Sunday, November 20, 2011

Android Ice – Android latest OS version. Android Ice Cream features

Google Android. Market winning OS!! Today if you go to market for any tablets or mobiles ranging from 5000 to 45000, every product have one thing in common. It’s Android!!
No matter which company tablets or mobile you buy, Android is common everywhere. Samsung, HTC, Motorola…all are ruled by Android. The reason behind this is also vivid. Strongest point - Android is open source system. In simple words, it is free. So any one can tweak or customize android as per their requirement. This one quality is responsible for the forming of empire of Android.
Steve Job’s apple had launched apple OS. There were no competition to Apple Os and then Android came and tablets and mobile market experienced 180° change. Now android has brought new version in market – Android Ice Cream Sandwitch.
Multitasking, ultimate connectivity, customizable home screen are the features which will make Android ICE Cream sandwitch famous.
Let’s review new features of Android ICE 4.0 – 
Attractive User Interface –
Use interface means the simplicity you get while using any gadget. User interface is changed a lot in Android 4.0 version. Best animation is provided for every application, new typing feature for high resolution screen mobiles are new changes to user interface. The most prominent addition to look and feel is Virtual Buttons. These buttons will take you to backward screens or home page very easily. Then very gorgeous favourite tray can be used for adding your favourite applications by drag and drop. The favourite tray widget is automatic and resizes itself according to mobile screens. So if your mobile screen is small then also favourite tray option can be used easily without any hassle.


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Which tablet PC to buy - Cheap tablets in india – Tablet PC options


World has great history of revolution and revolution is continuous process. Today is also no exception to revolution. This revolution is of Tablet PC. The tablet PC revolution is spreading like wild fire in India.
After tremendous success of Apple iPad-2; other companies like Samsung, HTC brought tablets in market which was giving healthy competition to iPad-2. However in Indian tablet PC market; these tablets were costing above 20000 rupees. Needless to say, these costly tablets were not suitable in terms of cost for students, teachers and other middle class community.
After identifying this business gap, Indian pure players such as Reliance, Bharti Airtel, Akash, iBall came for the rescue and these companies successfully brought tablet PC at half price of iPad, Samsung and HTC tablets.
The obvious questions that come to mind about cheap tablets PC’s are–
1.     Tablet PC quality
2.     Reliability of cheap tablets
3.     Advantages and disadvantages of cheapest tablets
Following information will help you to decide which tablet PC to buy.
Let’s first understand basic questions like -
1.     What is tablet PC?
2.     Tablets are mobile phones or computers?
What is tablet PC –
Assume the world of few years back, and you are travelling for a long journey. People had to carry heavy laptops in their travel if they wish to read 10-15 books. This was quite inconvenient during journey. Also smartphones had small screen on which people could not read more than 1 hour as it creates strain on your eyes. To overcome on this problem tablet Pc are introduced in the market. Tablet PC is a gadget which combines the features of smartphone and laptop and it is very easy to carry. Tablet Pc’s are bigger than smartphone whereas somewhat smaller in size and weight than laptop which makes it very handy.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Windows Azure Service Management API to delete deployment from Azure Hosted Service using c#

Continuing with same let’s have a look at deleting deployment from windows azure using service management API via c#.
The configuration and other related settings will be same as stated in previous post. Code for deleting deployment from windows azure hosted service is as follows –
X509Certificate2 cert = new X509Certificate2(Server.MapPath(CertificatePath), CertificatePassword);
var serviceManagment = ServiceManagementHelper.CreateServiceManagementChannel(EndpointConfigurationName, cert);

HostedService hostedService = serviceManagment.GetHostedServiceWithDetails(SubscriptionId, lblHostedServiceName.Text, true);

foreach (Deployment deployment in hostedService.Deployments)
{
UpdateDeploymentStatusInput u = new UpdateDeploymentStatusInput();
u.Status = "Suspended";
serviceManagment.UpdateDeploymentStatus(SubscriptionId, hostedService.ServiceName, deployment.Name, u);
while (deploymentStatus != "Suspended")
{
Thread.Sleep(20000);
HostedService tempHostedService = serviceManagment.GetHostedServiceWithDetails(SubscriptionId, lblHostedServiceName.Text, true);
//retrieve current deployment to know its latest status
Deployment tempDeployment = tempHostedService.Deployments.Find(delegate(Deployment d) { return d.Name == deployment.Name; });
deploymentStatus = tempDeployment.Status;
}
                        serviceManagment.DeleteDeployment(SubscriptionId, hostedService.ServiceName, deployment.Name);
}

Hope this helps.
Cheers…
Happy Coding!!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Review - Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 – Semi rugged notebook from Panasonic. Making notebooks tough for long term reliability

Panasonic toughboook CF – 53 is a noteboook which Panasonic term as toughbook. Loaded with “Core i5 2520M vPro Processor”, Panasonic toughbook is an excellent option for “rough and tough” use of notebooks. The most visible point of Panasonic toughbook is Magnesium alloy case. In Panasonic toughbook CF 53 Magnesium alloy is a part which makes it tough. This is why Panasonic has named it as Toughbook CF 53. Let’s review Panasonic toughbook CF 53 and its features.
Need of Tough notebooks and how Panasonic caters this need –
When you are using laptop or desktop computer, we have to be always very careful about Hard Drive or Hard Disk (HDD). Many times jerk received during laptop cleaning, repairing or moving laptops from one place to another place crashes hard drives easily. Hard drives have all the information and important data so it is very much essential to make ruggedized hard drives and ultimately ruggedized notebooks. Panasonic has identified this business gap and came up with excellent Panasonic toughbooks series.

Panasonic toughbook CF 53 hard drive can withstand drops from 70 to 90 cm height. If you choose “Road Warrior” version then toughbook can work for drop from 90cm heights also. Rather company gives this surety about Toughbook Cf 53. The screen is of 14 inches and it is HD screen (high definition). Toughbook battery is also tough and can work till 10 hours.

Making it Tough –
Many times professionals have to work in extreme environments. In such cases environmental conditions can vary from -20° Celsius to 60° Celsius. Our traditional electronic gadgets can work from 5° Celsius to 50° Celsius only. Beyond this limit software and hardware malfunctions or stops working completely. In such extreme conditions also toughbook can work in normal way which is the biggest advantage Panasonic toughbook offers.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Windows Azure Service Management API to deploy an application in Azure Hosted Service using c#

We had requirement to deploy azure cloud service on a button click of a website. The main hurdle was, client should not be required to use Azure Management Portal to deploy azure cloud service. In such case you can use Windows Azure Service Management API to perform administrative tasks like deploying an application, deleting a deployment etc on windows azure portal.
Following are the details how we can achieve this.
The size of cspkg file was bit large therefore I kept the cscfg and cspkg file both on blob storage. Hence package to be deployed on azure is present in your blob storage and you have public URL of cscfg and cspkg file.
Also make sure that the certificate you want to use is added in hosted service on azure portal and in your machine in “Personal” store as well as “Trusted Root Certification Authority”.

First of all add your subscription ID, azure account details, blob endpoint URL, certificate thumbprint, and certificate physical path to configuration file ServiceConfiguration.cscfg as shown –
<ConfigurationSettings>
<Setting name="AccountName" value="YourAccountName" />
      <Setting name="SharedKey" value="YourStorageKey" />           
<Setting name="SubscriptionId" value="YourSubscription ID" />     
      <Setting name="CertificatePassword" value="YourCertificatePassword " />
      <Setting name="CertificatePath" value="/Certificates/mycert.pfx" />
<Setting name="PackageFileURL" value="package file blob URL - https://YourAccountName.blob.core.windows.net/SampleApp.cspkg" />
<Setting name="ConfigFileURL" value="config file URL - https://YourAccountName.blob.core.windows.net/ServiceConfiguration.cscfg" />

</ConfigurationSettings>

<Certificates>
      <Certificate name="mycert" thumbprint="mycert thumbprint" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" />
    </Certificates>