HP announced on Monday that it has followed through with its intentions to acquire Autonomy and has purchased the enterprise information technology firm for £25.50 per share in cash. HP will allow Autonomy to operate as an entirely separate arm; Autonomy will continue to be led by its founder and CEO Dr. Mike Lynch, who will report to HP’s newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman. “We are committed to helping our customers solve their toughest IT challenges,” HP president and chief executive officer Meg Whitman said. “The exploding growth of unstructured and structured data and unlocking its value is the single largest opportunity for consumers, businesses and governments. Autonomy significantly increases our capabilities to manage and extract meaning from that data to drive insight, foresight and better decision making.” Read on for the full press release.

HP Acquires Control of Autonomy Corporation

Positions HP as a leader in fast-growing enterprise information management and data market

HP today announced that it has acquired control of Autonomy Corporation.

Holders of 213,421,299 Autonomy shares have accepted HP’s previously announced offer to purchase the entire share capital of Autonomy at a price of £25.50 per share in cash, representing approximately 87.34 percent of the current issued share capital of Autonomy. As such, all conditions relating to the offer have now been satisfied, allowing HP to acquire control of Autonomy.

The acquisition positions HP as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space. Autonomy’s software offerings power more than 25,000 customer accounts worldwide and, as part of HP, will provide high-value business solutions to help customers manage the explosion of unstructured and structured information. Autonomy offers solutions that are complementary across HP’s enterprise offerings and strengthens the company’s data analytics, cloud, industry and workflow management capabilities.

“We are committed to helping our customers solve their toughest IT challenges. The exploding growth of unstructured and structured data and unlocking its value is the single largest opportunity for consumers, businesses and governments,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “Autonomy significantly increases our capabilities to manage and extract meaning from that data to drive insight, foresight and better decision making.”

As previously announced, Autonomy will operate as a separate business unit. Dr. Mike Lynch, the founder and chief executive officer of Autonomy, will continue to lead the Autonomy business and will report to Whitman.

“This is a historic day for Autonomy, our employees and the customers we serve, as we combine HP’s phenomenal assets and Autonomy’s specialized skills to produce systems that handle all the information in the enterprise, regardless of the format it is in,” said Lynch. “We are at the dawn of a new era when it is the ‘I’ in IT that is changing, not just the ‘T.’”

HP’s offer to purchase the remaining Autonomy shares remains open. Further information is available at www.hp.com/investor/offerdocuments.

 

 

Paul Bryan, Microsoft’s senior director of business experiences product management for Windows Phone, has written a blog post that details Windows Phone Mango’s business productivity features. The update, which will be discussed in deeper detail during a press conference in New York City on May 24th, will include pinnable email folders for quick access from the homescreen, conversation view in email, server search, and a new Lync application for business chat users. Bryan also said there will be added capabilities for IT departments, including complex password support, information rights management support, and the ability to access hidden corporate Wi-Fi networks. “This week, we expect to exceed 16,000 apps available in the Windows Phone Marketplace,” Bryan added. We’ll be reporting live from Microsoft’s press conference on the 24th.

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In honor of Research In Motion’s upcoming virgin voyage into the mysterious, turbulent waters that are today’s consumer tablet market, we thought we would take a moment to look back fondly at the tablet that started it all. No, not Apple’s iPad… we’re talking about the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Ok, so the Nokia 770 didn’t really “start it all,” but it was the first notable effort from a cell phone manufacturer to lack voice capabilities and carry the “tablet” branding. Launched in 2005, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet featured specs that would make modern tablets hang their heads in shame, including a 4.1-inch resistive touchscreen display, 64MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, 3 hours of usage time per charge and a rip-roaring 250MHz TI processor. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be — the 770 didn’t sell well at all, and despite a few subsequent attempts, Nokia would end up packing in its Internet Tablet brand and refocusing on phones. Of course, Nokia plans to build new tablets now that they’re trendy and desirable, and hopefully the Finnish company’s upcoming efforts afford a more intuitive experience than its Internet Tablets of old.

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

A late night burglary at a Vodafone technical facility in the UK has affected the service of “several hundred thousand” users. Via its forums, the company explained:

We had a break in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment. This means that some customers may be experiencing temporary loss of voice, sms and internet services. We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can. There has been no impact on the privacy of customers’ data.

In a subsequent FAQ post, Vodafone confirms that the vandalized site was in Basingstoke, the event occurred between 1:00AM and 2:00AM GMT, and that “specialist network equipment and IT hardware was stolen.”

The company expects its services to be fully restored by this afternoon. Any of UK readers experience this outage?

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At an event last week in Boston, RIM VP Pete Devenyi said the company is exploring the possibility of introducing cross-platform solutions that would allow IT professionals to manage smartphones made by companies other than RIM. “BlackBerry is and will continue to be dominant in most corporations,” Devenyi said in an interview. “It’s not going to be the only device, given the fact that consumers have the choice to bring in their own devices, and IT departments are often letting them in. So there’s a question there: do those corporations have to manage those devices differently or is there the possibility that RIM might extend capabilities to make it easier for those corporations to manage those devices as well?” This is hardly the first time RIM has explored its competitors’ platforms as a possible way to widen its net. For years, RIM has been experimenting with a variety of cross-platform tools that might help the company develop new revenue channels. The most well-known example is likely RIM’s BlackBerry Application Suite, which we showed off exclusively two years ago. BAS would have allowed BlackBerry software to be installed on platforms like Windows Mobile and Symbian so that companies could deploy BlackBerry services on a variety of popular smartphone operating systems. The current state of RIM’s BAS software solution is unknown.

[Via Electronista]

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Motorola is up to bat with their most competitive corporate device in years — they’re aiming squarely at the fine boys and girls at RIM — and coupled with the latest Android OS and the nation’s largest voice and data network, they mean business. Does that mean they have come up with the best business-focused handset on Verizon Wireless? How on earth will you be able to choose between a Motorola DROID Pro, a BlackBerry, or another Android handset? Hit the break to find out our thoughts!

HARDWARE

Motorola’s DROID Pro is the first vertically-oriented candybar device with a QWERTY keyboard that we have reviewed, and at first glance, we have to admit that it does look a tad strange. However, once you pick up the phone and start using it, the entire handset makes sense. The Android OS that the DROID Pro runs would be more or less useless for most people if the screen wasn’t vertical, and with the full QWERTY keyboard nestled below it, the entire design makes sense.

In between the small 3.1-inch display and the keyboard sits Android’s default 4 buttons; menu, home, back, and search. They are touch sensitive, and if you’ve ever used a Motorola DROID or similar product, you’ll know what they are all about it. We had no trouble using the keys in our testing of the device and found them to be very responsive.

The device is reasonably sized, decently thin, and mostly attractive to us. A dark-pewter colored glossy front plate blends in well with the black glossy keyboard and display, while a polished platinum-looking bezel houses the power button on top, programmable app button on the right, followed by a volume rocker key and microUSB port on the left side. Completing the device is a black lacquered looking battery cover with signature Motorola Android hump towards the top of the phone in the rear.

SCREEN

Motorola decided to go with a pretty low resolution display on the DROID Pro, and while the screen is reasonably small at 3.1-inch (especially compared to the gargantuan Android devices out there), we would have loved to see a high resolution than 320 x 480. It unfortunately makes a very solidly built and manufactured device feel less expensive than it is. Motorola has been pumping out 800 x 480 resolution displays ever since the original DROID launch over a year ago, and we’d have loved to see something a bit more high end on a device primary focused on the business and corporate crowd.

As far as touch sensitivity and response goes, our results were mixed. Motorola makes good touchscreen displays in our opinion, but we have noticed several irksome quirks on the DROID Pro. The first being that the touch area of the screen doesn’t extend all the way to the edges of the display when you’re using your thumb to quickly navigate. Here is what we mean… with the phone in our hand, using our thumb to swipe across the screen from either left to right or right to left doesn’t get registered by the phone. If we’re extra careful about it and start the swiping motion from more in the middle of the screen, everything works and gets sensed correctly. Not the biggest issue, but especially on a smaller-sized display, we’d have preferred not to change how we normally use a touchscreen just for this specific product.

One more touch issue we noticed was that when scrolling slowly with our thumbs, the phone’s UI will start to literally twitch — it seems like it can’t properly sense where our thumb is and it starts to get confused on where the touch selection is happened from.

Resolution complaints aside, the display itself seems vidid, colorful, and bright. Text could be a bit sharper, and the auto-backlight algorithm could be slightly tweaked as sometimes the phone will dim a little too much in some environments, but all in all, we are reasonably happy with the LCD on here.

KEYBOARD

The Motorola DROID Pro is a direct assault on RIM and their BlackBerry products, and the keyboard is primarily the biggest reason. Comparing it to the latest BlackBerry handset — the Bold 9780 — the resemblance between the two QWERTY keyboards are striking. The keyboard on the BlackBerry 9780 is definitely better, but we think the DROID Pro’s keyboard is good enough.

Both keyboards have the letters Q through P on the first line, both keyboards have the letters A through L on the second line followed by a backspace key, and both keyboards have a shift or alt button and end with an enter button on the third line. Both keyboards have the space bar positioned directly under the V and B keys, and both keyboards have 5 total keys on the last and final row.

RIM’s keyboard layout is slightly curved upwards while the DROID Pro’s is straight, and while it seems that RIM’s keyboard depth is actually less than the Pro’s, RIM’s keyboard feels much better to type on. We wish Motorola would have arranged the numbers on the keyboard in a dialpad arrangement like RIM does

The DROID Pro keyboard, however, fares well in our typing tests, and while it was incredibly firm starting out, after a couple hours of use, it got a bit looser when pressing the keys, and made the typing experience much more enjoyable. We also like the dedicated period, comma, “@” symbol, and voice dictation keys on the Pro’s keyboard. It’s not better than a BlackBerry keyboard, but it’s one of the better Android keyboards we have tested. Due to size, layout, and general feel, and we think this helps makes the product a serious contender to any BlackBerry device in Verizon’s lineup.

PHONE / SPEAKER

When we made our first call with the Motorola DROID Pro, we were positive we had a bum unit. There was no way in our mind that a Motorola product would have such a poor performing ear speaker. The person we were talking to went in and out to the point we couldn’t hear them for seconds at a time, their voice sounded incredibly compressed and digitized, and the actual audio was crackling. Verizon and Motorola kindly swapped out our unit with a new one, and while it’s better, we’re still pretty troubled by the voice performance on the Pro.

The new unit exhibits many of the same problems we found in the original review unit, though it doesn’t suffer from the cutting in and out, which is obviously the biggest problem we had originally. The new unit still has audio through the ear speaker that sounds very compressed and digitized, and it’s extremely odd because of the strengths both Motorola and Verizon have with their devices and products. We have never heard such a poorly performing Motorola handset or device running on Verizon’s incredibly solid voice network. Add in the fact that this is a very business-centric phone, and it’s not too great.

The rear speaker which is used for speakerphone and general audio playback is also not the greatest performing phone speaker we have heard and tested. It also suffers from a compressed / digitized sound when we talked on speakerphone, and the placement of the speaker on the back of the phone isn’t optimal as laying the handset down on a flat surface resulted in a muffled sound experience.

It’s rather disappointing. We realize this isn’t a 100% consumer-focused product, yet audio performance in both ear and rear speakers proved to be some of the worst we’ve used in recent memory.

BATTERY LIFE

We have been through multiple battery cycles with the DROID Pro and battery seems about average for an Android device. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s great, but it should power you through an average day of use in most scenarios. It’s not comparable to a BlackBerry unfortunately, and for a device meant to go head to head with RIM’s consumer and business handsets, this needs to be a major strong point with the Pro.

One problem we have found with Android, not just the Pro, is the standby time. Where a BlackBerry or iPhone can be powered on for days and days, we have had trouble finding an Android device that can match the stamina of standby mode on other handsets. Thankfully Motorola offers an extended battery for the DROID Pro. While the new cell’s require (and come with) a new battery cover, it doesn’t add too much thickness to the handset from what we have been told. If you’re always on the go, we’d definitely recommend picking up the extended battery kit from Verizon Wireless.

CUSTOMIZATIONS

Just like the DROID X and DROID 2, the Pro runs Motorola’s heavily-customized Android UI called BLUR; a mostly scaled down version of the original, and horrendous MOTOBLUR UI. It’s not that the Pro’s UI is bad — or Motorola’s vision of Android is bad — it’s just that compared to the beautiful and pure original DROID handset running stock Android, well, we just don’t care for much else in this day and age. Motorola tries to provide their own integrated messaging and email inbox, their own social networking inbox and service aggregation, and while it’s great in theory, it ends up coming across as confused, un-unified, and kind of a mess.

One of the reasons this isn’t successful is due to the fact that most of the services Motorola tries to integrate on their own, are already supported in Android 2.0 and up in the stock operating system. You end up having two Twitter services, two Facebook services, and so on, and so on.

On the flip side, something good that comes out of Motorola’s customizations are the added security and corporate IT policy support for business users on the DROID Pro. Motorola says that in early 2011, the DROID Pro will be the first Android device with data encryption which is a very big step in terms of security. Additionally, even though it’s small, we really like the fact that Motorola has included the ability to set a time out after the device’s screen turns off. On a non-BLUR Android device, you’re stuck entering your password or PIN each time, regardless of the amount of time that has passed since the handset’s screen has turned off.

THE BOTTOM LINE

It’s rather interesting how our opinions of the Motorola DROID Pro have flip flopped in between us not really considering the handset as a viable choice for an Android business device and us debating whether the DROID Pro could completely wipe out most of RIM’s device sales on Verizon Wireless for the foreseeable short future. After spending a bunch of time with the phone, our feelings are still mixed. On one hand, it’s great to see an Android phone with a portrait orientation and full QWERTY keyboard. It’s a form factor we’ve been waiting for, well, since Android was first announced. On the other hand it’s kind of frustrating to see that that all of the innovating and all of the advancements in manufacturing, processors, memory, software and UI kind of get lost when coupled together in this specific handset.

What makes the DROID Pro reasonably special is the fact that it’s a global phone, and it’s one of the first global Android devices to hit the market. However, with the serious issues in voice calling and issues just plain talking on the phone — the main purpose of a phone, but especially the main purpose of a business handset — it’s very difficult for us to recommend this device to someone looking to depend on it day in and day out. It’s especially tough for us to say that since there are many, many things about the DROID Pro that we love. On almost every level, the DROID Pro outperforms the BlackBerry smartphones that Verizon Wireless carries. Yet, on a BlackBerry, you’re getting not only the best email experience on a mobile device, but a darn good voice calling experience as well.

Our verdict is this: if you’re not married to this particular form factor, and want the flexibility of an Android device, we would suggest testing out the Motorola DROID 2 Global. For an extra $20 you’re getting a much more solid Motorola product, a higher resolution screen, larger keyboard, and of course, global support.

Vodafone, one of the UK’s largest networks, has launched a smartphone security service aimed at business professionals. The aptly named service — Vodafone Smartphone Professional — will allow for companies to manage sensitive corporate data remotely without interfering with employee’s personal content. The service will provide IT administrators with an online portal to tweak, remotely wipe and encrypt data over the air. Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director for Vodafone had the following to say:

With smartphones becoming increasingly popular, securing the way data is accessed and stored on these devices is crucial. Many businesses want to allow employees to use the mobile device that they choose to do their job most effectively. With Vodafone Smartphone Professional, businesses have the peace of mind that mobile devices and data are secure.

The service will include the customary 500MB data allowance and will cost you £20-a-month in addition to a £50 in activation fee. A small price to pay for your peace of mind, right?

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This morning, T-Mobile announced that Wi-Fi calling would be coming to select Android handsets in the near future. We reached out to our friends at T-Mobile to ask what the difference — if any — would be between Wi-Fi calling on an Android device versus a non-Android device. Here is T-Mobile’s response:

Wi-Fi Calling for Android is built upon the same technology as UMA, but is a different implementation from our past offerings. While T-Mobile’s current Wi-Fi Calling solution which operates on BlackBerry smartphones, for instance, seamlessly hands off calls from T-Mobile’s network to Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi Calling for Android does not.

A pre-installed application from T-Mobile will allow customers to make and receive voice calls and SMS over an accessible Wi-Fi connection.  This provides customers with better in-door coverage and in some cases may provide the ability to make voice calls in locations where they weren’t able to do so previously.

For consumers, Wi-Fi Calling for Android increases coverage and uses voice minutes. [NOTE: calls originate on Wi-Fi, but are carried across T-Mobile’s network once beyond the initial Wi-Fi connection.]  T-Mobile also has plans for business which can help defer wireless minutes and provide cost savings.

Wi-Fi Calling will be available on the new T-Mobile myTouch, Motorola DEFY and others Android phones in the coming weeks. We are planning to expand Wi-Fi Calling for Android to as broad a selection of Android smartphones in our line-up as possible.  Éclair (2.0/2.1)  and Froyo (2.2) are the Android OS versions that currently support the application.

There you have it. Let us know your thoughts.

While the world waits with bated breath to see what will become of Symbian in the hands of the Symbian Foundation, another Nokia-owned OS is the talk of the town today: Maemo. Maemo has a home on only three devices that are currently available — the Nokia 770, Nokia N800 and Nokia N810 Internet Tablets. These MIDs haven’t been very well received by consumers so we find it a bit curious that China-based electronics house Optima would choose to go a similar route. The OP5-E does boast much better specs than Nokia’s Tablet trio however: 5.6 x 2.9 x 0.69 inch frame, 806MHz Marvell PXA320 CPU, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, microSDHC support, 4.3-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, GPS, EV-DO, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a 2600 mAh battery. The saving grace may very well be the fact that this MID is said to have phone and SMS functionality coming in the future, likely meaning it will be upgradable to Maemo 5. Maemo fans looking for a new fix might be interested in checking it out but we’re holding out for Maemo 5 and the seemingly sexy N900 before we bother playing with Maemo again. Hit the jump for more shots.

[Via Pocketables]

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Leave it to our eagle eyed readers to dig through the depths of YouTube and emerge with some sweet eye candy. During a purported presentation last October from Axel Meyer, head of Nseries design at Nokia, the upcoming Nokia N900 Internet Tablet was given a bit of face time in a promo video. Granted, plenty of time has passed since this video was recorded so odds are good that the finished product will end up looking more like it did in the leaked mock up than in this video. For a quick reresher, reported specs at this point include a 59.7mm x 111mm x 18.2mm body, 3.5-inch 800×480 (WVGA) touchscreen, OMAP3430 500/600 Mhz processor, 5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash and auto-focus, 1GB total virtual runtime memory, Wi-Fi, HSPA, GPS and an accelerometer. Hit the jump for the video.

Thanks, CanisMajor!

• Maemo 5
• Dimensions: 59.7mm x 111mm x 18.2mm
• Weight: 180g
• 3.5-inch 800×480 (WVGA) touchscreen
• OMAP3430 500/600 Mhz processor
• 5.0 MP Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, auto-focus and sliding cover
• 1GB total virtual runtime memory
• Wi-Fi, HSPA, GPS, accelerometer

The official N900 announcement will reportedly come in June — a period of time where it will easily and quickly be overshadowed by everything else going on next month — and target launches are scattered throughout 2H. We’re certainly anxious to play with Nokia’s new tablet but that’s really all we can expect from it… Play. Nokia continues its attempt to fill the space between smartphones and netbooks but for the time being, it’s a hole that the market doesn’t seem to want filled. Will the N900 be more successful in filling this imaginary gap? A few reported carrier deals might help spread sales out a bit more but we’re not sure why anyone would want to pay for a second data plan; any capable smartphone can likely take care of the bulk of tasks the N900 would be used to perform. Anyone excited for it or are we looking at another IT destined to be lost in a retail wasteland?

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In a startlingly abrupt move just one day after the launch of WiMAX service in Portland, OR, Nokia is reportedly discontinuing production of its N810 WiMAX Edition internet tablet and will stop all sales effective immediately. Nokia has yet to announce the move publicly, but a reliable source within Nokia claims the WiMAX-enabled N810 has been pulled from inventory systems and distributor locations with current stock have been instructed to return all units to Nokia. While the source could not attest to Nokia’s motive behind this recall, he speculated that WiMAX switch issues combined with the slow roll out were major factors in the decision. It is currently unclear whether or not Nokia plans to re-release the N810 WiMAX Edition at a later point in time, or if the company has any additional WiMAX-enabled devices in development. Currently, the N810 WiMAX Edition is still available for sale on the Nokia USA site. We have contacted Nokia regarding this matter and will update this post with any official comment from the company.

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