VIEWPOINT: With the release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system yesterday, we thought it apt to unveil an interview and demo sessions we did with executives from both Microsoft and Apple (which released the Mac OS X Snow Leopard update in August).

Basically the objective of this interview is to understand what are the new directions and features each operating software has in the areas of security, functionality, aesthetics and user needs.

If you want a comprehensive breakdown of both operating systems, refer to the Windows 7 review and Mac OS X Snow Leopard summary by the HardwareZone Singapore team. Alternatively, you can refer to your past issues of HWM for our comprehensive coverage of both operating systems.

Here’s the ViewPoint video of the interview with both executives:

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.

Hit the jump to watch actual demo sessions on both Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. For the Windows 7 demos, we had the pleasure of having Mr. Matthew Hardman, Group Manager, Business & Marketing Organization, Microsoft show us its features.

Navin Danapal, Technical Editor, HWM Malaysia

Navin (HWM Malaysia): Apple lost a good chance to position their latest Mac OS 10.6, Snow Leopard, as an idol in the land of the Otaku (geeks) of Japan, when Microsoft Japan beat the Cupertino company in coolness by coming out with an official OS-Tan (OS personification), Nanami Madobe, voiced by Nana Mizuki, a Japanese anime voice actress, to represent Windows 7.

Limited to only the first 7777 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate in Japan, the unique Windows 7 theme was quickly leaked out and distributed to other Windows 7 users.

While OS-Tans have long been invented by devoted Japanese fans for previous versions of Windows, Microsoft coming out with an official character showed their commitment to making Windows 7 become really appealing to all levels of their target markets.

If this link is anything to go by, Apple should have done the same instead of resorting to tactics like hijacking Google search results for Windows 7 and directing people to consider a Mac instead.

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VIEWPOINT: HWM Singapore editor David Chieng, caught up with Mr. David Hall, Regional Consumer Product Marketing Manager for Symantec Asia Pacific recently when they launched Norton 2010 products — namely Internet Security 2010 and AntiVirus 2010.

The two products leverage on a new model of security, codenamed Quorum, basically to detect new malware and advance beyond traditional signature- and behavior-based detection.

Anyway, here’s the ViewPoint video:

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.

VIEWPOINT: Following our post on Adobe’s announcements from yesterday’s MAX 2009 developers conference, we’ve made a video highlighting some of the things we saw during the keynote and around the showfloor and developer sessions over the past two days.

Adobe's CTO Kevin Lynch showing musician John Mayer's augmented reality music video single by putting a key-card against a Webcam.

We even interviewed some attendees on what they thought about MAX 2009 and their wishlists for MAX 2010.

Earlier today in the General Session, Kevin Lynch, Chief Technology Officer of Adobe, showed several augmented reality applications, such as one by the US Postal Service.

He then showed an augmented reality music video for the single “Heartbreak Warfare” by Grammy Award-winning musician John Mayer for his upcoming album “Battle Studies”.

Another impressive demo we saw included a real-time delivery tracking and management app for Federal Express’ Custom Critical service based on Adobe’s LiveCycle enterprise-based solutions. Here’s the video:

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.
For keynote videos on Adobe’s Flash 10.1 support for smartphones and portable devices, and compiling Flash for the iPhone, check out our previous post here.

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Mr. Michiharu Uematsu (left), Manager, Advanced Planning for Panasonic Corporation and Mr. Motoki Nakahara (right), GM for Panasonic Marketing Asia Pacific.

VIEWPOINT: The HardwareMAG.com team met up with marketing and product specialists from the Overseas Marketing Team for Panasonic Corporation to have a closer look at the company’s latest range of digital cameras for the Autumn season.

Organized by Panasonic Asia Pacific, the team was able to get a hands-on session with Panasonic’s Lumix compact cameras as well as hear about the company’s Micro Four Thirds system cameras.

The hands-on session was led primarily by Mr. Dai Mukai from the Optical Marketing Team, Overseas Sales and Marketing Group from Panasonic Corporation, with additional delivery by Mr. Michiharu Uematsu, Manager, Advanced Planning, Products Planning Group from Panasonic Corporation and Mr. Motoki Nakahara, General Manager, Panasonic Marketing Asia Pacific (PMA) from Panasonic Asia Pacific.

Among the cameras shown were the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FP8, DMC-FX65, DMC-ZR1 and the DMC-FZ35. (Editor opinions: 3)

Here’s our ViewPoint video from the session.

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: I think it’s time that Panasonic arranges more product launches in the region, especially outside Singapore.

Though the brand is well known in Singapore, it isn’t in the rest of the region, such as Indonesia.

A lot of branding exercises need to be done to bring itself on par with the competition. The Lumix line is a good opportunity.

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): The Power O.I.S. looked really convincing and I certainly can’t wait for our personal review assessment on how it translates in our standard usage tests.

Also, this is a good example of a media presentation where the company actually takes the effort to setup the necessary equipment to highlight what new features differentiate them from their previous models and that of the competition.

I hope more companies would take note of this and not just rely on marketing slides to deliver their messages.

Paolo Manzano, Managing Editor, HWM Philippines

Paolo (HWM Philippines): Panasonic has always had an interesting line-up of cameras. It’s too bad that it takes the local subsidiary some time to release them into the market.

The ZR-1 is especially interesting as a newcomer to the Lumix line-up and the imaging world in general, with its unconventional compact body with a slightly longer zoom range. Perhaps this is a new category for compacts, extending the zoom range from the standard 3x - 5x to 8x.

The product demo is especially interesting, in particular the shaker machine. Panasonic Philippines has done all sorts of demos including crashing a steel ball on a PDP, but this is something I haven’t seen yet. Very cool and very illustrative. In this vein, Power O.I.S seems especially powerful, though one has to wonder how it affects battery life.

VIEWPOINT: For our third HWM ViewPoint video program series, the HardwareMAG.com team met up with Mr. Chris Chin, Developer Marketing Director for the Asia Pacific and Greater China region for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business division.

Here, Chris answers some questions related to the developer programs which have been put in place for communities interested in creating apps for the Windows Mobile Marketplace ecosystem. Marketplace, by the way, is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s App Store, BlackBerry’s AppWorld or Nokia’s Ovi Store.

Here’s some additional info on what it would take for developers to create apps for Marketplace.

Here’s the exclusive ViewPoint video. Enjoy.

This video comes with English captions. To change caption language, click on Translate in the bottom corner option of the video.