Central Desktop 2.0 … Central Desktop released a major update to its hosted collaboration service, with a revised UI, an online file viewer, improved wiki navigaton, and more. “In the crowded collaboration software market, Central Desktop remains the only full-featured SaaS collaboration solution designed specifically for the mid-market since 2005. Central Desktop’s full suite of online tools for both internal and external communication helps businesses collaborate efficiently, increase productivity and reduce costs. Central Desktop 2.0 affirms the company’s position as the industry’s leading SaaS-based SharePoint alternative for mid-sized businesses.” More

Oracle Beehive 2.0 … Oracle’s got a list of what’s new in the 2.0 release of Beehive. Eg, “Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook: Ability to access Oracle Beehive Team Collaboration from Microsoft Outlook, Display Beehive shortcuts, Redesigned workspace management UI, View booking characteristics for Resources, and Ability to apply server-side rules to team workspace folders.” More

Formotus for SharePoint … Formotus provides mobile device integration with SharePoint. “Formotus enables rapid delivery of custom SharePoint-enabled business applications to mobile phones. The mobile workforce can now be dispatched to job sites, collaborate in company workflows, submit and retrieve data from lists, and even download InfoPath forms for offline editing. The Formotus solution requires no server-side installations and depends on no mobile browser or constant network connection.” More

Hard Road for GAPE … Google’s finding it hard going in the enterprise collaboration market, 3 years after the release of its hosted collaboration services. “But by 2009, both Microsoft and IBM had released hosted collaboration solutions to keep Google Apps from being the lone wolf in cloud collaboration. Microsoft’s Business Productivity Office Suite and IBM’s LotusLive mark those companies’ serious forays into the cloud. Google finds itself in a daunting position on Monday, Feb. 22, the third birthday of GAPE. The company is trying to dislodge legacy on-premises installations from Microsoft and IBM while fighting off SAAS (software-as-a-service) solutions from those same companies, as well as new cloud offerings from Cisco Systems and from a slew of startups such as Zoho, Mindtouch and others. ” More

Nordic River and Box.net … Nordic River announced a partnership with Box.net, to integrate its document collaboration capabilities with Box. “Using its WeaveSync technology – an indexing, matching and synchronization tool for documents – TextFlow offers a more simplified way to manage input, as well as merge and track suggestions and text contributions from multiple writers at once. The integration of TextFlow into Box will enable teams to gather all feedback among multiple versions of their shared documents, reflect on it, and then decide how to incorporate each member’s input into the final document.” More

V-Rooms Update … V-Rooms updated its Virtual Data Rooms service, with new digital rights management capabilities. “DRM for documents is an approach to enhanced document security in which the saving, copying, printing and distribution of digital content is restricted according to rules established by the owner of the document. This works by encrypting the files and then selectively granting access to them based on whatever credentials the documents’ owner uses to authenticate users.” More

Other News
– Fujitsu released the S1300 Mac and PC desktop scanner.
– Palm’s new smartphones aren’t finding market traction.
– SetFocus, a Microsoft business partner, is hosting seminars in March 2010 on migrating to SharePoint 2010.
– If you can’t wait that long, see Ann’s pointers on SharePoint 2010 migration.