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How Microsoft has impacted my life and how I plan to bring a change in the society being an MSA?

Hello People!

I will begin with a short introduction about me. I am Arnab, an electronics engineer currently studying management at IIM Kozhikode. I have worked in the Information Technology domain for more than a year with Tata Consultancy Services before joining my management course here. I am very passionate about technology since I was a kid. During my early school days, I was fascinated by the Air conditioned computer lab in our school and would wonder when could I enter into it and see how the computer worked. Since then and till today, I enjoy technology.

I was a part of the Microsoft Student Partners program during my graduation and was closely associated with the developer and platform evangelism team of Microsoft for two years during my tenure as an MSP. I used to blog on Technology at that time as well. I was also a member of the Opera Campus Crew, a student evangelism body of Opera software. Here at IIM Kozhikode, I was a part of the Students’ IT Committee during my first year and was responsible for managing students’ issues related to software and IT Infrastructure. In the field of IT, intrusion detection, digital forensics and network security are my favourite areas.

Now, why Microsoft?

Microsoft Windows is synonymous with the word “Operating System” worldwide. All of us, at least most of us, would have noticed the boot screen having the word Windows 98/XP before learning how to operate a PC. From then, I was curious to know what “Windows” is. And gradually, I came to know about Bill Gates and “Microsoft”. Microsoft has impacted me largely since then and my passion led me towards being a Microsoft Student Partner. After becoming a part of the MSP India team, I came to know about a lot of MS products which I was not aware of earlier. I became aware of the various student initiatives Microsoft takes to leverage digital literacy in schools across India. I was proud to be a part of the Microsoft ecosystem. During my stint as an MSP, I conducted workshops, invited various speakers and organized national level event “Dreamspark Yatra” sponsored by Microsoft. Technology evangelism was something I love and was very satisfied when people would come out of workshops learning about new innovations in the field of technology delivered by Microsoft products and technologies. I remember screening videos showing the future of technology which were released as a part of “Future Vision” series by Microsoft in many events where the participants would be mesmerized by technology. I also developed a keen interest in developing Windows Phone applications using Visual Studio and even helped people eager to build apps to setup the environment. I helped promote digital literacy in government run schools as a part of Microsoft Yuva initiative. My association with Microsoft has been a memorable one and now, once again I have entered student life and have got another chance to start a new journey with Microsoft and would love to take this further.

How will I impact the society?

With passion and proper direction, it is possible to impact the society at large. Well, the impact would start from a specific group of people, which in my opinion, is the student community. Students are the future leaders of tomorrow and making them aware of tools and products which they can work upon and bring out new ideas and innovate is the key. I believe there are lots and lots of students undergoing primary education without any access to computers keen to know more about it. Promoting digital literacy with basic Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint will help them. At the graduate and post graduate level, many students are unaware of products such as Visio, Azure, Photosynth, Visual Studio, Silverlight and many more which can help them leverage their capabilities. My primary focus as a Microsoft Student Associate will be to evangelize technology among my peers according to their requirements. I believe that change starts from a small effort and if I am selected as an MSA, I am sure I will definitely be able to impact the society.

I would appreciate your comments and feedback. Thank you for reading my story! If you liked my story, please like the Facebook link.

#MSAIndia

Symbian Anna :An Overview

Nokia has recently released the Symbian Anna update for its symbian^3 devices such as the C6-01, C7, N8 and the E7. The update can be downloaded OTA by using the software update app in the phone or by using the OVI suite. Anna update is a very essential one as it significantly transforms the UI from the old boring s60 interface to a refreshed one. The icons are now transformed and look fresh and lively. Fonts have been enhanced greatly and most importantly, the default browser has been given the much required facelift and a portrait QWERTY keyboard has been added to make touch typing easier.

According to Nokia, the browser is much faster compared to previous versions but I could find a little improvement in the page rendering. The controls of the browser have been neatly placed which makes web browsing enjoyable. Flash content is available in the browser. Next big improvement is the portrait mode QWERTY which enhances messaging speeds by a great extent. Symbian Anna provides better business class security and easy integration with company VPN and Intranet networks. Another business class feature is the inclusion of Microsoft Communicator mobile. Navigation was very good in Symbian^3 and is now even better with the launch of Anna. GPS lock is very fast and is comparable to a standalone GPS receiver. During adverse weather conditions amidst rains, it took my C7 around 6 seconds to get the GPS lock which is pretty fast compared to other devices of this range.

A new concept NFC(Near Field Communications) has been introduced by Nokia recently. This allows users with an NFC enabled device to connect to other capable devices just by touching both the devices. Symbian Anna update activates the NFC chip present in the next generation devices. Currently Nokia C7 is the only device to support an NFC chip available in India. Nokia isvery keen on developing this technology and says that all next generation of smartphones will be enabled with this technology.At the end, I find Symbain Anna to be very interesting and would say that its a good attempt made by Nokia to take the old boring Symbian OS to the next level and compete with other young players such as Android, Windows Phone and the iOS.

CPU + GPU = APU ??

AMD is working on its future line up of processing units for laptops and desktops and they would be a combination of both CPU and the graphics processing unit[GPU] in a single chip. Rightly codenamed as Fusion, the processors integrate the CPU with the GPU in a single chip and eliminate the need of using different chips for CPU and the GPU. These type of hybrid processors are now being called as APU or Accelerated processing unit. With the advent of APU by AMD, it is sure that others such as Intel will follow suit. The APU developed by AMD will be a direct competitor to sandybridge based Core i7 processors line up by Intel.



A few days ago, the first generation of APUs of the A-series were unveiled by AMD. Technically, it is based on 32nm architecture just like Intel sandybridge architecture and has the ability to support upto 4 cores. AMD and Intel both offer graphics processors along with the main CPU but AMD boasts of HD graphics along with HTML5 support built in. According to AMD, the battery life has increased by over 50% as compared to 2010 range of AMD mainstream processors. The Fusion range of APUs will shortly be available in the market with various major notebook and desktop brands. It is expected that this form of processing units will become more popular in the coming times as it can greatly improve performance of computing devices as well as decrease the size and weight and result in more portable notebooks.

Office 365 first look !

Office 365 is a new cloud based office software released by Microsoft. It enables users to access their files and the office software from virtually any device that is connected to the cloud. This version of office is mainly targeted on business class users as they can access all their files on the go. ALong with the office software hosted on the net, it also provides other services such as Exchange server and SharePoint server to the subscribers. There are three plans available for subscribers at this time which are Education plan, Professional plan for small scale businesses and Enterprise plans for large and medium size businesses.
Since the solutions are cloud-based, users can access their mails and files through a variety of devices like desktops, laptops and mobile phones and work on the move. Office 365 is a part of Microsoft's strategy to gradually move to cloud computing. This will increase business productivity and will be very instrumental in reducing response time and costs for enterprise level companies. It is expected that Office 365 will be a great hit because of its flexibility of services and plans and also because of its mobility based services. For more information on Office 365 and to download the trial, visit Office 365 official page !

Honeycomb : Android's latest Tablet OS !

After a huge success in the field of mobile phones, now android is all set to launch in tablets and other handheld devices. A new version of Android V3.0 named as "Honeycomb" has specially been designed for use with larger screens such as tablets. So what makes the Honeycomb different from other versions of Android such as Gingerbread(V2.3), Froyo(V2.2) and Eclair(V2.1). Lets take a look.

Honeycomb is optimized for use with larger display screens and supports a larger resolution display. It also supports dual core processors and most importantly, hardware accelerated graphics. Coming to the UI, a new Action bar has been implemented on the homescreen which replaces the hardware buttons for menu, home, back and search as were present in the earlier versions.This is a very nice addition as it improves the looks of the tablet device. Also, the contents in the Action bar change according to the app being used.Now thats a clever feature which makes handling of apps easier. The App switcher is improved and now shows the preview of the apps running in the background making it a truly multitasking OS.


The browser is also excellent and page rendering is very smooth. It makes the browsing experience enjoyable. Switching between windows is easy and fun.Only drawback is that out of the box flash support is not yet available but Adobe has confirmed that work is in progress and it will be available soon so that is not going to be a major problem. Private or Incognito browsing is also supported which doesn't save your browsing history or cookies ;). Another useful feature is Quick Control which can be activated by swiping from left to right of the screen on the browser which displays an array of important shortcuts instantaneously.

On the multimedia side, the Honeycomb doesn't live up to its expectations as in the previous versions of android. The camera interface is not as cool as in other OS such as the iOS and is dated.The Multimedia experience is better than previous versions and the UI has been completely revamped.A 3D view of the albums and songs is displayed which looks pretty cool.As far as video playback is concerned, popular codecs like H.263, H.264 and MPEG-4 are supported.Third party codecs can be also downloaded from the app store.The Maps works pretty well and the GPS locks in very fast displaying near accurate positions.The apps run in honeycomb in native resolution unlike that of the iPad which runs a lot of apps optimised for the smaller screen iPod touch in strech and fit format.

At the end, we can conclude that it is not just a smartphone OS that has been tweaked to be fit in a tablet but it is a dedicated OS built and optimised for the tablets and I hope that in the coming days,the minor flaws and bugs in the OS will fixed.An article about upcoming Honeycomb tablets will be updated soon. Keep reading !

Windows Phone 7 : The latest smartphone OS by Microsoft !

Windows phone 7 is the latest mobile smartphone operating system to come from Microsoft. Windows Phone 7 is the successor to the very popular Windows mobile 6.x version. WP7 has already been launched by Microsoft and companies like HTC, Dell, Samsung, LG have started selling phones running with this OS. Nokia recently announced its collaboration with Microsoft and their phones loaded with WP7 are expected to hit the shelves in the first quarter of 2012.

Now, how far is WP7 better than its successor? Well, I would say its far better than the previous OS and has the potential to be very successful in the long run.The primary reason is that all the phones running in this platform have to meet the minimum required specification to run it. The minimum specifications to run the OS are :

- 1 Ghz or better processor
- Capacitive WVGA screen with a resolution of 480 X 800
- DirectX 9 capable graphics unit
- Accelerometer with compass, A-GPS
- 5 Megapixel camera with flash
- Standard 7 dedicated buttons for various functions

On the hardware side, the minimum requirements look pretty impressive which also assures that the OS runs smoothly in any hardware on which it is loaded. So, the performance would be greatly imporoved rather than devices running on Symbian ana Android whose minimum requirements for running the OS is much lower. This also proves that WP7 is targeted to the enterprise audience who doesn't want to compromise on quality.



Coming to the UI, I feel that it is very clean and impressive. Microsoft calls this UI as "Metro UI". The home screen or the start screen consists of various tiles which link to the respective applications. The most important thing about the UI is that it is clutter-free and displays only the information required to the user. Text input is by a virtual keyboard on the screen. The web browser provided is obviously a mobile version of the IE. Gaming is impressive with the integration of xbox live and syncing to a Windows PC is done by Zune. For the office needs, a full fledged mobile version of the MS Office is present. Windows Marketplace is the online store for purchasing and downloading apps. Microsoft is trying to attract more and more developers to WP7 by introducing simple IDE for development[Visual Studio] and API's to create a huge library of apps.
There are also a few drawbacks of the new OS. Video calling facility has not been provided. Connecting to hidden wifi networks, static IP addresses and tethering to the PC are not yet available in this new platform. To add to this, flash player is also absent. But we can hope an update from Microsoft in the coming days to fix these problems as copy paste feature was recently enabled in the last update by Microsoft.
Finally, I think the WP7 is really a great effort by Microsoft to regain its share in the smartphone market. Although this platform has a few shortcomings, I strongly feel Windows Phone 7 will prove to be the trump card of the Redmond based company in the long run. Any thoughts guys??

A look at the future of notebook displays by SONY !!!

While the news is still not officially confirmed by sony, lets have a look at the new display concepts that can be expected with future Sony Vaio notebooks. These notebooks feature a holographic glass screen that can go transparent and a keyboard that turns opaque when turned off. The display is such that it remains opaque as a normal LCD/LED display in notebooks but the specialty is that they turn transparent when is display is switched off. Another interesting yet innovative thing in this concept is that when the keyboards are switched off, they turn completely opaque like a brick.

According to various sources, this is just a concept as of now and further details regarding the battery life, feature specs are not available as yet. Lets hope to see this emerging technology in the near future.

Nokia 888 Concept Phone : “Form follows you”

               Well this is something new and a strange concept from Nokia ... Its currently called as the Nokia 888 Concept phone and is totally different from the regular cellphones we use now.You dont have to carry it in your pocket or on your wrist. You can carry it anywhere, in anyform. You can roll it, bend it, put on your clothes like a clip. It also makes some form changes that makes it more ergonomical: i.e. when you want to talk on the phone, the body form turns into the form of the good old telephone. You can personalize these forms and record them. So it fits you the best in the way that you have chosen. The functions that it has also create a feeling of electronical pet, as it senses your moves, understand what you want, respond you in the best way. The phone's shape is completely customisabe according to the needs of the user hence the tag line “Form follows you”.

                 The Nokia 888 features a flexible touch screen UI and a touch sensitive body cover which lets it adjust according to the environment. It has a simple programmable body mechanism so that it changes forms in different situations. Another important feature of the phone is that it uses a liquid battery which is not rechargeable but has enough power to last for atleast 18 months of regular usage. There are unconfirmed rumours that it might have a solar charging panel for charging the battery.

                  Another splendid feature of the phone is e-motions. This allows users to interact which each other.You can send and receive forms from / to friends. As an example, you can send a heart shape to your friend, so her telephone turns into an icon of heart. Or you can send a dancing form to your friends to call them to the party tonight. This is the fun side of the product which makes it quite unique and sought for.
                Wondering when this phone will be a reality??Well, its expected to hit the markets of Europe by the end of 2011. So lets wait and watch for this awesome gadget to launch !!!

Have a look at this amazing video of the Nokia 888 concept phone.

4G : The latest technology in mobile telephony is here !!!

          The fourth generation of cellular wireless standards is generally referred to as 4G. While 4G seems to be a distant reality for India at the current time, 4G standards have been started in test & trial modes in many advanced countries including the United States and Japan. 4G promises enhanced speeds up to 100Mbps for mobile devices and up to 1Gbps for stationary devices. 4G will also revolutionize wireless network access (Wi-Fi) into a much faster and secure connection known as Wimax which will also be capable of providing gigabit speeds.
          4G will also lead to seamless global roaming without any kind of disturbances which will lead to a much pleasant global telephony experience. In terms of multimedia, 4G will be able to provide real time television,HDTV video content, Ultra high speed mobile broadband and internet gaming on the go. Coming to the technical side, 4G will be based on OFDM - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing which will enable data to be sent on hundreds of parallel channelss instead of one channel as in case of traditional UMTS or CDMA network. From the above facts, we can conclude that 4G will be the next big thing in mobile telephony. But the question is "When will 4G be a reality in India, where even 3G networks have not been fully operational till now?"
          Do share your views and comments on this post !!!
         

Photosynth and 3-D photography....

                   Photosynth is a software application from Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington that analyzes digital photographs and generates a three-dimensional model of the photos and a point cloud of a photographed object.The Photosynth technology works in two steps. The first step involves the analysis of multiple photographs taken of the same area.The second step involves the display of and navigation through the 3D point cloud of features identified in the first step. This is done with the publicly downloadable Photosynth viewer
        Photosynth is an exciting futuristic application which helps you click a number of photos of an object or a place and then stitch them into a 3D structure which creates a panoramic 3 dimensional view of the photos clicked by you. It is a very futuristic technology and its fun to try. .Different than static photos and video, Photosynth helps the user to explore details of places, objects, and events unlike any other media. Also,using photosynth the photos in a photo gallery can be browsed and immediately the spatial relation between the photos can be seen. In order to enjoy the exciting features of photosynth, move your browser to http://photosynth.net/default.aspx . So why wait,start uploading your own photos and create your own synths and check out the magic of 3D photography!!!

Visual Studio 2010 :First Look !!!

     [VS logo is a copyright of Microsoft]

Here is some good news for all those programmers and developers aka coding experts.. Microsoft is going to formally launch the full fledged versions of Visual Studio 2010 on April 12th,2010.

               Microsoft Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It can be used to develop console and GUI applications along with Windows forms applications,web apps and web services for all platforms supported by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, .Net framework, .Net compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.Visual Studio includes a code editor supporting Intellisense as well as code refactoring. The integrated debugger works both as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger.

            Visual Studio 2010 comprises lots of new and intelligent features which will benefit the programmers by saving them a lot of time. VS 2010 is much more efficient and powerful than the previous versions and comes with various new features such as - Auto Implemented properties, collection Initializers, Implicit line continuation, Multiline lambda subroutines, type equivalence support and dynamic support.

             Visual Studio 2010 will be available in the following versions - Professional, Premium, Ultimate & Test Professional. To download the beta of the software, please click on the link http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/download.
          Want to share this article with other developers and coders??Click on the buzz logo or logos of other socail networking sites below !!!

Project Natal....The Future of gaming is here!!!

               Project Natal is a revolutionary piece of technology by Microsoft that is set to change the world of gaming. Project Natal uses no handheld controller and it has no wires. It uses nothing but your body to control game play and when I say body I don’t just mean physically I mean you can talk to it and it will respond. It has voice recognition, 3D motion capture and face recognition. The possibilities with this are endless. Project Natal is set to change the world of gaming and gamers forever!

                What makes the natal project so awesome is that it allows you do more than just play games. You can move through menus by Moving your hands back and forth. The camera is so advanced it has awesome things like advanced face recognition and voice recognition. While your xbox is powered up and going, you can stand in front of natal and it will sign you in to your avatar automatically.ew natal developers will be able to do with the development kits that are being sent out all over the world as we speak. This is a whole new way of controlling everything in your living room. this is not just restricted to the xbox360, it will work for DVD movies, music and I can bet will be integrated into tv. 

            

Compatible with any Xbox 360 system, the “Project Natal” sensor is the world’s first to combine an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software all in one device. Unlike 2-D cameras and controllers, “Project Natal” tracks your full body movement in 3-D, while responding to commands, directions and even a shift of emotion in your voice.

In addition, unlike other devices, the “Project Natal” sensor is not light-dependent. It can recognize you just by looking at your face, and it doesn’t just react to key words but understands what you’re saying.For Example : Call a play in a football game, and players will actually respond.

         

Microsoft Surface...Adding new dimensions to technology !!!

[MS surface Logo is a copyrighted property of Microsoft]

What is Microsoft Surface??
You won't believe this until you see it. It's actually real. No mouse, no keyboards, but you can touch it and guess what . . . it actually feels you. Don't you know what is it? It's Microsoft Surface!!!

What is special about this surface??
One can touch a color in the one-screen palette and draw an image on the screen.
Touch green and draw grass, Touch red and draw flames of fire. Microsoft Tabletop can understand all this. It also recognizes various objects. Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time.

The four main features in this device are direct interaction,Multi-touch contact,a multi user interface and object recognition.Even non digitsl devices can be used as input devices to the surface.It also responds to multiple gestures made by the user which is the most important and exciting feature in this technology wonder created by Microsoft.

The surface is much more than just a touch screen computer.The form factor of the surface is like a table.It is a big table 22 inches high, 21 inches deep, and 42 inches wide.The size of the screen is 30 inches and it is a multi touch surface.The current commercial version of the surface comes with a core 2 dou processor.
Here is a glimpse of the surface:

Microsoft Student Partners !!!

The Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Program is an annual position that recognizes people who have made outstanding contributions to the student community.Folks are selected and recognized, the most talented students from universities across the country for their dedication, passion and involvement with Microsoft each academic year.
The Microsoft Student Partners is a worldwide educational program to sponsor students majoring in disciplines related to technology.The program is available in most countries, and all students in college and university level are eligible to apply. Typically, few most skilled students from each institution are chosen at a time. If accepted, Student Partners are assumed to further share the knowledge among the academic community by, for example, arranging courses, giving presentations and initiating projects.

Benefits:

-You get to interact with the Microsoft team during various conferences and meetings.
- Get all the latest information about Microsoft's present and products.
- Get an year of MSDN Premium subscription by which you can download all Microsoft softwares free of cost.
- Other benefits include Dreamspark,student-partners.com email id,T shirts,Caps and lots of goodies.
- Most importantly,you get a position among your friends that is very coveted and you get respect from everyone.
- Also,you get a chance to be partnered with Microsoft,which itself is the greatest thing and adds a lot of value in your Resume.

All those students interested in technology and want to level-up your skills and personal value by getting the Microsoft branding should be looking forward to this program.The next MSP selections in India will most probably begin on May-June 2010.All those interested for the program should check the student partners website http://student-partners.com .In case of any doubts,you can contact me via email.

New NOKIA N97...Its just mindblowing

There were rumours about Nokia N97 and fake images were also released by some websites but Wait is now over. Finally, Nokia officially has revealed its N97 to the world.

The features the phone are just awesome, let’s see them :

Internet :

Quick and easy access to services on the Internet

Ease of writing with the QWERTY keyboard and touch screen

Touchscreen slider 3.5 inches

Personalize your home screen with widgets

Get the latest information via RSS feeds

Take pictures and videos and send them immediately on the Internet

Video and TV

Watch high quality videos on a large 3.5-inch screen, 16:9

Video at 30 frames per second (fps) for many formats

Share your videos, music and photos on your TV through TV output

Access to the videos on the Internet with the Nokia Video Center

MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution

Music

3.5 mm audio jack, built-in stereo speakers

Music player with editing playlists, equalizers and access to your music by category

Search, browse and buy music online on the Nokia Music Store

Supported Formats : MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC +, WMA

Navigation and Maps

Nokia Maps with integrated electronic compass and A-GPS receiver

Guides multimedia cities and navigation service.

Driving: voice guidance for car

Walking: optimal guidance through step by step

Connectivity

WLAN IEEE 802.11b / g with UPnP support

Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0

3.5mm stereo audio output and TV output (PAL / NTSC)

2.0 with stereo Bluetooth A2DP support and enhanced data rates (EDR)

Integrated GPS receiver, A-GPS supported

Some more impressive features includes :
Memory: Up to 48GB (32 GB internal memory, 16GB extension via microSD)
Camera: Carl Zeiss Vario Teissar lens @ 5 MegaPixels

The Price??????

Currently it is available @ Rs 35,000...So all the guys having that much in their pockets should be ready to be the master of this masterpiece....

Pictures::Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Yes Friends...The wait for the next movie from the Harry Potter series is going to be over...Harry Potter and the half blood prince is all ready to entertain the audiences worldwide..Some of the exclusive screenshots of the movie are here..
Just take a look friends:

Transformers 2..The wait is over...

Transformers 2:the revenge of the fallen,the sequel of the much hyped Transformers is back...and back with a bang....
- The biggest movie of the summer is finally here, but that's the problem with this movie is that- it's just too too long.The visual effects are stunning and outstanding.The picture seems to be very HD like and has much more action packed in it than its predeccessor.The graphics is stunning and the colours are so bright and each and every detail has been given importance to.

The plot of the story goes as under:

It is revealed that thousands of years before Optimus Prime and the other Transformers arrived on Earth, there was a race of ancient Transformers who scoured the universe looking for Energon sources. Known as the Dynasty of Primes, they used a weapon called the Sun Harvester to drain stars of their energy in order to convert it to Energon and power Cybertron’s Allspark.

In present day, two years after the events of the first film, Optimus now leads NEST, a military organization consisting of human troops and his own team of Autobots.This is the information available now.There are confirmed news that Optimus Prime is killed by Megatrons in this part of the sequel and that Megatrons come back into power again leading to speculations that there will be another sequel after this....

Here are a few screenshots of the upcoming movie..Just waiting to watch it.....Releasing on July 10th in India...

Adobe CS4..The best Multimedia Editing suite ever

Adobe offers Creative suite professional software in five flavors. Among them, the Master Collection offers professionals the most jam-packed digital toolbox.The release of Adobe Creative Suite 3 in 2007 was the first to incorporate former Macromedia products, such as Flash. With Creative Suite 4, Adobe has unified the interfaces of all the applications for a more seamless experience. There are applications for concocting and editing digital pixel and vector graphics, print layouts, video, audio, web pages, Web pages, and animation, and then repurposing that content for mobile devices. Those who don't need the whole shebang might consider suites that cost less, such as Web Premium or Standard for Web design, Design Premium or Standard with tools for printed media, or Production Premium for film production.Its a product highly recommended only for professionals.


The packages in which the Adobe CS 4 will be available are:
1)Adobe CS 4 Master Collection
2)Adobe CS 4 Design Premium
3)Adobe CS 4 Design Standard
4)Adobe CS 4 Web Premium
5)Adobe CS 4 Web Standard
6)Adobe CS 4 Production Premium

Minimum Requirements: Users of Windows XP SP2 or Vista must have a processor of at least 2GHz, or 3.4GHz for working with high-definition video. Photoshop now natively supports 64-bit Vista, while Premiere, After Effects, Soundbooth, Encore, and OnLocation are certified for 64-bit Vista.

The various applications offered in Adobe CS 4 are:
a)Adobe Acrobat 9 professional
b)After Effects CS 4
c)Contribute CS 4
d)Dreamweaver CS 4
e)Fireworks CS 4
f)Flash CS 4
g)Illustrator CS 4 professional
h)InDesign CS 4
i)Photoshop CS 4
j)Priemiere Pro CS 4
k)Sound Booth CS 4




Cons :
The costly, heavy-duty applications take long to install, are hard to learn, and hog resources; personal tech support can exceed the price of some applications; some apps, such as Photoshop, offer few compelling reasons for most users to upgrade.

Pros :
The dozen applications in the Adobe CS4 Master Collection sport streamlined interfaces and integration for designing and editing images, Web pages, mobile sites, desktop apps, animation, film, and print layouts, and support the latest digital formats.