Adobe Apollo

Apollo, the code name for “a cross-operating system runtime” is a platform that will allow developers to create to desktop applications using existing web development skills such as Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript and Ajax. Web applications can be run online or offline through Apollo, which will also have the traditional benefits of desktop applications - speed, drag and drop functionality from the desktop to the application, and accessing the file system. Apollo is cross-platform, meaning any application developed for it will run on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. And they are promising easy porting of existing web applications to the Apollo platform.

Apollo extends the reach of the Flash development community onto the desktop, creating new opportunities for application development using ActionScript 3. The ActionScript development community can now deploy applications onto cell phones using Flash Lite, inside a web browser using Flash Player, and onto the desktop using Apollo.

Apollo's PDF electronic document support will play a role within the enterprise, opening up smarter form handling and reliability. An enterprise already dependent on PDF workflow and accountability may tap into Apollo for a consistent work flow across the company.

Adobe Announces Flex is to be open-sourced

"Adobe just announced that it will open source Flex under the MPL license." The move is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2007.

Adobe will continue to offer a commercial form of Flex, to provide "customers and partners flexibility in how they choose to license the Flex SDK."

Flex is a rich internet application framework based on Flash, including a component library, an Eclipse-based dev tool, and data services.

From Adobe's page on the announcement:
This includes not only the source to the ActionScript components from the Flex SDK, which have been available in source code form with the SDK since Flex 2 was released, but also includes the Java source code for the ActionScript and MXML compilers, the ActionScript debugger and the core ActionScript libraries from the SDK. The Flex SDK includes all of the components needed to create Flex applications that run in any browser - on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux and on now on the desktop using "Apollo."

IPhone

The iPhone is a multimedia and internet-enabled mobile phone announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during the keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo on 9 January 2007.

The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone, a multimedia player, mobile phone, and Internet services like e-mail, text messaging, web browsing and wireless connectivity. iPhone input is accomplished via touchscreen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone, though Jobs mentioned in his keynote that Apple has a "plan to make 3G phones" in the future. Apple has filed more than 200 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.

The iPhone is scheduled to be released in the United States in June 2007. It will be available from the Apple Store and from Cingular Wireless, with a price of US$499 for the 4 GB model and US$599 for the 8 GB model, based on a two-year service contract. Apple has also announced plans to make the iPhone available in Europe and Japan at a later date.

Screen 3.5 in, 320x480 px at 160 ppi
Memory 4 GB, 8 GB, internal flash memory
Networks 2.5G GSM (850/900/1800/1900), GPRS/EDGE, data speed up to 384 kbit/s
Connectivity Computer via 30-pin iPod dock connector, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0
Physical size 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
Weight 135 grams (4.8 ounces)

Microsoft Longhorn-Beta Released

Microsoft will release the feature-complete, third beta for Windows Server "Longhorn" on April 25, which is also the first public beta of the software.
 
The product remains on track for release to manufacturing in the second half of 2007.

Some 10,000 people in Microsoft's technical beta program have already tested the product, while thousands more downloaded or received the second beta and the Community Technology Preview that followed through their TechNet and MSDN subscriptions, Helene Love Snell, the senior product manager for Windows Server, told
"We will be distributing beta 3 as broadly as possible to ensure the maximum number of IT professionals, developers and partners test and evaluate the new features. Our distribution programs will offer this chance to literally hundreds of thousands of people," she said.

Windows Server "Longhorn" builds on the improved reliability and security of Windows Server 2003 R2, and brings with it the ability to simplify administration tasks via improved event logging, task scheduling, enhanced remote management and the scripting capabilities of Windows PowerShell, she said.

Some of the new or improved features in beta 3 include a server manager console that now has additional remote administration tools to provide a more integrated management environment and Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, now on by default, to provide a persistent and more secure environment beginning at install, she said.


Also in the beta is Active Directory Federation Services improvements, which let customers implement new policies and make it easier to set up a relationship between trusted partners, and the Server Core installation option, which now comes with additional roles and enhanced functionality, such as print services and Active Directory Lightweight Services.

"The new Server Core installation option is a minimal installation of Windows Server 'Longhorn' available with the standard, enterprise and datacenter editions. All of the core kernel components and subsystems are present, such as networking, file I/O and security, but the graphical user interface and graphical utilities such as the server manager, Microsoft Management Console and Internet Explorer are not," Snell said.

IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.0, the newest version of Microsoft's Web server, also provides a more secure, extensible platform for efficiently managing and reliably hosting Web applications and services, Snell said.

Customers now will be able to host Web applications and .NET 3.0 Web services on Windows Server "Longhorn" beta 3 in live production environments, using the new IIS7 Go Live license.

"The IIS7 Go Live license limits the live production use of Windows Server "Longhorn" beta 3 to Web workloads only requiring IIS7, including Windows SharePoint Services. The IIS7 Go Live License lets organizations push IIS7 into their production Web serving environments, while enabling Web developers to Go Live with their Web sites and applications on free hosted offers," she said.

Five hosters, MaximumASP, DiscountASP.net, Applied Innovations, Hostmysite.com and Web Fusion, are already using the IIS7 Go Live license to offer Free IIS7 beta hosting to attract bleeding-edge developers to their sites, while another three—CrystalTech, Mosso and Affinity—plan to have offers up within the next two weeks.

Intel® Core™2 Quad processor

Intel brings you the world's first quad-core processors for desktop and mainstream servers, leading the industry in multi-core technology. Find out about the blistering performance on desktop or servers. See how Intel® quad-core technology delivers unprecedented performance to high-end computers.
Now introducing the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor

Intel’s most advanced processor just got an upgrade to the power of four—four processing cores for the ultimate in demanding entertainment

• Up to 54% better performance for intense multimedia applications, streaming movies, music, and more with powerful Intel quad-core technology¹
  

• Up to 53% better performance when enjoying immersive 3-D gaming²
  

• Up to 79% faster performance for highly-threaded applications when creating multimedia and 3-D content³
  

• Up to 8MB of L2 cache and 1066 MHz Front Side Bus for an unrivaled multitasking experience

Intel’s quad-core processor has 2 dies in a single package with each die being a dual-core unit. This means that Intel has combined 2 “Core 2 Duo” cores instead of designing a single die with 4 cores.

For .Net Developers (Visual Studio Orcas Beta) Released

This week, Microsoft served up a cornucopia of goodies to test, including a beta—yes, the real deal—of Visual Studio Orcas.


The biggest beta of the bunch is Orcas. The long-anticipated Visual Studio test build is essential to Microsoft's broader cross-product feature integration strategy—or "Integrated Innovation." Orcas anchors Microsoft's "Smart Client" strategy, where Office is positioned as a replacement for other clients or Web browsers for accessing back-end data or Web services.

Microsoft has put forth that Office's familiarity makes it a more natural user interface for consuming and also creating information stored on servers. However, Office 2007's radically redesigned user interface blows a hole in the familiarity argument.

Orcas also has deep ties to Windows Vista, through .NET Framework. By the way, the beta comes with .NET Framework 3.5. But what the heck is going on with the name! In his blog post announcing the beta, S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division, called the Framework .NET FX 3.5. Microsoft did the renaming last summer, but Framework has been the more common shorthand until now. Microsoft does way too much rebranding.

Silverlight, better known as WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere), is the other piece some developers will want with Orcas. The Silverlight beta is due for release in about 10 days at Microsoft's MIX07. Silverlight is more rebranding action.

The Orcas beta is available as ISO image for MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscribers or as a virtual image.

In conjunction with Unisys, Microsoft is offering a free trial of Exchange Server 2007.

On Wednesday night, I got an e-mail announcing that Windows Home Server CTP (Community Technology Preview) is available. The release means that people testing the software can talk about progress to date. Microsoft continues to accept beta applications. I will more fully discuss the software in a future post.

In the future downloads department, Microsoft is soliciting testers for the next version of Media Center, which presumably would be available with Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

The exhaustive list of downloads would take an afternoon to write up, so we've picked out best of the week. Commenters, please point fellow Microsoft Watch readers to other Microsoft downloads that you think are important. But, please, keep your links to one per comment, or the junk comment filter might snatch it away.

New Frontiers in Wireless

This week on Wayne's Wireless Wire, Wayne Rash talks to Kodiak Networks President and CEO Craig Farrill about the company's new push-to-talk service in Alaska. Wayne also talks to Virginia Tech team physician Gunnar Brolinson about the telemetry in his football team's helmets, and to Simbex President Rick Greenwald, whose company built the helmet devices that help protect against head injuries.

Debian 4.0 Tiptoes to Leading Edge

The latest version of the popular Linux distribution retains its overall conservatism but sports newer features in key areas, such as in its support for full volume encryption as a basic installation option.