Microsoft Corp.co-founder Bill Gates said he supports chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, as rival Apple Inc. overtook Microsoft last month to become the technology company with the highest market capitalization.

“I happen to like the things that Steve’s doing,” Gates said when asked if he had confidence in Ballmer, according to the transcript of an interview for broadcast later on Sunday on ABC’s This Week programme. “It’s not my full-time work, but as a board member, you know, I see a lot of great things going on.”

Apple became the most valuable technology firm in the world on 26 May. Cupertino, California-based Apple’s market capitalization was $230.70 billion (Rs10.8 trillion) as of 11 June; Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s was $224.90 billion.

Asked why Apple overtook Microsoft, Gates said: “Oh, Microsoft is doing a lot of great stuff,” and that the opportunities in the software industry are pretty phenomenal.

“The way that people think about TV, the way they think about reading, about learning, software is going to revolutionize that,” said Gates.

Asked about the economy Gates said the President can’t just pull the levers and make the economy take off. He said reducing the US budget deficit will be difficult. “It’s a tricky thing, because almost everybody agrees we need to keep spending up, you know, not take all country deficits to zero right away. But over time, you have to move in that direction,” he said.

Gates also repeated his call for the US government to increase spending on clean-energy research and development. “Without such research, the problem we’ll run into is that we’ll have more crises like the oil spill and we’ll have the supply disruption. We’ll start to see more and more effects of the climate problem. The costs will go up because you’re looking for oil in harder and harder places,“ Gates said

Courtesy Livemint(Joshua Zumbrun) June14

Now no more wait, Microsoft has announced the imminent availability of public beta version of Service pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 at TechEd 2010 annual conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (June 7-10 2010).

” Today, at TechEd, we are pleased to announce that by the end of July we will be releasing the public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. ” - Microsoft Corporation

According to them expectation seems that we will be having SP1 Public Beta in the next one or two weeks.

Current assembly build tag for Windows 7/ Server 2008 R2 SP1 as follows :
6.1.7601.16562.win7sp1_beta.100603-1800 – actual build in win7sp1_beta branch
6.1.7601.16561.win7sp1_beta.100527-1447 – previous build
6.1.7601.16560.win7sp1_beta.100524-1800 – previous build
6.1.7601.16559.win7sp1_beta.100506-1349 – previous build

Over the years of continues improvement of Microsoft Infrastructures and its business tactics, many company choose Microsoft products over Google apps. The saying of some of its consumer is Google is just focusing on its Advertising business and they released Google apps to serve people more advertising. With Hidden Costs. Document Fidelity. Security Concerns. Lack of Roadmap. and no support.

Here are some of the point which has been collected from some of the old Google consumers by Microsoft Itself.

“Google Apps is not an enterprise-class solution. It’s a consumer solution, and we did not want to risk our business on it.” – Credit Immobilier de France

“The Google applications just weren’t robust enough to compete with Office Outlook functionality,” – James C. Nolan Law Firm

“Many of the things you normally expect to be able to do at an enterprise IT management level were not available with Google Apps—things like the ability to easily manage groups and users.” Vinci PLC

“Google has Google Docs and Google Sites, but what’s the point of having Google Docs when everyone is working in Office Word…If I threw Google in the mix, I’d have to code all that integration.“ Kellwood

“The ability to have an archiving solution that integrates more fully with our e-mail system gives us a level of integration that we never had before when we using the Google Apps platform” – Phaeton Automotive Group

“The Microsoft online and offline applications complement each other. Google is online only and posed compatibility and formatting issues” Competitiveness.

“When we looked at the actual difference in price over a 12-month period, and the amount of grief we’d have gone through with Google, sticking with Microsoft was the clear-cut choice.” -SBFI

“Yes, we might have saved one or two dollars per month going with Google Apps, but it wasn’t worth it. Selecting software that makes it more difficult to work is the wrong way to save money.” – SaaS IT

Apart from these there are more companies which values Microsoft Solution effective over Google Apps. – Case study.

It has been 18 months since Microsoft has launched mobile barcode technology, “Microsoft Tag”. In that time, more than one billion Tags have been printed by people and businesses all over the world, more than 20 million magazines with Tags were in the hands of U.S. consumers. Today, Microsoft has made an announcement of its final availability.

This specifically means you will be able to generate and use Tags that link to our standard scenarios and use the reader application at no cost. By simply going to Tag.Microsoft.com, you can create Tags and deliver rich interactive experiences on mobile phones.

Microsoft also has a plan to offer the ability to create richer, more powerful, and more effective solutions and experiences through a variety of value-added services, such as advanced reporting and analytics and real-time location services.

Coming out of beta Microsoft has updated the website, the Tag Campaign Manager and improved our Tag Reader clients and also introduced some cool new features that will enhance customers’ ability to create, execute and track creative Tag campaigns:

• A device ID feature will allow marketers to deliver a more personalized consumer experience across multiple Tags. For example, consumers can now receive customized content, such as a coupon or other offer from a retail outlet, based on Tags they’ve previously scanned.
• A new .tag file format will make it easier to print and manage a large number of different Tags as part of a broad campaign deployment. Developers of professional printing programs can now generate the Tag graphic on the fly as part of their solution
• Tag has always been available worldwide and has been distributed and deployed globally. They have added localization in five new languages which include: French, Spanish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Italian
• They will be introducing a beta Heat Map feature in the next few days, available in the Tag Campaign Manager, that will help companies better measure Tag usage by location and make more informed decisions about their Tag campaigns and overall marketing spend

You can find more about how to implement these features and more over at the Microsoft Tag website. (via MSDN blog)

]]> http://winspark.net/2010/05/27/microsoft-tag-comes-out-of-beta-tag/feed/ 0 http://winspark.net/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1/ http://winspark.net/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:42:04 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=1558

Today Microsoft has announced Service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows server 2008 R2. They didn’t  enclosed more details about SP1 for windows 7 but they pointed the new important features in the coming Service pack of Windows Server 2008 R2 which primarily focuses to help organizations of all sizes increase flexibility, employee productivity and IT cost savings.

Microsoft RemoteFX will enable users of virtual desktops and applications to receive a rich 3-D, multimedia experience while accessing information remotely and Microsoft Dynamic Memory will allow customers to adjust memory of a guest virtual machine on demand to maximize server hardware use.

Microsoft remoteFX and Dynamic memory are not the standalone application of microsoft rather they will be shipped as the update package of Windows server 2008 R2 Service pack 1.

]]> http://winspark.net/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1/feed/ 0 http://winspark.net/2010/03/18/windows-xp-mode-without-hardware-virtualization-technology/ http://winspark.net/2010/03/18/windows-xp-mode-without-hardware-virtualization-technology/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:06:26 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=1554

Today, During the Desktop Visualization Hour Webcast , Microsoft has talked about the investments around desktop virtualization technologies and solutions, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), to help organizations of all sizes increase flexibility, employee productivity and IT cost savings.

Within this session Microsoft outlined improvements that make it easier to access desktop virtualization. Like New technology agreement with Citrix Systems, features coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and about Windows XP mode.

Microsoft had included Windows XP mode in Windows 7 to access the backward compatible application in Windows 7 with the help of hardware visualization technology which force people to upgrade a new infrastructure to run the XP mode and leads to high drop on financial budget.

But now by having a eyes on IT cost savings, Microsoft has decided to give the support for Windows XP Mode that will no longer requires hardware virtualization technology.

This update is not available now but for more information which will go live later at Windows XP mode Homepage.

Finally we have got the li’l bit hope of windows mobile 7 release, today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series.

“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. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

Key focus areas for Windows Phone 7 Series include:

• World class Touch Experience – Rich gestures, responsive, intuitive, capacitive touch
• Distinctive Visuals – Distinctive “Metro” UI with hardware accelerated graphics and animations
• World Class Browsing – High fidelity with desktop browser, pinch, pan double-tap, multi-touch, actionable address and phone number support
• Zune Marketplace Integration:
  • Music – Zune touch experience, download via cell/ Wi-Fi, synchronize library with PC.
    • Photos – Integrated with Live Gallery, Synchronize with PC.
    • Games – XNA Gaming platform and integrated with PC and XBOX Live gaming.
    • Search - Single button press for search of device and web, location aware, voice, GPS, traffic, navigation integration.
  • Tight Integration between Exchange and SharePoint.
  • Office Mobile support and One Note over the air synchronization.

Links :

• Windows Phone 7 series Homepage
• PressPass Release

Microsoft has announced to the visitors of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Project Natal will go on sale in November 2010 it will work on all existing Xbox 360 consoles.

Project Natal was first announced at the E3 video games conference in June last year. It is the system allows users to play games controlled by body movements and speech rather than a handheld device.

Natal’s body gesturing system relies on cameras, sensors, microphones and software to understand voice commands and capture the motions of a player as they jump, kick or wave.

Mr Bach, President of Entertainment and Devices at Microsoft, said that – “With Project Natal we are allowing you to have the experience you want with technology that’s natural for you,” but they did not say how much Natal would cost or which countries it would launch in.

Links :

• E3 2009 Announcement
• Project natal Homepage

]]> http://winspark.net/2010/01/07/project-natal-on-the-air/feed/ 0 http://winspark.net/2010/01/05/office-2010-pricing-details-revealed/ http://winspark.net/2010/01/05/office-2010-pricing-details-revealed/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:00:12 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/2010/01/05/office-2010-pricing-details-revealed/

Office 2010 Engineering blog has released Office 2010 U.S. retail pricing today. According to them, Office 2010 will be available in four different flavors that best suits for you – Office Home and Business, Office Professional, Office Home and Student, and Office Professional Academic. Here’s a chart that outlines the features and pricing for each version.

• Office Home and Student boxed product is available in a Family Pack, allowing usage on three PCs in one house
• Purchase rights for Office Home and Business, Office Professional, and Office Professional Academic boxed product allow for usage on two of your PCs.
• The Product Key Card is valid for a single installation of the product.

Product Key Card : For consumers who purchase a new PC, Microsoft is working with major PC manufacturers and our retail partners to make it simpler than ever to try and buy Office 2010.

Through our retail partners, Microsoft is introducing an all-new Product Key Card to help consumers more easily access and experience Office 2010 on new PCs that have been pre-loaded with Office 2010. The Product Key Card is a single license card (with no DVD media) that will be sold at major electronic retail outlets.

Or click here to download a more detailed guide to each edition.

* Office Professional Academic 2010 is available through authorized academic resellers only.

Now a days we feel that for many languages like Hindi, entering text on PC is difficult. And there are many products and tools in market out there today through which we can enter text in hindi by any translation widget. But most products have some barrier – e.g. some require users to know a fixed transliteration scheme; some others allow free form transliteration, but work only on webpages etc.

But Microsoft peoples has made their efforts to create a tool that can bring translations to the desktop such that it can be used to enter text in any application on the PC, and that is a key focus of the Indic Language Input Tool.

Currently it support six languages – Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

By using this tool you can enter text in Indic language in any webpages, Take an example below.

You can download this tool in two different versions through Indic Language tool Homepage.

Some FAQ regarding Indic Language tool.

Q1 : How to Install Web version ?

Ans :

1. Select Language.
2. click on Install Web version Button .
3. Follow the instructions according to your browser.

• Internet Explorer.
  • Right-click on the language name above and select Add to Favorites…
  • Click Yes on the security alert dialog.
  • On IE8: Select Favorites Bar from the Create in drop down.
  • On IE7 or IE6: Select Links from the Create in drop down. Make sure the Links
  • toolbar is visible.
  • Click OK.
• Mozilla Firefox
  • Drag the language name above to the Bookmarks toolbar.
• Safari
  • Drag the language name above to the Bookmarks toolbar.
• Google Chrome
  • Make sure the Bookmarks toolbar is visible.
  • Drag the language name above to the Bookmarks toolbar.
• Opera
  • Right-click on the language name above and select Bookmark Link…
    Click OK on the Add Bookmark dialog.

Q2 : How to install Desktop version ?

Ans :

1. Select Language.
2. Click on Install desktop version.
3. Click on Install button and download the Setup.

Q3 : How to use it on desktop application.

Ans :

Do the following to use Microsoft ILIT in any application, such as Microsoft Wordpad or Windows Live messenger.

1. Open the application in which you would like to enter Indic text.
2. Change the language using the language bar, which typically appears in the taskbar as follows.
   

   Language Bar

3. You can now start typing in English and whatever you type automatically gets transliterated after a word-breaking character like a space, comma, etc. is entered.
4. Note that this language setting is per application. You may have to repeat the steps above for each application you want to use Microsoft ILIT in.
   

   Live Messenger Chat Box

Links :

• Microsoft Indic tool Homepage
• MSDN support blog