Joel Housman

Front-end Web Developer, iOS Developer, Man About Internet

Posts from the “Microsoft” Category

Why Microsoft’s Vision Of The Future Is Dead On Arrival

Posted on November 1st, 2011

John Pavlus:

What “future of” tech/design videos need is a little less Minority Report and a little more Alien. Director Ridley Scott famously told his production designers to make Alien’s spaceship and costumes look roughed-up, slightly messy, and above all, lived in. Otherwise, it just isn’t believable enough to see yourself in — which is a design problem that both horror movies and corporate promos need to solve. Microsoft’s film is probably going viral as we speak, but imagine how much more reach it would have if it dared to depict a guy stuck in a meeting that sucked, or using his smartphone in an airport that was full of noisy assholes and long lines, or searching his touchscreen-enabled smart refrigerator for a quick meal because his kids are bouncing off the walls and he’s bone-tired from a long day at work?

Maybe Microsoft Should Get into the Concert Ticket Business?

Posted on October 22nd, 2011

Turning the page from my previous post, remember the company that used to be the evil one? These days, they’re just sad. The only way they can get people to line up outside of their stores is to give away free concert tickets to a band you’ve probably never heard of.

Why Windows 8 Fails To Learn The iPad’s Lessons

Posted on June 2nd, 2011

Jason Snell writes at Macworld: The problem with the announcement is that Microsoft has failed to commit to the tablet as a unique type of device. The company that spent a decade trying to push Windows tablets on a market that just didn’t want them is still convinced that it’s a selling point that Windows 8 tablets will run Microsoft Excel for Windows and if you hook up a keyboard and mouse to them, you can get an arrow cursor and click to your heart’s content. Imagine if Apple had done that with the iPad. When Apple announced the iPad, the company showed off early versions of the iWork apps: Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. Those apps are utterly unlike their Mac equivalents, optimized for…

Why Windows 8 Is Fundamentally Flawed as a Response to the iPad

Posted on June 2nd, 2011

John Gruber writes at Daring Fireball: But I think it’s a fundamentally flawed idea for Microsoft to build their next-generation OS and interface on top of the existing Windows. The idea is that you get the new stuff right alongside Windows as we know it. Microsoft is obviously trying to learn from Apple, but they clearly don’t understand why the iPad runs iOS, and not Mac OS X. Microsoft’s demo video shows Excel — the full version of Excel for Windows — running alongside new touch-based apps. They can make buttons more “touch friendly” all they want, but they’ll never make Excel for Windows feel right on a touchscreen UI. Consider the differences between the iWork apps for the Mac and iPad. The iPad…

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 at D9

Posted on June 2nd, 2011

Microsoft PR:

Today, at the D9 Conference, we demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

Demo video shown at the conference:

More from the PR:

We also showed effortless movement between existing Windows programs and new Windows 8 apps. The full capabilities of Windows continue to be available to you, including the Windows Explorer and Desktop, as does compatibility with all Windows 7 logo PCs, software and peripherals.

Big mistake. Ballmer’s days are numbered.

Who’s Knifing What?

Posted on March 15th, 2011

Horace Dediu wrote an a nice piece over at asymco entitled “Who’s Knifing What?“: Apple has maintained its attention steadfastly on products while Microsoft has maintained unwavering focus on the distribution and control over value chains. During the 1990s one strategy worked and the other didn’t. During the following decade they changed places. The locus of the two strategies did not change. What seems to have changed is what the market values. What incenses me the most by Android/Google fans/apologists who hate Apple is that I feel Apple was the victim to Microsoft’s bullying during the ’90s. Apple managed to come back and win during the 00′s by executing with superior products that succeeded because they were the best. They didn’t use their monopoly…

On Google’s Announcement That Chrome Will Drop Native h.264 Playback Support

Posted on January 14th, 2011

I haven’t written about what I think is the 2nd biggest news story of the week yet, but I’ve tweeted about it quite a bit. On Tuesday, Google announced that in a future version of Chrome, to come out later this year, they would drop h.264 playback support. And then, on Twitter, I announced that I would cease using Chrome & move back to Safari. In short, I think this is an incredibly idiotic move on Google’s part. I think this is a purely evil and corporate political move in order to try to do harm to iOS devices. I think that Google is outright lying when they try to claim the reason for this decision is a commitment to open standards and I…