Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 Beta Download

It only seems like five minutes since the release of Internet Explorer 9, but a preview of the next version of Microsoft’s web browser is already available. Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 gives an idea about what is to come in the future, but this is far from being a feature-complete version of the browser.

There’s currently no toolbars, for instance, no sidebar, not even an address bar (you’ll need to click Page, then Open to enter a new URL), so this isn’t something you’ll be using every day. Platform Preview 1 is really just a basic browsing window that allows you to see how Microsoft are progressing in their support for various web standards, including CSS3 Multi-column, CSS3 Flexbox, CSS3 Grid Alignment, CSS3 Gradients on background images and ECMAScript5 Strict Mode.

If you’re not a web designer then that may not mean very much, but fortunately Microsoft have provided several simple HTML5 demos that should help to make things clear, and simply opening Platform Preview 1 will take you immediately to the test drive site.

Here you can explore the Tweet Columns demo, for instance, which allows you to simulate an application that’s receiving new tweets (just keep clicking “Show a tweet”), then uses CSS3 multi-column layout to move your text around and keep everything looking neat.

There are also new CSS and SVG gradient creation tools. The same gradient technology has been added to the FishBowl Benchmark demo, which make it look better than ever. And just to show that there’s more to Platform Preview 1 than flashy visuals, Microsoft have also added early support for Strict Mode. This an appropriately-named version of JavaScript that restricts what developers can do, and highlights potential problems immediately; annoying if you’re used to sloppy code, but something that will help to improve site security in the future.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, then download your copy of Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 and go explore the new features. You will need to be running Windows 7, unfortunately (there’s no XP or Vista support here), however the good news is that it’ll run alongside IE8 and IE9, rather than replacing them. Although if you still have IE8, beware of running it and the Platform Preview at the same time: the Release Notes say IE8 may crash as a result (closing the Platform Preview will restore normal operations).

Take control of the latest Windows security technologies with Microsoft’s EMET

Windows has a Data Execution Prevention (DEP) interface, for instance, but it’s not exactly easy to spot. And Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) or Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) are handy at protecting key data structures from attack, but they’re normally only available if you know exactly where to look in the Registry.

Fortunately there is a simpler approach, though, in the shape of Microsoft’s clumsily-named Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). Launch the program and it’ll immediately display your current DEP, SEHOP and ASLR status; you can reconfigure any of these settings it just a few clicks; and the EMET adds a host of brand-new “pseudo-mitigations” which will help to protect you from a range of common attacks.

At a minimum, then, you should set DEP, SEHOP and ASLR to “Application Opt In”, if they’re not configured that way already (just click Configure System and choose the Recommend Settings profile).

But if you click the “Configure Apps” button, then you can also take advantage of some additional EMET technologies for specific applications. So, for instance, enabling Export Address Table Access Filtering blocks a technique often used by malware to find the location of Windows functions. And Heap Spray Allocation pre-allocates commonly abused memory addresses to prevent simple heap spraying attacks. (See this Windows blog post for more.)

You do need to be careful when you’re tweaking your security settings with the EMET. Some applications don’t play well with such low-level trickery, and you could find they become unstable, crash, or maybe bring your whole PC down with them. So if you change any individual setting, be sure you take the time to test your PC and confirm everything’s still working just fine before you get back to any serious work.

Still, if you’re interested in maximising your system’s security then the EMET is definitely worth a look. Especially as it’s now an officially supported Microsoft tool, with its own forum: if you have any difficulties then pay them a visit and ask for more advice.

Office Tab Free Edition 7.0.0 (32-bit)

If you’re the kind of person who finds themselves switching between multiple Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents, you’ll probably find the fact Office insists on opening every single document in its own window quite tiresome. Windows 7’s new Taskbar is a definite improvement on previous versions, but it’s still a fiddly process having to roll the mouse over a program icon, wait for the preview windows to appear and then locate the right one before clicking it.

It’s a problem that plagues most office applications – only Lotus Symphony has found a workable solution, opening all documents in their own tabs within a single program window.

Thankfully there’s a free add-on that can do something similar in Office, and this is it. Office Tabs, as the name suggests, basically adds a tab bar below the menu bar (Office 2003) or ribbon (Office 2007-2010) – once installed, all documents are opened within the same window, accessible through tabs, making it much easier to switch between them.

On its own this feature is enough to recommend Office Tabs, but it doesn’t stop there. The tabs themselves are customisable to the nth degree: choose where to place them (top, bottom, left or right), change their shape and appearance, enable drag-and-drop reordering, add keyboard shortcuts… You name it, it’s here.

There are some other useful features too, such as being able to create a new document simply by double-clicking the empty portion of the tab bar. Right-click a tab and you’ll see lots more potentially useful options too, but be warned: many of them are marked with an asterisk, and that’s because their functionality isn’t available in this Free Edition.
If you’d like to be able to rename a file simply by right-clicking its tab, or add the option to save and close all open documents with a single click, you’ll need to upgrade to the Professional edition for the princely sum of $25. You’ll also find there’s an Enterprise Edition available too for $10 more – this extends Office Tab’s functionality to Microsoft Project and Visio too.

DownLoad it

CyberLink PowerDVD 11 Ultra

CyberLink's PowerDVD has long been many people's DVD and Blu-ray player of choice. But that's no longer enough for CyberLink, which boasts that PowerDVD 11 "is the world's leading universal media player for the PC", so powerful that it can "play any media format, from any source." Universal media player? Any media format? Big claims, then, but has CyberLink delivered? We took PowerDVD 11 for a spin in an effort to find out.

The interface hasn't changed too much, with simple tabs allowing you to play particular content types. And the core DVD and Blu-ray functionality is also similar to PowerDVD 10, though there are a few useful additions dotted throughout the package. The program doesn't only play DVDs, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D discs, for instance: it can now also handle recorded 3D TV.

Enhanced audio features include new support for HDMI 1.4, which should take much of the hassle out of getting multi-channel, high definition sound. There's also lossless pass-through for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and 5.1 DTS support is now available even in the standard PowerDVD edition.

Cinema Mode (an alternative view optimized for remote control use, which integrates with Windows Media Center) has been enhanced with a 3D interface. Nothing too adventurous -- it's still essentially just buttons and text menus -- but it looks good and is fun to use.

TrueTheater 3D has seen a major upgrade since the last version, which means it does a much better job of converting your DVDs, video files and photos (though not 2D Blu-ray discs) to 3D. The results can still be poor sometimes, depending on your source material, but it's still a fun technology that can bring new life to your old movies.

Windows 8 versions

That's a question many customers may ask, if a report from Bloomberg proves to be right: There will be at least five Windows 8 editions -- four for ARM processors. Bloomberg quotes Intel's Renee James, from a presentation given earlier today. It's not exactly Intel's place to be revealing Microsoft Windows versioning plans, which is reason enough to question the claims. But, hey, the duopoly is called Wintel for a reason.
Microsoft has already announced that the next Windows version will support ARM processors. So it's unsurprising that Windows 8 might fork down separate ARM and x86 paths. For the purpose of this story, I'm calling it Windows 8. But Microsoft hasn't announced or seriously hinted at the nomenclature. You can take the name or leave it.

"The version designed for Intel chips will run older Windows programs," according to the story by Ian King and Dina Bass. "The ARM versions won't run older programs, [James] said. They will be tailored to mobile devices and tablet computers and there will also be a version for Intel chips to address that market."

Multiple versions is risky from a marketing perspective. Microsoft has been down this branding path before, moving from two XP editions to six for Windows Vista. Do you remember the confusing branding? They were: Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, Business and Enterprise. Windows 7 drops the editions to four five: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise (It's so confusing I left out Pro and added it after commenters complained). That's still at least two versions too many from a branding perspective. It's confusing to customers having so many choices for PCs that are essentially the same. (It's worse in Europe where trustbusters require Microsoft to carry additional "N" editions).

Microsoft's version/edition strategy attempts to create more differentiation, which the market struggles to do when there is a monopoly product. Microsoft seeks to generate more excitement around Windows and more differentiation among the kinds of computers sold to consumers or businesses. But that really hasn't happened after two Windows versions with multiple editions, because the feature differences are arbitrarily chosen by Microsoft rather than dynamically by the market.

Differentiation typically drives competition, hence the number of toothpaste varieties. But Windows isn't toothpaste, because one product essentially owns the x86-based PC market. You can't sell Windows the same way as toothpaste, by trying to artificially create differentiation where it doesn't organically exist.

That said, there is a case for Microsoft choosing a multi-edition strategy for Windows 8 -- as long as it's not carried too far. Three reasons stand out:

1. Microsoft will support another chip architecture. That changes everything. Windows will be available on more than PCs and in categories where the market already has created differentiation based on form factors. It makes more sense for separately branded Windows editions for these devices, than for today's PCs. Microsoft will need to educate buyers about Windows' benefits on more devices. That said, such approach still risks creating brand confusion and even conflict -- the device manufacturer's brand versus Microsoft's. A single "Windows Powered" brand would be easier to market.

2. Today, personal computing is as much about devices as PCs. Smartphones and tablets (despite Microsoft's earlier efforts) were nascent categories when Windows Vista launched for businesses in late 2006. Now smartphones and tablets are seemingly everywhere and gaining market share fast. Analyst estimates put smartphone sales around 100 million units this year, globally.

3. There is real competition in the device categories where Windows 8 will operate. The iPad has a huge early lead in the media tablet category -- 80 percent-plus share, by most analyst estimates -- with Android looking to take a bite out of Apple's share. Android smartphone sales surged 888.8 percent in 2010, according to Gartner; last week Google said there are now 400,000 Android activations a day. If there's a place for tech toothpaste-like differentiated Windows editions, ARM is it.

But Microsoft should still be careful not to overdo its Windows 8 editions strategy, from a branding perspective. Windows 8 Home Tablet Edition for ARM Processors and Windows 8 Home Edition for Intel Processors -- coupled with Ultimate or Business Editions -- is a way-wrong approach. Simple nomenclature and fewer named editions would be more sensible.

As for the accuracy of the Bloomberg report, I don't doubt what James said. I do question whether Microsoft has decided its branding and marketing plans -- unless Windows 8 is shipping sometime in the next couple of quarters.

Mac Defender malware is for real

That sure took long enough. After reports surfaced last week about Apple's denial, the company has come clean in a support document. Mac Defender is real malware targeting Mac OS X, and Apple will issue an update to plug the hole. Yes, but will it be little more than a finger in the dike?

The answer to that question has already generated fierce debate among Mac defenders -- not the malware, but Apple fans -- and PC stalwarts about whether Mac Defender is start of a troubling trend: Increased number of attacks against Mac OS X. The Mac defenders brush off Mac Defender, arguing there is no OS security problem but one of social engineering. It's a bogus argument, considering social engineering also is the main mechanism by which malware infects PCs. According to research released last week by Microsoft, 1 in 14 programs that are downloaded are later determined to be malware, and in most cases, the malicious software was installed by good old-fashioned social engineering.

battle of mobile apps, it's Apple's 500,000 to Microsoft's 18,000

Today, Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, boasted about 18,000 applications in 7 months. He can only wish for this kind of future: 500,000 applications approved to Apple's iOS app store in about three years. This isn't even a fair fight. The elephant in the room could squash the mouse just too easily.

But there is hope for Microsoft. Apple crossed the 10,000 apps threshold four months after App Store launched. The number of Windows Phone apps is about the same as iOS apps during similar timeframe from store launch. So maybe there's more to Lees' boasting, if Microsoft is using Apple's success as measure of one possible Windows Phone future.

Angry Birds is the best-selling all-time paid-for app, followed by The Moron Test and the Moto Chaser. Gulp, iFart Mobile is No. 12. Sixty-three percent of all apps are paid, with average price per app of $3.64.

The value of all apps currently live is $891,982.24. There are 244,720 paid apps and 174,966 free ones. It's a fun inforgraphic -- and, who knows, maybe Lees will be able to boast this kind of Windows Phone success in three years.

We can run Android apps in Windows, says newly-funded BlueStacks

After working for nearly three years on a solution for delivering Android applications on systems with x86-based processors, Silicon Valley company BlueStacks today has officially "opened for business" with $7.5 million of series A funding.

BlueStacks started simply enough. After playing with her father's Android phone, the child of one of BlueStacks' founding engineers asked if she could get those apps on her MSI netbook. And in short, that's what BlueStacks has done with virtualization and shared drivers. Android apps can run either as apps or as icons on the Windows desktop, or the whole system can switch from Windows to the Android OS. It is an ideal solution for convertible notebooks. In notebook mode, you can run Windows, and in tablet mode, you can run Android.

"From the naive user's point of view, these are all just apps," said BlueStacks President and CEO Rosen Sharma. "They don't care if it's webOS or Windows or Android or that it's virtualization. In the end, it's just an app."

The BlueStacks solution has impressed testers already, but more importantly, it has impressed manufacturers.

"We began talking to OEMs, and the reaction was violently positive," said Sharma, "I have no other way to describe it. We are an unknown entity, but every company we met with was tremendously interested, saying 'okay, we want it next week…why do we have to wait three weeks?'"

"At this point, I'm just looking at Apu [Shumar, SVP of Sales] and Apu is looking at me, and we're like 'what the hell is going on here?'" laughed Sharma. "I've been doing business for seventeen years, and it usually takes a year of meetings to get that kind of interest."

Hibernate 3.0, latest Open Source persistence technology at the heart of J2EE EJB 3.0

Hibernate 3.0, latest Open Source persistence technology at the heart of J2EE EJB 3.0


Introduction to Hibernate 3.0
Posted on: March 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Hibernate 3.0, the latest Open Source persistence technology at the heart of J2EE EJB 3.0 is available for download from Hibernet.org.The Hibernate 3.0 core is 68,549 lines of Java code together with 27,948 lines of unit tests, all freely available under
Introduction to Hibernate 3.0


What is Hibernate?
Hibernate 3.0, the latest Open Source persistence technology at the heart of J2EE EJB 3.0 is available for download from Hibernet.org.The Hibernate 3.0 core is 68,549 lines of Java code together with 27,948 lines of unit tests, all freely available under the LGPL, and has been in development for well over a year. Hibernate maps the Java classes to the database tables. It also provides the data query and retrieval facilities that significantly reduces the development time. Hibernate is not the best solutions for data centric applications that only uses the stored-procedures to implement the business logic in database. It is most useful with object-oriented domain modes and business logic in the Java-based middle-tier. Hibernate allows transparent persistence that enables the applications to switch any database. Hibernate can be used in Java Swing applications, Java Servlet-based applications, or J2EE applications using EJB session beans.