The real reason Microsoft has given in over Internet Explorer

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

So why is Microsoft giving in over Internet Explorer? What’s the true motivation for the so-called browser ballot? It hasn’t been forced into the matter, although it could be argued that this was coming over the hill from the EU.

No, I think there is another reason, but this is pure speculation. I think Microsoft is actually walking away from Internet Explorer because it knows the battle is going to move elsewhere. It’s a kind of inversion, but the logic goes like this. (more…)

Microsoft Office Outlook 2010’s new meeting request view

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Outlook 2010 is undoubtedly the most changed of all the Microsoft Office 2010 applications, benefiting from the much-heralded Ribbon interface. Although my first reaction on seeing it was slight shock, as you’re presented with a mass of options when often all you want to do is Reply or Delete, I’m already seeing advantages.

Primary among these, so far as I’m concerned, is the new meeting request view. Not so much in the organisation phase – there are no major innovations there – but in the view that’s presented to invited members. (more…)

The scandal that is Microsoft’s Windows 7 pricing in the UK

Friday, July 31st, 2009

So, how much bad news can you take in one lump? Because we’ve just received news of Microsoft’s Anytime Upgrade pricing for Windows 7 in the UK, and it makes for about as much jolly reading as a Stephen King novel.

And just to make things even worse, we’ve now had confirmation there will be no Family Pack of Windows 7 until “at least” 2010. So, if the worst comes to the worst, that means it could be 2011. Or later.

(more…)

Silverlight not so Flash for Microsoft

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

When Microsoft announced it was launching an iPlayer rival I could barely hear the words over the onrushing sound of catastrophic failure. If you listen closely, you can hear it too…. Huuuluuu, Huuuluuu, Hulu.

Having used Hulu, I can testify that it’s brilliant and now its flame-filled eyes of domination are on the UK. If the whispers are true it’ll stride into the UK next month, laughing maniacally and kicking its competitors in the crotch, I’d imagine. It’s going to be a bloodbath and if I were Microsoft I’d take Windows 7 and Office 2010 and hunker down in my fortress made of £100 notes. Instead it’s tying itself to the tracks. Unfortunately, stubbornness has never derailed a freight train.

So, that’s that. What really baffles me about MSN Video Player (yes, beyond its very existence) is that Microsoft’s chosen to roll it out on Flash. That’s Adobe’s Flash. That’s Adobe, the next-door-neighbour with the bigger garden, prettier wife and stranglehold on the internet. Microsoft’s been trying to unseat Flash with Silverlight for the last couple of years, ushering developers towards the platform with big smiles and over-elaborate tech demos. And now, confronted by one of its biggest web rollouts for years, it expresses its confidence in Silverlight by sidling into its rivals garden and groping his wife. (more…)

Microsoft, Windows 7, the EU and common sense

Monday, July 27th, 2009

The world’s gone crazy. Surely Microsoft can’t have decided to do what’s been blindingly obvious to the rest of the world for eternity and – gasp – offer users a choice of web browsers when they install Windows 7? And thus, in one fell and seemingly easy swoop, appease the EU and its browser-producing competition?

But by jingo it has, at least if today’s news story (Microsoft to offer browser choice with Windows 7) is to be believed. During installation, you’ll get the choice of five (Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari), rendering the EU’s objection of Microsoft exploiting its monopolistic position irrelevant. (more…)

Silverlight 3 and Expressions 3 have escaped!

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Yesterday Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing of their web design suite Expression version 3. This means that the development tools for Silverlight 3 will be available for developers.

Although Silverlight 3 is, according to Microsoft’s own figures, only installed on one in three internet-connected computers, several big players such as Tesco and NBC are developing with this technology. We shouldn’t get too excited to hear that the big boys are developing with any one piece of technology as they have the resources to try out most things.

The choice if your company wants to produce a slick web application with smooth, high-quality video still comes down heavily in favour of Adobe’s Flash/Air/Flex framework, mainly because of the true multi-platform capabilites and the large installed user base (Adobe claims over 95% of browsers have flash installed) .

But it is obvious that Microsoft is putting its considerable weight behind Silverlight and the next year or two will determine if it sinks or swims.

Windows 7 still clinging to floppy drives

Monday, July 20th, 2009

I can’t remember the last time I used a floppy disk. I can’t even remember the last time I had a PC with a floppy disk drive in it. Like Robbie Williams and MPs with a conscience, I’d largely forgotten they even existed.

Not Microsoft, though. The company may be ploughing on with its next-generation operating system, but it fondly remembers the days when Windows 95 came on no fewer than 13 floppy disks, and is still attempting to keep the flagging old storage technology alive in Windows 7.

This was the message I saw when I attempted to create a password reset disk in Windows 7 over the weekend:

Microsoft’s not even covering the bases: it suggests floppy drives ahead of those new-fangled USB sticks, so determined is the company to keep the 3.5in clickers alive.

Is someone on commission over there in Redmond? We demand answers.

End of Microsoft Popfly

Friday, July 17th, 2009

I just recieved an email from John Montgomery of the MIcrosoft Popfly Team that from August 24th Popfly will be no more.

Microsoft Popfly is that free service that enable you combine a series of applets into ‘mash ups’; we covered its use in the mag and online.

So all the time you spent coding your killer app with this service will be to no avail, another blow against using cloud services. In a stroke all your hard work will be removed.

Perhaps the rumours are right and Microsoft really is feeling the pinch?

Microsoft’s Project Tuva: physics made fun

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Under the title Project Tuva, Microsoft has posted a series of classic physics lectures by Manhattan Project collaborator Richard Feynman for free on the web, and in the space of an hour they’ve become one of my all time favourite things.

They’re brilliant. Feynman has a lovely delivery that sweeps you along, together with a depth of understanding that allows him to strip a difficult concept down to its simple foundations, without needing to dumb it down. He just knows the right door to open in order to usher you quickly into his world.

Even if you’ve little interest in the topics under discussion, it’s well worth spending a few hours in Feynman’s company for the entertainment value. He’s a genuinely funny man able to express his science with a poet’s turn of phrase.

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Windows 7 pre-order pandemonium

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

So today is when the Microsoft Online Store has gone live for the pre-orders of Windows 7. You can buy your shiny upgrades (I mean “full versions dressed as upgrades”) to be delivered in the future.

This is an offer I could not resist. So I click to the relevant page on the Microsoft website and hit the Microsoft Store button – after all, best to buy it from the source don’t you think?

Ah, no.

So much for Microsoft’s cloud based scale-up scale-out on-demand infrastructure.