During the course of an interview, Google Android pioneer Andy Rubin made sure so say that the Android Market will be a whole different ballgame compared with the iPhone Apps Store. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Even though Apple released iPhone developers from its overly strict nondisclosure agreement, there is still a lot of grumbling going on in Apple’s orchard. The approval process remains to be a mystery, with Apple approving and disapproving of applications seemingly at whim. Apple may have “opened up” the iPhone, but it is still maintaining strict control of the ecosystem surrounding its darling device.
Google, says Andy Rubin, will not play things that way. BusinessWeek interviewed him recently and reports that “Google won’t impose many of the restrictions Apple developers have been grumbling about. Unlike iPhone aficionados, developers using Android Market will, for example, be able to allow consumers to try their applications for free before they buy them. This may seem like a small thing, but developers name lack of free trial as one of the biggest reasons behind their lukewarm App Store sales.”
Sampling products before you buy them is by no means a revolutionary idea. Many of the network operators’ content can be previewed or sampled before users commit to purchasing it or subscribing to certain services. That Apple does not allow iPhone users to sample applications before they buy them is odd, especially considering that Apple allows iTunes users the ability to sample 30-second snippets of songs before buying them. Why doesn’t Apple allow apps to be sampled?
The Android Market is following the model set by the existing content delivery platforms of the major network operators, and that is a good thing. There are definitely a few applications that I paid for for my iPhone that I am less than thrilled with. Sampling them, even for a few moments, would have been enough to allow me to make a more informed purchasing decision and possibly even save some money.
Contrary to rumor, Microsoft will indeed give developers the alpha version of Windows 7 at next month’s developers conference, the company confirmed. Microsoft usually slips devs primitive copies of in-the-works operating systems to give them a heads-up on what to expect, what to work on, and how to take advantage of new features.
Developers attending Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference, set for Oct. 27 through 30 in Los Angeles, will leave with an alpha version of the software maker’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system (OS), the company confirmed Wednesday.
Microsoft has historically offered up early versions of upcoming OSes to developers. However, this recent promise dispels rumors that Redmond was planning to skip its traditional alpha release due to timing issues in developing Windows 7.
“This is common. It would have been a bigger deal if they had not given the people attending PDC the code,” said Michael Cherry, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft.
The rumor, Cherry told TechNewsWorld, stated “that [Microsoft] was not going to release it. Had they not, it would be taken as a sign that they were behind on their development plans. [Microsoft] can’t win. If they give people code at PDC, then everyone will evaluate it and start to comment on what they think Windows 7 will be. If they don’t give code, everyone will assume they cannot get it shipped. So they’re in a no-win situation. In this front, it is hard to be Microsoft.”
Discovery Zone
Developers heading to PDC next month now know they will be able to take a rough version of the next Windows OS for a test drive. However, Microsoft has divulged few details about what it plans to show off to developers, save that they will “see advances across the full range of Windows — including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user interface.”
However, once they have the pre-beta code in hand, developers will have a wealth of information they will use to decide whether and how to optimize their software to function with Windows 7.
“Developers are just eager to see what things Microsoft is changing, but will wait for a more stable build before they begin their work. Others will be looking to see what this means in terms of what they can do with their applications — and whether to try and exploit Windows 7 with their applications,” Cherry explained.
Specifically, developers expect performance improvements to the .NET framework and more Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) controls, said Jeffrey Hammond, a Forrester Research analyst.
“I think support for new interaction model interests developers, and then specifically for ISV developers, there’s interest in being able to continue to take full advantage of frameworks like DirectX,” he told TechNewsWorld.
With the Windows 7 alpha code released, Microsoft hopes to receive feedback from developers on the OS.
“The more feedback they can get early in the process, the better. By the time you get to formal beta, it’s often pretty hard for software development shops to make real substantive changes — the feedback period becomes more about fixing defects and taking input for the next release planning cycle,” Hammond pointed out.
Something to Work With
Software developers are not looking for Microsoft to make a host of changes with Windows 7 but are interested in what their programs can take advantage of. Given Vista’s well-reported compatibility issues, they will definitely be looking to see that Microsoft has remedied the problem in Windows 7, Cherry said.
“Developers are looking to have their applications run wherever there are the most places for them to run. So right now, if your application runs on Windows XP and probably runs OK on Vista, you’re probably covering the largest set of places where an application can run,” Cherry noted.
What developers want is for Vista, and then Windows 7, to really take off — and pull their applications, designed to take advantage of the operating system’s features, with it, Cherry said. They want to know whether it will be worth it to optimize their applications to work with a particular version of an operating system.
Many developers need a larger installed base to sell their software to than currently exists with Vista. Meanwhile, with Windows 7, Microsoft needs to get developers to write software that takes advantage of new features to make the new OS attractive to upgraders, Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst, told TechNewsWorld.
For instance, many developers are increasingly making investments in rich Internet applications (RIAs). That makes the choice of desktop less important than choice of browser, noted Hammond.
“This is one of the reasons Microsoft is investing in Silverlight — to provide a consistent programming model for desktop apps and Web apps. This serves two purposes. It makes it easier for developers to move to rich client apps based on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), but it also gives Microsoft a .NET development play that is independent of the operating system,” he concluded.
Microsoft has informed some of its partners that it has had to delay Windows Mobile 7, a much anticipated update to its cell phone operating system.
Although Microsoft has not publicly said when to expect Windows Mobile 7, partners who had expected to have a final release in their hands by early next year have been told now that it won’t be ready until the second half of next year, sources told CNET News.
The delay is a significant blow for the software maker, which has been counting on the next version of Windows Mobile to enable devices that better rival Apple’s iPhone. Among the features widely expected to be part of the release is advanced gesture recognition, perhaps along the lines of the iPhone, but possibly also using the camera as a means for reading gestures. Microsoft’s Tellme unit, which focuses on speech input, has also been working on Windows Mobile 7 features.
The delay also comes amid stepped-up competition. Google is preparing Tuesday to launch the first phone running its Android operating system, while Apple has its updated iPhone 3G, and new models are also debuting from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.
Microsoft, for its part, declined to comment on its plans. In an interview, group product manager Scott Rockfeld noted that CEO Steve Ballmer and mobile unit head Andy Lees did meet with 17 of the company’s largest cell phone maker and carrier partners.
“They all expressed their excitement of what we are doing in the short term and the long term,” Rockfeld said.
Microsoft is not expected to have a major update to its core operating system ahead of Windows Mobile 7. However, other improvements are expected to debut sooner, most notably an improved browser that brings the rendering engine of Internet Explorer 6 onto Windows Mobile. That update, still expected this year, should pave the way for Windows Mobile phones to display rich Web pages, including those that are home to Flash content and Ajax applications.
In addition, a number of carriers and handset makers have been working with Microsoft to add new touch interfaces and other features, separate from Microsoft’s operating system updates. The T-Mobile Shadow was one of the first devices to benefit from such work, while more recent products from HTC also have their own custom interfaces above and beyond those included in the most recent version of Windows Mobile.
“Customers don’t have to sit back and wait,” Rockfeld said. “There’s tons of stuff coming from us and our partners.”
Rockfeld also tried to make the case that Microsoft’s business model is friendlier to hardware makers and cell phone carriers than those of rivals, including Google.
“The thing that they are trying to do is they are trying to own the services,” Rockfeld said, saying that is a move that has plenty of carriers worried. “They don’t want to sit there and just become a dumb pipe.”
Microsoft, he said, is willing to work with carriers to power their own services. “We’re happy sharing the limelight,” he said.
As for Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft has said very little publicly. Ballmer did make reference to it in a speech to enthusiasts in April.
During the speech, he talked about how Windows Mobile would outsell Apple and RIM during 2008. He then added: “And I think that certainly this should be a good year for us for sales, but the work we’re doing on Windows Mobile 7, which is the next major release of Windows Mobile, not just in the Windows Mobile team, but across Windows Mobile, in Silverlight, the development platform, the e-mail, the back-end, I think you’ll continue to see that as an area of major excitement and innovation for the company as we move forward.”
The FBI is investigating the son of a Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker as part of a probe into the illegal break-in of GOP vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account.
David Kernell, a 20-year-old economics major at the University of Tennessee and the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, had his apartment searched by FBI agents over the weekend, The Associated Press and Knoxville, Tenn., TV station WBIR report.
Unnamed witnesses to the search told WBIR that FBI agents broke up a party at the younger Kernell’s apartment near campus and issued subpoenas to three of his roommates. Witnesses told the station that Kernell and his friends “fled the apartment when the FBI agents arrived.”
The hacker, going by the screen name “Rubico,” made claims that he broke into Palin’s personal Yahoo e-mail account by tricking the system’s security software into issuing him a new password, according to Wired.com. Bloggers were able to connect the “Rubico” name to David Kernell’s university e-mail account last Thursday.
The hacker’s public, yet anonymous confession, apparently allowed authorities to focus on the Tennessee college student.
“He might as well have taken a picture of his house and uploaded it,” Ken Pfeil, an Internet security expert, told the AP.
The release of the Citrix Systems XenApp 5 product, formally called Presentation Server, is designed to allow IT to create virtual desktops. Citrix XenApp 5 can work with the Citrix XenDesktop virtualization suite or Citrix XenApp can work alone. The Citrix XenApp 5 allows for the virtualization of Microsoft Windows and Office applications in an enterprise’s virtual desktop infrastructure.
Citrix Systems is releasing the latest version of its XenApp product as part of the company’s larger push into data center and desktop virtualization with offerings such as its Delivery Center virtualization suite.
The latest version of XenApp 5 will allow applications, especially Microsoft Windows and Office applications, to start faster than previous versions of the product. The new XenApp product also works with Citrix XenDesktop for enterprises interested in creating a virtual desktop infrastructure.
Citrix XenApp is the new name for the company’s stalwart Presentation Server product. The updated name reflects Citrix’s $500 million acquisition of XenSource in 2007, and its desire to reach deeper into both data center and desktop virtualization. (The products are based on the open-source Xen hypervisor.)
While virtualization companies such as VMware, Citrix and now Microsoft with Hyper-V, have touted the benefits of virtualization in the data center to help with a myriad of concerns from consolidation to power savings to disaster recovery, the virtual desktop infrastructure is developing as the next area where virtualization technology is about to be tested.
At a forum earlier this year, IDC researchers found that interest in virtual desktops infrastructures was growing among departments as a way to better secure data and have more control of the desktop images and the corporate fleet. However, concerns about the complexity and cost involved in this undertaking, including problems with operating system licensing, are forcing many enterprises to watch from the sidelines for now.
“We have seen a surge in interest and there a lot of people that are interested in application virtualization and they are evaluating what is out there,” said Bill Hartwick, senior director of product marketing for Citrix.
The latest version of XenApp will work within Citrix’s broad suite of virtualization technologies called Delivery Center. Since April, Citrix has been talking up Delivery Center as way to deliver desktop images and application for the data center to individual clients in an enterprise. In May, Citrix detailed another product in the suite called Branch Repeater, a software appliance that sits between the data center and branch or remote offices and helps transmit applications from the main data center facility to these locations.
The key to the suite remains Citrix XenDesktop, which allows the IT department to host a virtual machine in the data center and then allows an enterprises to virtualize Windows desktops and deliver them on-demand via the high-speed Web interconnect to office workers in any location.
Besides allowing Microsoft applications to start faster, the latest version of XenApp allows individual applications packaged and maintained separately within the data center. At that same time, the applications are linked together.
While XenApp allows the different applications to be isolated, it also allows for them to communicate with one another. In an enterprise, a user can then call up what ever application is needed, while IT is allowed to patch and upgrade from a central location.
The newer version of XenApp is also integrated with the Citrix Branch Repeater. In this case, the most frequently used applications are stored closer to the remote or branch office and this allows for the application to be called up faster by users in that location.
XenApp 5 is also integrated to with Windows Server 2008 and 2003.
The cost of Citrix XenApp 5 is priced at $350 per concurrent user for the Advanced Edition, $450 for the Enterprise Edition, and $600 for the Platinum Edition.
Source: eWeek.com
Most companies without IT departments and many companies with IT departments manage their IT assets following the “Firefighters method”, but what is the Firefighters method?
The Firefighters method is action by crisis, and is one of the least productive possibilities both for the IT department and the company as a whole.It refers to the practice of leaving things alone until they fail, and with the level at which technology is integrated in today’s business world causes major issues.
Percento, through our Proactive Support Agreements, utilizes our Outsourcing Division to develop routine system maintenance to help keep your IT systems running smoothly.Just as you shouldn’t wait until your check engine light is on to change your oil, your IT system maintenance shouldn’t wait until after problems have presented themselves.
The Percento proactive approach is easy to rationalize for clients who utilize our Outsourcing Division as their IT department; however, this is not the only way we can assist firms in utilizing a Proactive methodology.
Our Professional Services division teams are well versed in the methods and IT processes which lead to adopting a Firefighters method, which in turn allows our teams to know what to do before the Firefighters method becomes your only option. Our audits can help your IT department determine what is needed to stop managing by crisis, and even help identify if additional resources, even part-time resources, are necessary to process Proactive preventative system maintenance.
While online computer courses are great and can provide some insight to “Computer Repair and Networking for Dummies®”, they unfortunately can’t teach you how to repair the issues that arise if you use this insight incorrectly and do something wrong.
Many IT professionals have found themselves in this unlucky situation: the Non-IT pro who seems to think that they can fix it…until it breaks.It seems to cost more in labor if it becomes necessary to repair not only what the Non-IT pro tried to fix in the first place, but also the problems resulting from the attempted fix.
Case in point:I got a call from a fellow one morning stating that he had made a change to one of my clients’ systems.He said that it was broken, and I needed to go fix it.I contacted my client to find out what the story was.Apparently, my client had called in this person, who was a friend of one of my client’s employees, to do some specialty work because it would be “less expensive”, and this person claimed he could do the job with “No Problems”.Yeah, Right!
Well, after a substantial repair bill, I was able to solve my client’s problems and fix the issue.You may ask, “Why a substantial repair bill?”As it turns out, this guy had no clue how my client’s system was set up and when he made the changes over a period of two days he did not remember all of those changes.I had to comb through the entire infrastructure to find the changes he had made.Fortunately, I was able to get my client back up and running that morning; however, it took 4-5 days to completely put the system back together.It was not a pretty sight.My client was upset, and so was I, but fortunately it all worked out in the end.
Please take the time to share your stories with us.Thanks, and until next time have a Blessed day!!!
As an end user it is one of the most frustrating things you deal with, but as a Technician, Consultant, or IT Manager it is, we hate to admit, one of the greatest feelings in the world. Some end users may be thinking “There is something wrong with my computer” and the IT folks may be thinking “I fixed it”. That’s right, I am referring to the times when as an end user you call the IT for help and say, “Can you fix my computer? It’s not working right.” And when the IT comes in, the computer is miraculously working fine. There is neither a user nor an IT guy in the world that hasn’t experienced it. How does this happen? I don’t know, but as an IT guy I simply tell my clients “That computer knows better than to act up when I am here.” To my boss I say, “Another happy client”.
Let me just give you a couple of scenarios: A client called me and told me that he could not access his “share” drive. I did a remote session with him, and lo and behold – miraculously, the share drive was there and working fine. He couldn’t understand how it seemed that all he needed to do was call me and I would be his hero and “show that computer a thing or two!” He called a few days later, and sure as I am typing this blog, he says “it is doing it again”. He asked me to walk him through the steps as a “sanity check” to make sure he wasn’t going crazy. It turned out he was trying to access the share drive prior to the computer completing it’s communication with the network. His machine was on the older side, and I let him know that his options were either upgrading to a newer computer or exercising patience. Overall, it was a great day because we found a solution to his problem and he got a working computer and I got a satisfied client.
Here’s another example. I was visiting a client’s office and as I passed one of the Principles’ offices I heard a string of expletives that could make a sailor blush with shame. So of course, being a former sailor, it made my ears perk up. I stuck my head in the door and asked him what was wrong. His answer was (using more of his colorful words) “…this stupid computer isn’t working and I don’t have time for this…” Naturally, I stepped into his office and as so often happens, his computer worked beautifully. I could only assume that in his frustration he had missed a step in the process that he was trying to complete. However, he had not! He had only just clicked the “OK” button right as I was walking into the room. It just happened that I was in his office as soon as it began to work. He simply stated that if it wouldn’t be so expensive he would have me sitting in his office day and night to make sure his computer never stopped working.
Again, I felt like “The Man”!!!! Let me hear your stories!!! Thanks, and until next time have a Blessed day!!!
The release of the Citrix Systems XenApp 5 product, formally called Presentation Server, is designed to allow IT to create virtual desktops. Citrix XenApp 5 can work with the Citrix XenDesktop virtualization suite or Citrix XenApp can work alone. The Citrix XenApp 5 allows for the virtualization of Microsoft Windows and Office applications in an enterprise’s virtual desktop infrastructure.
Most companies without IT departments and many companies with IT departments manage their IT assets following the “Firefighters method”, but what is the Firefighters method?
