Windows 8: Developer 'Review'

Microsoft Corporation recently revealed the developer preview of the next release in its Windows line of desktop operating systems, codenamed as Windows 8. This may be the first time for Microsoft to publicly release the preview of its operating system for free. Microsoft is keeping Linux as idol in this sense! Well, I downloaded its ISO from official website of Microsoft Developers Network and tested it on my laptop computer. I present here my review and some of the snapshots of it. This review is based on my testing in non-touch environment.

Windows 7 was just an attempt of Microsoft to repair the pitfalls and flaws in Windows Vista. There are no considerable changes in Windows 7 in comparison with Vista. Unlike Windows 7, Windows 8 is really ambitious. Almost every corner of OS is well touched up and shows right working from boot. Windows 8 is inspired by its mobile cousin, Windows Phone 7.

Windows 8 is dual-UI operating system, first one is classic Windows UI and another one is Metro UI, inspired by Windows Phone 7. This Metro UI was the only reason why Microsoft released its preview. Metro UI is the new way for Windows developers for creating new applications. The classic Windows 7 UI remains mostly same. Windows 8 is essentially meant to be an OS that can run on tablet PCs. Windows 7 came up with multi-touch screen support, but it didn’t provide very good multi-touch experience. Windows 8 overtakes this drawback with tile-based metro UI. This Metro is complete different from classic Windows UI and is heavily optimized for touch screens.

Metro Start Screen

After a fresh installation and first boot, user is greeted with this metro UI. This UI shows the collection of pre-installed applications from both of the UIs. These tiles are easy to re-arrange just by drag-n-drop feature. This start screen really has a sexy look. Tiles are small windows into the application. Each tile shows the status of that application. Means, the e-mail app shows the count of unread mails. You can pin any application to Metro start screen, whether traditional Windows app or web URL.

There’s also instant search interface in start screen which can search any kind of search query, may be app, may be content of app or may be file. This feature is really efficient.

Search UI

After clicking on ‘desktop’ from start screen, the following desktop view is displayed, which is must similar to classic Windows 7 desktop. Now, you can have access to your computer but sill, everything is centralized around Metro UI.

Classic Desktop View

Optimized Lock Screen

Metro UI Style Login Screen

Windows 8 comes with Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) both in metro and classic UI. Metro IE10 does not allow plugins such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight.

Windows now has a new version of multi-tasking. Pressing Windows key suspends the active application. These suspended processes still remain in background and consume RAM, but they don't consume CPU resources. You will be presented with list of all running and suspended applications by opening the regular task manager. You can also choose to suspend those apps which are consuming too much CPU resources. This improves the overall performance speed. The task switching can be done via [Alt] + [Tab] as well as [Windows] + [Tab].

The login or lock screen is also metro-based and shows current date and time and a featuring wide-screen high-resolution image.

Internet Explorer 10 (Classic Windows UI)

Internet Explorer 10 (Metro Style UI)

The only and biggest loss in Windows 8 is Start menu :(. The new Metro UI doesn’t support start menu, instead it launches tile-based metro start screen as described already.

The Windows Explorer in Windows 8 has a brand new ribbon-based UI, with much better functionality. This UI brings back the lost menus in Vista and 7.

(New Explorer with Ribbon-based UI)

The ribbon UI toolbar shows the common options such as extracting ZIP files, properties, open with etc. Some of the common operations can be pinned to Explorer toolbar.

One more plus point with Windows 8, we can virtually mount or burn ISO file without any third-party utility. Just double click on the ISO file we want to mount. It gets automatically mounted as new optical drive. We can also unmount it just by normal eject operation. +1!

The file copy and move interface is also enhanced. All file transfer operations such as copy, move, delete appear in the same window. These operations can be also be paused.

Expanded View of Copy Progress Window

Expanded of copy window shows the graph of changes in file transfer speed versus time.

A new “Automatic” option for aero theme automatically set s the color of window border and title bar based on the current wallpaper.

The new task manager in Windows 8 is very powerful tool. It adds many attributes in addition to CPU and RAM utilization, such as disk and network utilization. It is very detailed.

New Task Manager (Detailed Processes View)

New Task Manager (Performance Statistics)

Windows 8 also offers Control Panel in Metro UI as shown below.

The Windows 8 provides inbuilt Anti-virus technology which includes Smart-Screen filter introduced in IE9. Windows automatically checks the downloaded files using any browser.

One more core improvement in Windows 8, even boot screen has Metro UI! Each boot option is optimized for touch-environment.

Metro UI for Boot Options

There is also serious improvement in boot speed. My PC now starts just in 10 seconds!

Windows 8 comes with in-built feature called as ‘Hyper-V’ for creating and accessing virtual machines. This feature needs to be turned on from ‘Turn Windows Features On or off’ from Control panel. But still this option is not a substitute for VMWare Player.

After all, if you can’t wait for having access to this coolest version of Windows OS, you can download its ISO file (Developer Preview) from this link. You can either mount it virtually or can write it on writable DVD and can proceed towards easy (may be time consuming) installation process.

The minimum hardware requirements for this installation are:

1. 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

2. 1 GB of RAM (for 32-bit) or 2 GB of RAM (for 64-bit)

3. 20 GB for free hard drive space

4. Screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels

Remember, Windows 8 is just the codename for this version OS by Microsoft. The name can be different after its final release. This final release is expected to be in late 2012. This was just a pre-beta version to make developers aware about new development era for Windows Development apart from .NET Framework development. Many much changes are expected in final release. Waiting for your comments!

Regards,

Nitish R. Muley

Person of the Year: Steve Jobs

Here is the end of an era in Apple Inc following the resignation of the person behind iPhone, iPad, Mac and several other products, Steve Jobs as CEO. He is the person who has stood as an idol in business and entrepreneurship. In this article, we will go through a brief timeline of his life.
Steve Jobs as Youngster

Born on 24th February 1955 in San Francisco, US, his full name is Steven Paul Jobs. When he was born, his mother decided to put him for adoption because she wanted a girl. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He attended Cupertino Junior High School in Cupertino, California. He was frequently attending lectures in Hewlett-Packard Company after school-schedule. Even he was hired there as employee. He passed out in 1972 from school and joined Reed College, Oregon. But he decided to drop out from that college after one semester because it was too expensive. His economical condition was not good at that time. He used to sleep on floor on friends’ rooms, returning coke bottle for 5 cents deposits to buy food. He also used to walk 7 miles across his hometown to get one good meal at Hare Krishna temple. He later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts." In 1974, He returned to California and worked as a technician in Homebrew Computer Club. During this time, he was influenced by spiritual thoughts of Buddhism. He also visited India for spiritual enlightenment after which he became a Buddhist.
In 1976, he and his friend (Steve Wozniak) started ‘Apple Computer Company’ in a garage. Their job was only to assemble a computer and sell it. This company started to expand and became popular within a short time. After 1978, they hired many CEOs for company. Company also went through some tough times during this period.
Steve Jobs introduced Macintosh Operating System in 1984. The Macintosh computer became the first successful computer with graphical user interface. It was the greatest achievement of Apple Computer. Jobs founded another company called NeXT computer during the same time. The products of NeXT computer implemented some innovative technologies. He also invented the new mail system NeXTMail. It was the first mail which would contain embedded accessible images. NeXT Computer also became popular within few years. It sold about 50,000 computer systems up to 1993.
During the same time, Jobs also bought the well-known graphics company Pixar Animation Studio. This company produced many box-office hit animation films with Disney Animation Studios such as Toy Story, The Incredibles, Monster etc.
Later in 1996, Apple purchased NeXT and company found its way to develop Mac OS. In 2000, Jobs became permanent iCEO of Apple. In 2000’s, Apple concentrated on the improvement of digital appliances. Jobs introduced the iPod, the portable digital music player in 2001. This iPod was popular worldwide becoming the common noun for all other portable music players. Another invention of company along with iPod was iTunes store, a digital music software. In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced iPhone and entered in cellular industry to eventually become the giant. iPhone was the first multi-touch screen cellphone. Later inventions of Apple such as iPad and iCloud are now at peak point of technology. His contribution in e-waste recycling is also considerable. In 2006, he started Apple’s Recycling Programs for Apple’s costumers for environment-friendly disposal of their old systems. He has listed about 230 patents for his several inventions such as multi-touch, keyboards, efficient batteries, power adapters etc.

Steve Jobs in Mac World Conference
In 2004, he announced his employees that he has a pancreatic cancer, a rare disorder. He underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy that appeared to successfully remove the tumor. Jobs later says that his willpower helped him to get healed.
Timothy J. Cook (Tim Cook) was the most reliable employee of Jobs who was head of worldwide sales and operations of Apple. Jobs is still having many serious health problems which forced him to resign. After his resignation, the post of CEO has handed over by Jobs to Cook.
After all, Steve Jobs has created an idol for us in every sense. Let us pray for his health and long life.

(THE FOLLOWING BLOCK WAS UPDATED LATER)
Steve Jobs died on 5th October 2011 at his California home, respiratory arrest caused due to pancreatic cancer. His death was very disappointing for all tech-lovers, Apple and Mac users.
RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

-by Nitish R. Muley

Broadband Internet Access: A way to Live Smart Life

Internet is growing very fast day by day. The word ‘Hypertext’ is now changing to ‘Hypermedia’. HD quality videos are directly streamed from website to the client PC. Downloading full-length movies from Internet is not new for you. In order to serve users this much bandwidth, a technology called ‘Broadband’ was developed. Broadband, although commercially marketed as ‘High-speed Internet’, technically speaking, it is a method of telecommunication in which the available bandwidth is shared by multiple simultaneous signals. Today in this article, I am going to tell you about some of the chief Broadband technologies and we will also discuss which one would be better.

1. DSL
Basically, in beginning, the cheapest service of Internet was given to the common users through PSTN dial-up. This service is still available. It allows user to access Internet simply by dialing a phone call to telephone operator through connection manager in system. After connecting and authenticating, telephone operator connects that PC to ISP through telephone line and gives the service of Internet. These analog telephone signals demodulated by dial-up modem in user’s PC. The major disadvantage of this service is that the signals are sent by ISP to users through a ‘phone call’ which occupies full bandwidth which is basically set up of voice. This bandwidth is at the most 56 kbps. Considering today’s needs, 56 kbps is not enough even for images. Also, the telephone line remains busy during the Internet connection is on. Hence, in order to overcome this disadvantage, a Broadband technology called as ‘DSL’ (Digital Subscriber Line) was developed. With use of this technology, the regular public switched telephone line can be set up for Broadband. This procedure is very economical and does not cost much because it uses the same copper cables. DSL can enhance the bandwidth of telephone line amazingly upto 8 Mbps by introducing various channels without disturbing the phone call.
DSL is the first Broadband technology used for Internet. In India, BSNL’s DSL Broadband service is very popular and cheaper across the India. DSL is also spreading in rural areas. DSL always requires a small DSL Modem for demodulation of received signals through telephone line. This modem usually comes in network architecture. It directly connects to PC through Ethernet port. It usually comes with DSL filter which separates Internet signals from telephone signals. Commonly, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is preferred by users. The word asymmetric implies the asymmetry of uplink and downlink speeds. In ADSL, users get more downloading speed as compared to uploading speed. The next version of ADSL is ADSL2+ which offers speeds up to 24 Mbps. ADSL2+ is soon to arrive in India. DSL is dependent for distance from the telephone exchange as the strength of signal gets lost with increasing the distance. Thus, user far away from exchange gets lower speeds as compared to user nearer to the same. DSL also as application in IPTV which enables users to watch TV through telephone line set up with Broadband. The bandwidth of DSL cannot be increased upto very high extent due to noise issues.

2. Cable
Next to public switched telephone network (PSTN), television cable network is the second larger network spread in urban areas. This cable network is already set up for Broadband. Because, cable TV uses Broadband in which given bandwidth is shared by multiple simultaneous signals called as ‘channels’ or ‘bands’. Hence, this line can obviously be used for the purpose of Internet access. This cable is always a ‘Coaxial cable’. This cable is more secure and resistant to electromagnetic induction which causes signal loss in copper cable. The system or protocol used here is known as DOCSIS (Data over Cable Service Interface Specification). DOCSIS 1.0 offers speeds up to almost 38 Mbps which is much more than DSL. The recent version of DOCSIS is DOCSIS 3.0 which offers speeds up to 120 Mbps. Unlike DSL, cable Broadband is independent of the distance from exchange. Hence, every person anywhere in the cable network gets the same speeds. I think cable Broadband service would be more preferable than DSL. It also requires a modem which connects to the customer’s PC. This modem usually comes in network architecture. It directly connects to PC through Ethernet port. This service is also cheaper and affordable just like DSL. Presently in India, Sify Broadband and Hathway Cable offer the service of Cable Broadband in major cities.

3. Fibre-optic Cable
Even though copper cables and coaxial cables are widely being used for communication, there are certain limitations. These cables are becoming very expensive day by day. Thus in future, there should be certain replacement for these cables. Hence, for this purpose a new cable called as ‘optical fibre’ or ‘fibre-optic’ was invented. This cable is being used in many applications including communication sector. The cable is made up from fine quality glass like quarts. It is totally transparent cable. Unlike copper or coaxial cable, Fibre-optic cable doesn’t use electric pulses for transmission of signal. It uses light pulses. This light is always laser. The major advantage of this cable is that it provides very much high bandwidth enabling transmission of several simultaneous signals including voice, video, Internet, television signals etc. These cables are not subject to noise issues unlike DSL. Very fine-quality cables of fibre-optic are available in market right now. Also, these cables are very much cheap.
Fibre-optic provides speeds between 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps both in uplink and downlink. I think these cables are about to replace traditional copper and coaxial cables. Fibre-optic will really become revolution in case of wired communication.

4. Satellite
The DTH services have gained very much popularity because they have brought entertainment of television even in rural and remote areas. This direct satellite-to-home system can also be used for the access of Broadband Internet. It is estimated that there must be 75 million rural homes all over the world which have no Broadband Internet access. Hence in such areas, satellite Internet access will be perfect solution. It requires launching a separate Broadband satellite.
As per the information from BBC News Technology, two broadband satellites are being launched in Europe the next year. The first one is from UK firm ‘Avanti’. It is expected to offer speed of 2 Mbps for all the homes in UK with a very cheap cost. The second one is from French firm ‘Eutelsat’ which is expected to offer speed of 10 Mbps in entire UK. India is also soon to launch a new Broadband satellite for fixed Internet access all over the India. I will inform you after getting sufficient information about this.
The main problem with this system is ‘signal delay’ which increases the time for transmission and receipt of signal. This is because the signal has to travel almost 36000 km through air upto satellite. Also, the signal gets disturbed due to whether conditions like rain. But, it provides constant bandwidth throughout the access.
This was everything about fixed Broadband Internet access. The rest of article describes about some technologies about Mobile Broadband.

5. Mobile Broadband: 3G Family
The demand for Broadband Internet is increasing due to its cheapness and high-speed capability. The 3G family of GSM has two technologies which enable users to access Broadband Internet on the move. These technologies are HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) and HSPA+ (evolved High Speed Packet Access). HSPA is the upgrade to core 3G network (WCDMA) and can be treated as an extension to existing 3G networks. Often marketed as 3.5G, HSPA is the collection of two mobile telephony protocols namely, HSDPA and HSUPA. HSDPA handles the downlink while HSUPA handles the uplink. HSPA offers optimum downlink speeds upto 14.4 Mbps. The mobile operator may restrict this speed as per the payment of customer. This means less per month cost for 3.6 Mbps and more cost for 7.2 Mbps for a fixed data bundle (usually in GBs). The maximum uplink speeds are upto 5.76 Mbps. To access mobile Broadband through HSPA, you have to purchase a USB modem called as ‘dongle’ which is usually offered by mobile operator at affordable price. HSPA also comes in-built in cellphones, tablet PCs and even in laptops (netbooks). Many of these devices come with only HSDPA which provides only high downlink speed and uplink is handled by core 3G network at 384 kbps.
The upgrade to HSPA is HSPA+. HSPA+ uses a special communication technique known as MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output). MIMO is the use of multiple antennas both at receiver as well as transmitter. HSPA+ offers maximum theoretical downlink speeds upto 84 Mbps and maximum theoretical uplink speeds upto 22 Mbps. HSPA+ will enable several features like HD video streaming as well as conferencing. Many of the present HSPA (3.5G) networks in the world are being upgraded to HSPA+. Some of these networks operate at 21.1 Mbps while some at 28 Mbps. HSPA+ is also the extension to existing 3G services.
Well, we don’t have to wait for arrival of HSPA/HSPA+ services in India because these services are already being launched following the 3G spectrum auction. TATA DOCOMO and Reliance have launched their HSPA+ networks in India with speeds upto 21.1 Mbps and 28 Mbps respectively. BSNL is also upgrading its existing HSPA network to HSPA+ with peak speeds upto 21.1 Mbps.

6. Mobile Broadband: CDMA Family
The alternative mobile technology to GSM is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). Both GSM and CDMA have developed their 3rd generation of telephony especially targeted towards the enhanced data speeds. UMTS is the 3G of GSM. On the other hand, EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized/Only) is known 3G of CDMA. UMTS can handle both voice and data while EVDO service is optimized only for data. EVDO service is designed as an upgrade as well as an extension to existing CDMA 1x network. EVDO is backward compatible with 1x network. On the other hand, UMTS is not backward compatible with GSM/GPRS/EDGE. It is an compititor to 3G. EVDO offers maximum downlink speeds upto 2.4 Mbps and uplink speeds upto 153 kbps. This basic version of EVDO is known as EVDO Rev.0 in which only downlink is enhanced and uplink is handled by backward 1x network. The evolutionary upgrade to EVDO is known as EVDO Rev.A. Rev.A offers downlink speeds upto 3.1 Mbps and uplink speeds upto 1.8 Mbps. EVDO Rev.A network has been deployed widely all over the world including India. In India, Reliance communications (Netconnect+), Tata Teleservices (Tata Photon+) and MTS (MBlaze) have their EVDO Rev.A networks working upto speeds of 3.1 Mbps. The next upgrade is to EVDO is EVDO Rev.B which will be soon getting deployed. EVDO Rev.B has peak downlink speeds upto 4.9X Mbps and uplink speeds upto 1.8X Mbps where 'X' is the number of 1.25 MHz pieces of spectrum of used. EVDO also comes with a USB modem which is connected to PC for Broadband Internet access.
I think 3G will be better than EVDO considering many aspects such as speeds, network, cost etc.

7. WiMAX
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a new telecommunications protocol that enables user to access fixed and mobile Broadband Internet with speeds upto 40 Mbps. WiMAX will be an alternative to DSL, Cable, 3G and EVDO. WiMAX should not be confused with Wi-fi which is the wireless version of Ethernet and is a wireless networking protocol. Wi-fi is IEEE 802.11 specification while WiMAX is IEEE 802.16 specification. Pune city in India is soon to be a WiMAX city. More content will be uploaded after getting sufficient information.

Mobile broadband industry is getting cheaper day by day and many new technologies are coming for its enhancement. We will use it more and more in future.

Thanks and Regards,

Nitish R. Muley

Mobile Phones: Full Timeline and Technologies

Hello guys! This is my first post. Really glad!
Obviously, we are addicted to a small device called 'mobile phone'. It's becoming an indivisible part of our life. We can't stay longer than an hour without our mobile, checking SMS, emails. This mobile industry has rapidly grown in last decade especially considering in India. Right now, I am going to explain you about all G's of mobiles called generations.

0G: Radiophones
The trend of mobile phones begins with the early efforts to develop 2-way radio duplexes early in 1950's. The first mobile was a radio telephone also called as 0G phone.
The picture shows the first 0G radiophone. This was accessible with a system called 'MTS' (Mobile Telephone System).
This was a very heavy handset and costly to maintain and there was no reliability of connection.

1G: Analog Phones
Further with the advancement in electronics and telecommunication technologies, the Bell labs in America developed new mobile handset with analog system. This phone arrived in early 1980's

The picture shows a handy 1G analog phone with aerial, keypad and a speaker. This was accessible with a system called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System). AMPS was the first cellular technology. This was a first 'cellphone' which was accessible in hexagonal parts of particular area called 'cells'. The AMPS cellular system was operable within 800 MHz frequency band. The main drawback of this system was that this phone was too heavy to carry on the go and was fairly unreliable due to errors occurring in analog system. But, AMPS system was becoming so popular.
After 1990, there was need to develop new mobile system for more reliability, simple design, cheapness and data. So, development of digital phones began.









2G: Digital Phones
After the development of digital phones in early 1990's, the system was developed to make the operation of these phones simple, reliable and more secure. This system was GSM ('Global System for Mobile Communication'. The technology used for operation of digital phones is TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). GSM is global TDMA.
GSM progressed rapidly all over the world in 212 contries and is now used by approximately 2 billion people increasing everyday. The main feature of GSM is that it provides uninterrupted and secure connection between 2 users connected in GSM anywhere in the world. One of the key feature of GSM in SIM (Subscriber Identity Module). SIM is nothing but a smart card containing user's subscribing information and phonebook. With SIM people can switch between operators without changing their handset. GSM service was developed especially to carry voice and not data.
The GSM handset converts the voice pulses into digital signals very sharply. This process is called as 'digitization'. Digitization reduces errors in signals and gives the clear voice.
The technology alternative to TDMA/GSM is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
In mid 1990's with the growth of internet, there was a need across people to access the internet on the go. So, a new system called GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) was developed as an extension of GSM. This service is considered as 2.5G. This service is now available in over 200 contries. This service provides 'always on' connection to the internet with slow speed of 56-114 kbps.
Further with development of mobile hardware and software, there was a demand of faster data transfer to mobile phones. So, GPRS service was enhanced. This enhanced service is called as EDGE (Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution). It is considered as 2.75G. It also provides same features of GPRS but with enhanced data rates upto 236 kbps. It is moderate speed and also allows PCs and laptops for mobile internet connectivity with good browsing and fair downloading speed.
Right now in India, the charge of GPRS/EDGE service is very low. Averagely Rs. 100 per month with rich data bundle upto 5GB.

3G: Smart Phones

After 2000, the data needs of the world increased with enhancement of features of internet such as video streaming, conferencing, downloading etc. So, GPRS/EDGE was so poor to carry this much large bandwidth. So in Japan, NTT Docomo developed a technology carry this much data and good bandwidth. This technology was called WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access). It provides of data with greater bandwidth than EDGE, 384 kbps which is good but not so much better. WCDMA is today maintained by UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System). In China, an alternative technology called TD-SCDMA (Time Division- Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is used. WCDMA is also called as core 3G network.
In mid-2000's a new technology which is usually a software update to WCDMA core network was arrived. This is called as HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access). HSDPA provides considerably enhanced downlink speed in multiples of 1.8 Mbps (1.8, 3.6, 7.2, 14.4). The mobile phones which support 3G are called smart phones.
It is not possible to send data via HSDPA. So, there was a second major step upgrade WCDMA network to enhance it's uplink. So, second protocol called as HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) was developed. It provides enhanced uplink speed upto 5.76 Mbps.
The combination of HSDPA and HSUPA is called as HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). It is considered as 3.5G. The HSPA network is getting deployed fastly all over the world including India by 3G networks. Also many small USB devices called as 'dongles' arrived to allow broadband (technically not broadband) internet access on the go.
The upgrade of HSPA is 'evolved HSPA' or HSPA+ which allows very much enhanced bandwidth upto 21-56 Mbps.
The most recent standard in 3G family releases is LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is 3.9G.

4G:
3G is now being developed into 4G. The standard for 4G is Advanced LTE with unbelievable downlink speed upto 1Gbps. But, everything about it in my next post.

The mobile phone industry is continuously getting evolved fastly and I am always in touch with its updates and will always provide you everything about it...

Thanks and regards,
Nitish R. Muley