Nov 9, 2006 | blog
Om Malik has a great piece today over on GigaOM. He points out that Microsoft has fallen to the Mafia tactics of the music industry and will pay $1 for every Zune device to Universal Music Group (UMG). At one point, he wonders if this would have happened at Microsoft’s height of dominance.
In this battle of the monopolists, Microsoft blinked and decided to pay up. (Would this have happened a few years ago, when Microsoft ruled the technology planet?) Remember how Jobs stood up to these music industry bullies. Today they are asking $1 a device; what is to stop them from asking for say $10 or $20 per device down the road. This shakedown should result in a serious investigation into the music industry cartel.
The music industry has really lost its marbles, they do believe that their customers are crooks, they do believe that they are being cheated by “fair use”, they do believe that they should get a payment every time one of their songs is heard by anyone anywhere from any media source.
The sad fact is that these once-powerful media companies are crying like children who dropped their candy, and it is obscuring their ability to logically think and plan out a relevant business model in the “new media” world.
Link to GigaOM » Microsoft, Zune & The Music Mafia
Technorati tags: Music Mafia, Microsoft Zune, Universal Music Group
Nov 6, 2006 | blog
Today Microsoft Office 2007 went “Gold” and was released to manufacturing. Availability will be on schedule for business and consumer users.
I’ve been using Office 2007 B2TR through September & October with good result. While the overall layout of the Office suite has changed dramatically for the better from Office 2003, its the ease of use that really starts to stand out.
The product is simply much better for creating visually rich documents than any other office product. You cannot screw it up, its that simple. There are pre-configured fades, gradients, lines, shapes, borders, etc… that you can simply click on and have it apply to your selection.
Now, I’ve gotten really good at subtle color use in Office 2003, but it’s stunning what you can do in 2007 – there are actual color pallets that have been professionally matched, so you simply choose the one you like and select a color blend from it.
I’ve said recently that I am moving away from client-side applications, and I’m planning on sticking to that. But if there is one application that is capable of so many things – it’s Microsoft Office. And it is one of very few applications that would make me rethink my approach.
Via: Microsoft – 2007 Microsoft Office System Is Golden
Nov 3, 2006 | blog
I can’t wait for OneNote 2007 – and the OneNote Mobile 2007 client that will come with the product. All during the beta of Office 2007, I’ve been using the mobile client with great success.
Its progressed from a rough form early on to a very usable tool as Kevin Tofel over at jkOnTheRun mentions. He also has a link to a Quick Start Guide for OneNote Mobile.
Check it out.
Via: jkOnTheRun – Microsoft’s OneNote Mobile 2007 Quick Start guide
Nov 2, 2006 | blog
So, I’m betting many, many people are flipin’ out tonight with the recent news of the Novell & Microsoft Linux partnership. Though I may be surprised by the timing, I’m not surprised at the news.
Microsoft has been heading this way for some time, and the only thing I didn’t see was Novell as a partner. Though I guess it makes sense in a way, as they have historically targeted the same markets, and have the same customers in many cases.
The interesting thing is that Microsoft is accepting Linux in their plans. Of particular interest is the OpenOffice and eDirectory compatibility. It’ll probably be Novell moving closer to Microsoft than the other way around, but having Microsoft involved in the process will improve the end results.
Via: BetaNews – Novell, Microsoft Ink Linux Partnership
Oct 19, 2006 | blog
Here is Paul Thurrott’s second installment in his Road to Gold series.
In the first part of the series, Paul talked about the 2001 to 2002 timeframe where Longhorn emerges from the secret corners of Microsoft engineers.
In part 2, 2003 is covered talking about leaked builds, the beginnings of delays, adding of features, troubles of WinFS, and more.
It really has been a long road to RTM for this Windows release and the more I think about it, the more I ask if current and past approaches to Windows (and Mac OS, and Linux) are valid any longer. With the potential of Web 2.0 coming to fruition by many, many new talented people – do we need a fat legacy client any more?
That said, Windows Vista is an impressive piece of code, and its history detailed in Paul’s articles are a fun read.
Paul Thurrott’s Windows SuperSite – Road to Gold: The Long Road to Windows Vista Part 2: 2003
