Evidently, the Kinect game controller for the Xbox is more than just goofy fun. Microsoft seems to see it as the future of interfacing with computers, which makes us wonder how long it'll be before we'll be able to type this newsletter with interpretive dance rather than with your editor's worn little fingers. How does one take on the shape of the Windows Server operating system, anyway?
Posted by Lee Pender on February 23, 20110 comments
Finally, some clarity in the murky world of the punditsphere. With Microsoft and Nokia on the ropes before they even step into the ring with their mobile partnership, a voice of reason is emerging from Nokia's homeland of Finland.
Actually, Petri Salonen lives in your editor's old hometown of Dallas, but he's a Finn by origin and a keen observer of both Nokia and Microsoft. A former global chairman of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, Salonen is not just another blogger with a run-of-the-mill opinion. He's someone whose views carry weight, and he has a message for partners and developers regarding the Microsoft-Nokia deal: Go for it! More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 17, 20110 comments
Actually, we did know ye pretty well, and ye were pretty lame. It looks as though Microsoft might be (wisely) dumping the Zune name, thereby erasing from its portfolio a brand moniker that might as well have been spelled F-A-I-L. It's not that the Zune was such a bad device, really -- it's just that it was never close to competing with the iPod on any level that mattered (read: design and coolness).
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Posted by Lee Pender on February 17, 201112 comments
Note: Apparently, Nokia's rogue shareholders gave up trying to kill the Windows 7 deal after just one day. (We usually write RCPU about a day in advance, and this story broke after we filed yesterday.) Nevertheless, this thing remains pretty unpopular.
We're getting a bit tired of writing about this, but it just keeps dragging on. Now it's not just shareholders but also unions that are bashing Nokia for hooking up with Microsoft. Talk about trying to kill this horse before it ever leaves the gate. This all seems a little ridiculous. More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 16, 20112 comments
The world turned upside-down some months ago when Apple became bigger than Microsoft, thereby rendering obsolete -- or, at least, purely historical -- Bill Gates' declaration to Steve Jobs in the epic film Pirates of Silicon Valley that, "I got the loot!" It's about 7:40 here if you want to see it again.
Billions of dollars in sales of iPhones, iPads and just plain ol' Macs later, Apple isn't just bigger than Microsoft -- it's way bigger. In fact, it's $100 billion in market cap larger than any other company in the technology industry. (Yes, that's billion with a "b.") That's some pwnage, as we understand the kids call it these days, right there. More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 16, 20114 comments
From the in-case-you-missed-it file, here's that New York Times article about how JC Penney magically turned up for a while as the top Google search term for everything even remotely related to retail. An interesting read, to say the least.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 16, 20112 comments
One battle Windows Phone 7 has definitely lost is the fight to keep huge Microsoft partner HP interested. It looks as though HP is pretty much ditching Windows on mobile phones and tablets and even de-emphasizing it on PCs. HP is running with its WebOS platform, no more a guaranteed winner than Windows Phone 7 but a somewhat more tested platform since HP did, after all buy it from Palm. First Intel, now HP. Microsoft's traditional partnerships seem to be atrophying all the time. But, hey, there's always Nokia.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 14, 20115 comments
If you have nothing better to do (or nothing worse, depending on your perspective) on Valentine's Day, check out Watson, IBM's computer, taking on the legendary Ken Jennings and some other guy tonight on Jeopardy! By the way, it's not that we're so excited about this news—it's just that, as far as we know, the name Jeopardy! has an exclamation point in it. Of course, we've never respected that with Yahoo, but we kind of don't want to cross Alex Trebek. Powerful Canadians intimidate us. We will post this stupendous picture of Mr. Trebek, though, and we'll leave it to you to search and find your favorite Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch. We love them all equally.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 14, 20111 comments
Who's the hottest celebrity couple this Valentine's Day? We have no idea, actually, given that most of our knowledge of popular culture comes to a screeching halt around the year 1992 or so. But one couple that's getting a lot of celebrity-style press is Microsoft and Nokia.
Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop -- the former Microsoft executive who recently left to run Nokia -- consummated their deal with one of the dorkiest handshakes ever late last week, and Elop is talking about Windows Phone 7 being worth billions of dollars to his company. More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 14, 20115 comments
Oh, Microsoft, does it really have to be this way? Just because your enemies once tried (and failed) to bring you down via the courts, do you really have to turn around and start crying antitrust yourself? OK, so maybe Microsoft is innocent here -- the complaining all seems to be coming from Google -- but we hate to see companies try to compete in court rather than in the marketplace. Hopefully Microsoft isn't involved in anything like that.
Posted by Lee Pender on February 10, 20112 comments
First off, let's make one thing perfectly clear: All the talk about an executive shakeup at Microsoft is media-driven; it's not actually coming from Microsoft.
Sure, changes are happening, but our take yesterday that suggested that Steve Ballmer is failing as a spin doctor was off -- Microsoft, in fact, isn't really saying anything at all about its executive shuffle. (Literally, spokespeople won't make an official statement on it. Yes, we called and checked.) There's no spin coming from the Greater Seattle area, then. So, shame on us for becoming part of the media frenzy. We usually like to avoid things like that. More
Posted by Lee Pender on February 10, 20112 comments