Microsoft admits IE vulnerability used in Google attack
Based on Microsoft's investigations the software giant has admitted Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted attacks against Google recently.
In a company blog posting Mike Reavey, Director of the Microsoft Security Response Center admits "based upon our investigations, we have determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted and sophisticated attacks against Google and possibly other corporate networks."
Microsoft has issued further guidance to companies in order to mitigate a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in Internet Explorer.
Google said, that in mid-December, they, along with a number of other large companies in the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors, were targeted in a sophisticated cyber-attack. This attack on their infrastructure originated in China, and resulted in the theft of intellectual property. Due to this attack, and the background behind it, Google is now taking a second look at their operations in China, particularly Google.cn, where they currently offer censored search results as part of an agreement with China's government. Google took the big step of informing the government of China that it is no longer willing to provide censored results, and will be entering into discussions regarding how it can do this without breaking Chinese law. Should Google find themselves unable to reach an agreement, they may shut down Google.cn, and close their offices in China.
Yahoo supported Google's announcements and said it would stand by the company. "We stand aligned that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as Internet pioneers must all oppose" said a Yahoo representative earlier this week.
China responded to Google's claims in a brief statement yesterday, stating "The Chinese government administers the Internet according to law and we have explicit stipulations over what content can be spread on the Internet." iDefense researchers at Verisign were able to trace the source of the control servers that distributed the malware which gained access to private customer and corporate Google data. Verisign's initial findings suggest the source of the servers consisted either of agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof.
HP and Microsoft announce three year IT deal
Microsoft and HP both announced a joint deal today that will see the software and hardware giants collaborate on future engineering road maps to eliminate the complexities of IT management.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, HP chairman and CEO Mark Hurd, held a joint teleconference call this morning to announce the agreement. According to Ballmer the agreement, that spans both hardware, software and services, "will transform the way large enterprises deliver services to their customers, and help smaller organizations adopt IT to grow their businesses." Microsoft and HP believe a combined effort will offer a lower total cost of ownership for business customers.
Microsoft is using the tag line "simplify technology environments for businesses of all sizes" to describe the new deal. In short it appears Microsoft and HP will share ideas and technologies based on Microsoft's Cloud infrastructure and virtualization efforts. The deal isn't cheap and 250 million incremental dollars will be invested into the initiative. The two companies will also partner on some support solutions and marketing campaigns. During the joint teleconference call Ballmer stated "we're able to build on our incredible 25 year partnership of the two companies put together to drive things forward."
Windows Mobile 7 delayed till 2011? Umm NO
On Sunday a seemingly unknown site, named Bright Side Of News, came out stating that Windows Mobile 7 was "definitely delayed to 2011".
If the original headline made you jump then join the club. It's sad that we're even covering this but when big named sites like PC World begin reporting this belief as "news" and Twitter spreads it as news then it's time to put some facts straight. BSN doesn't name any sources or why it believes Windows Mobile 7 is "definitely delayed to 2011". Instead it claims "We spoke with representatives from Microsoft, Lenovo, Qualcomm, TI, Nokia, nVidia, HTC and many more". The main two out of that bunch that would know if Windows Mobile 7 was delayed would be Microsoft and HTC and both aren't speaking about Windows Mobile 7.
At the consumer electronics show last week Neowin spoke to representatives from LG who confirmed they would be shipping devices with Windows Mobile 7 "this year". Does that sound like 2011 to you? In December 2009 Microsoft UK head of mobility Phil Moore confirmed that we won't be seeing Windows Mobile 7 phones on the market until late 2010.
Microsoft officials refuse to comment on Windows Mobile 7 in most cases but Robbie Bach, Entertainment and Devices Division, held an analysts call at CES last week and confirmed that the company will share details of Windows Mobile 7 next month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. "I've seen it and played with it," Bach said. He also believes that Windows Mobile 7 will "set the bar forward not in (just) an evolutionary way." From what we are hearing from insiders the company is ready to show off Windows Mobile 7 and will do so at Mobile World Congress. Microsoft's annual conference, Mix 2010 in March, will be the time for company officials to unveil developer features. We questioned Toshiba, Samsung and LG about their Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and 7 plans but all refused to answer the future of Windows Mobile in depth, presumably due to non-disclosure agreements with Microsoft. All of this evidence does not point to devices showing up until after February 2011.
Ban on Microsoft Word and Office sales begins today
Microsoft has been the center of a legal battle from a small patent owning company, i4i for many months for infringing on it's "Custom XML" patent which is included in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 and is part of Office 2007 suites. Recently, Microsoft lost the court battle against I4i, after stalling for a few months with an emergency motion and was ordered to take Word 2007 off the market by January 11th, 2010. In addition, Microsoft must also pay i4i damages of $290m.
Today, the 11th of January, marks the day that Word was to be off the market, but to the consumer nothing has changed. According to Microsoft, they have complied with the court's ruling and have released a 'revised version' of Microsoft Word and Office 2007 suites that does not have the 'Custom XML' technology.
The new version, which hits US stores today, has no visual differences and will not be discernable from the previous variant of Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft has also removed Office 2003 from MSDN and Technet earlier last week.
According to the BBC, Microsoft filed another appeal against the injunction on January 8, even though they have already challenged the ruling once before. The latest appeal has been filed because Microsoft believed the decision conflicted with "established precedents governing trial procedure and the determination of damages" according to Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs at Microsoft.
Microsoft: Google's Nexus One plan is "very, very difficult"
With the recent release of the Nexus One, some have been rather critical of Google. It's a company that licenses its mobile OS software to other companies, but has now introduced a competitor to those exact phones. Microsoft is one such criticizer, stating Google's scheme is very difficult.
In an interview posted on Business Week, Microsoft's head of mobile development, Robbie Bach, stated, "Google's announcement sends a signal where they're going to place their commitment. That will create some opportunities for us and we'll pursue them." He noted the fears that Google will prioritize its own phone over other vendors offering Android based devices, continuing with, "Doing both (selling the Nexus One whilst offering its software to others) in the way they are trying to do both is actually very, very difficult."
Bach isn't the only one with this frame of mind. An analyst at the research firm Interpret LLC, Michael Gartenberg, said, "No one has ever succeeded in selling their own device while trying to license to partners simultaneously. As much as Google can say it's not a Google phone, the phone says Google on it. They're going to have to convince their licensees they're not in competition with them." Whether or not you're a fan of Google, the pair make a rather good point; it's hard on partners when a company offers a product that directly competes with other products packing software developed by the very same company. Bach predicted that some companies may even give up using Android and switch to another operating system. Regardless, the coming months (and even years) will be very interesting and exciting ones for the mobile industry.
Microsoft admits that Bing is slow at indexing
Search Engine Roundtable brings to attention a very sad and disturbing fact about Microsoft Bing. It's slow at indexing sites. In the Bing Forums, prathaban1 posted the following:
"I have submitted my website, www.kidandparent.in, to the Webmaster Console, using a sitemap.xml almost 6 weeks ago. It is a new website with unique content and Bing calculates about 14 Backlinks to it. However, just the homepage has been indexed so far (with help from Brett). G and Y have indexed almost 400 and 200 pages respectively. Any pointers on what I can do to get indexed by Bing?"
Brett Yount, who is the Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, responded:
"It is well known in the industry that MSNbot is fairly slow. I suggest reading our FAQs stickied at the top of the indexing forum to get some ideas of what to do."
But wait, it gets better. Here's the sticky from the "sites not in the index" section of the Bing Forum:
"if your site is not in the index, please do the following:
1. verify in our tools that your site is not blocked
2. run a site: query to verify there are no pages in the index
3. Copy the URL of the site query and post on this thread.
I will work with you to at least get your home page indexed. Deeper indexing will require good content and backlinks as described in the FAQ."
I ask you to please read number 3 again. Yes, that's correct. If your site doesn't show up in Bing's index after submitting it through the site, you can post your website's address in the forum, and someone will manually add it into the index for you. How can Microsoft expect Bing to compete with Google if it can't even handle the simple task of indexing a page within an acceptable time frame? Microsoft says they are serious about conquering the world of search, but problems like this one tend to take search domination out of the equation. It would be a good idea for Microsoft to straighten this out instead of just openly admitting to its users that everyone knows they're slow.
50% Discount on Windows and Office upgrades
According to ZDNet, Microsoft really wants to push medium and small businesses to move away from Windows XP and older versions of Office. The "Up-to-Date Discount," as they call it, is available for the first year of the OVS (Open Value Subscription) licensing program and applies to customers using the Professional versions of Microsoft's software. OVS is a way for small and medium businesses to pay for their software licenses over time, instead of having to foot it all up front.
The new promotion available for the Up-To-Date Discount is called N-2 and allows users that are still using Windows and Office XP (which are two releases ago) to participate as well (assuming they sign up for an OVS plan). Previously, the program was only for N-1, meaning only the previous release of Windows and Office were part of the promotion. Businesses will be able to upgrade to Windows 7, as well as Office 2007, or may choose to get Office 2010, assuming they're willing to wait for its release.
Here are the details, straight from the Microsoft SMB Community Blog. Note that the 50% off is calculated based on estimated retail prices. The deal is available from January 1st through June 30th.
So who qualifies for this offer?
For Microsoft Office Professional Plus:
- Before the Office 2010 launch: Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, Office 2003 Professional, or Office XP Professional
- After the Office 2010 launch: Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 or Office 2003 Professional
For Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade: - Companies with OEM, Retail, or Volume licenses for Windows 7 Professional, Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional
What you get: - 50% off your 1st year OVS payment for Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade or Microsoft Office Professional for every qualifying N-1 or N-2 license you have.
- As an example, in the U.S., this means you would be paying $35.00 for a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and/or $91.00 for Office 2007 Professional Plus in year 1, plus receiving all of the Software Assurance benefits (such as an automatic upgrade to Office 2010 when it launches, Office Home Use Rights, and much more) for that price!
Imagine Cup 2010 – Go for Poland!
Calling students over the age of 16! Microsoft just announced the eighth annual Imagine Cup competition. Solve global problems and create innovative solutions with technology for the chance to win $36,000 in prize money. The winning team will also compete in the worldwide finals in Warsaw, Poland this July.
Students must register by February 1, 2010 to initially compete in the Spring Round 1 portion. Categories include Software Design, Game Design and Web Design.
"The Imagine Cup is a unique opportunity for students to help solve real-world problems while gaining experience outside the classroom," said Anthony Salcito, vice president for Worldwide Education at Microsoft. "Developing technology innovations, working in a team environment and understanding how to create a viable business plan are invaluable to students who want to successfully achieve careers in today's world."
From games that teach to applications re-creating the way healthcare is managed, technology and science go hand in hand to create global solutions. And today's youth can have a direct impact on the future. Competing in the Imagine Cup provides the opportunity for students to work as a team to combine creative thinking with technical knowledge.
To register or learn more about the Imagine Cup, visit 
Link: http://www.imaginecup.com . Students who sign up before the February 1, 2010 deadline may enter to win the "$10,000 Cash for Students" sweepstakes.
Bing vs. Google: Webmaster Tools - Part 2
In a previous article, I’ve started analyzing Microsoft’s new search engine Bing versus Google. However I didn’t focus on search results, but we focused on Webmaster tools offered by both Bing and Google.
In this article, I’m going to go on with analyzing Google Webmaster tools and summarize both Bing and Google webmaster tools as well.
Google Webmaster Tools
Home page includes messages that Google may send to webmasters to enhance their sites and a list of sites added by a webmaster.
Dashboard includes 4 sections for first 9 top search queries, crawl errors, external links that refer to my site and a list of sitemaps within site.
Sitemaps page shows available sitemaps for site with total URLs and indexed URLs as well. Page allow deletion and resubmission of the sitemaps and an option to download sitemaps list or data for all sites.
Crawler access page gives details about the robots.txt file within site and checks which options are disabled by the robots.txt file that prevents search engine crawlers see some pages.
Sitelinks are links to interior pages within the site. Google generates these links automatically based on site structure allows Google algorithms do this process.
Change of address is a cool tool that allows faster indexing of the new domain that site moved to and keeping old domain data as if domain was never changed.
Settings of Google Webmaster tools allow webmasters to check target users for a certain country, set preferred domain and set crawling rate either automatically or manually.
Top search queries displays information about each user search queries as for impressions and clickthrough. Clickthrough means user clicks on site links in these searches.
Links to your site page shows a list of links that lead to site.
Keywords page is one of the coolest tools in Google Webmaster tools, because Google bot not only index pages, but also it analyzes every word in the site and finds the most frequently used words within site that a webmaster can add in site meta tags to enhance search results.
Internal links are pages linked by other pages on site.
Subscriber stats are statistics about users who subscribed for site RSS feeds.
Crawl errors is a tools that gives complete details about errors found during site crawling. The cool is that this tool not only for web, but also for WAP access through mobile devices.
Crawl stats page shows graphs about pages crawled by day and kilobytes downloaded per day
The best of the tools is found in the last page I display in this analysis and it’s the HTML suggestion page. This tool finds issues within site while Google bot was crawling the site. These issues if they were well treated will lead to a better experience and performance to enhance site rank on Google search engine. Tool includes 3 sections as for: meta description, title tag and non indexable content with capability to download these issues and a date for last updates.
Summary
I’d never found any powerful Webmasters tool like Google Webmasters tools. I can consider it a perfect for any webmaster who doesn’t want to invest extra money for paid tools and the greatest investment to get their site on top ranks of Google search results.
Searching for Ahmed Mahdy’s site contents on Bing and Google
Now after displaying and analyzing features of Bing and Google Webmaster tools, I’ve made a real test about searching for site contents.
Searching: Ahmed Mahdy
Bing
As seen, after the sponsored sites, you can find 2 sites with title: [Ahmed Mahdy - “From Community. To Community”]. This was my old URL that was cancelled! And still yet indexed since the old Live Search!
My site –which you’re on now- is ranked 5th using my name as reference. No more results about it on Bing.
Google
As seen, Google ranks my site the second and third after an old indexed site before. First result of my site is for the root URL, second one for the items tagged with my name. Really cool!
Searching: Imagine Cup WWF
Bing
As seen, Bing never found any result for my site for a post has the text: Imagine Cup WWF.
Google
As seen, Google firstly ranks the highest priority sites in their list which include same search results “here MSDN Blogs in this case”, while my site rank taken place in third and fourth positions.
Overall Summary
Bing Webmaster Center is a very basic tool in comparison with Google Webmaster tools. Microsoft is still in need of a very long time to be able to create more professional tools for webmasters. Google would still the top of search engines for long years.
Bing is more likely to be Live search with a replacement for Live logo and URL. Bing search engine yet was designed for USA to let them make decisions, while Google doesn’t make any difference between any country.
If you’re not American citizen and would like to use Bing, so you’re so unlucky, since whole Microsoft web based services was only designed for USA: Bing, Live Translator, adCenter and more.
Microsoft should re-take another step to enhance Bing and its web better more. We might see those changes in the next few years. Hoping so…
Bing vs. Google: Webmaster Tools – Part 1
Since Microsoft announced the launch of its competitive decision maker search engine, all
news to show the powers of Bing versus its first competitor and world first search engine Google.
While all news and posts gave great analysis about both Bing and Google –as search engines, all news neglected the included tools for webmasters.
I was lucky because Bing was launched in late May while I moved this site to new server with new domain name, that gave me opportunity to start adding my site to both Google Webmasters and Bing Webmaster tools as well.
In a series of 2 articles, I’m going to make a complete analysis and analogy between Bing vs. Google Webmaster tools.
Bing Webmaster Center
Note: You might need to install Silverlight to display images
Images up show all different options in Bing Webmasters Center.
First image shows the site list that can be added per account and authentication method used by each site.
Second image shows the summary of chosen site as for last date site was crawled by Bing bots, number of indexed pages, domain score and same details for top 5 pages crawled.
Next image shows site profile as for sitemap address, verification method and webmaster e-mail.
For Crawl Issues page, any crawling issues are shown if found.
Backlinks gives details about sites that have links for your site with score of reference pages.
Outbound Links shows links in my site that refer to other sites.
Keywords is a very weak tool to manually search keywords on site.
Sitemaps are a method to inform Bing bots about site pages.
Summary
Since May 2009, Bing crawlers didn’t crawl but only the homepage of the site! That’s pretty much weak crawler bot. Last crawling process was taken 25 days until the date of writing this article. Regarding profile, it’s very simple and doesn’t allow more details.
In the next article, I’m going to give details about Google Webmaster Tools and summarize the topic as well. Follow up!
After An Amazing Imagine Cup – Silverlight 3 Launch!
Today, Microsoft announced the official launch of it’s cross-platform web plugin, Silverlight 3 as the natural successor of Silverlight 2 released about 1 year ago.
Download it now: http://www.silverlight.net/
What’s New in Silverlight 3?
Fully supported by Visual Studio and Expression Blend, highlights of new features and functionality of Silverlight 3 include: major media enhancements, out of browser support allowing Web applications to work on the desktop; significant graphics improvements including 3D graphics support, GPU acceleration and H.264 video support; and many features to improve RIA development productivity. Also, in order to fully integrate all the .NET developer tools, Visual Studio 2010 will support a fully editable and interactive designer for Silverlight. New features in Silverlight 3 include:
- Support for Higher Quality Video & Audio. With support for native H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming, full HD (720p+) playback, and an extensible decoder pipeline, Silverlight 3 brings rich, full-screen, stutter-free media experiences to the desktop. New and enhanced media features in Silverlight 3 include:
- Live and on-demand true HD (720p+) Smooth Streaming. IIS Media Services (formerly IIS Media Pack), an integrated HTTP media delivery platform, features Smooth Streaming which dynamically detects and seamlessly switches, in real time, the video quality of a media file delivered to Silverlight based on local bandwidth and CPU conditions.
- More format choice. In addition to native support for VC-1/WMA, Silverlight 3 now offers users native support for MPEG-4-based H.264/AAC Audio, enabling content distributors to deliver high-quality content to a wide variety of computers and devices.
- True HD playback in full-screen. Leveraging graphics processor unit (GPU) hardware acceleration, Silverlight experiences can now be delivered in true full-screen HD (720p+).
- Extensible media format support. With the new Raw AV pipeline, Silverlight can easily support a wide variety of third-party codecs. Audio and video can be decoded outside the runtime and rendered in Silverlight, extending format support beyond the native codecs.
- Industry leading content protection. Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady Content Protection enables protected in-browser experiences using AES encryption or Windows Media DRM.
- Empowering Richer Experiences. Silverlight 3 contains new 3D graphics, animation features, hardware accelerated effects and text improvements that enable designers and developers to create next generation Web visuals. Additional features include:
- Perspective 3D Graphics. Silverlight 3 allows developers and designers to apply content to a 3D plane. Users can rotate or scale live content in space without writing any additional code. Other effects include creating a queue in 3D and transitions.
- Pixel Shader effects. These software based effects include blur and drop shadow. In addition, you can also write your own effect. Effects can be applied to any graphical content. An example would be to make a button appear depressed on rollover you could use a drop shadow effect on the pressed visual state.
- Bitmap Caching. Silverlight 3 dramatically improves the rendering performance of applications by allowing users to cache vector content, text and controls into bitmaps. This feature is useful for background content and for content which needs to scale without making changes to its internal appearance.
- New Bitmap API. With Silverlight 3, developers can now write pixels to a bitmap. Thus, they can build a photo editor to do red eye correction, perform edits on scanned documents or create specials effects for cached bitmaps from elements on the screen.
- Themed application support. Developers can now theme applications by applying styles to their Silverlight 3 applications and changing them at runtime. Additionally, developers can cascade styles by basing them on each other.
- Animation Effects. Silverlight 3 provides new effects such as spring and bounce. These make animation more natural. Developers can also now develop their own mathematical functions to describe an animation.
- Enhanced control skinning. Silverlight 3 provides easier skinning capabilities by keeping a common set of controls external from an application. This allows the sharing of styles and control skins between different applications.
- Improved text rendering & font support. Silverlight 3 allows far more efficient rendering and rapid animation of text. Applications also load faster by enabling the use of local fonts.
- Improving Rich Internet Application Productivity. New features include:
- 60+ controls with source code : Silverlight 3 is packed with over 60 high-quality, fully skinnable and customizable out-of-the-box controls such as charting and media, new layout containers such as dock and viewbox, and controls such as autocomplete, treeview and datagrid. The controls come with nine professional designed themes and the source code can be modified/recompiled or utilized as-is. Other additions include multiple selection in listbox controls, file save dialog making it easier to write files, and support for multiple page applications with navigation.
- Deep Linking. Silverlight 3 includes support for deep linking, which enables bookmarking a page within a RIA.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Silverlight 3 enables users to solve the SEO-related challenges posed by RIAs. By utilizing business objects on the server, together with ASP.NET controls and site maps, users can automatically mirror database-driven RIA content into HTML that is easily indexed by the leading search engines.
- Enhanced Data Support Silverlight 3 delivers:
- Element to Element binding : UI designers use binding between two UI properties to create compelling UI experiences. Silverlight now enables property binding to CLR objects and other UI components via XAML, for instance binding a slider value to the volume control of a media player.
- Data Forms. The Data Form control provides support for layout of fields, validation, updating and paging through data.
- New features for data validation which automatically catch incorrect input and warn the user with built-in validation controls.
- Support for business objects on both client and server with n-Tier data support. Easily load, sort, filter and page data with added support for working with data. Includes a new built-in CollectionView to perform a set of complex operations against server side data. A new set of .NET RIA services supports these features on the server.
- Improved performance, through:
- Application library caching, which reduces the size of applications by caching framework on the client in order to improve rendering performance.
- Enhanced Deep Zoom, allows users to fluidly navigate through larger image collections by zooming.
- Binary XML allows communication with the server to be compressed, greatly increasing the speed at which data can be exchanged.
- Local Connection This feature allows communication between two Silverlight applications on the client-side without incurring a server roundtrip: for instance a chart in one control can communicate with a datagrid in another.
- Advanced Accessibility Features. Silverlight 3 is the first browser plug-in to provide access to all system colors, allowing partially-sighted people to make changes such as high contrast color schemes for ease of readability by using familiar operating system controls.
- Out of Browser Capabilities. The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not—a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience. Features include:
- Life outside the browser. Silverlight applications can now be installed to and run from the desktop as lightweight web companions. Thus, users can take their favorite Web applications with them, regardless of whether they are connected to the Internet or not.
- Desktop shortcuts and start menu support. Silverlight applications can be stored on any PC or Mac computer’s desktop with links in the start menu and applications folder, and so are available with one-click access.
- Safe and secure. Leveraging the security features of the .NET Framework, Silverlight applications run inside a secure sandbox with persistent isolated storage. These applications have most of the same security restrictions as traditional web apps and so can be trusted without security warnings or prompts, minimizing user interruptions.
- Smooth installation. Because Silverlight applications are stored in a local cache and do not require extra privileges to run, the installation process is quick and efficient.
- Auto-update. Upon launch, Silverlight applications can check for new versions on the server, and automatically update if one is found.
- Internet connectivity detection. Silverlight applications can now detect whether they have Internet connectivity and can react intelligently including caching a users’ data until their connection is restored.
New Features in Expression Blend 3: The designer-developer workflow took another major step forward today with major innovations in Expression Blend 3 including: SketchFlow, a rapid prototyping capability that makes it easy to communicate design intent to stakeholders; design time sample data that enables the design and testing of applications without access to live data; direct import of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files; behaviors, extensible and reusable components that add interactivity to applications without writing code; a full code editor supporting C#, VB and XAML; and many more features that support an improved design and development experience. Features include:
- SketchFlow. SketchFlow introduces a new set of features designed to make it easier for you to experiment with dynamic user experiences and create compelling prototypes. SketchFlow also helps communicate design ideas to other stakeholders, and makes it easier to collect in-context annotated feedback. SketchFlow enables the navigation and composition of an application to be modeled in a very visual manner from a simple prototype that uses a series of sketches, to something much more evolved. A prototype can be made as real and interactive as it needs to be to communicate design intent and SketchFlow can leverage all the existing features of Expression Blend.
- Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator import. The powerful importers for both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator enable smooth integration with workflows the designer already has in place. The designer has freedom to view and import Photoshop files layer by layer. Layers can be easily regrouped and elements retain their original formats; layers, layer positions, editable text and vectors remain available for editing within Expression Blend.
- Behaviors. Add interactivity to your application, without having to write code. Behaviors can encapsulate complex design interactions into reusable components which can be directly applied to a user interface element in the application. Developers have access to a rich API that they can use to write their own triggers, actions, and behaviors for use in their Silverlight and WPF projects.
- Sample data. Design time sample data makes it easy to build data-connected applications without access to live data. You can generate sample data or import sample data from an XML file and is available to controls on the artboard at design-time. You can extensively customize your sample data details, and you can easily switch between using sample data and using live data at run-time.
- Improved design and development experience. Expression Blend 3 includes many features that improve the overall design experience including a brand new design surface making Blend more accessible to visual designers. Team Foundation Server support allows easier integration of the Blend user into Team System. Improved animation and easing functions, 3D transforms, visual effects and an improved visual state manager enable a great tooling experience.
Imagine Cup WWF - Day 3 Preparation: Snapshots Behind The Scenes
It’s now almost 1 AM, unlike public press to take snapshots of the general events, I decided to take some snapshots of what’s going behind the scenes, maybe due to my position with team captains, competition admin crews…
Now I’ll leave you with photo snapshots taken around the day from different places.
Click View Full Album to view! Enjoy!
Imagine Cup Pre-Launch: Warming Up with Fun!
MSPs Suite – Snapshots from everywhere!
MSPs & Volunteers: Work, Rest, Fun!
Some snapshots of Ahmed Mahdy “That’s me!”
Imagine Cup WWF Preparations: Warming up!
Today, almost all Microsoft staff arrived the hotel for the Imagine Cup WWF. Registration just started officially an hour ago, everything is working very smoothly. I met Leandro, the Global MSP manager and I met up very brilliant and cool Microsoft guys.
Outside the admin crew, I’ve took those pictures while some of MSPs, volunteers and Matt, the Imagine Cup internet guy were warming up with this cool soccer game.
Follow up more!
Exclusive – IC WWF, Meeting with Microsoft Executives
I feel so happy because 2 of Microsoft executives are going to make a session in the living room associated with the suite I’m staying in tomorrow within few hours from that moment I’m writing this post.
I’ve added some snapshots for the living room that is now a session room! Hope you like it!
More will followed tomorrow!
Exclusive – IC WWF, Meeting with Microsoft Executives
I feel so happy because 2 of Microsoft executives are going to make a session in the living room associated with the suite I’m staying in tomorrow within few hours from that moment I’m writing this post.
I’ve added some snapshots for the living room that is now a session room! Hope you like it!
More will followed tomorrow!