Digital Style at Bugis Junction

Somewhere there at Bugis Junction, there was the IT Shop at Level 3 called, Digital Style. You get the various Android devices, IT accessories and even the stuffs similar to other shops such as Best Denki, Challenger, etc. The recent discovery was regarding Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 in addition to the recently released Samsung smartphones and tablets. From the information I got, it appeared that Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 is compatible with more but specific Android devices compared to Galaxy Gear 1. It is likely to be the requirements of the Android OS version or something and not all Android devices are compatible with that smartwatch. Plus, that smartwatch is compatible with non-Samsung devices.
For Microsoft series of computer mice, some of the mice were like strange moves to me and I had also discovered the Logitech external Touch Pad which is similar to the one for Mac except the fact that it is used for Windows besides Mac. Then, there were some external monitors where you can buy at the gaming section and besides those, I might have seen some cool-ass gaming keyboards and mice. One of the gaming keyboards has the LED display but then, certain of which are not external gaming keyboards and they surely come with multiple cables. Plus, the external monitors were like separate from gaming desktop computers.
The last discovery regarded the Microsoft side, there are additional Surface accessories as well as Windows 8 Pro and Office 365 in multiple editions. Where in the hell is the Office 2k13 itself in multiple editions? There are some differences though, Office 365 Home Premium has more features compared to Home and Student Edition which is a joke and the Home Premium Edition is less expensive than that edition to buy from. Personal Edition is for 1 device per device type and it is the least expensive.

Enhancements on the new SharePoint done by Microsoft

Yesterday, they demonstrated at the conference the existing array of the new product enhancements in the new SharePoint and highlighted significant investments in social, cloud and mobile capabilities. The enhancements include the new Metro user experience where you can share documents inside or outside the organization with the single click, drag and drop content into document libraries, edit lists inline and create new sites easily.

Other enhancements are as follows:

• With the use of Skydrive Pro, you can store and sync documents across all the devices in the organization.
• For task management, you can organize your work with task lists and project timelines as well as to consolidate task management across SharePoint, Outlook and Project.
• You can customize and narrow your search for more relevant results and discover related people and documents with recommendations with the newly improved FAST Search.
• Using eDiscovery across SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and file shares, you can make the dynamic websites with cross-site publishing and enhanced Web content management. Improve scalability and performance with a new cloud architecture.

In addition, SharePoint 15 also introduces a new cloud app model for more than 700k developers building on it. This new cloud app model and a new Office store make it easier for developers to build, buy and deploy and manage applications using existing Web development skills. This can be done with the use of the new Visual Studio in which they can work with Napa tools for online development of Office 365 apps, include templates and designers to facilitate app development and support the LightSwitch HTML client for easy creation of data-centric business apps in SharePoint 15.

The last thing may include SharePoint mobile for Windows 8, Windows Phone, IOS and Android devices. All of these apps will work with both SharePoint 15 and Online.

Windows Server 8 Essentials available three days ago

Finally, the small business and home users are able to purchase this OS after the release. It was several days after Windows 8’s release but it may seem that to some other companies, the whole operating system was already a disaster for desktop users. Your best bet will be to get rid of the freaking Metro tiles and stick back to the desktop usage just like using Windows 7 but that bet is for laptop and desktop users.

• Built-in Disaster Recovery: Because Windows Home Server and SBS Server look kind of identical to each other, Windows Server 8 Essentials is a combination of two. This tool is useful for both business and homes where even home users can protect their home stuffs and work stuffs from disasters like fire, theft or flood. Using the cloud technology from Microsoft, its backup service helps keep data safe and secure even if one hardware should fail. In non-technical terms, you can prepare a series of paper-written documents just for disaster recovery preparation as if you’re preparing the data survival kits. For business, the redundancy is huge but for home users, will you make backups to, like other families or something?
• Consistent productivity: The connection should be easier around the network at home or at work in a small business company but by using the third-party start menu tool, you can save your ass even more like trying to use the powerful and centralized data storage and sharing features in the traditional desktop way.
• Cloud Solutions: Office 365 is one of the examples for home and business use for cloud technology but there are other solutions for your needs, with seamless integration and centralized administration.

In addition to the news about this release, there are other news about Windows Azure powering one of the games from Microsoft Games Studios as well as the reimagation of the other Windows and the expansion of Windows Server 8 to China. You can check out there at http://blogs.technet.com/b/stbnewsbytes/archive/2012/11/01/november-1-2012-news-thursday-windows-server-2012-essentials-generally-available-today-windows-azure-powers-halo-4-and-more-server-and-tools-news.aspx as this blog post is focused on the release of Windows Server 8 Essentials.

Office 15 reached RTM

They might have signed off on the RTM build of Office 15 but what about the performance of PowerPoint when there are so many advanced stuffs on the slides? You know, I tried out working on Zigg-Zagg PDA PPT Animation with PowerPoint 15 Beta but the whole thing is unstable that I decided to stick back to Office 2k10 version of PowerPoint to do the work. Thankfully, Office 15 is not shameful a lot compared to Windows 8 which is going to be a development catastrophe. Everything in Office 15 is Metro-ized and that means it’s completely clean and fluid but the same cannot go to Windows 8 in which we still see some some glassy stuffs and that’s not fluid enough. It’s more like getting technically worse if not, even more unstable no matter how simple things can look. At least, Windows Phone 7.5 is even more fluid than the original Windows Phone 7 as it still contains some elements which are not even fluid yet. However, only mobile version of Office 2k10 is NOT considered fluid like this perfectly so hopefully Windows Phone 8 should have the next version of Office Mobile but still, this is what a fluid product should be like.

With cloud technology, it looks like we’re entering the future with Office 15 and it may be the same with Skydrive as both Windows 8 Metro app and desktop app although there will be no signs of easier synchronization for Cloud Storage apps if you’re using a tablet as using the desktop app of Skydrive on tablets may be difficult to interact. Who knows if you can synchronize the local photos stored on the tablet to Skydrive which may mean synchronizing the photos that can be open in Photos app to Skydrive just like Camera Upload folder for Dropbox for smartphones. Camera Upload folder for Dropbox is somewhat a special folder for storing synchronized photos you take and that’s pretty brave and if Skydrive can do the same with Office documents and photos in special ways, that will be a good thing.

Office 15 will be planned to be released in general in the first quarter of next year. Starting October 19, customers purchasing Office 2k10 from local retailers or resellers will receive the new Office for free upon availability and speaking of next year’s release of Office 15, it sounds kind of bullshit though that Windows RT users will end up getting the prototype version of Office 15 for Windows RT. We can still use Office 2k10 in the meantime but for Windows RT users, this is in-excusable.

For business users, there will be roll-out of new capabilities to Office 365 Enterprise Customers in the next service update starting in November through general availability. Sure, Office 15 had recently reached RTM so the release may be kind of safe but even then, this is one month too late as if Windows RT business users will have to wait until a month to get the final version of Office for Windows RT. Volume Licensing customers will get the product on December 1st while the IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November.

Overall, the business users of Windows RT may be patient enough to wait but the same cannot go for other users of Windows RT as waiting for next year is insane. Perhaps the future is still not fluid like this.

Windows Server 8 Essentials reached RTM

Just like Windows Server 8 in other editions, the Essentials edition is a significant milestone in the developers’ efforts to cloud-enable small businesses and home offices. It is  designed to protect business data to allow highly secure access to information you need from virtually anywhere by using almost any device and to offer the flexibility to choose which applications and services you want to run on-premises and in the cloud and besides, it is made even easier before to run itself in a hosted environment. However, since the Essentials is likely to be a combination of Small Business and Home Server editions, I may believe that the target audience for this may be different. Mostly, the small business users may seem to be using it but for Home Server users, you can still take the opportunity to try provided that the add-ons and apps are for both types of users commonly and especially for the features.

The release date will be in November 1st after it had just reached RTM yesterday so in the meantime, you can try out the trial copy from the Evaluation Center and if you’re an MSDN or Technet Subscriber, you can download the Essentials edition from those sites as well. Now, here are the quick product highlights the developers may want to share:

• Enable a dynamic, modern work style with access from devices by using Remote Web Access and take advantage of Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices for a superior experience with rich modern “My Server” apps. Oh come on, how much factors do you need for Remote Web Access? I already have an external router that has the UPnP support which is good for media viewing but even then, there were still technical problems when trying out the prototype version of Windows Home Server 7 and Small Business Server 7. I don’t even know if this technical problem will occur in this as well.
• On-site backups with Windows Azure Online Backup for peace of mind enjoyment? Now this is where things are quite uncommon and small business users will have to learn about Windows Azure technology before using this online backup feature as I believe that Windows Azure is likely to be for business users and not home users. Your best bet will be to establish your home office somewhere in your home and then start working on whatever work you have from the company you work at. That’s how you can use this technology for personal backup as a business user. You can also utilize integrated support for the new Windows 8 File History feature and I don’t know if this is like Volume Shadow Copies or some sort.
• Oh, hosted service provider for email and collaboration option? This one again is for small business users but for users of both types, you can probably choose Office 365.
• Storage Spaces may be useful for both types of users and THIS is one common feature and it is also in Windows 8 as well as other editions of Windows Server 8. In case you need multiple storages for storing data, this one is for you.
• Line-of-business applications can be run that you depend on by leveraging the greatly improved application compatibility, with the logo certification for all Windows Server 8 editions. Man, this one is gonna be confusing unless there are like multiple logo certifications for all Windows Server 8 editions. Also, this product highlight may seem to be for small business users.
• If the needs of your small business grow, you can upgrade to Windows Server 8 Standard edition which gives you the standard features of Windows Server 8 in case you may want to use Windows Server 8 Standard edition for whatever purpose. You can also use the Standard edition for home use but I don’t know if you can install that on your home servers.

Windows Azure Services Beta for Windows Server

System Center series for the servers running Windows Server OSes may be useful for certain technical purposes such as clustering, websites, storages and other stuffs. Last week, there was some launch event in Southeast Asia for Windows Server 8 where people were quite interested in many of the new individual technologies. While this was so, there was a real sense that they also find the broader vision Microsoft has laid out highly compelling. In the future, the datacenter with servers will be in the cloud with Windows Azure and Windows Server 8.

Three months ago, the developers said that there will be over 200 cloud applications with some of the largest online services for the datacenters. Normally, you can use the Office 365, Hotmail and Bing if that’s the case for standard business. For gaming business, Xbox Live service may be included provided that the company has certain Xbox Live powered games. You can straight away install the new Windows Azure technology to the Windows Server OS which is currently in beta to provide high density Web Sites as well as Virtual Machine provisioning and management. They may be designed for easy incorporation into hosting service providers’ offerings for deployment to their broad customer base.

The first thing is the web sites in which hosting service providers can now deliver scalable, high density web site hosting solutions on Windows Server to help them lower costs and increase revenue and profitability. Delegated administration and features such as Reserved Instances allow tenant self-service and scaling while providing a smooth ramp from low cost offerings to premium services. Using the Web App Gallery, it can allow customers to quickly provision popular Microsoft and 3rd party web applications without the need to code everything. Can Web App Gallery save the asses from having to code the stuffs all over the place?

Virtual Machines on the other hand may require even higher system requirements so think twice if you may want to try the shit out of Windows Azure beta for Windows Server as we believe that this is for business and not personal use. Virtual Machine provisioning and management is a core part of the value proposition of the Microsoft Private Cloud offering for Enterprises, built on Windows Server 8 for example. Hosting service providers can now also use this technology to offer a high quality self-service experience for their customers to provision and manage virtual machines. With the use of the new Service Management API for integration of their customer portal, they can control System Center and Windows Server to make, operate and update virtual machines. I don’t know if certain companies will offer you the virtual machine to use but I guess that certain companies like Amazon may give you the opportunity to try out the similar technology stuffs but they are actually powered with Linux technology so it may be more complicated back then.

As part of the new two service offerings in Windows Azure, there is a new portal that has received rave reviews and has dramatically eased the manageability of the cloud services. The technology preview as of three months ago, there would be the same great experience for the developers’ own hosting service providers. The portal had been designed by them from the ground up with cloud services in mind and in bringing this portal technology to Windows Server that was updated to allow their partners to adapt it to various business needs. Some partner like GoDaddy.com demonstrated how easily they were able to rebrand the Service Management Portal and how quickly a customer could deploy and then scale a new WordPress blog site using the Web Sites capability. Man, I wish I can be one of such customers in any case as I already have my own WordPress Blog.

Other partners may include Parallels in which they showed how they replaced the Service Management Portal with their Parallels Automation System by integrating directly with the Service Management API and it seemed like they’re the third party company for this portal for sure.

Lastly, for enterprise customers, the right solution for a dynamic datacenter and private cloud environment is the combination of Windows Server and System Center. With this combination, you’ll find the capabilities needed to aggregate resources and delegate them with the organization to allow for self-service provisioning and management of your VMs and applications, whether in your datacenter if you will or through the Windows Azure subscription. Careful, I believe that Windows Azure subscription is costly so you may want System Center alone for the servers running Windows Server OSes in your datacenter if that’s the case while still trying out the new technology. Next year, there will be the Service Pack 1 release of the new System Center that will enable the customers to see and utilize capacity they’ve provisioned from service providers in the same way as they consume their own resources or those in Windows Azure.

In the beta version, the release is now feature complete but be reminded that these technologies are not something incremental that needs to be purchased by hosters. This is simply part of the broad solution you tap into when you deploy Windows Server 8 and the new System Center. Here are the following features you’ll find in the beta version of the bits:

• Service Management Portal and API
• Distributed Installation of the Service Management Portal and API as well as Web Sites controller separate from them
• Users are now able to sign up for multiple plans
• Web Sites
• HTTPS/SSL support for tenants that are now able to upload custom certificates and use them for programmatic access
• Distributed installation with High Availability and Live Upgrade
• Generic FastCGI and custom stack support
• Virtual Machines
• Customized way in creating VMs from VM Template with rich wizard experience
• Hardware profile for making VMs from the VHDs
• Tenants are now VMM Tenant Admins and utilize the new VMM on-behalf of features

So before you start, you need to have at least four virtual machines running Windows Server 2k8 R2 and above in addition to the new System Center on the VHD. Install .NET Framework 3.5 and 4 and all updates on these virtual machines. It may seem to be complicated but you can read the quick start guide or detailed step-by-step installation guide and like I have predicted, this is for business use.

Office 15 Preview - Let's Get Started!

Well, I already had Office 15 Customer Preview installed on my computer provided that I have my Windows Live Account. From the Office 15 Customer Preview official website, you can click on Sign Up button to get directed to the Office 365 Home Premium Customer Preview. You're allowed to install Office 15 Home Premium edition on up to 5 devices. Furthermore, you can access the Office documents on the cloud via SkyDrive technology. Also, you can click on one of the products under 'Explore the Office applications' where I think that you're still directed to Home Premium edition.
Below Home Premium edition part is the 'Services for Business' part. There, you can select ProPlus, Small Business Premium or Enterprise. Professional Plus is for IT Pros, Enterprise is for large enterprise business and Small Business as it suggests, is for small business companies. ProPlus Preview lets you create up to 25 users with 5 installations per user. So this kind of volume licensing method is under 'Per User' so one user can install Office 15 Preview on up to five devices which leaves 24 users remaining. Small Business Premium Preview and Enterprise Preview editions take the benefits of Office 365 Pro Plus edition that allow professional email, shared documents, and HD video conferencing but the Enterprise Preview has extra features like Exchange Online, including archiving and legal hold to fully manage your company's email in the cloud. The Enterprise Preview edition also includes SharePoint Online to manage, share and edit business documents and Lync Online to allow you to conduct meetings and collaborate across remote teams on the network technologically and your team members.
In addition to the new Office 365 split up into new editions and existing editions, there are newer versions of individual products that are separate parts of Microsoft Office such as SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, Office Web Apps Server, Project and Visio. For IT Pros, you can get the new version of SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, Lync Server, Project Professional, Visio Pro for 365 Preview and lastly, the Web Apps Server Preview.
Surprisingly enough, the Apps for Office and SharePoint service is at Developer Preview stage which is similar to when Windows 8 was in Developer Preview stage but it is likely to be for developers.