Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft will no longer be developing products under the Expression brand.  Microsoft has the following products under the Expression Suite:

• Expression Web, HTML editor and web design program
• Expression Design, vector graphics editor
• Expression Encoder Pro, Video editing tool for authoring VC-1 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC contents
• Expression Blend, graphical user interface builder for XAML or HTML applications
• SuperPreview, complementary web design program for testing compatibility and performance
• SketchFlow, complementary user interface tool that facilitate workflow design

Plans for much of the technology includes rolling it into our primary development suite, Visual Studio.  Here is the announcement from the Expression web page:

Microsoft Expression Changes

The proliferation of rich interactive web applications across the cloud and mobile devices continues to create new opportunities for creative design and development. As these technologies evolve, Microsoft is committed to providing best-in-class tools for building modern applications. In support of these industry trends Microsoft is consolidating our lead design offering — Expression and Visual Studio — to offer all of our customers a unified solution that brings together the best of Web and modern development patterns.

• Blend will be fully integrated with Visual Studio 2012. Blend for Visual Studio 2012 provides a rich design-centric environment for building Windows Store apps and Windows Phone apps. In addition to that, WPF, Silverlight and SketchFlow support is available today as a preview and will be released in Visual Studio 2012 Update 2.
• Expression Studio 4 Ultimate and Expression Studio 4 Web Professional are no longer available for sale. For customers who previously purchased these products, all components within Ultimate and Web Professional will be supported through their support lifecycle.
• Expression Design 4 and Expression Web 4 are now available for download at no charge. Technical support will not be available for these free versions.
• Expression Encoder 4 Pro will be available for purchase through 2013. Expression Encoder 4 remains available for download at no charge.

NEWS: Microsoft Expression Changes
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

DOWNLOAD:  Microsoft Expression … “now available for free” products

• Expression Design
• Expression Web
• Expression Encoder 4 with SP1

UPDATE 12/20/2:36PM
Oops.  That was quick.  If you missed it… sorry.

———————

ORIGINAL POST:
Want a 32GB USB 3.0 SuperTalent Flash drive for $19?  It’s not the same as the Windows-to-Go certified SuperTalent Express RC8 but it would appear that the device’s read I/O performance is awesome.

I don’t know if this will work for Windows-to-Go but it is USB 3.0 and even if it doesn’t work well, it’d still be awesome for using as a boot device for installing machines with different operating systems.  (See my post on multibooting a USB flash drive to install from the .ISO file of your choice)

• DEAL: 32GB USB 3.0 SuperTalent Flash drive for $19
  (As of 12/20/12 11:22AM PST, this deal is still available)
  http://www.icemonkey.com/super-talent-32gb-usb-3-0-express-st1-flash-drive

Great article listing many of the individuals that tweet regularly from Microsoft or about Microsoft.  They did leave out a few key folks however:

1. @ie – Internet Explorer team
2. @stevecla – Next @ Microsoft
3. @benthepcguy – Ben Rudolph, the PC guy
4. @markrussinovich – Mark Russinovich
5. @Carnage4Life – Dare Obasanjo

ENGADGET:  Who Should I Follow on Twitter – Microsoft Edition
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/17/who-should-i-follow-on-twitter-microsoft-edition/

So you bought an HTC Windows Phone 8X ‘eh?  Congratulations!  Now it’s time to SUIT UP.  Get your credit card cuz we’re goin’ SHOPPING for your new phone.  And we’re gonna get everything that you need.

PowerGen Dual Port USB 2.1A 10W AC Travel Wall Charger ($9.90)
This is a 2.1A 5V USB AC Adapter which will charge your phone at its maximum rate.  I specifically selected this adapter however because it contains over-current protection circuitry.  You have to be careful about which chargers you purchase because they can decrease the life of your Lithium Ion battery if they burst with a charge, which can potentially generate something akin to the ‘memory effect’ of old where your battery no longer holds a 100% charge.  It will also automatically shut off after your battery’s charged to avoid unnecessary wear.  Safe ramp 2A chargers are more expensive so don’t skimp on your charging equipment.
http://www.amazon.com/PowerGen-Travel-Charger-Devices-included/dp/tech-data/B0073FCPSK

HTC Windows Phone 8X Soft Cover Candy Skin Gel Case Accessory (Clear Checker)
Now before you pooh pooh the design, I chose this among 4 different gel cases that I ACTUALLY TRIED.  Here’s the criteria I used:

• Flat NON-MATTE finish
• Tight gel fit
• Clear casing
• Under $5

After evaluating several, I ended up with this case.  It fits extremely well compared to the others and it doesn’t have a rough matte finish, which I do not want because believe it or not, the matte finish makes the device ‘slick’ and makes it easier to slide around in the car or in your hand.  Additionally, I wanted a clear casing to show off the ‘California Blue’.  As you can see, I compromised a little with the checker pattern which I’m not crazy about but whatever. 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HTC-Windows-Phone-8X-SOFT-COVER-CANDY-SKIN-GEL-CASE-ACCESSORY-CLEAR-CHECKER-/121031440192

Anker® Astro Christmas Family Gift Holiday Pack 4 External Batteries ($99.99)
Get this while you can.  These are Anker rechargeable external batteries for your Windows Phone 8.  You only need one but at the price they’re putting these at, you might as well get the Christmas pack for you and your family.  Anker batteries are EXTREMELY reliable and store a ton of power to charge your phone when you’re running low on power.  It also charges at 1A 5V so it’ll charge quickly.  You can keep it in your pocket with your phone plugged in and have a full charge in 30min.
http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Holiday-External-Batteries-10000mAh/dp/B009X8VELO

Energizer Qi-Enabled 3-Position Inductive Charger ($64.98) 
The HTC 8X from Verizon Wireless SPECIFICALLY is unique in that it has built in wireless charging.  All it requires is a charging pad/mat and that’s what this is.  For $65, you basically get a pad that allows you to charge the phone without plugging anything in, along with any other Qi wireless charging technology device. (It has room for 2 devices)  This is a really good deal and well known in Windows Phone wireless charging circles as a great value.
http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Qi-Enabled-Position-Inductive-Charger/dp/B0041RRORA/

I occasionally plug a 3rd party product because I found it useful and I figure there are others out there that might do so as well. 

Everyone occasionally needs to publish to .PDF.  The question is, what’s the best, most cost effective way of doing so?  I’ve used FoxIt Phantom Express as well as Adobe Acrobat in the past and paid for both products.  I’ve had issues with both frankly, in that FoxIt had publishing inaccuracies and Acrobat was sluggish and very expensive.

On the recommendation of a friend, I switched to Bullzip PDF Printer partially for it’s stability & accuracy but mostly for it’s support on Windows 8 x64.

The Bullzip PDF Printer works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application.

This program is FREEWARE with limitations, which means that it is FREE for personal and commercial use up to 10 users. It does not contain any advertising or popups. For commercial applications with more than 10 users there is a commercial version of the product available at www.biopdf.com.

Features

• Print to PDF from almost any Windows program.
• Runs on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/XP x64/2003/2003 x64/Vista/Vista x64/2008/Windows 7.
• Supports 64-bit operating systems.
• Direct output to the same file each time or prompt for destination.
• Control if the printer should ask if you want to see the resulting PDF document.
• Control output and prompts programmatically.
• Setup can run unattended.
• Graphical user interface.
• Password protect PDF documents.
• 128/40 bit encryption.
• Quality settings (screen, printer, ebook, prepress).
• Set document properties.
• Watermark text, size, rotation, and transparency.
• Superimpose/background documents.
• Appending/prepending documents.
• User interface control.
• Command line interface to all settings.
• COM/ActiveX interface for programmatic control.
• Support for Citrix MetaFrame
• Support for Windows Terminal Server
• Multiple output types supported: BMP, JPEG, PCX, PDF, PNG, and TIFF.

DOWNLOAD:  BullZIP PDF Printer
http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

Does iOS support the ability to disable Bluetooth via Exchange ActiveSync Policy enforcement?

Does Android support the the ability to block/allow certain applications via Exchange ActiveSync Policy enforcement?

If you’ve been asking these questions, this table’s for you. 

This is the Exchange ActiveSync Client Comparison table and shows what capabilities of Exchange ActiveSync are enabled through the 3rd party implementations of EAS on each client platform.  The following client sync platforms are listed:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• Windows Mobile 6.5
• Windows Phone 7.0
• Apple iOS 4.2
• Nokia MFE 3.0.50
• Google Android 2.2
• Nitrodesk TouchDown 6.2
• NotifySync 4.7
• Palm WebOS 1.4.5
• MailSite AstraSync 4.2

Additionally, the following versions of Exchange Server are listed:

• Exchange ActiveSync 2.5 – Exchange Server 2003 SP2
• Exchange ActiveSync 12.0 – Exchange Server 2007
• Exchange ActiveSync 12.1 – Exchange Server 2007 SP1
• Exchange ActiveSync 14.0 – Exchange Server 2010
• Exchange ActiveSync 14.1 – Exchange Server 2010 SP1

Check the table out here:

• INFO: Exchange ActiveSync Client Comparison Table
  http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1150.exchange-activesync-client-comparison-table.aspx
• INFO: Exchange ActiveSync: Frequently asked questions
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb288524.aspx

This is a PDF file of the "Moving Applications to the Cloud, Third Edition" book.

This guide is the third edition of the first volume in a series about Windows Azure. It demonstrates how you can adapt an existing on-premises ASP.NET application to one that operates in the cloud by introducing a fictitious company named Adatum that modifies its expense tracking and reimbursement system, aExpense, so that it can be deployed to Windows Azure. To illustrate the wide range of options and features in Windows Azure, this guide and the code examples available for it show a step-by-step migration process that includes using Windows Azure Web Sites, Virtual Machines, Cloud Services, and SQL Database. Together with useful information on developing, deploying, managing, and costing cloud-hosted applications, this guide provides you with a comprehensive resource for moving your applications to Window Azure.

• DOWNLOAD: “Moving Apps to the Cloud 3rd Edition” (.PDF, 3.4 MB)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29252
• DOWNLOAD: “Moving Apps to the Cloud 3rd Edition” – Hands-on-Labs (8.7MB)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20181

Watch this.  Yeah.  I thought it was Portal-like too.  And it’s free.  98MB for Windows.

DOWNLOAD: “Perspective” (88MB)
http://seewithperspective.com/

My coworker, Brian Larson, took this list of apps from Engadget and added strikethroughs on apps that we have available on Windows Phone 8.

Top Free iPhone Apps:

1. YouTube Google, Inc.
2. Instagram, Burbn, inc.
3. Draw Something Free, OMGPOP, Inc.
4. Flashlight Ⓞ, iHandy Inc.
5. Facebook , Facebook, Inc.
6. Pandora Radio, Pandora Media, Inc.
7. Temple Run, Imangi Studios, LLC
8. Pinterest Pinterest, Inc.
9. Twitter, Twitter Inc.
10. Skype, Skype

Top Paid iPhone Apps:

1. Angry Birds Space, Rovio Entertainment Ltd
2. WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Inc.
3. Draw Something, OMGPOP, Inc.
4. Camera+ tap tap tap LLC
5. Where’s My Water? Walt Disney
6. Angry Birds Star Wars, Rovio Entertainment Ltd
7. Fruit Ninja, Halfbrick
8. Angry Birds, Rovio Entertainment Ltd
9. Bejeweled, PopCap
10. TETRIS® Electronic Arts Inc.

Top Free iPad Apps:

1. Skype for iPad, Skype Communications S.a.r.l
2. Temple Run, Imangi Studios, LLC
3. Facebook, Facebook, Inc.
4. Netflix, Netflix, Inc.
5. The Weather Channel® for iPad, The Weather Channel
6. Draw Something Free, OMGPOP, Inc.
7. Kindle – Read Books, eBooks, Magazines, Newspapers & Textbooks, AMZN Mobile LLC
8. Pandora Radio, Pandora Media Inc.
9. Angry Birds HD Free, Rovio Entertainment
10. Calculator Pro for iPad Free, MYW Productions

Top Paid iPad Apps:

1. Angry Birds Space HD, Rovio Entertainment Ltd
2. Where’s My Water? Walt Disney
3. Pages, Apple Inc.
4. Draw Something, OMGPOP, Inc.
5. Notability – Take Notes & Annotate PDFs with Dropbox & Google Drive
6. Sync Ginger Labs, Inc.
7. Angry Birds Star Wars HD, Rovio Entertainment Ltd
8. iPhoto Apple Inc.
9. Minecraft – Pocket Edition Mojang AB
10. Where’s My Perry? Walt Disney
11. Words With Friends HD Zynga Mobile

———————-

EPILOGUE:  Best troll comment on the original Engadget post comes from what I can only assume is an Apple fanboy, in response to all the Android/Google bias amongst the commenters:

And the top apps for the Google Play store is:

1. Virus scanner
2. Malware detector
3. Virus remover
4. Malware remover
5. Root my Droid
6. iOS emulator
7. Wallpaper
8. Flashlight
9. Battery manager
10. Pirated apps

Windows Deployment is for OEMs and IT professionals who customize and automate the large-scale installation of Windows, such as on a factory floor or across an organization. The Windows ADK supports this work with the deployment tools that were previously released as part of the OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) and the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and include Windows Preinstallation Environment, Deployment Imaging, Servicing and Management, and Windows System Image Manager.

IT Professionals can use features in the Windows ADK to facilitate deployment of a new version of Windows. The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) inventories applications used in your organization and identifies potential applications compatibility issues. With the User State Migration Tool (USMT), IT Professionals can migrate user data from existing Windows installations. Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) enables IT professionals to Windows installations in their organization and manage the activation status of their PCs.

Assessments are for OEMs, IHVs, and IT professionals who measure the operational characteristics of a computer, including its performance, reliability, and functionality. Windows assessments are tools that help you make these measurements, diagnose problems, and determine how to make improvements. Windows assessments can help reduce costs by identifying potential issues as you create your hardware and software experiences. By using these tools, you can help ensure that the hardware and software that you develop are responsive and high-quality.

Features available in the Windows ADK include:

• Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT)
  The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) helps IT Professionals understand potential application compatibility issues by identifying which applications are or are not compatible with the new versions of the Windows operating system. ACT helps to lower costs for application compatibility evaluation by providing an accurate inventory of the applications in your organization. ACT helps you to deploy Windows more quickly by helping to prioritize, test, and detect compatibility issues with your apps. By using ACT, you can become involved in the ACT Community and share your risk assessment with other ACT users. You can also test your web applications and web sites for compatibility with new releases of Internet Explorer. For more information, see Application Compatibility Toolkit.
• Deployment Tools
  Deployment tools enable you to customize, manage, and deploy Windows images. Deployment tools can be used to automate Windows deployments, removing the need for user interaction during Windows setup. Tools included with this feature are Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management (DISM) command line tool, DISM PowerShell cmdlets, DISM API, Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM), and OSCDIMG. For more information, see Deployment Tools.
• User State Migration Tool (USMT)
  USMT is a scriptable command line tool that IT Professionals can use to migrate user data from a previous Windows installation to a new Windows installation. By using USMT, you can create a customized migration framework that copies the user data you select and excludes any data that does not need to be migrated. Tools included with the feature are ScanState, Loadstate, and USMTUtils command line tools. For more information, see User State Migration Tool.
• Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT)
  The Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) enables IT professionals to automate and centrally manage the activation of Windows, Windows Server, Windows ThinPC, Windows POSReady 7, select add-on product keys, and Office for computers in their organization. VAMT can manage volume activation using retail keys (or single activation keys), multiple activation keys (MAKs), or Windows Key Management Service (KMS) keys. For more information, see Volume Activation Management Tool.
• Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT)
  Windows Performance Toolkit includes tools to record system events and analyze performance data in a graphical user interface. Tools available in this toolkit include Windows Performance Recorder, Windows Performance Analyzer, and Xperf. For more information, see Windows Performance Toolkit.
• Windows Assessment Toolkit
  Tools to discover and run assessments on a single computer. Assessments are tasks that simulate user activity and examine the state of the computer. Assessments produce metrics for various aspects of the system, and provide recommendations for making improvements. For more information, see Windows Assessment Toolkit.
• Windows Assessment Services
  Tools to remotely manage settings, computers, images, and assessments in a lab environment where Windows Assessment Services is installed. This application can run on any computer with access to the server that is running Windows Assessment Services. For more information, see Windows Assessment Services.
• Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)
  Minimal operating system designed to prepare a computer for installation and servicing of Windows. For more information, see Windows PE Technical Reference.

DOWNLOAD: Windows® Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows 8
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652