I am currently engaged with mentoring some young technology start-up businesses.  What strikes me about these companies is that they spend the majority of their time utilising their skills to deliver their product.  They are agile, knowledgeable and very hungry to succeed and to create.

When do they find time to “learn” new emerging technologies?  They seem to have learnt it “on the fly” as they go along – such is the pace of technology at the moment.  With cloud computing, mobile computing and social media now becoming the current “bubble”, I realised just how easy it is for anyone in IT to become out of date quite rapidly.

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There is an old saying which says “use it or lose it” and I will add “use it, grow it and keep your eyes open to what is happening around you, always”.   In this process we must keep learning.

Stopping learning, even for a few months or a whole year can make a huge difference.  It is like being having a motor car – use it regularly and it works fine (sure it may need a little maintenance), but leave it parked outside for a year unused and the battery will be flat, tires a bit softer, oil a bit tired, the gas will have lost its vitality etc.  (Of course it does depend on where you park it – it may not even be there when you return!)

Learning is the same, especially in IT (and most other professions – like medicine, law, tax etc) we need to keep up to date, and even a few months “out of the game” will render us less sharp, and left with an uphill battle if we want to regain our status.

If “IT” is our career, then we need to learn on a regular basis, via personal learning, e-learning, books, attending classes, or as I am realising, by working with very sharp entrepreneurs who are leveraging the three technology areas listed above without even breaking into a sweat.

What are your experiences of keeping yourself in the best shape you can?

Enjoy the new Bing on Android, but not WP7

If I hadn’t read it on Microsoft’s own Bing blog, I wouldn’t have believed it. The Microsoft Bing team has just released the new Bing for Mobile app for iPhone and Android… but not for Windows Phone 7 devices.

Wow. Just wow.

Maps/List Split View: Provides a dynamic way to synchronize a list such as business listings and directions and a map in a single view making it easy to see the location of what you’re searching for. Also works for driving directions and transit.

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      Deals: One-stop deal shopping and convenient mobile phone access for local deals from more than 100 deal providers across the US.

Transit/Real-Time: The Android app now features transit routing/real-time transit and news– all features that were previously only available on m.bing.com.

You can get the updated Bing app. on the general Android Market, Verizon customers can get it here, and Apple iPhone users can pick it up at the iPhone App Store. Windows Phone users can… ah… well “We’re working to release the same consistent experience for RIM and Windows Phone 7 devices in the future, and will share more details as they become available.”

Isn’t that comforting?

I can understand being slow about RIM. Blackberry’s papa company, is sinking fast, but not to support your own operating system with a major update to your mobile search engine app.?

What’s even more troubling is that Microsoft comes right out and says, “Rather than tightly binding functions into a mobile client, we want to embrace the drive towards exposing our functions via an HTML5 experience. In order for search to advance, engines need to be able to call functions that are currently ‘hiding’ in apps so we can better help people get done what they are trying to get done. Using HTML5, our goal is to build a mobile experience that leverages the unique capabilities of the different platforms including camera support and voice search, while making the functions the apps can provide consistent across the platforms and – in the future – callable by engines to help people get from searching to doing.”

Read that again. This application is meant to be more platform independent than most mobile applications thanks to its use of HTML5. In other words, Bing for Mobile app is meant to be easy to port from one operating systems, to another, like, well their very own Windows Phone operating system. But, no, instead Microsoft put bringing its newest Bing app to its own platform on the back-burner.

Former Microsoft executive and current VMware president Paul Maritz is credited with coming up with the phrase “eating your own dog food” while he was at Microsoft.That is to say a company must use its own products before you can anyone else to buy into them. Microsoft seems to have forgotten that lesson.

Seriously, if Microsoft’s own developers can’t be troubled to make Windows Phone 7 a priority, why in the world should independent software vendors (ISV)s? In turn, why should users consider it seriously. If you like Microsoft’s Bing search engine and you can get the best experience with it on an Android smartphone or an Apple iPad or iPhone, why would you buy a Windows phone?

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer proved once again he’s the master of hyperbole, telling an interviewer during the Web 2.0 conference that only the geekiest of the geeks can figure out how to use Android phones. Given that it’s the most popular smartphone OS in the world, there must be plenty of geeks out there if he’s right.

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At the conference, Ballmer was interviewed John Battelle of Federated Media. According to GeekWire, When Battelle asked him about Android phones, he said that Android was a difficult-to-learn-operating system and added:

“You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone. I think you do to use an Android phone.”

That’s likely news to the people who use Android phones. Comscore reports that in August, Android was by far the most popular smartphone operating system in the U.S. with 43.7% market share, compared to 27.3% for second-place iOS, and only 5.7% for Microsoft smartphone operating systems.

Are there really that many computer scientists in the United States?

Clearly not. This is just one more example of Ballmer being Ballmer. But it’s time that he realized that bluster does Microsoft no good. Few people take him seriously any more when he makes public pronouncements. And having people tune out your CEO isn’t the best way to help your company make up lost ground against Google and Apple. He’d do better to highlight Windows Phone 7′s unique capabilities — and there are many of them — than engaging in pointless hyperbole.

Google may have become heavy-handed in pressuring its Android device manufacturers to follow certain guidelines, recently released internal documents show. The documents have been released as part of a continuing lawsuit between it and Skyhook wireless over Google’s insistence that Motorola use its own GPS location services.

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Skyhook had originally won a contract to replace Google’s location services with its own in all Motorola phones. The move apparently bothered the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, and it allegedly pressured Motorola into dropping the agreement. Skyhook then sued Google, alleging anti-competitive behavior.

In one of the emails from May 2010, Android group manager Dan Morrill makes reference to a “compatibility standard.” While such a set of guidelines shouldn’t be all that surprising, the way he described it is: that it was obvious that “we are using compatibility as a club to make them do things we want,” according to the New York Times.

Such terminology seems to suggest that Google’s oft-repeated boast about Android being “open” may not be true. Indeed, carriers have increasingly clamped down on what it will allow phones to do, and now it appears Google is ready to make sure phone manufacturers do what it wants as well.

There could be a valid reason for this, however: unlike Apple, Google must deal with a multitude of devices and ensure that Android works properly on every device. Such a conundrum is the same type of problem that Microsoft has with Windows, and also required the Redmond company to set standards for what it would support.

In any case, Google seems to be treading a fine line between acting in the best interest of the entire ecosystem and outright anticompetitive behavior: Morrill’s off-color comments certainly give critics fodder that Google is practicing the latter.

Betanews is looking for its readers’ opinions on Google and Android. Do you feel that the Mountain View company is heading down the same monopolistic path as Microsoft did more than a decade ago? Sound off in the comments.

We’ll run your opinions in a future story.

Various sources are reporting that Apple is shifting suppliers for parts of its next iPhone and that the new model, the fifth version of the phone, will be a complete redesign for the product.

The news that Apple is changing suppliers is the latest from the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, reported elsewhere. Apple is said to be turning to Taiwanese manufacturers Foxconn and Foxlink for some parts of the iPhone 5 in an effort to cut production costs.

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At the same time, Engadget cites “sources” in saying the next iPhone will be a “completely redesigned handset.” The report goes on to speculate that the iPhone 5 will have a Qualcomm GSM/CDMA chipset and a new processor called the A5. The phone is said to be a “total rethink,” but supposedly it won’t feature LTE 4G connectivity.

The Qualcomm chip rumor is buoyed by the recent unveiling of the Verizon iPhone, which will have a Qualcomm CDMA chip. Additionally, rethinking the design of the iPhone seems prudent in the wake of the release of several Android phones with screens larger than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch display. The bad press received by the iPhone 4′s external antenna may also be a factor.

If Apple follows its normal product refresh cycle, the next iPhone should arrive this summer, most likely on the heels of a refreshed iPad.

1. Apple iBooks 1.1
Apple Inc., www.apple.com
Apple’s iBooks isn’t just an e-book reader; it’s also an excellent PDF reader. The app uses an attractive bookshelf metaphor to arrange your virtual books and PDFs, and Apple makes quite a few older books available for free through its online store. As with many Apple apps, iBooks becomes more useful if you have more Apple devices; you can sync your bookmarks and notations with your iPhones, iPod Touch, and iPad.

2. AT&T myWireless 1.3.2

2. AT&T myWireless 1.3.2
AT&T Services Inc., www.att.com
AT&T’s myWireless app tells you if you’re coming close to your monthly 200MB or 2GB data limit, how many minutes you’ve used, and when your next bill is due. It also allows you to upgrade your plan if you’re using your iPhone much more than you expected. Checking this app periodically is the best way to protect yourself from unexpected AT&T charges.

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3. Bing 1.2
Microsoft Corp., www.bing.com
On the desktop I prefer Google, but on the iPhone I prefer Bing. Why? Because Bing offers more than just simple search. This app provides a scrolling photo search, voice search, and local shopping searches; it even has a bar code scanner to look up prices on goods in stores. The Social tool lets you connect to Facebook and Twitter and search your results from friends. Search engines might be a matter of preference but Bing actually makes search look fun.

4. CNBC Real-Time 1.3

4. CNBC Real-Time 1.3
NBC Universal Inc., www.cnbc.com
One of the best business news sites has one of the best free business apps on the iPhone. CNBC’s app starts with business news alerts, but we really like it because of its detailed stock portfolio tracker. Plus, we dig its well-rendered graphics.

5. Cube Runner 1.5

5. Cube Runner 1.5
Andy Qua, andyqua.co.uk/CubeRunner/Welcome.html
This diabolically simple and addictive game lets you control an arrow that flies through rows of digital cubes. The point of the game is to avoid the cubes and fly for as long as you can. In the background, fun electronic music jams along as you pilot your arrow. Sure, the graphics look like a 1983-era arcade game, but that’s what you get for zero dollars, and some older iPhone users might enjoy the resemblance to the Atari games of yesteryear. Another decent free game in a similar vein is Alpha Runner.

6. Dragon Dictation 1.3.4

6. Dragon Dictation 1.3.4
Nuance Communications, Inc., www.nuance.com
Ever wanted to dictate a long series of notes and then e-mail or text them? Dragon Dictation can do that for you. Just load up the app, tap the red button, and dictate for a one minute at a time. One downside: Some users have complained that Nuance goes through your contacts to ensure accuracy when you speak names. It’s a breach of privacy, but is it any worse than Facebook? Probably not. And we’d rather have the names spelled correctly.

7. Dropbox 1.2.2

7. Dropbox 1.2.2
Evenflow, Inc., www.dropbox.com
I assume you have a lot of gadgets and computers. Dropbox lets you access your personal files on any of them. Dropbox gives you 2GB of file storage that can be accessed from any computer. On iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the app allows you to view documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and some videos and photos that you’ve put into your personal file space. Occasionally, we’ve seen some instances where it simply won’t work, but it’s useful enough that we’re willing to overlook a few glitches.

8. eBay Mobile 1.7.0

8. eBay Mobile 1.7.0
eBay Inc., www.ebay.com
Have you been losing eBay auctions because you weren’t in front of your PC? Pick up eBay Mobile, and you’ll be able to swoop in at the last second from anywhere with an Internet connection. The app lets users search, bid on items, update their info, check bids on items being sold, and much more. Power sellers and frequent bidders should consider this an essential tool for keeping up with auctions.

9. eBuddy Messenger 3.6.0

9. eBuddy Messenger 3.6.0
eBuddy B.V., www.ebuddy.com
Instant messaging may not have the buzz of Twitter and Facebook, but many people (and businesses) rely on it. Nowadays, people use many instant-messaging clients, so it’s important to have a multiplatform solution. eBuddy is the best free app we’ve found on the iPhone. It lets you log in to multiple services at once, including AIM, Yahoo, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, MySpace, and MSN. It will push you notification of new instant messages even when it isn’t running, and you can tell it to log out automatically after a set period of time.

10. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List 2.1

10. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List 2.1
Condé Nast, www.epicurious.com
If you’re a foodie, you probably know about Epicurious and its more than 100,000 recipes. The site’s iPhone app lets you turn your favorite recipes into a shopping list that you check off. If you miss flipping through food-stained pages, you can turn your favorite recipes into a paginated cookbook. There are a few ads here that can be annoying, but we’re willing to put up with them for a free app. Epicurious is also a very good iPad app.

Today the well of addresses on the Internet officially runs dry, but there’s no need to panic. The exhaustion has been known about for years, and new addresses—which are designed not to run out for a long, long time—are already in operation.

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The Number Resource Organization (NRO), an industry group made up of five regional Internet provider registries, held an event in Montevideo, Uruguay, today where members announced that it had today handed out the last of the available addresses on the old system.

“This is truly a major turning point in the on-going development of the Internet,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization responsible for assigning IP addresses. “Nobody was caught off guard by this, the Internet technical community has been planning for… depletion for quite some time.”

Two years ago the organization proposed that when the pool of unused addresses had been depleted to five “blocks,” as they recently had, each registry would get one of the blocks. The agreement was ratified by ICANN, and those blocks were assigned today. Each block comprises 16.8 million addresses, according to NRO.

The old system, called IPv4, uses a system of numbers, typically separated by decimals, that even casual users of the Internet would probably recognize (if your unsure, check your computer or phone’s network settings for numbers like “192.162.2.235″). IPv4 had about 4.3 billion addresses, which ran out more rapidly once mobile devices with Internet connections became commonplace.

Now all new Internet addresses will use IPv6, a system that has more numbers and characters, and is said to have enough spots for 340 trillion, trillion, trillion unique IP addresses. Equipment that uses IPv6 has been in use since 1999.

The two systems aren’t automatically compatible with each other, however, so service providers and network operators need to upgrade systems to ensure the transition is smooth, which is why there has been so much recent attention focused on the subject.

“This is an historic day in the history of the Internet, and one we have been anticipating for quite some time,” NRO Chairman Raúl Echeberría said. “The future of the Internet is in IPv6. All Internet stakeholders must now take definitive action to deploy IPv6.”

Despite the magnitude of the issue, most users should not even notice the change from IPv4 to IPv6, the experts said. If you own a business with an online presence or host your own Internet services, you should check out PCMag’s summary of what you should know.

Shopping for a laptop these days is a pretty daunting task. The sheer number of laptops available online or in a store’s electronics section is enough to make your mind spin. Most people have a general idea of what their laptop should look like and what they want in terms of features, but are often intimidated by the choices available. That’s where we come in.

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The editors of PCMag.com test hundreds of systems each year to help you find the best laptop. There are a lot of laptops out there, from the large-screen desktop replacements to the lightweight ultraportables, and even netbooks, but all share common features. In this story, we help you narrow your choices by collecting the top 10 laptops on the market today.

HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl : Front HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl

In terms of looks, features, and cost, the HP Pavilion dv6-6013cl was already a great laptop, but the addition of a second generation Intel processor and dramatically improved graphics and gaming capability make it a winner.

Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge) : Angle Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge)

With a Sandy Bridge quad-core processor and excellent battery life, the Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge) is arguably the most complete desktop replacement laptop, even if it isn’t the fastest or the prettiest.

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 : FrontLenovo ThinkPad X220

The Lenovo ThinkPad X220 business ultraportable is an amazing piece of engineering when you factor in all the features it squeezed into a 12-inch frame, including best-in-class battery life and the new Intel Core i5 i5-2520M CPU.

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) : FrontApple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt)

The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) is the fastest, most technologically advanced laptop to grace our Labs benches, thanks to new Intel architecture, a renewed romance with AMD graphics chips, and a connection technology called Thunderbolt.

Asus_U41JF-A1 : Angle Asus U41JF-A1

The Asus U41JF-A1 is the most well-balanced mainstream laptop, combining excellent power with all-day battery life.

HP Pavilion dm1z : Front HP Pavilion dm1z

The HP Pavilion dm1z and its AMD Fusion APU offer the best of both worlds: faster-than-Atom speeds and great battery life.

Sony VAIO VPC-Z1390X Sony VAIO VPC-Z1390X

The Sony VAIO VPC-Z1390X is, hands down, the lightest and most powerful ultraportable money can buy.

Toshiba Portege R705-P35 : Angle Toshiba Portege R705-P35

The Toshiba Portege R705-P35 is a more practical alternative to the Sony VAIO Z, bundling a 13-inch widescreen, optical drive, and a standard volt processor.

Acer Aspire AS5745-7247 : Angle Acer Aspire AS5745-7247

The Acer Aspire AS5745-7247 is one sweet laptop deal, putting in parts and features you don’t normally get at these prices.

Asus U45Jc-A1 Asus U45Jc-A1

The U45Jc-A1 is powerful and battery efficient enough to work through an entire day and look good while doing it.

The camcorder is an endangered species. With smartphones, point-and-shoot digital cameras, and DSLRs all sporting video-recording—often in HD—and even tablets getting into the game, you just don’t see people with camcorders at every tourist spot the way you once did. But while the video-taking hardware may be changing, there’s still a real need for consumer video editing software. Aside from the those who need the raw power of Adobe Premier or Apple Final Cut, anyone who wants to make decent video needs one of these apps. That includes small businesses that want to make a good impression with a promotional video.

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The good news, there are a lot of strong choices out there. Consumer video editing software is generally mature, polished, and highly capable, as you’ll see from the mostly high ratings. Anyone who wants to delve into the wooly new world of 3D video now has a choice, too—Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus HD. For stop-motion and time-lapse effects, too, these applications are indispensible: Avid Studio includes tools just for creating stop motion movies, while Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 adds to that a better one a time-lapse tool. Importing Video

Most video editors include three main stages—import, edit, and output—and separate modes for each activity are common. Not only can these apps import video stored in a vast array of formats—MPEG-1, -2, -4, AVCHD, QuickTime, and WMV, just to name a few, but they can often record directly from a connected camera—such as a webcam (many of which are HD nowadays). Surprisingly few of the apps, including Adobe Premiere Elements 9 and Avid Studio, let you apply tags to imported movie clips, just as you could with any photo organizer/editor app. Tags seems like a no-brainer, and anyone to whom organization and easy retrieval from a large collection of assets is of paramount importance should consider one of those two apps. Apple iMovie and Premiere Elements go even farther, with basic face recognition and auto-tagging.

Editing Video

After import comes the meat of editing your video clips—trimming and splitting clips to just get the best parts, joining them together with beautiful transitions, fixing lighting and color, applying titles and other text overlays, and superimposing multiple simultaneous clips, and maybe throwing in some special effects. A couple, like PowerDirector and Corel, excel at making the most needed function—trimming clips—a far more painless task, by including a multi-trim tool that lets you specify multiple in and out points on a clip so that just the best parts show up in your movie. The better programs also let you specify exact frames for effects to start and stop, and smoothly transition the two, in a process called key-framing.

Outputting Video

Output is also a key component. The apps create files in as many different formats, sizes, and bitrates as they import. This process, called “rendering” is where a program really shows its speed performance or lack of it. PowerDirector 9, our Editors’ Choice, was, not surprisingly, the clear winner in this important measure, as well as being the most responsive at previewing multi-track movies.
View Slideshow See all (24) slides
Adobe Premiere Elements 9 : Timeline View
Premiere Elements 9 Cartoon Effect
Adobe Premiere Elements 9 : Video Effect
Avid Studio 1.0 : Montage

More

Most of the apps can also create customizable and complex DVD or Blu-ray disc menus, titles, and chapter selections if you’re burning to one of those disc formats. And maybe of most interest to those wanting to share their motion picture creations with the world is the ability to directly upload to services like YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, and Facebook. Better ones will format the video to the service’s specifications so you don’t have to wait a long time for the site to process it before you can view it.

Those are some of the factors you need to think about before purchasing a consumer video editing software package, but it’s hardly the full list. You can expect to pay from $60 to $170, depending on whether the app includes features like Blu-ray disc burning, support for a large number of simultaneous tracks, and a large number of professional-quality effects and themes.

Adobe Premiere Elements 9Adobe Premiere Elements 9
$99.99 list

You could certainly do worse than Premiere Elements for your video editing needs, but its speed and usability have fallen behind that of competitors like CyberLink PowerDirector and Corel VideoStudio Pro X4.

Avid logoAvid Studio
$169 list

Avid Studio is a well-designed, highly capable (and expensive) prosumer video-editing program. It’s tons of effects and fluid user interface recommend it, but it shows some signs of being a first version and some operations are slower than in PowerDirector.

Corel VideoStudio Pro X4Corel VideoStudio Pro X4
$99.99 list

VideoStudio eases the transition from using a basic product like Windows Live Movie Maker to using more-professional digital movie creation software. It only trails others in limiting you to seven video tracks, and it also trails PowerDirector in some operations.

CyberLink PowerDirector 9CyberLink PowerDirector 9
$99.95 list
Editors
PowerDirector offers the best response and rendering speed of consumer video editing software we’ve tested. The app includes nearly every video effect and output option you could ask for. And this latest version also adds a capable sound editor.

Apple iMovie iMovie ’11
$49 as part of iLife ’11 suite, $14.99 in Mac App Store
Editors
iMovie ’11 improves on the already-impressive ease and power of Apple’s iconic video production software. The new audio editing and amazing Hollywood-style trailer features are enough to make the upgrade both worth your time and the reasonable price.

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus HD : Disc MenusMagix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus HD
$99.99 list

The only consumer video editor to handle 3D content, Magix Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus HD has lots to offer, but some basic tools are wanting, especially a good clip trimmer. The interface has some quirks, and uses some nonstandard terminology.

Nero Video Premium HD : Vision Xtra Start ScreenNero Video Premium HD
$69.99 List

Though it offers fairly advanced video editing effects, including an excellent picture-in-picture too, Nero Video Premium HD suffers from slow startup and movie rendering and a lack of integration between its two components. It’s priced to sell, though.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD PlatinumSony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum
$99.95 list

While Vegas Movie Studio offers lots of control, it comes with a steeper learning curve than consumer video editing software competitors like PowerDirector or Premiere Elements.

As rumored Earlier, Microsoft is going to make big on MWC 2010.

The Rumors are now taking a new shape with never before seen details.

Windows Phone 7 will sport an interface that’s “very similar” to the Zune HD, along with a complete revamp of the start screen, and a UI (codenamed METRO). Perhaps just as notably, the OS supposedly won’t support multitasking, with applications instead simply pausing themselves when in the background (exactly like iPhone). Also missing is Flash support (but  silverlight is coming)

WP7 will be announced at MWC, and there will be a demo.

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Here’s the breakdown of features:

* MIX will have specific developement focus sessions on WP7
* WP7 supports both Sliverlight (out of browser) and XNA
* Silverlight is version 3.0, with elements of 4.0 plus mobile specific features such as sensors etc
* XNA apps can be developed using XNA GameStudio 3.1
* SL apps developed using Expression Blend 3.x and VS2010
* MS will release a mobile version of VS / Expression which will be free, and VS2010 / Expression Pro will have a free add-on
* WP7 will have an equivalent of .NET CF embedded into SL, but no SQL.
* WP7 will have isolated storage which is accessible using LINQ
* The UX of WP7 is based upon a theme called “METRO” and is similar to Zune HD, but with a completely new “Start” screen.
* No multi-tasking (applications will pause when in the background, however they will support notifications using the MS Push Notifications environment)
* No .NET CF backwards compatibility, however a proportion of the data and business logic in .NET CF could be ported
* MS were confident to have devices ready for Sep 2010
* No MS manufactured device, however much tighter control of manufactring process, so as an example each device has a 3D processing chipset, and MS provide all of the device drivers. So no platform builder. This enables OTA updates and simplified model for ODM’s
* Marketplace will support buy and try before you buy, as well as an API
* ODM / OEM will not be able to modify the “Start” screen, so no more HTC Sense / TouchFlo etc.
* MS are actually ahead of schedule which will surprise the analysts / journalists
* Browsing experience is currently faster / better than iPhone 3G, and they are aiming towards 3GS.
* Browser is based upon desktop IE7 codebase, but with some IE8 functionality
* No in browser Flash or SL
* WP7 has full integration with XBOX Live, and ability to purchase games
* WP7 will use the Zune software for music, videos, photos sync
* WP7 only supports app installation through service based delivery i.e. marketplace, so no side-loading
* MS will provide a hosted push notifications environment