Jul 3, 2006 | blog
Here’s a thought… What if Gates is actually leaving Microsoft to start a new venture? Can Gates (being a visionary) see the handwriting on the wall that fat clients like Windows are fast becoming irrelevant? No the industry is not in trouble yet, but think of the things you can do without a PC now – startling isn’t it! Yes, you still need a good beefy PC to run your streaming media, CD/DVD ripping, photo/video editing, gaming, etc… at home, but for most things a simple device will do quite nicely.
However, think about the average person who mainly consumes information? Do they need a full blown computer with a big expensive OS like Windows, and big fat expensive apps like Office? Nope. Gates knows this, and his competitive spirit will not be sitting idle giving away his fortune. Don’t get me wrong on this, I have no doubt that Gates and his foundation will do great things, and I believe he has every intention to do so.
My main thought here is not to count Bill Gates out of the industry by any means. With a quick sharp intellect, and his ability to see trends others may miss, I’m betting he won’t be sitting on the sidelines for long. The June 2008 timetable is set for a reason – we’ll have to see what that will end up being. Interesting I’m sure.
Any hints Bill?
Jul 2, 2006 | blog
For anyone who’s been testing IE7, a new build (beta 3) has been posted on the IE site for download. It looks to have enhanced features for RSS feeds, tab drag-n-drop on the tab bar, and an read email button added to the toolbar.
You can read more on Beta 3 at the following:
Jun 29, 2006 | blog
Jason Fuller has posted about a new version of Virtual Earth Mobile v1.64 on the Windows Mobile Team Blog. If your interested, you can read the post, or download directly from here.
Jun 29, 2006 | blog
Looks like Cingular will be getting three more Windows Mobile devices this year. The Boy Genius has the post over at Engadget Mobile on the trio of devices: HTC Hermes, HTC StarTrek, and HP iPaq hw6920.
While I’ve posted about the hw6900 series before, the Hermes and StarTrek devices are going to be more interesting. With HSDPA on the Hermes for 400-700kbs data rates, it’ll be quite speedy. The wonderful design of the StarTrek flip phone will appeal to the average and high-end cell phone user.
Can’t wait to see more of these devices spread to other carriers as well – or in the case of the HTC devices, simply look around for the iMate and HTC versions that can work with any GSM carrier. Damn, I love technology. 🙂
Jun 16, 2006 | blog
And that’s all this news raging about Bill Gates is – the next chapter. Obviously it’s the next chapter in his life, and in Microsoft’s.It’s also the next chapter for the technology industry, and computing as a whole. I’ve purposely avoided reading too many articles on the topic of his “moving” to part time.
The little bit I read was Scoble’s Heading to the BBC post, and Jeff Jarvis’ post The meaning of Bill. Both are insightful and told me more about the meaning of this change than any 5 second sound bite.
Regardless of your opinion of Bill Gates, at least read these two pieces.
UPDATE: Mathew Ingram also has makes some interesting points on Microsoft and questions what would be best for the company.
