Brachycephalic Dogs and making search SEO pretty

Brachycephaly in dogs means that they have noses that are shorter than their faces are wide. Well, it is just one of the traits. But we have all seen them. Pugs, Bull dogs, Peckingese, Shih Tzu, and Yorkshire Terrier's are all examples of dogs whose noses are shorter than their faces are wide. And it happens in people too. But unfortunately, in dogs, many find it cute, in people, not so much. And these poor dogs suffer. Many can't breath right, they can't keep themselves cool (because most of the cooling in dogs comes through their noses and head), they don't sleep right, they often don't eat correctly, are overweight, etc. All because we think they are "cute".

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But what is worse is that many owners don't figure this out until the problems start. And there are all kinds of problems. But it starts with people choosing with their eyes instead of doing what is right. Don't get me wrong, these dogs make great pets. They are loyal, generally trustworthy, etc. but I do feel for them sometimes. Why would you intentionally create a host of problems just because someone thinks that it is cute? Or profitable.

And so it is with search SEO. Anything for a buck. Let's do a little link stuffing. Or how about a bit of spam? Hm? How about messing with keywords? Oh that would just be perfect. Things that are actually important to society, increase wealth for everyone, get pushed down the search results because some marketing guy thought it would be so cool. Or "cute". This is one of those cases where greed is bad. Mostly because the real cost is delayed. And anytime you delay or defer costs until later, or to someone else, it always ends badly. Usually for the someone else.

"But Inoun, it's jusbiznezz. Don't take it so personally." Well, that is true. But I really do wonder how these people live with themselves. Brachycephalic dogs and Search SEO are not that dissimilar. Both look pretty at first, but after a while, you see how damaging it all really is. Not all, but many of these so called search SEO marking companies twist, turn, and mess up the face of the Internet. And it creates a variety of problems. Legal, expense, and hurts people. Usually the companies that resort to this type of low life activity are also the ones that are willing to hurt kids. Think about it. If you push someone else' results down the list for no good reason, you are literally stepping on them. Climbing over them and thumbing your nose at them. And you don't seem to care about kids either.

Don't believe me? Think about this:

Little Sally loves to play dress up at home with her friends. Because it is fun to play "grown up". So one day she sits down at the computer and types in: "Grown up clothes". Luckily Bing does a pretty good job of filtering out all of the filth that is out there, but inevitably some SEO marketing company thinks it would be so cool to cheat the system and make a quick buck. And hurts kids.

Whether it is the latest fat burning scam, the marketing of M rated games to children, or trying to manipulate the Internet so that you can make a quick fat burning buck, and then walk away, and never look back....

I urge you to reconsider your life, the words you choose, and the proper use of marketing in your life.

Drink and write responsibly.

Us dogs have feelings too.

iPhone 5 rumor rollup for week ending May 27

That was pretty conclusive for James Isabel, at The Appera. Isabel dismissed the rumor that WWDC will focus only on the software, iOS 5, but not the iPhone 5 hardware. He wrote, "I doubt this is a simple software reveal judging by the magnitude of people they're inviting. I'm betting on iPhone 5 [insert excited emoticon here]. Also, even though Steve Jobs is on leave, I'd expect him to be at the keynote on June 6."

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Plus there's the TV casting post at Craigslist. MacRumors noted that it appeared Wednesday, May 25, but apparently only for a couple of hours, seeking male and female actors for a commercial for "iPhone 5" to be filmed in L.A. with payment, oddly, in British pounds sterling. MacRumors couldn't find any online information on the contact or production company. The site noted that it was similar to a casting call in New York in April. Real? A mistake? A hoax? Who knows? Who cares?

ITPortal admitted that it didn't know if the casting call was genuine, but couldn't resist adding that if it was genuine, "then the iPhone 5 could indeed be launched at WWDC 2011."

"On the other hand," according to GizmoCrunch, "it could just be the work of Apple PR to build up hype for the phone which is not expected to launch this summer." Creating hype for iPhone 5 must be the world's easiest job, because thanks to ITPortal, GizmoCrunch and a zillion other websites, Apple PR doesn't actually have to do anything.

iPhone 5 is cleverly disguised to avoid being seen

That's what GizmoCrunch concluded after reading TechBuffalo's exclusive account of how the iPhone 4 was secretly brought to Verizon's network. That would be the "insider" account based on one, repeat one, source "close to the action." No one referred to the "iPhone" but the "Acme"; it was being tested six or seven months before the actual release; employees had to sign a four-page non-disclosure agreement, and enter a unique PIN every 12 hours to confirm they still had the phone, and so on.

Even though TechBuffalo's story never mentions "iPhone 5," GizmoCrunch sees a connection: The Verizon iPhone was being tested at Verizon stores and in the field, but "due to the fact that [the Verizon iPhone] resembled the AT&T version it went unnoticed."

(It's not real clear how that would work, between two Verizon employees: "Hey, watcha got there?" "Oh, it's the Acme." "Really? Gee it looks just like the AT&T iPhone." "I didn't notice." "Oh, me either.")

Unfazed, GizmoCrunch optimistically asks, "So what does all this mean as the Verizon iPhone 5 release date nears?" And they have an answer. "For one, it could mean that the Verizon iPhone 5 is already undergoing field testing and may be under our very eyes."
But someone has seen the iPhone 5 and taken a photo of it, with another iPhone 5

Winner of the Most Convoluted Rumor of the Week goes to iFan, which on Monday published a picture, from a Chinese website, of what purported to be a "white iPhone 5's backplate with even more evidence of the [previously rumored] separation of the camera and the flash components."

Digital Marketing Analyst

Description:
Position Overview: The Digital Marketing Analyst is a highly analytical and strategic thinker with a passion for digital innovation and data driven marketing results. You have an in-depth knowledge of all things digital and you are comfortable with large sets of digital data. Youre particularly interested in piecing the digital data puzzle together to get a more complete picture of customer behavior " especially social behavior. You love learning, solving problems and working in a field that is constantly changing. Primary responsibilities involve analytics, social listening and research around trends, vendor offerings, and emerging technologies supporting web, social and mobile.

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Responsibilities

Responsible for results interpretation and creating recommendations that guide the media and creative strategy
Manages measurement systems for data capture and reporting, including assessment, identification, and implementation of data sources and tracking requirements
Main Point of contact between Global Data team and Integrated Media for consumer research.
Maintain a comprehensive knowledge of trends and emerging technologies in the digital marketing space. Recommend alternative ways to leverage these tools to the advantage of our customers, our programs and our values.
Build business cases (including financial models) to analyze and determine viability of new initiatives
Author points of view documents on upcoming trends and identify opportunities to leverage new technologies
Tap secondary research sources and competitive landscapes in order to derive insights that drive strategy
Build relationships with vendors and internal team members. Profitably manage projects and vendors. Managing multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.


Requirements

Passion for Whole Foods Market and what makes us unique.
Genuine interest in food and the natural foods industry.
Bachelors Degree required
Experience in interactive analytics " display, email, website, search, social
Experience analyzing large digital data sets
Familiarity with social data " social listening, Facebook open graph, SEO, etc.
Proven experience using your digital analytics skills to identify customer behavior insights
Experience translating data analysis into actionable marketing recommendations and presentations " proficiency in PowerPoint is required.
High intellectual curiosity, drive, determination, self-confidence and persuasion skills.
Understand, conceptually, the underlying technology used to deliver web, mobile, and social media components (FB, Flash, HTML, SEO, Software and Database mgt principals)
Knowledge of web measurement technologies such as: website analytics software (e.g.Omniture) , paid search engine marketing data sources (e.g., Google Analytics)
Knowledge of social listening tools such as Radian 6, Neilson Buzz Metrics and Social Radar.
Knowledge of syndicated media research & systems (Nielsen, comScore, MRI, Scarborough) a plus.
Knowledge of Ad media planning and buying a plus.
Must office in Austin, Texas.
Salary:
$55-65k annually
Apply by
Website:
https://jobs20-wholefoods.icims.com/jobs/70941/job

VC Firm Acquiring Intermedia, A Leading Cloud Communications Services Provider

Intermedia.net Inc., a provider of hosted Microsoft Exchange and other communications services for small and mid-size businesses, is being acquired by venture capital firm Oak Hill Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Intermedia has some 6,800 channel partners who private-label the company's services and account for more than half of its sales.

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Oak Hill and Intermedia said Thursday that they have signed a definitive agreement for Oak Hill to acquire privately held Intermedia and they expect to close the deal by the end of June.

The companies also said that Intermedia CEO Serguei Sofinski, who joined the company in 1998 and has served as CEO since 2006, will leave the company and is being replaced by Phil Koen, previously CEO of Savvis Inc., another provider of managed hosting and cloud computing services.

"As a pioneer and now significant player in cloud-based IT services, Intermedia has tremendous potential for further growth by delivering more cost-effective solutions to companies whose on-premise IT is moving to the cloud," Koen said in a statement. "We intend to build Intermedia into a leading provider of a broad suite of cloud services to SMBs and the channels that serve them, with Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Exchange email as the core service."

New York-based Intermedia is a Microsoft Gold Partner whose primary business is hosting Microsoft's Exchange e-mail system. As of April 30 the company managed some 320,000 premium Exchange mailboxes. The company has credited much of its rapid growth to its Private Label Partner Program, which has more than 6,800 global channel partners who account for a majority of the company's sales.

The company also provides other hosted communications services, including hosting Microsoft SharePoint and Office Communications Server. Earlier this year it launched hosted PBX and e-mail encryption services.

"We are proud to have built this company from a startup to a profitable, major player in the IT hosting industry, with no outside investments. We are now the leading independent provider in a rapidly growing market," said Michael Choupak, the founder and majority shareholder of Intermedia, in a statement. "It is very exciting to see Intermedia take this important step to the next level as it aligns itself with great partners to drive further growth."

"We are still in the early stages of a dramatic shift in IT from the corporate premise to the cloud, and Intermedia is in an ideal position to accelerate this shift," said Robert Morse, a Partner at Oak Hill Capital, in a statement. "We look forward to working with Phil Koen and the rest of the management team to drive Intermedia’s next stage of growth."

Microsoft online chief: I would never log into a Chromebook

Rizzo claimed that Google Apps is far behind Microsoft in features, particularly when it comes to Excel. "Excel is just a million years ahead of what Google Docs provides," he said. He also noted the lack of offline access for Google Apps and the limited support options, and said Microsoft products are more robust in offering fine-grained control over IT administration.

To be fair, Google is promising offline access for this summer, and says it plans to expand 24/7 phone support for Google Apps.

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Google Calendar users have been complaining over the past week about poor customer service in response to email and text message reminders not working.

But no cloud service is immune to downtime. Microsoft's hosted email suffered outages this month. Rizzo contenda that customers are better off with Microsoft than Google when outages occur, because Microsoft provides refunds on the customer's next bill, instead of tacking days on to the end of the service term as Google does for customers of its annual plan.

Google also defines downtime as "more than a five percent user error rate," whereas Rizzo said at Microsoft, "If one person is affected, it's considered downtime."

Microsoft has not yet spelled out how many customers will receive service credits or what the value of the credits will be.

But, Rizzo said, "We do our best to minimize the outages but if we don't meet our SLAs, we give our customers credits."

Microsoft MD: Post-PC era is not here

Microsoft UK's managing director, Ashley Highfield, believes that we have entered the next phase of the PC's evolution, but that talk of a post-PC era is premature.

Asked if Steve Jobs' suggestion that we are moving away from PCs at the launch of the iPad was premature, Highfield answered in the affirmative.

"This is beginning of the next phase of the PC's evolution," Highfield told TechRadar.

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"With 29 million PCs in UK homes and 9 million more going to be sold this year [the PC] is clearly not over.

"The iPad can fit in with the ecosystem in your home, but not going to eschew your PC.

"It's still the machine that you are going to load your heavy duty software onto and sync with your other devices."

Multiple devices

Highfield points out that Microsoft's strategy does not revolve around one single device, with the market so big that differences of consumer need and desire must be brought together.

"Clearly one size can't possibly fit all," he added. "When you're at that 29 million figure you are not in niche market.

You have to have a range of device fitting ever more sophisticated needs of people who want to be ever more individual.

"Obviously people now have more than one device – a Smartphone, an iPad, a PC and maybe other things as well – and yet the PC is at the heart of home network, if you like.

"That's our vision, and our strategy is of social computing – a number of devices talking to each other with your apps and software or whatever, kept in sync on whatever machine you use and the cloud."

Six rising threats from cybercriminals

"The problem with communication by Facebook or LinkedIn is that you are stuck in a Web interface -- you can't check the IP address or header information. Everything is in a nice friendly world," Joffe says.

Stratum Security's Morehouse says hackers are becoming increasingly crafty on social networks: They first identify a target, then do the research -- what is this person like, whom do they follow, what do they like to do?

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What's more, social network attacks are sometimes combined with email and website spoofing, Morehouse says. You might develop a friendship on LinkedIn and then get an email from that person that looks like it was sent via LinkedIn but is actually a fake. When you click the link to reply to the message, you're taken to a fake LinkedIn site; logging in there reveals your LinkedIn username and password to the spoofer.

Another type of attack Morehouse describes targets companies as well as individuals. The spoofer might set up a Facebook page pretending to be the official company page for, say, a retailer like office supply giant Staples. To make it seem credible, the spoofer might claim that the page is a formal method to contact the company or register complaints.

The page might offer free (but fake) coupons to entice people to join, and it soon goes viral as people share it with their network of friends. Once hundreds or thousands of users have joined the page, says Morehouse, the owner tricks them into giving out personal information, perhaps by signing up to receive additional coupons or special offers.

This is a double attack: Consumers are damaged because their personal data is compromised, and the company is damaged because its customers associate the fake Facebook page with the real company -- and decide not to buy from that company anymore.

As with text-message attacks, individuals' best defense against spoofing attacks is to use common sense, Joffe says -- hackers usually do not do a good job of impersonating a person or company, and they tend to send links and phishing scams to con you. They might try to mimic a friend but rarely manage to accurately convey their personality. In some cases, the attacks are traceable through e-mail headers or IP addresses, and most attacks are too general and untargeted to be believable to anyone who's careful.

Other precautions might seem obvious but are often overlooked. If someone says he's a friend of a friend or co-worker, make sure you confirm his identity with your common connection. And it's a good idea to lock down your privacy settings at social networking sites so that your contact info, posts, photos and more aren't visible to everyone. In Facebook, for example, select Account --> Privacy Settings --> Custom and click the "Customize settings" link at the bottom to gain control over exactly what you want to share with everyone, friends of friends, friends only or no one.

For companies, it's a little trickier. Joffe says there is no way to prevent a hacker from setting up a fake Facebook page initially, but companies can use monitoring tools such as Social Mention to see how the company name is being used online. If an unauthorized page turns up, companies can ask the social network to remove the fake listing.

Missed email reminders have plagued Google Calendar for years

Do you need email reminders before important events? Google Calendar may not be the service for you.

Google's calendar service for home users and businesses has been plagued with missed email reminders for years, and Google is still struggling the fix the problem, according to support forums.

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GOOGLE LAPTOPS: First look at Chrome OS

One support forum on Google.com titled "Google Calendar Email Notification Not Working" was started in September 2010, and is still going strong with dozens of posts this week alone. Another support thread on Calendar email reminders begun in January 2009 is still active, while an older thread shows the problems date back to at least 2008.

Of course, Google Calendar likely works just fine for the majority of users. I tested it out myself and verified that my account does receive email reminders.

But that is scant consolation for users who chose to rely on Google Calendar and missed important event reminders. Technology industry analyst Michael Gartenberg of Gartner wrote this week on Twitter, "Once again GOOG Cal invite that was accepted did not make it on my calendar. No rule. I simply cannot rely on Google for anything important."

Because Google doesn't offer universal phone support, customers often must rely on community forums. Google employees do monitor the forums and occasionally update customers on the status of fixes.

On Monday, Google employee "Alice PB&J" told support forum readers, "Your reports have helped us pinpoint additional areas of focus and we're rolling out a new fix over today and tomorrow that will fix reminders for newly created events. For events that were created in the past couple of weeks, we're scheduling an additional cleanup to make sure the reminders are set correctly for those events. The cleanup will take up to a week to complete for all users, but about 1/7 of all users will be fixed each day."

On Wednesday, Alice told users, "We hope to have this resolved for everyone soon," but users were still complaining about missed email reminders this morning.

On Thursday, one user reported: "Did not get the daily reminder today that I have had ever since I first set up a Google calendar ... yesterday's 'fix' didn't last through today." Another said: "I only use the daily agenda notification, and it has not worked since early April. I have tried all of the simple fixes described in this thread and others multiple times."

Text message reminders have also been problematic. "I prefer SMS notifications (which never arrive these days)," one user wrote.

Another wrote, bluntly, "It's important for Google to understand, it doesn't matter if they fix this now. We no longer trust you."

One user claimed to have written a letter to CEO Larry Page and other executives, saying, "I use the Calendar for both personal and professional reasons, and to be without my notifications is wreaking havoc with my business."

"I have a calendar filled with nothing but annually recurring all-day events," another user wrote. "Since March, I've stopped receiving email alerts for this calendar. Can this be fixed?"

Microsoft: Blood, Sweat and Bing [2009 in Review]

For decades, Microsoft has been a technological giant that nobody can ignore. This year has been a unique one for the Redmond, Washington-based company. It announced layoffs and revenue shortfalls, both rare occurrences in the company’s 34+ year history.

With Google breathing down its neck and Apple posting record profits, Microsoft decided to use 2009 to strike back and go on the offensive.

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From the launch of Windows 7 to the rise of Bing and the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal, here is a review of the key events, trends, and products that shaped Microsoft in 2009.
Microsoft’s Early 2009 Struggles

For the first five months of the year, Microsoft wasn’t making a lot of news, and when it did, it wasn’t good. While Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, painted a rosy picture of the company’s future with his Consumer Electronics Show keynote speech on January 7th, 2008, Microsoft was struggling with negative sentiment against Windows Vista, a European Union investigation against bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, and the first major layoffs in the company’s history.

There were a few small product partnerships and events that occurred during the first few months of 2009, especially in terms of social media. For example, Microsoft partnered with MySpace on Windows Mobile and Silverlight and announced Microsoft Recite, a mobile notetaking application.

Microsoft also started cutting the fat, and not just in terms of layoffs. It closed some long-standing but obsolete projects such as Microsoft Encarta and Flight Simulator.
Internet Explorer 8

The biggest release Microsoft made during the first three months of 2009 however was Internet Explorer 8, the newest edition of its popular web browser. With the help of random celebrity endorsements, social media, vomiting ads, and its reach with Microsoft Windows, IE8 has reached nearly 20% market share.

Overall though, IE has been on the decline while Chrome, Safari, and Firefox have all been growing. Couple this with the backlash against IE6 (still the world’s most popular browser) and Google’s release of Chrome Frame for IE, and you get a mixed picture of the future of IE.

Currently, Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 9, which is focused on adhering to the world’s web standards and improving IE’s speed.
2009′s Turning Point: Bing


While the release of IE8 was important, it was nothing compared to the search bombshell that Microsoft had up its sleeve.

For years, Microsoft has tried to take down Google at its own game. However, MSN, Live Search, and all of its other attempts failed to make a dent in Google’s market share. Instead of choosing to fade away into web search obscurity in 2009, Microsoft decided to double down with one of the biggest bets in the company’s history.

At the end of May, it was revealed that Microsoft was launching a new rival to Google called Bing. Bing was not only a rebranding of Microsoft search, but Microsoft’s reinvention of the search engine. Bing Maps, Twitter integration, Visual Search, and other innovations were central to the Bing experience, and to Microsoft’s adoption strategy.

Microsoft’s plan to spur adoption for Bing (and take people away from Google) was simple: first, they’d create and change perceptions about both Google and Bing by utilizing ad campaigns and community outreach. Second, they’d drive trial and bet that the Bing experience would make people stick around.

The ad campaign was tremendous. They held a Bingathon, ran innovative TV ads, and bet big on Twitter, which all paid off — at least in the beginning. In its first month, Bing became bigger than Digg, Twitter, and CNN. From there, Bing kept growing. Microsoft’s success was so pronounced that Google even assigned top engineers to study Bing and reacted to its moves.
Microsoft and Yahoo

Bing’s launch was only the first part of Microsoft’s plan to take down Google. After Microsoft failed to acquire Yahoo last year, the tech giant explored other options for beating Google on its own turf, including ones involving Yahoo. In April, reports surfaced that Microsoft still wanted to partner with Yahoo.

As it turns out, those reports were true. In July, Microsoft and Yahoo signed a pact that gave Microsoft control of Yahoo Search in return for a 10 year revenue share agreement favoring Yahoo. While the deal won’t take effect until 2010, it has essentially given Microsoft another 15-20% share of the search market.

Microsoft has set the stage for 2010 to be an epic battle between Bing and Google search. Still, we have to wonder: can Microsoft actually make inroads into Google’s domination of search, or will it be the same story as before?
Competition on Multiple Fronts

Microsoft not only renewed its competition with Google in search, but it opened up new battles with its major rivals on multiple fronts. In July, Microsoft decided to directly address the threat posed by Google Docs with Microsoft Office 2010, which will include access to a web-based version of its popular office suite.

The tech giant also launched an assault on its other major rival, Apple, which has been steadily making inroads into the computer and OS markets. In July, Microsoft struck back against Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads with its Laptop Hunters campaign, which portrayed PCs are more versatile and cheaper than their Apple-made counterparts.

Not only that, but Microsoft went after Apple’s stronghold on the portable MP3 player market with the September launch of the Zune HD. It’s also taking a pre-emptive strike at the fabled Apple Tablet with the foldable Courier Tablet. It even opened Microsoft Stores to compete with Apple’s strong retail presence, going so far as to steal Apple Store employees.

Much like Bing, it will take a year or several years to know whether these campaigns and new products will be successful in defeating Microsoft’s sworn enemies. Nobody can say, however, that Microsoft didn’t try everything to bury its competition in 2009.
Windows 7

Throughout all of these events however, Microsoft had a glaring black eye that everybody could see. Windows Vista, whose many problems and poor sales numbers threatened Microsoft’s stranglehold on the OS market and even its position as a kingpin of technology. With Apple’s Snow Leopard and Google’s Chrome OS breathing down its neck, Microsoft couldn’t afford another OS failure.

The company bet the farm on Windows 7. They had extensive ad campaigns and Windows 7 launch parties to build up the hype that this thing was fast, sleek, simple, and not Windows Vista.

It paid off. Windows 7, released on October 22nd, garnered positive reviews and in fact beat Vista’s initial sales by 234%. Microsoft needed a hit, and as of the end of 2009, Windows 7 has delivered. Its impact on the bottom line is still unknown, but it’s likely that Microsoft will have strong momentum heading into 2010.
What’s Next?

Microsoft was busy in 2009. Bing, IE8, Windows 7, and Microsoft Office 2010 were just a few of the many big projects it launched this year. While we don’t expect to see as many big game-changing products coming out of Redmond in 2010, we do believe that the battle between Microsoft and its competitors will heat up as these products mature and Microsoft pushes to make inroads into search and beyond.

We want to know what you think, though. How did Microsoft do this year? What was its greatest success and its biggest flop? And most importantly, what do you think the technology titan will be doing in 2010? Let everybody know your thoughts in the comments below.

Iorgsoft release AVCHD.MTS.M2TS converter to import Panasonic HD video to Mac or Windows

First , intro you some wonderful Panasonic camcorders:

1: The Panasonic HDC-HS350 is an updated cousin to the HDC-TM350 AVCHD camcorder. It has a 10.6-megapixelsensor for still images and it records video at 1080p. With 240 GB of built-in storage, it can allegedly record almost 32 hours at that resolution.

2: The Panasonic's HDC-TM10/HDC-SD10 are the world's lightest AVCHD Full HD camcorder. Other competitive features: a touchscreen LCD, automatic scene selection, 16x optical zoom, image stabilization, and AF tracking.

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3: The Panasonic HDC-TM350 is a compact high-definition camcorder with 64GB of integrated flash storage capable of recording 16 hours.built-in 10.6-megapixel camera for taking still photos, 5.1-channel audio recording, a 12x optical zoom for getting closer to your subjects, and a microphone input for recording the best sound possible.

4: The Panasonic HDC-TM300, 32 GB of built-in flash memory and an SDHC slot for up to 32 GB of additional capacity. It will shoot full 1080p video as well as still photos up to 10.6 megapixels, or 8.3 megapixels while simultaneously recording video. Leica lens, 12X optical zoom (30X digital), manual ring that can control zoom, focus, aperture, shutter speed and white balance. Auto Focus Tracking feature, 2.7-inch LCD, compare with TM 700.

5: The Panasonic HDC-SD60 Series features a 25x optical zoom and an Intelligent Zoom function that goes all the way up to 35x. Captures large groups, even when shooting from up close. 35.7mm Wide Angle Lens. Recognizes important people's faces and captures them beautifully, Face Recognition

In fact, i just have a Panasonic TM700, it is really wonderful, but it is really not easy for me to import my TM700 files to my Mac. Then i know, Panasonic HDC-SD HDC-HS HDC-TM series: HDC-SD9, HDC-SD10, HDC-SD60, HDC-SD100, HDC-SD200, HDC-SD700, HDC-HS250, HDC-HS300, HDC-SD60, HDC-HS200, HDC HS100, HDC-HS700,HDC-TM10, HDC-TM20, HDC-TM60, HDC-TM50, HDC-TM30, HDC-TM200, HDC-TM300, HDC-TM700 etc all recording video in avchd (mts/m2ts)formats, however, avchd is not a widely used formats for mac user.

So i just try many many panasonic camcorder software to decode the avchd files, last, i really find a good helper-iorgsoft panasonic avchd converter for Mac software.

Panasonic avchd converter for Mac supports convert any panasonic avchd video to mov, dv, mp4, mpeg-2, flv, swf, flash, h.264, m4v, 3gp etc for importing to iMovie, iTunes, FCP, FCE, Quicktime etc for playing and editing on Mac os(10.4-10.7).

Did you also have the same experience? Did you also like this? Let us talk about it freely.

Pricing and Availability
iorgsoft Panasonic avchd converter for Macsoftware is priced at only $35.00 for single-user licence. It provides a free trial for download, and registered users are entitled to free lifetime updates and technical support.

About iorgsoft Corporation
iorgsoft Corporation publishes high-performance consumer digital multimedia software, iorgsoft's user-friendly, affordable software offers power, speed, and simplicity for millions of computer users worldwide.

Microsoft Hyper-V now supports Linux-based CentOS

Microsoft has added support for another Linux server distribution with its Hyper-V virtualization software, its latest move to compete better with virtualization market leader VMware.

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Customers can now run the CentOS flavor of Linux as a guest operating system in supported Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V environments, Sandy Gupta, general manager for marketing in Microsoft's Open Solutions Group, was due to announce at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco Monday.

Microsoft already supports Hyper-V environments that include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Suse Linux Enterprise Server. It added CentOS because it's a popular distribution for hosting providers, a market Microsoft hopes to do well in.

The support is effective immediately, Gupta wrote in a blog post.

"This development enables our hosting partners to consolidate their mixed Windows + Linux infrastructure on Windows Server Hyper-V; reducing cost and complexity, while betting on an enterprise class virtualization platform," Gupta wrote.

Once contemptuous of open source, Microsoft has become more pragmatic about Linux in recent years. The company has realized it must interoperate with Linux and other OSes if it wants to do well in data centers, which are typically mixed environments.

"We've found that the Microsoft-only IT shop -- even in the smallest organizations -- is becoming a thing of the past," said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. "It's important for Microsoft to recognize this fact of life and extend support to various Linux operating systems if they want Hyper-V to come out on top in the virtualization wars."

At the same time, Microsoft continues to assert that Linux and other open-source software products violate various patents that it holds.

End of an era: Microsoft antitrust oversight ends

A U.S. court's antitrust oversight of Microsoft is ending after eight and a half years, with some observers questioning what the long fight accomplished.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's oversight of a twice-extended November 2002 settlement agreement between Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice ends Thursday. In recent years, Kollar-Kotelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has focused primarily on a small piece of the settlement -- bugs in technical documentation for communication protocols Microsoft was required to share with competitors.

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The antitrust suit was one of Network World's top 25 events of the past 25 years

The DOJ, in a statement released Wednesday, hailed the antitrust case, which started in 1998, as good for the competitive landscape in the IT market. The antitrust judgment protected the development and distribution of middleware and allowed consumers to have choices, the DOJ said.

"The final judgment ... prevented Microsoft from continuing the type of exclusionary behavior that led to the original lawsuit," the DOJ said. "Microsoft no longer dominates the computer industry as it did when the complaint was filed in 1998. Nearly every desktop middleware market, from Web browsers to media players to instant messaging software, is more competitive today than it was when the final judgment was entered."

The antitrust agreement also lead to "competitive conditions" that enabled new products, including cloud computing and mobile devices, to develop as potential threats to the Windows desktop operating system, the DOJ said.

Microsoft would only release a statement to mark the end of the case: "Our experience has changed us and shaped how we view our responsibility to the industry. We are pleased to bring this matter to successful resolution, and we are excited to keep delivering great products and services for our partners and customers."

The main allegation in the original lawsuit, filed by the DOJ and the attorneys general of 19 states and the District of Columbia, was that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly in PC OSes by excluding competing middleware from its OS. An appeals court upheld the antitrust claims in June 2001.

The court-monitored antitrust judgment prohibited the company from penalizing computer makers that shipped products with competing middleware or OSes installed. The judgment required the company to disclose its middleware interfaces to independent software developers and computer makers, and it required the company to license OS communications protocols to third parties.

Analysts agreed that the case didn't have a major impact on Microsoft, but one said it may have given some other companies a leg up.

The ruling had some "psychological" effects on the company, said David Mitchell Smith, an analyst with Gartner. "When you put a company under scrutiny and you handcuff them a bit in terms of what they can do, it changes their attitude and outlook and cramps their style," he said. "But fundamentally all the remedies that came out of it were pretty minor."

Googles Chrome OS starts to get real but still falls shy

The all-in-the-cloud OS gains polish as Google prepares for the first Chromebooks to ship, but apps remain awkward

If the rumors are right, Google will announce today at its Google I/O conference that Samsung (and perhaps others) are shipping laptops running Google’s Chrome OS this summer. There’s been a sharp increase in Chrome OS beta updates in the last few weeks, so something is up; Google may be on schedule to deliver the shipping Chrome OS this summer, giving reality to the old “Webtone” promise of Sun Microsystems in which the Web is the operating system and devices simply are portals to it — what we now call cloud computing.

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Chrome OS is basically the Chrome 11 Web browser running by itself on a laptop, which InfoWorld.com has dubbed a “Chromebook.” There is no traditional OS like Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X underneath that can run other applications. Everything happens in Chrome OS, and most notions of what a computer provides, such as printer ports and removable storage, simply don’t apply.

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A Chromebook has solid-state memory to hold the OS, cache files for when you’re working, and stubs to the Web applications you run (essentially, glorified bookmarks), but everything else resides in the cloud, which is accessed via the Chromebooks’ built-in Wi-Fi or 3G cellular service. Google hopes a lot of that activity will be on its cloud, such as Google Docs, but a Chromebook works with any AJAX-based website (sorry, no ActiveX) or service.

In recent weeks, the updated Chrome OS beta on a prototype Chromebook has become much more responsive and smoother. The betas in December through March definitely had that beta feel and stuttery performance, but not the betas that have been coming since late April. If you use the Chrome browser, you know the Chrome OS experience: simple, spare, capable, and fast.

The Chromebook isn’t just a laptop with a new OS
But without a “real” OS underneath, you really are dependent on the cloud. Printing, for example, requires that you have an ePrint-capable printer (Hewlett-Packard makes a few models, which also work with iPhones and iPads) or route your print jobs through Google’s cloud print service, which basically means through a networked Windows PC or Mac. People print less and less, but the process is clunky and will be more complex than most will find acceptable. It’s probably a plus that fewer and fewer of us have items to print anymore.

Likewise, storage is delivered through the cloud, so you can’t transfer your photos directly via a USB cable or thumb drive to work on them in, say, Picasa. Instead, your camera will need its own wireless connection to transfer the images to a cloud photo service, and you’ll work on them over wireless from your Chromebook. When your’e not using a Wi-Fi connection, you should expect to quickly eat through 3G data plans. Of course, the advantage of cloud-based storage is that your files are available to any device compatible with that service: PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. You don’t have to remember to bring the files once they’re uploaded.

10 best Windows 7 tablet apps

Tablet and ultra-mobile touch PCs have been around for years but there's still not a lot of software that makes the most of touch.

Windows 7 itself is pretty good with touch; swipe up on taskbar icons for jump lists, turn on flicks in all eight directions for shortcuts like copy and paste as well as navigation, use handwriting to write short sentences and URLs - and remember that Media Center's big buttons work very well with touch.

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As Windows tablets reach the market we're expecting to see more apps that really make the most of touch, but there are some apps you'll want to put on your tablet as soon as you get it, because they make good use of touch or because they make touch easier to use.

Here's our pick of the best Windows 7 tablet apps.

1. OneNote

OneNote

OneNote lets you handwrite your notes and draw diagrams (it works best with an active pen but you get good results on a capacitive screen with good touch resolution like the Iconia Tab), record audio that's time-synced to your notes, clip info from web pages and sync to other PCs seamlessly.

If you actually need to get some work done on your tablet, OneNote is the best tool.

2. Flickr

Flickr

There's a lot of amazing pictures on Flickr and the new touch-friendly Flickr app for Windows 7 is a fun way to explore them - and it's nice for showing people your own photos too.

Swipe through recent activity like photos you've commented on, photos from your friends, your photostream and what Flickr thinks is interesting, including photos near where you are if you're looking for inspiration. Everything is designed for swiping and tapping (like the matching Windows Phone 7 app).

3. ArtRage

ArtRage

ArtRage is the original tablet PC natural painting application; everything from accurate oils and watercolours to stickers and glitter. Use a stylus for fine detail or paint with your fingers using a photo to trace from.

4. Kindle

Kindle

Kindle for PC works best on smaller tablets where what you see on screen looks more like a book (or an ebook reader); books download quickly, open where you were last reading - and you can just flick across the screen to turn the page.

5. IE9

IE9

The minimal interface on IE9 isn't just an attempt to look as unobtrusive as Chrome; it also makes IE9 more finger friendly - dialog box settings are awkward but you can do most of what you need from the single Settings menu or the address bar icons and pinch-zoom and finger panning work very well on the vast majority of Web sites.

6. WCS Touch Browser

WCS

Opera Mobile 11 for Windows is basic but has smooth pinch-zoom. For far more comprehensive touch controls, check out WCS Touch Browser, which uses the IE browsing engine with simple menus that are just the right size for fingersand handy options like side-by-side browsing.

7. SlideToUnlock

Slide to unlock

If you want a screensaver that you can't accidentally unlock by brushing the screen as you carry your tablet, use SlideToUnlock. Not only can you only unlock it by deliberately swiping across the screen but it also showcases your own photos or images from your favourite Flickr user.

8. Pen Commander

Pen commander

Pen Commander lets you finger-write words and shortcuts into a panel to launch applications, open documents, copy and paste, insert text you use a lot or that's hard to write (like URLs) - and write your own scripts to run Ctrl-key combinations using gestures.

9. StNotepad Touch

ST notepad

WordPad's ribbon interface is OK for touch but if you want to get as fast at editing as you would be using commands like Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-V, check out the floating transparent text editor StNotepad Touch.

Press and hold and the context menu appears in a floating circle with round icons for key commands. Alternatively, learn the gestures - swivelling two fingers on screen clockwise to redo and anticlockwise to undo for example.

10. DialKeys Gen2

DialKeys

Remember the curved corner keyboard on 'Origami' UMPCs? It's still a great way of typing on a tablet you can hold in both hands. With DialKeys you can reach the keys with both thumbs, including function keys, so you can type as fast as on a smartphone and it's really well thought out when you need to type more than basic letters - tap one key for symbols and punctuation, slide either thumb along the edge of the curve for numbers. You can even use it as an app launcher.

Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/10-best-windows-7-tablet-apps-953677#ixzz1MMHXSDjT

Certkingdom now offers training on MCITP SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer

Certkingdom, World’s #1 offshore IT Training and Certification company, now offers training for MCITP SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer Training.

Certkingdom, World’s #1 offshore IT Training and Certification company, now offers training for MCITP SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer Training.

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Gaining a of MCITP: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer certification will set you apart since Business Intelligence (BI) is one of the niche growth areas in IT. If deployed successfully, BI can improve decision making and operational efficiency, which in turn drive the top line and the bottom line of any enterprise.

This instructor-led BI SQL Server 2008 Training course covers
• In-depth knowledge on designing a Business Intelligence solution by using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
• How to implement an Analysis Services solution in an organization
• How to use the Analysis Services development tools to create an Analysis Services database and an OLAP cube
• How to use the Analysis Services management and administrative tools to manage an Analysis Services solution
• How to implement an Integration Services solution in an organization
• How to develop, deploy, and manage Integration Services packages
• How to implement a Reporting Services solution in an organization
• How to use the Reporting Services development tools to create reports
• How to use the Reporting Services management and administrative tools to manage a Reporting Services solution

After successful completion of MCITP: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer certification course, the student will earn both MCTS Business Intelligence Developer and MCITP for Business Intelligence Developer.

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Certkingdom is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions and courses are run using Microsoft Official Curriculum.
Certkingdom offers training on all popular certifications, including MCTS, MCSE, MCPD, MCITP, VMware, RHCE,RHCSS,RHCSA ,Oracle 11g,10g & 9i, SQL Server, CCNA, CCNP, CCVP, CCIE and SCJP.
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Note to Editors:
About Certkingdom: Certkingdom is a reputed company based in India providing offshore IT training and certification. Established in 1993, Certkingdom has more than 15 years of vast experience in Instruction Led Training. Certkingdom is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions Certkingdom is an authorized training partner of Checkpoint, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe, Red Hat, VMware, Novell, LPI, CIW, CWNP, EC-Council and SCP. Certkingdom is also an Authorized Testing Centre of Prometric and Vue.

Certkingdom offers quality of training, small batch size, convenient start dates, holiday experience, flexibility and much more. Participants from all over the world (57 countries last count) regularly travel to Certkingdom to upgrade their skills at 50% of prices in USA and Europe.

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Microsoft Q3 2011 by the numbers: Record $16.43B, Windows revenue declines

Today, after the closing bell, Microsoft answered an oft-asked question: What would the quarter be with no new major products in the pipeline? Would Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 (released October 2009) and Office 2010 (released May 2010) provide enough sales tailwinds?

For fiscal 2011 third quarter, ended March 31, Microsoft's revenue rose 13 percent to $16.43 billion, year over year. Operating income: $5.71 billion, or 10 percent increase. Net income rose 31 percent to $5.23 billion, or 61 cents a share. Earnings per share rose by 36 percent year over year.

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Twenty-seven months ago, Microsoft stopped providing Wall Street analysts with quarterly and yearly guidance, in a move that is highly unusual for so large and so successful a public company. Microsoft's refusal to give guidance creates unnecessary negative perceptions about its performance. As such, Wall Street analysts had to rely solely on their wits to call the quarter (again). Average consensus was $16.1 billion revenue and 56 cents earnings per share. Revenue estimates ranged from $15.83 billion to $17.17 billion, with estimated year-over-year growth of 11.7 percent. So Microsoft topped the Street.

"We delivered strong third quarter revenue from our business customers, driven by outstanding performance from Windows Server, SQL database, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and increasingly our cloud services," Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said in a statement. "Office had another huge quarter, again exceeding everyone's expectations, and the addition of Office 365 will make our cloud productivity solutions even more compelling."

The PC Shipments Quandary

For the second quarter in a row PC shipments hung like a shadow over Microsoft results. Fifteen days ago, Gartner and IDC reported weaker-than-expected demand during first calendar quarter, which coincides with Microsoft's third fiscal quarter. Globally, PC shipments fell 3.2 percent year over year during first quarter, according to IDC, while Gartner put the decline at a less anemic 1.1 percent. Gartner had predicted 3 percent growth, while IDC expected 1.5 percent growth. Manufacturers shipped 84.3 million PCs in the quarter, according to Gartner, and 80.6 million by IDC's estimate.

The reasons for the declines are worse for Windows PC manufacturers, which have played a fierce game of lowering prices. The gambit's effectiveness is over. "Weak demand for consumer PCs was the biggest inhibitor of growth," Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner principal analyst, said in a statement. "Low prices for consumer PCs, which had long stimulated growth, no longer attracted buyers.

"Instead, consumers turned their attention to media tablets and other consumer electronics. With the launch of the iPad 2 in February, more consumers either switched to buying an alternative device, or simply held back from buying PCs. We're investigating whether this trend is likely to have a long-term effect on the PC market."

The problem isn't so much that tablets are replacing PCs as displacing some of their functions. People who might otherwise buy a new PC are getting other devices instead. According to a recent AdMob survey of tablet owners, seven out of 10 use their PC less. Nearly 30 percent of tablet owners use the device as their primary PC.

But while the consumer market goes gaga over tablets, businesses have been down to the business of upgrading aging Windows XP PCs. When Windows 7 launched in autumn 2009, about 80 percent of the install base was still on XP. The lengthy, and heady, transition has been good for Microsoft, which last week revealed 350 Windows 7 license sales during the operating system's first 18 months of marketability. Yesterday, Gartner revealed that Windows accounts for 78.6 percent of all desktop and server OS revenues.

However, even with businesses continuing Windows 7 upgrades, revenue for the Windows & Windows Live division fell 4 percent year over year.

Q3 2011 Revenue by Division

* Windows & Windows Live: $4.445 billion, down from $4.650 billion a year earlier.
* Server & Tools: $4.104 billion, up from $3.706 billion a year earlier.
* Business: $5.252 billion, up from $4.341 billion a year earlier.
* Online Services Business: $648 million, up from $566 million a year earlier.
* Entertainment & Devices: $1.935 billion, up from $1.21 billion a year earlier.

The Mobile Conundrum

Microsoft's most immediate, long-term competitive challenge remains mobile, where upstarts like Apple and Google body slammed Windows Mobile during 2009-10. There is the aforementioned competition from iPad, too. Apple shipped 4.69 million tablets during calendar Q1 for about 19.5 million total for the first four quarters of sales. Apple's tablet generated nearly $12.4 billion in new revenue during the first 11 months of availability. Mobile devices running Apple's iOS generated $43.79 billion during calendar 2010, or about 57 percent of Apple revenues.

By most every estimate, mobiles are the future of computing, something iPad's negative impact on PC sales shows. Mobile applications are set to generate enormous revenues that may soon begin to cannibalize PC applications. Gartner predicts $15 billion revenue generated by mobile apps this year, up nearly three times from 2010.

But Microsoft isn't rudderless in the cloud-conncted device seas. During the quarter, Microsoft and Nokia announced a definitive, non-exclusive agreement for Windows Phone 7. Nokia plans to ship Windows Phone as its primary operating system, starting in 2012. Nokia and Microsoft signed the deal -- it's official now -- one week ago. Yesterday, the axe fell at Nokia: Symbian is being outsourced to Accenture and 7,000 Nokia employees will be transferred or sacked. Gartner and IDC both predict that the deal will propel Windows Phone to second in smartphone market share, behind Android, by 2015. Meanwhile, Microsoft plans Windows 7.5, codename "Mango," for release before the holidays.

As for tablets, Microsoft is working on a new version of Windows for ARM processors. There categorization gets messy. Gartner and IDC classify Android, BlackBerry and iOS slates as "media tablets." While tablets running Windows count as PCs. This has caused some confusion among bloggers and journalists about Microsoft having no tablet strategy.

I contend that Microsoft could still be a major player in the cloud-connected device market even without a tablet or tablet operating system, from back-end hosted applications and Azure.

Q3 2011 Income by Division

* Windows & Windows Live: $2.764 billion, down from $3.073 billion a year earlier.
* Server & Tools: $1.419 billion, up from $1.27 billion a year earlier.
* Business: $3.165 billion, up from $2.542 billion a year earlier.
* Online Services Business: Loss of $726 million, up from $709 million loss a year earlier.
* Entertainment & Devices: $225 million, up $150 million a year earlier.

Breakdown by Division

Microsoft reports revenue and earnings results for five divisons: Windows & Windows Live, Server & Tools, Business, Online Services and Entertainment & Devices.

Windows & Windows Live. Weaker than-expected PC demand hurt the division during fiscal third quarter, with revenue falling 4 percent year over year. Profits declined, too (see below). While Microsoft reported business PC sales up 9 percent year over year, consumer sales fell 8 percent. Netbook sales plummeted 40 percent, which is mixed blessing. According to analysts, many potential netbook buyers are choosing tablets, with major benefit going to Apple -- that's the bad. The good: Netbooks generally ship with lower-margin Windows versions, such as Starter Edition. The shift in mix to "Premium" Windows versions is better for Microsoft.

Overall, Microsoft said that global PC sales declined 2 percent year over year, which is in line with aforementioned analyst data. OEM revenue fell by 3 percent, which is to be expected given the macro-PC economics. Enterprise Windows 7 deployments doubled over six months, Microsoft Peter Klein said during Microsoft's earnings conference call today.

Server & Tools. Revenue rose about 11 percent year over year. The division is insulated against economic maladies, because about 50 percent of revenues come from contractual volume-licensing agreements; annuity revenue grew by 11 percent year over year. Additionally, enterprise services revenue grew by 12 percent, or $90 million.

"Product revenue increased $308 million or 10%, driven primarily by growth in Windows Server, SQL Server, and Enterprise Client Access License ("CAL") Suites, reflecting continued adoption of Windows platform applications," according to Microsoft financial statements.

Business. The division was the quarter's big overall performer, with revenue up 21 percent year over year. Business non-annuity revenue grew by 28 percent, which isn't ideal. Microsoft benefits more when businesses buy annuity contracts, which revenue grew by just 5 percent. Consumer revenue rose 26 percent, or $220 million, surprising considering Microsoft's cited attach rate to PCs, which sales were down for the quarter.

Starting with the 2003 release cycle, Microsoft repositioned Office as the front end to the larger stack of server applications. During fiscal 2011, Microsoft has started to reap substantial sales from the strategy. Klein described Office 2010 as the fastest-growing version of the suite -- deployments are five times Office 2007. But this isn't happening in a vacuum. Enterprises are "purchasing our entire productivity suite platform," he said. Klein's comment puts context behind Turner's canned statement about server software.

It's my assessment that fiscal 2011 marks a turning point for Microsoft's two cash cow products -- the ascension of Office as the stronger product and one with greater sales longevity. Some of that relates to the aforementioned competition from cloud-connected devices but also the success of the Office-as-front-end to back-end business processes running Microsoft server software.

Like, Server & Tools, contractual volume-licensing agreements are high -- 60 percent, which directly derives from the Office-to-server applications stack strategy. This largely insulates the division from slowdowns in the PC market. By comparison, only about 20 percent of Windows sales come from contractual licenses. Most customers by the operating system with new PCs.

Online Services Business. Search and display ads drove up online advertising revenue by 17 percent -- $84 million to $586 million. Despite revenue gains, the division's losses increased from fiscal Q3 2010.

Entertainment & Devices. The division's revenue increased a whopping 60 percent year over year. Microsoft shipped 2.3 million Kinects during the quarter days, adding to the 8 million units from the sequential launch quarter. Xbox console sales rose 79 percent -- that's 2.7 million units. "Xbox 360 platform revenue grew $712 million or 69 percent, led by sales of Kinect sensors, increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles, and higher Xbox Live revenues," according to Microsoft financial statements.

Regarding Windows Phone, Microsoft claims 90 percent customer satisfaction. However, the company didn't release sales figures.

ViewSonic ViewPad 10 tablet: Windows plus Android doesn't add up

You know the Reese's ad about how chocolate and peanut better go better together? I bet whoever came up with the ViewSonic ViewPad 10 had the same aspiration. The problem is this dual-OS tablet is not a delectable combination. Think creamed spinach and red licorice, not peanut butter and chocolate.

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The ViewPad 10 is an awkward shotgun marriage whose two parties clearly don't have their hearts in it. You notice as soon as you turn it on. You get a DOS-like prompt telling you to use the arrow keys to select the OS you want: Windows 7 or Android. However, there are no arrow keys on the device. It's a tablet, so of course there's no keyboard, but you wil find three buttons: Power, Home, and Enter. It turns out you can use Home as a down-arrow key.

[ Also on InfoWorld: "Tablet deathmatch: Apple iPad 2 vs. Motorola Xoom" | "RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: Unfinished, unusable" | Compare and calculate your own scores for the iPad 2, Xoom, Galaxy Tab, PlayBook, and ViewPad with our tablet calculator. ]

I asked ViewSonic why the boot menu didn't match the actual buttons and was told that the company used a Linux boot loader. In other words, either no one thought to have the hardware and software match or no one cared to do anything about it. This "slap it together mentality" is one reason no tablets come close to the iPad.

The slow, awkward Windows experience
Once you boot into Windows, you get, well, Windows. It's immediately familiar, so there's essentially no learning curve. ViewSonic pre-installs very few applications. There's Adobe Reader 9 and the minimum set of Windows-provisioned applications: Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, XPS Viewer, and the Calculator. You'll need to install anything else you might want to use, such as Outlook or Office. Of course, the ViewPad is a tablet, so there's no DVD drive, but you can plug one in via USB -- if you own one.

However, you may not want to install any applications. Windows 7 and apps such as IE run like molasses on the ViewPad 10 and its 1GHz single-core Atom processor. The delays to my input were excruciating. For example, when I zoomed in or out of IE, it took several seconds for the screen to respond to my gestures. The latency is too great to work around, and I could never predict the results of what I'd done. I can't imagine how the ViewPad would handle a bloated app like Office. Even simple tasks like opening the Start menu showed noticeable lags.

If you can handle the slow performance, beware the poor touch interface. Windows 7 is terrible at handling touch input -- many buttons and links require very precisely positioned taps on screen elements that are usually frustratingly small; I typically had to tap multiple times to activate a control. Windows is inconsistent: Some controls just needed a tap near them, while others -- even in the same dialog box or window -- required a precise tap. It feels like you're playing darts with your finger.

Microsoft Office 2010 takes on all comers

Microsoft Office 2010 takes on all comers: SoftMaker Office 2010
For several years now, SoftMaker Office has been accruing a reputation as a low-cost replacement for the Microsoft Office product line. It's indeed much cheaper than Office 2010: $79 to Office's $149, $279, or $499 (the MSRPs for the Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional versions, respectively). For those who don't exclusively require Word, it's a very strong contender. It's also been written with much more of an eye toward integration with Windows than the OpenOffice.org family; for example, the Windows 7 Taskbar jump lists are supported.

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The suite features replacements for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in much the same way that IBM Lotus Symphony strips the OpenOffice.org suite down to its three most essential programs. A single copy of the program can be used on up to three PCs, with no copy protection or other restrictions. Academic pricing ($34.95 per copy) is also available, but there's no need to purchase different versions of the program for work and home.

The best way to see SoftMaker Office's much-vaunted document compatibility in action is to grab the 30-day trial version of the product, open documents in it side-by-side with your existing program, and see how they look. SoftMaker Office has its own native document formats for each program, but it does a strikingly sound job of reading and interpreting Office's native formats. It can also handle some of the OpenDocument formats used by OpenOffice.org.

TextMaker, SoftMaker's word processor, is the most likely place to start testing how well the suite works with your existing files. With most every document I threw at it from my own collection, everything from relatively complex style-driven formatting to annotations and corrections was preserved. The programmers also took the trouble to make many individual features behave like their counterparts in Microsoft Office, such as the way corrections can be viewed in a callout pane to the side of the text. OpenOffice.org and its derivatives do the same thing, but often lose the name of whoever submitted a given correction. TextMaker preserved the names properly (as did Symphony's word processor). Details like this position TextMaker as that much more attractive to users who care about preserving document fidelity.

PlanMaker, the suite's spreadsheet program, supports up to 65,536 rows and works with both older and newer Excel documents. It opened existing spreadsheets better than any of the OpenOffice.org variants, but I still ran into some hitches. When I opened the mortgage calculator spreadsheet, it displayed the charts properly but didn't recalculate the charts when I changed the data. Even forcing a recalculation of the charts from the program menu didn't work. Also, PlanMaker doesn't open OpenDocument-format spreadsheets (.ods), though TextMaker opens word processing documents in the OpenDocument format (.odt).

SoftMaker Presentations had some similar file format hitches. PowerPoint 2007/2010 presentations (.pptx) are not yet supported, and neither are OpenDocument presentation files (.odp), but files in the older PowerPoint (.ppt) format load and run very well. In-slide animation and transitions also work. One key omission from Presentations is the lack of a feature like PowerPoint's synchronized multiscreen presentation mode. This allows a presenter to run the presentation on one display, such as a projector, while having his notes for the presentation visible on his notebook display. With Presentations, it is possible to run the slideshow on one display while manually browsing the notes for the presentation on another, but it's not quite the same.

All SoftMaker Office applications use a scripting language that's based on Microsoft's own VBA for application automation, and the suite includes an editor (BasicMaker) for creating and debugging scripts. Note that while SoftMaker's scripting language is similar to VBA, this doesn't mean existing Office documents with VBA automation can be used as-is. You'd have to export the code from those documents, reimport it into BasicMaker, and then modify it line by line. I did like the program's PDF exporter, which is on a par with OpenOffice.org's excellent tool.

One IT pro explains why he fears and embraces disruptive cloud and mobile platforms

Betanews welcomes reader contributions. Here, Eric Neumann responds to two February 21st posts by Joe Wilcox -- "iPad is not a PC" and "5 reasons Macs will never outsell PCs." If you would like to submit a post, please email joewilcox at gmail dot com.

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Being a business IT professional, I have been watching with great interest and excitement the emergence of the iOS model of computing and cloud movements hitting the personal and now commercial computing worlds. However, I must add that initially I have also viewed these big changes with fear; as recently as 2006, my career was purely based on the SME IT status quo of on-premise Microsoft and LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stacks.

I have always enjoyed the ensuing comment threads that some of the topics spawn. In the interest of participating in the discussion I would like to offer a few counter points to your earlier articles "iPad is not a PC" and "5 reasons Macs will never outsell PCs." I make five points to counter others which you made: 1) iPad is not a PC; 2) Macs cost too much; 3) Windows' ecosystem is too big for Macs to compete; 4) Windows owns the enterprise, and Apple isn't even trying; 5) Windows' shadow ecosystem of malware writers and cybercriminals is large and profitable.

1. What used to be a PC vs. what will a PC be. In a way it makes sense to classify PCs exclusively as independent devices and to exclude devices that don't fit this profile, such as iPad. For many years PCs were the center of their own respective universes, with networking and external data hubs and control points being mere optional extras. They were not core to the "PC experience."

Today we are rapidly moving away from an independent device arrangement across all our form factors. iOS devices require another device to update the OS, require an App Store cloud to gain and update applications. Android devices are dependent on the Google cloud. Chrome OS is cloud or bust.

I believe that in a few years we will need to either change our definition of a PC or accept that all our personal computers have become dependent devices (and thus no longer PCs.)

2. Macs cost too much... But so may Windows some day. Microsoft has always expertly priced Windows to be the cheapest commercial product and so gained and held the OS market for generic devices. This expertly gained monopoly has also been under threat from free non-commercial offerings for over a decade, with no market share losses to speak of.

This new phenomenon of commercial-but-free (and maybe even cheaper-than-free) options appearing from Google are not to be confused with the Linux threats of the past. Android and Chrome OS are commercial ventures that have significant developer efforts and funds backing them. These OSes have behind them teams of people working on development, distribution, partnerships, advertising -- the works.

Consider that major Windows-PC vendors like Dell, Samsung and LG are already active Android licensees and HP has noted plans for WebOS PCs. The sole protective barrier currently shielding the Windows ecosystem is the form factor divide. When Android, Chrome OS and HP's WebOS invade the Windows-PC space, there will be trouble.

Microsoft has tons of smart people, they will surely be able to match any technology disruption in the PC OS space. However, responding to a business model disruption via Google (advertising, information) or HP and Apple (hardware), will be more difficult. There is some precedent with Windows Mobile's business model disruption by Android and iOS to illustrate my point.

3. Windows ecosystem is simply too large...to adapt. There is no doubt that the Windows ecosystem is large, mature and has been outstandingly successful. The dark side of these attributes -- it's age, it's established but outdated ways and customs -- are also its weakness.

Chrome OS, WebOS and the like will at some point breach the Windows form factor barriers and start spilling into the laptop and desktop world. When this happens the Windows ecosystem with its informal application distribution, secret handshakes and focus on traditional standalone applications will be squaring off against a single store, single merchant model a la App Store with the dominant focus on cloud-centric applications.

To contrast the ecosystem differences, I cannot imagine my mother sufficiently finding, purchasing, downloading and installing a single application on her Windows 7 laptop. Even more importantly, she wouldn't even attempt it. Windows software is installed by whizz-kid relatives, that's how it has always been. On the other hand, let her loose on an iOS device with her established iTunes account and 6 weeks later there is almost a full page of purchased, downloaded and installed applications on it.

4. Windows owns the enterprise - and Apple isn't even trying... but the cloud is! The on-premise enterprise ecosystem (e.g. the windows stack) will be eaten by cloud computing at a pace approaching Smartphone-PC revolution pace. I'm currently watching this unfold from the coalface working in business IT, and it is remarkable just how readily established businesses with a lot to loose are prepared to jump into the cloud with both feet.

To be clear, I don't mean to say Microsoft will be the loser in this change; but it does leave Windows on the enterprise desktop very vulnerable to attack. From a business perspective, a core cloud computing attribute is that services are self contained. A cloud provider wants the list of prerequisites for its prospective customers to be as short as possible.

The result is that the inherent stickiness of the enterprise desktop SOE is fading away at a remarkable pace.

5. A note about the Shadow Ecosystem. A shadow ecosystem thrives because of a strong platform; not the other way around. An ecosystem contributes must-have applications, word of mouth "buzz," associated advertising by third parties and much more back to the platform. A shadow ecosystem on the other hand siphons off large amounts of money from the consumer without doing anything to retain or attract new consumers into the fold.

Malware writers and cybercriminals have plenty incentive to keep the Windows ecosystem running, but they lack any direct control to do anything about this desire.

Eric Neumann has worked in the IT industry as a consultant for almost 10 years. His technological bread and butter are advising businesses on IT system decisions as well as implementing solutions. He currently works at a boutique IT firm providing on-premise and cloud solutions to the SME market. In his free time he pursues software development as a hobby.

Microsoft, Juniper urged to patch dangerous IPv6 DoS hole

Security experts are urging Microsoft and Juniper to patch a year-old IPv6 vulnerability so dangerous it can freeze any Windows machine on a LAN in a matter of minutes.

Microsoft has downplayed the risk because the hole requires a physical connection to the wired LAN. Juniper says it has delayed a patch because the hole only affects a small number of its products and it wants the IETF to fix the protocol instead.

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SEE IT YOURSELF: How to use a known IPv6 hole to fast-freeze a Windows network

The vulnerability was initially discovered in July 2010 by Marc Heuse, an IT security consultant in Berlin. He found that products from several vendors were vulnerable, including all recent versions of Windows, Cisco routers, Linux and Juniper’s Netscreen. Cisco issued a patch in October 2010, and the Linux kernel has since been fixed as well. Microsoft and Juniper have acknowledged the vulnerability, but neither have committed to patches.

The hole is in a technology known as router advertisements, where routers broadcast their IPv6 addresses to help clients find and connect to an IPv6 subnet. The DoS attack involves flooding the network segment with random RAs, which eats up CPU resources in Windows until the CPU is overloaded and a hard reboot is required. “For Windows, a personal firewall or similar security product does not protect against this attack, as the default filter rules allow these packets through,” explains Heuse.

Heuse became so frustrated with Microsoft’s refusal to fix the hole that he published his findings to the Full Disclosure mailing list on April 15. He notes that Microsoft has not even issued a security advisory warning users of the problem. Other Windows networking and security experts have also urged Microsoft to fix the problem, and sources have said that there are even employees inside Microsoft who have been trying to nudge the company to action.

Microsoft has little to say on the subject. “Microsoft is aware of discussions in the security community concerning a technique by which a Windows server or workstation on a target network may experience unprompted high resource utilization caused by an attacker broadcasting malicious IPv6 router advertisements. The attack method described would require that a would-be attacker have link-local access to the targeted network -- a situation that does not provide a security boundary,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Network World.

However, experts aren’t buying it. The hole is “very easy to fix,” Heuse says, and Microsoft has a long history of addressing DoS holes on the local LAN that have far less of an impact. He points to Microsoft fixing a similar issue in 2008 of its implementation of IPv4. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also committed to fixing another issue he recently reported to the company which he describes as “a very minor vulnerability of detecting if a host is sniffing. It, too, is only possible on the local LAN.” His conclusion is that there is a political issue inside Microsoft where the “responsible team does not want to fix these kinds of issues anymore.”

Microsoft, VeriSign Secure .NET

Since Microsoft announced its upcoming .NET and Hailstorm services, the company has faced much criticism from security experts and privacy advocates. In turn, Microsoft has decided to add an extra touch of security by extending its partnership with VeriSign. In addition to Microsoft's own Passport authentication system, the integrity of certain transactions will be augmented by digital certificates. Both companies were eager to point out that the extra security measure does not require any additional passwords.

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Although Passport will remain the standard method of authentication for most of the .NET services, particular scenarios demand enhanced security. In instances were users transfers funds, or divulge sensitive personal information such as their medical history, a certain level of trust is required. Mountain View, California, based VeriSign touts its digital certificates as the solution to these concerns. Both companies will collaborate on fine tuning the technology as Microsoft's Hailstorm progresses.

The agreement between the two companies is non exclusive, meaning that either party is free to seek out other partnerships. This announcement puts to rest speculation that Microsoft would develop its own digital certificates for Hailstorm - at least momentarily.