ComputerWorld
By Mike Elegan
Full Article
Intel introduced new technology yesterday called Remote Wake, a chip set and software development kit that enables a PC to be "awakened" over the Internet when in sleep mode.
Intel worked not with software giant Microsoft, but with VoIP start-up JaJah to build Mountain View, Calif.-based company's software into the Intel chip set in some PCs. The Intel-JaJah combination will enable you to dump your land-line phone and use a PC-based VoIP phone without leaving your PC on all the time. Other VoIP applications, such as Skype, can also take advantage of Remote Wake but will need to be tweaked to support Remote Wake, then installed by the user. Orb Networks, CyberLink and Pando Networks are also Intel partners on Remote Wake.
Remote Wake should also be useful beyond VoIP calls for things such as remote, off-peak backups and for downloading media and other files. Remote Wake also makes PCs greener, because they don't have to be left on all the time.
You can check out a demo on the Pando site.
Again, from Microsoft's perspective, this is another disaster. It couldn't be more obvious that Microsoft and Intel should have partnered on this functionality 10 years ago. Microsoft has been pushing Remote Desktop and its communications software for years. But apparently it never occurred to anyone in Redmond that people might want to leave their PCs in sleep mode, then have them turn on for remote access or VoIP calls.
Based on all the information released so far, there is literally no downside (other than marginal additional cost) to either of these new offerings. They both improve life dramatically for mobile users.
The usefulness of these technologies stands in stark contrast to Microsoft Windows' ongoing slumber. When is the last time Microsoft rolled out something that boosted mobility the way these new features do?
The "old Microsoft" would have never allowed all this. The company would have leveraged its multibillion-dollar labs to figure all this out first, then coerced Intel, Dell and the rest of the industry into supporting it. Now, Microsoft is on the sidelines while its closest partners innovate using companies that compete with Microsoft in the software marketplace.
When will Microsoft itself wake up from "sleep mode"?
