Microsoft Cancels Innovative Courier Tablet Project

According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft has cancelled Courier, the folding, two-screen prototype tablet that was first uncovered by Gizmodo. We're told that on Wednesday, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. Courier had never been publicly announced or acknowledged as a Microsoft product. It appeared from the leaked information last year that a Courier prototype was probably near to completion. The combination of both touch- and pen-based computing was compelling. Perhaps the strong launch of Apple's iPad, currently the only available "mobile tablet" from a major vendor, caused Ballmer to reassess the commitment of Microsoft in a soon-to-be-crowded market. We contacted Microsoft, who confirmed that Courier will not go into production. Microsoft Corporate VP of Communications Frank Shaw told us: At any given time, we're looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It's in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time. It is a pity. Courier was one of the most innovative concepts out of Redmond in quite some time. But what we loved about Courier was the interface and the thinking behind it—not necessarily its custom operating system. In fact, it makes sense for Microsoft to continue to trim away splinter versions of its core operating systems and focus on Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 unity across all its devices. Hopefully some of the smart thinking we have seen in Courier will find its way into Microsoft's tablets, whether they're powered by Windows 7 or Windows Phone 7. If we hear anything more, we'll let you know. As always, feel free to contact me if you have additional details. SOURCE: GIZMODO.COM

HP Buys Palm: The Optimist’s View

By Harry McCracken  |  Posted at 1:48 pm on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Wow. The rumormongering about Palm ends today: HP is buying the struggling mobile pioneer for $1.2 billion. One of the largest tech companies on the planet will own WebOS, one of the best available mobile operating systems–but one which has failed so far to make much of an impact as it's shipped on Palm's Pre and Pixi handsets. It qualifies as a shocker given that most of the scuttlebutt about possible purchasers involved Asian manufacturers such as Lenovo and HTC. When a huge old-school company buys a scrappy (relatively) little one, my instinct is always to be worried. There are far more examples of such mergers failing than there are of ones that have thrived. And there aren't many examples of companies in distressed condition getting turned around big time. But let's play optimist for a moment… When it comes to phones, HP is a blank slate. Yes, it makes a couple of obscure Ipaq handsets, but HP hasn't really ever tried to get into the phone business. Those Ipaqs are, basically, targeted at big HP corporate customers who might buy HP phones if they're available. With no serious HP heritage in phones, there's no need for a messy merger of product lines and technologies. The DNA of HPalm phones will come mostly from Palm, and that's good. It makes sense for HP to own a mobile OS. Integrating hardware and software appears to work fairly well for Apple, no? I can see why a company with enough bucks to buy an OS would prefer to do so–especially with all the nasty legal warfare going on among intellectual-property owners. And HP bought itself a really good OS. HP might be able to take WebOS places that Palm couldn't. After the Foleo fiasco, Palm quite reasonably chose to stick to its smartphone knitting. As a much larger, more prosperous company, HP might reasonably decide to put WebOS on slates or set-top boxes or other devices that Palm would likely have avoided. A Palm without a little cloud over its head is a good thing. With the era of uncertainty over the company's viability over, retailers may be more excited about stocking Palm products, and consumers may be more confident about buying them. I can't think of an outcome that would have been clearly better. Okay, I wish Palm had been able to stay independent–the happiest ending for this story would have been it bouncing back on the strength of its products. But that didn't seem to be in the cards. And I can't think of another company with a billion dollars to spare that would have clearly taken better care of Palm's assets. The last time Palm was acquired, it worked out okay. The first time I ever met with the company was back in 1995. Execs told me about the first PalmPilot–not yet called that–and said that the company had just been bought by USRobotics. It was the beginning of Palm's greatest era, and hey, that's a precedent! Your take? SOURCE: http://technologizer.com/2010/04/28/hp-buys-palm/

Adobe Gives Up on iPhone App Development After CS5

The saga of Adobe and Apple or, more precisely, Flash app development for the iPhone, is drawing to its inevitable conclusion. It all started with Apple’s change to its iPhone Developer Program License Agreement – the notorious article 3.3.1 – which banned the use of the Flash-to-iPhone converter. In the simplest of terms, the article makes it meaningless for developers to create Flash apps that target the iPhone because Apple can ban them at any time.

Now, Principal Product Manager for developer relations for the Flash Platform at Adobe, Mike Chambers, puts a full stop to the story from Adobe’s side. In a lengthy blog post, he calls developers of Flash apps for smartphones to focus on Android () and stop developing apps for the iPhone. He also announces Adobe’s intention to stop working on the Flash-to-iPhone converter.
“We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature,” Mike says. In the post, he also criticizes Apple’s treatment of developers. “If you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at anytime, and for seemingly any reason,” he says.
So, that’s it for Flash apps on the iPhone. Apple may have won this round, but the wall around its garden just got a little bit taller.

Source: http://mashable.com/2010/04/21/adobe-gives-up-flash-iphone/

Microsoft: Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 released to manufacturing

At the end of the day on April 16, Microsoft officials said Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 were released today to manufacturing.
According to the company, more than 7.5 million people have downloaded the beta of the “2010 set of products” for the PC, mobile phone and browser. That’s more than three times the number of individuals who tested Office 2007, company officials said in a post to the Office 2010 Engineering blog.
MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to download the final bits starting April 22, company officials said.
Volume licensees with Software Assurance for these products will be able to download them in English from the Volume Licensing Service Center on April 27. Customers without SA will be able to get these products through the VLSC starting May 1.
The launch of Office 2010 is on May 12 in New York City. Virtual launch events also kick off that day. Office 2010 will be available in retail stores in June in the U.S.
SOURCE: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=5932&tag=col1;post-5932

Microsoft wants tattooing passwords on patients with pacemakers

 Microsoft researcher has suggested tattooing passwords on patients with pacemakers and other implanted medical devices to ensure the remotely-controlled gadgets can be accessed during emergencies.
The proposal, by Stuart Schechter of Microsoft Research, is the latest to grapple with the security of implanted medical devices equipped with radio transmitters they can be controlled without the need for surgery. Besides pacemakers, other types of potentially vulnerable devices include insulin pumps and cardiac defibrillators.

In 2008, researchers demonstrated that heart monitors were susceptible to wireless hacks that caused pacemakers to shut off or leak personal information. But equally devastating are scenarios in which physicians are unable to provide emergency care because they don't have the access codes needed to control the devices.

In a paper published last week, Schechter proposed that access to such devices be controlled with encryption similar to what's used on wi-fi networks. Access keys would then be tattooed on patients using ink that's invisible under most conditions. "We propose that a user-selected human-readable key be encoded directly onto patients using ultraviolet-ink micropigmentation, adjacent to the point of implantation," he wrote. "To increase reliability the encoding could be augmented to include an error correcting code and/or be replicated in full on the base of the patient's leftmost foot - at the arch." Equipment used to remotely communicate with the implanted devices would be equipped with an ultraviolet light and a keypad or touchscreen for transmitting the code. Schechter said patients can't be counted on to provide the code because they may forget it or lose consciousness during an emergency. Bracelets, meanwhile, may reveal the patient's condition to strangers or potential attackers. Passwords transmitted by RFID, or radio frequency identification, technology, are susceptible to snooping, he said. The proposal comes five months after boffins from Switzerland suggested using ultrasound waves as a way to prevent attacks on radio-controlled pacemakers. A PDF of Schechter's paper is here. ® SOURCE: www.theregister.co.uk

James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, has resigned from Oracle

James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, has resigned from Oracle, he announced in a blog entry on Friday

Gosling resigned on April 2 and has not yet taken a job elsewhere, he reported.

"As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," he wrote.

Gosling was the chief technology officer for Oracle's client software group and, before that, the chief technology officer of Sun's developer products group.

In 1991, he led a small group of engineers in a project, then called Oak, to build an object-oriented programming language that would run on a virtual machine, which would allow programs to run on multiple platforms, such as television set-top boxes. This work evolved into Java, which took off in conjunction with the growing use of the Internet, thanks in part to its inclusion into the Netscape browser.

Gosling follows a number of other noted ex-Sun employees out the door since Oracle's purchase of the company was finalized in January, including CEO Jonathan Schwartz, and XML co-inventor Tim Bray.

Less than a month ago, Gosling had stressed the importance of Java to Oracle. "Oracle has certainly been incredibly committed to keeping Java and the whole ecosystem as strong and as healthy as can be," he said, during a talk at a Java symposium in Las Vegas.

But around the same time he also expressed dismay over the growing politicization of the Java Community Process.

Fellow ex-Sun alumni Bray tweeted that he was "astounded that Gosling held on so long."

SOURCE: http://www.businessweek.com/