Software

If don’t use Gmail, you are with the minority. Google’s email service is undoubtedly the most advanced and user friendly one on the web. It is also very reliable and has a huge disk space. That being said, if you rely on it for all your email communications, it would be a good idea to back it up once in a while right?

For this purpose there is a tool called Gmail Backup. You need to download the software to your computer (Windows or Linux), and it will backup your account with one click.

Originally posted on January 7, 2009 @ 10:58 am

Adobe will soon be porting the full fledged Flash Player to the ARM processor, bridging the gap between its offering for the desktop and mobiles. Earlier Adobe had pushed ahead Flash Lite, a scaled down version of Flash but now with its plans to bring Flash to ARM processors, the attempt is to snag a major share of mobile devices internet experience.

An excerpt from Technology Review:

Specifically, the companies say that Adobe’s Flash Player 10 and AIR (a platform for building complex Web applications) will be compatible and optimized for the ARM chips available in 2009. While ARM is used in a huge number of mobile phones, the announcement has broader implications: the chips are also used in set-top boxes, mobile Internet devices, personal media players, and automotive platforms.

Though Flash is not coming to the iPhone, its hoped that this initiative will aid that process too by showing that it is possible to run full blown Flash functionality without slowing down the mobile device. Developers of mobile software also stand to benefit from the availability of the same technology across multiple devices, essentially negating the need to work on portability issues. Adobe does not want to miss out from being the major format for videos on mobile as well, especially considering how Microsoft is pushing Silverlight.

Originally posted on November 19, 2008 @ 4:49 pm

As expected from the Microsoft PDC 2008 Conference, there is a new cloud framework on the block and its going to run on a new Cloud Operation System – Windows Azure. The Azure services platform would be hosted on Microsoft’s data centers and provide a range of services that developers can use to create applications that will be available via the internet. Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie also mentioned how the shift to cloud services fit the time line of computing from individual machines to the cloud based computing ( and hence Microsoft’s new product).

The list of services that would be available are :

Live Services : Building blocks to handle user data and application resources such as search, user identity and data storage.

Microsoft SQL Services : For Web based database access.

Microsoft .NET services : The Execution Environment and for communication among applications.

Microsoft Sharepoint services and Dynamics CRM Services : Will be provided in future for customer relationship and collaboration focused work.

Windows Azure will be the operating systems on which the cloud services would be available. While currently only Microsoft’s .NET framework and Visual Studio support writing applications to run on the cloud operating system, there are plans to support other frameworks (like Eclipse) and languages ( such as Python and Ruby ) in future. More options would lead to wider adoption.

While Amazon may have had a head start in making cloud based computing services, Microsoft has had experience in managing large content based networks. Moreover, Microsoft development tools are widely used by enterprises, a prominent reason to expect wide adoption among enterprises and developers. How well the services will scale up to demand and manage outages is yet to be seen. There are videos and SDKs available at the Windows Azure website.

Originally posted on October 30, 2008 @ 2:15 pm

Information on Microsoft’s next operating system and also their cloud operating system are hoped to the highlights of the Professional Developer Conference to be held in a few days. After Vista, Microsoft is determined to make sure that Windows 7 is gung-ho on performance and also does away with features that were annoying in vista.

A Summary from ZDNet:

• Support for multi-touch technology
• User Access Control to be limited to fewer applications
• Networking API to support Web Services natively
• A new Animation Framework
• Changes to taskbar and how the troubleshooting mechanism works
• More presence of the Ribbons UI

Also expected are that Windows 7 would be fit to run on the slew of netbooks that are coming the market. On the cloud computing front Microsoft is expected to provide details on their cloud development platform – which will be competition to Amazon’s and Google’s cloud application services.

Though the build of Windows 7 in focus is in pre-beta stage, developers will be looking for some of performance benefits that Microsoft has mentioned so often. After Vista, there is much hanging the balance for Windows 7.

Originally posted on October 27, 2008 @ 8:55 am

At the Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft and Sony announced that later this year they would be each unveiling virtual worlds accessible via gaming consoles. While the Sony Playstation 3 would have a “Home”, Microsoft would have a “Xbox Experience” that would let users interact virtually.

Virtual worlds have been growing in prominence the few years. They have been more popular in the gaming community where group tasks and competing among fellow players has been popular ever since network gaming came into picture. Linden Labs took the concept forward to have a virtual environment with even its separate currency.

Virtual worlds logically fit well into the progression of content online. From text, video and audio, the next iteration is to put the very user online. Its an interesting twist on the concept of advertising as well. Now the Avatars themselves will ‘ad-property’.

Microsoft’s and Sony’s move in this direction could well be to expand beyond making the consoles just about games to make the devices a solution for complete entertainment. Google also had entered this space a few months back with the announcement of ‘Lively’. Since then there has not been much news on it but the search giant does have an eye on the advertising market around gaming.

Virtual Worlds also have lot of potential in the business domain. Benefits include cost savings in transportation and also the much desired bliss of working from home but virtually in office. Of course there are all the applications that virtual worlds can be put to in medicine, engineering etc but the real killer one is yet to take the world by storm.

Originally posted on October 17, 2008 @ 10:09 am

I am really not sure how Microsoft is still trying to argue with people, defending that Vista is a very good operating system, and that it is only problem is a bad reputation. They even tried to do a “blind taste test” with Vista, making users experiment it without knowing that it was Vista. Pathetic!

Anyway to confirm the fact that Windows Vista sucks (period!), there is an article on The Register claiming that around one third of all Windows Vista equipped machines have been downgraded to Windows XP (some by the PC manufacturers directly…).

Vista’s death march picked up some pace yesterday, after a metrics researcher revealed that nearly 35 per cent of PCs built to run the Windows operating system have been downgraded to XP.

In a survey of more than 3,000 computers, performance testing software developer Devil Mountain Software estimated that more than one in three new machines had either been downgraded by vendors such as Dell, or by customers once they bought the PC.

One third is a really big number, especially if you consider that downgrading an operating system is not a trivial task, and most users would think twice before going through that.

Windows fans, let’s hope that Windows 7 will hit the target. Or give Ubuntu a try, as I have been recommending for a while.

Originally posted on August 21, 2008 @ 12:29 pm