Month: July 2008

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“We have secretly replaced this user’s operating system with Vista. Let’s see what happens…”

It looks like Microsoft took a tip out of Folger’s marketing book.  🙂

This was pretty smart actually.  They took a bunch of Vista skeptics and asked them on video what they didn’t like about Vista.  MS got an earful.  Then Microsoft immediately showed them the new O/S, "Mojave". Most of the users were impressed and liked the direction MS was going.  Then the punch line: Mojave is Vista.

Once the users realized they were actually using Vista it helped to break down some of the negative feelings they had.

It’s a great idea, now Microsoft just has to figure out how to market this exact result to the masses.

 

As for me, I’m still an XP user.  I don’t hate Vista, it’s just that I see no reason to use it.  Upgrading from Win98 to W2k was an obvious boost in features and administration.  Win2k to XP (especially when SP2 came out) was also an obvious choice.  I just don’t see it with Vista.

I love flashy O/S’s so the UI really appeals to me.  But I’m also a speed freak.  I love my machines running at top performance and getting my work done.  I have yet to see a really nicely running Vista machine that takes as few clicks as XP does.  Granted XP was no speed demon when it came out on hardware over 5 years ago, but it just runs so well now that it’s hard to move unless I’m really getting a bundle of new features that affect my day to day work. 

Give me my quad-core with 4GB of ram and throw XP on it please. I like VS 2008 loading up in a few seconds.  🙂

Microsoft looks to ‘Mojave’ to revive Vista’s image | Beyond Binary – A blog by Ina Fried – CNET News.com

 

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iPhone 3G – Almost there

OK, I’m a die-hard techy and the iPhone is just sexy. :)  I don’t have one because I’m also a family man.  The wife tends to get a little upset when I buy "toys" and starve the kiddies.  🙂

This article is a fairly good review of the current state of the iPhone. 

PC World – First Reviews: iPhone 3G Improved, but Still Flawed

Let’s keep one thing in perspective.  The iPhone has been out less than a year.  Even with the criticism, I still think it’s one of the best featured phones on the market compared to it being less than a year old and a version 2.0 status.

Of the current "flaws" it has, really only one is a long standing problem and that is the 3G coverage from AT&T.  That’s really up to AT&T to fix.  I really hope they are working on this quickly.  The cost is also something to work out, but I don’t really see it much different than other top selling smart phones.

The missing features  are simply a lack in the software such as no video capture,  no voice dialing, etc.  These are all things that can easily be solved by a future update from Apple.  With Apple’s track record I have no doubt that all these features (and plenty more) will be added before too long.

There is a rumor that next year there might be a slide out keyboard.  This may not be as thin and sexy as the current iPhone, but you have to admit, that’s what much of the business sector is waiting for.  It’s what I want.  Research is showing that most business users don’t want to give up their built-in keypads hoping the iPhone will work out for them.  Even though the iPhone has a great onscreen keyboard, it still isn’t an actual keyboard with individual buttons.  Maybe when the slide out keyboard comes along, the business users will jump on it, and then end up just using the on screen keyboard.  But they need the actual keyboard to help encourage the jump.  Think of it as the tipping point.

As new versions come out (probably at least one a year for now like the iPod) it will just get better and better.  The battery life will improve, the features will increase, etc.

I can’t wait till I finally get my hands on one.  🙂

 

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