Facebook, Foursquare, and Flipboard lead a flood of big-name Windows 8 apps

Don’t be fooled by all this blabber about Windows 8.1 being Microsoft’s grand chance for a re-do—talk I’m admittedly guilty of myself. Windows 8.1 does a terrific job of refining Microsoft’s modern-style vision, but as an operating system built from the ground up to revolve around an app-based experience, it—and specifically the Start screen—can never truly shine unless the Windows Store is stuffed.

 

That’s a big problem, since both the quantity and the quality of the Windows Store’s selection has been lackluster thus far. Microsoft seems to be tackling the issue head-on, though: Not only did the number of apps in the Windows Store spike in the weeks ahead of Build 2013, but Microsoft took advantage of the developer conference to announce a slew of high-profile apps coming to Windows 8’s virtual marketplace.

 

Here’s a rundown of the biggest apps destined to land on the Windows Store’s currently dusty shelves.

Yes! A Facebook app is coming to the Windows Store.

Finally—finally—a proper Facebook app is coming to Windows 8, where we hope it will embrace the modern style as wholeheartedly as the Windows 8 Twitter app. While no official launch date was announced, you can look forward to a day where “Pin an IE shortcut to the Start screen” isn’t Microsoft’s official answer to the missing Facebook-app question.



Yes, the popular social check-in service is coming to Windows 8 at some unspecified point in the future, Microsoft announced yesterday. Live Tile fanatics will no longer have to rely on third-party alternative apps to become the mayor of their favorite taco carts! The few screenshots Microsoft showd really seem to nail the modern motif.

MicrosoftFlipboard was one of three apps Steve Ballmer specifically mentioned at Wednesday’s Build 2013 keynote.

Don’t worry, we’ll get to apps that don’t start with F soon.

 

Flipboard is a newsreader app with an image-heavy style that should translate well to Windows 8. It’s similar to the Microsoft-exclusive New Bento. Flipboard pulls in not just news, but also posts from your various social feeds, making it close to a one-stop, up-to-the-minute news shop. It’s incredibly popular on iOS and Android, so look for the app to make waves in the Windows Store whenever it launches, too.



Streaming music services haven’t exactly stampeded to Microsoft’s camp. Aside from Slacker Radio, Nokia Music, a couple of apps that play digital streams of terrestrial radio, and Microsoft’s own baked-in Music app, all has been quiet on the Windows front. Microsoft’s storefront still doesn’t have dedicated Pandora, Spotify, MOG, or Rdio apps—but now, it does rock one of the most storied names in streaming music: Rhapsody.

 

Available now, the Rhapsody app is free, though you’ll need a premium Rhapsody subscription to use it. Don’t have one of those? You can sign up for a free trial right from the app’s starting screen.



OpenTable lets you make real-time reservations at tens of thousands of restaurants across the country, making it handy-dandy for Windows-tablet-wielding foodies. Seriously, if a restaurant has any sort of Web presence whatsoever, you can probably find it on OpenTable—and you can find the OpenTable app in the Windows Store right now.



Rockmelt is kind of like Flipboard, but with a few extra wrinkles. In addition to displaying the sites, YouTube feeds, and social feeds you follow (in modern-tinged visual fashion, natch) on the opening screens, Rockmelt lets you check out the latest news in more than a dozen preset categories, like Cars, Business, Travel, and Tech & Geek. It’s a pretty nifty app, and it, too, is available in the Windows Store right now.

 

Now we know what all those NFL coaches are doing with all those Surface tablets: Playing fantasy football! At the Build keynote on Wednesday, Steve Ballmer announced that NFL apps are Windows 8-bound, starting with a Fantasy Football app. The exact release date is yet to be announced, but here’s hoping we’ll see it before opening day (September 5, in case you were curious).



The somewhat creepily named Where’s My Mickey? is already available in the Windows Store, but that’s just the tip of the torrent. Microsoft announced that Avengers: Initiative, Monsters University, Temple Run: Oz, Toy Story Smash It!, and Wreck-It Ralph apps are all inbound this fall.

 

That’s a flood of fairly big-name apps. In the weeks and months ahead of Build 2013, we saw additional high-profile Windows Store releases like MLB.tv, Nokia Music, Twitter, Vevo, and a Discovery Channel app. Build also brought a momentous under-the-hood announcement when the uber-popular Unity game engine announced support for Windows 8, along with Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One. And of course, Windows 8.1 packs a few new native apps of its own, like Reading List and Health & Fitness.

 

Yes, there are still some prominent Windows Store no-shows, but the recent announcements show that Microsoft’s wooing of developers is finally starting to pay off. The Windows Store still has a long road to travel before it becomes a compelling destination, but at least it finally appears to be on the right track.

 

The next question: Can Microsoft keep up the momentum, or did it exhaust all its star power in a big Build blow-out? Keep an eye on the Windows Store in the coming months.

 

 

Facebook, Foursquare, and Flipboard lead a flood of big-name Windows 8 apps

Don’t be fooled by all this blabber about Windows 8.1 being Microsoft’s grand chance for a re-do—talk I’m admittedly guilty of myself. Windows 8.1 does a terrific job of refining Microsoft’s modern-style vision, but as an operating system built from the ground up to revolve around an app-based experience, it—and specifically the Start screen—can never truly shine unless the Windows Store is stuffed.

 

That’s a big problem, since both the quantity and the quality of the Windows Store’s selection has been lackluster thus far. Microsoft seems to be tackling the issue head-on, though: Not only did the number of apps in the Windows Store spike in the weeks ahead of Build 2013, but Microsoft took advantage of the developer conference to announce a slew of high-profile apps coming to Windows 8’s virtual marketplace.

 

Here’s a rundown of the biggest apps destined to land on the Windows Store’s currently dusty shelves.

Yes! A Facebook app is coming to the Windows Store.

Finally—finally—a proper Facebook app is coming to Windows 8, where we hope it will embrace the modern style as wholeheartedly as the Windows 8 Twitter app. While no official launch date was announced, you can look forward to a day where “Pin an IE shortcut to the Start screen” isn’t Microsoft’s official answer to the missing Facebook-app question.



Yes, the popular social check-in service is coming to Windows 8 at some unspecified point in the future, Microsoft announced yesterday. Live Tile fanatics will no longer have to rely on third-party alternative apps to become the mayor of their favorite taco carts! The few screenshots Microsoft showd really seem to nail the modern motif.

MicrosoftFlipboard was one of three apps Steve Ballmer specifically mentioned at Wednesday’s Build 2013 keynote.

Don’t worry, we’ll get to apps that don’t start with F soon.

 

Flipboard is a newsreader app with an image-heavy style that should translate well to Windows 8. It’s similar to the Microsoft-exclusive New Bento. Flipboard pulls in not just news, but also posts from your various social feeds, making it close to a one-stop, up-to-the-minute news shop. It’s incredibly popular on iOS and Android, so look for the app to make waves in the Windows Store whenever it launches, too.



Streaming music services haven’t exactly stampeded to Microsoft’s camp. Aside from Slacker Radio, Nokia Music, a couple of apps that play digital streams of terrestrial radio, and Microsoft’s own baked-in Music app, all has been quiet on the Windows front. Microsoft’s storefront still doesn’t have dedicated Pandora, Spotify, MOG, or Rdio apps—but now, it does rock one of the most storied names in streaming music: Rhapsody.

 

Available now, the Rhapsody app is free, though you’ll need a premium Rhapsody subscription to use it. Don’t have one of those? You can sign up for a free trial right from the app’s starting screen.



OpenTable lets you make real-time reservations at tens of thousands of restaurants across the country, making it handy-dandy for Windows-tablet-wielding foodies. Seriously, if a restaurant has any sort of Web presence whatsoever, you can probably find it on OpenTable—and you can find the OpenTable app in the Windows Store right now.



Rockmelt is kind of like Flipboard, but with a few extra wrinkles. In addition to displaying the sites, YouTube feeds, and social feeds you follow (in modern-tinged visual fashion, natch) on the opening screens, Rockmelt lets you check out the latest news in more than a dozen preset categories, like Cars, Business, Travel, and Tech & Geek. It’s a pretty nifty app, and it, too, is available in the Windows Store right now.

 

Now we know what all those NFL coaches are doing with all those Surface tablets: Playing fantasy football! At the Build keynote on Wednesday, Steve Ballmer announced that NFL apps are Windows 8-bound, starting with a Fantasy Football app. The exact release date is yet to be announced, but here’s hoping we’ll see it before opening day (September 5, in case you were curious).



The somewhat creepily named Where’s My Mickey? is already available in the Windows Store, but that’s just the tip of the torrent. Microsoft announced that Avengers: Initiative, Monsters University, Temple Run: Oz, Toy Story Smash It!, and Wreck-It Ralph apps are all inbound this fall.

 

That’s a flood of fairly big-name apps. In the weeks and months ahead of Build 2013, we saw additional high-profile Windows Store releases like MLB.tv, Nokia Music, Twitter, Vevo, and a Discovery Channel app. Build also brought a momentous under-the-hood announcement when the uber-popular Unity game engine announced support for Windows 8, along with Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One. And of course, Windows 8.1 packs a few new native apps of its own, like Reading List and Health & Fitness.

 

Yes, there are still some prominent Windows Store no-shows, but the recent announcements show that Microsoft’s wooing of developers is finally starting to pay off. The Windows Store still has a long road to travel before it becomes a compelling destination, but at least it finally appears to be on the right track.

 

The next question: Can Microsoft keep up the momentum, or did it exhaust all its star power in a big Build blow-out? Keep an eye on the Windows Store in the coming months.

 

 

Big data project aims to improve Dutch flood control, save the government millions

A big data project called Digital Delta aims to investigate how to transform flood control and the management of the entire Dutch water system and save up to 15 percent of the annual Dutch water management budget.

 

IBM will collaborate with Rijkswaterstaat, the part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment that is responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the waterways and water systems in the Netherlands. The project also involves the University of Delft, local water authority Delfland and the Deltares Science Institute, the organizations said in a joint news release Tuesday.

 

They will investigate whether data gathered by more than 100 different projects in the Netherlands that deal with water management can be combined and be made accessible to accelerate water management innovation, said Djeevan Schiferli, an IBM Business Development Executive who is involved in the project.

 

If the research is successful, the system can be applied to other areas in the world, Schiferli said. The principle has already been discussed with governments in the U.S. in New York and New Orleans, as well as in Japan, South Korea and Australia, he said.

 

In the next 12 months, the Digital Delta group will investigate how to integrate and analyze water data from a wide range of existing sources, including precipitation measurements, water level and water quality monitors, levee sensors, radar data, model predictions, and current and historic maintenance data from sluices, pumping stations, and locks and dams, the group said.

 

Because 55 percent of the Dutch population lives in a location prone to flooding, every water-related event is critical and can impact businesses, agriculture and citizens’ daily lives, they said.

 

Due to this, the Dutch water management budget adds up to €7 billion (US$9.2 billion) each year, and costs are expected to increase €1 billion to €2 billion by 2020, unless something is done, according to the release. By combining data, Digital Delta thinks it can save up to 15 percent, Schiferli said.

 

Digital Delta wants to reduce costs by dealing with IT and the available data in a better way, he said. At the moment, parties use a third to half of their budgets to collect and disseminate the data, according to Schiferli. “And that is even before the data can be interpreted,” he added.

 

The initiative aims to provide water experts with a real-time intelligent dashboard to harness information so data can be shared immediately across organizations and agencies, according to the release. Involved organizations can use the dashboard to help prepare for imminent difficulties as well as enabling authorities to coordinate and manage response efforts. Over the longer term, the project aims to enhance the ongoing efficiency of overall water management, it added.

 

Digital Delta’s goal is to improve the management of the Dutch water system in many different ways. For instance, by modeling weather events, the Netherlands should be able to determine the best course of action including storing water, diverting it from low-lying areas, and avoiding saltwater intrusion into drinking water, sewage overflows and water contamination, they said.

 

One satellite company can, for instance, spot a 100 meter stretch of dike that is sagging, Schiferli said. If those responsible for tending to the dike know this, they can put sensors in just that stretch instead of in the whole dike that is, say, 10 kilometers long, he said. Monitoring a stretch of 100 meters is much cheaper than fitting the whole dike with sensors, he said.

 

While all of the relevant data to determine where to put sensors may now be available, it is not combined so not everyone has access to it and this leads to unnecessary expenditures, he said.

 

Another project in the initiative aims to link a sensor to a well in a traffic tunnel, Schiferli said. If the data of that sensor is linked with the maintenance system and weather data, an estimation can be made of how likely it is the well will overflow or clog when heavy rain is expected, he said. The system could then send a warning to relevant authorities to check the well, which may prevent a traffic jam in the tunnel, he said.

 

IBM’s Intelligent Water Software can be used for this. Rijkswaterstaat and local water authorities will manage water balance data and share the information centrally through the Digital Delta platform, the organizations said. This should make it possible for the Dutch water system to optimize the discharge of water and improve the containment of water during dry periods, and prevent damage to agriculture, the group said.

 

Also, a scalable early flood warning method will be developed by combining weather data and, water system simulation models and real-time measurement data from the water system, they said.

 

The Digital Delta project is aimed at water management. Similar systems could be developed to deal with droughts or for use in ship traffic, said Schiferli.

 

“The Australians, for instance, said they know a lot about forest fires—that knowledge could be useful to the Dutch when they have to deal with a fire in the dunes,” Schiferli said, adding that international cooperation is also a possibility.

 

The current research project costs €5.5 million and will go on for 12 months after which the governments decide if they want to go through with it, he said.