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Windows Phone 7

by thomasfitzgerald on 16. Feb, 2010 in Microsoft, Technology

Credit where credit is due, Microsoft have done a good job with Windows Phone 7. It has to be one of the most original interfaces for a Phone I’ve ever seen. What’s more, they resisted the urge to blatantly copy the iPhone  like everyone else. It certainly looks a hell of a lot better than most of the Android Phones out there. While I’d never give up my iPhone I think Microsoft have taken a good step in the right direction. Of course by the time this is released, Apple will have released iPhone OS 4 and the goal posts will have moved again, but it’s good to see someone else thinking outside of the box for once.

[UPDATE]

Having seen the hands on demo video over at Gizmodo I’m less impressed. Apparently, according to Giz anyone who’s not impressed is just stupid, so I guess I’m just stupid then. But childish gadget blogging aside, while it looks nice and slick in the carefully edited and faked official demos, the hands on unit looks flakey and difficult to use. It seems that they’ve created something that’s very clever from a design point of view but the implementation hasn’t been fully thought through. Many elements look too small for fingers. In many of the screens too it’s not immediately clear that you’re supposed to scroll across, as there doesn’t seem to be any visual clues. I can’t help but think that some of the animations are much too long too. They’re nice, and animation to add visual clues is cool, but some seem to just add delays. In fairness, it’s a long way away from being released, so I guess much of this could be beta issues, but still.

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Where is the outrage?

by thomasfitzgerald on 20. Dec, 2009 in Microsoft

One of the things that annoys the life out of me is that frequently technology pundits who have a strong leaning towards Windows will, every time Apple does anything remotely questionable, claim that Apple is getting a free pass and use is the stupid argument that “If Microsoft did anything like this there’d be outrage”. Well, here’s one: it turns out that Microsoft’s new twitter client for Zune HD (as well as having poor performance) is censoring swear words. Apple got a lot of stick from plenty of people on the web for rejecting Apps over censorship, so now that Microsoft is doing something similarly distasteful where’s the outrage we were promised? All we had was “this is stupid but whatever” type reports instead of the usual “this is a travesty” one comes to expect when Apple does anything App related.

If Apple apparently gets a free pass for everything (yet everything it does is lately is attacked for not being open or fair enough and blown considerably out all proportion) and poor Microsoft is (according to some) constantly the butt of unfair attacks, then where’s the massive uproar over this? Seriously, if you believe that premise that Microsoft is so unfairly attacked for perceived injustices to consumers then there should be an equally “unfair” but massive overpowering of rage against the company.

No? Nothing? I thought so.

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Microsoft Admits Windows 7 “Inspired” by Mac

by thomasfitzgerald on 12. Nov, 2009 in Mac, Microsoft

From an interview in PCR:

One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We’ve significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.

Now, I know lots of people have reported on this by now, but it’s worth repeating. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Of course Apple has borrowed ideas from Windows too on occasion, although usually they are features that people have come to expect, rather than the whole look and feel.
Still though, you have to admire the gaul of the guy to say: “it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform”. Vista more stable than the mac? Really?
[UPDATE] Apparently they’re now denying it.
[Read Microsoft's new vision | Home Computing | Features by PCR ]

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The Difference Between Apple and Microsoft When It Comes to New Products

by thomasfitzgerald on 11. Nov, 2009 in Apple, Microsoft, Technology

profits vs market share

Something occurred to me today as I was reading a piece about Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Sometimes it seems like Microsoft acts like the bitter older brother or sister who can’t stand its siblings having anything that it doesn’t have. When someone makes something successful, Microsoft has to have it. Then I began thinking about how this contrasts with the way Apple does things. If you look at the way both companies develop new products, or bring new technologies to the market you see a stark difference in approach.

Apple identifies technologies that are in their infancy or are relatively unexploited and finds away to give them mass market appeal. Examples: iPod, iPhone, The GUI, iTunes, Multitouch

Microsoft on the other hand identifies technologies that are established and successful, then decides that it want’s part (or all) of that success and uses its size and power to chip away at the competition until it gains market share. Examples: Xbox, Bing, MSN, Windows, Windows Mobile, Zune.

I’m speaking on general terms here of course, obviously there are exceptions.

Another interesting point is that Apple almost always seems to approach new products with the goal of making a profit from whatever that product may be, whereas Microsoft seems to approach a product line with the goal of dominating that market regardless of profitability.

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For those complaining about Apple’s Windows 7 Ads…

by thomasfitzgerald on 24. Oct, 2009 in Advertising, Apple, Microsoft, Software, Technology

For all those people who think Apple shouldn’t be running competitive ads against the Windows 7 launch because it’s bad taste, here’s what Microsoft pulled when Sony launched the PS3. Or how about setting up a windows 7 booth across the road from the Japan Linux Symposium ? So, I really don’t think Microsoft needs defending from “big bad Apple” over a few ads when they’re mild compared to the stunts Microsoft has pulled over the years when its competitors launched products.

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My Thoughts on Windows 7

by thomasfitzgerald on 23. Oct, 2009 in Microsoft, Software, Technology

I’m not really a Windows person so I’m not one of those eagerly queuing up to get my copy of redmond’s latest, but what happens in the Windows universe effects the whole of the computing landscape whether die hard mac fans like to admit it or not. I had played around with the beta version for a while, and it does seem like a considerable improvement over windows vista. Unfortunately, all the things that make Windows, well, Windows are still there. If I had to use a PC for my day to day tasks then I would certainly want that PC to be running windows 7, but thankfully I don’t. Still people are generally positive about it (unless you were planning to upgrade from XP) and good for them. I think at the end of the day the launch of Windows 7 shows what happens when you set expectations incredibly low. If the bar for success is “better than vista” then it shouldn’t be a hard goal to achieve.

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Microsoft Announces Office 2010

by thomasfitzgerald on 13. Aug, 2009 in Microsoft, Software

Microsoft have announced the next version of Microsoft Office, scheduled for December 2010. Well, it certainly gives you plenty of warning any way. Most interesting though, is the announcement that Entourage is going away (great cheers rise up from the crowds) to be replaced by Outlook for mac. Hopefully they won’t cripple it, and it will be fully compatible with the PC version, because that’s been a heavily requested feature by many users.

Macworld has more.

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IE8 “Sick” Commercial

by thomasfitzgerald on 02. Jul, 2009 in Advertising, Microsoft

Unbelievably this is an actual commercial for IE8. It really makes you wonder who is responsible for microsoft’s advertising. Don’t be surprised if this is gone soon.

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