Aided Eyes: Eye Activity Sensing for Daily Life

Another cool project from Microsoft Research: Aided Eyes demoed at Innovation conference,Asia.

 

 

Here is the description mentioned in the blog,

Our eyes collect a considerable amount of information when we use them to look at objects. In particular, eye movement allows us to gaze at an object and shows our level of interest in the object. In this research, we propose a method that involves real-time measurement of eye movement for human memory enhancement; the method employs gaze-indexed images captured using a video camera that is attached to
the user’s glasses.

We present a prototype system with an infrared-based corneal limbus tracking method. Although the existing eye tracker systems track eye movement with high accuracy, they are not suitable for daily use because
the mobility of these systems is incompatible with a high sampling rate. Our prototype has small phototransistors, infrared LEDs, and a video camera, which make it possible to attach the entire system to the glasses. Additionally, the accuracy of this method is compensated by combining image processing methods and contextual information, such as eye direction, for information extraction. We develop an information extraction system with real-time object recognition in the user’s visual attention area by using the prototype of an eye tracker and a head-mounted camera.

We apply this system to (1) fast object recognition by using a SURF descriptor that is limited to the gaze area and (2) descriptor matching of a past-images database. Face recognition by using haar-like object features and text logging by using OCR technology is also implemented. The combination of a low-resolution camera and a high-resolution, wide-angle camera is studied for high daily usability. The possibility of gaze-guided computer vision is discussed in this paper, as is the topic of communication by the photo transistor in the eye tracker and the development of a sensor system that has
a high transparency.

Source

History of Web Search Engines

Source

Microsoft spends 70% of its $9.5 billion R&D involving Cloud

Recently Cindy Bates , Microsoft’s VP of US Small and Medium Business & Distribution  during the SMB Nation conference in Las Vegas made some clear statements on Microsoft Business Strategies. She said Microsoft now spends 70% of its $9.5 billion R&D involving cloud and that will increase up to 90%. That's a huge number !

She also highlighted some of  the Microsoft’s other strategy. She revealed Windows Phone 7’s integration with Dynamics CRM Online 2011. I’ve covered on this matter at WMPoweruser. Some other highlights of her speech as noted by thevarguy

The Cloud Is… “It’s not a thing and it’s not any one product,” said Bates. Instead, Microsoft defines the cloud as:

“A cost effective Internet based model of delivering enterprise class IT capabiliuty and software solutions to businesses of all sizes.”

Office 365: “It’s a new brand and the culmination of everything Microsoft has learned since the 1989 launch of Office. Office 365 will launch in Spring 2011, Bates predicted. “It will be the cloud on your terms.” Bates described Office 365′s three plans (Plan P1, Plan E and Plan K). Bates says Partners will profit in four ways:

• 18 percent commission in first-year sales and 6 percent thereafter
• Migration services
• Business consulting and application development — “There will be a much more robust opportunity for managed services.
• Building out managed services.

Read more of  it at thevarguy.

Ray Ozzie’s Latest Memo

Here is the summary of his memo using wordle.

We’re moving toward a world of 1) cloud-based continuous services that connect us all and do our bidding, and 2) appliance-like connected devices enabling us to interact with those cloud-based services.

Continuous services are websites and cloud-based agents that we can rely on for more and more of what we do.  On the back end, they possess attributes enabled by our newfound world of cloud computing: They’re always-available and are capable of unbounded scale.  They’re constantly assimilating & analyzing data from both our real and online worlds.  They’re constantly being refined & improved based on what works, and what doesn’t.  By bringing us all together in new ways, they constantly reshape the social fabric underlying our society, organizations and lives.  From news & entertainment, to transportation, to commerce, to customer service, we and our businesses and governments are being transformed by this new world of services that we rely on to operate flawlessly, 7×24, behind the scenes.

Our personal and corporate data now sits within these services – and as a result we’re more and more concerned with issues of trust & privacy.  We most commonly engage and interact with these internet-based sites & services through the browser.  But increasingly, we also interact with these continuous services through apps that are loaded onto a broad variety of service-connected devices – on our desks, or in our pockets & pocketbooks.

Connected devices beyond the PC will increasingly come in a breathtaking number of shapes and sizes, tuned for a broad variety of communications, creation & consumption tasks.  Each individual will interact with a fairly good number of these connected devices on a daily basis – their phone / internet companion; their car; a shared public display in the conference room, living room, or hallway wall.  Indeed some of these connected devices may even grow to bear a resemblance to today’s desktop PC or clamshell laptop.  But there’s one key difference in tomorrow’s devices: they’re relatively simple and fundamentally appliance-like by design, from birth.  They’re instantly usable, interchangeable, and trivially replaceable without loss.  But being appliance-like doesn’t mean that they’re not also quite capable in terms of storage; rather, it just means that storage has shifted to being more cloud-centric than device-centric.  A world of content – both personal and published – is streamed, cached or synchronized with a world of cloud-based continuous services.

 

Its about 3500 words memo. Visit the below link to read it fully.

http://ozzie.net/docs/dawn-of-a-new-day/

What WP7 Devices lacks from?

In reading a review of Windows Phone 7 or the comments attached to them it is quite common to run accross a list of features which Windows Phone 7 lack, and which means the OS is doomed to fail.

I have therefore decided to commented on each item in this pretty standard list  to address these perceived "shortcomings".

No System-wide File Manager

- A System-wide File Manager is needed only when you want to deal with different type of File types organised in folders. WP7 has Documents, Albums which supports Folders which is more than enough for a mobile device.  Also you have Skydrive integration which has few file managing options.

No Video Calling

-Video Calling is a option for OEM’s in WP7. They can  choose it for their device if they want.

No Smart Dialling

-Smart Dialling allows you to call your fav.contacts easily. WP7 has various other ways to do the same task, for example you can pin your fav.contact in the start screen or you can use WP7’s speech recognition feature.

Limited third-party apps

- Its not fair to expect or compare a new platform with other established platforms .A new platform with 2000 quality apps is a very good number. Quality is more important than quantity.

No USB mass storage mode/No Bluetooth file transfers

-Piracy and Security is the main reason of not enabling this feature. It protects you from various problems. Want to share a file to your friend? Use Skydrive. Zune Client is good for file transfer between phone and PC.

No memory card support

-Using Memory card to store images is inferior when compared to storing it in your personal cloud like Skydrive, Facebook, etc,.

No multitasking

-True Multitasking drains phone’s battery life which is the main reason Microsoft planned not to implement it in the first release. And Microsoft knows multitasking better than its competitors because their previous mobile OS Windows Mobile had it. Current version of WP7 supports multitasking by tombstoning. Also applications such as Zune,Browser support multitasking.

No copy paste

-WP7 doesn't have copy paste. But it provides Smart Sensing to detect phone numbers,Address in a website,etc,.But its on the way through next update as confirmed by Joe Belfiore. Also Microsoft is evaluating Tuck&Paste concept which may arrive in future updates.

Too dependent on Zune software for computer file management and syncing

-Zune is the desktop client for WP7 and its very simple,intuitive to use. If you don't like it then use Windows Live Skydrive.

No music player equalisers

-WP7 doesn't have out of the box equaliser for avid music fans. But some WP7 devices such as from HTC has more than Music equalisers. They have Sound Enhancer app that shall deliver equalizer sound effects for a richer listening and viewing experience. Also, equalizer presets automatically mix bass, treble and vocal levels for maximum effect, whatever your type of music.

No Flash or Silverlight support in the web browser

-Yes,Its not supported as of now. But it wont be forever as in the case of iPhone. Microsoft is open to support Adobe Flash in its platform(Rumour: Adobe is going to release beta version of Flash for WP7 before this year). Silverlight support in browser is on the way.

No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far

-Bing Maps provides navigation from Point A to Point B. But the turn-by-turn voice guided navigation is not available. But carrier's and  OEM’s can have their own navigation systems on their WP7 devices. For example Orange has its own navigation service built into the WP7 devices.

No DivX/XviD video support

- Its listed in MSDN support website that Windows Phone 7 has DivX/Xvid support. We have posted about it here already.

I’ve commented on these features based on my knowledge. if you have better comments or if you dont agree with the comments, Let us know in the comments section.

Innovation At Microsoft Video

Mobile Surface = Future of Computing

We all know Microsoft Surface. Though its an amazing technology and works pretty well,still it didn't find its way into consumer mainstream. Because its costly,huge,not portable. Now here comes its cousin Mobile Surface which I think is going to be the future of Computing. The next generation of interfaces,NUI. It is a novel interaction system for mobile computing. Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. Besides this, our work also includes how to get 3D object model in real-time, augmented reality and multiple-layer 3D information presentation.

More details: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/mobilesurface/default.aspx

Facebook’s Attack Over Orkut

Orkut, A social network by Google Inc is popular only in two countries in the world. They are Brazil and India. From Last year Facebook have invaded these markets too. But now Facebook tries to ring death bell for orkut by allowing people to share their facebook updates in orkut. This is for your friends who are not in Facebook but in Orkut. But you should be able to understand the business logic behind this? Well Done Facebook, Nice move. Google,its your turn.

Google Music Launched in India

http://www.google.co.in/music

The WSJ reported that Google was planning to launch a music service in India to help users search for legal online streams and downloads and fight digital piracy,Google has launched its Music discovering service in India after several markets including China.

Currently it has only songs in Hindi, users can search for and instantly listen to thousands of full songs, which are delivered by Google’s partners in India (in.com, saavn and saregama). Its accessible outside India as well. Search results can be streamed instantly and free of charge in a pop-up Web player, and you can filter results based on singers, actors and release dates.As of now there’s no option to purchase any music directly.

But will it fight piracy or encourage piracy?

Google Groups losing more features

I got a mail from Google Groups regarding Google Groups update.

Hello,

Since you are an owner of at least one Google Groups group that uses the customized welcome message, pages or files, we are writing to inform you that we will no longer be supporting these features starting February 2011. We made this decision so that we can focus on improving the core functionalities of Google Groups -- mailing lists and forum discussions. Instead of these features, we encourage you to use products that are designed specifically for file storage and page creation, such as Google Docs and Google Sites.

For example, you can easily create your pages on Google Sites and share the site (http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=174623) with the members of your group. You can also store your files on the site by attaching files to pages (http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=90563) on the site. If you’re just looking for a place to upload your files so that your group members can download them, we suggest you try Google Docs. You can upload files (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=50092) and share access with either a group (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66343) or an individual (http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=86152), assigning either edit or download only access to the files.

Starting in January 2011, Groups will no longer allow the creation or editing of welcome messages, files and pages; the content will only be available for viewing and only existing files will be downloadable. If you would like to keep the content currently on the pages and files sections of your group, we highly encourage you to export and migrate it to another product. In February 2011, we will turn off these features, and you will no longer be able to access that content.

To make this move easier for you, we have enabled a one-click method for downloading a ZIP file containing your welcome message and all pages and files. Download these ZIP files by clicking "Download all pages" or "Download all files" on the pages and files homepages of your groups.

Engadget’s take on Mac App Store Guidelines

• 2.1 Apps that crash will be rejected and 2.2 Apps that exhibit bugs will be rejected. Well, here we go: the immediate question here is whether infamously glitchy apps like Photoshop and Word will be rejected for being too buggy. We'd sort of love to see that, actually.
• 2.6 Apps that are "beta", "demo", "trial", or "test" versions will be rejected. This is the rule that has many up in arms, but we don't think it's so bad -- general end users probably shouldn't be running beta code, and more advanced users can just hit the web and grab the betas they want anyway.
• 2.14 Apps must be packaged and submitted using Apple's packaging technologies included in Xcode - no third party installers allowed. Again, we're thinking about Adobe's apps here -- they use weird custom installers that no one's ever loved. Will this be the push that makes them go native?
• 2.19 Apps that require license keys or implement their own copy protection will be rejected. Lots of questions around this one, as even Apple's own Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro currently require serial numbers to install. Will Apple wrap Mac apps from the Store in FairPlay DRM? If not, what kind of officially-sanctioned copy protection will be available? Apple said Mac App Store apps will be licensed to run on all of a user's personal machines -- does that mean apps will be tied to an Apple ID? How will that work for families with different computers -- will apps be shareable through Home Sharing like iOS apps? There's a lot to sort out here -- we'll have to see what's what when the Store actually launches, though.
• 2.20 Apps that present a license screen at launch will be rejected. We actually laughed when we saw this one. Why? Because of all the apps on our Mac, there's one that pops up a license screen the most consistently. Sucks for you, iTunes.
• 2.21 Apps may not use update mechanisms outside of the App Store. Not the worst thing in the world, since the App Store provides a centralized update service, but there are lot of Sparkle-based apps out there that'll need to be tweaked.
• 2.24 Apps that use deprecated or optionally installed technologies (e.g., Java, Rosetta) will be rejected. This is an interesting one -- Apple actually updated Java for Mac OS X last night, but said it's now deprecated and won't be updated beyond this version's lifecycle. That pretty much spells the end for Java on OS X, unless Oracle steps in and provides a port.
• 6.2 Apps that look similar to Apple Products or apps bundled on the Mac, including the Finder, iChat, iTunes, and Dashboard, will be rejected. This one's quite odd, as there are lots and lots of Mac apps that look like Apple's own apps -- DoubleTwist looks like iTunes, for example, and almost every FTP app looks like the Finder in some way. And what about an app like Delicious Library, which actually inspired Apple apps like iBooks and iPhoto 11's new books interface? This one's going to be hard to enforce in a reasonable way.
• 6.3 Apps that do not use system provided items, such as buttons and icons, correctly and as described in the Apple Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines will be rejected. Again, we're looking at the Adobe Creative Suite here -- this one would be grounds for instant rejection.
• 7.4 Apps containing "rental" content or services that expire after a limited time will be rejected. Well, it's not like we were expecting any iTunes competitors to be welcomed into the Mac App Store anyway.
• 7.6 In general, the more expensive your app, the more thoroughly we will review it. Seriously, we can't wait to see what happens when Adobe and Microsoft submit their application suites to this store.
• 9.2 Apps that rapidly drain a products battery or generate excessive heat will be rejected. Games? Video rendering apps? We'll see how this one's interpreted.

 

More details: http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/21/apples-mac-app-store-review-guidelines-posted-will-photoshop/

Microsoft Windows Product Scout

Here is the Microsoft’s temporary answer to Apple’s Mac App Store.This is what mentioned in the blog about Microsoft Windows Product Scout

Windows Product Scout is a new destination on Windows.com that showcases a selection of products scouted by our team for Windows 7. When I say scouted, I’m quite serious, the products featured on the site are limited to an intentionally selected catalog. Every week, we will feature a new set of products on the home page and will be updating the site every month with more selected products.

Windows Product Scout focuses on products that have earned the “Compatible with Windows 7 Logo”. These products have passed Microsoft designed tests for compatibility and reliability with Windows 7 including testing for common issues to minimize the number of crashes, hangs and reboots. The team also vetted products based on their experience and focused on products that support key features and technologies in Windows 7 – products that make it easy for you to get the very most out of Windows 7 (features like Windows Touch, Play To, Device Stage). We are also working with software developers and device manufacturers to build a pipeline of the new and exciting products coming in the near future.

Definitely take the time to explore the site. Click around to learn more about technologies, discover the great products that our partners have created, watch videos, get downloads, and more. I wanted to quickl7 highlight 3 things about the experience:

• A great experience: Windows Product Scout features an engaging user experience that groups products into “clusters”. It is simple to navigate with a mouse and is also touch-friendly. We have also implemented IE9 support so the site can be a pinned app with jumplist support.

• Access to the products: Windows Product Scout gives you easy access to information about the products and how to get them. For every app, we offer a direct download link from the 3^rd party publisher. In one click, you are ready to start your free trial or access a free version of the application. For devices, we offer a link to purchase the product either directly from the manufacturer or the Microsoft Store. The site also features editorial content from the Windows Blog & CNET about the products.

• Discovering what you can do with Windows: The site gives you an easy way to discover a sample of products that support Windows 7 features. You can also click on the category cubes to learn more about specific technologies like Windows Touch, Play To, and others.

I love the silverlight site design more than the content.

Bing Officail Blog Hacked??

Here is my feed reader showing some crappy content from Bing Blog screen shot.

Here is the actual website at this time.

Microsoft’s New Research Project Stereoscopic 3D environment

Craig Mundie showed a demo of a stereoscopic 3D environment. He played a multiplayer game and showed a retail experience blending virtual and physical environments.I collected news on various sites regarding this matter,

Microsoft's Craig Mundie visited Duke University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this week to show off forthcoming NUIs (natural user interfaces), involving "a large stereoscopic 3D goggles that showed some of the possibilities of human-scale computer interaction," and company's soon-to-be-released Kinect controller.

He provided demonstrations that showed "what it might be like to interact with a computer ... the size of a room," the company says. Craig was able to "walk into a 3D world where he could shop and play games, interacting with people in both physical and virtual environment in a very natural way." from ditti.com

“Sadly, unless we send each of you a set of 3D glasses it’s hard to recreate the experience, so you’ll have to trust me on this one when I say it was pretty incredible. Craig was able to walk into a 3D world where he could shop and play games, interacting with people in both the physical and virtual environment in a very natural way. I hope to be showing you more of the short clip from “The Spy from the 2080s” video he used so stay tuned on that one.” from Microsoft Blog

Watch Windows Phone 7 Launch Keynote

Windows Phone 7 Devices Video Overview

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Launch Presspass

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 11, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today joined its partners in revealing nine new Windows Phone 7 handsets that will be available this holiday season from leading mobile operators in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. With more than 60 mobile operators in over 30 countries worldwide committed to bringing Windows Phones to market, the millions of people around the world looking for a phone that plays as hard as it works will have a variety of phones from leading device-makers to choose from.

“We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”

Global Portfolio

Microsoft and its partners have worked together closely to create a different kind of phone with new experiences that bring together what people care about most. Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of sleek form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone. All Windows Phone 7 phones will include the high-performance Snapdragon™ processor from Qualcomm. A broad selection of phones will begin shipping in holiday 2010 with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. In addition, select models will be available at Microsoft Store locations and from Amazon.

Windows Phone 7, Glance and Go

In today’s busy world we are spending more time heads-down on our phones than interacting with the people we’re sitting next to and missing out on important life moments. Windows Phone 7 was designed to deliver a mobile experience that has the phone working better for people, bringing together the things they care about most and helping them to get things done faster.

Windows Phone 7 breaks the current smartphone convention to help people quickly and easily find and consume data, information and services from the Web and applications. The new phones are distinguished by unique design and integrated experiences built from Microsoft’s deep portfolio such as Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Office Mobile, Zune, Windows Live, Bing and more.

For example, the customizable Start screen with Live Tiles is a personal experience, showing people their own content. The Live Tiles come to life with real-time updates from the Web such as news, appointments or the status of friends. New Live Tiles can be easily created from whatever content a consumer wants, such as applications, websites and music.

Fueling New Experiences

Windows Phone 7 marks a new era in mobile gaming as the first phone¹ to put the power of Xbox LIVE into the palm of people’s hands with a blockbuster lineup of game titles from award-winning publishers. In addition to the titles already announced earlier this year, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) today announced the first wave of EA games coming to Windows Phone 7 this fall. As part of Microsoft’s managed portfolio of Xbox LIVE titles, all EA games for Windows Phone 7 will be Xbox LIVE-enabled. EA will deliver a portfolio of titles that offers something for every mobile gamer, from casual to core, including “Need for Speed™ Undercover,” “Tetris^®” and “The Sims™ 3.”

Windows Phone 7 is also the first to offer the Zune music experience on a phone: People can play their music collection, synced wirelessly from their PC, or stream or download new tunes from Windows Marketplace. An optional Zune Pass subscription is available.

Search is made easier with a dedicated button to help people find what they need, whether in contacts, in Marketplace, in e-mail or on the Web. From the Start screen, the Search button delivers Bing for mobile, delivering Web results, local information, maps, directions and more.

The Windows Live solution helps people manage pictures, Windows Live calendar, Office OneNote Mobile and more. The free Find My Phone service new on Windows Live can remotely ring, lock, erase and show the location of your phone on a map. Complete information about Windows Phone 7 features and capabilities can be found at http://www.windowsphone.com.

New Windows Phones

The following devices will come to North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in the holiday 2010 timeframe.

New SocialGadgets from FUSE Labs

Microsoft's Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs was started by Ray Ozzie and is run by Lili Cheng. The group focuses on real-time and media rich experiences and is located in Redmond, WA, Cambridge, MA, and Cambridge, UK.Their earlier projects include Spindex, Kodu, Project Emporia, Docs, Bing Twitter, Bing Twitter maps. Now they have introduced new project called Social Gadgets.Here is the description of the project.

Visual exploration of Twitter topics

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words. And when analyzing the massive amounts of data generated by Twitter, this adage could not be more appropriate. FUSE Labs’ SocialGadgets are a set of embeddable widgets that visualize Twitter real-time data. Each gadget focuses on a given keyword and displays its volume of usage over time. Mentioned entities such as people, locations, companies and noun phrases are identified and visually represented. The gadgets are interactive, letting users explore the relationships between topics publically shared on Twitter. By focusing on patterns and trends, the gadgets can extrapolate what people find important, and provide a succinct yet effective way to look at events as they are unfolding.

Twitter, 'the pulse of the world,' is an incredibly rich data source used by millions across the globe. People post their thoughts, ideas and whereabouts via text-based status updates. Visually displaying trending topics can help readers better understand content and its context. By using any one of the four SocialGadgets, data flowing through the Twitter fire hose is indexed and semantically analyzed in real-time. Within minutes, major entities are identified and their relationships are displayed. The gadgets are easily configured, allowing users to choose a keyword and a template type, then copy and paste an embed code to be displayed on a website of their choice.

 

You can try and customize it for your site: http://designer.socialgadgets.fuselabs.com/?template=A

BLTWY-A new MSNBC Political Site

The Msnbc Digital Network and BermanBraun  today announced an extension of the popular Wonderwall site into the Political Arena.Site will explore the celebrity side of politics.Visit www.bltwy.msnbc.msn.com/ Its same as Wonderwall with rich media and less text. I loved the site. This is what mentioned in the blog

Politicians have now become part of popular culture, and de-facto celebrities, attracting considerable media attention.  BermanBraun and the Msnbc Digital Network announced a partnership to create an original destination site which will go beyond policy and polls to explore the celebrity side of politics.  The new site, launching later this year, will be an extension of the popular entertainment and celebrity destination Wonderwall.  It will take you inside the beltway to explore the lives of politicians as celebrities, giving politics the Wonderwall treatment.  

No Zune HD for Europe–Confirms Steve Ballmer

Neowin reports that Steve Ballmer speaking at UK Tech Days Event on answering while Zune HD will be available in Europe told that

We need to focus on Windows Phone 7" said Ballmer when questioned if the Zune HD would arrive in the UK.

Also Microsoft confirmed that Zune marketplace will be available for Europe allowing people to buy and subscribe to digital content from various labels.

Microsoft’s OpenHouse Event on October-11

Microsoft said that it will host events both in London and New York on Oct-11.Everyone expected launch of Windows Phone 7.But Neowin reports that along with WP7,Microsoft will be showing Windows tablets as well. Microsoft will receive the marketing support of AT&T, which will be the initial exclusive US carrier to sell the Windows Phone 7 smartphones," according to The Wall Street Journal. AT&T will initially ship three Windows Phone 7 handsets: one from Samsung, LG, and HTC. Last week AT&T-Windows Phone 7 ads for HTC's Mondrian leaked out . The US will see the actual devices arrive on November 8. Also Microsoft will have all five carriers in UK launching WP7 devices with Orange,a long time Microsoft partner leading the way. So people are really excited about the Open House event. What do you think?

IBM Launches CityOne–An Interactive Simulation Game

The Big Blue today announced the availability of CityOne, the world's first Smarter Planet interactive simulation designed to help business and civic leaders discover how to make their cities and industries smarter by solving real-world business, environmental, and logistical problems. Here are the few points from press release.

Examples of the game scenarios include:

• Water Crisis Management: A city is struggling with water usage increases twice as fast as the population, supplies are becoming strained and possibly polluted, and the municipality is losing almost half of its water through leaky pipes. On top of all that, energy costs continue to rise. To complete the mission, players must come up with a way to deliver the highest water quality at the lowest cost in real-time.
• Smarter Retail:  The player represents the owner of an electronics store that requires a redesign and expansion. In order to increase sales, players must streamline and increase the visibility of their supply chain process to better track items in real time and react to problems and delays.

Creating greater awareness and educating the public about protecting human health and the environment is an EPA priority, and serious games can be useful tools for users to learn about processes and systems reflective of the real world," said Andy Miller, PE, Chief, Atmospheric Protection Branch, EPA Research and Development. "By cooperating with IBM CityOne developers, EPA is helping users by allowing them to more thoroughly investigate environmental issues and better understand complex energy and water interactions presented in the game. EPA's collaboration in this project will help increase awareness and understanding of how different choices that are made in the various game scenarios affect environmental outcomes." 

IBM is not new to the serious games space. Over the years, IBM has released a number of games such as INNOV8, RoboCode and PowerUp that are used by schools, businesses, museums and conferences.  In fact, the INNOV8 series is now being used by 1000 universities and organizations worldwide and is offered for free to schools through IBM's Academic Initiative.

The whole press release by IBM is worth a read. Read it when you have time. Here is a game play video.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace to Start Accepting Applications From Oct-11

October 4, 2010 Request Early Access to Submit your Windows Phone 7 App On October 11th you and other developers will see a brand new Marketplace developer portal experience that makes it easier to distribute and manage your apps and games. The new portal streamlines application submission and certification; brings together all the resources you need to develop great apps and games for Windows Phone 7; and lets you manage apps you may have created for earlier versions of Windows Phone. The new portal will also be refreshed more frequently to provide you with new resources and updates on a regular basis. Since this is an all-new portal experience we will initially enable early access to a couple thousand developers to submit Windows Phone 7 apps starting on October 11. If your Windows Phone 7 app or game is ready and you'd like to be among the first to go through certification, please tell us by sending an email to myxapnow@Microsoft.com by Twelve Noon, PDT, October 6th, 2010. All requests will be evaluated on a first come, first serve basis. From these requests an initial group of developers will be provided access and guidance on submitting their apps through the new certification process. After the first wave of app submissions we will gradually ramp-up access to additional developers on a weekly basis. Here are a few important details. Your request for early access must come from the email address that received this newsletter; we will only accept requests from registered Marketplace developers Your request must include the title of your app and a description of approximately 75 words Requests that do not meet the October 6th deadline will not make the first wave of early access slots but will be evaluated for later waves in the order in which they were received Optionally, please consider providing a screenshot or link to a video or blog description of your app to assist us in prioritizing the early access program Be sure to check out Todd Brix's post to the Windows Phone Developer Blog later this morning, but important dates to remember are: Today: As a registered Marketplace developer, you are now invited to request early certification access by emailing myxapnow@microsoft.com by Noon, October 6, PDT. Oct 11: The first wave of developers accepted for early certification access will receive instructions on how to submit their xap to the new Marketplace portal. Oct 12-November: Microsoft will expand access to the early app submission process every week until the self-serve submission process is broadly enabled. With more than half a million downloads of the Windows Phone Developer tools, we know we'll see amazing games and apps for customers this holiday season. We look forward to seeing yours early! Final Windows Phone Developer Tools Available Now You may already know, but the final developer tools for Windows® Phone 7 have been available here since late August. You will need to use these final tools, not the beta tool set, when building an app to submit to Marketplace. Make sure you take the following steps to get your games and apps prepped for launch: Download the final Windows Phone Developer Tools from the portal today Compile your app or game using the final tools Have your XAP ready for submission to the Marketplace when it opens Register for Tech-Ed Europe 2010 Tech-Ed Europe returns to Berlin November 8-12 2010, with more than 25 Windows Phone related sessions and labs. These range from introductions to the Windows Phone 7 and Marketplace teams to deep-dives on Silverlight and XNA development for Windows Phone 7. Check out all the Windows Phone sessions by clicking here and selecting the Windows Phone track from the search list. The registration price for Tech-Ed also includes a one-year subscription to TechNet which includes access to the complete stack of full-version Microsoft infrastructure and business solution software. Windows Phone 7 at PDC 2010, October 28 and 29 Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference, PDC 2010, will include sessions on building and selling apps for Windows Phone 7. PDC 2010 has already sold out but you can join the event live on October 28 and 29 at the PDC site. You can also join the PDC email list to get a preview of what's planned for PDC, as well as stay abreast of local PDC events. Visual Basic Comes to Windows Phone 7 You can now download the Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools. Provided in this download are all the templates, designer support, emulator (and phone!) support and IntelliSense for Visual Basic. A few important caveats: CTP stands for Community Technology Preview, which means we want to give you early access, and are hoping to solicit feedback, but this is not a final implementation. There is no Go-Live license, which means you shouldn't try to release apps built with this version of the technology. You need to be a Visual Studio 2010 Professional (or higher) customer. So if you only have the Express edition of the Windows Phone Developer Tools, you cannot use this version of the CTP. I hear Visual Studio 2010 have a trial download if you are really itchy. You cannot build XNA games. Silverlight apps only. In This Issue > Request Early App Submission Access for Windows Phone 7 > Final Windows Phone Developer Tools Available > Tech-Ed Europe Returns to Berlin Nov 8-12 > PDC 2010 Online > Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone 7 Questions? Contact Support Follow Us on Twitter! Get to know the people on the Windows Phone team by following them on Twitter: @ckindel @mklucher @cschormann @shawnhargreaves @brandonwatson Microsoft respects your privacy. Please read our online Privacy Statement. Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 USA Update Profile

The above is the mail sent to all the registered developers.

Microsoft LightSpace

Microsoft Research always comes up with cool concepts,prototypes. Two Researchers from MSR’s Redmond Lab have come up with this cool concept of LightSpace taking surface computing to next level.Here is the description from MSR’s Projects Page. I tried to embed Silverlight Smooth Streaming player to show the video, but it didn't work.

Combining Multiple Depth Cameras and Projectors for Interactions On, Above, and Between Surfaces

Instrumented with multiple depth cameras and projectors, LightSpace is a small room installation designed to explore a variety of interactions and computational strategies relat-ed to interactive displays and the space that they inhabit. LightSpace cameras and projectors are calibrated to 3D real world coordinates, allowing for projection of graphics correctly onto any surface visible by both camera and projector. Selective projection of the depth camera data enables emulation of interactive displays on un-instrumented surfaces (such as a standard table or office desk), as well as facilitates mid-air interactions between and around these displays. For example, after performing multi-touch interactions on a virtual object on the tabletop, the user may transfer the object to another display by simultaneously touching the object and the destination display. Or the user may “pick up” the object by sweeping it into their hand, see it sitting in their hand as they walk over to an interactive wall display, and “drop” the object onto the wall by touching it with their other hand. We detail the interactions and algorithms unique to LightSpace, discuss some initial observations of use and suggest future directions.

Windows Live Essentials inspired by Metro

Microsoft recently announced their final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011. There were no significant changes apart from Photo Gallery Navigation bar, Windows Live Sync renamed into Windows Live Mesh. All the applications of the suite have been Ribbonised. How about Metro Inspired theme for Windows Live Essentials? MML has posted few concepts found on Deviant Art. They are simply Awesome. Take a look at these..

The man who made all these.Even his profile display is inspired by metro..

Does Apple really own Coverflow and Time Machine Concepts?

Apple Insider recently posted about the patent trial which Apple lost recently. Coverflow and Time Machine are two visually appealing concepts in Mac OS X which Windows doesn't have. Though one can argue that these are not a most usable features. Coverflow doesn't make sense when you have 250 albums and you will swipe through album arts to find an album. Here is the info on patent trial,

Mirror Worlds LLC filed the lawsuit in 2008, alleging that Apple had infringed on patents for creating "streams" of documents sorted by time. According to Bloomberg, a federal jury sided with Mirror Worlds on Friday, although specific details of the ruling were unavailable.

Mirror Worlds' patents were based on research by Yale professor David Gelernter and then-doctoral student Eric Freeman. Gelernter emerged as a prominent computer scientist in the 1980s, eventually developing a time-based method of organizing data that he dubbed "lifestreaming." Patents for the concept date back as early as 1999 (1, 2, 3, 4).
In a March interview, Gelernter told Big Think that though he no longer held the patents for the suit, which he was told is the "largest lawsuit in patent history," he was still upset about not getting credit for the ideas.
Gelernter sees the Mac OS X features Spotlight and Time Machine, as well as the iTunes Cover Flow feature, as being taken from his ideas on "lifestreaming."

Android’s Weakest Part

Google started its Android efforts back in 2007. It partnered with several industry bigwigs for developing Android. The main driving force of Android at the time of launch was its open source,its free. Google combined its services into single package starting from Google Search, Maps, Mail, etc. Google said Android is based on Linux and it also supports Java language. Three years after the announcements Android have become formidable force in Mobile Operating System with about 25% with support from phone manufacturers such as HTC,Motorola,Sony Ericsson,Samsung,LG. Apple which was a leader in mobile space a year before first sued HTC for infringing its patents in phones powered by Windows Mobile and Android. Of 9 patents 7 were on Android alone and 2 on both the OS’s. Microsoft came to rescue HTC by licensing its patents to it. After some months as Sun was acquired by Oracle,Oracle sued Google for infringing its Java related patents.And now its Microsoft’s turn. Motorola which was once a Windows Mobile manufacturer now have turned into Android manufacturer. So Microsoft’s target was clear. What these companies want to tell about Android..Its below..

We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market. Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones.Our action today merely seeks to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights infringed by Android devices; and judging by the recent actions by Apple and Oracle, we are not alone in this respect.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement,"

I’m expecting Motorola Droid powered by Windows Phone 7..