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As the financial markets continued on their bipolar journey, many of the IT industry’s elites gathered for a conference in Orlando, Fla., organized by Gartner. ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan, who was in attendance, offers a perspective on what’s at the top of their agenda for the foreseeable future.

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Immediacy
Ubiquitous access on any platform
API–if you can access data on the human level, you need to be able to access it via API
The ability to collaborate on data

Disaster recovery, compliance, and enterprisey features are where the growth is in the near term. You have to have an SLA and support for true enterprise-class applications. Amazon will probably do this over time, but right now, you have no real option. Rowell pointed out that for Amazon to offer these services would add significantly overhead and likely cause the price point to rise significantly.

I had a good conversation at the SaaS Summit on Thursday with Treb Ryan and John Rowell, respectively CEO and CTO of OpSource, a provider of SaaS and Web applications for companies offering on-demand services.

As Web companies get decimated by the economy, developers who have the cloud-scale experience will end up with “real jobs” and connect with more formally trained software developers. The enterprise will become empowered as developers become better trained.

According to Ryan, “we’re still talking about stuff at the hardware level–its much more about data and integration of applications. The underlying infrastructure shouldn’t matter, as long as there is a programmatic and human way to get to the data.”

Ryan told me that “SaaS is the business version of cloud computing,” meaning that cloud services such as Amazon.com’s EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) offer great value but lack features required in the enterprise. Service-level agreements and compliance are simple examples.

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More mature enterprise applications will all move to the cloud eventually, but the process will take time. Developers will get better about developing around the limitations of cloud computing.

Cloud versus SaaS in the enterprise

An interesting factor in this shift is the customer assumption that SaaS, like open source, has an assumed value, but ultimately, the fact that it’s cheaper to run and manage is what will continue to drive adoption.

The big question for me was, what is SaaS when cloud is all the rage? Is it a subset or just another classification for the same thing?

According to Ryan, the multitude of big vendor announcements of cloud services haven’t filled the enterprise gaps. In the last six months, vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems have announced private or on-premise clouds, but you can’t actually buy cloud services from any of them.

Over the last 10 years, IT has moved further and further outside the firewall. Starting with ASP (application service providers) and moving to multitenant SaaS (software as a service) on-demand applications, and now into cloud-computing environments, the status of on-premise IT has shifted from being a necessity to an option.

So how does this change over time?

This isn’t just about being cheaper and faster. It’s about the way people interact with technology. User expectations are dramatically different for cloud services:

“I think I was an environmentalist before the first time I flew in space, but my first spaceflight–other than crying a lot because of its awesome perspective–I really gained a healthy respect for this planet on which we live…My favorite place is the Middle East. I have friends there, I have traveled there, I have done lots of things there. It is incredibly beautiful from outer space and you would never think it is as violent as it is.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

Confirmed by the Senate last week, Bolden assumes the leadership of the civilian space agency at a particularly critical time. Along with the Augustine review of NASA’s plans to build a new rocket system to replace the shuttle, national space policy is being re-assessed and NASA’s long-range goal of returning to the moon is in some doubt.

While he would not say what sort of rocket system he favors–NASA’s current Ares program or some alternative–Bolden said review Chairman Norman Augustine understands the critical need to replace the shuttle as soon as possible to minimize reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets.

NASA’s long-range plan is to build a huge new unmanned rocket called the Ares 5 to boost lunar landers and docked Orion capsules to the moon for long-duration stays on the surface. The ultimate, as-yet-unfunded, goal is to launch manned missions to Mars.

In an “all hands” meeting with agency workers carried by NASA’s satellite television system, Bolden said he goes by Charlie, not Charles or Chuck, that he cries easily, that he is a “participatory” leader and a dedicated environmentalist.

Until then, NASA and U.S. partner astronauts will have to hitch rides to the station aboard Russian Soyuz rockets.

The space policy review is “totally different from everything else you hear about,” Bolden told agency workers Tuesday. “The nation needs to have a coherent idea about what it’s going to use space for. And that’s military space, that’s commercial space, that’s NASA space, that’s everything, satellites, people, all that stuff. And there needs to be a coherent policy.

“So President Obama has asked (for) a group to come up with, to at least take a look at, the national space policy. And that’s already under way to a limited extent and we hope to be participating in that as a full member of the people doing that work.

“In contrast, you look at the Amazon rain forest, which is just incredibly breathtaking from space and yet now, because of our remote sensing and other things, you can see the devastation that’s being wreaked there by deforestation and other things. So there are things we need to do. We need to provide data to policy makers and decision makers…so people can make smart decisions about it.”

(Credit:
NASA)

“So, I’m comfortable that we’ll get reasonable options that we can make work…In my conversation with him, I came away feeling good that he understood the importance of not prolonging the gap. So my guess…is the options he’s going to bring in are going to be options that don’t prolong the gap. I don’t want to second-guess, but I would be surprised if he brought in an option that said, OK, it’s worth waiting 10 years for.”

“The Augustine committee is something everybody’s heard about. It is not something to fear, to be afraid of. I would have been remiss in my duties as the NASA administrator if I came in to office and I didn’t go pull the center directors together and the (associate administrators) and say OK, tell me what we’re doing, tell me how it’s going and tell me what we might need to change.”

But NASA was not given significant new funding to kick-start development of the new rockets, resulting in the projected five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations and the debut of Ares 1/Orion.

Under a post-Columbia Bush administration directive, NASA is attempting to complete the International Space Station by the end of 2010 before retiring the space shuttle fleet. Money freed up by retiring the shuttle and finishing the station will go into development of a new rocket, known as Ares 1, that will propel Apollo-like Orion crew capsules to the space station starting around 2015.

“I definitely have concerns about the gap growing,” Bolden told CBS News in an interview. “I don’t want anyone to think I have any doubts whatsoever that the Augustine committee is going to bring in a group of options that will include something that is incredibly attractive. I would not be surprised if they brought in an option that was incredibly, incredibly attractive, but we couldn’t do for one reason or another.

President Obama has expressed support for the Constellation program, but he ordered the Augustine review, which could result in a major change of direction. Another presidential review is under way to look at whether changes are needed to the national space policy that governs commercial, civilian, and military space operations.

New NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a respected former shuttle commander and retired Marine Corps major general, said Tuesday he’s confident an ongoing presidential review of NASA’s manned space program will not result in changes that would lengthen the projected five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations and the debut of a new rocket system to replace it.

According to Whitman’s campaign, her recent $15 million contribution to the campaign was part of a 3-to-1 match on the first $5 million donated by supporters. Of the $6.7 million she received from individuals, some noteworthy donations include, according to the San Jose Mercury News, $52,000 from Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy and his wife, and $26,000 from former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang (who also, incidentally, donated the same amount to Democratic candidate and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom).

But for the first half of the year, Whitman, a GOP candidate, also raised $6.7 million in individual campaign contributions, according to press accounts on campaign finance reports posted Friday. Coming in second for individual contributions was Democratic rival Attorney General Jerry Brown, who reportedly raised $3.4 million in individual contributions during the same period.

It’s no surprise that the billionaire Internet exec, who has never held elected office, has lots of money in the bank to spend on her campaign. According to a tally Saturday, she has some $19 million in cash available–and that’s after spending $6.1 million to get her campaign operations up and running. It’s also after she contributed first $4 million, then $15 million of her own money to the race.

California’s gubernatorial primary is still 10 months away, but the multimillion-dollar race for campaign cash has already picked up a quick pace, with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman at the front of the pack.

Of course, having a hefty campaign war chest is important in a state as big and expensive as California, a state facing an unprecedented budget crisis and for which Moody’s just gave the country’s lowest general obligation debt rating.

GOP congressman and gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell reportedly raised $305,017 in individual contributions during the first half of the year. Newsom raised $1.6 million.

Whitman’s numbers far outpace those of another Silicon Valley exec in the GOP gubernatorial race, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Poizner reportedly raised $900,000 in private contributions during the filing period and, after contributing some $3.5 million of his on money to the campaign, has about $3.7 million in cash on hand.

(Credit: Megwhitman.com)

Now that has just changed for Gmail users who use the
iPhone or Android-powered devices to read their e-mail.

In the future, Smart Links will also work with more link types, such as Google Docs, according to GoogleMobile.

(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET)

(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET)

Currently, Smart Links supports four types of links: Google Maps address queries, Google Maps directional queries (with one destination), Google Sites Web pages, and links to YouTube videos. It’s available only in English and, for now, only works with e-mails composed in plain text format.

Smart Links is part of GoogleMobile’s Interative Webapp series that focus on developing and enhancing Gmail features specifically for the iPhone and Android-powered devices.

For example, when you receive a Google Maps link of CBSi’s address via Gmail using the iPhone’s browser, instead of seeing a long string of characters, you will see the actual like this 235 2nd St, San Francisco, CA 94105. The address is hyper-linked and when clicked on will launch Google Maps showing the location of our HQ office.

There’s nothing you have to do to use this feature other than checking your Gmail account via the Web browser on an iPhone/iPod Touch (running OS 2.2.1 or later) or an Android-powered device.

Gmail’s Google Maps link to CBSi's address on the iPhone via Smart Links’s translation. Instead of the lengthy URL, you now have the actual address with the link embedded to it.

Chances are that you have seen extremely long links when you receive an e-mail that contains a Google Maps address or driving instructions. This gets annoying, especially on mobile devices, because not only do the links take up a lot of space, but they also make it hard to find out the important information, such as the address, hidden within it.

Note that you need to use the
mobile browser to take advantage of this feature, other mail clients, such as the iPhones Mail app, don’t support it.

I tried the new feature with on my iPhone 3GS and it worked very well. However, I wish it also supported e-mails formatted in rich text or HTML formats. That would make it more useful as most e-mails are sent using these formats.

On Tuesday, GoogleMobile announced the Smart Links feature, a mechanism that automatically shortens a raw link and converts it into a meaningful phrase with the link embedded. Click on the phrase and the link will open just like with the original raw link.

Without Smart Link, this is how the original link looks.

And the reason developers choose to develop for the iPhone is simple. It has the largest base of interactive users. It also has an easy and efficient distribution channel using the iTunes store. And it’s easy to develop for given that there is one screen size and a single version of the operating system.

The big question for developers going forward is whether or not all these new Android devices will work with apps in the Android Market.

“We will make these applications available on Android devices and the
Palm Pre later,” Sandeep Gupta, senior director of mobile applications at Yahoo said. “We’re not waiting until these devices have critical mass, but we do have to prioritize. And that means developing apps for devices with the most interactive mobile users first.”

“Developing for the iPhone is a no-brainer,” said Noam Bardin, CEO of a mobile app company called Waze, which has developed navigation applications for the iPhone, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile platforms. “You get more bang for each line of code you write for the iPhone. But then the question becomes, which platform do you develop for next?”

Then there is Android. The platform is considered the easiest to develop for. But the market thus far has been small because there have only been two devices available in the U.S., the G1 and MyTouch, both made by HTC and sold by T-Mobile. Sprint also announced it will offer an Android phone on October 11. Internationally, Android-powered devices have been launched in 21 countries with 32 carriers in 11 languages.

In many ways, Android has the potential to be an even bigger platform for developers than the iPhone. Many developers have already been impressed with Google’s open approach to the market. Not only is the source code freely available to developers, which makes developing for the platform easy, but developers can also post their applications directly to the Android Market. This means developers can get updates and new versions of their applications up immediately, instead of waiting to be approved by Apple.

Earlier this week, Yahoo announced a Flickr application for the iPhone and two other Yahoo applications for iPhones and a handful of BlackBerry devices. The company said it plans to release versions of these applications for other phones, such as Android phones, later.

Motorola will be the next big manufacturer to announce its Android phone. The company plans to formally unveil it at an event on Thursday in San Francisco. Motorola has already been reaching out to developers to get them on board to create new applications that it hopes will drive demand for the new phones.

Right now, it seems like the big developers are creating applications for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices. And then they move to developing for
Google Android.

“What’s happening is Android is the third platform for people to think about,” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, a free, visual voicemail service that is available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. “The way we have done it is as YouMail has gotten a larger and larger audience, we’ve started to see 4 percent or 5 percent of our audience on Android. And we’ve built an Android app to satisfy those folks since it’s relatively easy to do.”

This week, two of the most popular mobile applications, social-networking site Facebook and the online radio service Pandora, each released applications on Android Market. These applications have been available for months in the App Store and the BlackBerry World.

The lack of Android devices has likely prevented some developers from spending the money and effort to develop applications for the Android Market.

“You’ll see a slow but steady increase in development for Android,” Quilici said. “And it will be driven by people porting existing applications or extending applications that are interfaces to services.”

Meanwhile, BlackBerry may have the biggest audience in terms of smartphones in the U.S. market, but developers say that it’s the most difficult environment to develop applications for because there are so many different versions of devices with different screen sizes and screen resolutions and even slight differences to the operating systems.

“The biggest challenge for a developer when it comes to Apple is getting their application certified,” Bardin said. “The whole process is a black box. You don’t know how long it will take or if your application will be approved.”

Google has confirmed that the Android Market has more than 9,500 apps–some that are free and some that are paid. That’s just a fraction of the number of applications available in the Apple App Store. Still, Android users are quite active, Google has said. Users have downloaded an average of 40 applications on their devices, and four out of five users download at least one app per week.

“If consumers don’t have to pay for applications because they’re subsidized by advertising,” Bardin continued. “And if developers can make money through advertising, it’s a home run for Android for sure.”

Now that manufacturers are finally rolling out new Google Android devices, there could be a much bigger audience for developers to reach. Motorola is expected to announce two new Android phones on Thursday. And Chinese manufacturer Huawei has announced a prepaid Android phone for Europe. Other manufacturers, such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson, are also expected to launch new Android phones later this year.

“There won’t be just one screen size or resolution. CPU utilization might different,” Bardin said. “These are all different devices made by different manufacturers. And right now we don’t know what is going to happen. We don’t know the changes that each manufacturer has made to the OS.”

Android Facebook app photos

The new BlackBerry AppWorld store also hasn’t really taken off yet, in part because it’s not as easy to use as the App Store for the iPhone. Payments are made through PayPal and the audience is more likely to pay for productivity applications, rather than games and other applications, according to Quilici. The other problem is the AppWorld store isn’t available on every BlackBerry, which means discovery is easier for some users than it is for others.

The one thing that could make Android a phenomenal success is if Google can crack the mobile advertising market through its application store. In June, Google launched a beta version of AdSense for Mobile Applications, which allows developers to earn revenue by displaying text and image ads in their iPhone and Android applications.

View the full gallery

Android’s potent potential
The iPhone and the BlackBerry are the two leading smartphones in the U.S. market, so it makes sense for developers like Yahoo to develop for these devices first. But as more Android phones come on the market in the coming months, the priorities among developers could change. Apple, which has at least a two-year head start on the rest of the market, will clearly be the first priority for developers for a long time to come. But Android will likely garner some attention as well.

The long-awaited flood of Google Android devices is about to hit the market, which should help bring more cool applications to new Android phones.

Mobile applications for smartphones are hot. The fact that Apple’s App Store has had more than 1 billion downloads after only being around for a year means that smartphone users are hungry for applications that make their phones more useful and fun. But developers, whether they are large or small, have limited resources and time, and they must choose which platforms to develop applications for first.

The one thing that could hurt Apple in the long run is the fact that the company approves every application that gets into the App Store. Developers have often complained that the process can be long and applications are often denied without any particular reason given.

So far, it’s clear that the
iPhone is the first platform developers target. As a result, Apple now has the largest mobile App Store on the market with over 75,000 applications. What this means for consumers is that it’s more likely that the newest and hottest applications are available on the iPhone before other devices.

Updated on September 23 at 12:30 a.m. PDT: adding information about the Atom Developer Program.

“The world’s first working 22-nanometer silicon technology,” Otellini said. He showed a wafer containing SRAM memory chips that each contained 2.9 billion transistors. “This is on track for for second half 2011.”

Addressing the PC market, Otellini said that he expects “significant growth in 2010.” This year he sees “units flat to slightly up,” he said, but next year “I think the market is poised for a resurgence.”

Generally, the smaller the chip’s geometry, the faster and more power efficient the chip is.

The program provides a framework for developers to create and sell software applications for netbooks with support for handhelds and smart phones available in the future. “We want to fuel the growth of Intel Atom-based products designed for the mobile lifestyle,” said Renee James, corporate vice president and general manager, Intel Software and Services Group, in a statement.

As another example of where Atom will be used, Otellini said that automakers Daimler and BMW will use in-vehicle Atom-based infotainment systems from Harmon International in future vehicles.

He called this a transition to a continuum. “The same experience on any device. How we build this continuum out. That’s the theme,” he said. “Moore’s Law, platform architecture, and software–the combination of these three will allow us to build the continuum.”

The Intel CEO also introduced a new Intel developer program for the Atom processor in order to boost software adoption on Netbooks and expand the development of software beyond those devices. Asus, Acer, and Dell are supporting the program, Otellini said.

“We’re moving from personal computers to personal computing,” Otellini said.

Otellini also addressed the European Commission’s publication on Monday of antitrust allegations against Intel. “They consistently ignored information,” Otellini said. He added that customers such as Dell will come forward to state that some of the information was “wrong.” In a statement, Intel said Monday that “the Commission relied heavily on speculation found in e-mails from lower level employees that did not participate in the negotiation of the relevant agreements.”

Intel CEO Paul Otellini shows a next, next-generation wafer containing 22-nanometer chips

Otellini also had a surprise. He introduced the company’s next, next-generation technology, based on a 22-nanometer process. Intel currently makes chips based on 45-nanometer technology and will move to 32-nanometer by the fourth quarter of this year. After that comes 22-nanometer chips.

SAN FRANCISCO–In his keynote at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini focused on moving beyond the PC while introducing a new processor technology and a new development platform for the Atom processor.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland, CNET News)

In the more immediate future are the 32-nanometer processors. “Thirty-two-nanometer enables us to build a billion transistors in high volume. Started production on Westmere (the 32-nanometer technology) for shipment to customers in Q4.” Otellini demonstrated the upcoming 32-nanometer mobile “Arrandale” processor–which integrates graphics silicon with the main processor–in a laptop.

BERLIN–Like its predecessor, the latest Netbook from Samsung doesn’t appear to be anything special except for the battery.

N140 Netbook

• The ST1000 digital camera has geotagging, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Photos can be uploaded instantly to sites like Flickr and Facebook.

• Three new multimedia players, the R0, R1, and M1. Samsung says that since file formats “are a big frustration for people,” these new models will try to make that less of a headache–there will be no need to convert file formats before adding audio or video to the player. Samsung’s software will allow users to drag and drop files and convert them automatically.

• A lineup of Blu-ray players will have access to YouTube videos.

Other new Samsung products:

• The ST550 digital camera has not one, but two LCD screens. The one on the back is a touch screen display, but there’s also an additional display on the front, so if you’re doing a self-portrait you can see exactly what the photo looks like as you’re taking it. (Note: It’s the same product, but different model number, as the TL220 introduced in the U.S. a few weeks ago.)

While Netbooks are a growing category of computing in general, they’re performing particularly well for Samsung. Netbooks are the fastest-growing business unit within the company, said Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung’s Display business.

• The HMX U10 HD pocket-size camcorder does full HD recording and can upload videos to YouTube, similar to the Flip Ultra HD and Kodak ZX1.

(Credit:
Erica Ogg/CNET)

The N140 mini notebook was introduced Thursday morning at the IFA show here. It will come in a variety of colors, has a 10.1-inch screen, and weighs 2.8 pounds. Samsung also claims that it will have an 11-hour battery, which is very impressive if it really is true.

The model it replaces, the NC10, was launched just a year ago and had a battery that lasted 5 hours.

“It’s a much lower barrier to entry than switching browsers,” Bencuya said.

Google released an Internet Explorer plug-in Tuesday designed to let Microsoft’s browser use the features and performance of Google’s own Chrome browser.

He added that Google has built support for the feature into one of its own Web sites, the Google Wave project that’s a hybrid of e-mail, instant messaging, and wiki collaboration.

The software, called Google Chrome Frame, lets IE 6, 7, or 8 use Chrome to render Web pages and execute their JavaScript programs, Google said. To use it, people must install the open-source plug-in, currently in the developer preview stage, and Web developers must insert a line of code onto their Web sites that engages Chrome Frame when a person visits the site.

Google argues that the feature will appeal to some folks, though, including people in corporate settings who might not have a choice of browser and people who prefer IE’s interface, said spokesman Eitan Bencuya. And people are familiar with plug-ins as a way to expand what browsers can do.

But the plug-in might needle its rival more than revolutionize Web browsing. For one thing, it takes a long time to get a lot of Web developers to update their sites. For another, how many people dissatisfied with IE’s performance haven’t already installed a higher-powered browser?

(Credit:
Google)

“For users, installing Google Chrome Frame will allow them to seamlessly enjoy modern Web apps at blazing speeds, through the familiar interface of the version of IE that they are currently using,” said Google programmer Alex Russell and product manager Mike Smith in a blog post.

Despite ongoing problems in the company as a whole, Sony’s electronics division is looking on the bright side when it comes to the all-important winter retail season.

This story was corrected Thursday, August 20 to reflect that the X-Series Walkman is currently on sale.

Other interesting tidbits revealed during the meeting:

“I’m cautiously optimistic about (holiday retail sales). Though I’m cautious about saying I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said. Among retailers that sell Sony products, there’s also “some notion this will be a better holiday than the previous year.”

Looking ahead to the holidays, Sony Electronics’ Executive Vice President Mike Fasulo said Tuesday at a small media gathering in San Francisco that the gadget maker is hopeful about better sales this year than last.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET)

• Blu-ray won’t be around forever, but it is the best option for watching high-quality video for now. “Eventually people will download (movies), but broadband installation isn’t there yet,” Glasgow acknowledged.

Sales of consumer electronics sunk 26 percent in the 2008 holiday season, according to one survey.

• While Netflix streaming has already been announced for Sony’s networked TVs, Blu-ray players are next. Connecting Netflix accounts with Blu-ray players is on Sony’s road map, which would put them in the same company as Samsung and LG. “Whatever it is people want–Netflix, Amazon–we’re going to make it available,” said Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow.

Sony Electronics introduced a new line of home audio equipment Tuesday, called Altus, that it developed in partnership with Best Buy, though other retailers will eventually offer it too. Altus receivers, speakers, and
iPod docks are aimed at a less tech-savvy audience, with minimal setup required.

The natural question is whether Tuesday’s $100 price cut for the PS3, which has a Blu-ray player, would in turn put pressure on Sony’s standalone Blu-ray players, whose prices range from $250 to more than $700. But Sony executives declined to comment, other than to say that PS3 and Blu-ray are “different products.”

Sony has high hopes for its touch-screen Walkman.

But the announcements that got the most attention are the new PlayStation 3 Slim and its new, cheaper $299 price tag, and a new game format for the
PlayStation Portable.

• Sony thinks of Apple’s iPod as “another format” it wants to support, which is why it’s focused on iPod/iPhone connectivity with the new Altus audio products. “We recognize Apple has significant market share in this country,” Glasgow said. “They don’t have that same market share around the world, though.”

Glasgow said he expects X-Series Walkman to grab some market share in the portable audio market, despite the iPod’s dominance and mounting curiosity for the new
Zune HD from Microsoft.

Fasulo’s remarks came on a day filled with announcements from Sony, both on the electronics side, and the video game division, Sony Computer Entertainment America. Although it’s only August, the company, like many in its industry, is already gearing up to introduce the products it hopes shoppers will snap up before they head back to school, as well as for holiday gifts.