Walking the Startup Pavilion at VMworld

One of the most fun areas of any trade show is the startup pavilion: a place where smaller companies can rent a kiosk to show off their wares. Perhaps VMware was once relegated to this area in its earliest days. I’m not sure if the next VMware is lurking in the pavilion at this show, but there are plenty of interesting startups attacking the hot market segments today. Here are a few I came across:

Software Appliances and Package Management. UShareSoft provides UForge, an “appliance factory” that helps assemble, build, and maintain software appliances. Other companies and products in this arena include rPath and Suse Studio. UShareSoft also offers Open Appliance Studio: software tools that manage and configure multi-node software installations, such as bringing up a set of load balancers, web servers, and database nodes in concert.

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Caught in the Wake of Apple’s Press Events

After each Apple press event, there is a visible track of turbulence online, in the technology market and on Wall Street that some cannot help but get caught within. There is no denying that when Apple decides to head in a particular direction, it will lead. And all that is left for the rest of us to decide is whether or not we will follow or get out-of-the-way.

When you continually take such wide strides in innovation, intentional or unintentional, there will always be casualties. In 2010 alone, Apple held no less than five major media events that in some way affected the way markets were defined and revenues were earned for a significant number of companies.

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Did Steve Jobs Accidentally Confirm Cameras for Next Gen iPads?

There was a flurry of activity today at the YBCA Theater in San Francisco as Apple unveiled a whole slew of new products and services to the public. With all of that information to remember, it's no surprise that Steve Jobs may have let something slip out that he perhaps wasn't intending to say. While discussing the latest version of the iOS software, Jobs said something that may hint that cameras will be coming to the iPad. So what was it that he said?

One of the tent poles of Jobs' keynote today focused on the iOS software and upgrades being made on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Next week, owners of these devices will be treated to some new features, including the ability to upload HD video over WiFi, TV show rentals, multiplayer Game Center and various bug fixes for hardware issues. But the most interesting new feature is the inclusion of high dynamic range (HDR) functionality into the iPhone's (and the new iPod Touch's) camera.

HDR photography is a practice by which three photos at varying exposures are blended together into one image. By picking the best parts of each photo, the picture becomes much richer as detail in shadows and light are more visible.  Here's an example from a photo I took and ran through an HDR app on my iPhone. It's a cool feature, but what does that have to do with the iPad getting a camera?

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Tablet Computers Will Thrive Because They Are Shareable

"...a tablet is, crucially, a more shareable computer. A laptop, with its fragile hinge-ware and space-gobbling keyboard, is just not comfy to share. A tablet is easier to bring to the café, easier to hand across the table or along the sofa, easier to seize in the heat of the moment, easier to hold up in triumph, easier to set aside when you need to meet someone's eyes.

How big a market is that? Anyone who says they know is lying."

-Google's Tim Bray, co-creator of XML and now Android Developer Advocate, discussing the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, and tablet computers in general. The Galaxy Tab has a 7" screen (almost 30% smaller than the iPad screen) and runs Android 2.2 (Froyo).

That was certainly our experience from the beginning with the iPad. Sarah Perez noted when her arrived that it was Easter weekend and took it to a holiday gathering. You can read about the eye-opening experience she had in her post iPad: The First Real Family Computer.

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Headliner -- Windows Phone 7 RSS Reader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOC8d7Ik-3M&feature=player_embedded

Check Out This Awesome RSS Reader for Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 will be available in time for the Holiday Season, Microsoft says, and today the company unveiled a beautiful new RSS reading app built by an award winning team of Microsoft 2010 interns.

Called Headliner, the app adheres to the design standards of the rest of the OS (delightfully attractive, for Microsoft) and includes most of the features that mobile RSS users will want. See the demo video below and marvel at the slick UI, the clean display of feed items and the social media integration. Then tell us what you think it's still missing. I can only think of one or two things, really.

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Why Only Mac Users Can Watch Apple's Event Tomorrow

You can watch a live stream of Apple's fall event tomorrow, the company has announced - but only if you're using an Apple device.

Apple will broadcast the event using its internally-developed HTTP Live Streaming Protocol, which requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher or an iPad. It's not because Apple only wants its fans watching, however.

"QuickTime X, a major leap forward that advances modern media and Internet standards"
-Apple

The HTTP live streaming protocol is a feature of the latest version of Apple's multimedia player and framework, QuickTime X. The new protocol lets users stream audio and video over HTTP. This makes things easier for broadcasters, who can use a standard Web server instead of a special media server to stream in almost-real time. Apple claims the protocol also avoids common problems with other streaming protocols.

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