Google is bringing the app store concept to business cloud computing, giving software developers a storefront for Google Apps customers.

The Google Apps Marketplace will allow Google Apps users to purchase third-party applications to run atop the Google Apps suite, said Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering for Google. Developers will have to pay a one-time $100 fee to list their applications in the store, and Google will get a 20 percent cut of all applications sold through the store, he said.

Google’s interest in such a store was first revealed last month by The Wall Street Journal. The idea is that although Google has an army of capable software developers, it can’t hope to anticipate the needs of every single Google Apps users. Third-party developers can fill those gaps and make Google Apps more useful to businesses with unique needs that don’t quite fit into the Google Apps suite.

Take payroll, for example. Google isn’t in the enterprise-resource planning software market (yet), but Intuit is, said Martin Gates, chief technology officer for online payroll at Intuit. He demonstrated how Google Apps users can integrate an Intuit-developed Web-based payroll application that’s linked with Google Apps, allowing employees to download their pay stubs simply by clicking on an icon in their Google Calendars.

Scott Farquhar, CEO of software tools company Atlassian, showed how Google Apps can be integrated directly into his company’s software development tools. For example, software developers using Atlassian’s project-management tools can have Gmail, Google Calendar, and Gchat applications integrated directly into the software development tool, so they don’t have to leave that window to check their e-mail or chat with colleagues.

source:- http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10466485-265.html

What will HP’s Slate Tablet have that Apple’s iPad won’t? It’s Adobe Flash, a key Internet technology that HP is touting as the key difference between the two platforms. And, HP is right, though how Flash support will translate into sales remains to be seen.

While Apple has its App Store to provide applications for iPad users and iTunes for content, Flash gives HP users access to Web content and apps that iPad users can only dream of. Adobe’s AIR provides a framework for developing applications for the HP Slate tablet and other devices that iPad also will not support.

HP has posted two new videos that use Flash and AIR support to take aim at the iPad ahead of its April 3 release.

The videos, demonstrating HP’s likewise forthcoming (but not-as-soon) tablet, show how the Slate “will access the full web, and just a part of it,” according to Adobe’s Alan Tam, who does a four-minute demonstration of Adobe Flash and AIR running on the Slate in one of the videos.

HP introduced the Windows 7-based Slate in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, but has not announced a ship date besides “mid-2010.” The device, to be priced “below $500″ was considered underwhelming at the time of its introduction.

Support for Adobe technology and the use of Windows 7 are key differentiators between the HP Slate and Apple’s iPad, which runs a tablet-optimized version of the iPhone operating system. The Slate and other Windows 7 devices support Adobe Flash and AIR, Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, do not.

HP’s Adobe support is generally considered a win, while its use of Windows 7 has proven controversial among those who believe a general purpose operating system is not the best choice for a tablet.

Both videos were posted Monday to HP’s Voodoo blog.

Tam’s Slate demonstration shows Flash streaming video running from within a Web site, without the use of an external player; casual Flash-based games; and Photoshop.com web-based photo editing.

He also demonstrated Adobe Air, which allows Adobe Flash applications to run outside of the browser. These included Pandora, a popular music service, and the New York Times Company’s e-reader application, which also offers the paper’s interactive crossword puzzles.

Apple’s lack of Flash support on its iPhone, iPod, and now iPad devices, is controversial. It also dramatically limits their browsing options. Tam said that of the top 100 Web sites, as ranked by Alexa, 85 percent use Flash content. Three-quarters of Web video exists in Flash, Tam added.

“With this slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand. No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices,” wrote Phil McKinney, VP and CTO of HP’s Personal Systems Group. “We just posted a quick video showing some more of what that’s like as well as how the slate device will work as an eBook reader. Enjoy the short clip (and the techno soundtrack).”

Quick only in the sense of its running time, the first video is a 30-second produced television commercial–complete with the de rigueur techno music–that shows the Slate in action. The second video, Tam’s demonstration, is only a tad less slick, but runs more than five minutes in length.

My take: As an iPhone user, I’d never really thought much about what the lack of Adobe Flash support meant to me. On a smartphone, Flash would be nice, but Apple provides a very decent user experience without it. If I used the iPhone for more Web browsing, I am sure the lack of Flash would be more apparent.

As for the Slate being a disappointment at CES, I think that was only in the shadow of the iPad hypestorm. Now that we have a better idea of what the iPad is–and isn’t–the Slate looks better in comparison.

Seeing Alan Tam’s demonstration of Flash and AIR on the Slate made me rethink any plans I might have had about purchasing an iPad. It also made me think that in the tradition of the iPhone, the iPad will be aimed primarily at an Apple-provided (and controlled) media experience.

The HP Slate, true to its Windows roots, will be more about generalized Web browsing, including Flash, and running Windows 7 tablet apps. While I love my iPhone, I found Tam’s demo much more compelling than what Apple has shown of the iPad thus far.

It may be that the iPhone experience will have trouble scaling up to user expectations of a larger-screen device. Windows 7, meanwhile, may have trouble appearing to be truly optimized for a tablet. While both the HP Slate and Apple iPad will offer much the same functionality, the user experience appears very different.

It is hard to bet against Apple on small devices, but these new videos have gotten me started thinking about the differences between the iPad and HP Slate in a different way. Maybe a Windows 7 tablet won’t be bad at all.

Source:- http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/191098/hp_touts_flash_as_killer_app_against_apples_ipad.html

Anonymous tipsters have provided Engadget with promotional artwork depicting what may be Microsoft’s upcoming fourth-generation Zune MP3 player.

If the artwork is real and the rumors are accurate, we’re looking at a touch screen version of the Zune, sized slightly smaller than the iPod Touch, with a HD-resolution wide-screen display that reminds us of the Samsung P3.

Historically, Microsoft has released new Zune models toward the end of the year in November or September. Considering the half-hearted hardware refresh of the third-generation models last year, it’s conceivable that new hardware may drop unseasonably early this time around. A quick product launch may also help stem the tide of complete iPod saturation revealed by a recent Piper Jaffray survey of teens.

While the Zune HD depicted in the artwork looks like an attractive and worthy competitor to Apple’s iPod Touch, it leaves us with a lot of unknowns. For instance, how would a one-button, touch-screen design mesh with Microsoft’s recent move to bring games to the Zune? Will Microsoft be able to continue its practice of delivering their latest firmware to owners of older Zune models? Will the Zune get a Web browser or enhanced audio and video streaming capabilities? Will Bluetooth finally get thrown into the mix now that it’s coming to the Touch? Can Microsoft deliver the video services necessary to make an HD screen worth something?

read more : http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10217589-49.html

Apple is close to hitting 1 billion downloads from its App Store and plans on a prize giveaway for whoever downloads the billionth application that includes a MacBook Pro and an iPod Touch. In the free apps category, Facebook and Google Earth have been the most popular downloads. In the paid apps category, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D tops that particular chart.

Apple has placed a counter on its Web site showing the number of downloaded apps, which is approaching the 1 billion mark. The company plans on giving away a MacBook Pro, an iPod Touch and other products to the individual who downloads the 1 billionth application.

At around 2:30 p.m. on April 10, heading into the weekend, the counter was rattling off 1,000 apps sales roughly every 12 seconds.

Independent developers’ contributions to Apple’s App Store have raised the number of available apps to more than 25,000, and it took eight months since the App Store’s July 2008 launch for the total number of downloads to surpass 800 million.

read more : http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-App-Downloads-Approach-1-Billion-177392/

Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) is looking to boost the design and user experience of its BlackBerry smartphones by hiring a designer who worked at Apple and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT).

Don Lindsay will be RIM’s VP of user experience, according to Lindsay’s LinkedIn profile. Before being hired by the BlackBerry maker, Lindsay spent about 10 years working at Apple directing the user-experience team for Mac OS X. At Microsoft, he worked with the Live Labs team and helped with the design team on Windows Vista.

RIM continues to do well regardless of the struggling economy, and it recently had a strong first quarter. The company’s bread and butter has been the enterprise market, but more than 40% of its subscribers are now noncorporate users.

This shift in audience means the company will have to place a stronger emphasis on the presentation and user interface of its devices. Even though it’s not the most technically advanced smartphone on the market, Apple’s iPhone has been a hit with consumers primarily because of its strong touch interface.

read more : http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/blackberry/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500270&subSection=All+Stories

Do you have an app that you wish was on the iPhone, but hasn’t been developed or ported over yet? Certainly we all have our wish lists when it comes to apps, but one that I’ve been waiting for since the beginning is the chat and VOIP program, Skype (Mac or Windows). Fortunately, the folks over at Skype have finally put together a great app for iPhone and if you’ve never used Skype, I’m here to tell you why you will be soon.

This week’s apps include Skype for iPhone and a simple game that offers an excellent interface for simulating one of the most difficult (and most stressful) jobs in the world.

Skype (Free) for iPhone and iPod Touch(!) lets you make calls to other Skype users for free with great sound quality and an easy to navigate interface. Current Skype users can login using their regular username and password or you can create a new account from the app. From there, simply add contacts who also use Skype and you’ll be able to call them and text them without using your AT&T minutes or effecting your text limit. What might be even better, if you own an iPod Touch, all you’ll need is a headset with a microphone to use your iPod Touch just like a phone!

In order for it to work smoothly, you’ll need to have a reliably strong Wifi or 3G connection when you call and Edge users may experience some problems. To enable voicemail or get your own online phone number, you’ll need to sign up with Skype at their Web site, but the rates are pretty affordable. Even without a paid plan, as long as you tell your friends to download Skype on their phone and let them know you’re calling beforehand, you’ll be able to talk as long as you want, wherever you want to call, without using your minutes.

source: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10212191-12.html

This week’s top Apple news highlighted the state of Chrome for the Mac, Skype’s arrival on the iPhone, a hacker’s view of Apple security, and more. Read on to find out what you may have missed.

Chrome for OS X: State of the Browser: The open source Google Chromium repository now has an OS X Cocoa shell. We downloaded and compiled the latest OS X build of Google’s browser, and we talked to the developers to get a sense of how long it will be before Mac users can get their hands on a working beta.

Latest iPhone developer agreement bans jailbreaks: The latest revision of the iPhone SDK agreement that developers must sign forbids jailbreaking or creating apps for jailbroken phones.

JavaScript to get 3x speed boost in iPhone OS 3.0: Regardless of whatever new hardware Apple might introduce this summer, existing iPhone users will see an average 300 percent speed increase in JavaScript performance in Mobile Safari. The increased speed will be helpful for iPhone-specific Web apps as well as general Web performance.

Apple and AT&T make further offers to clear stock of iPhones: Apple is now selling contract-free iPhones in unlimited quantities to customers through its network of retail stores. Further, AT&T is now offering subsidized pricing for the iPhone 3G to customers who are still under a previous two-year contract.

Review: Skype finally does VoIP right on the iPhone: Skype has finally arrived for the iPhone and Ars has tested it out. We found some pleasant surprises, but like any 1.0, Skype for iPhone has some room to grow.

Wolfenstein ported to iPhone, developer speaks: Castle Wolfenstein has been officially ported to the iPhone, with the option to use the device’s motion-sensitive controls. Additionally, famed game developer John Carmack has chronicled the experience for general consumption.

Snow Leopard, Juno, and Pro App updates, oh my! A new report has information about release windows for Snow Leopard, the next Leopard update, and updates to several of Apple’s Pro applications. Apple sure is keeping busy.

Pwn2Own winner says Macs are more safe, though less secure: Security researcher Charlie Miller would recommend Macs over Windows PCs because there are fewer malware threats. However, that doesn’t mean Mac OS X couldn’t be made more secure.

Analyst: New iPhones coming, but growth won’t explode: The rumor mill has begun churning over when and what features may come in Apple’s third-generation iPhone, and a Royal Bank of Canada analyst has wasted no time adding his 2¢. Some kind of “iPhone 3G Pro” is expected to debut at WWDC, but this analyst does not see an encore for the explosive growth that Apple enjoyed last summer.

Stanford iPhone developer course available free via iTunes U: Stanford is making lecture videos and slides from its 10-week course on iPhone development available for the taking. You won’t earn college credit, but it may help you on your way to being the next App Store star.

source: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/04/week-in-apple-chrome-iphone-jailbreaks-security-and-more.ars

While rumors of an imminent Google acquisition of Twitter were apparently offbase, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the companies strike up a formal collaboration or partnership.

Twitter, a microblogging service in which millions of people post brief text messages, has emerged as the custodian of a valuable online index of real-time facts, comments, musings and announcements, information that is clearly valuable for Google’s search engine index.

Google routinely collaborates with major Web sites to determine the best way to crawl and index their content for its search engine, so sitting down with Twitter for that purpose would be consistent with its modus operandi.

“Twitter is clearly hot. The phenomenon of real time search and the ability to capture this stream of ‘tweet’ discussions is an important development in social media and search because people are trying to mine data for information that might otherwise be sought in a search engine,” said industry analyst Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence in a phone interview. “This whole phenomenon Twitter represents is here to stay and needs to be addressed by search engines.”

source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/162586/google_acquisition_rumors_reflect_twitters_importance.html

Continuing its advertising campaign which seeks to promote generic PCs running Windows as more attractive than Macs, Microsoft’s latest spot plays up specifications over aesthetics as opposed to just suggesting that PCs are simply cheaper as the previous spot did. However, it ends up making the opposite point instead.

Following Lauren, the latest ad introduces Giampaolo, who says he’s looking for portability, battery life, and power. “I’m technically savvy,” he says, “I know what I want. I like a computer that allows me to customize.” He’s shown shopping at Fry’s Electronics, where he picks up a unibody MacBook and says, “This is so sexy!”

Giampaolo then explains why he can’t buy it, saying, “Macs to me are all about aesthetics more than they are the computing power. I don’t want to pay for the brand, I want to pay for the computer.”

source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/04/microsofts_latest_ad_attacks_mac_aesthetics_computing_power.html

Two of the nation’s technology giants, General Electric and Intel, are joining forces to try to cash in on the trend of delivering more health care outside hospitals and doctors’ offices.

The companies, in a partnership announced on Thursday, plan to spend $250 million jointly in the next five years on research and development of health technologies to let doctors remotely monitor, diagnose and consult with patients in their homes or assisted-living residences.

Both companies have fledgling offerings in the field of telehealth, as it is known, and home health monitoring. Intel has just introduced a special-purpose computer with two-way video capability, which is linked over the Internet to a doctor, nurse or physician assistant, called Intel Health Guide.

Under the partnership, General Electric, whose $17 billion-a-year health care business ranges from medical imaging equipment to electronic health records, agreed to distribute Intel’s computer system through its worldwide sales force.

For the last few years G.E. has built a small business unit, GE QuietCare, which uses motion sensors to monitor older patients, mostly in communities for the elderly, so caregivers can be alerted to unusual patterns of activity, or inactivity, that might signal a health problem or emergency.

G.E. and Intel are pursuing what they expect to be a new multibillion-dollar market for using technology to automate and streamline the management of chronic conditions as populations age, both in the United States and in other nations.

A handful of chronic ailments, including heart disease, diabetes and hypertension, account for up to 80 percent of health care costs, according to medical experts, and 7 of 10 deaths in the United States.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/health/03health.html?ref=health