Tag Archives: microsoft

Microsoft delivers Webmatrix 3 Web-development tool bundle

webmatrix3

Microsoft has made available for download an updated version of its WebMatrix tool bundle.

Microsoft’s WebMatrix is a free set of tools for creating, publishing and maintaining Web sites. It enables developers to quickly install and publish open-source applications or built-in templates to create, publish and maintain their Web sites. Included in the bundle are a Web server, database engines, various programming languages and more. It is aimed at developers using ASP.Net, PHP, Node.js and/or HTML5.

WebMatrix 3, the latest version, adds integration with Git and Microsoft’s TFS source-control systems. It also provides easy access to Windows Azure websites (the Web hosting framework codenamed "Antares"), according to Microsoft’s WebMatrix site, as well as seamless access of remote sites. Other touted features of the third version include better integration with Windows Azure and improved Intellisense for PHP and Node.js.

"When you create local projects, you’ll be able to instantly get a companion website in Windows Azure without ever leaving WebMatrix. Using the Publish button, you can easily keep these sites in sync and save your changes to the cloud," according to Microsoft’s promotional page for the newest WebMatrix release.

Originally launched in 2010, WebMatrix got its start as a collection of a lightweight version of Microsoft’s IIS Web Server, known as IIS Express; an updated version of SQL Server Compact Edition; and a new “view-engine option” for ASP.Net, known as “Razor,” which enabled developers to embed Visual Basic or C# within HTML.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-delivers-webmatrix-3-web-development-tool-bundle-7000013462/

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Are Microsoft’s free Office Web Apps good enough for you?

In the kerfuffle over the pricing and licensing for Office 2013 and Office 365, a lot of people seem to have overlooked one salient fact.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has steadily improved its free Office Web Apps to the point where they represent a credible threat to … Microsoft Office.

Those of us who use Office apps daily tend to rarely see the Office Web Apps. And yet, they play an increasingly important role in the new Office ecosystem. The current Office Web Apps lineup includes the exact same programs as you’ll find in Office Home & Student 2010 or 2013: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. But instead of costing $149 (MSRP) for three installations of Office 2010 or one of the 2013 flavor, the web apps are free. And they include 7GB of SkyDrive storage.

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I took a much closer look at the Office Web Apps today, as well as revisiting my Google Drive and Google Docs account. (Please check out the screenshot gallery, including my carefully crafted captions, to get the full story.)

Now, let’s get one thing clear right at the outset: If you think anyone will rigorously compare feature lists and specs for these two online services before choosing one, you are missing the point. People choose a free online productivity suite for two reasons:

It’s free.

It can be used on any PC or Mac (and on many mobile devices) with any modern browser.

The tiebreaker is usually a quick count of how many friends, family members and co-workers are already affiliated with one system or the other. If your company has gone Google, that’s going to sway you firmly in the Google Apps direction. If your company relies on Office apps like Word and Excel and uses an Exchange Server, that should tip you firmly in the Office direction.

Spoiler alert: Both of these online productivity suites pass the "good enough" test for casual home and student use, and even for most simple business documents. I’m not going to try to talk you out of using whichever one you’ve previously pledged allegiance to.

But still, I’m impressed by what I see in the latest Office Web Apps. Although these programs are technically web apps, they feel like desktop programs, with snappy performance and a real user interface. The Office Web Apps have adopted Microsoft’s ribbon, so when you open a document in the Word Web App, it feels like you’re running Word. You have to look closely at the ribbon to see the features that are missing.

By contrast, Google’s interface is downright Spartan and decidedly old school, with a black-and-white theme and lots and lots of pull-down menus.

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With its emphasis on round-trip formatting fidelity, the Office Web Apps are a natural for anyone who has to work with native Office file formats regularly. I found the process of converting documents to Google’s formats cumbersome and far from perfect. On the other hand, you can open, edit, and save an Office document in the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint web apps and know that you won’t lose any formatting.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/are-microsofts-free-office-web-apps-good-enough-for-you-7000011997/

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Apple iOS development extended to Visual Studio

Apple iOS development extended to Visual Studio

Developers using Microsoft’s mainstay Visual Studio IDE on Windows will be able to build native Apple iOS mobile applications via version 2.0 of the Xamarin development platform, which is being announced Wednesday.

Leveraging the Mono .Net runtime, Xamarin, from the company of the same name, enables development of cross-platform mobile applications for Apple iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft Windows via C#. Developers can leverage Visual Studio using the Xamarin.iOS for Visual Studio feature within version 2.0, though having a Mac on the network for the purpose of software builds is required.

Xamarin gets .Net developers on board with mobile development, says analyst Jeffrey Hammond, of Forrester Research. "The chief strength of the Xamarin approach is that it leverages a lightly tapped resource in the mobile space: .Net developers," Hammond says. "We see more C# and Java devs in enterprise IT than any other programming language. Xamarin gives at least one of these developer pools a way forward into the mobile-first age."

Hammond also sees Xamarin’s cross-compilation approach as viable, noting music service Rdio’s use of Xamarin. "The Rdio app is a good example. I doubt most customers who use it have any idea it’s written in C#. That’s really the barometer: If the customer doesn’t notice and the experience is ‘good enough’ to meet expectations, then as far as I’m concerned, it’s a lower-cost way to go cross-platform that is more maintainable in the long run."

Also part of version 2.0 is Xamarin Studio, which is the company’s own IDE for native mobile development. The Xamarin Component Store, for adding third-party libraries to applications via a few lines of code, is featured as well. Developers can add native UI controls and design themes. In addition, Xamarin is offering Xamarin Starter Edition, a free tier intended to make it easier for developers and businesses to get running with Xamarin.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/application-development/apple-ios-development-extended-visual-studio-213127

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How Cloud Computing Is Helping Green Businesses

cloud computing

Cloud computing, or the practice of using remote servers to store data and software, is changing the way the world does business. The cloud can be accessed from anywhere where there’s an internet connection, and therefore allows business data to be stored and continuously updated in one, central location. This guide to cloud computing explains the technology in further detail.

But what has this got to do with green business practices? Well, Microsoft has invested in a study that found “small and medium-sized businesses can reduce the impact of their activities on the environment by taking advantage of cloud technologies.”

However, others disagree, and the National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program’s factsheet states that in 2006, Data Centers used 61 billion kWh of electricity (equivalent to 1.5% of all U.S. energy consumption) and that the amount of energy consumed by data centers is set to continue to grow by 12% per year.

So which is true?

While data centers do consume massive amounts of electricity (and frequently use energy sources high in carbon, according to Greenpeace’s 2010 report), Google is going a long way towards offsetting this energy consumption. It’s also impossible to ignore the fact that the use of cloud computing technologies does reduce costs and lead to more flexible working practices for grass-roots green initiatives.

A 2010 study from Microsoft, Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy found that moving business applications to the cloud could cut the carbon footprint of the smallest and least efficient businesses by as much as 90%. Additionally, another recent study by cloud computing app provider Salesforce showed that their customers produced 95% less carbon, on average, than those running equivalent software on their own servers.

Cloud computing technology makes small businesses more efficient in several ways

1. Reducing power consumption by decreasing hardware requirements.
When a small business utilizes the cloud rather than having an in-house server, they will only need an internet connection to access their resources. This will dramatically reduce their power consumption and in turn, their energy bills.

2. Reducing the reliance on natural resources such as paper by digitalizing documents.
Going paperless eliminates the need to print out pages of resources and therefore decreases waste.

3. Limiting resource redundancy.
When small companies run their own servers, idle time is a considerable problem. Small companies almost never use 100% of their computing power, 100% of the time. This means that most of the time, the server is idle, using power while not doing anything productive. Cloud technology means that small companies only use the technology (and energy) they actually need.

Although huge data centers have a long way to go before fulfilling their green potential, on the whole they are aware of their responsibilities towards the environment. Using cloud computing technology allows small, green businesses to work more efficiently and become more eco-friendly, and gives green start-ups the kick start they need to get off the ground.

Source: http://www.greenerideal.com/business/0220-how-cloud-computing-is-helping-green-businesses/

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Cloud computing the way forward, says researcher

Cloud computing will be the key platform for most applications in the coming decade, according to a senior researcher.

Gordon Bell, principal researcher in the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Laboratory, said training in cloud computing would be ‘super important’ in the coming days.

Cloud computing has not been made use of very well by the computing community, he said.

“Many of the people are not even aware of the fact that they come across many of the cloud computing applications in their activities. Within a short time, cloud will be the platform for most of the applications,” Bell told Gulf Times.

Cloud applications would be used for real monitoring in many areas that would improve the services dramatically.

Highlighting certain services, Bell said traffic and transportation would be one area where cloud computing would have a big impact.

“Cloud will enable traffic sensor data to identify each car as a special entity and will have specific Internet-protocol (IP) addresses. The cloud platform will be the modern equivalent of the traffic infrastructure. Wherever you are, you will be able to connect with the cloud. This will enable traffic and other applications lot more intelligent and smarter.”

Another area of the extensive use of cloud could be in the health sector, Bell said. He said he himself was using many applications on his body to measure the pulse and other body movements, and added: “Cloud computing is the right platform to make use of many of the health applications and devices. It can be used to monitor heartbeat or the amount of sleep of a person and many more at the real time.”

He said the self monitoring health devices would result in huge advancement in human development.

Bell also spoke about various advancements in technology that could revolutionise the world in the coming years. 

He said Google’s effort to produce a ‘video eyeglass’ could become one of the greatest advancements.

“The glass will have a camera, display, microphone and earphone. This can be one of the biggest devices that can happen in the near future,” the expert said.

Regarding the feature of the eyeglass to identify a person with each blink, he said a lot of data needed to be collected and stored about other people to be identified. 

“This data base will be the main part of using such a device. It is estimated that in the near future, there will be almost five terabytes of information about an individual available on the cyber world.”

Referring to the research activities at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMUQ) , Bell said the university was supposed to develop a research agenda and create room for new ideas for local companies.

“This is what is generally done in the universities in the US and CMUQ is also going ahead on those lines. The researches will generate new ideas and will help the country in a big way,” he concluded.

Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/342397/cloud-computing-the-way-forward,-says-researcher

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US tech investors hurt by offshore cash

American tech titans Apple and Microsoft racked up more billions in sales and profits in their latest quarterly filings — thus adding to their offshore treasure trove.

By conservative estimates, Apple has roughly $74 billion parked overseas, while software giant Microsoft has an estimated $50 billion outside the reach of US tax authorities. And eBay had $8 billion of cash on its balance sheet as of last month, with about $7 billion of it residing outside the US.

This money, while being used to fund international operations, is also out of the grasp of shareholders, who could use a larger dividend or stock buyback by the companies with that cash cache.

“Apple has conducted all of its business with the highest of ethical standards, complying with applicable laws and accounting rules,” the company said in a statement about the matter.

Apple and Microsoft are, of course, by no means alone. There are varying estimates of the total amount of the huge sums parked abroad by these and other US multinationals. What everyone agrees on is that the numbers are huge.

A stunning report by the Tax Justice Network estimates that unreported US offshore wealth in tax havens has climbed to as much as $32 trillion. That’s up from $11.5 trillion in 2005, the last year the left-leaning group released estimates.

Citizens for Tax Justice estimates that the US Treasury is losing an estimated $90 billion each year from corporate giants — and an additional $40 billion to $70 billion from wealthy individuals who squirrel funds in offshore tax havens.

Congressional analysts say Uncle Sam could rake in an extra $600 billion over the next decade simply by ending the corporate tax exemption that permits US companies to defer payments through complex overseas tax dodges.

To get the money home without paying full US taxes on it, some advocate a change in the tax law.

Apple is a member of Working to Invest Now in America, or WinAmerica. The business coalition is lobbying for two congressional bills that would temporarily reduce the tax rate on repatriated earnings to 5.25 percent. That would encourage the repatriation of much of the cash that US companies have sitting in overseas accounts, the group says.

As a precedent, the temporary tax amnesty enacted in 2004 resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars being brought home.

Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco are also members of WinAmerica, but none of them stand to gain as much as Apple from a tax amnesty, because they have less cash overseas.

source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/us_tech_investors_hurt_by_offshore_uO01HlnANHJvVd9l8XU6jN?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=%0a%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Business

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Windows 8 Release Candidate Coming in Early June

The Microsoft Windows 8 release preview will arrive in plenty of time for manufacturers to have Windows 8 devices "out in the fall well ahead of the holiday buying season," said analyst Al Hilwa. "Shipping early means an even bigger variety of devices by the holidays" that will be running Microsoft Windows 8.

Microsoft will launch a Windows  8 release preview of its next generation operating system in early June. The announcement was made on Tuesday by Stephen Sinofsky — the president of Microsoft’s Windows division — at the Windows Developer Days conference in Japan.

Microsoft’s release schedule for Windows 7 began with the launch of the W7 developer’s preview on October 28, 2008. Then in 2009, Microsoft rolled out the W7 public beta, release candidate (RC), and release to manufacturing (RTM) versions on Jan. 7, April 30 and Oct. 22, respectively.

This time around, Microsoft has changed the designations for its incremental W8 OS releases to developer (Sept. 13, 2011), consumer (Feb. 29, 2012) and preview (early June).

"Barring any major issues, an early June roll out of a release candidate caliber version of W8 is in fact earlier" than many industry observers had expected, said Al Hilwa, director of applications software  development at IDC.

The W8 release preview will arrive in plenty of time for manufacturers to have W8 devices "out in the fall well ahead of the holiday buying season," Hilwa said. "Shipping early means an even bigger variety of devices by the holidays."

A New Mobile Platform

When we asked Hilwa what the impact would be of each subsequent W8 release on third-party app developers and service operators, he said he does expect independent software vendors to begin to take more notice of each new W8 release — and with some ISVs already showing visible interest in W8 because they view it as a new mobile  platform.

"Traditional PC  ISVs will likely start to take notice with the June release," Hilwa said. "Business ISVs will likely be the last to come and will likely add modules for their apps around business-to-consumer functionality."

With its new cross-over capability to run on media tablets and other computing devices equipped with ARM-based processors, however, Windows 8 may present Microsoft with more challenges to have a final release-to-manufacturing version ready for an October rollout to tablet  makers as well as PC manufacturers. The good news for Microsoft, however, is that the new OS will radically expand the sheer number of platforms on which W8 can run.

"All indications are that we will see tablets and convertible devices at various points of the weight and price spectrum with Windows 8 itself," Hilwa said. "The theory is that Windows RT devices will be lighter, cheaper and have better battery life, but I am guessing they are going to get a run for their money from Intel -based machines."

Adapting to a New PC Paradigm

So far, however, Hilwa is impressed with the extensive set of consumer friendly features and capabilities that Microsoft has packed into its consumer preview release of W8, which he has been using for the past couple of weeks.

"From a quality perspective the consumer preview version of Windows 8 is amazing," Hilwa said. "I have to pinch myself sometimes when I see the device sleep and wake-up in a couple of seconds."

Hilwa’s principal concern from the consumer perspective is whether people will welcome all the new changes or be overwhelmed with having to change their past computing behavior to fit Microsoft’s new paradigm. The response of consumers to all the changes may depend on how long they have been using Windows — with younger PC users potentially finding it easier to adapt to the new computing environment.

"There are some things I am still trying to figure out in Windows 8 and I have been using a PC for 20 years," Hilwa said. "Maybe that is why."

source:

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12000EO2A2BC&page=1

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Chief Scientist in Laboratory Cloud Computing of Yahoo Job-hopping to Microsoft

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As reported, Raghu Ramakrishnan, the chief scientist in the field of laboratory search and cloud computing of Yahoo, has jumped ship to Microsoft. According to source, Raghu Ramakrishnan will work in the Microsoft SQL team.

Being working at Yahoo since 2006, Raghu Ramakrishnan played a key role in personalization technology development of Yahoo. He is one of the loss key researchers before Yahoo’s R&D department layoffs. It is not surprising about the loss of senior researchers in Yahoo. Recently, Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo laboratory, switched to Google.

Before joining Yahoo, Raghu Ramakrishnan is a professor of University of Wisconsin – Madison. His resume provided by Yahoo shows that he is the founder and CTO of Q & A community QUIQ.

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When Does It Make Sense to Outsource Your Software Development?

Michael Schneider is CEO of Mobile Roadie, the leading self-service mobile app platform. With more than 16 million users, Mobile Roadie powers over 3,000 apps for some of the world’s most popular artists and brands.

You don’t need to own app development software — you just think you do.

Often a business encounters one of two scenarios: Either a company is hesitant to go with a development platform because it’s so much cheaper than building an app from scratch. (“If it’s so cheap, something must be wrong.”) They feel they need to “own” the app and source code. Or companies rely on in-house IT departments for development projects, even when they don’t need to.

When a brand new industry emerges (such as SaaS app builders), it takes time for companies to realize that, many times, it’s not cheaper. Over time, this problem will correct itself, in much the same way that WordPress, Tumblr, Square Space and others have become acceptable solutions for building a website, despite their low costs.

On the other hand, IT departments that think they can do it all can actually be dangerous for the companies that employ them. If you’re a technology company, meaning tech is your main business and not just a function within a larger organization, perhaps it does make sense to try and build in-house. But for most organizations, IT groups simply exist to serve the larger purpose of the business, likely something other than tech.

Saying no to an in-house IT department that wants to build mobile may take courage, but it may be in the organization’s best interests.

Or companies may insist: The price is right, IT agrees that it should outsource app creation, but they want to own the source code. This is equivalent to telling Microsoft that you want to use Windows, but that you need the source code to seal the deal. This often derails otherwise great use of app platforms, and causes the organization to build from scratch when, in reality, the organization does not need to own the source code.

Mobile moves at lightning speed. If you own the source code when Apple and Google come out with new versions of iOS and Android, it’s up to you to build in new features and make sure your app is up to snuff. And with new phones and software versions coming out monthly, this can be a daunting and expensive task.

In these three instances, building an app from scratch makes sense.

  1. If it’s your core business to be in the app market.
  2. If you’re trying to build a game.
  3. If your needs are truly, highly custom.

However, if your app is content-driven, there is no good reason to build something from scratch, or to own the source code. There are many impressive platforms on which to build content-based apps, with great viral sharing features, media, gamification and more — at a fraction of the cost and time it takes to build from the ground up. So, stop your IT department from trying to do it all.

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/28/outsource-software-development/

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iPad Plays: 5 Ways to Benefit from New Apple Product

Although specifics of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad 3 introduction will be announced Wednesday, it’s not too early for investors to devise a strategy to benefit.

Here are five stocks to consider, perhaps to buy now:

Apple. For investors with a rich appetite and belief the Cupertino, Calif.-based developer is operating on all cylinders under new management and will benefit from its cult-like following, the shares might be attractive.

Trouble is, at $535, how much higher can they go after having risen 35 percent in 2012 alone and 51 percent in the past year? Currently, more valuable than any technology player or any other company, valued at $500 billion, Apple could go higher.

But will it? Can any stock that’s vaulted 538 percent in the past five years keep surging like a meteor? Maybe so, with a price-earnings ratio of 15, compared with 11 for both Microsoft and Intel, and proof that its consumer products like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are hits.

This is the British-based designer of the chips inside the iPad 2 and the iPhone, which licenses its designs to semiconductor giants Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nvidia. Its designs have become the world standard for ultralight, low-power chips whose appliances power on quickly.

Priced around $25.80, ARM’s American Depositary Receipts are about 20 percent below their 52-week high, have a weighty 66 P/E and have lost about 12 percent in the past year. Over 10 years, though, ARM’s ADRs have doubled.

Success engenders competition: Intel (Nasdaq:  INTC) has launched its competing Ultrabook chips and rival Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) plans to acquire SeaMicro to get into the same sector. ARM might be a good bet, especially considering its chips will soon be in new Windows 8 and Android appliances battling dominant Apple.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/309327/20120305/apple-ipad-supplier-micron-nand-corning-intel.htm

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