FREE ONLINE SEMINARS BY ADOBE STARTING FROM 7TH TO 10TH OF JUNE.

The Adobe® Flash® Platform has received several big updates. Adobe recently launched a public beta of Flash Player 10.1 for Android™ at Google I/O, the first full version of the Flash Player designed specifically for mobile devices. In addition, Adobe Creative Suite® 5 software has now started shipping, with Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 and Adobe Flash Catalyst™ now part of Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium.

Earlier in May, we hosted an online developer week for developers to learn more about the tools and runtimes of the Adobe Flash Platform. All the sessions from that week have been recorded and posted online. Now we’re ready to do it again. From June 7–10, Adobe is hosting “Build an app in a week”—a week of online eSeminars that walk you through the entire process of building an application with Creative Suite 5 and the Flash Platform and running it on desktops and mobile devices. Register to attend and learn more about how Adobe helps designers and developers build amazing applications quickly.
Happy coding!
Mike Potter
mpotter@adobe.com
Adobe Flash Platform Marketing Team
for more info visit "www.http://www.adobe.com/events/main.jsp"

Microsoft Office Goes Live On the web for FREE

The world’s “sexiest” Search Engine- Bing seems to have added fresh vigour to Microsoft’s stand in the “Search Wars”, spicing up the competition between Microsoft and Google, as both companies have since been battling it out, trying to out-pace the other with every given opportunity.

First it was Google (in response to Bing’s “search market share stealing escapades” no doubt) who decided to enter the OS business with the announcement of plans to release Google Chrome- an open source, light-weight Operating System supposed to “re-think what operating systems should be”.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them…..

…. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.

… as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.


It’s quite obvious what Google was saying to Microsoft- Steal my market share will You?

I dare say Google’s Chrome ultimately aims to challenge Windows 7 (a.k.a. Cloud), taking advantage of the vulnerabilities in Microsoft OSs over the years. Truthfully so, the bane of many a Windows user over the last decade has been having to deal with viruses, malware, and the “incessant” need for security updates-especially with Internet Explorer (my personal non-favourite) :)

Earlier today, Microsoft hit back at Google as they announced “lightweight” versions of Microsoft Office products. According to the official Press release, the web-based suite Office 2010 is “the premier productivity solution across PCs, mobile phones* and browsers”. It gets better; the new Microsoft web-apps will be completely free — a direct competitor to Google Apps, most especially Google Docs.

Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.

• Work anywhere with Office Web applications—the lightweight, Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote-that provide access to documents from anywhere and preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device.

• Better Collaborate with co-authoring in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote, and advanced email management and calendaring capabilities in Outlook, including the option to “ignore” unwanted threads.

• Bring ideas to life with video and picture editing, broadcast capability in PowerPoint, easy document preparation through the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, and new Sparklines in Excel to visualize data and spot trends more quickly;


It’s probably safe to say Google’s “greatest” leverage over Microsoft has been the free availability of Google web-based apps, an advantage Microsoft might just have blown away with Office 2010. At this rate God only knows what will happen next. The competition can only get more exciting.

Grant available for Mobile Application Lab

Infodev, a donor-funded ICT for development agency hosted by the World Bank, has formed a public/private partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Finland and Nokia to undertake a joint program on Creating Sustainable Businesses for the Knowledge Economy, worth some €12 million, that will run from 2010 – 2012.
This request for expressions of interest (EOI) concerns Track 1A of the program, on the establishment of a regional mobile applications lab for Africa. As the implementing agency for the program, infoDev is looking to identify either one, or two, host institutions in Africa where the activities of the lab can be situated. This grant award for between US$200’000 and US$300’000 (depending on the number of labs selected) covers the establishment of each lab, by the end of 2010, and the start-up phase in early 2011. Additional grant funding may be available later following successful completion of the start-up phase.
The services to be offered by the lab include:
1. Training and accreditation for mobile applications developers.
2. Certification of applications and facilities for developers to test applications under operational conditions.
3. Fostering competition for ideas among applications developers.
4. Business mentoring to assist applications developers with bringing their ideas to market. In this sense, the Labs could serve as specialized business incubators.
5. Replication of successful applications, between countries, languages and operating systems.
6. Developing a repository of knowledge in ICT4D.
7. Conducting consumer behaviour research.
8. Facilitating access to finance and access to markets.
On the basis of responses to this EOI, a shortlist of candidate host organizations will be drawn up who will receive a more detailed request for proposals.
To respond to this EOI, please send a capability profile and a covering letter by email to tkelly-at-worldbank.org, with a copy to info-at-infodev.org, no later than 11.59 pm EST on May 31 2010.

Puppy Linux 5.0 “Lucid Puppy” Released

May sees the release of the new Puppy Linux, version 5.0, also known as Lucid Puppy. For the uninitiated, the main deployment target of Puppy Linux is older, resource constrained computers. In addition, it makes quite a handy live CD for emergency and recovery use.

As you might have guessed from the name, this version represents a break from the past as it is now based on packages from the latest version of Ubuntu Linux. As Ubuntu itself is better known as a popular choice for well specified desktop computers, one might wonder if Ubuntu + Puppy could result in a conflict of design interests. Let's take a look.

I was pleasantly surprised as booting from the CD-ROM seems considerably faster than with older versions. Unlike those versions, which began with a series of text mode questions to determine screen, locale and language options, this latest version takes you straight to the desktop. The aforementioned configuration is now part of a unified configuration tool that is initiated from a GUI menu. Which approach you prefer is probably a matter of taste.

Beyond that, if you've used Puppy before, you probably have a good idea of what to expect. One change is that Puppy now offers a choice of web browsers. This represents a small compromise because older Puppy distributions came with a fairly fully featured version of Seamonkey, but this version comes with a stripped down browser that lacks a tabbed interface and other niceties. Thankfully, you can select alternative browsers, and these are automatically downloaded and installed.

Further additions can be made to the system using the package manger, and these changes can even be applied if you are running from a live CD. Now that Puppy can use Ubuntu packages, it has access to an even greater range of software. For greater ease of use by non experts, the main package manager is now complemented by Quickpet, a simplified application installer that allows the easy installation of about 30 common applications.

As I said, Puppy makes a very handy Live CD. In this role, it continues to offer, in addition to basic web browsing, a text editor, a word processor, a file manager and GParted, the partition editor and copier. Let's just say that Puppy has saved my bacon a few times. That said, as you might expect, it doesn't come with the sort of low level tools featured in dedicated recovery systems such as SystemRescueCD or Ultimate Boot CD.

Quite frankly, as with the previous version, once installed to the hard disk, Puppy could probably be used to build a competent system for the average user, albeit with a less flashy desktop and fewer bells and whistles. Although, it wouldn't be my first choice for a more modern desktop or laptop.

The Puppy Linux website is currently in a transitional phase because it's far too early to demote information relating to the 4.x line, and as a result, the 5.x information is not yet very prominent. There are quite a lot of specialized, custom Puppy builds, but finding them is a question of patience when navigating the site and searching the forum.

My initial fears, that the move over to Ubuntu packages would have a serious negative impact on performance and resource usage, seem to have been unfounded. As ever, Puppy booted into a useful and responsive desktop on a test setup with 256MB of RAM. It remains my go to distribution for a certain type of project.

Is Puppy the best in its class? Feel free to tell us about other great low-resource desktop distributions.

iPad Available in Nine More Countries on May 28

Pad Available in Nine More Countries on May 28
Pre-Orders Begin May 10
CUPERTINO, California—May 7, 2010—Apple® today announced that iPad™ will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28. Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10. In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.
iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*
The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers have created more than 5,000 exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.
Pricing & Availability
Apple plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. Apple will announce availability, local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries at a later date.
Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

MICROSOFT RELEASE VISUAL STUDIO 2010

Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to address the latest needs of developers, Visual Studio and the .NET Framework deliver key innovations in the following pillars:


Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles within an organization and traditionally not every one of the roles has been an equal player in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to build the platform for functional equality and shared commitment across an organization’s ALM process.

Enabling emerging trends
Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development and deployment.

Inspiring developer delight
Ever since the first release of Visual Studio, Microsoft has set the bar for developer productivity and flexibility. Visual Studio 2010 continues to deliver on the core developer experience by significantly improving upon it for roles involved with the software development process.

Riding the next generation platform wave
Microsoft continues to invest in the market leading operating system, productivity application and server platforms to deliver increased customer value in these offerings. With Visual Studio 2010 customers will have the tooling support needed to create amazing solutions around these technologies.

Breakthrough Departmental Applications
Customers continue to build applications that span from department to the enterprise. Visual Studio 2010 will ensure development is supported across this wide spectrum of applications.

Over the next few months we will provide more detail in each of these pillars. We will start with Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management.Please check back shortly to see the next pillar, Enabling emerging trends.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 – Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Visual Studio Team System 2010 will deliver new capabilities that embrace the needs of the users in the lifecycle – from architects to developers, from project managers to testers.

Among the great new functionality in VSTS 2010:


Discover and identify existing code assets and architecture with the new Architecture Explorer.

Design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams.

Improve testing efforts with tooling for better documentation of test scenarios and more thorough collection of test data.

Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View.

Enhanced version control capabilities including gated check-in, branch visualization and build workflow.

Key to a shared understanding of the application is the use of modeling tools. Modeling has traditionally been done by professional architects and system designers. Our approach is to enable both technical and non-technical users to create and use models to collaborate and to define business and system functionality graphically.

From the design of the application through to the actual writing of the code, one of the most difficult problems has always been that of the bug that can’t be reproduced – the “no-repro” bug. There are a lot of factors that drive these types of bugs and we have worked to create tools to help isolate the issue and allow faster fixes. One of the common blockers to reproducing a bug is the collection of actionable data on the bug. By dramatically simplifying the tools required to integrate testing across the lifecycle, we are further introducing new non-technical users to the application lifecycle.