John on Tech...
A look at technology from MY point of view
Tuesday 28 April 2009, 1:40 PM
Not Such A Vine Idea
Not content with failing miserably with the Zune. Not Happy at failing the search field against Google. Not content not being able to get their touch screen device into a box the size of a table. Microsoft have decided to take down twitter.
Mary-Jo Foley is reporting on the American version of this site that Microsoft are set to launch Vine, a "twitter-like" public notification service.
Hmmmm. At some point can't they go back and sort out the problems with the stuff they have RATHER than push out a whole host of me-too products with a ho hum set of features?
Mary-Jo Foley is reporting on the American version of this site that Microsoft are set to launch Vine, a "twitter-like" public notification service.
Hmmmm. At some point can't they go back and sort out the problems with the stuff they have RATHER than push out a whole host of me-too products with a ho hum set of features?
Monday 27 April 2009, 2:27 PM
Google and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Google have used their mapping technology to track the spread of the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus. An interesting use of the technology though perhaps a little scary. If you are interested you can use the following link to see how things are progressing.
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
Saturday 25 April 2009, 3:18 AM
Proof Positive that Microsoft Manipulates the Media.
There was a blog post that went up today (yesterday - I'm on Florida time you guys are on UK time of course) by a company that was setting up a Microsoft Surface for a customer. It wasn't very flattering. Actually it was so dreadful that I posted on a Mac site that I visit daily to show just how Microsoft doesn't get it. This is supposed to be Microsoft's answer to the iPod Touch / iPhone - too bad it requires SEVERAL cameras and a projector under the thing to get it do simple interaction.
The problem was that the so-called customer focussed features weren't very customer focussed on opening the box. And Gordon Miller, the author of the blog decided that it wasn't really good enough and blogged about it. He was right based on his assumptions. There were definitely issues.
Now I have just been out for a wonderful Friday evening and checked the computer when I got back in to find my link didn't work. So I clicked on the blog entry and found there was an update. A very PRO Microsoft update had replaced the original posting.
But worse still the original article had been removed.
So Marketing had obviously kicked in and decided the world wasn't ready for the things Gordon Miller had to say about their wonderful toy and got him to rewrite it.
You know what? This is the Internet and this sort of stuff SHOULDN'T happen. So for your edification here is a link to the Google Cache of the original article:
Here
And if that goes down here is a link to a pdf of the original article:
Here
And here is a link to the sanitized version:
Here
But probably isn't worth the effort as it seems to have Microsoft Marketing written all over it. BTW Microsoft Marketing here is an interesting aside. It's nice that you have sold some surfaces. Good. Well done. But you know what? The iPod Touch and the iPhone have just shipped their 37 millionth unit. That is a hell of a lot of multi-touch, gesture based interfaces out there. Good Luck with the Surface but perhaps media manipulation is NOT the way to go. Cleaning up bad press is an approach but this is the Internet shut stuff away in a box and it will come back to haunt you.
The problem was that the so-called customer focussed features weren't very customer focussed on opening the box. And Gordon Miller, the author of the blog decided that it wasn't really good enough and blogged about it. He was right based on his assumptions. There were definitely issues.
Now I have just been out for a wonderful Friday evening and checked the computer when I got back in to find my link didn't work. So I clicked on the blog entry and found there was an update. A very PRO Microsoft update had replaced the original posting.
But worse still the original article had been removed.
So Marketing had obviously kicked in and decided the world wasn't ready for the things Gordon Miller had to say about their wonderful toy and got him to rewrite it.
You know what? This is the Internet and this sort of stuff SHOULDN'T happen. So for your edification here is a link to the Google Cache of the original article:
Here
And if that goes down here is a link to a pdf of the original article:
Here
And here is a link to the sanitized version:
Here
But probably isn't worth the effort as it seems to have Microsoft Marketing written all over it. BTW Microsoft Marketing here is an interesting aside. It's nice that you have sold some surfaces. Good. Well done. But you know what? The iPod Touch and the iPhone have just shipped their 37 millionth unit. That is a hell of a lot of multi-touch, gesture based interfaces out there. Good Luck with the Surface but perhaps media manipulation is NOT the way to go. Cleaning up bad press is an approach but this is the Internet shut stuff away in a box and it will come back to haunt you.
