These commands can be very handy to all you command nerds. I have found this priceless-ly helpful and quick shortcuts to a many rather cumbersome procedures
RUN Commands !
1. Accessibility Controls – access.cpl
2. Accessibility Wizard – accwiz
3. Add Hardware Wizard – hdwwiz.cpl
4. Add/Remove Programs – appwiz.cpl
5. Administrative Tools – control admintools
Continue reading
As we approach the rumored date for Android 4.3′s launch on June 20 (at least, that’s what our sources say), many have already come to the realization that we should not expect Google to introduce a new interface for the OS. It will still be called Jelly Bean and nothing too crazy will happen. What most in the business have their money on is that we can expect to see Google change up Android’s look in the iteration after next, being Android 5.0 “Key Lime Pie.” That’s when we will see some new colors, icons, wallpapers, etc. take place.
Graphic designers appear to be already creating their very own concepts for what they would like to see in Android 5.0, playing more with lockscreen widgets and revising the Android homescreen look. Artist Jinesh Shah took to his Google+ page recently to post up a few pictures of his own ideas, some of which we have become big fans of. While it comes off as minimal and clean, there is enough information on any given homescreen and the lockscreen to give off the sense that this concept would be highly functional and practical for users.
The lockscreen widget shows a comprehensive look at this user’s upcoming meeting, even showing a map preview of its location. Below that, we can see upcoming flight details, all of which would be able to be customized under new settings that would come with KLP. As for the homescreen changes, what sets this concept apart from others is the idea of “hidden” widgets. With swipes and other gestures, you could reveal other widgets that don’t necessarily have to be on your homescreen when not being used. It’s a fantastic concept, one that we probably wouldn’t mind seeing implemented.
Share your thoughts on the Android 5.0 concept below!
originally posted on: http://www.droid-life.com/2013/06/14/android-5-0-key-lime-pie-ui-concepts-hitting-the-web-give-us-very-high-hopes/
Tumblr’s $1.1 billion exit has minted a number of new millionaires—and made some rich folks even richer.Here’s who made what, according to PrivCo, which studies private companies. These are the revised figures corrected by PrivCo after initial numbers showed even more lavish returns for several venture-capital firms,setting off a Twitter war.
| STAKEHOLDERS | PERCENTAGE HELD | PAYOUT (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| Union Square Ventures | 18 | 198 |
| Sequoia Capital | 19.8 | 217.8 |
| Spark Capital | 18 | 198 |
| David Karp | 19 | 209 |
| Other Series A individual investors | 8.8 | 96.8 |
| Series E venture capital firms (Greylock, Insight, CrunchFund, DFJ) | 10.4 | 114.4 |
| The 178 employees of Tumblr | 6 | 66 |
Some of the biggest winners, of course, are the venture capitalists who got in the earliest. Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, for instance, are each pocketing a 1,423 percent return on their investments.
But a few millionaires are definitely coming from within Tumblr’s ranks as well. According to PrivCo’s data, 178 employees will take in six percent of the $1.1 billion purchase price, for an average payout of $370,787. PrivCo calculates that fully vested employees who were among the first 10 to join Tumblr would make $6.2 million each, while those within the first 30 would make $3.6 million.
Steven Johnson, the author of Future Perfect, argues in an essay on Medium that the chance for nonexecutives to get rich is what makes tech different from other generators of wealth in the U.S.:
“Sure, companies went public or sold for staggering sums, but companies have been going public or selling out for generations without creating tens of thousands of millionaires along the way.The defining difference between Silicon Valley companies and almost every other industry in the U.S. is the virtually universal practice among tech companies of distributing meaningful equity (usually in the form of stock options) to ordinary employees. Before companies like Fairchild and Hewlett-Packard began the practice fifty years ago, distributing stock options to anyone other than top management was virtually unheard of. But the engineering tradition that spawned Silicon Valley was much more egalitarian than traditional corporate culture.
It is not just startups that follow this credo. Citing In the Company of Owners, a book from 2003 about stock options, Johnson points out that the top 100 technology companies granted 19 percent of their total ownership to nonsenior executive employees, compared with 2 percent for the rest of corporate America. Johnson’s essay does not address the Tumblr acquisition directly; he was responding to George Packer’s article about the politics of Silicon Valley in this week’s New Yorker, which lamented the rising inequality of northern California, where growing ranks of poor live near startup millionaries. One solution to widespread inequality, Johnson suggests, would be “to make the rest of corporate America act more like Silicon Valley.”
Skeptics will question whether the creation of more millionaires can really be held up as a sign of progressive policy (in part, that’s what Packer’s article is all about). But it sure has proven to be a powerful way to create new tech companies. The lifecycle goes like this: Young engineer joins or founds a startup, gets equity, cashes out, and begins investing in or starting new companies that pay young engineers with equity. The PayPal (EBAY) Mafia and Facebook’s (FB) early generation of employees are two cases in point.
Tumblr’s employees are getting a relatively modest return by comparison. In part, Tumblr became so valuable with so few employees that many people came on after the stock options were worth relatively little; Tumblr had no more than a dozen employees for its first three years. A similar dynamic could mark the eventual exits of companies such as Twitter and Pinterest. Also, Tumblr raised a lot of money from investors. Several people involved in the venture capital world cited a rule of thumb that about 20 percent of the option pool would be set aside for employees. But that goes down with each subsequent investment, and Tumblr raised a lot of money.
“When you raise a lot of money, folks who came on earlier get diluted down,” says Anand Sanwal, the co-founder of CB Insights, which studies the venture capital world. “The flip side of that is when you raise a lot of money, you’re not worried about your job every day.”
Marco Arment, who worked with Karp from the beginning on Tumblr, said that he won’t make “yacht-and-helicopter money” from the acquisition. “But as long as I manage investments properly and don’t spend recklessly, Tumblr has given my family a strong safety net and given me the freedom to work on whatever I want. And that’s exactly what I plan to do,” he wrote in a post on his blog.
So Tumblr may well spawn its own diaspora of new startups and investors seeded with proceeds from the sale to Yahoo! (YHOO), even if it’s a group that doesn’t quite have the resources and reach of those who came before it.
I will love to say a big “HAPPY NEW YEAR” to all of you that found time to stop by my blog to catch a few tips. I must say that you are the reason I do this and it gives me great pleasure to read your comments, they assure me that we are making good progress. I am just excited that I contribute in my very little way to making your “work and play” a little more fun.
Dispatch hotspot diagram
I don’t get to make promises but I trust this year is gonna be a lot more fun and fruitful. Hence, I am continuing from where we left off last year and I am doing this with great respect to our growing need for data (internet data to be precise).
You’ll agree with me that it is becoming more and more expensive to get good internet connections for the increasing number of gadgets ranging from smartphones-to-tablets-to-laptops and even desktops. this has paved the way for proliferation or would I say exploitation by most telephone network providers by providing countless numbers of data packages, all in the bid to cash in on customers pocket content (cash). I however have some pretty good news for y’all. Shhhhhhhhh, don’t tell anybody outside cos I am about to let out some pretty useful secrets for absolutely “FREE”.
Easily Share your mobile data connection
You can share your device’s mobile data connection with a single computer via a USB cable or via Bluetooth: USB tethering or Bluetooth tethering. You can also share your tablet’s data connection with up to eight devices at once, by turning your device into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot. (Not all carriers and tablets support these features.)
When your tablet is sharing its data connection, an icon appears in the Status bar and as an ongoing notification in the Notifications panel (see Managing notifications).
You can also obtain a network connection for your device from a computer via Bluetooth: see Obtain a network connection via Bluetooth tethering.
 |
USB tethering is active |
 |
Bluetooth tethering is active |
 |
Portable Wi-Fi hotspot is active |
 |
Multiple tethering or hotspot connections are active |
For the latest information about tethering and portable hotspots, including supported operating systems and other details, visit android.com/tether.
Share your device’s data connection via USB
Wireless Hotspot
If your computer is running Windows 7 or a recent distribution of some flavors of Linux (such as Ubuntu), you typically don’t need to prepare your computer for tethering. But if you’re running an earlier version of Windows or another operating system, you may need to prepare your computer to establish a network connection via USB. For the most current information about which operating systems support USB tethering and how to configure them, visit android.com/tether.
Share your device’s data connection via Bluetooth
If your computer can obtain an Internet connection via Bluetooth, you can configure your tablet to share it’s mobile data connection with your computer.
Share your device’s data connection as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot
After a moment, the tablet starts broadcasting its Wi-Fi network name (SSID), so you can connect to it with up to 8 computers or other devices. An ongoing notification is added to the System bar, to the left of the time.
When Portable Wi-Fi hotspot is checked, you can change its network name or secure it. See Rename or secure your portable hotspot.
Uncheck Portable Wi-Fi hotspot to stop sharing your data connection via Wi-Fi.
Rename or secure your portable hotspot
You can change the name of your tablet’s Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and secure its Wi-Fi network.
The Configure Wi-Fi hotspot dialog opens.
You can change the network SSID (name) that other computers see when scanning for Wi-Fi networks.
You can also touch the Security menu to configure the network with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) security, with a preshared key (PSK).
If you touch the WPA2 PSK security option, a password field is added to the Configure Wi-Fi hotspot dialog. If you enter a password, you will need to enter that password when you connect to the tablet’s hotspot with a computer or other device. Or touch Open in the Security menu to remove security from your Wi-Fi network.
Voilà….Enjoy.
Adamu Fun Bala CSA; MD/CEO Lynxx Systems & Communication Technology LTD; 08035158065
Memory
Most laptops today ship with at least 4GB of RAM. Windows 8 is more memory-efficient than earlier Windows versions, so in many instances 4GB is enough for normal office or productivity use. If you create massive spreadsheets or edit large digital photos, however, you may want more than 4GB. If so, make sure that the system you’re considering is available with (or can accommodate) larger amounts of memory. Most Ultrabooks are limited to a fixed 4GB of RAM, with no option for the user to buy more or to upgrade the system.
Display
You can’t change your laptop display, so choose the LCD panel carefully. Two factors are relevant: the underlying panel technology and the resolution.
LCD panel technologies have remained fairly stable for the past few years. Though capacitive touchscreens are becoming more common, the underlying LCD panels continue to use one of three basic technologies: twisted nematic (TN), in-plane switching (IPS, S-IPS, and related variants), or vertical alignment (MVA or PVA).
TN panels are still the most common, mainly because these panels are the least expensive. Most budget laptops ship with TN technology. These LCDs have fast response times and good power efficiency, but their color depth is lower (usually 6 bits per pixel), so color accuracy for photo editing and video editing is subpar. TN panels also have a relatively narrow range of acceptable viewing angles, with severe contrast and color shifts visible in off-axis viewing.
IPS panels tend to offer more color depth and better color accuracy if properly implemented. The range of acceptable viewing angles is wider, too. Until recently, IPS panel response times were slow, which sometimes resulted in visible “smearing” of video or game content; but newer IPS panel variants have improved on their predecessors’ response times. IPS panels are increasingly common in high-end laptop models.
MVA or PVA panels, though less common, are available on some laptops. They offer a good balance of color accuracy and response time, but don’t stand out in any one category.
The other key factor to consider when choosing a panel is resolution. With Windows-based laptops, a greater number of pixels isn’t always better. Very high pixel densitiesas, for example, in a 1920-by-1080 display on an 11-inch LCDoften results in tiny, hard-to-read text. Sure, you can increase text size, but then you have to enlarge your open windows, which means that you can’t fit as many windows on-screen, negating the benefits of the higher resolution.
On the other hand, a 17-inch LCD that offers a resolution of only 1366 by 768 creates a visible “screen door” effect in which you can easily see individual pixels. This can be particularly annoying when you’re watching video content.
Storage
Storage is one of the hottest topics related to mobile PCs today, as solid-state drives become more popular. SSDs substantially decrease boot time and improve system responsiveness because they load applications and data faster. If a manufacturer offers an SSD as an upgrade option, you may be better off skipping a processor speed increase and getting the SSD instead. Often, SSDs are tied to premium models, however.
If you decide that you want an SSD, note that the minimum useful size for most users is 128GB. If you can afford it, 256GB is better, since Windows itself consumes between 20 and 30GB of drive space.
Some laptop users need a lot of storage. If you’re a videographer or a photographer who shoots in RAW format, the data files you capture can quickly chew up a lot of drive space. In that case, you might prefer a traditional rotating-media hard drive. Modern Intel-based laptops often have an option for improving hard-drive performance by adding a small SSDtypically 16GB to 32GBto cache hard-drive data. This arrangement is well worth its modest extra cost, as the caching SSD improves boot times and application load times. It won’t help overall application performance much, however, on systems that must frequently read from or write to the hard drive. If an SSD appeals to you, consider getting a USB 3.0, bus-powered portable hard drive as an accessory for your system.
Connectivity and ports
USB ports allow you to connect a keyboard, external storage, a docking station, and even some LCD displays to your system. Unfortunately, laptops commonly ship with too few USB ports. Most Ultrabooks, for example, have only two USB ports. If you’re lugging around external storage, you’ll want at least one USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) port to improve throughput (assuming that the portable hard drive supports USB 3.0).
Laptops have changed dramatically in the past few months, making buying choices more difficult. We help you navigate the mobile PC maze.PC World – Laptops used to be simple. Almost all of them had a clamshell design, with a display that folded onto the keyboard. You picked the laptop you needed based on factors like price, weight, and performance. But it’s different today: New form factors, different operating systems, and disparate user needs conspire to make choosing a laptop a complex chore.
Do core processor specs matter, or has system performance reached the point where users won’t even notice a 300MHz frequency bump? Should you buy a laptop at all, or would a tablet better suit your needs? I’ll answer all these questions and more as I explore the challenges of buying a laptop (or something like a laptop) in the age of Windows 8.
WATCH: Windows 8 video roundup
Define your needs and budget
Before you pull out your credit card, consider how you’ll be using your new machine. Perhaps you do a lot of business traveling, and carrying something lighter than your current 6-pound behemoth would improve your life on the road tremendously. Or maybe you’re looking for a shared family machine, or a laptop that you can hand off to a student to do schoolwork on. Or you might want a high-performance system that can deliver high frame rates in 3D games.
Let’s look at the main buying factors for each scenario.
Business laptop: If you’re a frequent business traveler, mobility and ruggedness are important laptop features for you. Consumer-grade laptops may look sleek and attractive, but many business-oriented units are built to absorb the shocks of constant travel. Hardcore performance is less important in this scenario than portability, sturdiness, and battery life.
Shared family PC: Many families used to share a small PC in the living room or family room. Desktop replacement laptopsgargantuan systems with 17-inch or larger screensoften fulfill that same role today. For many families, roomy screens and large hard drives outweigh such factors as top-of-the-line performance and battery life.
Student laptop: High school students may need laptops that support basic mobility, but not much elseand this helps keep the cost of the laptop low. Many college students need all-purpose machine that are more robust. Performance is a bigger consideration, too, but physical desk space is likely to be limited, so a smaller machine may make the most sense.
Gaming machine: PC gamers may be willing to accept more weight and less portability if the payoff is better performance. Such performance-oriented features as quad-core processors and high-end mobile GPUs require more-elaborate cooling technologies and bulkier cases, which in turn mean increased weight. The result can be a special-purpose laptop like the Razer Blade.
Regardless of your specific needs, make sure that you understand a laptop’s target user prior to buying it. Once you settle on the features you want, from most to least important, lock down a budget. Setting a budget will help you narrow down your choices. But make sure that your budget takes essential accessories into account. For example, students may need an external, portable hard drive for quick backups, and business users may want to spring for extended warranties with overnight replacements.
Finally consider whether you even need a laptop. Tablet sales have skyrocketed in the past couple of years, and for good reason: Tablets typically cost less than a full-fledged laptop, they’re much more portable, and they boot faster than most PCs. If you’re looking primarily for a mobile device for browsing the Web, watching video, and playing some light games, a tablet might fit the bill nicely.
Evolving form factors
Windows 8 has spurred a remarkable amount of innovation in laptop design. Some new laptops, such as the HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4, integrate a touchscreen into an otherwise standard clamshell design. Other, hybrid designslike Lenovo’s IdeaPad YogaA and Dell’s XPS 12use nifty conversion mechanisms to give users a touchscreen tablet and a laptop in a single physical package. Remember to keep a cautious eye on your budget, however. Windows 8 makes touch-capable displays extremely attractive, but adding touch technology to a machine increases its cost.
When considering one of the new hybrid designs, don’t lose sight of your needs assessment. If you’re a business traveler who makes frequent presentations to clients, a hybrid equipped with a touchscreen makes sense. Using a tablet and touch control to run a presentation is far easier than huddling around a clamshell and using its small trackpad.
But even if a hybrid PC looks great, make sure that it has the basics you need. For example, the Sony Duo 11 offers a good tablet experience, but its keyboard may not satisfy touch typists who have to do a lot of writing on their laptop.
Under the hood
Once you’ve clarified your needs and established a budget, you’re ready to dive into the world of internal components. Understanding what makes a laptop tick can help you choose your system wisely.
Processors
Intel processors that have the word “Core” in their name employ the company’s state-of-the-art CPUA architecture.A A
Ultrabooks and similar ultraportable laptop PCs use ultra-low-voltageA (ULV) CPUs. They’re the most power-efficient CPUs, meaning that they run cooler and can fit into systems with very thin cases. Intel ULV processors are often labeled with a “u”for example, the Core i5 3317u. You do forfeit some raw CPU performance, as the clock speeds of ULV processors aren’t especially high, and the ones sold today have only two processor cores.
Mainstream laptop CPUs of the type found in most all-purpose laptops offer better performance, but they also require more-effective cooling systems, which makes these systems heavier. High-end systems may carry quad-core CPUs, whose four CPU cores improve the performance of applications that can take advantage of them.
Another class of processor is the accelerated processing unit (APU). Built by AMD,A these CPUs have more-powerful integrated graphics engines than equivalentA Intel processors do. As a result, graphics-intensive tasks may run better on them, though their standard CPU performance is often lower. Systems configured with Intel CPUs may also have a separate GPU from Nvidia or AMD to boost graphics performance, albeit at the cost of increased weight and somewhat reduced battery life.
Steve Sinofsky
Microsoft described the departure of Mr. Sinfosky, a 23-year veteran of the company, as a mutual decision by Mr. Sinofsky and Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive of the company. Julie Larson-Green, another Microsoft veteran in its Windows division, will take over the leadership of all engineering responsibilities related to Windows. Tami Reller, the chief financial officer of the Windows division, will run business and marketing for the group.
This is a similar situation to Scott Forstall leaving Apple earlier this month. Sinofsky joined Microsoft in 1989, where he rose to become head of the Windows division in July 2009. Much like Forstall, he was an integral part in the development of Microsoft’s core products. The Microsoft veteran gave the following statement:
“It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company.”
Ballmer added:
“I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company. The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. We’ve built an incredible foundation with new releases of Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Server 2012 and ‘Halo 4,’ and great integration of services such as Bing, Skype and Xbox across all our products. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings.”
WinSuperSite obtained Synopsky’s letter:
Some might notice a bit of chatter speculating about this decision or timing. I can assure you that none could be true as this was a personal and private choice that in no way reflects any speculation or theories one might read-about me, opportunity, the company or its leadership.
The Verge obtained Ballmer’s letter to the Microsoft team:
Over the past few months we have delivered the foundation for a new era for Microsoft. From Office to Bing to Windows Phone and Windows Azure, to Xbox and of course Windows and Surface and everything in between, we’ve unleashed a huge wave of devices and services that people and businesses love. I simply couldn’t be more proud of the effort you have all put in to get us here and to set the foundation for our future. At the Windows launch in New York, at the Windows Phone event in San Francisco, and again at the Build event on Redmond campus, I was struck that while externally many people look at these events as the finish line, they really represent the starting line of a new era.
As we enter this new era, and with the successful launch of Windows 8 and Surface behind us, Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave the company. Steven joined Microsoft in 1989 as a software development engineer and has contributed to the company in many ways from his work as a technical advisor to Bill Gates, to leading the evolution of the Microsoft Office business, to his direction and successful leadership of Windows and Windows Live as well as Surface. I am grateful for the work that Steven has delivered in his time at our company. Effective immediately, Julie Larson-Green will lead Windows engineering. She will be responsible for all product development for Windows and Windows Live, in addition to Surface. Julie has been a stalwart leader of building compelling “experiences” from her time on Internet Explorer, through the evolution of Office and most recently to the re-imagination of Windows. Her unique product and innovation perspective and proven ability to effectively collaborate and drive a cross company agenda will serve us well as she takes on this new leadership role. All of the current Windows engineering teams will report into Julie, and Julie will report to me.
Tami Reller will lead business and marketing strategy for Windows including Surface and partner devices. She will provide broad stewardship to our PC marketing efforts while managing the line business functions for Windows. Her work on Windows since 2007 has been exemplary and her strong talents in working with internal groups and partners will also serve us well. Tami also will report to me.
We are facing a time of great opportunity. What we have accomplished over the past few years is nothing short of amazing, and I know we have more amazing in us. I am excited about our people, I am energized by our ability to change and grow, and I look forward to the success which lies ahead. Thank you for all you do, and please join me in congratulating our new leadership and celebrating all that we have accomplished so far.
When talking about a cloud computing system, it’s helpful to divide it into two sections: the front endand the back end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the “cloud” section of the system.
The front end includes the client’s computer (or computer network) and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Not all cloud computing systems have the same user interface. Services like Web-based e-mail programs leverage existing Web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other systems have unique applications that provide network access to clients.
On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the “cloud” of computing services. In theory, a cloud computing system could include practically any computer program you can imagine, from data processing to video games. Usually, each application will have its own dedicated server.
A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other. Most of the time, servers don’t run at full capacity. That means there’s unused processing power going to waste. It’s possible to fool a physical server into thinking it’s actually multiple servers, each running with its own independent operating system. The technique is called server virtualization. By maximizing the output of individual servers, server virtualization reduces the need for more physical machines.
If a cloud computing company has a lot of clients, there’s likely to be a high demand for a lot of storage space. Some companies require hundreds of digital storage devices. Cloud computing systems need at least twice the number of storage devices it requires to keep all its clients’ information stored. That’s because these devices, like all computers, occasionally break down. A cloud computing system must make a copy of all its clients’ information and store it on other devices. The copies enable the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. Making copies of data as a backup is called redundancy
You probably have heard this term a number of times and have wondered what it could mean. What? Cloud computing? It is interesting to know that this has been around for some time now, but all thanks to a number of concerns/fears. However, it seems to be set to explode and transform the IT industry. For good? this is left to be seen. Now let’s say you’re an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn’t enough — you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It’s so stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.
Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you’d only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It’s called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.
In a cloud computing system, there’s a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user’s side decrease. The only thing the user’s computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system’s interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud’s network takes care of the rest.
There’s a good chance you’ve already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you’ve had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist on your computer — it’s on the service’s computer cloud.
What makes up a cloud computing system? Find out in the next Post.
Oct. 26, 2012 (Bloomberg) – Microsoft Corp. introduced the biggest overhaul of its flagship Windows software in two decades, reflecting the rising stakes in its competition with Apple Inc. and Google Inc. for the loyalty of customers who are shunning personal computers and flocking to mobile devices.
“This is the biggest product we’ve ever done,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television, comparing it with the arrival of the PC in 1981 and the introduction of Windows 95.
Microsoft packed the new Windows with touch-screen capabilities, designed to vault the company into the tablet market dominated by Apple’s iPad. To avoid being left behind as computing increasingly shifts to mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, the company radically altered Windows’ familiar design and scrapped a strategy that had it relying entirely on partners to produce Windows computers.
ADVERTISEMENT
“In creating Windows 8, we shunned the incremental,” Windows President Steven Sinofsky said at an event to mark the product’s release today at New York’s Pier 57. Windows 8 and the company’s first-ever computer, the Surface tablet, go on sale tomorrow.
More than 1,000 computers have been certified for Windows 8, Sinofsky said. That will include the first Windows machines capable of running on chips with technology from ARM Holdings Plc, instead of Intel Corp. Besides Microsoft’s own Surface, the list of ARM-powered machines includes computers from Dell Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Asustek Computer Inc. These run a version called Windows RT.
Still, Surface and the other Windows RT machines will be constrained in competition with Apple because they don’t work with some of the most widely used downloadable applications. The RT-based machines can only run apps from Microsoft’s new Windows store, which won’t feature applications for Facebook Inc.’s social-networking service or Apple’s iTunes music store.
The Windows store does have some popular apps, including those from media-streaming companies Hulu LLC and Netflix Inc. Still, Microsoft won’t say how many apps are available for the operating system, and the lack of a broad range of games, tools and other downloadable software will detract from the Surface in a head-to-head comparison against the iPad and its more than 275,000 apps.
“Part of me had hoped that we’d see more killer apps,” said Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Washington. “Consumers who buy into the platform on Friday — unless we start seeing an abundance of apps — are buying into a promissory note that the apps will arrive.”
Machines with Windows 8 that run chips from Intel can run older Windows programs.
Downloadable applications have become central to the way customers use tablet computers, and one of Apple’s selling points is its leadership in apps. The company introduced a smaller, lower-cost version of the iPad earlier this week, part of CEO Tim Cook’s effort to keep budget-conscious shoppers from turning to inexpensive tablets sold by competitors such as Amazon.com Inc. The iPad mini is available for early orders tomorrow, the same day Surface hits stores.
The PC market will contract by 1.2 percent to 348.7 million units this year, according to IHS ISuppli. That would be the first annual decline since 2001. Microsoft is relying on the new operating system to revive interest in the PC and carve out a position for Windows in the tablet market, which is picking up consumers defecting from PCs.
Microsoft has had a lot of interest in writing applications for the operating system and has had to add staff and computers to process and approve the submissions, Antoine Leblond, the vice president in charge of the Windows app store, said in an interview.
Because apps written for the program can be sold not just to tablet users but to hundreds of millions of customers who will get Windows 8 on PCs, Microsoft has a chance to win over more developers, Leblond said.
“Microsoft feels pretty strongly that the platform they have built is compelling to both users and developers,” Directions on Microsoft’s Miller said. “Time will tell if both are true.”
Miller’s own examination of the Windows app store indicates there were 7,873 apps worldwide earlier this week, with hundreds being added daily.
Still, Facebook, for example, only writes apps for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating system, and the company opted not to do Windows, a person familiar with the matter said in May. Microsoft could have written a Facebook app on its own using Facebook’s open standards, which is what the Windows Phone group did when similarly faced with a possible dearth of apps in 2010. Leblond also notes that Windows RT customers can go to Facebook’s website through their browser and get a similar experience to the app.
Instead, the Windows group focused their budget on workshops to train developers and resources to help them write apps, Leblond said. More than 400,000 people have attended developer camps run by the company, he said.
Besides Hulu and Netflix, the new Windows will also have apps such as the Skype Internet-calling service and Evernote Corp.’s note-taking tool. A version of Rovio Entertainment Oy’s Angry Birds game will be available Nov. 8.
At the end of trading Thursday, Microsoft shares slipped less than 1 percent to $27.88 at the close in New York. The stock has gained 7.4 percent this year.
Adamu Fun Bala CSA; MD/CEO Lynxx Systems & Communication Technology LTD; 08035158065
Adamu Fun Bala 