From the outside looking in on the so-called “trial of the century” – and bearing in mind that it’s only maybe halfway through – but Samsung looks royally screwed. It should have paid more attention when Google told it in 2010 that its tablets looked too much like iPads and should be made “noticeably different.” Apple’s got the Samsung e-mail saying so. It’s also got top designers’ formal evaluations telling Samsung the same thing about its phones. And better yet it’s got a seemingly damning 132-page “Relative Evaluation Report” – that Apple got admitted into evidence Tuesday over Samsung’s strenuous objections – showing the Korean company’s product engineering team dissecting every element of the iPhone in 2010 from packaging design to physical appearance to user interface to operating system architecture to browser, home screen and built-in apps and comparing it side-by-side with their original Galaxy S.
Network management is important to cloud computing success. Software defined networks and data center fabrics all help in helping manage cloud initiatives better. Acquisitions in the cloud computing space have been picking up recently as technology companies look to offer end-to-end solutions. It also shows that for large companies, innovation through acquisition is becoming more popular as a way to adapt to changing technology trends. Cloud acquisitions typically fall into the Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category. Oracle has been a voracious cloud acquirer with a number of SaaS acquisitions like RightNow, Taleo and Vitrue. SAP has also been adding to their SaaS portfolio with purchases of Ariba and SuccessFactors. IBM, which typically claims that it is not in the “application” space, has been adding to its SaaS portfolio with business analytics solutions like DemandTec and Emptoris. SaaS solutions are a great way to open cloud markets to large technology companies as the subscription model allows a low entry point for new customers.
Some testers dismiss the GUI driven approach as being too limited for complicated behaviors. Old school testers insist on only utilizing program-based scripts because past experience has led them to think that this is the most flexible or the only choice for handling complicated behaviors. All too often, the perception is that GUI driven scripts limit the level of customizations possible to emulate a real user. This opinion is likely based on experiences with rudimentary GUI tools on the market that are too basic and limited in their capabilities such as handling dynamic content and varying the transactions flows. However, there is a new breed in load testing solutions, designed and built to handle the most complex advanced scenarios. These are true enterprise-class solutions which provide a hybrid approach by containing both GUI and programming features. The power behind this hybrid approach enables the user to emulate even the most complex behavior but it also includes time saving features which can only be offered by a GUI solution.
This tutorial series walks you through the simple steps of building an HTML5 WebSocket app, demonstrating the power of the publish/subscribe development pattern directly in JavaScript. Our sample is almost as simple as a Chat app, the “Hello World” app of the WebSocket world, but is a tad more visual and dynamic. After trying out the completed application, you can either jump in the code and play with it right away, or move on to Part 2 (coming soon) of this tutorial for a step-by-step guide. About the Environment This tutorial requires a WebSocket server. We will use http://tutorial.kaazing.com, which hosts the JMS Edition of Kaazing WebSocket Gateway, Kaazing’s high-performance enterprise-grade WebSocket Server. All you’ll need to do is create a WebSocket connection to this server directly from your browser and start “talking” (read: send messages) to it from your browser. On the client side, you can use any modern browser, supported by JSFiddle (learn more about JSFiddle).
In an odd turn of events, Oracle and Google have been ordered to disclose the names of any journalists, commentators and bloggers they paid to influence public opinion on the high-profile Android Java trial that Oracle wound up losing. District Court Judge William Alsup, who presided over Oracle’s patent and copyright suit against Google, wrote in his one-page order Tuesday that: “The Court is concerned that the parties and/or counsel herein may have retained or paid print or Internet authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have and/or may publish comments on the issues in this case. Although proceedings in this matter are almost over, they are not fully over yet and, in any event, the disclosure required by this order would be of use on appeal or on any remand to make clear whether any treatise, article, commentary or analysis on the issues posed by this case are possibly influenced by financial relationships to the parties or counsel. Therefore, each side and its counsel shall file a statement herein clear identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in this case and who have received money (other than normal subscription fees) from the party or its counsel during the pendency of this action.”
BMC just bought Varalogix, a two-year-old self-funded start-up and near neighbor located in Austin, Texas, where BMC has acquired a couple of other DevOps companies in the last couple of years that mesh with its latest prize. Varalogix and its purpose-built VaraLogix Q widgetry does automated application deployment and configuration management for Java and .NET applications and just about everything they might need (think plug-ins) ‘cause it’s got “application awareness” ensuring that the app’s dependencies are covered.
Apple has increased the amount of money it thinks Samsung owes it in damages for allegedly ripping off its iPhone and iPad widgetry. It’s gone from the $2.5 billion calculation of a week ago to $2.88 billion. Some 28 Samsung devices are accused of infringement. Its original Galaxy S smartphone is the biggest offender. Only about $80 million derives from Samsung’s tablets.
Apple is in talks to acquire Pinterest rival, The Fancy, according to Business Insider. The fast-growing social e-commerce site is backed by Twitter creator and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. The 20-man start-up calls itself “part store, blog, magazine, and wishlist” and actually has things for sale. Business Insider says it is “much farther along in linking its users to transactions” than Pinterest and takes 10% of any purchases. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who’s not the type, started using the site after meeting its CEO Joe Einhorn at the Allen & Co Sun Valley conference earlier this year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also taken a fancy to it, so to speak. The Fancy raised $10 million on a reported $100 million valuation last fall on top of the $8.7 million it previously got.
A slip by Samsung’s lawyer gave Apple the chance to introduce evidence into the patent infringement trial in San Francisco that Samsung wanted suppressed, evidence culled from Samsung’s own documents that Apple hinted it had before the trial began last week. According to an internal e-mail by JK Shin, Samsung’s head of mobile communications, the advent of the iPhone in 2007 created a “crisis in design” for the Korean company. “Influential figures outside the company come across the iPhone, and they point out that ‘Samsung is dozing off.’ All this time we’ve been paying all our attention to Nokia, and concentrated our efforts on things like Folder, Bar, Slide,” Shin wrote. “Yet when our UX [user experience] is compared to the unexpected competitor Apple’s iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth. It’s a crisis of design.”
As systems administrators, application logs are often the key to our success, but also our biggest hassle. They provide clues to what’s going on when things go awry, and in those situations more detail is generally better. But when you don’t actually know something is wrong, and just want to get a sense for whether things are normal, more detail can create so much noise that it’s all but impossible to glean any useful information. In those situations, you’d rather just have statistical information about what’s in your logs. In this article, I present a simple and easy solution to turn your logs into useful graphs, in real time. If you ever need to measure the volume of your logs, or perhaps graph the frequency of certain log events, then read on.
Apple’s beef with Google and Android has pushed it to drop YouTube in the test versions of iOS 6 for iPhone and iPad due out this fall. Apple released a statement Monday saying that “our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended; customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the app store.”
Oracle has managed to squeeze a few more bucks out of SAP for its admitted copyright infringement a few years ago. Oracle won a handsome $1.3 billion from a jury in 2010, but the judge thought that was over the top and cut it down to $272 million. Instead Oracle opted for a new trial, which was scheduled to start August 27. However, last Thursday – “to save the time and expense of this new trial” – the pair came to a settlement agreement that guarantees Oracle $306 million in damages plus attorneys’ fees or at least $426 million while it goes off and appeals to try to get the whole $1.3 billion. The deal would have to be approved by the federal judge who cut the award. SAP doesn’t have to pay anything until after all appeals or new trials are over. If Oracle ultimately wins less than $306 million, SAP is supposed to make up the difference.
Apple just got in touch with us regarding the removal of the YouTube app in the latest beta of iOS 6, and while it wouldn’t say much, it did confirm the obvious: it’s not there for a reason. The licensing deal it had with Google “has ended, but users can still use YouTube via the Safari web app.” The company did affirm, however, that Google “is working” on another version — presumably a standalone app that’ll have to survive the same App Store approval process as Google Drive, Gmail for iOS and the rest of the bunch.
Java architect certification training lab is an interactive learning and assessment material for OCMJEA (formerly SCEA) certification, developed and published by EPractize Labs. The exam kit provides enough study notes and practice questions with brief explanations for the certification preparation. This Training Lab is bundled with set of mock exam questions and review slides to gear up self preparation. It is developed by experienced Java experts with review tips, real-world program examples, and challenging practice exams that systematically prepare you for the actual exam.
As part of its bankruptcy proceedings, Eastman Kodak has put 1,100 patents on the block. They are expected to be sold at auction on August 8. There was reportedly a Monday deadline for initial bids according to what “people familiar with the matter” told the Wall Street Journal. Apple, teamed with Microsoft and Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures, and Google in company with RPX, Samsung, LG and HTC are believed to be after them for protection. Apple and Google were on opposite sides in the great Nortel patent auction last year and Apple and Microsoft et al walked off with the IP for $4.5 billion, a victory the inflated the expectations of patent holders everywhere.
Microsoft’s ARM-based Surface tablet will be out October 26, the same day Windows 8 hits the market according to what Microsoft told the SEC in its 10-K filing. Cnet noticed it over the weekend and remembered that Microsoft has said the widgets would be priced “competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC.” So say maybe around $500. The dingus will also bundle an RT-based version of Office. The pricier Intel Ivy Bridge-based Surface Pro is expected 90 days later and could cost $1,000.
Microsoft has reworked its browser-based Hotmail into a free, socialized, Facebook-friendly service it’s calling Outlook.com, borrowing the name from its Office e-mail client. The idea is to stop Google’s Gmail from eating into its turf. With 324 million users Hotmail is the largest online e-mail service on the planet. It has an estimated 36% of the global market to Gmail’s quickly advancing 32%. Yahoo Mail also has 32%. After eight years of neglect, Hotmail has been given a simple Metro-like UI and an uncluttered Googlesque look that’s tailored to small devices as well as PCs and Macs.
Despite its reported immaturity, Rackspace has gone production with the Essex version of OpenStack, making it the first large-scale public cloud deployment of the fabled open source platform. It’s positioning Open Cloud as freeing users from vendor lock-in, a taunt directed at Amazon, Google and Microsoft whose customers it expects to run off. Other OpenStack clouds should follow quickly, say, from HP, Dell and Intel, and since they’ll be look-a-likes users able to flit from one to another. To get the roll-out started Rackspace is offering public, private and hybrid hosting solutions and says there’s unlimited availability of Cloud Databases and both Linux and Windows Cloud Servers on OpenStack. Some mojo called RackConnect will integrate public and private clouds.
As observed in my earlier articles, the Java EE PaaS portfolio is gaining in strength each day, with support from major players such as IBM, Oracle, VMWare, Redhat , Google and Amazon. However unlike the Microsoft > .NET Framework > Azure PaaS equation where there is just one version of the framework from one vendor, the openness of Java EE led to several implementations of application server-specific implementations. As Java EE standards define a core set of API, frame works and features as part of its implementation, an application server is the container that executes these instructions and provides a development and runtime platform for Java EE applications.
If Apple gets its way it’ll win its high-profile patent infringement case against Samsung in San Francisco without there being much of a trial. They’ll go directly to the damages. It wants Samsung punished for attempting to influence a seated jury with a ruling from the bench that “Apple’s asserted phone-design patent claims are valid and infringed by Samsung.” “At a minimum,” it says “the Court should (i) instruct the jury that Samsung engaged in serious misconduct and that, as a result, the Court has made a finding that Samsung copied the asserted designs and features from Apple products; and (ii) preclude Samsung from further mentioning or proffering any evidence regarding the ‘Sony design exercise’ for any purpose.
On Thursday, Sharp’s new president, Takashi Okuda, said that his company will begin shipping iPhone displays starting this month, according to a report from Reuters. Okuda made the statement at a press event following the release of Sharp’s quarterly earnings report. Sharp’s president didn’t make note of the display’s size, but Reuters reports that the screens are destined for the next version of the iPhone. “People are expecting a new iteration of the iPhone to hit the market sometime in the September-October time frame, so this kind of comment fits in to what we’ve been hearing in the market, generally,” IHS analyst Vinita Jakhanwal told Wired.
If you look over at TechCrunch today, they have an interesting article on how the largest carrier in Russia is fighting with Apple to get a reasonably priced iPhone for their market. Current smartphone penetration in Russia is only estimated at 15%; however, that number is expected to jump to 60% by 2014. According to the TechCrunch article, the VP of strategy and corporate development of OAOMobile TeleSystems (MTS), Michael Hecker, believes a price reduction would help Apple take advantage of the huge vacuum of smartphones in emerging markets. iPhones can cost up to $1000 in the Russian market, a completely ridiculous price. The argument from Tim Cook, Apple CEO is that, he: ”firmly believe[s] that people in the emerging markets want great products like they do in developed markets. The goal is to make the very best product, and that’s more important and overshadows all other things.”
So far this year, I have been on a few travels and presented to many hundreds of people interested in Mobile in the Enterprise and what SAP are doing to make the development and deployment of Enterprise Mobile Apps easier. On one trip to Slovenia I became my alter-ego of the Mobile President to address the 380+ strong attendees on the "State of The Mobile Union" in the building that Slovenia built, when they became the head of the EU for a while. I covered a number of subjects during the 40 minutes presentation which you may find interesting and the whole presentation was filmed by SAP Slovenia and is available for your viewing pleasure at ...
The Industrial Revolution began about 250 years ago and machines started to take over for human labor in factories, fields, and mines. It is true that this lead to major economic growth, but machines still replaced the average worker who could not get another job or find a new skill to learn, which hurt many people. The similarity of the situation QA testing finds itself in currently is uncanny. QA was the big savior during the big internet boom - when budgets were virtually unlimited and software was being produced at an exponential rate. However, as the economy bottomed out, budgets deflated, Agile development became more widespread, and software continued soaring, automated testing began taking over. Just as manual labor became more obsolete over time due to the Industrial Revolution, manual QA testing finds itself faced with the same predicament. Let's take a step back and examine how things used to work. Waterfall has always been the method of choice for most software development teams since the 1950's. This methodology allowed for developers to design everything upfront, then focus on their code, pass it on to QA for testing, and get it back with bugs to fix. Over time, systems are upgraded, development methods get better and faster, and we find ourselves producing so much software at such a fast rate, that we need more testers. More testers were hired and developers just got lazier knowing that QA will be there to catch their mistakes.
To recap quickly, in the first article we discussed the fact that 2012 is THE year for apps and how those who put on their ‘Appreneur’ hats on & take action will find success. Then in the second article, we talked about a theory that we referred to as 3D Internet that follows what we call ‘the deep then wide method;’ through mobile apps, mobile devices are taking Google’s ‘wide then deep method’ of “searching” and flipping it! Apps allow for us to go deep and straight to the source and then go wide to find even more valuable content! In the last article, we talked about one of the hottest topics in business right now and that’s behavioral analytics a.k.a the main reason Facebook acquired Instagram.