Updates are coming from the live box!

I was just going thru me blogs and came along with a Scoble post noticing the new updates from Microsoft to several of its Live branded applications including Writer, Messenger and Mail, formerly known as Live Mail Desktop... 

I've been using Writer since their Alpha days and I can assure it is one hell of application there... I do pretty much all of my posts from there and can't imagine going back to web based editing - other than those moments when on the road without my PC or while on my mac, *sighs*.

With several new features under the hood, one that called my attention is the addition of Categories, which automatically got populated with my Blogger predefined tags and syncs back to it, so I don't have to go to add them manually on the web admin site anymore.

Online spell checking and a new UI more Vista-like are also a nice add, plus more WYSIWYG controls to manage tables and basic HTML block elements... anyway you go try it here and judge by yourself!

All three applications share the same look and feel and provides hints on where things are moving... some even talk about a Live Studio... anybody thinking Google Live Pack?!

Links to all 3 updated services are as follow:

• Live Writer Beta 2 Refresh here
• Live Messenger 8.5 Beta here
• Live Mail Beta here

Microsoft Surface made its first public appareance

Microsoft Surface made its debut to the public tonight as Microsoft made available its new website accompanied with a great interview from one of its Marketing guys @ On10.net.

Surface, also known internally as Project Milan, has been in the works for over 5 years, following the initial works by Andy Wilson, from Microsoft Research, and Stevie Bathiche, from Microsoft Hardware Divisions, as they envision the mix of both virtual and physical worlds to provide rich, interactive experiences.

Haven gone thru more than 85 earlier prototypes Surface comes as a 30-inch diagonal display table that is easy for use by individual or small groups collaboratively... thru the use of their hands.

Real-world-like applications are been shown thru the demos both in the website as on the interview, with the first retail applications being planned to ship this winter as they make it thru the first partners, including the Sheraton chain of hotels, for which Schematic is working with.

Having this kind of interaction in the wild puts virtual worlds in contrast, and even when the technology is not as affordable as for me to have it at home right now, I can't wait to get access to it as day by day artifacts will define our life at a whole different level... this really is the future today!

Update: I found out that Popular Mechanics got some first hand preview back in March and have put a cool video here.

Update: Scoble will be talking to the guys from the Surface team in the morning so head here with questions on what you would like to know.

Zooomr than ever!

Over the past week I've been following up Kristopher Tate and Thomas Hawk on their live Zooomr TV station, where they have been broadcasting to the world what it takes to go over a major upgrade between one techie guy and one professional photographer for a really big big photo sharing service... and got to say it's been long... long!

Scobleizer has summarized how this past week has gone and Thomas have kept every body uptodate on the portal's blog.

As the hour for the official launch gets near (ETA is espected for 7pm PST tonight) I wanted to spread the word as I've been a fan user of this service since it was in its version 1... and send the best of lucks to Kris as the final sql scripts gets ran...

Keep up with the great work there guys!!

Getting Apache 2.2 and PHP 5 on the Mac

As I wrote on my previous post I just got a Mac and as part of the switch I'm doing installations and setups, one of which is Apache HTTP Server, in this case version 2.2.4.

Mac OS X comes with a pre-installed version of Apache, though it is a legacy build: version 1.3. So I wanted to get the latest version as I will be doing some server side development myself on my new box, and want to try out the newest stuff!

Given that is being a while I don't work on Unix systems I went around the web for tips on how to get this done and I found two links that were of real use, both of them come from PHPmac and wanted to share it with u guys... so here they are:

• Building and Installing Apache 2.2.2 and PHP 5.1.4 on Mac OS X
• Additional Useful Apache2 Config Settings

The first one explains step by step how to get both Apache and PHP 5 installed on a Mac, the second one will guide u thru some helpfull advanced settings and the way to override the Systems Preferences functionality in order to work with the newly installed Apache rather than the old one... so give them a try, they really put me thru in a few minutes!

Enjoy!

An apple has born between windows!!

A few weeks ago I posted about my intension to get a Mac and well I am happy to report I finally did. I have been using my new white MacBook for over a week now and, although I used to play with Linux-based systems when I was in college, it is been kind of funny the transition towards the Tiger.

At the office I'm still using Vista and at home I have Windows XP SP2 running on my desktop: which pretty much makes for my primary development box and will remain as such for the foreseen future. Although, during this past evenings I've been trying to find my way on my newborn MacBook, and have to confess it has been great!

So far I've been able to do pretty much everything I'm used to do on my Wintel box regarding office and creative stuff, though I haven't been able to find a replacement for Project (I think OmniPlan might work out but I haven't got a chance to try it out)... any suggestions?

On the client development side I've got installed the trial version for Flex Builder 2.0.1 and just finished up setting Apache 2.2.

For server side programming I will get ColdFusion Scorpio installed tomorrow and will set up both Dreamweaver CS3 and the CFEclipse plug-in for Eclipse and give them a try together... I need to get to know this 2 guys for a project I am involved in right now, so I thought of trying them out both and choose the best for onward development... I will keep u posted on how this goes!

Looking forward, given this new addition to my family of gadgets, I will add some new coverage to Mac stuff on my blog, so remember to keep track of the new Mac section as u might find interesting stuff as I explore more of this new friend of mine!

Cheers u mates!

P.S. Following this post I'm putting a couple of references to the installation of Apache and PHP 5 on a Mac as I think they deserve its own space alone...

HTWWO: Rich Interactive Experiences

These past days the world has witnessed a mirage of applications and services targeted to the development of Rich Internet Applications and Alternative Media. 

Some how these new comers have put me to think why we haven't evolved from using plain old html pages rather than using cool, nice looking, desktop applications... should it be because of the easy of access and navigation, or, might it be just the fact that pretty much everybody can create them easily and anywhere... which defines that by offer everything lives on the web today! 

The browser, as we know it, has allow for information to be at the reach of everybody's fingers since day 1; no need to install, configure or waiting for applications to load - sometimes slowing and even crashing the entire system: the browser has been good... it's been good until today! Today it gets revamp and becomes in way cooler place to be!

Let's go backwards a bit, with Mix07 Microsoft unveiled Silverlight 1.1, successor to what was previously known as WPF/E or version 1.0 of Silverlight.

Silverlight comes as a direct response to Adobe's Flash - with one small difference, Silverlight has a built-in CLR that is cross platform (Mac OS X and Windows) and lives in a 2MB install in the cloud; which means: cross-platform support for .NET is in the house!- I know this sounds corny, but it is quite amazing...

During the same keynote, the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) also made its debut as the base for all dynamic languages to build from, shipping with IronPython, Dynamic VB, JS, and Ruby; DLR is open for anyone who wants to create its own dynamic language with .NET support. The codebase is available on Microsoft Codeplex with full modification rights...

Now on the other side of the road is Adobe, who had released Apollo a few weeks prior to that, introducing a light weight platform to run Flex and Html based applications on the desktop, providing access to OS level functionality previously not available on web-based app's. - I wonder if we will get to support embedded Silverlight some day!?

Anyway, with Flash 9 Adobe has set the rule as the platform for deployment of Rich Internet Applications on the browser, with support for video and a good sandbox for both designers and developers, Adobe lays the ground for today's next generation of applications running on the cloud... but now, this time we have got here with roommates! Now set ur ideas run free!!

I've got to say that Adobe and Microsoft have done a terrific job putting together their Creative and Development suites to work as one, empowering the whole modern UX workflow to rise and take off from the oblique normal websites of yesterday; those that we all have come to love with some boring pain - at least I have.

New times are yet to come, and as a colleague of mine put it the other day, we have set the base for incredible things, now we just have to make them happen!! - I am exited to live it myself!

Cheers!

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Technorati tags: HTWWO, WPF/E, Silverlight, Microsoft, Adobe, Flash, Flex, User Experience, RIA, RIE, Rich Interactive Experiences, Web2.0, Products, CS3, Orcas, Apollo, .NET, DLR, CLR