Nokia Lumia 900 coming in 2012 featuring 4.3-inch touch display

Nokia has unveiled that the company is planning to set a press discussion on January 9, 2012, where they are anticipated to announce officially the Nokia Lumia 900.

The press discussion will be organized at CES in Las Vegas and several sources believe that Nokia will announce several models along with the Lumia 900 smartphone in the same event. Though, the Nokia Lumia 900 is the one each person is looking attracted in.

Nokia Lumia 900 coming in 2012 - IMG Credit @ wmpoweruser.com

The Lumia 900 will be the one of the best smartphones running on Windows Phone 7 Mango operating system. A leaked snapshot of the Lumia 900 shows that the smartphone will have a large 4.3-inch touch-screen, which is 0.6 inches superior to the Lumia 800.

The rest of the features and specs are estimated to be the identical as the Lumia 800 indicating the device will bring 8 mega-pixel camera and 1.4 GHz CPU.

A snapshot of the Lumia 900 first unveiled by the wmpoweruser.com, proves an extremely comparable look to the Lumia 800.

Land Your Dream Job After the Imagine Cup!

Land Your Dream Job After the Imagine Cup!

Are you prepared connect to a great career after the Imagine Cup?

Microsoft wants to help you get it! The Students to Business (S2B) program can get you an entry-level IT position or an internship at one of the company’s many partners or customers. Job hunting is all about extending your network, and through S2B, you can tap into Microsoft’s vast ecosystem — networks of 395,000 organizations looking for students who can help their business grow. Scroll down on this page to search and find positions in your country/region today.  So what’s in it for you? One word: access. To trainings, to career events, and to potential employers — all of whom use Microsoft technologies and need to connect to talented students like you. And what does Microsoft stand to gain? By introducing its local partners to fresh talent, the company helps spur economic growth and generates job opportunities involving Microsoft technologies.

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• Explore IT roles!
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• Design your career in three steps!

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A career in IT can take you anywhere in the world! Find jobs and internships with Microsoft partner companies that interest you, and once you’ve registered, launch your career by applying! Start searching today! Simply use the search tool below to find opportunities in your country/region. 

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More Career Resources and Articles

IT Hiring Shows Gains, But Jobs May Be Shifting
Computerworld, January 11

In December, the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs overall, as the national unemployment rate declined from 9.8% to 9.4%. The broader improvement in the national economy filtered into the tech sector, where hiring and wages also improved at year-end, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Labor data from different IT industry groups, such as TechServe Alliance, point to an improving outlook for the tech sector in 2011, both in terms of job opportunities and compensation.

TechServe Alliance, an IT services industry group that analyzes the U.S. Labor Department unemployment data, said that tech employment added 3,500 workers, bringing the overall IT workforce to 3.9 million. At its peak more than two years ago, tech employment was at 4 million, representing a year-to-year gain of 2.61%. In its analysis, Foote Associates, a workforce analyst firm, counted a net gain of 9,600 in IT-related jobs, mostly in the categories of management and technical consulting services and computer system design and related services. Through October, 26,000 jobs were created.  View Full Article

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Ten Tried and True Ways to Land That Job
AOL Jobs, January 25

The Five O'Clock Club, a national outplacement and career coaching organization that helps members find a new job within an average 10 to 12 weeks, has developed a list of the Top 10 ways to land a new job. As the list makes clear, online searches and job posts are a very small part of the equation. There are so many directions to go in when you start a job search that it often overwhelms people into inaction. By providing a list of steps to take, all of which are grounded in a proven, research-based methodology, it is possible to develop greater structure around the job search process.

Most importantly, take the time to do the necessary planning before embarking on a job search. Think about what kind of job you want, where you want to work, and where you see yourself in five to ten years. You have to set targets for what you want to do and where you want to work. Also, narrow down the industries you want to work in, the positions you want to hold, the geographic areas you're willing to move to and so forth. These targets will help to drive your search. While the current trend is to do everything online, with webinars and other online opportunities, the fact remains that one-on-one or small group coaching can help keep you positive and on track. It may also help to create a 3x5 index card that holds the personalized keys to your job hunting success. It helps you narrow down and stay focused on your most important "talking points."  View Full Article

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Jobs 2.0: Data-Centric Jobs for Generation Y
Web Worker Daily, January 17

Generation Y will be the first generation entering the workforce that has the skills to apply measurement and analysis to all facets of their IT responsibilities. Skilled at using apps on their smart phones, using metrics and analytics to raise their Klout scores and developing new ways to boost their follow counts on Twitter, they are no strangers to how data can be used to tell better marketing stories, contribute to business results and drive projects forward. That, in turn, is opening up a new set of job opportunities that can fully leverage these data analysis skills. These jobs span a broad range of functional areas, ranging from Marketing to Engineering. The article takes a closer look at some of the job titles with appeal to members of data-centric Generation Y, including Content Monetization Manager, Game Mechanics Designer and Metrics Manager.

Content Monetization Managers must consider all possible ways to monetize content, such as affiliate links, daily deals, in-text ads, sponsorships, promoted on-site Twitter feeds and inventory optimization. How to best utilize these monetization strategies for your users, your content, your site design and your bottom line is a tricky thing, and often depends on understanding usage analytics and A/B test strategies. The new Webmaster 2.0 role, much like the content monetization manager, will be responsible for fine-tuning every detail of the corporate website. The end goal is to produce the desired result, such as sales or leads, at a time when websites are becoming much more dynamic and content-heavy. Tools of the trade include Google Analytics, with a healthy amount of keyword and inbound linking SEO. Another role is the Amplification Manager, who finds ways to make social media and sharing a powerful tool for promotion. While the first five years of social media were about "engagement," the next five will be about "amplifying."

Game Mechanics Designers are responsible for introducing game mechanics into every application. Game mechanics will become a full-fledged job, as companies look for ways to introduce elements like "badging" into the everyday employee experience. Much like the game mechanics designer creates the incentive and engagement structure in your application, the employee mechanics designer will design the internal game that is your business, which will include an ever-evolving set of rules that must be aligned with the current goals of the company. The metric manager's job is to extract data from every nook and cranny of the company. Once the stream of data is flowing, it's then time to put it in a data warehouse and do interesting things with it. In the next 10 years, every company will leverage the crowd in some shape or form. How you interface with the crowd, how you incentivize them (payment, praise, virtual currency, rewards), and, more importantly, how you teach your own company to work with them correctly is key.  View Full Article

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Rise in Social Media Jobs Means Opportunity
US News and World Report, December 28

Heading into 2011, one of the brightest trends in the technology jobs market is the sharp increase in the number of social media jobs. According to Indeed.com, three times as many jobs with "social media" in the title were indexed in November, compared to the year-earlier period. Moreover, jobs with "social media" in the description have also tripled over the last year, reaching more than 14,000 in November compared with about 4,300 during the same month in 2009. Within social media, titles and responsibilities run the gamut, from community managers to digital strategists who help with the company's overall social media campaign to developers, the people who build the campaigns, Facebook applications, and mobile apps.

Even job seekers who aren't looking for social media positions sometimes end up in those jobs because there are more openings than in other industries. The pay for social media positions varies widely. Recent college graduates tend to make between $30,000 and $40,000 annually, while those with a few years of experience can earn between $50,000 and $75,000, depending on their location and employer. Since social media is a young industry, there aren't many professionals with years of experience, giving new opportunities to young grads. In addition to technical skills, companies want a smart communicator - a professional they can trust to be the voice of their brand. Marketing experience is also a plus, and in some cases, a must. Already social media has changed the face of public relations, with communications and marketing specialists increasingly using online tools to spread the word about their clients' services.

There are several ways to get ahead of fellow job seekers when it comes to landing these positions. Build a quality following on popular social networking sites. Not only does it demonstrate your ability to use the tools, a company may also see your following as a base for their own network. Include social media skills on your resume. Don't make the mistake of thinking everyone knows how to use Twitter strategically or create a video that goes viral on YouTube. Showcase your skills beyond building an online following. Creativity plays a big role in social media, so look for outside-the-box ways to prove your value. Take on social media responsibilities at your current job or volunteer to gain experience, even if it's not part of your job description. View Full Article

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Launch Your Career

Register online in your local Microsoft job matching portal, and profile your Microsoft skills and Imagine Cup participation. There are more than 5,000 companies registered online looking for students like you!

• Want career advice? Here are some tips that will help you stand out!

Reference: http://www.imaginecup.com/CompetitionsContent/CareerCenter.aspx

Microsoft to give developers bigger share in apps revenue

The bigger cut to successful developers is the latest sign that Microsoft is trying to compete with Apple

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp is stepping up its competition with Apple and plans to give developers who write software for Windows computers and devices a greater share of revenue sold through the company's upcoming Windows Store.

As long as the software, or app, has made at least $25,000 in revenue, Microsoft plans to give developers an 80 per cent cut. Apple now gives developers 70 per cent of the revenue that apps bring in. If a Windows app hasn't reached the threshold yet, Microsoft will share 70 percent as well.

The bigger cut to successful developers is the latest sign that Microsoft is trying to compete with Apple -- and with phones running Google'sAndroid -- on the app front by luring developers with financial incentives.

"We intend to offer the industry's best terms, so that the best apps make developers a lot more money on Windows than on any other platform," Ted Dworkin, partner program manager for the Windows Store, said in a blog post.

The success of Apple's iPhones and iPads partly comes from the fact that its app store has a larger selection than any of its rivals. That means more games, entertainment guides and other apps available from outside developers to extend the functionality of the devices.

Through iTunes, Apple has also made it easy to buy and sell apps through its App Store, something other companies have been playing catch-up on.

Citi Investment Research analyst Walter H Pritchard said it's not surprising that the company is giving more lucrative financial terms for developers. That's because he doesn't consider Windows Store revenue as important for Microsoft, because the company's business focuses on the Windows platform itself.

In other words, Microsoft makes more money by getting people to buy devices running Windows software -- even if it means sacrificing some of the app revenue to make that happen.

The Windows Store will be available on PCs, laptops and tablets running Windows 8. The company didn't disclose plans for mobile devices.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, plans to include apps in its Bing search engine results to make them easier to find. It also plans to open the store to customers when it releases a "beta" test version of Windows 8 in late February.

Pritchard said the February beta launch suggests a late October launch for the general market. Microsoft has not said when it's launching Windows 8 for everyone.

Reference Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/software-services/Microsoft-to-give-developers-bigger-share-in-apps-revenue/articleshow/11029144.cms

Microsoft Update on Virus

While Stuxnet was aimed at crippling systems that control industrial processes such as uranium enrichment, Duqu was designed to steal data from computers

Microsoft Corp said it will release a security update to protect personal computers from getting attacked by Duqu, a mysterious virus that researchers suspect was built by the same group behind Stuxnet.
Stuxnet is the piece of malicious software, ormalware, that security experts say was used last year to launch a successful attack on a uranium enrichment facility in Iran, setting back that nation's effort to build a nuclear bomb.
After researchers in Hungary discovered Duqu in October, many security experts concluded that it was created by the group behind Stuxnet because of similarities in the code between the two viruses.
While Stuxnet was aimed at crippling systems that control industrial processes such as uranium enrichment, Duqu was designed to steal data from computers.

Reference: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/software-services/Microsoft-to-fix-Duqu-virus/articleshow/11042468.cms

Microsoft will unveil its Windows 8 App Store Dec. 6, a rival to a similar storefront available on Apple’s Mac OS X Lion.

        Microsoft will unveil its Windows 8 App Store at a San Francisco event Dec. 6.

The actual storefront will launch with Windows 8 sometime in late 2012. It will reportedly feature both free and paid applications. In creating the portal, Microsoft is following in the footsteps of Apple, which integrated a similar application store into its Mac OS X Lion, and of course the mobile-application stores available on all the major smartphone brands.

The big question is whether an App Store integrated into Windows 8 will appeal to those third-party developers who are so necessary for any healthy ecosystem. Microsoft has a long history with a deep pool of developers, with whom its brand name carries considerable weight; however, those developers’ professional time is necessarily limited, and rival platforms—including Apple’s platform—have more than demonstrated their profitability.

That being said, a Windows 8 App Store will offer those developers certain advantages, at least if Microsoft fulfills its promise to make Windows 8 a “no compromises” operating system. For starters, Windows 8 will almost certainly find a broad audience among both consumers and business users, in turn creating a substantial market for everything from games to heavy-duty enterprise applications. The size of that potential user base is already something highlighted by Microsoft executives when they talk about the upcoming operating system, and that theme is unlikely to fade from their presentations anytime soon.

Provided those developers stock a Microsoft App Store with a broad array of applications, the storefront would give Windows 8 tablets equal footing against, not only the iPad (which offers access to Apple’s App Store and iTunes) but also Android devices (which include the Android Marketplace).

Microsoft’s biggest challenge in promoting Windows 8, however, might be its own success with Windows 7, which is well on its way to replacing Windows XP as the world’s dominant operating system by market share. Launched in October 2009, Windows 7 is still new in the eyes of many users, and it may take some effort for Microsoft to convince them to upgrade to the next operating system so soon.

To the latter end, Microsoft is adjusting Windows 8 in fairly radical ways, including its user interface. The upcoming operating system’s start screen centers on a set of colorful, touchable tiles linked to applications—the better to port it onto tablets and other touch form factors.

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Beginner's WPF Animation Tutorial

Introduction

My expected audience for this article is extreme beginners of WPF. But you should be knowledgeable in any of the .NET CLR languages. I used my favorite C# for description in this article. Also, do not forget, WPF is for .NET Framework 3.x+ and I used Visual Studio Express 2008.

Animate the Button

This tutorial is for creating a simple button animation with System.Windows.Media.Animation namespace. As usual, I use C# for demonstrating this sample since it is my favorite after C language. Also note that I write these articles for programmers and I will be writing code in C# even though we can do all these with XAML itself.

Step 1: Place a button on the form. We will call it Button1.

Step 2: Now add these lines to the button click event. (Simply double click on the button if you are in Visual Studio). Remember to set the language of your code snippet using the language dropdown.

DoubleAnimation da = new DoubleAnimation();
da.From = 30;
da.To = 100;
da.Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
Button1.BeginAnimation(Button.HeightProperty, da);

Step 3: Press F5. i.e. Execute.

You will see a button increase its size automatically when you click.

Tips

1. Add the following line before BeginAnimation. This will restore the button back after the animation. Of course it is also animated.
   
   

   da.AutoReverse = true;

2. Add the following line before BeginAnimation. You can see that the animation never stops.
   
   

   da.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever

Rotate Rectangle

Step 1: Place a button and shape rectangle on the form. (Button is not needed. I use it just for raising an event.)

Step 2: Add the following code in the button click event:
Note: Do not forget to import System.Windows.Media.Animation namespace.

DoubleAnimation da = new DoubleAnimation();
da.From = 0;
da.To = 360;
da.Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(3));
da.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;
RotateTransform rt = new RotateTransform();
rectangle1.RenderTransform = rt;
rt.BeginAnimation(RotateTransform.AngleProperty, da);

Step 3: Execute and enjoy. You can see a rectangle rotating 360 degrees continuously. As I mentioned in the other article, you can add autoreverse etc.

Here is the complete C# code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;
 
namespace WpfApplication1
{
    /// 

    /// Interaction logic for Window1.xaml
    /// 
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
 
        private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            DoubleAnimation da = new DoubleAnimation();
            da.From = 0;
            da.To = 360;
            da.Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(3));
            da.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;
            RotateTransform rt = new RotateTransform();
            rectangle1.RenderTransform = rt;
            rt.BeginAnimation(RotateTransform.AngleProperty, da);
        }
    }
}

Artificially Rotate a Wheel

In this article, you can see a wheel picture at the top. We will use image1.RenderTransformOrigin to keep the centerpoint of the image. Check the sample source code attached.

Here is the code for 'running wheel':

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Media.Animation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
 
namespace WpfApplication1
{
    /// 

    /// Interaction logic for Window1.xaml
    /// 
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            DoubleAnimation da = new DoubleAnimation
                (360, 0, new Duration(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(3)));
            RotateTransform rt = new RotateTransform();
            image1.RenderTransform = rt;
            image1.RenderTransformOrigin = new Point(0.5, 0.5);
            da.RepeatBehavior = RepeatBehavior.Forever;
            rt.BeginAnimation(RotateTransform.AngleProperty, da);
        }
    }
}

The animation procedure specified in this article is simply 'nothing' when compared to the scope hidden in WPF. Hope the fear that beginners have will be wiped out with this sample article. WPF is as simple as ABC.

DOWNLOAD SOURCE CODE

Do you need the source code of the project for your reference? Yes, you can download it from here:

WPF Simple Animation (Source Code - 577KB)