Tag Archives | Microsoft

Okay, What the Heck is Windows Cloud?

Posted by Harry McCracken on October 1, 2008 at 5:06 pm

As far as I’m concerned, one of the most interesting topics to speculate about in all of personal technology is the fate of Windows in an increasingly Internet-centric world. And Steve Ballmer just gave us more fodder to chew on: This IDG News Service story says that the Microsoft CEO told attendees at a London conference that Microsoft will announce something code-named Windows Cloud in about a month. (That timing would coincide neatly with PDC, Microsoft’s big annual conference for software developers.)

The IDG story describes Windows Cloud as an operating system, but I’m assuming it’s not an OS that’s in any way akin to Windows as we know it as a desktop OS. Rather, it’s more likely a development platform and/or set of services for Net-based apps, possibly in the same vein as some of the stuff Amazon is doing with its Web Services offerings, which are used by lots of significant consumer services. (See Ina Fried’s story at Cnet News for more on this idea.)

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Microsoft Still Bribing Consumers to Use Live Search

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 1, 2008 at 11:20 am

What do you do when you can’t get consumers to use your product for free? You pay them to! Microsoft has introduced another incentive for Live Search users, called SearchPerks. In this program, users would receive “tickets” everytime they search. The best way to think of this is like a credit card rewards program.

To participate, consumers must visit the program website by the end of this year, and download a small application that resides within Internet Explorer. All users get 500 tickets for installing the application, and users would be able to receive a ticket for each time they launch a search query, up to a limit of 25 per day.

Microsoft says consumers would have until April 15 of next year to accumulate as many tickets as they want. Prizes range from five music downloads (from Zune?), to clothing, airline miles, and even Xbox 360 equipment.

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Ballmer: Microsoft Not Immune to Financial Crisis

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 30, 2008 at 1:30 pm

These probably were not the type of questions Steve Ballmer was expecting to answer. At a stop in Oslo to talk about Microsoft’s acquisition of Norwegian-based Fast Search, reporters seemed more interested in any possible ramifications for the world’s largest software company due to the ongoing financial crisis.

Ballmer warned that as the financial crisis deepens, businesses and consumers alike will further cut spending. Obviously, the worst effects would be across the financial services industry, hit the hardest by the current crisis.

“We have a lot of business with the corporate sector as well as with the consumer sector and whatever happens economically will certainly effect itself on Microsoft,” he told Reuters in an interview. “I think one has to anticipate that no company is immune to these issues.”

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Die, Scareware, Die! Microsoft Takes on Windows Scammers

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 30, 2008 at 1:59 am

Maybe I’ve been living under a rock or something, but I never heard the term scareware until today. But without knowing the name, I’ve sure seen a lot of the stuff over the years–utilities that use questionable tactics such as fake error messages to lead you think you’ve got a computer problem in order to lure you into buying them. Then they do little or nothing that makes your PC any better–assuming that they don’t do anything that actively screws it up, intentionally or unintentionally.

Such products are a scourge for Windows users–I’m not sure, incidentally, whether there’s such a thing as Mac scareware–and they must be a headache for Microsoft, too, since they’re one of the barnacles that degrades the experience of using Windows.

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Zune Service Going Down, New Features Ahead?

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 26, 2008 at 6:12 pm

If you’re a Zune user and have any music you want to buy, better grab it over the weekend. A short mail sent by the Zune team to Zune users appeared just moments ago in my inbox:

The Zune service will be down for scheduled maintenance on Monday, September 29, 2008 from 12:01am Pacific Time, for up to 48 hours. During the downtime, Zune Social, the forums on Zune.net, and all of Zune Marketplace will be offline.

I’ve been busy looking around for some type of explanation as to why a two-day downtime would be needed. Zune team blogger Cesar Menedez is unusually silent as to a reason why Microsoft is deciding to do this, and the cadre of Zune enthusiast blogs don’t seem to be offering much either.

Don’t be surprised if this is just truly scheduled maintenance–after all, a few have complained of persistent bugs within the Zune service that have been there since the beginning. Microsoft may be taking the opportunity to address these issues. But there’s always the possibility that the Zune team will spring something on us.

So here’s what I’m hearing. Reliable sources are telling me that the “48 hour” figure really is more of a buffer in case something goes wrong, and in all likelihood the downtime would last less than a day. When it comes back, the end user is not going to notice any changes, but this is for a reason.

The changes appear to be all in the Zune service’s back end, save for a few bug fixes. Several of the sources described the back end changes to be “significant,” with some hinting that the update may have something to do with a future feature regarding video.

For whatever reason–likely because this is something Apple isn’t doing — I’m hitting a roadblock in getting more details on exactly what this feature may be. Apparently it’s out there and has been speculated on, so we’re busy searching as you read this for clues as to what it may be.

More on this story through the weekend as we learn more.

[UPDATE: We may have found the connection between the Xbox Live and Zune downtime that are happening concurrently. CNET’s Ina Fried talked with Zune chie Joe Belfiore two weeks ago. At the time, he said the capability to transfer videos from the Zune to the Xbox and vice versa wasn’t available now, but “we’re not really that far off technologically from being able to offer that feature.” It’s possible that this could be the new feature being talked about.

Then again, Apple is already doing this, going from iPod<–>AppleTV, so maybe this might not be it. But it’s probably as good of a lead as we have at the moment.]

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No E-Mail, Photo Editing, and Movie Editing in Windows 7? What a Good Idea!

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 22, 2008 at 8:38 pm

Over at Cnet News, Ina Fried has posted some news that I find both startling and pleasing: Microsoft has told her that Windows 7 won’t come with applications for e-mail or for editing photos and movies. Windows Mail (née Outlook Express), Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker will live on, but as free downloadable Windows Live applcations rather than bundled into Windows.

I think that’s potentially a very encouraging sign about Microsoft’s priorities for W7. Operating systems shouldn’t be about e-mail or photo tweaking or movie making–they should be about being a fast, reliable, and intuitive platform for all of those applications and thousands more. By insisting on making those programs part of earlier versions of Windows, Microsoft hobbled both the apps and the OS in multiple ways:

–There’s no way that applications that move at the speed of OS development can keep up with the rest of the world. Windows XP shipped in 2001; how could a photo app tied to it compete with services like Flickr that arrived years later, even if it received updates?

–Applications bundled with operating systems are destined for mediocrity–nobody pays for them, or even chooses to use them. They’re defaults–at best, they get good enough to be good enough. And then they stagnate.

–Bundled apps are just a distraction. There’s so much fundamental stuff that Windows could do better on every front, from performance to security to usability; why lard up the OS with apps that are clearly optional and which have strong third-party rivals?

I don’t think Microsoft would nod its corporate head in agreement with all of the points above, but some of the things it told Ina about its decision aren’t wildly different in terms of the bottom line. That’s a striking reversal from marketing for Windows XP and Vista, both of which often played up the bundled applications that came with the OS. Here, for instance, is the XP ad with Madonna’s “Ray of Light”:

It’s also strikingly different than Apple’s OS-application strategy. It too makes an operating system and creative applications, but OS X and iLife only get bundled together on a new Mac. iLife will only live as long as it’s compelling enough to get real people excited enough to pay real money for it. Otherwise, they’re standalone products that must be purchased separately. Good for OS X; good for iLife; good, ultimately, for Mac users.

I think Microsoft could go way further with this basic idea: Should it be a given that Windows comes with Windows Media Player or even Internet Explorer? Maybe Paint should be retired after 23 years? (That’s apparently not going to happen–actually, it’s apparently getting a major makeover, with the Office 2007 Ribbon interface and multi-touch support.) But losing some apps is a good start–and I think that Windows Mail, Photo Gallery, and Movie Maker all stand a better chance of being really competitive if they stand on their own and only get used by people who make an effort to find, download, and explore them.

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Windows 7 Starts to Come Into Focus. Slowly.

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 21, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Okay, enough about Windows ads. Let’s talk about a far more important topic: Windows itself. Windows 7–the working name for the next version–to be exact. According to no less an authority than Steve Ballmer, it’s supposed to ship in late 2009–but this is Microsoft time we’re talking, so let’s say early 2010.

Microsoft has had shockingly little to say about W7 so far–more about that in a moment–but details are starting to leak out. This blog, for instance, has a bunch of screen shots from what it says is an early version of the OS–Windows 7 M3 Build 6780, to be exact.

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Ballmer Ties His Retirement to Live Search Success

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 21, 2008 at 11:29 am

Many had assumed the Ballmer era would end when his youngest child goes off to college, roughly in about a decade or so: he even hinted to that effect himself. Despite these earlier comments, the ever outspoken executive now seems to be quite frustrated over the apparent failures of Live Search, and will stay on until it becomes a success.

According to commenters in this post on Mini-Microsoft, and subsequently confirmed by Mary Jo Foley, Ballmer told employees that he would stay on as head of the company until Live Search’s market share bests Google’s.

The comment is almost unbelievable on its face. Does Ballmer really think that Microsoft will be able to turn its search fortunes around? As it stands right now, the company is going the wrong way. Web analytics firm comScore posted numbers Thursday that showed Live Search continues to lose share in the US.

For August, Microsoft garnered a 8.3 percent share, down .6 percent, while Google gained over 1 percent to finish with 63 percent of the market. Its share of queries also took a hit, down 7 percent over the previous month to 977 million. This marks the first time since May that the company has fallen below a billion queries, and follows a period where Microsoft had shown some growth.

I just cannot see at this point any viable way — short of monopolistic behavior — that will allow Microsoft to come anywhere close to equaling Google’s share of the market, much less surpass it. Maybe the Justice Department’s new-found interest in Google’s advertising practices and the threat of antitrust action may help Microsoft out, but I doubt it will do much.

Maybe the answer to whether we should really believe that Ballmer means what he says lies in understanding the man himself. Those who have watched him all know that he’s been known to make some pretty crazy statements, and his enthusiasm has been known to get the best of him at times, so maybe its best to keep in mind that this may be one of those cases. You never know, however.

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