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Paul Thurrott and his Supersite for Windows

February 4, 2010 By Dan Brodie Leave a Comment
Apple's iPad

It's not often I get irked by some technical pundit who professes to be the law when discussing new technology. However, the latest blog post of self-professed Apple hater Paul Thurrott is disturbing in and of itself. I don't mind people challenging Google, Apple, RIM or any other technology company with well thought out and supportive articles but his last two have been beauties. Now it's no secret that he has carved out a living writing about Microsoft products and that is not a bad thing at all. At the end, though, Mr. Thurrott is evidently very threatened by the re-emergence of Apple and with each new product release, this fear has only increased. Specifically, with the recent announcement of the iPad, Mr. Thurrott has tried to persuade readers of two fabricated points: Apple is responsible for an increase in eBook pricing on the Kindle; and That Apple isn't an innovative company. Let's look at his first argument. Mr. Thurrott writes: What's interesting about Amazon's approach … [Read more...]

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Microsoft: A Multi-Touching Moment!

May 28, 2008 By Dan Brodie Leave a Comment

Microsoft today demoed the new multi-touch portion of their next gen operating system Windows 7 yesterday at the All Things Digital conference. For those not familiar with multi-touch, it was brought into the main stream by Apple's iPhone in June of last year and lets users concurrently use multiple touches on their device's screen to perform commands or actions. An example is using a pinching motion with your fingers to zoom in when viewing a picture. The video below is a great demonstration of Windows 7 multi-touch capabilities. The interesting comment from Microsoft is that Multi-Touch will be built throughout the operating system. This change can be a dramatic one for programmers who will need to learn new APIs and coding tools to take advantage of the technology. As the technology is expected to be integrated into the next versions of Linux and Mac OS, we certainly hope that there is commonality when it is integrated into browser technology. The next version of the … [Read more...]

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Microsoft and Yahoo! On Again or Off Again?

May 18, 2008 By Dan Brodie Leave a Comment

Well, the saga continues. Looks like Microsoft is re-strategizing and making another play to gain some of Yahoo!'s assets to help compete better with Google. Looks like they want to purchase a significant piece of Yahoo! but still allow a portion of Yahoo! to exist independently.  REDMOND, Wash. — May 18, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today issued the following statement: “In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business.  Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo!  Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take … [Read more...]

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What is going on with the OLPC Initiative?

May 18, 2008 By Dan Brodie Leave a Comment

What a love/hate relationship! Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child's chairman, and Microsoft Corp. announced on Thursday that Microsoft would be offering Windows XP at a $3 license fee to be installed on the XO laptop. Targeted at $100, the XO laptop currently costs just under $200 and needs to meet critical mass to drop the price down to that level. It is VERY telling though that Microsoft has finally agreed to offer it's operating system to the OLPC initiative. First off, Microsoft is getting concerned about losing its' market share in the Operating System category. The OLPC XO laptop currently runs Linux. Traditionally, Microsoft has been anti-open source. Also, Apple's Mac OS X Leopard is increasingly gaining market share in the consumer sector and is expected to take another huge leap when the 3G iPhone is expected to be released worldwide in June. The IPhone runs a full version of Apple's operating system. Microsoft is obviously slowly feeling pressure against … [Read more...]

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