Raspberry Pi DOS Emulation

In the recent MagPi magazine issue 95 there is an article on creating a DOS emulation on the Raspberry Pi.

Using a newer and more powerful DOSBox emulator called DOSBox-X, plus a 4GB or 8GB Raspberry Pi 4, you can run a number of DOS-based Microsoft Windows operating systems - including Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME - plus all the software and games written for DOS or these versions of Windows.

Additionally DOSBox-X has an advanced graphical interface to help with machine configuration and virtual disk-swapping.

Windows IoT on the Raspberry Pi 3

At the same time as the Raspberry Pi 3 announcement a Microsoft blog post talked about the Pi 3 compatible preview version of its Windows 10 operating system for IoT Devices.

To discover more about Windows 10 IoT Core development visit the Windows 10 IoT website.

Microsoft also said it is in talks with Element14 about pre-loading Windows 10 IoT Core onto Pi devices.

However, with its 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and 1GB RAM the Raspberry Pi 3 might be powerful enough to run a full version of Windows. And that would be an interesting development.

Begin Pi 3 coding with my Learn Python on the Raspberry Pi tutorials.

Python Mobile Apps with Kivy

Are you keen to create Smartphone and tablet apps but don't want abandon Python?

Well you can with Kivy.

Led by professional software developer team the Kivy community has developed a cross-platform, open source Python library with support for multi-touch interfaces.

Kivy is 100% free to use under an MIT license (previous to version 1.7.2 it was LGPL 3). So you can also use it for commercial purposes.

Kivy code runs unchanged on all supported platforms, namely Linux, Windows, Android plus Apple's OS X and iOS. It has a reputation for stability, a well documented API and a how-to-get-started programming guide.

Many native inputs and protocols are supported by Kivy such as WM_Touch, WM_Pen, Mtdev, Linux Kernel HID, TUIO plus Mac OS X Trackpad and Magic Mouse. And there's also a multi-touch mouse simulator.

The toolkit includes over 20 coder-extensible widgets, with elements written in C using Cython for performance.

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) acceleration is built-in thanks to a graphics engine built over OpenGL ES 2 and incorporating a fast graphics pipeline.

The code example below (taken from the Kivy website) illustrates the Kivy app basics:

from kivy.app import App
from kivy.uix.button import Button

class TestApp(App):
  def build(self):
    return Button(text='Hello World')

TestApp().run()

More Raspberry Pi Python Coding Tutorials

 

Windows 10 IoT for Raspberry Pi 2

At its Build 2015 conference Microsoft has released preview images of its Windows 10 operating system for IoT Devices, including the Raspberry Pi 2 image.

Before downloading the image you'll need became part of the Early Adopter Community by becoming signing to to the Windows Developer Program for IoT.

The Windows 10 IoT website has lots more information of the operating system plus documentation and tutorials, a collection of example IoT projects and some useful FAQs.

Start coding on your Pi with my Learn Python on the Raspberry Pi tutorial.

Hello Surface 3, Goodbye Windows RT

At the beginning of April Microsoft announced the Surface 3, its new entry point device to compliment the Pro 3 range.

It has a fan-less Quad-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom x7 processor rather than a faster but more expensive Intel Core processor. This is a high performance Atom processor with a 2.4GHz turbo boost mode and advanced power management.

Most importantly with Intel inside a Surface 3 runs the full version of Windows 8.1 plus every existing and upcoming Windows application, tool or utility.

Yet, you may recall Microsoft's previous entry-level Surface devices ran something called Windows RT. This is because the Surface RT devices used the lower-cost ARM chip rather than an x86-compatible Intel processor.

However, the problem with Windows RT apps is that they have to be recompiled specifically for the ARM platform. And, in the end, not enough of these RT-flavour apps became available. So, despite a significant cost advantage, a Surface RT consumer ended up with a far less practical computing device.

With the introduction of the Surface 3 we can be assured the Windows RT experiment is over. This particular operating system is now obsolete. A direction many observers predicted when Microsoft announced a trade-in deal for older Surface RT and Surface Pro models.

Now it's Windows 8.1 for everyone, with a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it appears later this year.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Windows 10: Free download? Minecraft included?

The fees charged for its Windows operating system licences are a significant revenue earner for Microsoft. So, it might seem an unlikely prospect.

And yet, early in 2014 Microsoft reduced its licence fee to manufacturers of low-cost PCs. While in April 2014 it announced free licences for smartphones and tablets with screen sizes smaller than 9 inches.

Of course, Apple did just this in 2013 when it made its OS X Mavericks available on the Mac App Store as a free upgrade for all Mac users running Snow Leopard or above. And offered the same deal when OS X Yosemite launched in 2014.

Minecraft Giveaway?

And what are Microsoft's plans for Minecraft after its $2.5 billion acquisition?

There's been a wall of silence so far. Although Minecraft modding integration with Microsoft's .NET development platform, toolset and coding languages seems likely.

But could this hugely popular game be included for free in a Home or Community Edition of Windows 10?

Maybe the Microsoft event scheduled for the 21st January 2015 will shed some light on Minecraft's future?

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Microsoft and Minecraft: New Possibilities

Microsoft's purchase of Minecraft was certainly a surprise. But what does it actually mean for the Minecraft community?

Gamers have little to fear. It makes no sense to make radical changes to this global phenomenon and risk losing its revered position among kids, parents and educators. There might even be new materials, animals, creatures and social interaction options.

As far as modders it's potentially good news too. This purchase could lead to a whole new collection of cool technology, tools and gaming enhancements.

Here's just a few of the Minecraft modding possibilities:

New Languages. While Java is almost certain to remain, Microsoft's .NET technology would enable developers to use multiple languages on the same project. The C# language syntax has a striking similarity to Java, so the learning curve would be minimal. While a Visual Basic or JavaScript option might attract a whole new generation of Minecraft modders.

New Tools. Microsoft Visual Studio development environment is, quite rightly, recognised as a leader in ease-of-use, productivity and multi-language flexibility. Both novice and experience developers would benefit from such an advanced tool. So, maybe Microsoft will release a free community edition of Visual Studio specifically for Minecraft modding activities.

New Platforms. The Raspberry Pi edition of Minecraft, with its built-in Python hacking API, has been a huge success. Microsoft could take this concept and roll it out to PCs and various mobile platforms. This new product could offer enhanced gameplay features, a larger and more powerful API and the choice of development language.

Azure Hosting. Microsoft could release tools which make it a simple operation to build a Minecraft modding server on its Windows Azure cloud network. This would free up modders from having to create their own internet-connected PC setup.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Windows 10 (Threshold) Features

At Microsoft's press event on 30 September the audience is expected to see a sneak preview of the next version of Windows, codenamed Threshold.

In the following months developers can expect to have an early preview of Windows 10 to play with, and a public release could happen by the middle of 2015.

So, what changes can we expect?

Reincarnated Start Menu

Rumours are surrounding about a new Start Menu. The existence of a Start Menu has been partly fuelled by a particular Microsoft screenshot, briefly shown at its Worldwide Partner Conference in July.

Indications suggest this wont be a rehash of the old-style start menu, but something quite new, taking design hints from the existing Start Screen.

A new Start Menu is likely to exhibit both compact and full-screen configurations. The latter might look rather similar to the current Start Screen.

Interactive Live Tiles

The latest incarnation of the Modern UI is said to feature both interactive Live Tiles and a new Notification Centre. The existence of interactive Live Tiles was reported back in April 2014.

An interactive Live Tile allows users to perform a range of app-specific tasks without actually opening the application. Although, in reality, this functionality would only applicable to a limited subset of Live Tiles.

Form Factor Modes

Windows 10 might offer different startup modes depending on the host device form factor. This would ensure the most appropriate interface is presented by default.

So, desk-bound and laptop devices would obviously go straight to desktop mode. But as yet it's unclear if this would be a single, hardwired mode or whether users would have the option to select the startup mode they prefer.

This would be a significant change from Windows 8.1, and one that's sure to please the business community.

Virtual Desktops

Virtual desktop functionality has been an integral part of Mac OS X and Linux for many years now. The ability to switch between multiple desktops - each with their own collection of windows - is an important productivity feature for power users.

So far Microsoft hasn't gone the down this route. However, with its increased desktop focus Threshold could sport virtual desktop capability. So look out for a new taskbar button and keyboard shortcuts in Windows 10.

Charms Rethink

The Charms Bar has also been the focus of much discussion. Strong indications point to the removal of the current screen corner mouse activation.

Yet many applications rely on the Search, Share, Devices and Settings charms. So, it's unlikely they will disappear altogether. But exactly how they'll be accommodated in the UI is unclear.

Cortana Integration

Cortana is Microsoft's answer to Siri. Owners of smartphones running Windows Phone can ask (or type) questions for Cortana's artificial intelligence software to answer.

Up to now Cortana hasn't appeared on Windows desktops and tablets. But Windows 10 might be the point when we see a dedicated Cortana Live Tile. Though it remains to be seen if Microsoft retains the famous 'typical dark' interface.

Cortana in Windows 10 could offer enhanced voice input features to improve accessibility. And may incorporate an improved interpretation and analysis feedback mechanism.

New Update Strategy

Microsoft might change its current Windows update cycle to a month-by-month one. In this way consumers would receive new and updated features much more promptly. And the whole update process could receive a streamlined makeover.

However, enterprise customers generally evaluation new updates before deployment. So monthly updates would put their IT departments under a lot of pressure. And recent events suggest even Microsoft has its own problems with testing.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Microsoft Surface M

Will we see a Microsoft Surface M device, running on Intel's new Broadwell 14nm Core M processor chip, before the end of 2014?

The Core M operates at lower power levels and generates less heat. Yet it still runs Windows 8 applications at performance levels similar to existing Intel Core chips.

All models in the Core M chip range have two physical cores plus a 4MB L3 cache. Speeds can by dynamically scaled for both the CPU (800MHz to 2GHz or 1.1GHz to 2.6GHz) and GPU (100MHz to 800MHz).

This means a Core M powered device would have:

• a Sleek, Thin and Light design (no cooling fan required)
• improved Battery Life (compared to Surface Pro models)
• full Compatibility with Windows software (unlike the Surface RT)
• Intel Core-like Performance (superior to an Atom processor)

One form factor for the Surface M would be an ultra-lightweight 10.5 inch device. Or it could be stretched out to 12 inches (like the Surface Pro 3) without incurring much weight penalty.

In fact, Intel partners have already demonstrated Core M powered 12.5 inch reference tablets at Computex. One was just over 7mm thin, weighed less than 700g and yet still had a 32 watt-hour battery (the Surface Pro 3 is 9.1mm and weights 800g).

So, the Surface M would be an excellent replacement for the Surface RT. And now that Satya Nadella has announced Microsoft is to focus on a unified cross-platform OS, it slots beautifully into this new strategy.

With Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 sales already exceeding early predictions, a Surface M could be the perfect addition to the family.

But Microsoft need to hurry. I'm sure Apple have plenty of ideas for Intel's Core M chip too. For example a new range of Macbooks or even a hybrid iPad/Macbook.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Microsoft Positivity

Microsoft's latest results look incredibly positive. This is especially true in the area of cloud computing, and in particular Office 365 and Windows Azure.

Office 365 subscribers have passed the 2 million mark. Many home users need access to the real thing (rather than office-like alternatives) and a subscription offers great value. The same subscription model suits businesses too as it keeps costs under control.

As for Window Azure it continues to make big strides. While there's a long way to go before it reaches Amazon's hold on this segment of the marketplace it's already well ahead of the rest, including Google's App Engine and the various offerings from IBM, HP, Oracle and such.

Why is this? As I showed in my recent articles (part 1 and part 2) Azure not only has enviable technology scope but is also a leader in promoting openness. Openness in service access, in coding languages, in frameworks, in industry standards and in development tools. How things change...

Obviously Microsoft needs to change to survive. And it is. More importantly lots of organisations and influential developers are noticing. Momentum is growing and it would seem the only way is up.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Microsoft: One Big Opportunity

So Steve Ballmer is on his way. His publicised plans for a company-wide reorganisation failed to excite shareholders or markets. They will go down in history as his swan song.

Yet his resignation caused a seven percent rise in Microsoft's stock price. A strong indication now is the perfect opportunity for a fresh start.

While there's any number of internal candidates, it's time to look outside Microsoft's corporate walls. There's a desperate need for fresh blood to invigorate and reenergise the company.

The challenge is to find someone like Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg or Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. Appointing the right person would herald a gripping new chapter in the Microsoft story.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

What's the scope of Microsoft's Bing Platform

Microsoft recently launched the Bing Platform for developers.

So, what's the full scope of the Bing platform? The answer is much larger than most people realise. Here's a brief summary in alphabetical order.

• Bing Ads, formally known as the adCenter, enables publishers to monetize their websites through pay-per-click advertising scenarios.

• Bing Dictionary is based on Microsoft's Encarta World English Dictionary. An associated audio player facility enables users to hear word pronunciations.

• Bing Entertainment has searchable, detailed information and reviews on music, movies, TV shows and video games. In addition users have direct access to Bing Online Games through a close partnership with Microsoft Games.

• Bing Events is linked to the Zvents database (zvents.com) which hosts a constantly updated collection of upcoming events. Searches reveal event descriptions, dates, times and venues. And there's also a ticket purchase facility.

• Bing Finance features include stock searches, company profiles, market statistics, stock ratings, historical data, financial statements and analyst recommendations. Filters screen stocks appropriate for value contrarian, high-yield and bargain investment strategies.

• Bing Health aims to help users navigate complex medical topics. Health-related information is gathered from a variety of trusted sources, including the Mayo Clinic, National Institutes of Health and Medicine and the Microsoft acquired Medstory.

• Bing Images refines search results by image size, layout, colour (or black and while only) and type. It also incorporates facial recognition technology. Search result pages have an attractive, generated tile layout and an infinite scroll feature.

• Bing Local taps into business listings and reviews for your local area. There's a close integration with Bing Maps and Events.

• Bing Maps offers high quality road and satellite maps, landmarks, route identification, traffic flow and bird's-eye views. Bing Maps for Enterprise introduces high-resolution 3D panoramas, which allow users to fly over cityscapes and around buildings.

• Bing News is a convenient aggregator for a wide range of online news and information.

• Bing Recipes serves up foody ideas from data stored by Delish.com, MyRecipes.com and Epicurious.com. Search criteria includes ingredients, methods, courses, cuisine convenience or occasion.

• Bing Reference generates semantic indexes to Wikipedia pages. This capability is highly reliant on the natural language search engine technology Microsoft acquired from its Powerset company purchase.

• Bing Social finds real-time information from Twitter and Facebook, prioritised on relevance and context. It's currently limited to public feeds from the last seven days.

• Bing Shopping is the place to discover online products and goods. Microsoft has developed a number of strategic partnerships, such as with eBay's Commerce Network.

• Bing Translator allows users to translate web pages or specific text into over 40 languages (including two Star Trek Klingon dialects). The service offers a side-by-side text comparison and a mouse-hover translation feature.

• Bing Travel uses predictive algorithms to determine the best time to purchase airfares and hotel reservations. This technology was the drive behind Microsoft's acquisition of Farecast.com.

• Bing Videos has a fast, powerful search engine with multiple categorisations and an in-results-page Smart Preview feature. MSN Video users can access editorial content.

• Bing Visual Search appeared in 2012. Powered by Microsoft's Silverlight technology it enables users to refine their search queries through an image-based interface.

• Bing Weather is a highly regarded, richly graphical Windows 8 app, complete with animation. It uses data from multiple sources, such as Foreca (foreca.com), to deliver weather reports from around the globe, plus extended 10 day forecasts.

• Bing Wolfram Alpha came out of a partnership with the Wolfram Research (wolfram.com). Behind the natural language interface search results are generated using computational algorithms and a knowledge base of curated data, instead of the more usual semantic search engine.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Microsoft Under Pressure

Microsoft is under pressure as never before.

Reaction to Windows 8 is at best mixed.
Millions of RT Surface devices lie unsold in warehouses.
Nokia isn't selling nearly enough Windows Mobile smartphones.
First quarter 2013 revenue was down eight percent.
Profits are dwindling fast.
And now there's been dramatic share sell-off.

It puts even more pressure on Ballmer's company-wide reorganisation, which amounts to one of the biggest upheavals since Microsoft's inception in 1972.

Ballmer's can only hope his call to arms memo will have far greater impact than the 1995 Bill Gates memo.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

How much should an RT Surface tablet cost?

With millions of RT Surface tablets gathering dust on warehouse shelves, Microsoft has slashed the price.

But is it enough? What is the right price?

After all, it's certainly a powerful device with a rich, powerful operating system capable of both desktop and tablet functionality. Yet, it doesn't have allure of an Apple device - and probably never will.

However, presenting consumers with a straight, equal-cost choice between a 7.9" iPad Mini or a 10.6" RT Surface, complete with free touch keyboard cover, might prove interesting.

Would that be enough to swing the pendulum in Microsoft's favour?

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Hybrid PCs, Microsoft Surface and Windows 8

Hybrid PCs aim to provide all the advantages of a handheld tablet with a fully functional laptop.

Discover their potential, including an appraisal of the new Microsoft Surface devices, in my Micro Mart issue 1232 six page feature article - out today.

Here are a few extracts:

Laptops are essentially a portable desktop machine, complete with powerful processor, large storage capacity, enhanced connectivity, well-specified operating systems and fully-featured application software. Their owners need a device that supports a wide variety of construction-focussed activities. A device that can create and edit office documents, write blogs and articles, fabricate and process images, produce and manipulate videos, design and build websites, or develop and test software apps.

However, a tablet is quite a different proposition. It's a consumption-centric device, aimed primarily at leisure and entertainment activities. Tablet owners want to swipe through photos, kick back with a video, catch up on missed TV programmes, listen to music, play games, surf the web and read ebooks. The smaller 7 inch screen versions are ideal when reclining on the couch, visiting a coffee shop, travelling by train and packing the holiday suitcase. Tablets with high definition 9 to 11 inch screens are more suited to business professionals and researchers, who wish to read documents, magazines and websites without recourse to frequent zooming in and out.

A successful hybrid device must cater for both construction and consumption activities. It's quite a challenge. Any device attempting to run office suites, software development tools or high-end image and video manipulation applications must have a reasonable screen size, adequate CPU and graphics horsepower, plus a good quality keyboard. Yet, lightness, portability, touch-centric operation and long battery life are the prerequisites for tablets you can pop into your bag as you head out of the door.

Take the Surface device case for example. It's thin and light, constructed from a unique VapourMg material. VapourMg combines the strength and lightness of magnesium with an industry-first process that forms a tough, scratch-resistant, subtly tactile finish. It has a superbly designed, integrated flip-out stand with a high-quality, dependable hinge mechanism - all in the same VapourMg material. Despite the sleek form it's still endowed with a good selection of connectivity, including full-sized USB ports.

Then there's the snap-on covers, complete with integral keyboard and trackpad. They're attached magnetically in an easy snap-on operation, yet hold securely. They protect the screen and give a reassuring 'book-like' feel when carrying the device around.

The crux of the Windows 8 architecture is its dual personality. The classic desktop mode still exists to deliver that familiar productive experience and ability to run the powerful software required for office, web, multimedia and software development activities.

However, the desktop is now supplemented by a new Metro-style user interface. This UI offers a radically different, colourful, touch-friendly user experience. Gone are the fiddly menu options, scroll bars and general multiple window clutter. They're replaced by a collection of horizontally sliding tiles supporting swish-able panels, pinch-able zooms and gesture invoked operations.

The Metro-style UI is attractive, clean and fast. The 'live tiles' deliver real-time, dynamically-updated content, such as weather reports, RSS feeds, new email messages and tweets. It successfully creates the sort of laid-back, consumption-mode experience that's best enjoyed while reclining in a comfy chair, lolling around on the sofa, or sipping your cappuccino.

Purchase Micro Mart back issues in a variety of formats at the Zinio website for just £1.49 each.

Read more Microsoft analysis posts.

Microsoft Excel 2010 Formulas and Functions Inside Out by By Egbert Jeschke, Helmut Reinke, Sara Unverhau, Eckehard Pfeifer, Bodo Fienitz, Jens Bock

There's plenty of books on the subject of Excel, so I was interested to see how Microsoft Excel 2010 Formulas and Functions Inside Out would fare in such competition. Weighing in at 1088 pages, and split into four sections, it certainly falls into the comprehensive reference category.

In the first section a problem solving approach offers a speedy orientation to some of Excel's most useful formulas and functions. The many insights, tips and tricks also whet the appetite for what's to come.

The second section lifts functions out from the worksheet cells, and spotlights how they can be used within macros to deliver more sophisticated programming solutions. It's a good place to discover new concepts and ideas. Many of these solutions also include visual and charting scenarios, plus there's an introduction to creating custom functions with Excel's built-in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) development tools.

In both these sections the content is attractively presented in a practical step-by-step flow. Most pages have at least one colourful image, figure or table. The text is further supplemented by plenty of embedded boxes containing notes, tips, associated information and references to sample files. It's a presentation style that lends itself to the experimental approach, rather than a long reading session.

Although not strictly in the formula and function domain, the authors have also thrown in examples of the new PowerPivot in action. A feature I'm sure will be heavily utilised by 2010 edition owners.

Section three is dedicated to in-depth function explanations, suitably organised into category-specific chapters. Despite the technical nature of the content, even here there's no shortage of colourful graphics and informative boxes.

And finally, the appendixes contain the obligatory function lists in A-Z and category arranged format, plus a summary of the features new to Excel 2010.

The comprehensive nature of this reference is further enhanced by a suitably large collection of downloadable sample files. These samples are fully cross referenced by chapter usage at the front of the book.

In conclusion this book is a strong product in this competitive marketplace. It's certainly a book I could recommend to anyone with a basic understanding of Excel and a desire to dig deeper into its potential. And despite being aimed at Excel 2010, there's still a great deal of value for 2003 and 2007 version users.

People Power

This week's Micro Mart magazine, issue 1153, published my latest feature article, People Power.

It's an investigation into how, in our modern world, a few individuals can enact changes that cause rapid, radical and long lasting consequences for the IT industry.

It questions the justification for the enormous R&D budgets employed by the likes of Microsoft and Nokia, when compared with free spirited, shoe-string budget initiatives that create hugely popular, globally significant products in the social, mobile and entertainment arenas.

Click to read more analysis articles and posts.