COMPUTER Currents
Be prepared to spend a lot of time online to use many Microsoft applications
JAMES HEIN
The speculation on what Windows 7, that some are calling "Vista 2", will or will not have included is ramping up. There were some indications that Windows 7 screen shots were available to look at but by the time I tried the sites they had been taken down or the site removed completely. Microsoft commented that "the company is 'not aware' of issuing a take-down notice" and that "it's Microsoft's policy not to comment on rumours and speculation." Given the missing sites you can be the judge on this one.
So what will be in Windows 7? The Professional Developer Conference will allow developers to get hold of an evaluation copy, but the word from unofficial channels is that Windows 7 will be a stripped down version of Vista.
The current email application, photo editor and movie software for example will not be included. Instead such things will be part of Windows Live, a program that always seems to be installing something every time I boot in XP, as downloadable apps. You'll need to spend a lot more time online to use some MS apps, which will be annoying in places like Australia where there are serious bandwidth usage constraints and costs.
With the indications that Microsoft will be dropping Vista in the same way it did ME, the marketing machine has been firing on all cylinders. It claims to have improved the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and of course the user interface. Translated this means learning a whole new OS.
What is certain this time around is that Microsoft is making no promises about what Windows 7 will be like. It was seriously burned with Vista by promising everything - including the kitchen sink - and missing out the majority of what it had promised. Instead we have some vague promises of advances, enhancements and dropped Vista apps. Want I want to see is a less bloated OS that works just as well on notebooks as it does the PC.
Industry news According to the rental giant Blockbuster the shift from DVD to Blu-ray is even slower than that of VCR to DVD. Market penetration is still less than five per cent with high prices being the main factor slowing things down. You may remember this writer predicting this some time back.
For those with a player, I have found only one store so far in Bangkok that carries the real disks. The BTS end of the 4th floor of MBK centre has a number of titles. You will need to carry a lot of cash because they are not cheap with most prices well over 1,000 baht per title.
T-Mobile has an- nounced the G1, being the first consumer touch-screen phone based on Google's Linux-derived mobile OS, Android. The phone is made by HTC and features a slide out keyboard.
The feature set is fairly standard with Wi-Fi, a three megapixel camera with zoom, quad-band GSM, dual-band UTMS, along with 3G, EDGE and HSDPA support. The interface is not a good as the iPhone, aka the "Jesus Phone" but integration with non-Apple services is a lot stronger out of the box and Amazon will provide the iTunes equivalent.
Microsoft Exchange users will need to wait for a third-party application as will those wanting to sync with their PC. The platform is open source, so no problems with applications being banned. Pricing will vary from country to country but since we get HTC units here, expect to see them by the end of the year. You can find more details at http://www.t-mobileg1.com.
Soon after the announcement, Google released Version 1.0 of the Android SDK. Any developed apps will be compatible with the new phone and the SDk will be an evolving product. No source code as yet for the platform code, but that has been promised when the phone is released. The code will be true open source, i.e. you can modify it and not need to give what you have done back to the community. In reality this is rarely the case, as developers give a lot of what they have done back.
This is essentially the opposite of the Apple/Steve Jobs approach. If you want an app to be part of the iPhone App Store you need to send it in with an application form. If you are rejected the word now, according to macrumors.com, is that you get a rejection letter with a non-disclosure agreement warning. It states that you cannot share your programming code and secrets with anyone else. It also declares that you are not allowed to distribute your app on your own. Why would anyone ever write anything for Apple?
In other HTC news the Touch Pro has been released with a keyboard. It is heavier and thicker than the Diamond, which in the mobile phone market is not necessarily a good thing. Same screen but only 512MB of on-board RAM, which is a bit light, but there is a Micro SD port. You have two choices for the browser, but Opera is faster than IE. The camera is still not very good even at 3.2 megapixels and it takes a while to bring it up so your shot may well have vanished. There is a good music player but a non-standard headphone jack. I'm still waiting for my next touch screen unit and this does not look like the one.
How sure are you that those online betting sites are not fixed? Assuming that you have found your way round the in-country blocks and are still gambling online consider this: UltimateBet.com is facing a $75 million claim after it was discovered it had rigged games allowing cheaters to win hands at astronomically unlikely odds. Still want to bother gambling online?
A judge is shocked, shocked, that Microsoft has not been complying with anti-trust settlement agreements. The judge may extend the seven year oversight. Microsoft has been judged to be not producing enough documentation and making documentation difficult to read. Also to have been charging third parties too much to license its Windows APIs or making API documentation confusing, among other issues. In each case Microsoft makes some changes to meet the requirements but then fails in some other area. Of course, some have not been surprised by any of this at all.
Featured local site A reader wrote in response to my request for information on local sites of interest. The site is http://www.chefpla.com, and it's a food and cooking site that covers both recipes and local availability of ingredients. The site owner tells me that there will be weekly articles with a new recipe, along with a number of other articles, recipes, the Cook's Diary (a blog), a forum and pictures.
The target is people learning to cook or not familiar to local cuisine. The aim is to allow anyone to be able to make the dish. The site contains both Thai and international dishes. When I looked there were a bunch of recipes already loaded, and they are rated from easy to very hard to make. Definitely worth a look if you are interested in cooking.
Email: jclhein@gmail.com.
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