When I started at Microsoft a month ago I received a Surface RT and a Surface Pro. The Surface Pro is a fully Business enabled device which can be integrated in the Active Directory and which can run all Windows Desktop apps. The Surface Pro is pretty fast as it contains a Intel Core processor but when I received the new Surface Pro 2 last week based on the Haswell processor I couldn’t stop smiling. The devices is even faster and a complete boot takes only a few seconds. I’ve recorded a quick Video. If you’re interested just click the link.

Link: SkyDrive

Microsoft Press has published a new article on it’s blog about a free Windows 8.1 ebook. The book should should help IT professional to get a technical overview of Windows 8.1. Please visit the Microsoft Press blog to get Access to the ebook.

Link: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2013/10/14/free-ebook-introducing-windows-8-1-for-it-professionals.aspx

A new article on virtualization.com refers to new reference architecture documents available from Microsoft. Both documents include a blueprint for a secure, multi-tenant desktop hosting infrastructure based on Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager. To learn more please visit virtualization.com or download the documents directly from the Microsoft website.

Link: http://virtualization.info/en/news/2013/10/paper-microsoft-desktop-hosting-reference-architecture-guides.html

Direct Link: Desktop Hosting Reference Architecture Guide | Windows Azure Desktop Hosting Reference Architecture Guide

Microsoft has released the third update of the Lync client for Windows Phone and iOS on iPad and iPhone. The downloads are now available from the platforms app stores. The new update delivers two main improvements which includes the ability to join a Lync meeting without having a Lync account and and starting a unscheduled meeting with multiple participants from a mobile device. The Lync team had published a more detailed blog post with screenshots. Please follow the link to the official Lync blog.

Link: http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/2013/10/08/new-features-available-for-windows-phone-iphone-and-ipad-lync-mobile-apps.aspx

DELL has announced two new tablets based on Windows 8.1. The Venue 11 Pro is a tablet which works in three different ways: As a typical tablet, snapped into a keyboard dock to use it as a laptop or remotely connected to a TV or monitor. The Venue 11 has a 10.8” screen with a 1920x1200pixel resolution. It comes with either a Bay Trail CPU for low profile users, or a Core-i for running full desktop programs like Microsoft Word. DELL ships the device with 8 GB RAM and up to 256 GB storage.

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/02/dell-venue-pro-8-and-pro-11-hands-on/

Today I am both – delighted and sad to announce that I’m leaving VMware. In the last 6 years I met a lot of great people and had a brilliant time with them. I’ve learned loads and I really enjoyed the fantastic VMworld’s in the  US and in Europe where I could also meet my subscribers and the smart heads from the VMware community and VMUG’s. However I’m very delighted to join another global player in the IT industry. On 15th October 2013 I’ll start at Microsoft as a Solution Specialist for Devices. Of course I’ll continue to blog and tweet about End User Computing, but with a different focus. Since 2009 this blog was dedicated to VMware technologies which will change. I’ll introduce more topics of course related to mobility as this will be my specialty.

I’d like to thank all my friends/colleagues for fantastic 6 years and as you all know you not only meet once in the IT industry.

I hope that you all stay with me here. See you all next week!

Good hint from Peter Björk at the VMware ThinApp Blog. There is a Hands on Lab for ThinApp available online. If you like to learn more about VMware’s application virtualization solution you should take this 101.

It’s with great pleasure I can announce the VMworld 2013 Lab on ThinApp is publicly available. The Lab is composed of many modules, ThinApp Overview, ThinApp integration with Horizon View, Mirage and Workspace. Simply jump to the module you are interested in.

This is a ThinApp 101 Lab. Aimed for you who is new to ThinApp. It’s a quick hands-on to get started with ThinApp packaging.

The ThinApp Lab is called: HOL-MBL-1311 – Applied ThinApp with the Horizon 

Link: http://labs.hol.vmware.com

Via: http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2013/09/new-to-thinapp-take-the-101-thinapp-lab.html

There was some rumor over the last few months that Microsoft is going to acquire Nokia’s phone business but then in July the press said that Nokia has cancelled all discussions. So it was more surprising to me to hear this morning that Microsoft has acquired them. But what does that mean to End User Computing? Microsoft has their own tablet hardware (Surface) and now also the smartphones. A great strategy in my eyes.

If you want to learn more about the news, please visit the Microsoft Newsroom.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/Sep13/09-02AnnouncementPR.aspx

Image Source: http://imagesrv.gartner.com/reprints/249800/249820/249820_1.png

No news, but an interesting link to the Gartner website where they’ve published the Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management in Mai 2013. 

Link: http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1FRIMH0&ct=130523&st=sb

Yesterday at VMworld Scott Davis, VMware’s Desktop CTO has announced a new project called Orcha. This new projects leverages VMware Horizon Workspace and VMware Horizon View. But what does it exactly? When a user is working on an iPad an wants to open a Microsoft Visio file i.e. the iOS has usually no viewer for those kind of files. If a user opens this file within the Horizon Workspace app on the iPad he gets redirected to his View desktop to show the file. But watch the following video to make it clear.