Apple 'Back to the Mac': What can we prospect of?

Once again, Steve and his fellow team members wound up the 'Back to the Mac' event at an unique day of 20/10/2010 morning. I should say, the protogonist of this thread is going to be totally different. I'm not going to extol how amazing and gratifying of the new Macbook Air. Nor I'm trying to acclaim the glamorous sneak peek of the upcoming major release: Mac OS X Lion. Instead, I would like to sputter out how those crucial steps, which Apple currently working on, will drastically change our daily life strides. Of course, within the confine of my own perspective and conjecture.

First of all, in order to uncover the ultimate secret behind the Apple, let's list down what Apple going to surprise us after the 'Back to the Mac' annoucements:
-Mac Apps Store
-Mac OS X Lion with tons of new features mimicking from iOS
-FaceTime between Mac and iPhone as well as iPod
-An ever user-friendly and powerful iLife 11'

Alright, those are the major factors that I gonna concentrate on throughout my following analysis. As we know, in retrospect, after the successful releases of iPhone, iPods and of course iPad, Apple was hopping from a dying Apple Computer (Personal Computer-based company) to today Apple lnc. which all of its products incessantly flood everywhere of our lives.

Guess what? Ok, fancy a scenario something like that: You were a Windows user. But one day, you were enamored of the fascinating iPhone and you got one into your pocket. Since then, you were enjoying happily of downloading tons of Apps through iTunes 10' and next figured out that it was quite unsatisfying to sync your iPhone with Windows Edition of iTunes 10' as there are not available iPhoto, iCal and so forth to get things prefect. Soon, it turned out that: You bought a Macbook and cast away your Windows. All the stuffs went well afterwards before you stumbled across iPad. It dawned on you that you 'might' need a iPad to fit a gap between the Macbook and iPhone (Steve: Exactly you need). You know, especially when you were hypnotized by the privilege of tracking the stock market or get your stuffs done just by laying at the sofa. Undoubtedly, you added it into your order list. Wait a minute, what's next? Sorry for the little bit fussy story(Ok..I know I'm over bragged about that) but I guess the following gadgets will come to mind are: Macbook Air, AppleTV, iMac, iPods..what else?

Perhaps, some of you may resonate with me, maybe not. Whatever, what I was trying to convey is not how those rich people spending their money. I just wanna simply unveil the Apple's knack of enthralling us into its world in reality. And it's astonishingly effective. Apple creates a kindred 'connection bridge' between all of its products. We are always able to share, sync and reorganize our files, music, video, Apps between its various products without any effort. It provides us a sense of mobility, flexibility and accessibility of our important data. Moreover, the upcoming AirPlay, FaceTime on Mac, Mac OS X Lion and so on will further enchance customers' experience of the connection bridge. AirPlay for sharing file wirelessly without complicated configuration, FaceTime for 'face to face' connecting with your friends ad lib, no matter you're in toliet using your iPhone to show how bad you're or in the kitchens using your iPhone to teach him how to cook whereas he's doing his assignment with Mac in the room. It will be not surprise to divine a new iPad with FaceTime intergrated coming soon. Mac OS X Lion, mimicking a sort of impressive features from iOS, consumers will have the sense of familiarity when switching between iOS and Mac and it turns out to become the ever-user-friendly operating system. As a result, it's obvious that that 'connection bridge' indirectly(or directly) coax the consumers into embracing all of its products en masse and people just foolishly follow it. Ok, the first point, check.

"We have been improving it with every major release. We're very happpy with the Snow Leopard. But we know how to take it ever further." Steve Jobs

Next, Apps Store. It's no doubt that Apps Store has led Apple toward a lion's share of market since it announced. 'Over 7 Billion Apps had been downloaded from Apps Store', there doesn't exist any corporation in the world is able to stack up against Apple at this point. Apps Store is feverishly successful and now Apple brings it to Mac. But why? What actually Apps Store benefits us?

This occasion inadvertently hit my mind to recall the story of Palm OS. Eight years before, Palm OS was the most famous and popular mobile platform as well as PDA platform in the world. I was in part of it. User friendly GUI, stable and secure operating system, more important, a sea of applications and developers flourished the splendid moment of Palm OS at that time. Thinking back, it's weird but fact that people always eager to get more functions in a single device even they will never use it. Apple knows what consumer needs. The announcement of Apps Store apparently stuffed up the hunger of that psychological phenomenon.

Apple released the SDK(Software Development Kit) of iOS to developers once the the first generation of iPhone had been unveiled. In a short time, thousands of software developers were obsessed by the relatively easiest coding system and the best way to distribute their earnest applications. Low cost and less effort. They flocked toward it to be the first to trigger the handsome income from the Apps Store. Vice versa, the consumer segment. Instead of spending much of time to keep 'googling' the apps that they eager to have. Thanks for the developers, with the tremendous amount of apps exist in Apps Store, consumers are able to choose and grab their beloved apps just by tapping few simple clicks on a neat and well-organized list. As you can see, it's not just benefit in the particular fraction of the whole progress, but it works out with a win-win situation for both consumer and developer.

In the same case, we can easily to foresee that Mac Apps Store will going to weave another fairy tale in the IT market. Mac Apps Store will be another threshold to reinvent/subvert the new/traditional way of purchasing a software. It will going to be rampant, historical and people will inevitably thrill about it. So, what are you waiting for? Be the first to earn a bucket of asset and pop up your apps in the top ten list!



In corollary, Apple is now getting better and overwhelmingly dress all its rivals down. Apple drives by its creativity, innovation, fresh angle of view and so forth. Apple was no longer just a technologic manufacturer. You know, it's Apple, not an ordinary apple. Apple has already become a fashion brand - it creates a contagious phenomenon or a sence of superiority which billions of 'Fans' take great relish in its products and bindly/foolishly follow it. People could hardly immune for that. Still, it makes people feel good with it!



Last, what's next for Apple? This, this or this? Check it out :)

(Photo source: Engadget)

Microsoft PDC 2010 KL: An exploration of KLCC@Microsoft Auditorium?

PDC, Professional Developer Conference, is the Microsoft annually definitive developer's conference where various developers will gather to learn about Microsoft's latest technologies, share their own expertise and explore the new products that Microsoft have launched year to year.

And the shimmer of PDC incessantly leaps its stride to this year, PDC 2010. Instead of garthering all the enthusiastic developers from every piece of the world to Redmond, Washington where the PDC 10' going to be held. Microsoft provides more ways than ever before for us to experience the Professional Developer’s Conference closer to home. Microsoft is working with Microsoft offices, academic institutions, and 3rd parties around the world to provide us the opportunity to attend a PDC10 event near to us by using the broadcasting and live streaming technology through internet.

Of course, Microsoft Malaysia is on the list to bring this splashy event descends upon our town. As one of the Microsoft Malaysia TechNet subscribers, I was pleased to have this precious opportunity to be a part of this local event but also seize on this chance to have a first and fresh exploration of Microsoft Auditorum located in Pertonas Twins Tower Level 29.



Check out my random photo during the PDC 2010 KL:
*Click to enlarge























Hence, what we learnt from PDC 2010?

-Internet Explorer 9, the next major milestone of IE after undergoing an obvious period of losing big fraction of browser market because of the more gratifying Google Chrome and Firefox. IE 9 going to be ablaze again with the devastating support for HTML5, ever better API system and developer-approached modification.

-Windows Phone 7, a revolutionary mobile phone platfrom which going to potentially stack up against Apple iOS, Google Android with its ever amazing and user-friendly GUI, integrated consumer-demanded functions, the most simpliest and distinctive developer tools, Marketplace(The next Apps Store?) and even more fascinating privileges.

-Windows Azure, the pioneer of providing a flexible cloud-computing platform that lets you focus on solving business problems and addressing customer needs. We all know, building out an infrastructure that supports our web service or application can be expensive, complicated and time consuming. It turns out that cloud computing gradually comes to the limelight as the stronger demand from customers. Windows Azure is the easiest solution of cloud computing aiming to provide users to manage their web service in an ever-efficient way. Building out the network to support your peak times. Getting the right servers in place at the right time, managing and maintaining the systems.

For full video of keynote address and details of PDC 2010, please check out to: www.microsoftpdc.com
Have fun!

Best Jobs 2010 - Still a Great Time To Be In IT?

An interesting question that may somehow inadvertenly emerge from graduates' or freshman's minds, "What is the best job in the world?" The latest list from CNNMoney.com "Best Jobs in America 2010" offers some encouraging news which seems to be sufficient to respond to this question. There are great nuggets throughout this article and as a whole - the write-up shares a vast amount of information. Here are some highlights I cited out for the IT field:

• Software Architect is listed as the Number One job for with a 10-year job growth forecast of 34%.
• Database Administrator is listed as Number Seven job with a 10-year job growth forecast of 20%.
• Of the Top 100 jobs, 27 were IT-related
• Of the top 25 jobs, 7 were in the IT field.
• A variety of IT-related job roles are present on the list - security, development, consultant, engineer and many more, including IT trainer at #79.

Far more interesting stories in the following, more to name few: List of Top Pay Jobs, List of Low Stress Jobs, List of Society-benefited Jobs and so forth.

Check it out! CNNMoney.com

Alright, Should I be pleased as choosing the IT as the head start of my career? Hmm..maybe yes, maybe not. Stay tuned. :)

The Day Is 10/10/10: What It Really Means?

I stumbled across an article about the the mysterious day of 10/10/10 when I was just leaving my fingers across a bunch of website this morning. I think it would be nice for you guys to take a look for it :)

It is being called a multitude of things: the Powers of Ten Day, Eames Day, 42 Day, etc. Some are just calling it 10/10/10 day, or Ten Ten Ten day. It's one of those calendar oddities that no one really know how to explain, but for some reason, we're all fascinated by it. It's probably because 10/10/10 will never happen again during the lifetime of any human alive to witness it today, and it definitely shows just how fixated we all are on numbers and strange patterns. For as much as the human race pretends not to care about "meaningless details," it seems that people sure care about numbers.

Eames Day has a huge amount of backstory. For one, people are being encouraged to watch the Powers of Ten, which is the Eames Office film. A YouTube video embed is below if you aren't familiar. According to Fastcodesign:

"Powers of Ten is arguably more relevant now than it was the year it was released. The simple idea executed in the film has become a powerful construct for thinking through design problems today. In it, Charles and Ray Eames guide us through a deceptively straightforward exercise -- zooming out to 10^24 and then back in to 10^-16 -- re-framing a simple scene by showing it within ever-larger and then smaller contexts.

If all the zooming in and out across the visual landscape seems vaguely familiar, think Google Earth. We've become very practiced with scaling in and out of satellite images of our earth, using those funny, awkward sliders on the edges of Web maps to peer in on our homes, our cities, and Area 51. But this mass application of Powers of Ten is not the reason we should celebrate the film today. Instead, we need to approach it conceptually, at the level of scale."

Of course, there's another reason for geeks to celebrate 10/10/10 day. In binary, 101010 converts to 42. If you've watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you'll know that it took a supercomputer millions of years to find the answer to life, which ends up being "42." In many ways, today is the perfect geek day. Reports have stated that thousands upon thousands of weddings were planned for today in hopes of this day bringing long-lasting luck to the couples involved. One particular wedding chapel in Las Vegas had to hire six extra Elvis impersonators to help with ceremonies.


But 10/10/10 day is going even beyond the geek crowd. The U.S. Green Building Council, San Diego Chapter (USGBC-SD) is partnering with 350.org, a non-profit environmental organization, to encourage San Diegans to take part in a global day of action to celebrate climate solutions and cut their carbon emissions this year by 10 percent on October 10, 2010 -- "10.10.10."

And that's not all. A sort of meaningful and interesting events or activites are helding on this day, Google it! By the way, so what are you doing to celebrate today? You've got 10 seconds to answer :)

Source: HotHardware.com

Fake iTunes Receipt

Are you guys holding an iTunes Account? Did you come across a 'weird' iTunes Receipt hit to your email box while you don't even purchase anything in iTunes Store? Whatever, here is a story about my dad who received a fake iTunes Receipt few days before.

My dad do have a iTunes Account. He didn't make any order in iTunes Store (He didn't even input his credit card number when he registered for the account). Strangely, he received a 'look-alike' official iTunes Order Receipt from 'do_not_reply@itunes.com' stated that he had successfully ordered 'Whatever You Like' (Sweat..==) which cost a total 834.99SGD.

Here is the screen shot:

Without any hesitation, my dad lodged an report about that issue to Apple SG and of course the Apple SG Customer Support simply brought us out from the puzzle afterwards.

Here is the reply from Apple SG:


The spam is getting to flood everywhere in the internet world. The mentioned story tells us that don't be anxious at first when come to this kind of matter. Validate it and ensure what was really going on, everything should be work out OK.

IBM High School Will Churn Out IT Pros

Earlier this week, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the City University of New York and IBM are creating a computer science-focused school in the city that spans from grade 9 to 14 (students leave with an associate's degree). The high school, which will be the first to go through grade 14, has a valuable guarantee for students: graduates will be first in line for jobs at IBM.

But graduating students will be equipped to do far more than work at Big Blue, says Stanley Litow, IBM's Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs. "The idea is to create a new [educational] model for science, technology, engineering, and math--areas where companies are aggressively hiring. If you look at hiring requirements, you won't see a huge amount of difference in a lot of entry-level IT jobs." So students will, theoretically, have the skills to work any entry-level IT position.

Students will be chosen to attend using the standard New York City lottery system--one third of selected students will be below grade level, one third will be at grade level, and one third will be above.

IBM will be directly involved in building the school's curriculum. Litow imagines that the company will bring employees into the classroom and offer mentorships for students and teachers, among other things. "The assumption is that we bring expertise to the table," he says.

Ultimately, IBM wants to use the materials developed at its New York City school in other locations--even in already-existing high schools and community colleges. "We would start with New York City, but will look towards developing materials in way that other school systems around the country could have access," Litow explains. Big Blue High: coming soon to a town near you.

Source: Fast Company

My Voice: It's really interesting to hear that one of the world most historical IT company dedicate itself into the education field to attract and cultivate more and more Greeks devote themselves into 'Binary World'. It merely the most simple and direct way to provide desperate youths who interested in the amazing computing world with the best study environment to dig into what they really love during the early age.