1. "Hopeful iPhone Users Suffer Delays,"
Macworld, July 2

With all the intense hype surrounding last Friday's arrival of Apple's iPhone in U.S. stores, it was no surprise that the debut of the eagerly anticipated mobile device left some purchasers disappointed and other would-be buyers empty-handed. While AT&T, Apple's iPhone partner, claimed that most new iPhone owners had no problem in activating the devices, some purchasers experienced delays. At the same time, some AT&T stores were unable to meet customer demand and ran out of iPhones.

2. "In About-Face, Mass. Now Likely to OK Microsoft's OOXML,"
Computerworld, July 2

Massachusetts continues to backpedal on an earlier commitment to move away from Microsoft's software in favor of more open technologies, notably the Open Document Format (ODF). Instead, the U.S. state this week issued draft specifications that would allow its workers to continue using Microsoft's rival format Office Open XML (OOXML). While ODF is being embraced by governments outside of the U.S., there's been a steady defeat of bills recently in a number of U.S. states that would've mandated the use of free interoperable file formats. Massachusetts is the first and only U.S. state with a policy on using open formats although it has softened its former commitment to ODF since first declaring the strategy two years ago.

3. "SAP Admits to 'Some Inappropriate Downloads' in Oracle Case,"
CIO.com, July 3

Speaking of backpedaling, that's what SAP was doing a spot of in its long-awaited response to a trade secrets lawsuit Oracle filed against it back in May. The pair are bitter rivals in the enterprise applications market. Oracle accused SAP and its third-party maintenance subsidiary TomorrowNow of illegally downloading vast quantities of Oracle support materials as a way to lure its customers over to SAP applications. SAP this week admitted that TomorrowNow had made some inappropriate downloads and held the door open to a possible settlement, something SAP had previously scorned. However, while TomorrowNow had been at fault, SAP was at pains to stress that SAP itself had never had access to the Oracle material. SAP will keep a much closer eye on TomorrowNow in future, the company pledged. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the case.

4. "Pandemic Planning Not a Priority in U.S., Despite Bird-Flu Threat,"
Computerworld, July 3

How quickly we forget. While last year there was plenty of talk about what companies needed to do to prepare themselves to deal with a pandemic, it looks as though firms didn't follow through on completing their planning. A Gartner analyst believes most IT organizations still aren't ready and that managers' level of concern about the issue is declining. However, avian flu remains a potential threat, one recognized much more by those living outside the U.S.