Happy Tech

Just wanted to take some time and wish Matt a happy 25th birthday.

Facebook is the place to be for many types of people. It’s among the top sites that internet marketers have been turning to recently in order to promote their websites, products, or services. It’s has gained the reputation of a more professional or “adult” version of MySpace for those looking to connect with people they know, others in their industry, or network with professionals.

One of the aspects that have drawn many developers and marketers is the ability to create applications that work with Facebook. There are social applications such as sharing bits of info or pics, fun stuff like polls, and even intricately programmed games.

Facebook has announced that they plan to offer a verification system, whereas developers can have their application reviewed and “verified”. Their application will then be able to carry the Facebook approved symbol, but it comes at a $375 annual fee ($175 for students and non-profits). While this will offer credibility to the application, do you think this will put a hindrance on the popularity of applications? Do you think the smaller guys (and gals) who develop applications are going to be swept under the carpet?

Ballmer sent out an intercompany email and discusses the future and movements of Mocrosoft. The full email is below. 

I will cover the jist of it on a few days with a comprehensive outline of where MSFT is going and how this new direction takes them away from BGC3, Bill Gates new think tank. 

—–Original Message—–
From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:37 PM
To:
Subject: A Platform for the Next Technology Revolution

During the past decade, a dramatic transformation in the world of information technology has been taking shape. It’s a transformation that will change the way we experience the world and share our experiences with others. It’s a transformation in which the barriers between technologies will fall away so we can connect to people and information no matter where we are. It’s a transformation where new innovations will shorten the path from inspiration to accomplishment.

Many of the components of this transformation are already in place. Some have received a great deal of attention. “Cloud computing” that connects people to vast amounts of storage and computing power in massive datacenters is one example. Social networking sites that have changed the way people connect with family and friends is another.

Other components are so much a part of the inevitable march of progress that we take them for granted as soon as we start to use them: cell phones that double as digital cameras, large flat-screen PC monitors and HD TV screens, and hands-free digital car entertainment and navigation systems, to name just a few.

What’s missing is the ability to connect these components in a seamless continuum of information, communication, and computing that isn’t bounded by device or location. Today, some things that our intuition says should be simple still remain difficult, if not impossible. Why can’t we easily access the documents we create at work on our home PCs? Why isn’t all of the information that customers share with us available instantly in a single application? Why can’t we create calendars that automatically merge our schedules at work and home?

This week at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles, we shared news with software developers about a new set of platform technologies that will help transcend these limits. Because you are a subscriber to Executive Emails from Microsoft, I wanted to share my thoughts about the impact that these technologies will have as developers begin to use them to create a new generation of experiences that extend uninterrupted from the desktop to the mobile phone, media player, car, and beyond-to places where we never thought information and communications would be available to us.

A NEW PLATFORM FOR CLOUD COMPUTING

At PDC, we announced the availability of an early preview release of a new technology called Windows Azure. Windows Azure will enable developers to build applications that extend from the cloud to the enterprise datacenter and span the PC, the Web, and the mobile phone. For the first time, we shared pre-beta code for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows 7, which is the next version of the Windows desktop operating system, will take advantage of software and hardware advances to help eliminate the boundaries between information, people, and devices.

We also previewed Office Web applications, which are light-weight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that are designed to be accessed through a browser. Office Web applications will be part of the next version of Office and will enable people to view, edit, and share information and collaborate on documents on the desktop, the phone, and in a Web browser in a way that is consistent and familiar.

Windows Azure is part of the Azure Services Platform, a comprehensive set of storage, computing, and networking infrastructure services that reside in Microsoft’s network of datacenters. Using the Azure Services Platform, developers will be able to build applications that run in the cloud and extend existing applications to take advantage of cloud-based capabilities. The Azure Services Platform provides the foundation for business and consumer applications that deliver a consistent way for people to store and share information easily and securely in the cloud, and access it on any device from any location.

Windows Azure is not software that companies will run on their own servers. It’s something new: a service that runs in Microsoft’s growing network of datacenters and provides the platform that helps companies respond to the realities of today’s business environment, and tomorrow’s. Windows Azure technologies are already finding their way into products such as Windows Server 2008 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, enabling organizations and Microsoft partners to create their own cloud infrastructure.

Windows Azure will enable organizations to respond to realities such as the need to use the Web to provide customers with comprehensive information and to interact with an audience that has the potential to expand exponentially overnight; to integrate operations with partners-and sometimes even competitors-to meet customer needs; to add new capabilities quickly to respond to new opportunities; and to enable employees to work efficiently and effectively no matter where they are. These realities apply not just to businesses, but to organizations of all kinds: schools, governments, community groups, and more.

Traditional approaches to building technology infrastructure and delivering computing capabilities make it difficult and expensive to adjust to these realities. You need systems with enough capacity to meet the highest possible demand-capacity that includes servers and buildings to house them, the power to run them, and the people to manage them. You have to spread that capacity across locations so there’s a backup if one part fails. You have to solve issues like access for different types of users and compliance with tax regulations in all countries where your customers reside.

Designed specifically to meet the global scale that today’s organizations require, the Azure Services Platform will provide fundamentally new ways to deploy services and capabilities. It gives businesses the option to take advantage of the capacity available in the cloud as it is needed, reducing the need to make large upfront investments in infrastructure simply to be ready when demand spikes. It will enable developers to create applications that run in the cloud and provide the features, information, and interactivity that employees, partners, and customers expect-no matter how many of them there are, where they are in the world, or what device they have at hand.

SOFTWARE PLUS SERVICES AND THE POWER OF CHOICE

The Azure Services Platform reflects our belief that choice is critical for developers, companies, and consumers. It is also based on our belief that the key to delivering value today and in the future lies in combining the best aspects of software running on PCs, servers, and devices with the best aspects of services running on the Web-an approach we call “software plus services.”

Our software plus services approach lets people take full advantage of the incredible power of today’s devices. While there are undeniable benefits to being able to tap into the wealth of information and services that can be accessed over the Web through a browser, the interactive experiences that people expect on their PC, mobile phone, and media player depend on sophisticated software running on powerful processors.

The richness of these experiences will only increase as multicore processors expand the computing capabilities of our devices and new programming languages open the door to a new generation of applications that let us use more natural ways to interact with digital technology such as voice, touch, and gestures.

Software plus services also recognizes that for most companies, the ideal way to build IT infrastructure is to find the right balance of applications that are run and managed within the organization and applications that are run and managed in the cloud.

This balance varies by company. A financial services company may choose to maintain customer records within its own datacenter to provide the extra layers of protection that it feels are needed to safeguard the privacy of personal information. It may outsource IT systems that provide basic capabilities such as email.

This balance will change over time within an organization, as well. A company may run its own online transaction system most of the year, but outsource for added capacity to meet extra demand during the holiday season. With software plus services, an organization can move applications back and forth between its own servers and the cloud quickly and smoothly.

Today, companies around the world are implementing Microsoft technologies to take advantage of the best combination of on-premise software and cloud-based services. Using Microsoft Online Services, businesses including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Blockbuster, and Energizer access and manage Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, and Live Meeting over the Web through a single, secure infrastructure. In addition, 1 million people rely on Office Live Workspace for sharing and collaborating with friends, family, and colleagues.

EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF PERSONAL COMPUTING

Ultimately, the reason to create a cloud services platform is to continue to enhance the value that computing delivers, whether it’s by improving productivity, making it easier to communicate with colleagues, or simplifying the way we access information and respond to changing business conditions.

In the world of software plus services and cloud computing, this means extending the definition of personal computing beyond the PC to include the Web and an ever-growing array of devices. Our goal is to make the combination of PCs, mobile devices, and the Web something that is significantly than more the sum of its parts.

The starting point is to recognize the unique value of each part. The value of the PC lies in its computing power, its storage capacity, and its ability to help us be more productive and create and consume rich and complex documents and content.

For the Web, it’s the ability to bring together people, information, and services so we can connect, communicate, share, and transact with anyone, anywhere, at any time.

With the mobile phone and other devices, it’s the ability to take action spontaneously-to make a call, take a picture, or send a text message in the flow of our activities.

Through Live Mesh-a service from Microsoft that we announced earlier this year and about which we shared new information week-we’re beginning to bridge the PC, phone, and Web and create this next generation of connected experiences. Built on the Azure Services Platform, Live Mesh enables you to use programs and information stored on your work computer from your home PC, and vice versa. With Live Mesh, you can share folders and ensure that the information is automatically synchronized across your devices.

Live Mesh hints at how our lives will be transformed as the barriers between devices disappear and the option to connect instantly to people, devices, programs, and information becomes a reality.

We’re not quite there yet. Today, the Azure Services Platform is available only as a limited technology preview release. But as developers begin to combine the capabilities of this new platform with the amazing ongoing hardware and software innovations that we are seeing from companies across the industry, it will bring us significantly closer to the time when information, communication, and computing flows along with us seamlessly as we move through our day-to-day activities.

You can learn more about these technologies and the progress we are making by visiting the Microsoft Software + Services Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/softwareplusservices/.

I look forward to sharing more information with you about these new technologies in the near future.

Steve Ballmer

After reading the above email how do you feel about the future of web and desktop apps?

Get ready to be bombarded with Androids and we are not talking about any science fiction here. Details on the first Android phone are coming out and normally we wouldnt rehash what almost every other blogger is sure to cover but we are pretty excited to see this thing and we believe it will be a game changer for Google.  T-Mobile has officially pulled back the curtain on the first Android with specs and details.

It will be exciting to see the guys at XDA-Developers to get a hold of this and do some magic with the current lineup of windows mobile phone though you shouldnt expect anything stable for quite sometime. 

What we already know:

• One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk
• Gmail account and data plan required
• True GPS Built In (not the cheap triangulation method)
• 3.1 mp camera without video recording though this is expected to be updated
• No stereo bluetooth otherwise known as A2DP. Big feature to be missing. 
• Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
• Weighs a hefty 5.6 ounces
• 480×320 65K color screen
• 5 hour talk time and 130 hour standy
• Expandable up to 8GB with minisd

If you cant wait until the Android platform is released go ahead and check out the SDK and get a head start with the new platform.

Link

One of the funny things about the Sprint HTC Mogul is that it ships with a built in GPS device without any functioning software. While Sprint has mentioned they plan on turning this feature on with an update sometime in 2008 we no longer need to wait for this to happen.

Nav4all is a currently free GPS mapping software that supports many phone and I have just recently successfully installed in on my HTC mogul. To do so just navigate to www.nav4all.com on your mobile device and proceed to download and install the application. It will take about 5-10 minutes to go through all the menus and install features with the biggest issue being that you have to scroll through a lot of different language choices.

In the few minutes of having this installed I have tried unsuccessfully integrating this with Google Maps as the Google Maps program continues to search for GPS Satellites. This is no big deal but something I thought would be nice if it could somehow use the Nav4all GPS software to communicate to the satellites.

**Update**

It looks like there may be a few bugs with this still. After I initially setup the program and set my home address with working local maps I closed the application and tried to see if Google Maps would read it. When I went to reload the application it did not save any of the settings I had originally set. I then recieved a “No GPS Sensor has been coupled!” error. I was able to grab some pics tures of this working and will upload load those soon.

Looks like this one is not ready yet but is something to keep an eye on. There is also a long list of supported devices in the Nav4all site, the HTC Mogul is NOT on of them, yet.

**Update 2**

I un-installed and reinstalled hoping that would solve the problem but now the program will not load the GPS data and I continue to get the “No GPS sensor has been coupled” error.  I have gone ahead and removed this program and will just have to wait for Sprint to get around to releasing the official GPS update.

If you need to have a conference call there are a few services out there that offer some great services for free. One such service that we use is freeconference.com. They will allow you to have a phone number and a numerical password to use anytime without limitations. This is great for those last minute calls you need to create.

They also offer a service that you can invite people directly through their system and they will get a nice invitation from them with the time and code to enter. If your callers need the ability to dial in for free they do have the ability to offer an 800 toll free number but this service does carry a small fee.

Overall if you are in need for a conference call system on the cheap freeconference.com is the way to go.

If you use Skype then this isnt news to you. To everyone else listen up: Skype is a phone service where you can call any skype member free worldwide, think of free mobile to mobile but on a much larger scale. You can also call anyone within the US for 36 bucks a year, thats unlimited calls folks. You can aslo get unlimited incoming minutes with a local phone number from almost any area code you like for another one time fee of about 40 bucks. You can purchase up to 10 phone numbers so you can have a Florida area code so when Granny calls she wont pay long distance, you can set up a New York area code so local business will think you have a local office and so on.

The only catch is you need a wireless network for this to work. Luckily you most likely already have one, if not they are easy to setup. Then you need a phone like this one that Amazon has on sale for 89.99 with free shipping and no tax.

So this is what you need:

1. Wireless Home or Office Network
2. Skype Wireless phone
3. Skype account in good standing with SkypeIn and SkypeOut

With the exception of the one time fee for the phone you can have unlimited nationwide long distance for less than 100 bucks a year.

Lets see any VOIP provider top that, what a minute I think I know of a way to get all of this for free….. A detailed post will follow that will show how to get unlimited long distance, a new local number and a completely free phone service.

Our new site will be a work in progress until we hammer some things out. We will be focusing on the ever growing tech world and how all these new products and ideas are integrated with people at home. One of our first posts will be about setting up a free VOIP system where all your incoming and out going calls will be free!

We will also feature guides and ‘how-to’ instruction on setting up all the gadgets we can get our hands on.