'Astro Boy' Creator's Complete Works Coming to U.S. for First Time

Good news for fans of classic manga, or even just those with a fondness for Astro Boy: Californian publisher Digital Manga Inc. has announced that it has acquired the U.S. rights for the entire catalog of Osamu Tezuka's work, and plans to bring everything into circulation for American audiences.

Tezuka is likely best known in the U.S. as the creator of Astro Boy (or Tetsuwan Atomu to give the series its original title, which translates to "Iron-Armed Atom"), but his accomplishments go far beyond that. With an output estimated to be somewhere in the realm of 150,000 pages of comics spread across more than 700 manga volumes, his other creations include pre-WWII-era political drama Message to Adolf; Buddha, a memoir of Gautama Buddha; and the epic, unfinished Phoenix, a series about reincarnation that spans the length of human existence from the distant past to the far future.

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Additionally, Tezuka headed-up Mushi Production, an animation company credited with pioneering television animation in Japan (Alongside original series like Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Princess Knight, Mushi also animated Frosty the Snowman for Rankin Bass; yes, you've likely seen some of Tezuka's work without even knowing it).

Digital Manga confirmed its new deal with Japan's Tezuka Productions to Anime News Network last week. According to ANN, the publisher plans to release Tezuka's entire back catalog digitally, with select titles receiving print editions via Kickstarter campaigns.

Titles that already have print editions in the U.S. -- Black Jack, Message to Adolf, Buddha and other series -- will remain with their current publishers for print editions, but Digital Manga will retain digital rights.

Sadly, no launch details have been released yet, but when they are, fill up your Kindles and iPads, people. This isn't just good stuff, it's some of the best stuff.

Twitter: @sajilpl

Microsoft COO Turner says even more innovation is coming this year

Windows 8, Windows 8.1, the Xbox One, Office 365, Windows Server, and more—if you thought that was a lot for Microsoft to deliver, hold onto your hats. Microsoft COO Kevin Turner promised Wednesday that Microsoft’s fiscal 2014 would be its biggest year of innovation ever.

Turner, who took the stage at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in full cheerleader mode, presented a summary slide of what the company hoped to accomplish in its next fiscal year, which begins this month. Those innovations include large meetings and Office integration for Skype; updates to both the Surface RT and Surface Pro, plus new accessories; and quarterly Office 365 updates, among others.

It was Turner’s job to close out the WPC, which ran the past three days and gathered Microsoft's top partners in Houston, Texas, to encourage them to keep promoting Microsoft’s devices and services. The WPC tends to focus on the enterprise, and Microsoft on Wednesday announced a new program called CityNext, where Microsoft will work with large cities to design packages of hardware, software, and cloud services to make the city’s own services and data more accessible to its citizens.

”The reality is that this is about accelerating growth together,” Turner said.

MicrosoftMicrosoft’s accomplishments through July 2013.
’We get the best feedback bar none from our partner network, and I’m very very very appreciative of that,” Turner said. Windows 8.1, which the company recently released in preview mode and will hand to OEMs at the end of August, showed that “most importantly, we’re listening,” Turner said.

Interestingly, Turner said that in the enterprise, 73 percent of enterprise customers are “current” on Windows, and 62 percent are current on Office, implying that there’s been a wholesale switch to the current version of Windows, Windows 8. That could go a long way toward explaining Microsoft’s early success in Windows, when it reported higher revenue and licensing than most expected. Still, he said, the Windows app space is months and months behind where its competitors are—even though Turner, like others, now claims that Windows Phone is the third of the top three smartphone platforms, behind Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

Some of the slide's promises were vague—“killer hardware” for Windows Phone, for example—and some arguably had taken place, like ”music service updates” to the Xbox platform, which took place on July 1. Others, like integration of Skype into Outlook.com, have been rolled out in preview form.

Microsoft’s WPC is like its company’s New Year’s celebration, ringing out the old and ushering in the new. On Thursday, Microsoft is expected to reshuffle its organizational structure to help do just that. If nothing else, Microsoft is promising things won’t be boring in Redmond over the next few months.

Coming To An Airport Near You: Fluffy Stress Relief

Therapy dogs Barney (rear) and Hazel are on the job comforting weary travelers at LAX.

Summer travel is in full swing, and that means crowded airports, flight delays and long security lines. To help calm weary travelers, some airports are turning to man's best friend.

San Jose's and Miami's international airports have therapy dog programs, and Los Angeles International Airport — ranked the second-most-stressful airport in the country last year — launched its own crew of comfort dogs this year.

After passengers clear the TSA checkpoint — put belongings in plastic bins, empty their pockets, take off their shoes and then snatch everything back up — they are met by greeters such as Hazel, a red-and-white pointer mix.

One by one, passengers look up from their laptops and smartphones, with huge smiles on their faces.

Barry Bollinger bends down to say hello to the dog leaning against his knee.

"I have a dog at home and and so I miss her a lot when I'm not there. ...It's kind of nice to have one that you can pet and say hi to," he says.

This is its own reward for Hazel's owner, Lou Friedman.

"When I hear passengers say, 'You made my day, took all the stress away, thank you very much for doing this' — can't ask for anything else. It's wonderful; it's wonderful," he says.

Friedman and his rescue dog are part of a new volunteer program at LAX called PUPS — Pets Unstressing Passengers.

To be a part of the program the dogs have to be certified therapy animals. They work in small shifts, two teams at a time.

A Line You Actually Want To Wait In

Volunteer Linda Scott says she's been taking Barney, her Australian Labradoodle rescue, to homes and hospitals for a couple of years. The airport is a new experience for both of them.

"If there's a big crowd and I sit and watch him, he actually will work the crowd, and go up to everybody and just want to say hi," Scott says.

The reactions are worth it, says Heidi Huebner, the director of volunteer programs at the airport. "You can just see the reactions of people. That's anybody — passengers, employees here, TSA agents, everybody smiles," she says.

Hazel takes a short break after passengers board their plane.

Huebner says the teams are trained to be aware of and sensitive to passengers who may be fearful or have allergies. "Basically it is acknowledging, thanking the person for letting them know and they take the dog and go the other way," she says.

But typically, passengers are waiting in line to make contact with the dogs. A small crowd looks on as Hazel gets a belly rub from Rich Merwin's three young children.

"We're on a seven-hour delay and we still got a few hours left so, it did help, yes," says Merwin.

Not surprisingly, some of the program's biggest fans are the flight crews. Delta pilot Jeff Strachan is watching Barney at the department gate. "I'm thinking that Barney should go with us, [and] not only do I think Barney, but this other one too," he says.

When the passengers board the plane, Barney and Hazel have completed their shift. Barney plops on the floor and Hazel climbs into an empty chair, laying her head on the armrest.

But suddenly — she perks up again.

Traveler Bonnie Vasconcellos approaches Hazel. Having spent the last 20 hours in the airport, she says all she needed was to hug a dog. "Things will be OK, it's all good now," she says.

Coming soon to Windows: 3-D printing

Microsoft's Windows 8.1 will support plug-and-play for 3-D printers.

Among the many big Windows 8.1 announcements on Wednesday, 3-D printing isn't one that will immediately resonate with most users. But it is sure to excite the growing contingent of designers, "makers" and early adopters, as millions of PCs will suddenly have native support for 3-D printing.

Although you've always been able to connect a 3-D printer to a Windows PC, many 3-D printing apps require you to craft your designs inside the app or spend time translating your creation into a format the printer software can handle.

But Windows 8.1 will feature plug-and-play support for 3-D printers. Much like you can plug in a standard printer, go into any number of Windows apps, click the file menu, and choose to print a document, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) will soon allow you to do the same with 3-D renderings and 3-D printers.

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No 3-D printer companies currently support plug-and-play on Windows 8.1, but after Microsoft's latest operating system is released during the holiday season, Microsoft expects that a number of 3-D printers will take advantage of the feature. At the Microsoft Build developers conference in San Francisco, Microsoft showed off a proof-of-concept demonstration.



Given that Windows is still the world's most used PC operating system, Microsoft's announcement serves as a huge validation for the 3-D printing movement and a crucial step towards making 3-D printing easier and more accessible. Nothing made that more clear than the announcement that the MakerBot Replicator 2 3-D printer will now be available in select Microsoft stores.

"Wiill 3-D printing go mainstream? We think so -- which is why we've built it into Windows," wrote Shanen Boettcher, general manager of Microsoft's startup business group, in a blog post.

Twitter: @sajilpl

Oracle 12c database coming 'within two weeks,' middleware launch on deck

Oracle’s long-awaited 12c database has apparently received a firm launch date, with a company executive stating that it will be released “within the next two weeks.”

 

In addition, Oracle plans to release an update to its Fusion Middleware stack during its first fiscal quarter, said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of product development. Kurian spoke on Tuesday during the company’s fiscal 2014 partner kickoff event, which was webcast.

 

Given that Oracle’s first quarter began June 1, that would place the Fusion Middleware launch between now and the end of August.

 

Kurian’s statements come after a period of confusion over when 12c would finally reach market. Word leaked early this year that beta testing had been completed and a release was imminent, but ultimately one never occurred.

 

Database 12c, wherein the “c” stands for cloud, incorporates a feature Oracle is calling “pluggable databases.” This will allow a single Oracle database instance to hold many other databases, allowing for more efficient use of system resources and easier management.

 

Oracle is also calling pluggable databases a superior way to achieve multitenancy for cloud applications. SaaS (software as a service) vendors have typically used application-level multitenancy, in which multiple customers share a single application instance with their data kept separate. Pushing multitenancy to the database layer provides better security and other benefits, according to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

 

Pluggable databases, despite being what one Oracle executive has called a “fundamental” architectural change for database technology, will be sold as a separate option, and not received as part of customers’ regular annual maintenance fees.

 

Still, Oracle is betting big on 12c not only with respect to end-user companies embracing the technology, but fellow software vendors as well.

 

On Monday, Oracle announced a deal with Microsoft that calls for Oracle’s database and other software to be made available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

 

Then on Tuesday, Oracle and Salesforce.com announced a nine-year-long technology partnership under which the companies will tie together their technologies and Salesforce.com will make a major investment in Oracle products for its own cloud computing infrastructure.

 

Meanwhile, during the company’s conference call to discuss quarterly results Thursday, Ellison spilled the beans on another upcoming Oracle database release, set for the end of this year, which he described as a “columnar, compressed, high-speed, in-memory database.” This release will apparently serve as Oracle’s most direct response yet to SAP’s HANA in-memory database platform.