Happy Passover!

Happy Passover!

Microsoft Lunch 2007 in New York

Coming Soon!

Microsoft Expression Session 2007

I had the pleasure of attending the last session of three Microsoft Expression Session events in New York City on January 30. Well for those who don’t know, the Expression suite consists of four products: Design, Blend, Web, and Media. The event took place at 7 WTC on 51st floor that as you see it has a great view over New York City.

The morning session was essentially an overview of the suite by the product managers from Microsoft. They showed some impressive demos including a Burton Snowboards WPF application create by Beau Amber from Metalliq. It was interesting to see someone else from the Flash community working in WPF.

Expression Web (the Dreamweaver competitor), which was just released, is the professional version of MS Front Page with lot more feature. The UI for the application looked very neat, straightforward, flexible and useful. The visual CSS editing was particularly advance and impressive, that as a default it appears on the right side of the application. The best feature I think was attributes panel on the left side. Basically each time you click on any HTML tag/object it gives you list of that tag/object attributes. I remember it was a very useful feature on Visual Basic and VB.Net. They gave me a free copy of Expression Web ($79 Value) and I'm installing it now, and I'll try to post more detailed comments about it later. But I still like my Dreamweaver more.

The beta version of Expression Blend (their Flash competitor) that they showed us was still somehow incomplete. By the way their both MacBook Pro with Windows Vista crashed during the rendering. Beau Amber was so embarrassed. Anway the UI looked overloaded and confusing. Actually I guess the wanted to copy the UI of After Effect 7 (for Mac) but the couldn’t. Anyway I had hard time with it.

I will post my comment on Expression Media and Design later. By the way I had the pleasure of talking to Jeff King and CSS legend Eric Meyer. They really did a great speech. However I missed Chris Bernard speech because I was listing to Beau Ambur. I was there from 9am to 6pm and in general it was a great event.

Apple iPhone

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

Screen	3.5 in, 320x480 px at 160 ppi
Memory	4 GB, 8 GB, internal
Networks	2.75G GSM (850/900/1800/1900), Data Download Speed - GPRS/EDGE (Up to 220 Kbps)
Connectivity	Computer via 30-pin iPod dock connector, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Physical size	115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
Weight	135 grams (4.8 ounces)

The iPhone, unlike most smartphones, will not include a built-in keyboard or keypad; input is accomplished via a combination of technologies, including a touchscreen with software virtual keyboard and buttons. Apple has confirmed an optimized but full version of the OS X operating system will run on the iPhone, but further distinction between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and iPhones has not been officially explained. Third party applications are currently limited to a "controlled environment".

The iPhone has a scheduled release date of June 2007, pending Federal Communications Commission approval, and will be available from the Apple Store and via Cingular. iPhone has a planned launch price of $499 (USD) for the 4 GB model and $599 (USD) for the 8 GB model, based on a two year service contract. 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 over 200 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.

Widescreen iPod

iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets you enjoy all your content — including music, audiobooks, videos, TV shows, and movies — on a beautiful 3.5-inch widescreen display. It also lets you sync your content from the iTunes library on your PC or Mac. And then you can access it all with just the touch of a finger.

Revolutionary Phone

iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service. And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want — just like email.

Breakthrough Internet Device

iPhone features a rich HTML email client and Safari — the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device — which automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE.

High Technology

Multi-touch

iPhone features the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse. It’s an entirely new interface based on a large multi-touch display and innovative new software that lets you control everything using only your fingers. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flip through photos and email them with a touch, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page — all by simply using iPhone’s multi-touch display.

Intelligent Keyboard

iPhone’s full QWERTY soft keyboard lets you easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. And the keyboard is predictive, so it prevents and corrects mistakes, making it easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones.

What do you think about iPhone?

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