Beirut Blend

WINDOWS new look or the same??

Windows are soon going to launch with its new windows 8 but the excitment is whats new this time by microsoft for its consumers.Looking from the view point of marketing what exactly the internet addictives office workers business and other enterprises expect from the company the ans is just with microsoft windows 8. Features would be same but with new changes helping it more n more for the betterment of quick work n enhancement
now we have to wait n watch the launch of new windows8

Windows 8 coming soon

As we’ve known for some time, Microsoft had already begun work on Windows 8 before Windows 7 was completed. The reason being that different teams work on different aspects of the operating system, which is why Microsoft was able to do this. Microsoft previously shed some light on what we can see in Windows 8 through a job description.
It appears though, that one specific Microsoft employee was not too careful with their LinkedIn profile, and had accidentally leaked some interesting details regarding Windows 8. According to his LinkedIn profile, which seems to have had many of its details removed, Robert Murdon has been working at Microsoft since January 2002. Windows 8 News managed to catch this on the Microsoft employee’s LinkedIn profile before it disappeared:

“Robert Morgan is working to get IA-128 working backwards with full binary compatibility on the existing IA-64 instructions in the hardware simulation to work for Windows 8 and definitely Windows 9.”
“Robert Morgan is using Hestia (custom software package) for experimenting with the processor for scientific analysis and 3D graphics. Error: Memory Latency? Always gotta be a challenge barrier, it’s gotta be a bug in Hestia. right?!”
“Robert Morgan is frustrated with process standards and regulations! Delays Delays!”

Murdon seems certain that we will see 128-bit compatibility with Windows 9, while it appears that whether we will see it in Windows 8 or not is still uncertain. Coincidentally, many do believe that Windows 7 will be Microsoft’s last 32-bit OS. So could this mean we will see Windows 8 come in 64-bit and 128-bit flavors? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Apple version iphone coming in early 2011

Apple will release the iPhone on Verizon in early 2011, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who decided to fully incorporate the device on its new carrier into his predictive model.

"Our model assumes Verizon launches the iPhone in early- or mid-[2011]," Munster wrote in his analysis, as quoted Dec. 15 by The Wall Street Journal. "While we do not know the timing of the launch, we have modeled it to occur midway through the Mar-11 quarter."

Munster joins a growing chorus that declares the iPhone on Verizon virtually a done deal. An October report in The Wall Street Journal, quoting people "briefed by Apple," suggested that Apple had slated a late-2010 production start for iPhones capable of running on Verizon's CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network. Before that, sources told the blog TechCrunch in August that Apple had ordered millions of Qualcomm CDMA chipsets for the upcoming smartphone.

Other publications have also confirmed that a Verizon iPhone is in the works. "Fortune has confirmed that a Verizon iPhone will be released in early 2011," reads an Oct. 29 article in that publication by Sarah Ellison, who paraphrases "people familiar" with the situation as terming the device "a fait accompli." The New York Times has also insisted that the Verizon iPhone will appear within the next few months, citing unnamed sources.

This summer, Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe suggested that a Verizon iPhone wouldn't necessarily cannibalize customers from AT&T, which, for the moment, has a lock on the device in the U.S.

The "iPhone would be a plus for Verizon, but not a seismic industry change, given the relative stickiness of smartphone customers," Ratcliffe wrote in that June 22 research note. "[The] primary source of Verizon iPhone [subscribers] would be pent-up demand by existing Verizon [subscribers]." He predicted that, while between 500,000 and 1 million AT&T customers would switch to Verizon's iPhone, the net total of Verizon subscribers would only increase by 900,000 in 2011.

Documents indicate that AT&T is resigned to losing its grip on the iPhone. "We believe offering a wide variety of handsets reduces the dependence on any single handset as these products evolve," the carrier wrote in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the quarter ended June 30. "In addition, offering a number of attractive handsets on an exclusive basis distinguishes us from our competitors."

The reference to "any single handset" was seen by some analysts as a reference to the iPhone. A recent research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu suggests that, as a Verizon iPhone comes "closer to reality," the carrier may be negotiating to prevent competitors Sprint and T-Mobile from obtaining iPhones of their own.

Google n eclipse

Google has contributed some of its core Java tools technology to the Eclipse Foundation to launch two new Eclipse projects.

In a Dec 15 blog post, Eric Clayberg, software engineering manager for Google developer tools, said Google has donated the source code and related intellectual property from two of the products the search giant gained in its acquisition of Instantiations to the Eclipse Foundation. Clayberg was vice president of product development at Instantiations before moving over to Google via the acquisition. Instantiations specialized in making tools for the Eclipse platform, among other things.

“This donation includes WindowBuilder, the leading Eclipse Java GUI Designer, and CodePro Profiler, which identifies Java code performance issues,” Clayberg said. “Specifically, the WindowBuilder Engine and designers for SWT and Swing. All in all, this is a value of more than $5 million dollars worth of code and IP.”

WindowBuilder is a Java-based GUI builder. It includes functionality for creating user interfaces based on the popular Swing, SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit), GWT (Google Web Toolkit), Rich Client Platform (RCP) and X M L Windowing Toolkit (XWT) UI frameworks. And CodePro Profiler is an Eclipse-based Java application profiling tool that helps developers identify performance issues early in the development cycle and find CPU and algorithmic bottlenecks, memory leaks, threading issues, and other concurrency-related problems that can slow down an application or cause it to hang.

Both WindowBuilder and CodePro Profiler will become Eclipse projects in the first half of 2011, Clayberg said. “Once each one is set up as a project and available for download from the Eclipse site, the products will be accessible to use as open source code under the standard Eclipse license,” he said. “I am looking forward to leading the WindowBuilder project.”

Mike Milinkovich, executive director of Eclipse, said, “This is clearly a significant new project announcement, and very good news for Java developers using Eclipse. It has been impressive to see the continued growth and popularity of WindowBuilder, as this product has always filled a much needed gap in the Eclipse offerings. We look forward to it appearing in an Eclipse release soon. We’re very pleased with Google’s generous support of Eclipse, and the Java developer community around the world.”

Clayberg said various members of the community and Eclipse ecosystem have expressed interest in contributing to the new projects. As commercial support is important to many users of open-source technology, Genuitec, makers of MyEclipse, will provide commercial support for the WindowBuilder based products including the SWT, Swing Designer and even the GWT Designer from Google. Similarly, OnPositive intends to offer commercial support for CodePro Profiler, as well as lead as the committers on the Eclipse Community Project. Users can sign up on the Genuitec site or the OnPositive site for more information.

"Genuitec is pleased to offer commercial support for WindowBuilder-based products - Swing, SWT and GWT - in early 2011 for companies who wish to continue a paid support contract once their Google support expires,” said Maher Masri, president of Genuitec, in a statement. “We've been involved with the Eclipse Foundation since the beginning, so we are very familiar with these products. Thus, providing commercial support for this product line is a natural fit for us.”

"It will be very interesting to see if the existing commercial WindowBuilder customers would prefer to use these tools as part of a customized MyEclipse installation, a new stand-alone commercial product, or if the OSS [open source software] distributions without support will prove sufficient for them,” said Todd Williams, vice president of technology at Genuitec. “In any event, we will certainly be adding these excellent tools to both MyEclipse and our Pulse distribution service, thereby making them easily available to the thousands of enterprise customers in our large commercial network. That alone will be a huge win for Google, Genuitec, and our customers."

“Over the years OnPositive has built up unique experience with the CodePro Profiler and we are excited to offer commercial support for it.  Google’s donation ensures that Java developers can build faster applications,” said Pavel Petrochenko, president of OnPositive, in a statement.

Blackberry counts on third quater place

Research In Motion, in a frantic fight to keep its BlackBerry sales strong in the face of fierce competition from Apple’s iPhones and smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system, announced strong third-quarter financial numbers Dec. 16, ahead of analyst expectations.

Fueled by such devices as the BlackBerry Torch and Curve, RIM reported record BlackBerry smartphone sales, revenues of $5.49 billion, and 5.1 million new BlackBerry subscriber accounts.

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsilie said the numbers reflected the company’s strong product lines and the anticipation around upcoming offerings, include its Playbook tablet, which is expected to hit the market in 2011.

“RIM’s business continues to grow and diversify as BlackBerry adoption accelerates in markets around the world,” Balsillie said in a statement. “With strong results and momentum from our recent product introductions, as well as growing excitement from our partners and customers around upcoming smartphone, tablet, software and services offerings, we are setting the stage for continuing success.”

The quarterly revenues were a 19 percent jump over the second quarter, and a 40 percent increase over the same period in 2009. In addition, earnings per share were up 58 percent, and the record 14.2 million BlackBerry shipments were a 40 percent increase over the third quarter last year.

However, despite the strong numbers, RIM continues to find itself in tight competition with Apple and Android devices, which are strong in the consumer space and are gaining traction in the enterprise market, traditionally RIM’s domain.

ITG Investment Research said in a report Dec. 13 that Android-running handsets—such as Motorola’s Droid and Samsung’s Fascinate Galaxy S—have overtaken BlackBerry smartphones as the top sellers on Verizon Wireless’ network. In another turn, reports last month indicated that Apple was hiring away members of RIM’s enterprise sales team in hopes of selling more iPhones and iPads into corporate accounts.

At the time, analyst Rob Enderle said RIM was going to continue to have difficulty hanging onto its strong enterprise market share.

"The corporate market is RIM's market, and Apple has been closing on the company steadily while RIM has shown little ability to really fight back,” Enderle said in an interview. “RIM either needs to significantly up their game or plan to cede this market to Apple, Google and even Microsoft."

RIM executives don’t sound like they’re ready to cede anything to anyone. Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco Dec. 7, was asked about the enterprise threat posed by Apple and Google. He reportedly replied that “today, we have several car manufacturers out there. We’re going to find the same thing with smartphones.”

Both he and Balsillie, who was responding to a question during the Dec. 16 earnings conference call with analysts and journalists, pointed to the Playbook as a key product going into 2011. Balsillie said he expected a move away from Apple’s iPad.

“I think the PlayBook redefines what a tablet should do,” Balsillie said, according to a transcript from the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think we've articulated some elements of it, and I think this idea of a proprietary SDK and unnecessary apps—though there's a huge role for apps—I think is going to shift in the market, and I think it's going to shift very, very quickly. And I think there's going to be a strong appetite for Web fidelity and tool familiarity.”

Apple growing through per second

Apple has released a list of its top-grossing iPhone apps in 2010. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the list is dominated by entertainment apps, particularly games. Of the more productivity-related programming, iPhone and iPod Touch users evidently placed a high premium on navigation, shelling out $50 for the TomTom U.S.A. app, optimized for the iPhone 4, and free worldwide VOIP (voice over IP) calls. Baseball also ranked high, with many users downloading the MLB.com At Bat app. Despite a growing challenge from Google Android, Apple remains strong in the consumer smartphone space. Third-party developers have flocked to the company's App Store as a revenue generator, populating the online storefront with hundreds of thousands of apps. As a result, an app exists for many of life's tasks big and small. Faced with such a galaxy of choice, though, most iPhone and iPod Touch owners seem to want apps for one vital, all-consuming function: blowing zombies to smithereens.Apple in the end rocks