SIXTH SENSE - Bring technologies to the mass...

A nice demo by Pranav Mistry...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/videoshow_ted/5231080.cms

25 most promising products for TWENTY-TEN

Here goes the list.
(Take the top 8.)
http://www.businesspundit.com/25-most-promising-new-products-for-2010/

Here comes Microsoft Windows Phone 7 : XBox + Zune + Mobile + Windows !

Windows Phone 7 is now official!  The so called Windows Phone 7 has arrived but with mobile tag removed. In the Indian perspective, will our Desi -Videocon and Koreans Samsung and LG bring more to capture the already lost market of WM? What Dell, Toshiba, Sony, HTC, Acer and Motorola will do? Or Will Microsoft do a Google by launching its own Nexus-two?

Now, Windows Phone 7 is a turning point for MS and being so it will either shape the mobile future of the company or break it. This new Opus of Windows Phone 7 is really something drastically different and will surely make some people unhappy,  but Microsoft had to make many change to keep-up on its competitors. Here goes the official press release!

BARCELONA, Spain – Feb. 15, 2010 – Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows® Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.
“Today, I’m proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. We believe Windows Phone 7 Series is a phone that truly reflects the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people.”
Designed for Life in Motion
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.
Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:
* People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
* Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.
* Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
* Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
* Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
* Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.

Microsoft and Nokia Alliance

MS Press Notes: Aug. 12, 2009
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/aug09/08-12PixiPR.mspx


These are the excerpts...

Microsoft and Nokia have formed a global alliance to design, develop and market mobile productivity, communications and collaboration solutions.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business optimized range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.

Both Microsoft and Nokia possess a rare combination of enterprise experience and consumer understanding and, in addition to the collaboration on existing software and services, will also use these assets to jointly design a range of new user experiences for future Nokia devices. These experiences will be identified together, and will be created by dedicated teams inside both companies to better meet the growing needs of the mobile professional.

This project builds on the existing relationship with Nokia who is optimizing access to email and other personal information with Exchange Activesync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on their smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:
- The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
- Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
- Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
- Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.







So does this means software as a pure business. Can we developers expect collaboration tools and powerful development environment IDE for cross platform development from these two and will these be for free?

Waiting for the first release...

Microsoft at CES

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/10-Things-Microsoft-Did-Right-Over-the-Past-Decade-602590/

Nexus One, caught in a controversy- Hindustan Times

The family members of author Philip K. Dick are complaining that the new Nexus One phone infringes on the writer’s sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — a work that was turned into the 1982 Harrison Ford film Blade Runner”

In the book, a bounty hunter named Rick Deckard is charged with a mission to eliminate rogue “Nexus-6? model androids.

Isa Dick Hackett, a daughter of Dick and the chief executive of Electric Shepherd Productions, an arm of the Dick estate devoted to adapting the late author’s writings, told the Journal’s Nathan Koppel that the connections between the book and the phone are highlighted by the fact that the Nexus One runs on Google’s Android operating system.

WSJ quotes the relevant description for those who haven’t read the book. Nexus-6 models are portrayed as having brain power that rivals that of humans. One page reads: “The Nexus-6 android types, Rick reflected, surpassed several classes of human specials in terms of intelligence. In other words, androids equipped with the new Nexus-6 brain unit had from a sort of rough, pragmatic, no-nonsense standpoint evolved beyond a major — but inferior — segment of mankind. For better or worse. The servant had in some cases become more adroit than its master.”

Nexus One, caught in a controversy- Hindustan Times

A Celeberation of Light

Yes, it was full of enjoyment and celebration throughout the day and the night. A festival to show how much you care(un-cared) for the environment you live in. Only few of us would have a pleasant sleep last night. I was the unfortunate one.
Shouldn't we modify the way we celebrate Diwali-the festival of light. This Diwali was so big that even White House and British PM celebrated, but do they followed the theme of dilliwaalas - Break the law, lit the crackers even after midnight and let the people suffer from extreme noise, polluted air and news-reporters waiting for any mishap (^_^).
Cant we think of a Good Diwali!