Another perspective of PHP as a programming language

Learning PHP wouldn’t be that difficult for beginners, if they have some prior exposure to other programming languages like C, C++ or Java. Most of the coding paradigms like conditional structures. Loop blocks are very similar to that of other high level languages. PHP runs with most of the webservers and run in many top operating systems. 

Ever since PHP is projected as a main stream programming language, it has been considered mainly for developing dynamic web pages. Apart from web applications, PHP is a strong contender for developing standalone applications also. PHP-GTK is a combination of PHP with Gimp Tool Kit (GTK) framework that enables development of standalone UI applications without the need of any webserver. Even more interesting, PHP scripts can also be used for embedded applications development. Unbelievable!, have a look here.

Recent releases of PHP also include support for object oriented programming. PHP provides many inbuilt libraries as reuse components and new libraries are imported easily. These libraries improve the robustness and flexibility of the language. This enables new developers to focus on the application logic rather than worrying about the functionalities. Having good knowledge of the available libraries enables rapid development of applications.

Intel unveils futuristic chip

The world’s leading chipmaker, Intel Technologies, unveiled its futuristic chip which was developed with significant contributions from its research and development centre in Bangalore.

The concept chip, which has 48-cores called ‘single-chip cloud computer,’ has processing power 20 times higher than the ones currently being used. The chip developed over a period of two years saw a team of 40 people across three labs of Intel globally -- Hillsboro, US, Braunschweig, Germany and Bangalore contributing equally to the project.

The Bangalore lab contributed in the areas of circuit and physical design, memory controller logic and the mesh interconnect network. According to Vasantha Erranguntla, senior engineering manager, Intel Labs India, “The single-chip cloud computer was designed as a concept vehicle for parallel software research.”
For now, this concept chip would be largely used for academic and research purposes. Intel’s 48 core chip is also an extension of its earlier research called the teraflop processor which had 80 cores, in which the Bangalore centre had a major part to play.

Intel started its R&D operations in Bangalore in 1998 and it has grown to become one of the largest centre outside US with an estimated headcount in excess of 2,500.

The Bangalore R&D centre has also been part of the various commercial launches of Intel with most notable being the six-core x86 microprocessor called the Xeon 7400 series.

The Xeon 7400 series saw the Bangalore centre executing the end-to-end design activity and also for the first time working on the 45 nm technology.

On the 48 core chip, Intel is expecting the processor to get into commercial production only in the next three to four years. This could be largely used in the area of data centres or conducting very large computing applications.

Though for now, Intel is looking to engage industry and academia next year by sharing 100 or more of these experimental chips for hands-on research in developing new software applications and programming models.

Ms Erranguntla said they were also holding discussions with several research labs and universities in India also to be part of this concept chip.

Microsoft Bing Maps go new

Microsoft has released a revamped version of Bing Maps with street views and other features already offered by rival Google's free online mapping service.

The Bing Maps upgrade released in beta, or test, form also boasts a gallery for applications, such as live traffic data feeds or input from travel webcams or Twitter Maps, according to Microsoft.

New features include letting users zoom in or out of immersive imagery stitched together for 360-degree viewing.

Bing Maps users can swoop down from "bird's eye" views all the way into buildings, according to Microsoft technical evangelist Chris Pendleton.

"With bird's eye, high resolution aerials, high fidelity, accurate road data plus the new addition of streetside photography and enhanced bird's eye all available in Bing Maps as map-based content, I think the game is afoot yet again!" Pendleton said in a blog post.

The overhaul is the result of years of work by Microsoft researchers, according to Bing director Stefan Weitz.

He added that the focus was to measure real world usefulness of the online maps by asking users "Did you accomplish what you were trying to do?" instead of simply whether they found what they were seeking.

Nokia Ovi Store: A 360 degree view

Nokia's much-anticipated online software and content store, Ovi, is finally live. Nokia's answer to Apple App Store, Ovi can access more devices than its rivals and will utilise social networking and location-based information to suggest relevant mobile content.

Recently, Canada's Research in Motion (RIM), too opened its online store, BlackBerry App World offering a variety of free and paid applications. Others hotting up the online application space include Microsoft's Windows Mobile Marketplace and Google Android Marketplace.

Here's a 360 degree view of the Nokia Ovi Store, its pluses, minuses and much more.



Starting up
Ovi Store is Nokia's market for Internet services where users can share photos with friends, buy music and access third-party applications. The countries to first gain access to Nokia Ovi include Australia, Singapore, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ireland and UK.

Users can register at store.ovi.com through their Nokia device browsers to download applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services. A user can get to the Ovi Store by going to store.ovi.com on either his PC or Nokia mobile phone. If a user clicks on a piece of content on his PC, the store will send his phone a text message with a link. The user clicks on the link in his phone's messaging programme, which will send him to a WAP site. Now he needs to click download and go through a log-in screen.

If the content costs money, he will have to go through two screens to share his credit card information. The multiple languages Store is open for business and Nokia has stocked the shelves with both local and global content for a broad range of Nokia devices.

Live at 20,000
To begin with, Ovi Store packs over 20,000 titles, including both free and paid applications, podcasts, wallpapers and ringtones. Nokia Ovi's rival Apple App Store offers over 35,000 applications. Incidentally, Apple's and Google Android's debut figure was much less in comparison.

The Ovi Store has a list of Nokia devices and allows users to sort content depending on which phone they use. According to a popular tech site, it has 868 for Nokia E71, 987 for the Nokia N95 8GB, and 596 for the Nokia 5310. Of these, most are ringtones, wallpapers and videos, not apps, according to the site. As for apps, there are 436 for the N95, 414 for the E71, and a mere 154 for the Nokia 5310.

Searching for content
Underneath the main phone selector tool are several ways to search for content, including lists for applications, audio & video, games and personalisation. Every category has a list of sub-categories below it.

Below this are twelve featured applications, which display the category under which they would normally fall. However, since the store is still in its initial stages, most apps have not been rated yet.

On clicking on an application, users will land on a page specific for that app where they can read more information about it. The information includes the size of the application, the ability to report issues, user reviews and also how to determine if your phone is compatible with the application.

Users can also choose to have the store recommend applications based on the mobile device they are using. Plus, there's also a way to sort between free and paid apps.

Supports 50 models
Ovi Store supports more than 50 Nokia devices including the upcoming Nokia N97. Nokia claims that the Ovi Store is available globally to an estimated 50 million Nokia device owners.

Currently, Nokia holds about 40 per cent of world's mobile phone marketshare and 45 per cent of the smartphone market share. As for the payment, users can pay with their credit card or can have the charges added to their phone bill.

Languages
The mobile content is available in several languages including English, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. It supports operator billing in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Nokia said that in the US, AT&T plans to make Ovi Store available to its customers later this year.

Few biz apps and NO Facebook!
Nokia Ovi store misses out the popular social networking hangouts Facebook and Myspace. On the social networking side, it has Hi5, Friendster, Buddycloud and also location based social network Gypsii.

Another big disappointment is lack of business applications. The site so far offers mere 10 business applications including See-Fi, a calendar sharing tool, Projekt, to-do list manager and ABBYY Business Card Reader 2.0.

OS disappointment
The fact that content is model-specific is sure to disappoint several users. This is unlike Apple App Store or Blackberry App World where all apps support all models. This is largely due to the same OS in all the models. While Nokia's large flock of mobile devices in the market don't support varied OSes.

Nokia Ovi store site displays a list of Nokia phones and allows users to sort content depending on which phone they use.