Collaboration freaks that prefer Google Wave to Gmail and Sharepoint to Outlook Express will have yet another collaboration platform to poke and prod in the near future. As part of the March 21st kickoff of its Brainshare Conference, Novell is expected to debut its new Pulse collaboration platform which is based upon the Google Wave Federation Protocol, an open source collaboration architecture released by Google. As such, the new Pulse platform will let users upload files including Adobe PDFs, Office documents, and audio/video files as well as create new files that can be shared and edited by multiple users simultaneously, in real-time. Social features will also permeate the Pulse platform with users being able to participate in an in-site commenting system, make use of an in-site suggestion system, and integrate outside social networks that will deliver updates directly into their inbox. With its Wave roots, Pulse will also support  third party gadgets such as a whiteboard and a mini-spreadsheet and offer interoperability with Wave, allowing a Pulse user to easily collaborate on a document with a Wave user. Tailored for the enterprise, Pulse will include increased security options and more stringent document controls than its public counterpart. It’s slated for launch as a cloud platform in the first half of 2010 and as an on-site solution in the future, and Novell hopes the new Pulse platform will replace its aging GroupWise platform and bring the company back up to speed in the highly competitive enterprise market currently dominated by Microsoft Sharepoint and Lotus Notes.

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T-Mobile UK has taken the Android love to the contract-deficient masses. The Huawei manufactured Pulse sports a 3.5″ touchscreen, 3G, WiFi, GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera, and 2G of memory — not bad for a prepaid ditty. The Pulse will set you back 176 quid across the pond, that’s about $292 for those of us still using the imperial system of measurement, and is on sale today. We love the idea of a fully featured handset on a pre-paid platform — we’re hoping the trend catches on.

[Via TalkAndroid]

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The upcoming Canadian wireless entrant WIND has been pretty secretive about its plans other than the fact it wants to shake things up, but thanks to a tipster within the company, we might have just found out the handsets it will be launching its 3G network with. The first is the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the second is the HTC Snap, the third is the Huawei U8220, and the fourth is an unknown QWERTY slider from Samsung. Other than that, it’s alleged that WIND will start off with three n0-contract price plans, have no SAF, not charge clients for features like caller ID and voicemail as well as not bill for intra-Provincial long distance and all dealerships will be outfitted with Microsoft’s Surface. Sounds nice to us, but what do you think, Canada?

Thanks, Fil!

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To all of the companies with intentions to pump out cheap and readily available devices: It’s time to get a move on because Huawei has just schooled you. Announced today is the T-Mobile Pulse, a prepaid-capable Android smartphone that utilizes a UI overlay known as Canvas. In terms of specs, the Pulse is quite capable with a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 2GB internal memory, 528MHz along with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS radios. There are two features notably absent however; a flash for the camera and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Both T-Mobile and Huawei insist that their exclusion was necessary to keep the Pulse’s dimensions slim and trim at 160mm x 62.5mm x 13.5mm. Like it or not, the 3.5mm-less and flash-less Pulse will be as cheap as chips when it goes on sale this October: £179.99 ($293 USD) — or as low as 4.95€ in Germany with a 2-year agreement.

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