Featured Articles, Microsoft, Technology

This is What I’m Talking About

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The Gu himself, Scott Guthrie of Microsoft, wrote a blog entry yesterday about some power productivity features that people can get with a new VS 2010 update. It only took me a few seconds to find two classic examples that clearly illustrate one of the things that frustrates me about Windows: There is no consistency.

Take, for example, the following screen shot that Scott includes in his post:

Don’t those “On / Off” switches look cool?? There’s just one problem. No where else in any of Windows do options have this interface for turning things on or off. People are used to checkboxes. There was nothing wrong with checkboxes. Everyone was used to them. So while this may LOOK cooler to some people, it’s different behavior. It copies the switches iOS now. But one reason they were made like that for iOS was because people weren’t going to be using mice – they would be using their finger, which is less precise.

Next, take a look at another screen shot he included:

If you look at the little triangles, you will see that they point down when the node is expanded and they point to the right when the node is closed. But if you look back at the first screen shot, those triangles point to the lower right when the node is expanded, and appear all in black (there is no discoloration in the other window’s arrows). Furthermore, the arrows on the second screen shot are filled in gray. The ones in the first screen shot are gray outlines. Also, they’re different sizes.

I’m not commenting on the particular features that Scott is writing about, I’m commenting on how there is so little attention paid to details like consistency. Call me nit-picky, go ahead. I deserve it.

Apple, Featured Articles, Microsoft, Technology

Microsoft Tries to Change History

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In a YouTube video posted by “WindowsPhone”, Microsoft claims that the mobile phone industry has hit a wall, and that each new smartphone that is released is only slightly better than the one before it. While this is being said, they show tons of smartphones including the iPhone.

I think it’s important to be truthful here and say that if not for the iPhone being released 3 years ago, Microsoft never would have even started Windows Phone 7 Series. They would have just made insignificant improvements on their Windows Mobile platform just as they had done for the previous six years. So I have two main issues with this video.

To claim that the iPhone is just a slightly better smartphone than the one that came before it is simply one of the most preposterous things I’ve ever heard. Even if you don’t like Apple or their products you still can’t deny the effect the iPhone had on the entire industry. It was at a virtual standstill until the iPhone came along.

Second, to claim that Windows Phone 7 Series is the mobile OS that breaks through the wall that Microsoft claims exists in the mobile industry is really only true when you compare it to Windows Mobile. What the video should have said is “At Microsoft, we hit a wall with our mobile phone strategy.”

iPhone OS and Android are clearly setting the pace in today’s world. But 9 months from now when the first Windows Phone 7 Series hits the market (provided there are no delays) we’ll see just how much of an impact it makes.

Watch the video here.

Apple, Featured Articles, Microsoft, Technology

My Mom is On Board

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What would life be like without a cellular phone? Just consider that for a moment. You can’t make a call whenever you want. You can’t send a text message to anyone, or receive one. You can’t send or receive any email, either.

Now consider that this extends in to your home and office. You have no computer.

Think about that. You do not have a computer of any kind at home or at work. That means you have never sent or received a single email. You’ve only browsed the web once or twice from a friend’s house when you’ve been visiting. But browsing the Internet is pretty simple. All you have to do is click on things and read or watch. But you’ve never received a photo of your son, daughter or granddaughter who live on the opposite coast that was taken five minutes ago. You missed your granddaughter’s first steps because you didn’t get the email that went out to everyone else that had the link to the YouTube video. And because you live 35 miles from the nearest bookstore, you couldn’t browse the latest releases without conquering the snow and sleet.

But let’s get back to having a computer. You don’t. So you have no idea how to use one.

There are lots of examples of people who might fit this description. My mother is a mail carrier in a rural area. She’s never needed a computer. She’s never even really wanted one. She lives in a rural area and said that because of her location, $80 per month would be her monthly internet access bill (after paying $299 for equipment).

I asked her “would $30 per month for unlimited traffic be an amount you’re comfortable with?” She said yes. She didn’t believe me and assured me that she had called all around to phone companies and satellite companies and cable companies and that $80 per month was the cheapest that she could get.

So I put myself in her position and ignored everything I know about computers and imagined that someone put an iPad in front of me. They tell me that “Safari” means the Internet, but that’s all. I can see everything else (Mail, Contacts, Clock, Maps, Calendar, etc.) makes perfect sense. I’m told that all I have to do is reach out and touch the thing I want to do. That doesn’t seem likely, but I do it anyway. Suddenly the web appears. I see something I’m interested in so I reach out and touch it. All of this without any wires or keyboards.

Something is strange – I’m online and there was no hassle. I’m instantly productive on the Internet. How can this be? I don’t even know how to use a computer. But somehow it’s just working.

There’s no other machine and operating system in the world that offers anything even close to this kind of promise. And I will finally be able to email photos and video to my mother.

Featured Articles

Potential

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I find it so interesting how so many of my peers in the Microsoft software development arena fail to see the potential of the iPad. Some of the things they have said include:

  • I have notebook computer running my home network.
  • I’m not going to carry my laptop, my phone, AND an iPad.
  • iPad seems anticlimactic; but I sure do love my Windows 7 tablet!! 🙂

Let me just comment quickly on these three (and I could do all 200 that I found, but you have to stop somewhere).

  • Good for you. The iPad isn’t a laptop to run your home network.
  • You’re not supposed to.
  • Seems anticlimactic because you’re not able to see the potential. And by the way, I’m pretty sure I have the exact same Windows 7 tablet you do, and the touch screen is a complete disaster on a machine where two of the five people I know got one 3 months ago have had to send their unit in because the touch screen broke.

To these people I say this:

Just like me, you are not the target customer for the iPad v1. But if you can’t or won’t see the potential of the iPad for the general consumer, I honestly don’t know that anything but 2012 will open your eyes, after it’s had two years to take hold and mature.

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Proactive Versus Reactive

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“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Steve Jobs

This quote that I read from this blog entry really got me to thinking.

So many products are built this way. Ask people what they want, build it, and then give it to them months or years later. Times change, however. In today’s world so much can change in a year.

“Pioneering” is a completely different mindset. People that see a future clearly and are able to deliver that will either win or lose. If you lose, you’re out of business. But isn’t that a risk everyone with an idea and passion should take? If I have an idea and I think it’s great and I execute on the idea and then nobody else likes it as I envisioned, doesn’t that make me wrong? I’m saying that’s a good thing. I should learn from that and move on.

Some just aren’t willing to assume that risk and are happy to deliver things that are already outdated when they’re released. Others wrongly assume the risk, because they’re just too stubborn to see certain things. Then there are those who take calculated risks and have tremendous vision. Those are the people that change the world.

Featured Articles

Halo

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I had never heard the BeyoncĂ© song “Halo” before the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. As I listened I remember thinking that I couldn’t tell what this song was supposed to be about. She was singing “Haiti we can see your halo” and how she was surrounded by its embrace and how it was her saving grace and I just didn’t get it.

So today I went on the web to see if perhaps it was a song that had already been released. It was. Quite some time ago, I might add (just goes to show you how current I am with BeyoncĂ©). The real lyrics make so much more sense! Apparently, for the benefit telethon, she just did a find & replace on the word “baby” and changed it to “Haiti”.

And that reminded me of this:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103772

Featured Articles

Lackluster? 'Scuse Me?

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About two hours ago Apple reported their best quarter ever. Part of that was due to the iPhone, and sales of the iPhone were up 100% from the year-ago quarter. How does Edwin Chan describe a double in sales? “Lackluster”.

In an article he titled “Apple posts record Mac sales, iPhone lackluster” Edwin quotes Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu: “What we do know is the iPhones were light. People were looking for closer to 9.5 (million).”

What people? Analysts like Shaw who don’t work for Apple? A company just had its best quarter ever and DOUBLED its iPhone sales from the year-ago quarter. How in any sense of fact-based reality, can that be “lackluster”? How is that “light”?

But the truth is that the stock market doesn’t function based on fact. It functions based on people with microphones and whatever they choose to say.

Featured Articles

HP's New Slate PC (Tablet)

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As reported ahead of time by many sources, Steve Ballmer showed a new Windows 7-based tablet PC from HP at CES 2010 this evening.

Notice anything?

There’s a Windows Task Bar on the bottom of it. There’s no keyboard (although I’m sure you can plug one in somehow if you wanted to), so this device is meant to work via touch. There’s just one problem (and I think it’s a REALLY big problem): Unless I’m mistaken, it’s the Windows 7 touch technology. They haven’t developed a new version for this device as far as I know.

I wrote about the touch in Windows 7 after I received a free tablet PC with Windows 7 when I attended Microsoft’s PDC event a few weeks ago. They didn’t do this right.

I think the Daring Fireball John Gruber says it very well in his post on the subject:

“Anyway, all these “slates” announced tonight are just tablet PCs running Windows 7 — a terrible interface for a touch screen. Nice job, Ashlee Vance of the New York Times.

Maybe Microsoft thinks they’re somehow sticking it to Apple by taking the “slate” name first, but everything tablet-related they announced on stage was boring non-news. The only cool stuff they announced (Natal) isn’t going to ship for close to a year. This is a comparison they want to draw with Apple? I’m left with the impression of a company that’s flailing.”

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Verizon's New Droid Ad

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I think Verizon is misguided in its approach to the Droid ad campaign. Their latest one, shown here, seems to paint a made-up picture of the iPhone and then compare the Droid to that picture. But to anyone who has ever used an iPhone, the ad makes absolutely no sense.

I can’t help but notice how Verizon is not going head-to-head with feature and / or usability comparisons.