Google Labs bundles apps into Gmail
Yesterday, Google Labs announced new experimental features that can add other Google apps into the Gmail viewer.
The three new features found under Settings > Labs add new boxes in the left navigation panel in Gmail. One is a dedicated Google Calendar gadget that shows upcoming appointments and gives alerts when a schedule event occurs. Another is a gadget dedicated to Google Docs, which makes all of your documents searchable and accessible from within Gmail.
PDC 2008: First glimpses at Office apps on the Web
In what will undoubtedly be perceived as Microsoft's response to Google in the Web applications field, the company this morning gave a first peek into Web-based versions of its Office components, which it's presenting as supplemental to the main Office package.
Though the Web-hosted versions of Microsoft Word and Excel bear respectable similarity to their desktop-hosted counterparts, and even though they will probably be fully capable of running on their own, Microsoft representatives this morning at PDC 2008 introduced these components as supplements to Office -- moreover, as features customers get access to by purchasing and using Office 14.
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CodeWeavers offers free wares for a day
A one-day offer of free software has servers at CodeWeavers Digg-ing out of a hole not unlike the one the OpenOffice.org project found itself in a couple of weeks ago -- the performance pit of extreme popularity.
Back in July, the CEO of CodeWeavers issued the "Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge" to the White House, saying that if President Bush met one of several economic or security goals, the company would offer their wares free for a day. As of October 14, Osama bin Laden was still on the loose and the jobs market is still appalling, but the price of gas has dropped sufficiently for Jeremy White to make good on his promise. (Nothing in the challenge said the price drop couldn't be caused by economic chaos. It really does pay to be specific.)
Sony finally metes out keys to Home for PS3
Sony's PlayStation3 metaverse Home that was unveiled over a year ago is finally approaching the beta phase, and subscribers to Sony's online magazine Qore are receiving the first keys outside of private beta to test the service.
In March 2007, when Home was officially unveiled, a large-scale beta was expected to take place "in April prior to the final launch." Then, at the Tokyo Game Show six months later, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai announced the service would be delayed until spring.
PDC 2008: Sinofsky acknowledges Vista UAC is a problem, Windows 7 adds options
Giving a nod to developers who've apparently given a lot of feedback, as well as "certain commercials," Microsoft's platform chief Steven Sinofsky acknowledged that perhaps User Account Control in Windows Vista may have been...a little annoying. In turn, Windows 7 has additional UAC settings.
"We got a lot of feedback about Windows Vista," Sinofsky said, before pausing several seconds for the inevitable developer response. Given the vast amount of response he received, he said, "We have to do what developers do." That is, to sit back, re-evaluate, and say, "What did we learn from that?" That, he said, is what engineering is about.
Microsoft .NET Micro Framework 3.0 now available
The 3.0 version announced today enhances secure connectivity, with Wi-Fi integration, USB support, SSL and support for a FAT32-compatible file system. Both touch and gesture support has been added to user interface options.
The .NET Micro Framework is designed for embedded systems, extending the .NET platform to handheld devices and smaller. Developers working with .NET MF can utilize higher level programming languages to control resource-limited devices.
PDC 2008: Cleaning up the desktop in Windows 7
After another long, lofty, and philosophy-laden introduction from Microsoft's Ray Ozzie this morning, the #1 new feature being discussed in the "cleaned up" Windows 7 is improved file and application access.
The rethought Windows 7 taskbar, while not exactly like the dock in Mac OS X, certainly borrows some inspiration from it. Based on the early demonstrations given by Julie Larson-Green this morning, we're seeing a kind of sliding dock that is just as tall as the current taskbar, but which omits the text to the right of icons. The identities of running programs or active documents is ascertained by moving the mouse pointer over the icon.
PDC 2008: Live blog of the Windows 7 keynote
Day two of PDC 2008 begins this morning with a keynote address featuring Ray Ozzie, Steven Sinofsky, Scott Guthrie and David Treadwell. The focus of today will be Windows 7 and the introduction of new user experiences in Windows. The next release of Windows Server 2008 will also be discussed.
We will be live-blogging the keynote as it takes place. Refresh this page for updates.
Bejeweled Twist a gameplay gem for PopCap
After nearly four years, you'd think the PopCap crew would feel good about kicking up their heels at the release of Bejeweled Twist, the third version of their iconic casual game.
But CEO Dave Roberts seemed a bit abashed Monday night, even as a flock of spangled trapeze artists prepared to loft themselves high above a launch-party crowd.
Microsoft rolls out SDK for Surface interface
Love that giant touch-sensitive electoral map on MSNBC? Want one of your very own (or have a better idea)? Developers at PDC are readying their multitouch mojo as Microsoft today released the software development kit for the Surface interface.
It's a long way from a hacked Ikea table to parody on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update, but here we are. The project presented to Bill Gates in prototype form back in 2003 is already in use on a few early deployments, but distribution of the SDK to up to 1,000 developers signals that the Vista-based platform is ready to expand considerably, with consumer-app availability likely within 3-5 years.
PDC 2008: Ray Ozzie and company present the cloud
Monday morning in Los Angeles, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie took his time unveiling his company's gamble to dominate a field of computing where it has actually fared third-place, or worse.
For over two years, a team of senior Microsoft executives stayed mostly out of the public view, working on something that was sometimes strangely called the "Windows Core." Some rightly guessed it was the company's services platform for cloud computing, though it was still a matter of speculation how that would work, or what it would consist of.
PDC 2008: More details on Windows Azure, the Internet operating system
PDC 2008: First in-depth look at ASP.NET MVC
At Day 1 of PDC 2008 in Los Angeles, attendees got their first look at a technology Microsoft introduced earlier this month into beta: a new way for building reformed Web applications.
The Web site StackOverflow.com is the latest example of a fully operational Web site, running today out of beta, using a technology from Microsoft that is still in beta: ASP.NET MVC, the new compartmentalization model for content-driven Web site programming.
OpenID adds Microsoft's Live ID to its list of providers
Microsoft announced on Monday that the company's Windows Live ID will support the OpenID digital identity framework, releasing a Community Technology Preview (CTP) at this week's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
The CTP allows relying-party sites and the developers of relying-party libraries to test their setups against the Windows Live ID OpenID provider endpoint. Testing now will help them to knock out bugs before the system goes live, most likely sometime next year.
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