Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/entelligence-time-for-microsoft-to-once-again-embrace-and-exten/

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A core part of Microsoft's strategy from days gone by was known as embrace and extend. With a reboot of their mobile platform due later this year, is it time for Microsoft to think about moving some of their services and applications to competitor's platforms? To some degree, it's already happening. Microsoft licenses the ActiveSync protocol which allows Android, iOS and other platforms to wirelessly sync with Exchange. It's developed Bing and Live Messenger apps for iOS and also done a deal to bring mobile Office apps to Nokia's platforms. One could argue that in some of these cases Microsoft has given competitors access to what could have been key differentiators for its own mobile efforts. I'm not sure I disagree with that analysis, but now that it's happening, I think Microsoft should think even more broadly about porting some applications and services. Here's what I'd like to see made available for other platforms.

Office Mobile: Sure, there are other solutions for viewing and editing Office documents on almost every platform, but none of them carry the Microsoft Office brand. A version of Office for mobile (including a touch-enabled version of OneNote) would be an instant best seller on every platform and a become the de facto standard for mobile office applications. A combination of free document viewers and a suite of applications at a reasonable cost would put Microsoft at the top of mobile productivity and at the same time help continue to drive Office sales for PCs and Macs.

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Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-becomes-everyones-favorite-midrange-grap/

It's rare to come across a universally lauded product nowadays, but NVIDIA's fresh new GTX 460 is just that sort of exceptional creation. Contrary to its GTX 465 elder brother, the 460 isn't a chopped-down top-tier part and is instead built on the new GF104 core. This smaller core, designed from the start to perform humbler functions, has ameliorated the famed power inefficiency that has been a Fermi signature so far, and has resulted in AnandTech describing the new card as "the $200 king." You'll get 768MB of onboard RAM at that point, but we'd splurge an extra $30 to make that a round gigabyte and enjoy some extra L2 cache and ROPs on the card. Either way, the GTX 460 seems to have completely killed off the market for the 465 and is stepping all over ATI's toes with its competitive pricing and, for once, decent heat and power metrics. Oh, and apparently it "overclocks like a monster" too -- hit the links below for the full reviews.

Read - AnandTech
Read - HardOCP
Read - Hot Hardware
Read - Tom's Hardware
Read - PC Perspective
Read - Bit-tech
Read - Guru 3D
Read - Legit Reviews

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android App Inventor lets you be the developer (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/android-app-inventor-lets-you-be-the-developer-video/

Google is following in Nokia's footsteps today by offering its users a simple-to-use DIY app maker. Employing a design scheme that relies on visual blocks rather than oodles of arcane code, the App Inventor -- still in Beta, of course -- has functions for "just about anything" you can do with an Android handset, including access to GPS and phone functionality. All that's really missing is the raw creative talent, which we're sure you'll be happy to provide. Hit the source link to get involved or skip past the break for an educational video.

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Android App Inventor lets you be the developer (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Paste Web URLs in File Upload Dialogs for Quick Uploads from One Web Site to Another [Windows Tip]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5582432/paste-web-urls-in-file-upload-dialogs-for-quick-uploads-from-one-web-site-to-another

If you want to upload a file to a web site and that file's already on another site—say, an adorable dog photo from Flickr to your blog—this handy shortcut shaves a few steps off how you're probably doing it.

Rather than save the file to your desktop, then opening the upload file dialog and navigating to where you downloaded the file, you can just copy the URL to the file and paste that URL in the Select File dialog. When you hit Open, Windows takes care of downloading the file from the original server and then uploads it to the server in question without requiring the extra steps from you. It's maybe not a life-changing revelation, and it's also not new, but it was new to us, and is a nice shortcut to have in your arsenal.

[via @spolsky]

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The Government's "Perfect Citizen" Program Will Protect Companies By Monitoring Them [BigBrother]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5582348/the-governments-perfect-citizen-program-will-protect-companies-by-monitoring-them

In order to curb cyber attacks on companies that control critical infrastructure, the US federal government is launching a new surveillance program dubbed "Perfect Citizen." The people behind it are already calling it "Big Brother."

The purpose of the "Perfect Citizen" program is to monitor critical infrastructure like electricity grids and nuclear-power plants and prevent cyber attacks from occurring. The NSA would place sensors in computer networks and watch for any unusual activity. An internal e-mail said, "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother", which is damn scary but the truth is, many large, older computer control systems like subway systems, air-traffic control networks, etc, weren't designed to connect to the internet but are now linked in to it, making them vulnerable to such attacks. These old systems could maybe use a big brother.

A US military official said:

The program [is] long overdue and any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras. It's a logical extension of the work federal agencies have done in the past to protect physical attacks on critical infrastructure that could sabotage the government or key parts of the country

The overall goal of the program, according to the US government, is to close the holes in our critical infrastructure and eventually, when the government builds up enough data, help other companies deal with cyber attacks (like Google earlier this year). That sounds very charitable of our government.

The truth likely lies somewhere in between that and "Big Brother", but as long as "Perfect Citizen" keeps the important things running and doesn't extend a peek into unimportant ol' me, I'm actually okay with it. I think. [WSJ]

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