tivoli

Tivoli's 'wireless' PAL radio

The Tivoli Audio PAL (Portable Audio Laboratory) radio is pretty small, just 6.25 by 3.7 by 3.9 inches, and it weighs a little under 2 pounds. It has just one 2.5-inch "full-range" speaker, but the little radio is one of my all-time favorite products. The battery-powered PAL is "wireless," because radio was, after all, the original widespread wireless format.

The PAL is dead simple to use: turn it on, select AM or FM radio, and tune to the station you love. You can also plug an iPod, or any device, into the … Read more

Tivoli's iPod/iPhone dock looks good, costs a lot

While we've always loved the design and sound quality of Tivoli Audio products, the company isn't exactly known for its bargain pricing. Case in point: its new iPod/iPhone dock, The Connector, will run you $124.99. But it does match up nicely with Tivoli's existing line of tabletop radios.

As the company says, "The Connector looks beautiful next to any Tivoli Audio product. It keeps your iPod or iPhone charged, and the included remote lets you control many functions including volume, next/previous track, and playlist selection. And if you watch movies on your iPod, … Read more

Crave giveaway: Panasonic KX-TG6582 Link-to-Cell cordless phone

Panasonic makes some of the best cordless phones we've reviewed, and now the company is offering Crave readers the chance to win one of its latest models. The Panasonic KX-TG6582 is a two-handset system that offers the latest DECT 6.0 Plus wireless for optimal interference-free reception over the longest distances possible. In addition to its built-in answering machine and easy-to-see high contrast screen, the KX-TG6582 also features "Link-to-Cell" support, which means you can use its built-in Bluetooth radio to make or receive calls from your cell phone via these home phones. While we haven't reviewed … Read more

Crave giveaway: Tivoli Audio Series 3 clock radio

Tivoli Audio makes some stylish and great sounding tabletop radios and for this week's giveaway, Tivoli is offering Crave readers the chance to win one of its classy Platinum Series Model 3 AM/FM clock radios. CNET's audio guru Steve Guttenberg liked its sound, calling it nicely balanced, and said the Tivoli Model 3 "is a great solution for anyone in the market for an upscale tabletop clock radio." This newer version features a hand-lacquered and polished high-gloss finish.

Normally, the Tivoli Platinum Series Model 3 would cost about $400, but you have the chance to … Read more

Tivoli jazzes up NetWorks Internet radio

Tivoli Audio didn't announce any new products at its annual showcase this year in New York, but it did reveal lots of new looks--13 new finishes, in fact--for its NetWorks Internet radio.

The new finishes are broken down into three groups: Texture Collection (four options); Color Collection (six options); and Cappellini, which features three hand-lacquered finishes created by Italian furniture designer Giulio Cappellini (Tivoli will also make its original Model One tabletop AM/FM mono radio available in Cappellini finishes).

Tivoli continues to make firmware upgrades to its existing NetWorks radio, which came out last year, but no new … Read more

IBM Pulse offers industry pulse

In between the Michael Phelps' no-show incident, Smash Mouth, and celebrity talking-head Forrest Sawyer, IBM's Pulse event in Las Vegas was a good microcosm of the state of IT today and where it is going. Here are a few of my takeaways:

IBM's "Smart Planet" initiative previews the future. Within the next few years, all kinds of stuff will be instrumented with RFIDs, IP addresses, and bountiful cheap processing power all connected by wired and wireless broadband networks. Organizations that capitalize on this infrastructure will successfully collect, analyze, and make decisions on this overwhelming global intelligence. … Read more

Michael Phelps blows off IBM

LAS VEGAS--I'm here at IBM Pulse 2009, the IBM Tivoli customer conference (more on Pulse09 in my next blog). Many months ago, IBM hired Olympian Michael Phelps as a keynote speaker and the company was quite excited about having him present. When pictures of Phelps "pulling on a bong" emerged, I really felt bad for IBM, imagining an emergency meeting between the Pulse09 event team, corporate marketing, HR, and legal to decide what to do. IBM ended up sticking with Phelps as planned.

Given these events, I was very interested to see how IBM and Phelps handled … Read more

Challenges in monitoring Web apps, the Cloud

With the rise of cloud computing and Web applications, monitoring and management complexity has crossed the line from the network deep into applications. Businesses that are dependent on the web (companies like Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce.com) are concerned with more than just the red light/green light mentality of the client/server days.

Monitoring has evolved from "Am I alive?" to "How well is everything running?" and "Is my performance maximized?" It follows that businesses need performance data from applications, not just infrastructure, to ensure proper delivery and function (and, down the line, … Read more

IBM cloud announcement disappoints...again

Update: This post covers the Tivoli specific announcements that Gordon Haff covered in the post referred below. IBM made significant, additional announcements after this post was written, which I cover in a separate post.

I looked forward with great anticipation to Gordon Haff's post on Monday covering the Tivoli announcements at IBM's Pulse conference.

Specifically, I was especially interested in what Tivoli was going to offer to support dynamic infrastructure, in part because IBM's cloud DNA holds so much promise, and I have yet to see any magic from them.

As would be expected from Pulse, the bulk of the announcements are geared toward service management. From Gordon's post:

IBM service management software and services from IBM Global Business Services, IBM Global Technology Services, and specialized IBM Business Partner capabilities. Together, they enable organizations to design and implement IT systems that centrally manage and monitor an entire industry infrastructure, enabling greater performance of both traditional assets, such as manufacturing robotic equipment, as well as emerging technologies like "smart meters" and RFID (radio frequency identification). A new governance-consulting practice. Through the practice, IBM works with clients to design governance systems to help mitigate risks related to business changes, changing market conditions, and regulatory requirements. New Tivoli Service Automation Manager software, which automates the design, deployment, and management of services such as middleware, applications, hardware, and networks, tasks that today are largely done manually and thus are subject to error, time constraints, and other human limitations. New Tivoli Key Lifecycle Manager software, which helps organizations simplify the life cycle of encryption keys by enabling them to centralize, automate, and strengthen security through key management processes, with an increasing number of IT infrastructure elements having built in encryption to protect them.

Ugh.… Read more