Microsoft's Yahoo Setting the Stage for Battle Agaisnt Google

Microsoft $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo sets the stage for a heavy-weight software as a service (SAAS) subscription battle between Microsoft and Google.

Tyler Dikman, the CEO of Cooltronics, a Tampa, Fla. solution provider, urged both Microsoft and Google to come to the table with a recurring revenue commission for solution providers to sell basic productivity software as subscription service. "I'm not a VAR that believes I should be paid for everything, but if I am bringing the customer to either Microsoft or Google they should give me a monthly recurring revenue commission," he said. "We provide a wide range of services to our customers and when all is said and done we need to be profitable. The more options we can provide to customers the better. This is a missed opportunity for both Microsoft and Google."

Solution providers said that currently neither Microsoft with Office Live or Google with Google Docs offers partners the opportunity to earn a monthly recurring revenue software as a service commission.

Dikman said he believes a Microsoft Office Live monthly subscription would drastically reduce piracy of Microsoft Office in small and medium businesses. "This is definitely where Microsoft needs to head, especially when you look at the outrageous price of Microsoft Office," he said. "I can say with certainty that at least one out of five systems we deal with has pirated Microsoft Office software. If you provide customers with a more attractively priced monthly offering it will cut down on piracy."

Dikman said customers would love the option of paying a monthly $10 subscription for Office with all updates rather than $400 for a packaged copy. He says it would also spark a huge uptick in Office upgrades. "Office 2007 is a great version of Office," he said. "The biggest problem I have is I have to save every document as an Office 2003 document instead of Office 2007 because most of the people I do business with don't have Office 2007 yet so they can't open those files. That defeats the purpose of a lot of the functionality in Office 2007."

"Software as a service is absolutely where Microsoft needs to be headed in order to get everybody on the same page," said Dikman. "I am certain more people would adopt Office 2007 if it was a software as a service offering."

"Both Microsoft and Google understand that its going to be a battle to get monthly subscription software service revenue from customers," said Glen Coffield, president of Smart Guys Computers, a four-store system builder chain based in Orlando Fla. "The question is which one is going to partner with solution providers like Smart Guys to drive that subscription revenue."

Coffield said a successful Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo would provide a platform for Microsoft to kick its software as a service (SaaS) plan into high gear, but the key is leveraging solution providers to sell a Microsoft Office Live monthly subscription. Of course, that would mean giving solution providers a recurring revenue commission. Not something Microsoft has been willing to do at this point.

Russian Rocket Heading out to Space to Deliver Christmas Presents

    A Russian spacecraft Progress launched towards space on Sunday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver necessitates and presents for Christmas and New Year’s to the International Space Station.
    The Progress spaceship is an automated, unpiloted version of the Soyuz spacecraft that is used to bring supplies to the ISS. The spokesperson for the ground control outside Moscow said, “it is en route to entering the orbit”. The Progress was packed with fuel, food and technical gear for the ISS as well as Christmas presents for US commander Peggy Whitson and NASA flight engineer Dan Tan. The third Russian crew member will be especially excited as he will not only be receiving his traditional Russian New Year’s present but something for his forty-sixth birthday soon.
    Now that's what dreams are made of for any wanna-be astronaut; birthday gift being delivered on a spaceship. Among his gift will be favorite films and music, plus some home video shot by his relatives back at home, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
    The ISS has been continuously inhabited since the first resident crew entered the station on November 2, 2000, providing a permanent human residence in Space.

Source: Times Group.
Image Source:NASA gov.

iPhone and Intel's Silverthorne: Unlikely Duo

iPhone is currently holding off any plans of a newer iPhone till it gets all of its problems sorted out, the major one being its low battery life. But taking that into consideration is Apple now thinking of using an Intel's Silverthorne chip, which will just put the iPhone a step back.
AppleInsider reported recently that Apple has decided to use Intel's low power Silverthorne chip in many of their products to come during the 2008 calendar. Intel's Silverthrone chip plans to gain some market for itself in the cellphone/mobile phone market as part of product concept called the Mobile Internet Device.
From what the report states Silverthrone are most likely to be incorporated into 3G iPhone and Newton-like table computer that AppleInsider reported earlier this year. But knowing the Silverthrone processors from Intel earlier reports, an iPhone Silverthrone is unlikely. From the earlier reports we can expect the chip to be similar to a 2004 Pentium M processor that consumes about a watt or two of power but this would still not be small enough as the iPhone are probably integrated with Samsumg S3C6400 chips which consume just 280 milliwatts. Silverthorne on the other hand will consume a minimum of 500 milliwatts just when it's idle.
That is most likely not going to work for a phone especially iPhone which is concerned about power supply. It would work however if a different phone was created such as the rumored “rutern of the newton”.

source: cnet news

Holiday guide: how to buy the best compact digital camera?

With Christmas and new years approaching and everyone getting spoilt for choices, buying that perfect digital camera can be quite difficult. So before rushing into things and going nuts after you see a 14 mega pixel cam and buying it and having any regrets later on, find out exactly how you should buy a camera and what all features you will be needing from it. Here are some of the features that will help you decide on how to decide on a camera that suits your needs. For most people the bottom line would be money; setting the price limit that you would spend and then go from there. This is probably a huge mistake unless you want to change the camera again within a year. If not decide on something that will last and when comparing, look at the differences in the features and how much more price are they asking for it and it that is worth it. That's a better way to shop, but moving on, here are things you should be perfect in before going in for a camera.
The Mega-pixel-Everyone's favorite: Mega-pixel is not the only deciding factor! Get that in your head now. The only thing it’s good for is for showing off to other people. In fact with most cameras above 6MP it shouldn't even be considered as an important buying factor. Mega-pixel helps determine how large prints would be possible without distorting the image. A 3 megapixel shot is sufficient for a regular 4’* 6’ size printing and a 5 MP for printing an image of entire A4 page size, so I really don't see the point in cameras boasting 12 MP+ unless it is used by professionals who need to print out banners and advertisements. The mega pixel also has no deciding factor on the quality of the picture unless stretched wider than the original resolution. The quality of the picture is decided by the rest of the camera features which include exposure settings, in built features, etc. So anything above 6MP camera should be sufficient for most people.
Exposure settings: Most cameras come with in-built exposure settings to save you from the hassle of getting the right settings. But for serious photographers this is a key and shouldn’t be left out. Some models offer aperture and shutter priority modes, as well as full manual control. Aperture settings let you control how much the lens should be open allowing the user to control the width of the lens opening. The shutter control is also important as it lets you decide how much time the frame should be exposed to the light; manually letting you control the brightness of the shot. This is useful in cameras that don't provide a high iso sensitivity in which shutter control is needed to get the proper lighting. Iso sensitivity is explained below. Either way, to summarize.. High iso -> forget manual settings, no iso -> better have manual settings.
Focal Range: Cameras with greater focal range can get more into a shot or zoom in to fill the frame with same subject. You seen those ads where everyone is backing up to get everyone into the shot, while the happy guy with his high focal range is up front smiling, well that's what they were advertising there.
Zoom: Most cameras come with a standard 3X optical zoom while some might offer 10X zoom which are usually categorized into super-zoom categories but these sometimes lack in other basic features other than zoom. One thing to keep in mind is don't pay attention to the combined zoom which is the optical zoom * digital zoom. Example: If there are two cameras: one with 4X optical and 3X digital and one with 3X optical and 4X digital… which one do you choose? They both have 12X combined zoom but 4X optical would be a smarter choice. Digital zoom should be avoided unless absolutely necessary as they provide inferior pictures than those of optical zoom. The pictures tend to be blurred and low on contrast.
Manual Focus: Focusing a camera yourself can be more accurate than automatic ones is some situations. They can provide much better effects too if supposing some areas are wanted blurred and some focused. But a lot of point-n-shoot cameras usually don’t provide manual focus, and if they do, they have focus for predetermined distances which can still cause pictures to blur. If going for point and shoot camera and not something like SLR than an auto focus should be fine.
Low-light focusing aid: A lot of cameras also provide dim light, reddish tints usually, to help the camera focus in dim settings. This feature is important for low lighting conditions and most cameras should provide it.
ISO sensitivity: This is the technology of today's camera's and all the companies are racing ahead to perfect it and reach higher levels. The main lacking in digital cameras were their ability to take decent lighting pictures at night without using a strong flash that ended up making the picture look horrific. Hence the ISO: Higher the number; the less the light is needed to make an exposure. This is the perfect solution for taking pictures at night or café’s or restaurants. Most cameras have been integrating manual ISO sensitivity already and it should be a must for any buyer. Consider ones that give 3200 even though 1600 is probably enough for most low lighting conditions. 6400 ISO are also out now if you are hungry for some ultra low lighting pictures.
Some other Important Features:
Face Recognition: Most Point and shoot cameras come with this now and have the ability to detect up to 9 faces in the screen to adjust the contract and lighting appropriately.
Anti-Shake: Another common feature and the name pretty much says it all. No real method to compare which is better and each of the companies have their own anti-shake brand name. Don’t make any assumptions from that though.
Others: There are a lot more features which differ from camera to camera, red-eye reduction, internal picture editing, etc. One of the things to check out for when you're looking around is what pre-mode picture settings they provide you with. So far I believe that Casio point-and-shoot provides the most; with 41 preset modes to choose from. Things like sepia, black n white, beach, nightlife.. are common modes.. some cameras give 6 while some like Casio give 40+. It's up to you to decide how good these settings are and if that's going to be the basis on what you're buying the camera on.

End of a Computing Era Drawing Near?

The computer processors continue to astound everyone by coming up with even smaller versions, with Intel's latest addition of the 45 nanometer processors that hold 820 million transistors. Size does matter as sixty years since transistors were invented and just 35 years since the first processor was developed which boasted of 2000 transistors, the technology is reportedly reaching the physical limits of miniaturization.

Does this mean the Moore's law which states that the number of transistors per square inch of integrated circuits will continue to double every year still be possible? What is for sure is that the exponential growth of the transistors in a chip will become increasingly difficult to maintain. What Moore had projected was because of constant innovation in technology, it was possible to manufacture more at less costs than before.
The Moore's law was modified in the 1990's to say that computing power at fixed cost will double every 18 months. This is a departure from the earlier boom and bust cycle that characterized conventional business models.
So what's going on here? Are they changing a stated law by a miniature scale so that it escapes the eye? What if the claim of technologies what we're reached the limit of miniaturization turns out to be true? The global economies regular pattern of showing linear growth will take a hit. That is unless, another completely new technology replaces the old one, and by doing so, once again revive Moore's law in a different way.
That seems like the most possible future for computers. The limitations of size are drawing very to a close. Intel already has plans for a 32 nanometer chips by end of 2009 and maybe even head to fewer than 30’s for a few more years but soon after a change is inevitable. Maybe the very engine that's driving the digital revolution – the integrated silicion circuts – gets replaced by a far more sophisticated technology that has the potential to grow even faster that the previous one. The near future can see the coming of tri-gate transistors still being researched with the Intel co-corporation or on processors based on quantum computing or dna powered chips. Phase 1 of the computing revolution is finally coming to a close and we can do is wait and watch to see what is unveiled next.