Hewlett-Packard Co is shipping MPower, its client-server software for real-time communication and collaboration, at $100 for the client-side, 80% off its $500 list price, until September 30. MPower is the newest component in the company’s collaborative multimedia programme and integrates multimedia capabilities into HP VUE 3.0. MPower gives users point-and-click access to multimedia types – audio, image, graphics, video and text – as well as multimedia mail, faxing, printing, image scanning and the ability to share applications and edit images across the network. The software is currently out on the 700 series workstations and X stations. It should be up on the 800 server series in the third quarter. Real-time sharing of text, graphics, image, audio, video frames and third-party applications is possible via HP SharedX, the MPower component that enables users to pick a destination, press a key and share any X window with anyone on the network. MPower’s SharedWhiteBoard enables shared images to be annotated in real time, Audio Editor enables users to create, playback and mail audio files and annotate text files with audio playback; DeskScan/UX is for scanning, viewing, manipulating for scale, brightness and contrast, storing and printing high-resolution colour and monochrome images; Multimedia Mailer electronically mails audio, image and video frames and FAX-UX sends and receives facsimile messages; ImageView views graphics images, including facsimile, saves video frames and full-colour PostScript files while PostScript Viewer views PostScript-based objects. And SharePrint/UX is a drag-and-drop printing service.
