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Education is both a tool of social justice as well as a fundamental driver of economic development.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Windows Phone 7 Hands on Demo


Windows Phone 7 was unveiled to the world yesterday at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, marking a new stage in the evolution of Microsoft’s vision for smartphones. Joe Belfiore, the VP in charge of the program management and design for the next generation of Windows Phones, emphasized that Windows Phone 7 represented a new way for the Redmond company to look at its audience. In this context, with the Windows Phone 7 Series of devices and the underlying operating system, the software giant is attempting to produce more than a mobile platform, namely a complete, cohesive and expandable phone experience.

“We are super-excited to bring the design and user experience and feel of the phones really forward. We like to think that what we're doing is building and delivering a different kind of phone that's modern and takes advantage of people's complex lives and their personalities to deliver something that's unique and individual. And we think about two parts to this. (…) First, we want a smart design that puts the user at the center of their experience and moves beyond the phone as a PC-like item, that moves beyond separate applications and brings together some of the key things that are most important to people,” Belfiore stated.


Microsoft presented an ample demonstration of Windows Phone 7 at MWC 2010, but also provided additional content for end users. The video embedded at the bottom of the screen, featuring Belfiore is essentially a demonstration of a prototype phone like the devices that end users will be able to buy ahead of the 2010 holiday season. Belfiore covers a variety of topics, including the new user experience, social networking integration, Internet Explorer browsing, media, email and texting, GPS and maps, Bing Search integration and hardware.

“And then second, we wanted to design integrated experiences, which become destinations for your most common tasks, things like pictures, and music and video, and productivity, so that users have one simple place to go and access their Web services, access the functionality in their applications, access the data on their phones. Those are the fundamental ideas behind this new user experience,” Belfiore added.

Source: softpedia

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Office 2010 Generally Available in June 2010

The next iteration of the Office System is now approximately five months away Microsoft confirmed to Softpedia. At the start of this week, you were able to read a report on a remark from Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, in which the CEO indicated that Office 2010 would be out in only a couple of months. I contacted the Redmond company on the matter and I’ve got a clarification on this topic. It appears that customers won’t be able to purchase the successor of Office 2007 in the coming two or three months. This is what a Microsoft spokesperson had to say when I asked whether there was any truth to Ballmer’s remark: “We expect Office 2010 and related products to be generally available in June 2010.” In this regard, customers will only be able to purchase Office 2010, Visio 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Project 2010 in June 2010. This deadline is also a confirmation of info already available since the release of Office 2010 Beta Build 14.0.4536.1000.

Microsoft said in the early stages of Office 2010’s development process that it would have the productivity suite out by mid-2010. At the Nashville Technology Council at the Trevecca Nazarene University on January 20, 2010, Ballmer made it seem that Office 2010 would be available much sooner: “You'll see the new version of Office, which comes out here in just a couple of months. It not only works on your PC but it will work through any Web browser and down onto the phone in new and rich ways.”

Still, GA in June 2010 means that Microsoft will release Office 2010 to manufacturing much sooner, months ahead, in fact. Microsoft dodged my question related to the RTM deadline for Office 2010, and Ballmer could have referred actually to the RTM of the next version of the productivity suite.

Information offered by Wzor indicates that the software giant might be planning to release Office 2010 to manufacturing sometime in April 2010. The date is approximately a couple of months away, as Ballmer noted in Nashville a week ago. One thing is for sure at this point in time, Office 2010 will be available for purchase in June 2010, according to Microsoft.

Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 is available for download here.


Source: softpedia