Android IceCream Sandwich 4.0 Features

Android IceCream Sandwich 4.0 aka ICS is finally announced and its packed with features. Galaxy Nexus is the flagship device that would run ICS.
ICS basically brings Android 3.x Honeycomb features to phones. Lets go through the features quickly:

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

30minutes Video demo of IceCream Sandwich

Android 4.0 ICS Features:

Updated Settings: Revamped Settings screen organization. Items are arranged much better now.
Disabling Apps: ICS adds the ability to disable an app outright. Don’t like an app that came preinstalled? Disable it! Its resources never run and its launcher icon is gone until you re-enable it.
Improved Download Manager.
Support for Encryption for Phones: Honeycomb added full-device encryption, but ICS brings it to phones.
Audio Effects: There’s a new audio effects API. Better media players coming!
New Font, Roboto: Droid Sans font is now gone for good.

OnScreen buttons, no hardware buttons: You dont need any hardware buttons for running ICS device, all the buttons: back, home are on-screen. Like Honeycomb, the buttons go invisible, smartly, to let you enjoy full screen video.
Resizable Widgets, Folders, Favorites: Dragging apps and contacts on top of each other create re-arrangeable folders. Users can stow their favorite apps, links, and folders into a new Favorites tray for quick and easy access
Screenshots: Hold down the power button and the volume down button to take a screenshot.
Notifications Revamped: Music controls have been integrated, and notifications can be dismissed by swiping
Improved Copy & Paste
Face Unlock
Enhanced Talk-to-Text: It’s more accurate.
Browser Tabs, offline: Upto 16 browser tabs. You can also save web pages offline
Gmail: Gmail now supports two-line previews, and sports a new context-sensitive action bar at the bottom of the screen. Gesture support allows you to swipe left and right between emails.
Contacts – People App: Contacts get re-vamped by showing contacts from Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Data Usage: You can now look at the details of what app is doing what with your data usage. Best part: The ability to limit data usage to a certain threshold.
Camera: Image stabilization, improved autofocus, and integration with other apps for sending photos or instant upload to Google+, built-in face detection, panorama and time lapse modes, and on-the-fly photo retouching and enhancements.
Android Beam: An secure NFC-powered sharing platform that lets users share nearly any kind of content, save for applications (in that case, a link to the Market is sent instead)


Read more: http://geeknizer.com/android-icecream-sandwich-4-0/#ixzz1dbA35ZvA

Microsoft 70-680 Windows 7 MCTS Exam Prep for WP7

What is Microsoft 70-680 Windows 7 MCTS Exam Prep ?

Upward Mobility's presents our high-value Windows Phone 7 app for the 70-680: Configuring Windows 7 exam. This app’s 107 simulated exam questions written by certified experts, with original questions prepared exclusively for Upward Mobility.
In our WP7 70-680 module, each question is paired with a clear and insightful explanation paired with a Key Takeaway that summarizes the key learning point of the question, ensuring comprehensive understanding of the material. Not only that, Key Takeaways support the answer with important insights on how to practically apply the knowledge in a real world situation so you can be more successful in your career. This module combines questions that focus on core concepts and vocabulary, as well as scenarios that simulate the ones a technician would face in real life.

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Let us help you achieve your Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) or Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certification!

This app is not affiliated with Microsoft.


Upward Mobility Windows Phone apps are designed with an exclusive intuitive UI. They provide a Study Mode, where questions are paired with clear explanations and the user can proceed at their own pace, as well as a Test Mode designed to simulate the exam experience, where the user can set question and time restraints and their results are presented to them upon completion in both an aggregate and a question-by-question format.

Updates are always free: we are constantly working to improve our app quality and ensure up-to-date content.


About Upward Mobility

Upward Mobility is an independent test preparation and management education apps company that creates high quality material that is witty and engaging, perfect for on-the-go students and ambitious professionals. All of our content is developed exclusively for Upward Mobility by subject matter expert writers and undergoes a thorough review process.

How do I get started?

Hi guys and Ladies of course, I have a computer science degree and i have been trying to get certified for a while did some personal Training using Certkingdom Training videos but never get the confidence to take an exam.i did train for the MCSE MCDST CCNA and the A+.

My fellow IT professional friends told me that i should prepare and take the exams but i guess i am scare of failure. And deep down i am sure as soon as i pass one of the exams i will be on the roll.
Any advice on how i should approach this?

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Exam 70-599:

Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Phone Applications

Published: July 14, 2011
Language(s): English
Audience(s): Developers
Technology: Windows Phone 7
Type: Proctored Exam

About this Exam
This exam is designed to test the candidate's knowledge and skills on designing and developing applications for the Windows Phone platform. Note that candidates who earn the MCPD: Windows Phone Developer certification will be required to show continuing ability to perform in this technology area by completing a recertification exam every two years.
Audience Profile
Candidates for Exam 70-599 are typically independent software vendors (ISVs) or developers who design and develop applications for the Windows Phone platform.
Credit Toward CertificationExam 70-599: Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Phone Applications: counts as credit toward the following certification(s):
Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Windows Phone , Developer

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Skills Being Measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.
Designing Data Access Strategies (19%)

* Send and receive data.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: design connection mechanisms for communicating with external web services; plan how to consume and parse data from web services (for example, WCF and WS*); ensure a trusted transfer of data to and from a phone
* Design a data storage strategy.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: differentiate between persistent and transient data; determine when to use isolated storage; plan for size limitations of isolated storage; design cloud-based storage
* Plan for bandwidth limitations and implement network connectivity detection.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: plan for disconnected scenarios; plan for low network bandwidth

Designing and Implementing Notification Strategies (17%)

* Plan for and implement push notifications in the application.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: choose method for notifying user of application’s state/status (tile, toast, RAW); respond to notifications; registration for notifications
* Plan for and implement push notifications on the server.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: when to use toast, tile, and raw; plan for receiving the unique device URL
* Create and update live tiles.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: update background image, numbers, and text

Working with Platform APIs, Tasks, and Choosers (21%)

* Design and implement sensor interaction.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: choose which sensors are appropriate for your application; design location awareness (when to use different levels of GeopositionAccuracy); location awareness system setting
* Plan for and implement the use of Tasks and Choosers.
* Plan for and implement multitouch and gestures.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: manipulation events (ManipulationStarted, ManipulationCompleted, ManipulationDelta)
* Design and implement application navigation.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: pass parameters (NavigationContext API), manipulate the navigation stack (NavigationService API), use of the Back button, PhoneApplicationPage class and PhoneApplicationFrame class and the difference between these two classes

Designing the Application Architecture (21%)

* Design for threading.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: use of the composition thread
* Monitor and tune performance.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: frame rate counter; cache visualization; redraw regions; bitmap caching; memory usage limitations; plan for power consumption; tune bandwidth consumption; performance counters
* Manage the application life cycle.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: tombstoning; response to PhoneApplicationService events (Launching, Activated, Deactivated, Closing)
* Prepare the application to meet Windows Phone marketplace requirements.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: Windows Phone Application Certification Requirements; design for localization and globalization; plan for trial versions; work with WMAppManifest.xml; design for icon requirements for marketplace

Designing the User Interface and User Experience (22%)

* Design for separation of concerns.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: presentation patterns that use view models, MVVM
* Design Windows Phone control usage.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: design control usage as described in UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone; design proper use of PanoramaControl and PivotControl; choose when to use the Panorama Control and PivotControl; recommend when to use ApplicationBar
* Recommend keyboard layout for a given situation.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: InputScope property
* Design for system themes, accent color, and screen orientation.
*This objective may include but is not limited to: built-in styles that use system themes and accent colors, ApplicationBar icons (size, transparency), landscape, portrait

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Microsoft adds RAW photo file support to Windows

Some welcome news for serious photographers running Windows: Microsoft has added support for the RAW file format from within Windows Explorer as well as Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011.

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

"Dealing with raw images on Windows hasn't always been easy," admited Brad Weed, group program manager for Microsoft's Windows Live in a blog post emailed to me in advance of its posting.

Microsoft today announced the release of a Camera Codec Pack that supports more than 120 RAW file formats from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax, Leica, Minolta, Panasonic and Epson. Once installed, Explorer windows will be able to generate thumbnail images from RAW files.

RAW files, often called digital negatives, include all the data that a camera captures electronically. That data is usually processed in some way to produce a viewable image, a bit like film negatives need processing to create prints. Many photography enthusiasts prefer shooting with a RAW format because 1) those files include much more data than a JPG and 2) RAW gives them greater control over what the final image will look like, much like doing your own darkroom work instead of sending film out to be processed. (Am I dating myself here?)
RAW files in Windows Explorer before the Codec
RAW files as they appeared in Windows Explorer before the Camera Codec Pack

However, not all software can deal with RAW files, including many low-end image editors. Until today, Windows Explorer didn't, either; Explorer could not generate thumbnail images of RAW files the way it did with JPGs. So, even if you chose to display image thumbnails within Explorer, all you'd get is icons showing the application you've associated with that file type. (I've linked my RAW files to be opened in Photoshop Elements, hence the PSE).
RAW files in Windows Explorer using the Codec
RAW files as they appear in Windows Explorer using the Camera Codec Pack

I'm not sure how many people will be using Windows Live Photo Gallery to edit RAW files. It's hard to imagine that many photographers shooting RAW are using Windows Live to edit their images, as opposed to, say, robust editors such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom or Apple Apeture -- all of which include RAW editors. However, the ability to see RAW thumbnails in Explorer should be useful for hobbyists using the Windows platform. I've already downloaded and installed the Codec on my Windows 7 system at home, and it's nice to see thumbnails of my RAW files instead of icons of the software I use to open them. And I suppose the Windows Live capability could in handy in a pinch, for someone encountering a RAW file who doesn't usually deal with them.

You can download and install the Codec Pack manually from the Microsoft Download Center.

If you're wondering, Mac OS X is already able to generate thumbnails for RAW files, and Apple's consumer-level iPhoto software pulls in RAW files and automatically processes them (unlike Apeture which gives the user more control over that conversion).

The long life of Windows XP

Over the course of its life, Microsoft made Windows XP a much better operating system. Service Pack 2, released in 2004, was a major overhaul of the operating system. It made the software better able to handle modern systems, with improved WiFi support and a native Bluetooth stack, and made it far more secure. The firewall was enabled by default, the bundled Internet Explorer 6 gained the "gold bar" popup blocker and ActiveX security feature, and for hardware that supported it, Data Execution Protection made it more difficult to exploit software flaws.

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Microsoft also produced a number of variants of the base operating system. The two major ones were Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet Edition. These were efforts to push Windows into new kinds of market—the TV-connected home theater PC, and the pen-powered tablet—though neither met with any great commercial success, and for Windows Vista, their features were rolled into the core product rather than shipping as standalone versions.

But in many ways, the thing that cemented Windows XP's status wasn't Windows XP itself: it was the lack of any successor. Microsoft's Longhorn project, an ambitious plan to radically rework Windows, with an all-new set of APIs and a database-like filesystem, was delayed and ultimately abandoned entirely. Windows Vista, a massively scaled back, more conservative release, eventually arrived in 2006, but by this time Windows XP had become so dominant that users, particularly business users, didn't want a new operating system. That Windows Vista had trouble in its early days, thanks to its steeper hardware demands, its polarizing appearance, and display driver issues—mirroring, in many ways, Windows XP's own introduction—just served to entrench Windows XP further. Business users stuck with Windows XP, and Windows Vista struggled to ever make a serious dent in its predecessor's market share, peaking at just 19 percent in the final days before Windows 7's release.

Had Windows Longhorn been more successful, and had Windows Vista arrived sooner, Windows XP's market share dominance would never have been achieved. Windows 7, though well-received and widely liked, will be lucky to hit 50 percent market share before its replacement, Windows 8, hits the market (assuming Microsoft manages to avoid any development disasters). With a new operating system coming out every two to three years, which is Microsoft's plan, there simply isn't enough time to amass that much market share.

Long in the tooth it may be, but Windows XP still basically works. Regardless of the circumstances that led to its dominance and longevity, the fact that it remains usable so long after release is remarkable. Windows XP was robust enough, modern enough, well-rounded enough, and usable enough to support this extended life. Not only was Windows XP the first (and only) PC operating system that lasted ten years: it was the first PC operating system that was good enough to last ten years. Windows 98 didn't have the security or stability; Windows 2000 didn't have the security or comfort; Mac OS X 10.1 didn't have the performance, the richness of APIs, or the hardware support.

How Run Android apps on Windows

We’ve run Android apps on Virtualbox, Netbooks and told you about Bluestacks bringing Android apps to Windows PC. Bluestacks is now a reality, available to general public.

Unlimited life Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

The alpha version allows most Android games & apps to be installed on a PC, but prohibits some games, such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, that all would be available in paid version.

Not every app will work perfectly, but most of the apps should. Users can to push programs from their phone or tablet to the PC from a program that will be available from the Android market.

“Their first computing device is a phone,” Sharma said in a telephone interview. Indeed, BlueStacks had its idea for virtualization technology long before it had the idea to do Android on Windows. That specific implementation, Sharma said, came when one of his colleagues got back from a trip to Switzerland. On that trip, the colleague’s young daughter had played a lot of Android games. Back home, she wanted those same programs to run on the PC. With that, BlueStacks had its business model.

BlueStacks raised $7.6 million in Series A funding earlier this year from backers including Ignition Ventures, Radar Partners, Helion Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. The company has slightly more than two dozen workers at its headquarters in Campbell, Calif., and at offices in India, Taiwan and Japan.