same freedom. It means users can install apps from outside Amazon’s Appstore.

BlackBerry

blackberry-z10

You can install apps from outside BlackBerry’s app store when using BlackBerry devices. 

In fact, these open platforms offer the freedom to decide what runs without becoming criminals because a open platform lets developers to easily distribute their software directly to users.

Source: howtogeek

Why is an open platform good for business?

By  at 9:46 PM  , , , ,  

Image you are using expensive software of a company. The company is famous and has a lot of customers because expensive software is safe.

But one day, the company is out of business. All of its customers are stuck with software that is no longer updated or supported. It is all proprietary software built on closed platforms and no one could support or improve it. Then, it is completely out of date. You are one of those unlucky customers.

Here is a lesson here that you should choose a product operating on a flexible and open platform. Why?

Here are 4 reasons why choosing a product with an open platform is critical:

 1. If the company is out of business, the product is not out of date.

A product built on a closed, proprietary platform is dead if the vendor goes out of business. Nobody could maintain it. However, a product built on an open platform is still supported by a large user community even if the vendor goes under.

2. Customization options.

An open platform product is easily customized to fit your business needs while a closed, proprietary product is customized only by the vendor. It means that you have many options when customizing an open platform product.

3. Integrates well with your current product.

An open platform product work well with your current product and systems. You know what this means? You don’t have to type the same information into different systems.

4. Works well with each other.

An open platform product works well with other open platform product.

When you buy a closed, proprietary product, you depend on the vendor. You are stuck with unsupported products if the vendor goes out of business. On the other hand, an open platform product doesn’t tie you to any one vendor and works well with others. It means that it puts you in charge of your own future.

Why can open platforms beat proprietary platforms?

By  at 5:55 PM  , ,  
Do open platforms bring benefits?

Of course, they are useful. However, can open platforms beat proprietary platforms? 


In fact, It is thought that open platforms are considered as an enigma in the business world. We have a question why a business stakeholder cares about what technology is used as long as it solves a business problem and effective. This seems like it wouldn't matter but there are a lot of hidden factors that play here. Open platforms can beat proprietary platforms for the following reasons. 

Flexibility:

Proprietary platforms traditionally do not allow users to extend and integrate with other platforms easily while open platforms do. In fact, proprietary platforms have been around since computing appeared. Thus, a lot of organizations have no experience or are locked in with open platforms. 

Cost:

As you are aware open platforms are free while implementing and/or migrating to open platforms can cost more expensively than proprietary platforms. But typically costs involved with implementing open platforms are associated only with the short term. Costs including vendor lock-in, maintenance and services fees which can equate to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars annually are eliminated when open platforms are using in the long term. 

Business Alignment:

Business alignment is critical to the future of IT. In fact, a specific need is solved by most open platform methodologies while business needs are solved by a lot of proprietary platforms. They often require many months to years to implement because they are big and bulky. While open platforms have short implementation cycles, which provides business agility and immediate return on investment to the business.

Source: chicagonow



iDocs Open -Open Platform Document Management for Unix, Windows, Linux and the Cloud

By  at 10:17 PM  , , , , , ,  


What is iDocs Open?

iDocs Open is a Open Platform Document Management tool provided by inFORM Decisions has experienced paperless technology for years. 

iDocs Open has the ability to capture and process print or database output from open platform servers on the market, and merge it with a designed graphical form and/or with a lot of graphic objects such as signatures, pictures, logos, and barcodes.

iDocs Open includes an automated merge engine, a built in forms designer, print or spool data mapping tool, an ability to capture data from almost any source and conditional processing and output specifications that can be defined by users.

When a form is designed, mapped, defined for output and routing specifications, the processor is enabled and this open platform document management tool runs in the background invisible to users running in their accounting or ERP accounting system.

Below are main features of iDocs Open. 
  • Intercept print or spool data output from multiple server platforms for processing 
  • Distribute output through a number of mechanisms such as email, fax and import into workflow and document routing options 
  • Distribute merge results to predefined locations such as Output Queue andWindows printer drivers 
  • Define multiple conditions for bursting, routing, sorting and distributing jobs 
  • User defined batch merge engine can process multiple output from multiple platforms 


What are advantages and disadvantages of a Proprietary System and an Open Platform?

By  at 1:33 AM  , , , ,  
Choosing the right type of software is necessary for running a business as efficiently as possible in the global marketplace. Generally, you have one of two choices choosing a software platform for business purposes or even creating a website. One choice is proprietary software trademarked and likely requiring you to obtain or purchase a license while one choice is open-source software which is free software that you can download and pay no licensing fees to use. Using them has advantages and disadvantages. 

Advantages

With a proprietary-software system, you will be able to utilize the software company's customer service department for troubleshooting and setup purposes. Proprietary software may have more features that appeal to the business owner and is generally adjusted to meet a market need. 


Often, open-source software is cheaper or free. Additionally, it is widely distributed. Therefore, if you have any question, you can ask and gain help from a large number of users on the Internet via forums or other information sources. Often fast bug and security fixes are available for open-source software when problems arise

Expense

One of the big drawbacks of a proprietary-software package is expense. Proprietary-software users will generally charge a licensing fee to the software company that needs to take advantage of its product because the software company needs to sell its product to survive. This licensing fee can be fairly expensive, especially compared to open-source software. If open-source software requires any fees, they are usually required for the software itself not necessarily for ongoing licensing maintenance.

Developer

Compared to open-source software, proprietary software makes business owners too heavily dependent on the developer. It is another drawback of proprietary software. Only own programmers and developers understand the code that makes the software work. Generally, the licensee will not be able to turn to other business owners and users for help with the product.

Adaptability

Generally, proprietary software products make it difficult to adapt to changes in the marketplace. However, open-source software tends to be much quicker to adapt to these types of changes and often provides the business owner with more flexibility. Sometimes proprietary developers slowly offer fixes for any bugs that their software may have.

Source: smallbusiness




General information about an open platform

By  at 1:26 AM  , ,  
Open Platform Overview

An open platform is an approach where a company lets other companies build applications or offer products or services that can be used on their existing platform. The sponsoring company creates a standardized interface and allows other companies to build products and services leveraging their assets rather than controlling the development pathway.



Open Platforms has become popular in the energy and technology sectors and successful in the internet world through the use of open APIs (Application Programming Interface). 


How an Open Platform Works


An Open Platform leverages standards to let the third parties add functionality mainly in the energy and technology sectors. However, now applications are expanding into other industries because digital technologies have increasingly penetrated into daily home and work life. 


Benefits when using an Open Platform


There are numerous benefits to the open platform owner when letting partners to build applications or offer products or services that can be used on their existing platform: 
  • Offer features to customers while your organization is kept focused 
  • Allow for deep customization without tying up your own resources 
  • More closely integrate a customer to your system, making them less likely to leave 
  • Save time and money spent on sub-scale business development 


Where Open Platforms work well


Open Platforms will work well if they are platforms to serve a wide range of customer needs/ segments and a modular architecture lets different companies work together to support specific customer needs. 

Here are some elements referring to potential for open platforms to be successful:
  • Multiple capabilities required where one organization is unlikely to span everything 
  • Multiple customer needs and segments where a large variety of supported products will expand the market for the platform and fend off competing platforms 
  • Competition along the value chain making innovation in each module/ component a requirement to maintain the pace 
  • Financial models supporting the ecosystem of players where monetization maps to investment required 
  • Low frictional costs for stakeholders in the ecosystem to make the required connections to the platform, enter the market, sell their product (automated business development and digital data transfer is what makes this so compelling in internet-based models) 
  • Mechanisms for updating the standards as needs evolve 





All things about Microsoft SharePoint document capture and scanning solution of inFORM Decisions

By  at 7:25 PM  , , ,  
If routing content to Microsoft SharePoint is difficult for you, you have reached the right place. Due to iCapture’s powerful SharePoint integration, you can route your documents easily.



It is a fact that SharePoint has been extremely famous for I.T. departments while administrators are seeking applications to help structure and standardize the addition of documents and data to the repository. iCapture is an open platform product offered by inFORM Decisions. This powerful document capture engine can streamline any SharePoint Scanning and Capture workflow. 

In fact, iCapture works with any desktop scanner and can connect your scanning copier to SharePoint. Scanning is done in an instant due to iCapture’s automation. What is more, this document capture engine can automatically extract document information through barcodes, text extraction and pattern matching. As the result, you can save time while you can also do other things. Just press the green button and come back when the job is done. iCapture is really wonderful when it can scan anything from forms, contracts to invoices. You just name it and this open platform product can morph to your organization’s needs. As you can see iCapture really offers efficiency, automation and productivity. Additionally, with iCapture and its SharePoint OCR technology, everything becomes a searchable PDF. You can extract information and create a fully searchable digital “file cabinet” quickly and easily.

With iCapture, you standardize the flow of documents into SharePoint. Contact inFORM Decisions right now to get further information.

iView: a web-based content management open platform product

By  at 11:39 PM  , , ,  
Previously, I mentioned iCapture and iSign, two open platform products of inFORM Decisions. Now I give you some information about another open platform product of inFORM Decisions. It is iView.
What is iView?

 iView is an affordable web based document indexing, archive and retrieval solution. It allows users to quickly store, search and access documents via a web browser from anywhere and anytime. iView can be implemented standalone, or work with other open platform products of inFORM Decisions.

 With this open platform product, you can eliminate the cost and the time of storing, retrieving and sharing documents.

Here are some main features of iView. 

  • Documents are captured, and then automatically converted into popular and standard PDF format 
  • User-defined rules-based intelligent engine monitors for and immediately processes inbound spooled files and scanned documents tagged for Archive 
  • User friendly web browser interface utilized to retrieve documents 
  • Option available to store archived documents on any networked server via FTP 
  • Scanning import function (iScan) indexes and stores scanned-in documents. Easy to configure, works with your existing scanner 
  • Rapid deployment of enterprise documents to a self-service web portal 
  • Intelligent DataQueue engines consume no processor time until a spool file becomes available to process 
  • Archives under system profile or the user ID of the spool file owner 
  • Searchable index can be multi-line. Users can add a column of data to the search database. This is helpful for spool files that contain multiple rows of important data 
For more info, see the company's website at www.informdecisions.com or call at 800-858-5544.


 Source: inFORM Decisions

 Tags: IBM iSeries, as400 scan, AP Automation, Document Automation, digital forms, Scanning to TIFF

iSign Signature Capture’s iFD

By  at 12:01 AM  , , , ,  
In fact, the concept of paper a pen and is becoming increasingly unfamiliar in our mobile world. What do you need to capture some information? That's what tablets are for. inFORM Decisions (iFD), a software vendor, introduced a new IBM i-based signature capture solution for mobile devices called iSign. 

iSign is an HTML-based app that lets users capture signatures from the comfort of smartphones or tablets. It works by digitally capturing signatures from the touchscreen of any mobile device loaded with a Java-enabled Web browser and then applies the signature to any business document.

This software not only improves the business document workflow by making it electronic but also eliminates the need to print and carry large documents. These benefits make iSign a good potential investment for organizations that are trying to "Go Green".


iSign helps you collect signatures from the comfort of a touchscreen mobile device. 

To sign your name, select a document from the queue, sign the document (using either a stylus or your finger), and save the document on the device. After that, the signed document is uploaded to the document store or content management system, where it can be retrieved anywhere and anytime. You can print or email the document from the mobile device.

You can use iSign in the distribution, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and financial services industries. Insurance adjusters could use it to expedite claims processing in the field while banks could use the technology to avoid lugging around over 100 page documents during mortgage signings. 

inFORM Decisions president Dan Forster says that iSign provides the signatures which are legally binding per the federal government's 2001 Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN).

According to inFORM, signatures captured by iSign can be stored in any document management system. But the company recommends using its own iView document management system to store iSign documents. With iView, you can find signed documents and retrieve them from the comfort of a Web browser.

For more info, see the company's website at www.informdecisions.com or call at 800-858-5544.

Source: itjungle