Fascinating research projects presented at Microsoft’s TechFest 2010

When brains at Microsoft Research Labs are at work, we can  definitely expect some path breaking techno developments. Techfest 2010 at Redmond witnessed many such demos on various projects. Lets have a look at some of them:

1. The Translating phone and The Transcriptor: Transcriptor generates a live transcript of the coversation we have over a call on a PC based communicator. The scripts are merged in email as well for searching.

The Translator is a wonderful concept that takes away the about the difference of language we might have over an important client call or anything like that. The translator translates the speech of the person on the other side of the phone to the language you want at real time. This 2-way translator also generates a live translated transcript. Find out more about the project @ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/transcriptor/default.aspx

2. Project Gustav: Project Gustav is a creative endeavor of Microsoft to make digital painting a perfect realistic experience. It is a realistic painting system prototype that simulates natural, real-world painting environment.

For a better knowhow of the project visit the official page on Project Gustav.

3. Skinput: Skinput is a technology that favors the skin of our body to be used as an input device. Various signals like location of finger taps are collected by sensors worn as armbands. To know more about the Skinput check out http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/gustav/default.aspx

4. Mobile Surface: It aims at making any surface around you as a touch interface surface by linking together a mobile device, camera and a projector. It allows you to project an image on any surface and interact with it even without touching the image.

Click on http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/mobilesurface/default.aspx for more information.

An altogether new world of technologies. Exciting!! Isn’t it?? Lets wait and watch how these project finally turn out. Till then keep reading and commenting.

Microsoft to launch OneApp for not smartphones 

It is iPhone or Blackberry, the dream smartphone for most where one can sent a tweet; check the important emails as well make a purchase while listening to the latest music tunes. But a distant dream to owe such a high-end phone for lot many people. There is an ever increasing market potential for mobile phone usage in the emerging market economies. According to Gartner, the mobile-phone usage in India alone is going to take a quantum leap from usage of 38.7 percent in 2009 to almost 63.5 percent in 2013. 

Microsoft, the leading software giant has been quick to tap this huge market potential. And read on to know what they are going to launch in two weeks time from now. 

Microsoft has developed software called OneApp that will allow users with non-smartphone devices to send a message in facebook and check their emails. This software has been the result of research by Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group that uses their brain to bring out revolutionary ideas and products for poor people living in the developing countries. 

So, how much memory will this particular application software from Microsoft will eat up? The answer is simple and that is not much. This is because it has been so designed that feature phones can use and access one application at a time and the graphics will not have high resolution as the iPhones or Blackberry. 

Amit Mital who leads the team of researchers of Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft is of the opinion that this software program will not eat up a lot of energy. The underlying reasons behind developing this application are: 

First, to tap the growing market potential in the developing countries as people would love to have smarter feature phones since there is a growing market demand for applications for low-end phones. 

Second, Microsoft wants the concept of Cloud Computing to take a big leap so that low-end consumers with their handsets would be able to access the cloud computing services of this IT giant. This will enable the company to enhance their market share manifold. 

Third, though this OneApp program is designed for the developing countries nonetheless it might get popular with the developed-world consumers when they would find that applications can be used without much usage of data storage and energy. 

Next, Microsoft wants to soak their feet in the promotion of mobile wallets and that is using of mobile phones as a purchasing tool. This has led to the tie up of Microsoft with Blue Label Telecom that has become popular for its mobile-wallet concept usage as the company does lot of mobile phone payments. 

The launch of OneApp will initially feature a lot of free applications but soon growing entrepreneurs and programmers can generate revenue by developing application for this program and thereby charging for the same. 

So, if you cannot owe an iPhone or Blackberry, don’t be worried. Just be happy as Microsoft is here to make your dream come true with OneApp that will transform dumb phones into smartphones. 

Ain’t this good… keep checking for more updates on this. Would like to hear your comments as well.

ZUNE HD :  Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s iPod touch

Microsoft is all set to make its presence felt in the portable digital media player market with the launch of its touch screen mp3 player named Zune HD on 15^th September 2009.

credit: cnet.com

This sleek and stylish gadget is loaded with some serious high end features like:

• HD radio in this device is considered as the biggest breakthrough in portable media players with
• The OLED  3.3– inch glass touch screen, 16:9 display(480X272 pixel resolution) that it possesses, promises you an unparalleled entertainment experience using less power
• For people who enjoy big screen viewing, it is possible to connect Zune HD to a HD TV in 720 p through a HDMI A/V docking station(Separately available).
• First time in the Zune series of mp3 players, there is a web browser, Internet Explorer Mobile 6, packed with tap-to-zoom technology, Qwerty Keyboard and a built in accelerometer, which enables you to have a perfect full screen browsing experience
• It is powered by a Nvidia Tegra processor and supported by Windows CE operating system.
• Zune HD is wifi enabled supporting instant streaming from enormous tracks on zune music store
• It takes 3 hrs to charge when done through PC and 2 hrs when done through AC adapters.
• The 16GB model will be black in colour and 32-GB in platinum for pre-orders and later many more colours are expected to join the league.

Let’s see how and why it might prove as a tough competition for Apple’s iPod, the unquestioned leader:

For the gadget freaks who are getting impatient to have hands-on the device, they can go ahead and do so in a Best Buy store on August 22^nd and August 23^rd and pay $25 for a pre-order. Also it is open for pre-orders since August 13, 2009 in Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and Microsoft.

Check out the cool one … wait for few days !

Steve Ballmer: The CEO of Microsoft Corp

credit: Microsoft

Steven Anthony Ballmer, popularly known as Steve Ballmer, took the command of the software Giant Microsoft Corporation in his hand as CEO on January 13, 2000. Let’s take a sneak-peak into the life of yet another multi billionaire Steve (considering Steve jobs, Steve Wozniak, Steve Spielberg, Steve Gerrard, Steve Waugh and many more) who has made it big in life…

 His early years… 

Steve Ballmer was born on March 24, 1956, to Frederic Henry Ballmer, a Swiss (who worked as manager in Ford Motors in Belgium) and Beatrice Dworkin, a Jewish American. He spent his childhood in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Detroit completing his schooling from Detroit Country Day School.  

He got into Harvard University, winning a scholarship for the same with a perfect 800 in mathematics in SAT, and completed his Bachelor’s in mathematics and economics in 1977. Not only was he a mathematics geek, he also managed the football team; he was the advertising manager of The Harvard Crimson Newspaper and The Harvard Advocate. It was Harvard University where he became friends with his dorm mate Bill Gates.  

His life after College:

He worked for two years (1977-79) as assistant Product Manager at Proctor & Gamble and then he decided to go for an MBA in Stanford Graduate School of Business. But soon, after a year he quit MBA to join Microsoft Corp, founded by his friend Bill Gates.

His tryst with Microsoft began on June 11, 1980, as its 24^th employee and also as the first Business Manager in company’s history. He was offered a salary of $50,000 and some percentage of ownership of the company. This dynamic leader headed several departments and projects in MS like Operating Systems Development, sales and support, operations. Eventually on January 13, 2000 he was made the CEO of Microsoft and Bill Gates stepped down as the over all lead. 

Some interesting facts and figures about Steve Ballmer: 

1. His annual compensation: $ 1,350, 834 (Rs 6, 75, 41,700).
2. He has served as board of directors for :
   • Accenture Ltd
   • Accenture SCA
   • Detroit Country Day School
3. He is the 43^rd richest man in world according to Forbes 2008 World’s Richest People Ranking with a mammoth wealth of $11 billion in his name.
4. He is also famous for reasons with a difference, like for screaming the word ‘developers’ continuously in the developer’s conference and acting crazy by screaming and jumping on a presentation. To have a look at these you can click on the links below : 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE 

Awards and Recognition:

1. He was honoured with a citizenship of Lausen, Switzerland on October 4, 2007.
2. He is named Cannes lions Media Person of the Year 2009

 Personal Life: 

This Flamboyant Jewish American CEO is married to Connie Snyder since 1990 (She was in Microsoft’s PR team in 80s) and the couple has three sons.He also plans to own NBA in partnership with his colleague Paul Allen(another Microsoft big shot).  He along with Bill Gates shares the honour of being with Microsoft Corp for the longest duration.

Benefits of using Windows Azure:

In simple words, Azure benefits the developers, Independent Software Vendors, Business Partners and any Third parties with their solutions.

Infrastructure Management made Simple: Since services platform manages many critical OS updates and management tasks, more focus can be put for the needs of the users. Also, eliminating the expensive hardware planning and management.

For the Developers: Millions of .Net developers, can utilize their skills to create cloud-based applications that are scalable across on-premises and online. In future, applications written on Ruby on Rails (RoR),Python, Php can also be deployed.

Standards Compatibility: Since Azure platform supports all industry standard protocols like HTTP, SOAP, REST etc., applications can be easily integrated though built on different technologies.

Enhanced User Experiences: With Windows Azure a variety of applications can be developed for web, mobile and hybrid domain. These applications can also easily get integrated with existing or third-party applications.

Faster: Since the Azure platform is offering lot of services up-front, applications will be created and deployed faster than custom way.

Development Tools

• Complete offline development environment, including computation and storage services
• Complete command-line SDK tools and samples
• Visual Studio add-in that enables local debugging

source: microsoft.com

 Read Related: What is Windows Azure in Part 1

Windows Azure Platform

Microsoft’s first step into Cloud Computing is by providing cloud platform known as Windows Azure. It is a platform that provides with wide range of services for both internets as well as on-premise environment. In simple words, Windows Azure platform allows applications to be hosted, managed as well as to run at Microsoft datacenters.

The hosting environment of Windows Azure is called Fabric controller. Besides supporting Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages, Windows Azure platform welcomes third party languages as well such as Ruby, Python, PHP and Eclipse to usher in enhanced cloud-based computing capabilities. Additionally, the open architecture of Windows Azure platform enables developers to build web applications that will run on PCs, connected devices or servers, thus providing with best of hybrid solutions for both on-premises and online. The environment also supports multiple internet protocols such as HTTP, SOAP, XML and REST. It can also integrate well with Microsoft Visual Studio for development of Azure-based applications.

Windows Azure Platform includes following five services that the developers can use to run the applications in the cloud.

Live Services:
It is the building block for the developers to build rich social applications for larger section of population in web. Using the Live Services components, developers can build applications as well as mash up.

SQL Azure services:
It is the relational database that allows search, relational queries as well as data synchronization with remote offices and mobile devices. In simple words it offers data storage capabilities. This Microsoft SQL Azure can store as well as retrieve unstructured, semi-structured and structured data and information.

.Net services:
This service can be used to secure applications as well as for communication across all applications. One can create federated applications using Microsoft’s .Net services so that the applications can span from on-line premises to the cloud.

Sharepoint services & Dynamics CRM services:
These are the other two components which the developers will be using in the long run to build strong customer relationship. These two capabilities integrated in applications will enhance cloud-computing experience manifold.

Read also Azure Benefits … to complete the knowledge cycle. Keep reading!

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft announced the technical preview of the much awaited MS Office 2010 at Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on 13^th July, 2009 and unveiled the enhancements to MS Office 2007.  The development of Office 2010, codenamed as Office 14, started in 2006. This will be the first office application to be available both in 32-bit and 64-bit version.

The key features that Microsoft claims to have added across all applications in the MS Office 2010 package:

1. The applications will be available on your phone, PC and web. MS Word, excel, power point, OneNote becoming web based is one of the major leaps Microsoft is making through Office 2010. A lighter and free, web version of office 2010 can be accessed across devices (PC, phone etc) and will be available anytime, anywhere.  This cloud based web application will have fewer features than the desktop version of MS Office 2010 but will be good enough to edit and make changes in the document.
2. The ‘Ribbon User Interface’ (Ribbon is a combination of tool bar and tab bar which we see at top in most of our Office 2007 applications) is upgraded and is extended to all the applications including MS Outlook, MS Visio, OneNote, Project and Publisher.
3. Backstage view is something which is going to attract all of us. It acts as a substitute to the usual ‘File Menu’. This will redefine our experience of opening a new doc, with a good layout of templates of new document, different ways to share our work, different print settings and page layouts at one place.

Here goes the detailed analysis of enhancements of few applications in MS Office 2010 suite:

Microsoft Word 2010:

1. More than one user can work at a time on the same document at the same time. Word will alert the two or more users who are working on the same doc when the changes need to be synchronized with their document.
2.  We can have the live preview of paste function.
3. Word 2010 diminishes the use of ‘Print screen button’.  It is capable of taking screenshots directly from the word document by clicking on “screenshot “ .
4. We can remove the background of the picture directly, we need not use Photoshop.
5. Word 2010 makes available the visual panes with which it becomes very easy to navigate through the document.
6. Few amazing art effects are added in ‘word art’.  Features like pencil sketch, chalk sketch, glow edges, photocopy are included ‘artistic effect’.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010:

1.  PowerPoint is powered to edit a video and image within itself with the help of basic video and photo editing tools.
2. We can share a slide with others via browser.

Microsoft Excel 2010:

1. One of the cutting edge feature of excel 2010 is ‘Sparklines’. It gives a visual snapshot image of the data trend over time with in a cell.
2. We can toss between tabs to access formula, insert diagrams and charts and get data from the connected source.
3. More kinds of charts are included in this version of excel and this will help us analyze the data more effectively.

Microsoft Outlook 2010:

1. The most striking feature is the ‘Ribbon user interface’ that Outlook possesses now,  like word, PowerPoint  and excel.
2. With improved search functionality it is easier to search contents.
3. The calendar can be previewed in e-mail itself.

Microsoft Share point 2010:

1. Like Word, Excel, SharePoint 2010 is also going to use ‘Ribbon user interface’.
2. The authors of the document can be tagged and they can be shared more easily.

There is an interesting trivia associated with Office 2010 being codenamed as Office 14 after MS Office 2007 being codenamed as Office 12. The version number 13 was not considered due to the “Number 13 phobia”.

The web-based MS Office 2010 is looked at as a huge challenge to Google docs and it will be in market in first quarter of 2010. So we need to wait for quite sometime before we experience the new, rich version of MS office.