Trott named ICC cricketer of the year

Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott were named Test player of the Year and Player of the Year respectively at a ceremony hosted by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), on Monday.

Cook - the 26-year-old opener who was appointed one day captain after the World Cup this year - shone during the year peaking with a masterly 294 in the third Test victory over India in August, though, that fell outside the time frame for the award.

It was his third Test century in six matches and 19th in all, and he is now just three shy of England's all-time record Test century total.

It represents quite a turnaround in the genial Cook's fortunes as a year ago he was close to being dropped before reviving his career with a hundred against Pakistan at The Oval.

It proved to be the springboard for a triumphant tour of Australia where he scored 766 runs, including three centuries, as England won the Ashes 3-1.

During the performance period, he played 12 Tests and in 18 innings, he compiled 1,302 runs at an average of 51.74, including six centuries and four half-centuries.

His highest score of 235 not out against Australia at Brisbane helped his team towards series victory as it won the Ashes away from home for the first time since the 1986-87 season.

The independent voting academy of 25 cricket experts put Cook first, ahead of an impressive group of players that had been short-listed, including England team-mates Trott and James Anderson, as well as Jacques Kallis of South Africa, who previously won this award in 2005.

"I think the highlight of year was when we won in Sydney, to beat Australia and Chris Tremlett to take that final wicket it was truly a great year," said Cook.

"This award is about the rest of the team not just me."

The ICC later named Trott as their cricketer of the year.

"I never envisaged winning this award and it's a brilliant feeling to be recognised," Trott said.

Trott, who alongside Cook was a bedrock of England's victory in Australia last winter with 445 runs, took the award ahead of fellow short-list nominees Sachin Tendulkar and Hashim Amla.

After receiving the award at a dinner, Trott spoke of his delight at an accolade that honoured not just his but England's achievements over the last 12 months.

Asked for his favourite memory, the South Africa-born batsman had no hesitation nominating not one of his innings but his run-out of Australia's Simon Katich on the first morning of the second Test in Adelaide.

"That run-out in the first over of the game - it was the first time I've ever got to run around a cricket field like a football striker scoring a goal," he said.

"That was the best highlight for me - although I have to say as a team Melbourne was special."

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara became the second-ever recipient of the People's Choice Award apart from being named as the ODI cricketer of the year.

During the performance period, he played 25 ODIs and compiled 1,049 runs at an average of 55.21, including one century and seven half-centuries. As wicketkeeper, he also took 36 victims comprising 26 catches and 10 stumpings.

Sangakkara was unable to attend the awards due to playing in the recently completed Test match against Australia in Pallekele. Upon hearing the news he said: "It's a great honour first of all to have been nominated for this award and a great honour to have actually won it.

"I would like to thank the rest of my teammates, they have done a great job over the years in one-day cricket and I am privileged to be part of this and led these guys for just over two years. I thank you again, I feel very very proud."

Meanwhile, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the 'Spirit of Cricket' award for agreeing to allow Ian Bell to continue batting when he was run out in controversial circumstances during the second Test at Trent Bridge in July 2011.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: "While the initial appeal and umpire decision were correct to the letter of the law, the decision by Mahendra and his team to withdraw the appeal shows great maturity. To see players and officials uphold the Great Spirit of cricket, which has underpinned the game for more than a century, is very special."

The award winners: 

Player of the year: Jonathan Trott (England)

Test Player of the year: Alastair Cook (England)

ODI Player of the year: Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

Women cricketer of the year: Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)

Umpire of the year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

Best Twenty20 performance of the year: Tim Southee (New Zealand) - for taking 5-18 v Pakistan

Associate and Affiliate Player of the year: Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)

Spirit of Cricket award: MS Dhoni (India)

Emerging player of the year: Devendra Bishoo (West Indies)

News from - http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/44658/trott-named-icc-cricketer-of-the-year

Microsoft Windows 8: Here's What We Know So Far

Details about Windows 8, Microsoft's newest operating system expected in 2012, have been leaking out thanks largely to Microsoft previews and a stream of blog posts on the company's Building Windows 8 blog.

The new OS is said to be Microsoft's biggest Windows refresh since Windows 95, when desktop PCs reigned supreme and most laptops cost nearly $3000. Now, Microsoft wants to update Windows for a consumer technology world that is obsessed with online services and touch-centric devices such as the iPad and Android smartphones.

Windows 8: TL;DR* (*Too Long; Didn't Read)

So far, Microsoft has detailed a brand new touch interface for Windows 8 with the traditional desktop UI hiding underneath. The new OS also will run on both ARM and Intel processors, opening up a range of Windows 8-powered devices such as desktops, laptops, and tablets.

Windows 8 also is expected to have an OS X-style Mac App Store, and should include further integration with Microsoft's growing range of online services such as SkyDrive, Office 365, and the free Office Web apps. Other improvements include USB 3.0 support and an overhauled version of Explorer, Windows' file management tool.

Here's a look at everything we know so far about Window 8.

Get in Touch With Windows 8

The most dramatic change for Windows 8 is Microsoft's emphasis on a new Windows Phone 7-inspired touch interface. Windows 8's new start screen has large panels that are ideal for touchscreens, but that also can be manipulated by a mouse.

The Microsoft Windows 8 start screen

The traditional Windows interface with the start button, task bar, and desktop is still available and will come up any time you load a legacy app such as Microsoft Excel 2010. You can also run new Windows 8 touchable apps alongside traditional Windows apps. Microsoft said HTML and JavaScript will be the primary development language for new Windows 8 apps.

ARM and Intel

Windows 8's touch-centric interface may give traditional mouse-and-keyboard desktop fans the chills, but the new UI could help Microsoft compete in the tablet arena. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft will design its operating system to work not only with Intel's x86 chip architecture, but also with ARM processors. ARM chips are very popular in the mobile device market and should help Microsoft's partners put Windows 8 on a range of so-called post-PC devices such as tablets.

An ARM processorThe big question, however, is whether people will be willing to give ARM-based Windows devices a chance. Apple's iPad is the most dominant device in the new generation of one-panel touch tablets. And the consensus among critics and device makers is that people are looking for slates running mobile operating systems such as iOS, Android, and the QNX-based OS on the Blackberry PlayBook. Can Microsoft succeed in the tablet arena by offering Windows with a new touch overlay? I guess we'll find out in 2012.

App Store

You can expect to see an integrated app store in Windows 8 that should let you download new software for your device with just one click. Earlier in August, Microsoft revealed on the Building Windows 8 blog the details of various engineering teams working on the new OS, and the list included an "App Store" team. It's not clear what the app store team is working on, but chances are it will be a product similar to the Mac App Store available for Mac PCs running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Lion).

App Preview

Speaking of Apps, some Microsoft partners are already hard at work designing touch-based apps for Windows 8 tablets. ZDNet uncovered a purported early design for a USA Today Windows 8 app that has a very Metro UI look and feel to it.

A mock-up of a Windows 8 app

Another Windows 8 mock-up shows an app presumably designed with in-flight entertainment consoles in mind that offers access to news, weather, and videos.

Clouds in Windows 8

Also part of Microsoft's list of Windows 8 engineering teams was a group called "Windows Online." It's not clear what that team might be doing, but there are a large number of online services that Microsoft could integrate into Windows 8, such as Office 365, Office Web Apps, Windows Live and Azure. Some integration with these so-called cloud services already exists, but there are still annoying shortcomings in Windows such as an easy way to mount your SkyDrive as a local drive accessible via Windows Explorer. Dropbox can do it, so why can't Microsoft?

USB 3.0 Support

USB 3.0 promises data transfer speeds that are up to 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard, and USB 3.0 also uses less power than its predecessor. You can already take advantage of speedier USB 3.0 ports in Windows 7 thanks to third-party drivers. But starting with Windows 8, Microsoft plans on including native support for USB 3.0.

Windows Explorer: File Management Basics

The new interface for file copy information in Windows 8Microsoft has spent a fair amount of time recently talking about its overhauls to Windows Explorer for the next iteration of Windows. The new Windows Explorer will improve its file management basics such as copy, move, rename, and delete functions, which make up 50 percent of Explorer's usage in Windows 7.

The new interface puts all your basic file management functions into one window instead of having separate windows for each function. This will make it easier and more efficient to handle moving around several large files at once, such as photos and videos.

If you're copying or moving files, you can also get an expanded view to see throughput graphs and how many bits have already been transferred. Microsoft also claims its time estimates to completion will be more accurate in Windows 8.

Finally, Microsoft has improved the filename collision dialog to make it easier to figure out which files you'll be overwriting when a new file has the same name as a file already sitting in your destination folder.

Exploring Ribbons

The Windows 8 version of Explorer is also getting Microsoft's ribbon interface in a bid to make the file management tool more touch friendly, efficient, expose useful commands, and to reintroduce popular Explorer features from Windows XP. Microsoft has also optimized the new Explorer for widescreen displays and will add about 200 keyboard shortcuts for power users.

Explorer gets the ribbon interface in Windows 8.

The new Windows 8 Explorer will have three main tabs--Home, Share, and View--along with a File menu on the far left side. Explorer's primary Home tab in Windows 8 includes 84 percent of the commands users employ most often, Microsoft says, such as "Move to" and "Copy to" for moving and copying files. Microsoft has also exposed the command "Copy path" for people who want to paste a file path into another Explorer window to access a file quickly or email a link to a file sitting on a corporate server.

The Share tab offers one-click access to the "Email" and "Zip" commands, as well as other options such as "Burn to disc," print and, in a nod to the 1990s, fax. The new Explorer will also show you who has access to a currently selected file on your HomeGroup or enterprise network.

Explorer's new File menu gives power users quick access to the command prompt as well as an option to open the command prompt as an administrator. Both options open a C prompt with the file path set to your currently selected folder such as My Documents or Desktop.

There are also contextual menus in Windows 8's Explorer that only show up when you are doing specific tasks. If you open up Explorer to look at photos, for example, under the "Manage" tab you'll see options to rotate the currently selected photo, start a slideshow, or set a photo as your background.

Opening up an Explorer window to look at your computer's connected drives will give you options to format, optimize, and clean up your hard drive, eject an external thumb drive, or activate Windows' Autoplay feature. Windows 8's Explorer will also include XP's 'Up' button that allows you to move backwards through your file directories.

That's all for now, but Microsoft is expected to reveal more details about Windows 8 during the company's BUILD conference that starts September 13 in Anaheim, CA. We'll keep an eye on Microsoft's blogs for more Windows 8 news.

News from - http://www.pcworld.com/article/239131/microsoft_windows_8_heres_what_we_know_so_far.html

The Future Of Windows: Metro Ui

Earlier today, Steven Sinofsky (the president of the Windows Division at Microsoft, as we all know by now) has posted another entry on the “Building Windows 8” blog, centered on the UI of Windows 8 and how the new Metro experience could affect consumers.

An important goal for Windows 8 he emphasizes is the harmony of the two UIs: one similar to Windows 7, and a Metro interface. The inception of Windows 8, he reveals, began in the summer of 2009, before Windows 7 shipped, and the goal? To completely reimagine Windows and asking some important questions: How do you attract a wide set of developers to a new platform? How can installing and removing applications be made painless and easy? How do you prevent applications from draining battery power? With these questions and more in mind, the building of Windows 8 began.

There is no doubt that Windows 7 has been a huge success. “Hundreds of millions of people rely on the Windows 7 UI and existing Windows apps and devices every day, and would value (and expect) us to bring forward aspects of that experience to their next PCs.” Sinofsky writes. He recognizes that Windows 7 powers business software, a wide variety of apps that people rely on, and provides a level of precision and control that is necessary for certain tasks. In other words, the desktop experience provides things that you can’t do as easily with a touch-only interface. Sinofsky points out that people don’t want to carry around two devices; those who have embraced tablets also usually own a laptop for those times when they need more precise control or need to use an application that is not/will not be available for use on tablets.

The bottom line is that Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. There are no compromises. You carry on device that does everything you want and need, which is connectable to the peripherals you desire.

What do we think? I personally applaud Mr. Sinofsky; I agree wholeheartedly with his approach. I think we can all agree that no one uses tablets exclusively. Whether at work or at home, you have another PC. For more “heavy” tasks like modeling 3D objects or animating video, we automatically look to our desktop or laptop. Isn’t it peculiar that almost no one writes applications for a tablet on a tablet, while desktop programs are always written on a desktop? The unification of the tablet UI and the desktop experience is a necessary process and one that must be well thought out.

What do you, the readers and customers, think about Microsoft’s approach?

News from - http://windows8center.com/featured-articles/the-future-of-windows-metro-ui/

My son feels I'm not cool enough: Shah Rukh

Shah Rukh Khan enjoys huge fan following at home and abroad and is seen as a very cool actor, but his 14-year-old son Aryan feels that the superstar is not cool enough.

Welcome to Windows 8 – The Developer Preview

If you’ve been following this blog, then you know today is a big day for the Windows team. At the BUILD conference we are about to preview Windows 8. There’s a ton to see in the product and so we’d really encourage everyone to check out the available streams on http://buildwindows.com, where we will webcast the keynote. The BUILD conference this week is focused on developers and hardware partners, and there are over 100 sessions (all of which will be available from the link above within about a day of the scheduled presentation time).  In that sense it is good to keep in mind that today is the launch of the developer opportunity for Windows, not the launch of a product (and certainly not the launch of new devices).

Windows 8 represents a reimagining of Windows from the chipset to the experience. Since this is a week focused on developers, we also detailed the bold underpinnings of the re-imagination of the Windows platform, tools, and APIs. We will show off the opportunity to build applications for all of the customers of Windows 8, no matter what type of PC they have—from tablets to laptops to convertibles to desktops. We will show the brand new tools that allow you to code Metro style applications in HTML5/JavaScript, C/C++, and/or C#/XAML. The investments you have made as developers in all of these languages carry forward for Windows 8, which lets you choose how to best make use of the Windows 8 system services. We talked about Windows 8 being a no-compromise OS for end-users, and it is also a no-compromise platform for developers.

Many are interested in Windows 8 for ARM processors. Everything we showcased today at BUILD also runs on the ARM-based Windows PCs being created by ARM partners and PC manufacturers. Windows 8 running on ARM will ultimately be available with ARM-based hardware that  you can purchase.  ARM requires a deeper level of integrated engineering between hardware and software, as each ARM device is unique, and Windows allows this uniqueness to shine through. The new development tools enable you to start today to build Metro style applications that will seamlessly run on x86 (32 and 64 bit) or ARM architectures. Even if you use native C/C++ code, these tools will enable Metro style apps to target specific hardware if you choose.  As new PCs become available for testing, PC manufacturers will develop seed programs for developers.

You probably want to try out the preview release—and you can. Starting later tonight you can download the Windows 8 Developer Preview. This includes a 64-bit (x64) build with development tools to build apps, and a 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) build without development tools. The releases also include a suite of sample applications (please note these are merely illustrations of potential apps, not apps that we intend to ship with Windows 8). The ISOs are linked to from dev.windows.com.

Upgrade from Windows 7 installation is not supported for pre-release code; only clean installs are supported. Reminder: this is a developer preview release and is not meant for production. It is not a beta release. We will be updating the release with various quality updates and drivers over the coming weeks/months just to exercise our overall update and telemetry mechanisms.

We’ve got a lot more blogging to do. So stay tuned. This blog continues to be a big part of the development process. Now we have a lot more shared context, and so we expect folks commenting on posts to be running the Preview so we share in the context of the release. Let’s keep comments focused on the topic at hand and we’ll pay attention for potential new topics.  We know there will be a lot—that comes from reimagining a product used by a billion people!

--Steven

Slight correction inserted above.

UPDATE 2 (11:30 am PST) -  I bet a lot of you heard about the machine that attendees at the conference received (this was a limited production run and is not available for sale). It is pretty cool. Keep in mind, Windows 8 is a no-compromise OS, which means you do not need to have a tablet or touch-capable machine to experience Windows 8. Mouse and keyboard are first class in the whole experience. If you are curious, a little later today we will post some of the touch hardware we have experienced in our labs so you can see what existing Windows 7-based hardware experiences we have. Keep in mind there are no PCs designed for Windows 8 yet—that’s a big part of the BUILD conference—gearing up for newly designed Windows 8 PCs of all types.

NOTE: The preview build does not include every feature shown this morning.  Shown but not in the Developer Preview release include the Windows Store, Windows Live Metro style apps, and some of the user interface features.  The focus of the preview is the API and development tools for building Metro style apps.

News from - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/13/welcome-to-windows-8-the-developer-preview.aspx