By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

WHILE COVERING the Microsoft Imagine Cup annual software design competition, I got to meet several teams of college students from different top local universities. Their objective: design a software application that would help promote a sustainable environment.

One idea from Team Prairie Watch of the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde involved tagging endangered animals with a little webcam and streaming the
video that this little gadget captures on the web. They had a working prototype that looked promising. Another idea developed by Team Tala was a computer game that would teach kids about the environment. Team Tala was a mixed team of students from the University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the Philippine Christian University.

Here’s my video interview with Team Prairie Watch.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MICROSOFT might have forced itself too much when it attempted to subdue Apple in the handheld media player business when it launched the 30 Figabyte Zune about a year ago. Sad to say, it didn’t fare as hoped. A year later, Microsoft again makes an attempt but has added to its repertoire two new models aimed at the Apple iPod’s smaller iteration, the Nano. It recently launched the Zune 4, Zune 8 and Zune 80, all of which now feature the Zune Pad, a look-alike of iPod’s tried-and-tested Click Wheel.

Zune 4

For this review, the Zune 4 will be the featured model and it’s the one Microsoft is pitting against the iPod nano 4 gigabyte, and as such, uses flash memory instead of the small hard disk drives of its big brothers. Physically, the smaller Zune is nearly identical in shape and size to the first and second generation iPod nano. Its dimensions are 1.6 inches by 3.6 inches by 0.33 inches, and it weighs 47 grams. It also comes in four colors (red, pink, green and black) of which the front is in matte finish, which gives it a rugged look. The screen is twice as large as that of the first generation iPod nano and is about the same size as that of the current generation iPod nano. Nevertheless, the Zune’s screen is equally bright.

The Zune has a total of three buttons (except for the lock slider at the top of the unit). Two smaller buttons on the left and right side below the glass screen serve as the play/pause and back buttons. The large oval button below the screen is Microsoft’s pride and joy with the smaller Zunes: the Zune Pad. Much like the iPod Click Wheel, the Zune Pad is largely the unit’s full control interface. It can be used as a four-way directional button but its best feature is its slider option where the user can just flick his or her thumb left-to-right or up and down to navigate through the unit’s options. Whereas the user has to rotate the Click Wheel on the iPod to navigate through voluminous content, the Zune user can just flick, then hold in one direction until the desired song, photo, or video is found. It’s also easy to deduce that the Zune Pad will be nearly as sensitive as the Click Wheel especially when the lock slider is not activated. Luckily, even without it, the user can put the Zune in a side pocket and not worry about the songs being changed while walking about.

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KIRKLAND, Washington–Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy) Consortium Secretary General George Kerscher (right) and Microsoft’s Reed Shaffner explain how open Extensible Markup Language (OpenXML) and technology in general will make published information become more available to people who are blind and have print-disabilities. Daisy standards hope to enable them to access information published by mainstream publishers, governments, and libraries.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

WILL “Losing My Religion” now be the theme song of Sun Microsystems?

For a company that once led a crusade against Microsoft and built a religion around Java, Sun has certainly changed its tune. The industry’s abuzz with Sun’s newfound love for Microsoft which sees it reselling Windows on its servers. In other news, Hell has frozen over.

The most amusing story I’ve seen so far comes from Forbes, which included a Top 10 list of the finest cracks Sun chairman and co-founder (and former CEO) Scott McNealy has made over the years against Bill Gates and Microsoft.

Here are numbers 10 to 8:

10. “Probably the most dangerous and powerful industrialist of our age.” (On Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.)

9. “.Not Yet.”(Referring to Microsoft’s .Net development strategy.)

8. “Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system. I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too.”