Software, Team and Strategy

Apple Love - Wallpaper , a photo by Ben Adamson on Flickr.

Reblogging: http://www.docusign.com/blog/2011/06/23/the-easiest-way-to-get-going-with-docusign-api-with-java/

I saw the UI updates from SkyDrive team a few days ago.  It reminded me that I had a SkyDrive account.   I actually used SkyDrive for a couple of years.  It was really never my go-to solution for sharing.  It didn't have desktop tools. Supporting Mac was an afterthought and in general there was nothing special about it.  In comparison Box.net had great plugins and corporate sharing.  DropBox had a great folder that I could use, but SkyDrive has been kinda neither here nor there. SkyDrive was also very confusing with Live Mesh and its still competes in a way with Windows Live Sync. In my test of Windows Phone 7 it was nice to see that you could upload photos to SkyDrive automatically, but again it wasn't really enough for me to say: "wow, I really should move my photos to SkyDrive" There is one place in my house where I would really LOVE photos off SkyDrive and that is on my XBox. I've been one of those cord cutters who uses Comcast purely for internet no

Last week I was able to get my hands on one of the Windows Phone devices - Samsung Focus.  I have been an iPhone user from iPhone 1 and prior to that I used to use Windows Mobile devices for years.  Even though there are abundant reviews of both devices I felt like I should create a review of my own. For those of you who do not want to read through the whole post I'd like to say: iPhone 4 is still the best smartphone I have ever used.  Samsung Focus is not terrible, but there are a lot of little things missing and after an accumulation of all the little things you end up with a strong desire to switch back. I wanted to construct this post not as a way of knocking on the WP7, but rather as a roadmap for the evolution of the device and the OS.  First the good things about the WP7: 1) Windows Phone 7 OS got the GUI right.  It's a pleasure to use and it works well on a mobile device. 2) Integration with Facebook is a great.  I love the linking of contacts and updating of informa

mikebz's photostream on Flickr.

The big news this week was the unveiling of Windows 8. There is plenty of coverage of features and the video that shows the new GUI. Here is coverage from the site that I use for my hardware news: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/microsoft-unveils-windows-8-tablet-prototypes/ Here is my take on Windows 8: The new GUI is fantastic and is borrowing heavily from the great work that was put in place by Windows Phone 7 team. I like that interface because it's elegant, minimalistic and it actually doesn't require heavy 3rd resources so that those can be used for processes that actually need them. I also love the fact that OS supports HTML5 and JavaScript. I think Microsoft finally learned from WPF and other proprietary frameworks - people don't like them. HTML and JavaScript are adopted by millions of developers and it is going to be an easy adoption curve. What I don't like is that the new GUI seems like it just sits on top of the old desktop. I suppose it mak