Sunday, March 25, 2012

Windows Phone 7 apps to run on Windows 8?

Microsoft has decided to keep us guessing if windows phone 7 apps will run on windows 8.
The rumor catches marke from I’m A WP7, an app that helpfully reports the version numbers of operating systems that run the app. As you can see in the image below, the first two entries are for Windows Phone 7, but at the bottom it reports that “Windows 8.0 Desktop” version 6.2.8283.0 also uses the app. The current public build of Windows 8, the Consumer Preview, is 6.2.8250.0 — a lower version number — so it would seem that Microsoft is trying out Windows Phone 7 apps on internal builds of Windows 8.

At first I thought this might just be Windows Phone 7 apps running inside a Windows 8 development environment — a Visual Studio emulator or something — but the mention of “Jupiter” almost certainly blows that idea out the window. Though it hasn’t been confirmed by Microsoft, Jupiter is thought to be the codename of one of the core libraries that powers the new Metro-style Windows 8 apps. Metro apps can either be designed in HTML/CSS, or in XAML — and XAML is the same language used to create the user interface for Windows Phone 7 apps. This on its own isn’t a big surprise — XAML is a big part of many .NET technologies — but get this: The codename for Windows Phone 8 is Apollo, who in Greek mythology is the son of Zeus — and the Roman counterpart of Zeus is Jupiter!

In short, Windows Phone 8 is the son of Windows 8, which tallies with previous rumors that WP8 would even use the Windows 8 kernel. Taking a quick gallop through ancient history might seem a bit obtuse, but back in reality this is a no-brainer for Microsoft. Windows Phone 7 apps are just Silverlight apps, and Windows Phone 8 apps will almost certainly be XAML-based Metro apps. Microsoft has already said that WP7 and WP8 apps would work on Windows 8 with only a few changes to the code — but really, there’s no technical limitation that would prevent Microsoft from providing a framework that can run WP7 and WP8 apps as-is in Windows 8.

There are practical concerns, however. For a start, Windows Phone 7 apps are designed for low-res (800×480) portrait displays, while Windows 8 will generally be used in landscape orientation and at much higher resolutions. Thanks to the Metro style’s reliance on geometric shapes and typography, scaling itself probably won’t be an issue, but I foresee a lot of apps that hug the left and make very little use of the rest of the screen. The Windows Phone and Windows 8 app stores are obviously quite different as well — the approval processes are completely different, for a start — but this isn’t an insurmountable issue.

While it’s easy to attribute this to Microsoft taking a leaf out of Apple and Google’s playbook, it’s obviously better for consumers and developers alike if Windows 8 comes with as many apps as possible. Microsoft’s strength has always been the sheer size of its app and developer ecosystem, and the success of Windows 8 — especially on tablets — will come down to how well Redmond leverages its incumbent might. It is one thing to make Windows 8 apps easy to develop — you can write Metro apps in HTML and JavaScript! — but if Microsoft lets developers write a single app for Windows Phone and have it work across the entire ecosystem… well, it could catch Android and iOS rather quickly.

Sunday, March 25, 2012 by Saumya Aggarwal · 0

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Google learning from Bing: No longer innovative?

Google is set to incoporate "semantic search” technology, which will allow the engine to understand the actual meaning of the words. It is move to go more towards human behavior.
Google is developing the database after of Metaweb Technologies in 2010. Google, however, seems to have copied it from Bing. Microsoft's Bing search engine has been using the technology for a while and provides answers to direct questions along with a list of reports instead of page listings like Google search. Google's change to its search engine is likely to affect rankings of millions of websites.

Google is a dominating player in the Internet search market with a massive 66 per cent of market share. The Internet giant, however, was heavily criticised for pushing its newly launched social networking site Google+ on its search engine. Google has recently included Google+ results to its search results.

Sunday, March 18, 2012 by Saumya Aggarwal · 0

Why everyone hates Mumbai?

I know this is rather a controversial post this time but I feel it is important to express my experience of Mumbai.

Its been almost a year since I moved to Mumbai. At the start, I did not like Mumbai and everyone whom I interact still don't. People who I always turn for advise said that I will start liking it, however its been on the other side, now I hate Mumbai. This post is why I started hated this once a beautiful city.

1. It stinks big time. Wherever you look, its dirt and blackness. Bad politics and people loving gutters is a norm here.
2. Rains and world best sewage system: I don't think any word is required. 4-5 months when it pours in mumbai, it makes mumbai the worst. How can people live in flood for half of the year? For rest half, it is extremely humid.
3. Annoying taxi and auto wallas: It is quite tough to find taxi and overcharging is omnipresent. Forget those third class local trains, has anyone seen "Delhi Metro".
4. Few Marathi people like talking local language and take pride. God tell them that National Language in India is "Hindi", please talk in that if other person is not from Maharastha.
5. Unsafe: I don't feel safe, girls safety has been raised after recent incidents.
6. Expensive: You get shit for best of dollars. Moreover, no one wants to interact with each other, too much ego to this small life.
7. Lost night life: Not enough now. With few pubs and discs, people call it night life. How many times you can go out in one year and there aren't many options apart from pubs. People who don't drink, I can only say sorry.
8. Food: Believe me, the so called best "Bade Mia" is not even close of any Delhi roadside food. I just hope someone tell the stupid restaurants here how to cook even decent food.
9. Blasts everywhere: In last one year, it is very sad to see 2 blasts happening in Mumbai. If Mumbai police is most incompetent then why should people living here suffer. Get few commandos from Delhi.


For many, this post may seem anti-Mumbai but the point is the city has lost its charm and even true Indian like me doesn't enjoy it. Having cribbed so much, I would like to suggest Mumbai Turnaround 3 formula:

World class - sewage system, public transport and affordable living. We can see some projects not get approval in mid of city if our Marathi ministers go for break in Tihar. Anyways, it seems unlikely in near future so overall Rating of Mumbai:

If I count 20 cities of India, then I place Mumbai at 20. I can't think any worse city than this in India.

by Saumya Aggarwal · 26

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
All Rights Reserved Edunology - Saumya Aggarwal | 2010
Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited