CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0073, 11/01/2008

Title/Description: News from Microsoft’s PDC, The Digital Universe Explodes

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 73, recorded November 1st, 2008. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Story 1 - News from Microsoft's PDC

This week, the spotlight was on Microsoft as it held its annual Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. At the conference, Microsoft released information about new and upcoming products, the biggest of which is Windows 7. The world got its first glimpse of Windows 7, and the couple dozen analysts that were provided with an evaluation copy are impressed. Unlike Windows Vista, the upcoming version of Windows is not intended to impress with a zillion new improvements and features. This version actually has fewer features and is more streamlined than Windows Vista. Microsoft has made a u-turn in its approach to its OS and is now focusing on stability, speed, performance and usability. Windows has often been accused of being overly bloated and cumbersome. Well, this Windows has apparently gone on a diet. Some analyses are framing the new Windows as "Vista done right". The OS is intended to boot faster, use less power to increase battery life, and is small and compact enough to run on low-powered netbooks. This kinder-gentler Windows has a number of new features, all intended to make the computing experience more intuitive. It includes a lot of new features for business users, and supports touch-sensitive displays. Windows 7 is due out in early 2010. Check out the show notes for links to screen shots and reviews.

Also announced at the conference was Office Web - a lite version of Microsoft Office applications that will be accessible on the Web. With an expected delivery time frame of late 2009, online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote will be accessions from Internet-connected PCs and smart phones. Office Web will provide users with a "consistent Office experience" across platforms. Like Google Docs, Zoho, and Adobe Buzzword, Office Web will provide rich application functionality from the Web browser window. Unlike its online competitors, Office Web will require users to pay for use and will integrate with Office 14, which is due out at the same time.

Microsoft's move to Rich Internet Applications is yet another strong indicator that computing is moving from the desktop to the cloud. The trend is towards accessing data and software from numerous devices over the Internet rather than from just one PC. Google's dominance in the online space, and its recent release of its own mobile operating system Android, and its Web browser Chrome, points to an impending head to head battle between Microsoft and Google as computing moves online. Microsoft is investing strongly in "the cloud" with a technology it calls Azure. Azure allows businesses to blend traditional installed software with Web-delivered software in a seamless system. Azure illustrates Microsoft's belief that the future of computing will be a blend of installed applications and cloud applications, while Google believes that everything is moving to the cloud.

It’s a safe bet that we'll be seeing a lot of innovation online from Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe, and all of the major software, Internet, and telecom companies as they square off to gain market share in the online space.

Sources:

Windows 7 First Look: A Big Fix for Vista [PCWorld]

Image Gallery: Windows 7 -- A closer look at your next OS? [Computerworld]

First look at Windows 7's User Interface [Ars Technica]

Ozzie points to slimmer future for Windows client [Computerworld]

Windows 7 a Big Improvement over Vista [eWeek]

Online Version of Microsoft Office Is Planned [NewsFactor]

Analysis: Can Microsoft Meld Windows with the Web? [NewsFactor]

Microsoft to support Windows Azure with massive data center investments [Computerworld]

Story 2 - The Digital Universe Explodes

IDC, a provider of market intelligence for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, warns that by 2011 the digital universe will be ten times the size it was last year. Researchers were shocked when they found that over the past year the amount of digital information has grown to 281 exabytes, ten times more than the firm predicted. At a compound annual growth rate of 60 percent, the digital universe is growing faster than projected and will reach 1.8 zettabytes in 2011. The firm warns that unless businesses implement enterprise-wide data storage and management procedures and policies, the world's amount of information will outpace our ability to manage it. Other interesting discoveries from the study:

  • Each person's digital-shadow, that is the digital information generated about a person by businesses and organization, on a daily basis, surpasses the amount of information that a person generates in a life time.
  • The digital universe is equal to about 45 GB of digital information for every person on the earth.

Sources:
Data Overload: The Digital Universe Explodes [NewsFactor]

And that brings us to News Briefs.

  • It's likely that Amazon's Kindle ebook reader is about to see a big bump in sales. Superstar Oprah spent most of her TV show last week promoting the Kindle as a life-changing device and her new favorite gadget. Amazon Hopes Oprah Endorsement Boosts Kindle [NewsFactor]
  • A Russian Malware gang is believed to be behind the theft of over 500,000 bank and credit card accounts. The information was stolen from Windows PCs using advanced spyware over the past two and a half years.Virtual Heist Nets 500,000+ Bank, Credit Accounts [Washington Post]
  • GMail is adding a new tool to its popular online email service that allows users to send text messages to cell phones. GMail gets SMS messaging [Inquirer]
  • Happy Birthday Microsoft Word! The world's favorite word processor turned 25 this week. Image gallery: Microsoft Word turns 25 [Computerworld]
  • A man caught video taping two movies in the theater on the day of their first release was sentenced to 21 months in prison this week. Camcording in movie theater results in 21-month sentence [Ars Technica]
  • At long last the Beatles will be entering the digital market, but not in iTunes as everyone anticipated. MTV Games has partnered with Apple Corp, the company that controls the rights to Beatles recordings, to create a version of the popular Rock Star video game around the life and music of the Beatles. Beatles Music Coming To MTV Game in 2009 [NewsFactor]
  • Google has developed a technology that will allow its search engine to search inside PDF documents. "This is a small but important step forward in our mission of making all the world's information accessible and useful," said Evin Levey, a Google product manager. Google Makes PDF Files Searchable [NewsFactor]
  • Researchers at the University of Washington are warning the US government and state governments that the RFID technology as used in new passports and drivers licenses can easily be hacked. Using off the shelf products, criminals can steal the digital information from the cards by just standing in the vicinity of the victim, and use the stolen information to create counterfeit cards. The cards can also be used to track the card owner. Borderline Security [Technology Review]

That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at coursecasts.course.com. E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!