Here are some "tidbits" from this week's Web and newsletters.

SoftImage 3D Price Falls

Avid Technology subsidiary Softimage Company, this week announced they have halved the price of their legendary 3D character animation and effects software. Softimage 3D is now $1,496US. According to the company this move is in response to increased demand for animation and effects content in such areas as graphics, architectural design, manufacturing, government and military, sciences and medical and other traditional 3D markets.

Although not available for the Mac platform, there have been industry whispers to us from several sources that Softimage is seriously thinking about a Mac OS X version. Additional inside sources have even intimated that Apple may even be interested in acquiring the software maker or its owner, Avid Technologies. With Apple's "stealthy" acquisitions lately, in the video and effects markets, it would not surprise us to see them acquire a broadcast-quality 3D software application. For more info see: http://www.softimage.com

Vision Series on IT

C/net is beginning its annual Vision Series on enterprise IT, featuring special interviews of CIO and CTO's of some of the leading Fortune 500 countries in the world.

"Tech Chiefs Dictate the Future" -- C/net

Since enterprise trends today often mean what small and medium businesses will be using in the future, the enterprise space is a great place to watch for these trends. Those companies run the full gamut of industry, from telecom to healthcare.

Calmeno: True Contender to MS Exchange with Mac Support

As many organizations know all too well, Microsoft can be very unfriendly to Macintosh and UNIX clients (and forget about Linux) with its large business systems software, such as the ubiquitous MS Exchange. Enter Calmeno.

Calmeno, from Weblicon Technologies AG, of Berlin, Germany, has brought to market a true contender for Exchange.

What Does Calmeno Do?

Calmeno, [is] a complete Messaging and Personal Information Management (PIM) system for Small to Medium Enterprises. Calmeno is the first PIM with full mobile access and over-the-air synchronization for PDAs and SyncML-enabled mobile phones.

Calmeno features wireless access to corporate Email, calendar, contacts and tasks anytime, anywhere and from any device. Contrary to feature-overloaded competitors, Calmeno provides an extremely easy-to-use interface tailored to small organizations. In contrast to Microsoft Exchange, Calmeno is based entirely on open industry standards such as IMAP, LDAP and SyncML, runs on industry-strength UNIX operating systems and supports Windows, Macintosh and Linux clients.

"Calmeno is the first PIM system which is platform independent, truly based on open standards and has full integration with mobile devices and wireless synchronization." -- Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO and Founder, Weblicon Technologies AG

Users can use a simple browser to access their Email, calendar, address book and to-do list. Best of all, they can send SMS messages to contacts in the address book or activate SMS reminders for appointments. The advanced Java client runs on multiple platforms and supports drag & drop like a traditional desktop application. Calmeno has mobile access built-in from the start - for example, users can access their Email on the road using any WAP enabled mobile phone. For more information visit them on the Web.

Architosh Analysis: Calmeno is one of a growing number of new software communication technologies which aim to dismantle the "headlock" MS Exchange has on the corporate market. In contrast to MS Exchange, Calmeno is easy to setup and immune to the widespread viruses targeted at Microsoft Outlook. Additionally, Calmeno is based on open-industry standards and is aimed at superior support of heterogeneous platform environments. Thus, it is an ideal candidate for enterprises of all sizes looking to provide flexible futures to a wide range of mobile devices and client-side operating systems. Furthermore, Weblicon Technologies can provide customized solutions of the Calmeno environment as it has done with some of its largest European customers like KPN Mobile (see here).