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 !

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??

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.

Windows 7 Release candidate 1

First of all,let me tell that Windows 7 is the latest operating system from Microsoft launched recently..

The minimum requirements for running the OS are :

• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Available Editions: Windows 7 will be available in six different editions, but only Home Premium and Professional will be widely available at retail. The other editions are focused at other markets, such as the developing world or enterprise use.Each edition of Windows 7 will include all of the capabilities and features of the edition below it.

Other editions are :

Windows 7 ULTIMATE,STARTER and ENTERPRISE.

All the editions will be available in both 32bit and 64bit versions except the STARTER edition.

Now,there those who have already laid their hands on it might have loved it.Graphics is much more better due to embedded Directx 11 and its much faster than Windows Vista apart from other new features....Aero graphics has been improved and taken to the next level...

Upgrading from other versions: If you're running Windows Vista, you sure can upgrade—it's designed to be easy to go from Vista to Windows 7, actually. It's a little more complicated with other types of Windows. You can upgrade your Windows 7 Beta install if you've got one, but it's not recommended, and takes a bit of skunkwork. You're out of luck with XP and any other older version of Windows..so XP users,be ready for a clean format of your hard disk...

Speculations about XP mode in Windows 7: Yes,this is true man..You can download a fully functional windows xp sp3 and run it alongside with windows 7.That means you can run IE 6 alongwith IE 8(speaking in a layman's sense)..However this feature will be more useful for Enterprise users...You get the reliability of XP with the looks of Windows 7

Aero graphics: Yes,Aero graphics is still here...Like the previous version Vista,Windows 7 has windows flip3D which u can activate using CTRL+WINDOWS KEY+TAB.Transparent windows are present.Colours of windows can be totally customized.A new feature is Invisible windows in which the window you are currently working in is visible and all other windows are transparent...A cool feature really....A new addition is that the desktop wallpaper can actually be a slideshow of images which change automatically...