thomas fitzgerald.net

World breathes sigh of relief. Macworld has a nice comprehensive article on the whole thing.

Considering what’s happened with MSN music, “Plays For Sure” has to be one of the most unfortunate names in history.

From Macworld UK:

Microsoft is once again causing problems for its customers, closing down support for tracks purchased under its failed ‘PlaysForSure’ campaign.

The company is warning customers - who paid good money for music using the now defunct MSN Music service - that it will no longer supply authorisation keys for the tracks they bought.

This is why DRM is bad, no matter who the supplier is.
[Read Microsoft ‘Plays For Sure’ won’t play - Digital Lifestyle - Macworld UK]

From Wired:

Apple has since made a small concession, changing the way its Software Update application for Windows looks. Software Update will still push any Apple software you don’t have installed, however, the new programs are no longer listed as “updates,” but appear in a separate pane clearly labeled “New Software.”

[Read Apple Backs Off Slightly on Aggressive Software Update Tactics | Compiler from Wired.com]

The much publicized and shockingly bad internal promotional video for Vista SP1 by Microsoft. I’m guessing that’s supposed to be Springstien, but either way, it’s excruciatingly painful to watch. You have to see it though as an example of just how bad a multi billion dollar corporation can screw something relatively straight forward up

From a BBC News Blog…

On Microsoft’s own stand at the show one of the demo consoles has a rather familiar problem - the red ring of death. There’s no way of knowing if this particular console was manufactured before or after Microsoft identified the problems with the machines.

They even managed to capture the offending machine on Video. Like the report says, the fact that Microsoft has said these problems are behind it and one of its own demo machines is showing it is pretty embarrassing.
[Read BBC NEWS | dot.life | A blog about technology from BBC News | Red ring of death returns]

From Gamespot. This quote pretty much sums up how impressive that is…

“If proven accurate when the NPD Group releases its sales figures next month, the number would give Halo 3 the honor of having generated more money in 24 hours than any other American entertainment property ever. The $170 million haul would also best Spider-Man 3’s $151 million domestic theatrical opening weekend and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ first-day US sales of an estimated 8.3 million copies at a range of price points.”

Wow.

I have to say, having purchased my copy yesterday and only having a short time to play it, so far it’s fracking awesome.

MSN rejects .Mac - Digital Lifestyle - Macworld UK:

Microsoft’s instant messaging network is rejecting users who have signed up using a .Mac email address.

Macworld has received reports which indicate that existing users of MSN (now Windows Live) have been knocked off the network when they try to sign in if they have originally used a .Mac address to sign up for the service.

Nice one Microsoft. Apparently….

….the changes were required as a security measure because Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 enables messaging between the Windows Live Messenger Service and corporate IM systems

Ok…well that explains it then. I feel a PR storm a brewin’

UPDATE: apparently Microsoft has apologized and fixed the issue

MacNN is reporting as is everyone else that Microsoft has decided to delay the release of Office 2008 for the mac till.. surprisingly enough, 2008:

Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit on Thursday announced that the next Mac version of its industry-standard Microsoft Office suite will be delayed. Saying the decision was purely “quality driven,”

Wow, considering the job Adobe did to bring all its many Apps over to universal binary, and given the resources Microsoft supposedly has at its disposal, you have to wonder if this is less “quality driven” and more “couldn’t give a rats ass”. I don’t entirely blame the macBU, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if people higher up the chain at Microsoft don’t want to help Apple’s resurgent growth. I know that sounds paranoid and a little ridiculous given the windows numbers compared to Apples, but never underestimate Microsoft’s need to absolutely dominate every market it is in.

Either way there is absolutely no excuse for this. I know Office is a complex piece of software, and I don’t mean to belittle the work of anyone at the MacBU, but seriously, compared to some of the other Applications that have been ported by smaller companies, at the fact that it was 2004 since the last major update, It’s a little hard to swallow.

70% of Zune owners will switch to iPod, iPhone - Macworld UK:

Microsoft recently confirmed it has sold just over a million Zunes - but recent research says most Zune owners rue the day they ever dipped into their pocket to pick one up, with 70 per cent of Zune owners planning to ditch the device in favour of an iPod or iPhone just as soon as they can.

You have to take surveys like this with a grain of salt, but still, pretty damning statistics if even remotely true for a player that never really got off the ground. So much for brown being the new white. While Im on the subject, what ever happened to the Zune being launched in Europe? Not that anyone cares, but still. I wonder if the deal with Universal Music is presenting legal problems for the Player in the EU.

This is a funny little story of one vista owner’s frustration getting it out of the box.

Before you start laughing too much at my misfortune, know that I’m not the only person who had trouble with Vista. My wife reports that at least two people have walked into her library recently with copies of Vista in their hands. Their purpose? To ask a librarian how to open the box.

Read:

I can’t believe I almost let this one slip by. When Microsoft posted it’s profit announcements last week they made the comment that Vista sales were “better than expected”. Considering that they spent the previous few months lowering expectations to the point where people were doubting if vista was selling well at all, it is hardly surprising they “beat expectations”. Also of note:

“Between $1bn to $1.7bn in Vista sales had been deferred to the firm’s third-quarter to account for discounted upgrades given to PC buyers.”

So…draw your own conclusions on that one.

“”There was a lot of concern in the marketplace over Microsoft’s 2008 outlook,” said Andy Miedler, a technology analyst at Edward Jones.

“We think this forecast should allay these concerns.”

Yeah, so by lowering expectations and combining two quarters worth of sales, that should allay concerns. Qudos for the creative accounting techniques.

Microsoft pundits will argue that Microsoft’s sales easily dwarfs Apple’s, but then again, given that the company sells to many markets outside of Apple and has a substantially higher market share, they should Dwarf Apple. And yet the company seems in perpetual fear of Apple and it’s products. Those same tech pundits (you know who they are) argue that the press is unfairly praising Apple when Microsoft is making much more money, but again, if they weren’t it would be a bigger issue. Besides, I think that is a complaint best leveled at Microsoft’s pr department rather than the technology press.

I have been reading an old book by Photoshop maestro Scott Kelby, called Macintosh… The Naked Truth. The book was written several years ago, shortly after the iPod was just released, before Apple’s renaissance. In it he describes what it is like to own a mac in the winows dominated world. It is an entertaining read, but it hits home in a number of places. In one part Scott describes the insults you can get just from using a mac in a public place, or how someone you just met can feel the need to completely deride you just because of your computer of choice. As a long time mac user I remember the feelings well. It’s something the vast PC using public never really understood, how just because you used a mac you left ourself open to chiding and abuse form virtual strangers. I remember being almost bullied in a job I had many years ago because I used a mac and everyone else uses a Pc. Every mac user has a similar tale. But thankfully those days are gone. It is amazing how times have changed. In fact, what is even more amazing are the number of calls lately from PC pundits for mac users “to leave poor Microsoft alone”

When Apple poked fun at Microsoft over Vista at last years WWDC, there were calls of “unfair” arrogance from Apple. Simirlarly with the “Get a mac” campaign, people are crying foul, claiming that Apple, and somehow by extension mac users are being unfair to Windows users. Of course in the ads Apple never says windows is a bad platform, just that you can do many things on a mc with more “fun”. In fact, they go out of their way not to directly insult PC Users, jsut the computer. But this hasn’t stopped many people from seeing the ads as mocking the users of windows. But the icing on the cake came last week when long time PC Pundit, Paul Thurrott was writing about the Leopard delay on his blog. He claims that mac users gave Apple a pass on the Leopard delay so why can’t they do the same for Microsoft. Since when did Microsoft neeed defending? The company has 95% of the computer operating system market shar, acts as a brutal and opressive monopoly, but somehow Microsoft and it’s legions of users need defending from the other 5%? What the hell? This is the company that made a name for itself by buying its way into markets, not to compete, but to crush them. Have times changed that much int he last couple of years that we have gone from being afraid to take out a copy of mac user in a public place lest some smart ass PC nerd utters some stupid insult at you to being the ones hurling the insults? When did mac users become the bad guys?

But what struck me more as I though about this, and what got me even more riled was the very idea of Microsoft fans needing to be defended against the rampaging mac horde. Especially because in my experience, the difference between microsoft fans and mac fans is that mac users attack the windows platform, windows people seem to attack the mac users themselves. It’s as if there must be something wrong with you because you’re not using a real computer. For years, using, what was considered by many to be the “underdog of computing”, left you open to these kind of sentiments, but luckily these days the perpetration of these stereotypes by PC users is diminishing, save for a few hold outs like Thurrott and Dvorak who regularly express their disdain, not just with Apple’s products, but with the users themselves.

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, If you have a problem with a computer, or a company explain what you think is wrong and why it should be different. But don’t attack the people who use it just because they have chosen a particular platform.

(As an aside, when Microsoft pulls stunts like this, any ribbing by Apple or anyone else is fair game)