Some fan of Windows 7 has gone Microsoft with his halloween spirit, and carved a pumpkin with the Windows 7 logo. Pretty cool.
CNN reports that the Microsoft consumer brand is dying. With Windows running at 90%+ market share, the XBox 360 performing excellent, Windows Phone 7 just released, Windows 7 selling record amounts, and on and on… Reading comments from around the web from anyone with an open mind, not biased (Apple fans are laughing), they are saying “What?! CNN is uninformed.”. I just have to say that their opinion is slightly off from reality. They may not innovate (Yea, Kinect is old school…), they may not have very much market share in the consumer market (Windows with 90%+), and their server products suck (a lot of enterprises don’t seem to think so), overdue on tablets (the medical industry uses them very successfully, iPad wouldn’t be viable in that situation)… CNN, you need to send back the check Steve Jobs sent you. The whole bashing Microsoft is so cool trend is over. Long over.
It’s not like Microsoft didn’t foresee the changes ahead. With a staff of almost 90,000, the company has many of the tech world’s smartest minds on its payroll, and has incubated projects in a wide range of fields that later took off. Experiments like Courier (tablets), HailStorm/Passport (digital identity), and Windows Media Center (content in the cloud) show the company was ahead of the game in many areas — but then it either failed to bring those products to market, or didn’t execute.
UPDATE: Microsoft’s answer to the article: #notdeadyet.
Frank Shaw, the Redmond company’s vice president of corporate communications, is fighting back on Twitter by pointing out the areas where the company sees strength or new momentum in its consumer businesses. He’s using the hash tag, #notdeadyet, in hopes of making his ad-hoc social media campaign go viral.
Microsoft has released the release candidate for Service Pack 1 for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008R2 to the public. It has recently been spotted on the file sharing networks after being leaked by testers. Best option is to download it directly from Microsoft. Grab it if you are adventurous.
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 RC will help you:
- Keep your PCs supported and up-to-date
- Get ongoing updates to the Windows 7 platform
- Easily deploy cumulative updates at a single time
- Meet your users’ demands for greater business mobility
- Provide a comprehensive set of virtualization innovations
Provide an easier Service Pack deployment model for better IT efficiency
When Microsoft bought Halo developer Bungie, Steve Jobs was reportedly furious because Microsoft stole their top gaming developer for Mac. This was pre-Halo days. I’m doubtful Microsoft even knew how successful the series would be, and Steve Jobs probably gets a little angry even today when he sees the sales numbers for Halo. I’m wondering, however, if Halo would have even been a success if it were a Mac only exclusive. It could have been a huge turning point for Apple sales, turning the Mac into a gaming machine instead of an Internet and document processing machine (well, I guess it has a bit more: iMovie, etc.). I guess the world may never know. Unless you watch Fringe (and you should, it’s a great show!), then there may be a way, right?
Bungie, which was established in 1991, had throughout the Nineties built games for Apple’s Mac, from the Marathon trilogy to Oni. The studio, then based out in Chicago, was also building a relatively obscure FPS called Halo for Mac and PC.
OSNews has a great article on how to approach a Windows tune up, what’s involved, and how to go about it. Very detailed, accurate and well written. I work on PC’s daily, as well as working on my own PC, and a a good tune up can solve a lot of issues and make your computing experience better. I definitely recommend giving your PC a good cleaning monthly, inside and out!
Google “Windows tuning” and you’ll find tons of good performance tips.Butthere’s a problem. Many web sites present random tips withoutprioritizing them. The focushereis on high-payback techniques that do not require deep expertise. I’llstick to what’s easy andwhatworks.
There are four goals in performance tuning. You want to:
- Reduce the processor load
- Reduce memory usage
- Reclaim disk space and optimize disk access
- Ensure optimal use of the network connection
How important each of these is depends on the system you’re tuning.
WinRumors, NeoWin’s Tom Warren’s new website, has brought some new information on the release of Windows 8 which pins it “about 2 years away“. I really don’t care if it takes 6 months or 6 years, as long as it is a nice, polished end product with very little bugs. There are a lot of rumors going around with Windows 8, many of which are from supposed “leaks” in Microsoft. Whether or not they are true, it is still fun to read about. WinFS, the new file system that was to be included in Windows Vista ended up being dead in the water, but it was a great rumor and would have been a nice addition!
Microsoft has been extremely tight lipped about Windows 8 availability but a posting on Microsoft’s dutch news site hints at a two year wait for the next version of Windows.
“Furthermore, Microsoft is on course for the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years before “Windows 8 ‘on the market,” said a posting celebrating the first birthday of Windows 7. This confirms that the software giant isn’t planning to rush the next version of Windows out of the door. Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, recently admitted that the next version of Windows will be the software giants riskiest product yet.
Some clever designer created “Let Me Google That For You” in an attempt to help others help themselves, or just to be cynical. Now, it comes to Bing. Let Me Bing That For You is the newest edition of the sending a search query to someone else, especially if there results are on the first page. It always makes sense to look for an answer yourself using simple means than to go and ask in a forum that may or may not update frequently.
There is finally a decent, thorough review done on a Windows Phone 7. While the phone isn’t perfect, it is a lot better than the previous offerings from Microsoft, with a lot of room for improvement via third party apps, and updates from Microsoft. A great platform for just being released.
That is to say, it’s had quite a lot of wickedness added (especially compared to its forebear), but there are areas where it hasn’t quite got the idea. Some of that is inherent in the interface, which means that you’ll simply have to accept that that’s how it works; others are tweaks that can be, well, tweaked by Microsoft at some point in the future so that the overall user experience improves. It needs apps, it needs to have YouTube included, it needs copy/paste, it needs multitasking, and it needs dozens of apparently small but actually important details to be corrected to put it truly on the top level.
Microsoft, even with the shortage of Kinects this holiday season, are feeding the hype machine by putting out several commercials as part of a $500 million ad campaign. I do want one, but I am going to wait until the hype dies down, and they go for less than retail on Craigslist or eBay. No sense paying 4 times as much as retail just to have it before the neighbors.
“The key challenge for Microsoft Xbox at this point in the console lifecycle is to reignite stagnating Xbox 360 sales and that is easiest done by expanding and extending the Xbox footprint beyond the hardcore gamer segment,” wrote Martin Olausson of Strategy Analytics this Summer when the Kinect was unveiled. “Hence it is focusing on the social gamer segment with the Kinect platform. Strategically we believe Xbox has made the correct decision in focusing on non-traditional segments with Kinect (while at the same time strengthening the roster of hardcore games to appease the traditional segment) as this approach has the greatest potential for expanding its console footprint.”
F-Secure has posted a new alert for a virus in the wild. It looks like a Microsoft Security Essentials virus alert, and says it cannot remove the virus and directs you to download and purchase one that can. Do not fall for it, as it is definitely a fake. Microsoft lawyers are probably more pissed that they are using the MSE trademark instead of the malware aspect!
And not only does this fake tool steal Microsoft’s brand, it also features a bizarre matrix display of 32 antivirus products, offering you to locate a tool that would be capable of fixing your machine as “Microsoft Security Essentials” can’t clean the malware it found. In reality, this is all fake, and the tool has not found an infection in the fail it claims.
