22Hundred.net

iPhone OS 3.0

2009-06-17T20:38:00.003+01:00

Well that's the new OS downloaded and installed on my iPod Touch and I can't help wondering what all the fuss has been about. This update feels even more anticlimactic once it's actually living on your iPod. There's just nothing to it. Nothing really changes. There's no little red circles on Twitter apps suddenly appearing to tell you that someone more has left 140 characters of wisdom, there's no oomph when the device boots in again for the first time after update...there's nothing.

TUAW have posted a little reading material for all those people who are downloading their updates for the iPhone and iPod Touch. A link to it can be found here and it takes you through everything you can look forward to when your little shiny piece of Steve restarts. Seeing it laid out there there's not really that much to cheer about.

I am glad to see the landscape keyboard get introduced to the rest of the apps at last because that was getting very annoying trying to type a note in portrait mode, it doesn't seem to work in the App Store App which is a little weird. However, lets face it this should've been there from day 1.

There's notifications but looking through my Settings screen is telling me that this isn't even available on my iPod Touch so that's a non-starter.

Now Spotlight searching is good and I'm really glad to see it implemented across the device. It maybe should've been there from the start too but I am will to give credit where it's due and this is a nice addition to have.

Improvements to YouTube and App Store are grand for what they are, just updates. Nothing interesting to see here move along please. Same for the MobileMe based services because I'm def not paying more money to Apple per year just to do something Google does for free and The wiping won't work for Touch anyway.

I'm not out to just slate Apple I'm more just disappointed that this update didn't have more kick to it.

Image from Apple.com

Windows XP on an iPod Touch

2009-06-14T19:36:00.002+01:00

I was browsing the App store the other day looking for a new game to play and I came across Paper Toss. The App itself is great fun and being free it's well worth a look. While playing it however I noticed something in the background that made me laugh. The developers had included a computer running Windows XP. In fact it's in all of the levels of the game.

I've posted a screenshot of the game.

The game was developed by Backflip Studios and is available now from the App Store. Review coming here soon.

WWDC 2009 Approaches

2009-06-08T00:18:00.003+01:00

At 10 am tomorrow, 5pm UK time, Phil Schiller is due to take the stage in San Francisco. The Apple rumour mill has been in overdrive around this particular keynote for very good reason. There is a lot of hope that Dear Leader, otherwise known to you and me as Steve Jobs, will make a surprise appearance and bring with him some amazing piece of technology that will mark his return to Apple. I don't think it's going to happen, it might but I really doubt it. I'm going to make a couple of predictions in this post covering WWDC tomorrow and what I think will happen in the rest of June.

I honestly feel that tomorrow is going to mirror the Macworld keynote. During that event Phil did an excellent job of introducing products that were, lets face it, boring. If Steve had been in full health I don't think he would've been able to make those announcements anymore exciting than Phil made them. Tomorrow's likely to be the same. Phil can introduce us to Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0 without ever introducing a new piece of hardware. We've seen the iPhone OS and we've heard what's in Snow Leopard. I'm suspecting that this is what poor Phil is going to be stuck with tomorrow.

If I was in his position though I would ensure that I had one surprise, but what surprise could the Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing pull out of the bag that would get people talking? There are really two. The first would be a rehashed version of the iPhone hardware. Maybe it will have Video editing, larger memory and faster processor. It's Phil level exciting, I don't mean that as an offense to him of course I simply mean that due to the timing he's not going to get THE BIG announcement. He can announce that it will go on sale at the end of June.

His second announcement, and the real surprise, should involve Mr Jobs. Not his actual return at WWDC because it's not the right setting or timing. He needs to announce the next event. A "One More Thing." that is simply a date and a location on a black screen with the Apple logo above it. That will be Steve's return. That will be the new major hardware announcement, probably a totally new iPhone for Verizon and maybe just maybe the Tablet.

So don't expect too much tomorrow in the way of new products. Maybe a new iPhone but it'll be no more than a rehash of the current one. The big announcement is going to be the return of Steve at the end of the month. In that keynote we will expect something major. I must say though that personally it will be great to see Steve return and I'm really happy that if this is a sign that his health issues have been sorted out. The Tech industry is a much better place when Steve's around than when he isn't.

Why Steve Jobs Still Being Involved In Apple Is Bad News

2009-04-13T23:40:00.001+01:00

The Wall Street Journal reported some great news for Apple fans, Steve Jobs is still making the big decisions.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook runs the day-to-day operations at Apple, these people say. But Mr. Jobs has continued to work on the company's most important strategies and products from home, they say. He regularly reviews products and product plans, and was particularly involved in the user interface of the new iPhone operating system that Apple unveiled last month, these people say.

This sounds like great news doesn’t it? Steve may not be well enough yet to return to the day-to-day operations of the company but he’s certainly well enough to stay involved. Even if he never returns to the day-to-day operations he can still take on a roll of Chairman with oversight of product, or something like that. This news story prepares us nicely in fact for such an announcement in a couple of months in WWDC.

As with every story though there is another way to look at this one. I got a feeling that a lot of the current good feeling towards Apple was extending from the fact that the company was managing to produce well rounded products without the need for input from Mr Jobs. If he could not return then Apple would be OK because the management team were proving that they could more than handle things on their own. Even the argument that the products being released now were conceived and developed in Mr Jobs’s time could be countered with the fact that the product had to be brought successfully to market by the rest of the team only.

That’s no longer the case. Apple were not being lead by their management team minus Mr Jobs. Steve was still in control of the company the whole time. The article even pointed out how involved he was in the new iPhone OS. If I was an Apple investor I’d be worried about Steve’s apparent lack of ability to let the others take credit. He should’ve left the situation as it was and then appear at WWDC and announce his return to Apple in a full time roll, even if it’s not as CEO. I feel that this was a mistake. I now don’t think we’ve any proof that Apple can grow post-Jobs anymore.

Is This The New Zune?

2009-04-12T19:45:00.003+01:00

Engadget has published this picture of what they are reporting to be the new Zune from Microsoft. Even though these devices are not available in the UK I did own one of the older devices and I really didn't see any reason for it getting the abuse that many have thrown it's way. Let's face it, it played music and let you watch videos on a good quality screen and using stable and easy to use software. If the device had been smaller there really was very few negative things you could say about it.

This new Zune looks excellent. Very stylish and hopefully as easy to use as it's older siblings. The similarities to the iPod Touch are obvious but that's not a bad thing and not a new thing. To compete in this market though Microsoft need to offer the ability to play the DRM free iTunes tracks on the player and the media software. I believe that this is the only way they can hope of getting converters. It's impossible to move to a new player if your songs won't play and you paid hard earned money for them.

In the music player business, and also in many ways in the browser industry, Microsoft really should be offering Mac integration. Internet Explorer on the Mac and a way to send music to your Zune either through iTunes or through the a Mac version of the Desktop software. Apple offered Windows integration so that the iPod would take off initially now Microsoft need to do the same to hav any chance in the media player market.

The Missing Windows Mobile Component

2009-04-11T02:45:00.002+01:00

I’ve been looking into developing on mobile platforms recently and after looking at Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and Palm I’ve come to an unusual conclusion regarding the Microsoft offering. Everyone knows the UI is weak in comparison to other devices so I’m not going to look at that. I’m actually talking about the developer tools for Windows Mobile.

Downloading the SDK for version 6.1 is nice and easy from Microsoft.com but the problem emerges when you start looking for a supported environment. Android and BlackBerry use Eclipse plug-ins which are free to download as is Eclipse itself. If you own a Mac you will get Xcode when you download the iPhone SDK and once again these are free. Microsoft’s free Visual Studio Express environments are not actually supported for mobile development. You have to go out and purchase a copy of Visual Studio before you can develop for the Windows Mobile platform. To me this is a massive flaw in the Microsoft model. Google, RIM and Apple are making the most of innovative developers who might think twice if they had to purchase the development environments.

Microsoft may be able to boast about the number of applications they have for Windows Mobile but many of them are pretty awful. I do feel that if Microsoft doesn’t want to get left behind in this field and lose developer support they must offer a Visual Studio Express version that hooks into the 6.1 SDK and allows developers to play and build apps for free. After that they can charge for distribution because everyone else basically does.

Image from msdn blogs

Bing? Windows Live? MSN!

2009-04-06T23:40:00.001+01:00

Microsoft have been attempting to brand their online experience for months and years now and things appear to be getting worse. I am personally a fan of the Windows Live brand. I think it completely captures the one product Microsoft is best known for and conjures the image of Windows being online and available. So why not stick with it?

The fact is that they do not seem keen on sticking with this brand and there are many rumours about rebranding of Live Search. So what about simply going back to the best known online brand Microsoft have, MSN. I was on a call with Microsoft today and while I was on hold I was listening to an ad for spaces.msn.com. That sounds much better than anything Microsoft have managed to come up with lately and the portal that is currently in place is very well known and developed.

So my question to Microsoft and Softies everywhere is this, why not bring back and support MSN? Or if you don’t want it then give it to me.

Another Nice Microsoft Ad

2009-04-06T21:33:00.001+01:00

Microsoft have released their second ad and it’s another good one. Nice to see the Redmond guys starting to take good jabs at Apple at last.

Microsoft Ad 2

Jobs at WWDC '09?

2009-03-27T00:10:00.003Z

Apple have announced today that WWDC, Worldwide Developers Conference, will start on June 8th 2009. From a technology viewpoint we have to expect a new iPhone, the full release of iPhone OS 3.0 and Snow Leopard. On their own these are three exciting announcements but there may be one more announcement that will blow the rest away. The return or retirement of Steve Jobs.

I suspect that we will see Steve Jobs appear at WWDC during the Keynote. Unfortunately I also believe that this will be his final appearance as Apple CEO at WWDC. If Steve is unable to remain as CEO then the best time for him to leave will be after Apple announce three excellent new products that will keep the company secure for another year.

My only concern is 2+ years down the line. I've heard people say that since Tim Cook is doing such a good job as acting CEO he will make a good CEO. However, lets not forget that Steve is still in charge. He made it clear in January that he will still be making the big decisions during his medical leave. Lets also remember that the products that we are seeing now were planned and developed in Steve's watch and we haven't seen the Cook products yet. I don't doubt that Cook will do a good job and has an excellent management team in place but lets not think that the departure of Jobs won't impact the stock price because it will, hard.

Image from WWDC 2008 taken from Apple.com

Installing Ovi From Nokia

2009-01-22T00:26:00.001Z

After hearing that Microsoft may be releasing a version of Apple’s Mobile Me for Windows Mobile and some non-windows mobile devices next month I decided to check out what Nokia had on offer first. On paper their current service list looks quite impressive. Email, contacts, calendar, file sync from your mobile device to the cloud, Nokia Services, and some sort of PC Suite, more details after I install it and get to play with it for a while. I’m currently using an N96 and have the new Nokia Messaging email client setup. While not perfect it is an excellent offering and one no S60 owner should be without.

I’ve used the calendar and contact sync to connect to the cloud and everything uploaded without a hitch. Now I want to see if I can tie the Ovi PC Suite into MS Outlook with Outlook connector. If I can then Nokia really have managed to offer virtually the perfect all round solution. Head over to www.ovi.com for a look.

Microsoft About To Release A Good MobileMe?

2009-01-19T23:31:00.001Z

According to Neowin Microsoft are going to introduce the world to their MobileMe compeditor next month:

"SkyBox" is a service for users to sync a phones information with the web. Microsoft will be offering automatic backup and restore services, access and management of phone data and provide easy communication and sharing with others. The service will also allow syncing of contacts, email/SMS, calendar items and pictures into the cloud, similar to Apple's MobileMe. The difference from Apple's offering is Microsoft could be set to offer this out to non Windows Mobile devices.

"SkyLine" will be aimed at small businesses. Offering similar functionality to SkyBox, businesses will be able to setup their phones with Microsoft's Exchange hosting with their own domain names.

"SkyMarket" was originally discovered in September 2008 when Microsoft advertised several external job positions. SkyMarket is the codename for Microsoft's mobile marketplace, a competitor to Apple's AppStore and RIM's Blackberry application center. This service will only be available on Windows Mobile devices and will showcase the 1000s of Windows Mobile applications available today.

The Steve Jobs Email

2009-01-14T22:58:00.001Z

The following is taken from the Wall Street Journal:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal
with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health
continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else
at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my
health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to
allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have
decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and
I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As
CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our
board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

Steve Jobs Taking Medical Leave

2009-01-14T22:11:00.001Z

The Wall Street Journal are carrying the story that Apple CEO is taking a medical leave of absence until June:

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, in email to employees, said his health issues are more complex than thought and is taking a medical leave until June.

Tim Cook is going to take over the day-to-day running of the company. Apple shares are currently down over 7% as of 22:06 GMT.

At this stage I’m not going to guess what’s wrong with Steve. All I’m going to say is that I truly hope he makes and full recovery from whatever is wrong and my thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. We look forward to seeing him back on stage introducing us to new iPods in September.

Windows 7 First Impression

2009-01-11T18:03:00.001Z

I’ve had Windows 7 installed on my Macbook for a couple of days and my first impression has been very positive. This is an extremely stable OS and on Boot Camp it’s actually running better than the Vista installation I had on before it.

Before I touch on the OS I’m going to make a quick note on installing it. If you own a Mac avoid Parallels. I have a fully upgraded copy which identified Windows 7 and was a breeze to setup. On logging in for the first time however things did not look right. After a quick Live Search I discovered that Parallels does not support Aero and seems to have an outdated video driver. To appreciate Win7 fully you really need to have Aero active. Install it onto Boot Camp and enjoy a great OS.

The first thing you really notice is the new taskbar. Whatever anyone else says this is a fantastic addition. It’s easy to tell the difference between running applications and shortcuts. A quick mouse over a running application and you get a set of thumbnails, not a big deal you might think but mouse over a thumbnail and you get a preview of the window. I don’t want to go back to XP and Vista already. It’s also great to have the System Tray hidden from view.

What about applications since this is a beta? Well so far so good. I’ve the Windows live Essentials suite up and running and will shortly be installing Office 2007. iTunes is possibly one of the biggest surprises. It installs and actually seems to work.

I’ll continue to use Windows 7 and will keep updating you all on it but as far as I’m concerned this really is the OS Vista should’ve been. Great job Microsoft, keep it up.

22Hundred.net Change

2009-01-08T23:09:00.001Z

This is just a quick note to let you all know about a change that has been made to 22hundred.net. Up to now I’ve been doing reviews and posts in this blog. However I want to try to write more reviews in the future. In order to achieve this and make it more accessible I’ve decided to separate out the reviews and place them in a new part of the site. For reviews please check out http://22hundred.net/Reviews and don’t forget to sign up to the atom feed to make sure you never miss a post. The reviews that were on this blog can now be found on the new site.

CES Prediction

2009-01-07T23:30:00.001Z

Well the CES keynote is approaching and after the disappointment of the Macworld keynote we’re hoping that Microsoft can make the most of this opportunity. On the Apple keynote I thought Phil did an excellent job considering the products he was introducing. I would like to see how he would deliver an iPhone level announcement. I suspect tonight’s keynote is going to focus on integration. Hopefully they’re going to show us how Microsoft products fit together and how they fit in with future products such as Windows 7.

1. Windows 7. This has got to play a major role in today’s keynote. Showing the integration with Windows Live, ability to run on Netbooks and finally the availability of the beta to testers.

2. Zune Phone. If this product is ever going to be announced then this has got to be the time to do it. The HTC Touch HD is getting great reviews even though it is running Windows Mobile 6.1 and Macworld had nothing that the media can really get it’s teeth into. This new competitive Windows Mobile to be available in Q2 would be perfect.

3. Live Framework. To keep developers happy we’ll probably see the introduction of Live Framework giving integration with Live services as well as Live Mesh and Azure. We will also hopefully be able to get our hands on the online Office applications. If they are released now for free they’ll wipe the floor with iWork.com.

4. XBox360. Considering the success of this console it would be hard to believe that it won’t make an appearance. Closer integration with the Live services and probably a few new games.

image from microsoft.com

Macworld 2009 Review

2009-01-06T23:04:00.006Z

Well that's it for the Macworld keynote, or the Philnote as this years was called, and it was a bit of a damp squib. Now that's not to say that there wasn't a couple of interesting stories coming out of the keynote.

The first one could be iwork.com. I expected an online office suite from Apple and we got it but they've disappointed us. This is basically Google Docs but they're going to charge us for it. If Microsoft announce the availablility of Office live tomorrow the Apple suite is going to disappear into the mists.

The second interesting announcement was the removal of DRM from iTunes. While this on it's own is long overdue it will be welcomed and with Windows Media Player 12 supporting AAC in Windows 7 this couldn't have come at a better time. It would be a great if this could be extended to those of us who have DRM tracks already but I'm guessing that isn't going to happen.

It was a pity Apple couldn't finish their Macworld run with at least big announcement or the appearance of Steve at least by satellite but it didn't happen and from now on we just wait for the Apple invites to appear before future product releases.

image from Apple.com, is also a link to the keynote video.

The Onion and Apple

2009-01-06T22:46:00.003Z

The Onion posted an excellent parody of Apple over the last couple of days. The video can be found here. A few of the points made in the video are actually a quite accurate. Lines such as:

Apple fan: “I’ll buy anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple.”

“It remains to be seen whether the Macbook Wheel will catch on in the business world, where people use computers for actual work and not just dicking around.”

My personal favorite was:

"...next generation Macbook Wheel which will be 4oz lighter due to it's lack of screen, hard drive or wheel."

Macworld 2009 Predictions

2009-01-05T23:00:00.001Z

Well it’s that time of year again and while this years Macworld has been overshadowed by the news of Steve Jobs health, get well soon Steve, and the revelation that Apple are pulling out of Macworld after this years show it’s still time to make a few predictions. I’ve noticed that no one is highlighting the fact that this years Keynote could see the introduction of a new product. Steve being ill means that his avoidance of Macworld had nothing to do with lack of products.

So in the light of this news lets see what we’re in store for tomorrow.
1. New Mac Mini. Going from the rumors this one appears to be a sure bet. Going to be interesting to see if this evolutionary product will show that Apple are taking an interest in the mini or is this going to be a hobby like Apple TV.

2. New iMacs. Almost certainly will be larger in size with higher specs. I’ll be interested to see if there’s cinema display size iMac. Considering the fact that the Macbooks were redesigned to fit in with the iMac design the new ones will look exactly the same.

3. First Look At Snow Leopard. This is going to be interesting, if the footprint is going to be decreased you have to wonder exactly why. Apple control the computers and don’t really need to support low end machines so Snow Leopard could pack power and not really annoy anyone. Hence number 4.

4. I think we’re going to see either a tablet or Netbook to fit in with a new line of Apple online services. Expect to see the expansion of the MobileMe service. New Netbooks would be due at about the same time as Snow Leopard. Phil can show us Snow Leopard running on low end and beautiful machine and completely ruin Steve Ballmer’s speech on Wednesday at CES.

5. I don’t expect to see any new iPhones but a surprise visit from Steve shouldn’t be out of the question now that we expect him to look thin. In fact the announcement from Steve today would be a great way to ensure that the market doesn’t overreact when he takes to the stage at some point tomorrow. If he does then it will be for the “One more thing...” announcement so he can close out Apple’s final Macworld.

No More Stevenote.

2008-12-20T00:47:00.001Z

Apple announced this week that the keynote at this years Macworld Expo will not be delivered by Steve Jobs. There’s no doubting that this is a disappointment and has killed a lot of interest in the conference but to be honest it is probably one of the most intelligent moves Apple have made in a while.

The media is full of talk of Steve being too ill to deliver the address this year but I don’t believe this for a second. I think there are probably four reasons why Apple are toning down their participation Macworld 2009, their final Macworld. The first reason is pride. You have to remember that large companies such as Adobe have already pulled out of the event. Steve Jobs does not take part in second rate shows and I’m afraid after watching others withdraw that’s probably how it was beginning to look. This years show will probably be pure sales figures and some marketing but not much else.

The second reason is Bill Gates, or more accurately no more Bill Gates. The Jobs keynote always competed with the Bill G keynote at CES for media time and Jobs had to have a certain amount of satisfaction watching Macworld get so much hype. With Gates now gone however Jobs is free to pull out knowing that the competition on that front is over.

The third reason is a possible lack of any major announcements. Since Steve’s last two event’s of 2008 have produced little to no surprises he probably has no intention of walking out on stage and basically delivering a state of the company address to people who have paid a lot of money to hear an, “and finally…”. Steve doesn’t do disappointment.

The forth reason is the most important reason of them all, the element of surprise. With Apple being forced to show new products in the first week of January each year people would begin to start searching for product information in December. Removing these sort of shows from the calendar allow the Cupertino company to deliver products at any time of the year with very little notice. Bringing back the element of surprise will bring back one of the strengths that Apple lost recently.

image from atsuki.net

Anyway you look at it there are plenty of good business reasons for Apple to pull out of Macworld before you look anywhere near Steve’s health.

The new bebo

2008-12-10T23:59:00.001Z

I logged into bebo today and was confronted with a new home page. After playing with the new windows live home page and thinking it was the most complete hub available I have to say bebo surprised me. You see the new bebo allows you to integrate flickr, twitter and a number of mail services including gmail, yahoo mail and aol into one hub. Add to that the news from your friends and the option to add other feeds and you've got a relatively comprehensive system. It does lack windows live integration which is unfortunate.

What I think they need to add however may surprise some people. They need feeds from facebook and my space. You see bebo is really now looking for for switchers and they are going to want as easy a transition as possible. To provide this these people should be able to view their old profile news so they can keep up with their friends who won't move. Add this and bebo has the kind of winner on it's hames that could turn it into a legitimate facebook compeditor.

BlackBerry Storm Improvements

2008-11-25T00:59:00.001Z

There are certainly improvements that need to go into this phone to make it an iPhone killer. There are two that come to mind for me. The first is the OS. There is no doubt that the OS is slow and buggy. I had to remove the battery today to fix a scrolling issue. This needs to be fixed with an update ASAP. It’s easy to do though and I expect to see an update within the next few weeks.

The second is an addition that BlackBerry need to consider. The user should be able to type without having to press the button down. Pressing the button/screen should be for selection only. The ability to type by just touching the screen would sort out the typing speed issues and I would be confident in saying would bring users from other touch screen smartphones over to the Storm. I’s guessing it would also be an easy addition considering the menu navigation is done by light touch. Even putting this as a keyboard option would be great, for each of the keyboards of course. So please RIM implement these two suggestions. I really want to love this phone.

Windows 8 Is A Failure!

2008-11-13T22:08:00.001Z

I understand the desire to get headlines in media land and beating on Microsoft seems to be regarded as easy headlines at the moment but I couldn’t believe that I was seeing reviews of Windows 7 appearing across the net. We’re talking about an Operating System that isn’t even in beta yet. This is the same as reviewing Android based on the first simulator and not the phone itself. To hear negative reviews of Windows 7 at this stage borders on a joke.

In the interest of getting a good headline therefore I’m going to review Windows 8 now. I’m thinking it’s going to be based on the Windows Vista architecture and therefore it’s going to be a total disaster. In fact based on this one thought alone the whole Windows line is probably doomed, Apple will capture the desktop market and Microsoft will be out of business within the next ten years.

Well that should have the anti-Microsoft crowd happy. For everyone else I would tell you to look forward to the upcoming Windows 7 release. The Vista architecture gives stability and security while the Redmond team are obviously listening to users and have massively improved the UI and usability of 7. Microsoft are moving in the right direction and with the Windows Live platform to go along with it I can see Microsoft holding onto it’s crown for many years to come.

UTV TV Ads Are Misleading At Best

2008-10-28T22:45:00.001Z

I was watching TV tonight and the Advert for UTV Broadband came on. Now this is advertising a broadband service. Except it wasn’t. In fact not even close. You see each person in the ad was getting a BSOD, blue screen of death, and one of the promises was for a better computer experience. How can the broadband service possibly offer this? The BSOD is usually caused by something like a badly written driver doing something it isn’t meant to do and therefore crashing the OS. Unless of course every crash is caused by other broadband providers, which is highly unlikely since any BSOD I’ve had comes from nVidia drivers and I don’t have UTV.

It seems to me that the UTV ads are about as believable as the Apple ads and that’s saying something.

Should Microsoft Be Worried About The Linux Netbooks?

2008-10-23T00:30:00.001+01:00

After reading an article in PC Pro about Microsoft’s upcoming doom I had an interesting thought. You see the article talked about Linux being installed on netbooks from Asus and how this would leave Microsoft having to retreat to the corporate world as Linux becomes the major consumer OS. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Microsoft will, most likely, produce a version of Windows 7 that is trimmed down and perfectly suited to the netbook world. There is one company however that should be concerned with the tiny tiny tiny rise of Linux.

Apple have no competitor to the Asus netbooks. They have nothing to offer to Asus in the way Microsoft can offer up Windows XP and their cheapest notebook is $999. In the current economy are people going to choose to buy the Apple laptop that still has the difficulties of switching associated with it in the public consciousness or will they go the the cheaper notebooks offering old reliable, Windows XP. You see Vista may be perceived as unpopular but I’ve yet to hear anyone talk about the fact that these people, in choosing XP, are still handing money to the folks from Redmond. Microsoft will happily maintain their dominant market position even if everyone who buys a new laptop decides to downgrade to XP.

I don’t honestly believe that Linux is going to threaten either Windows or OSX but if it does then it’s the 8% Apple have in the American market that’s going to be under the most threat and when your share is that small any loss can do a lot of damage.

Is it time for Apple to license OSX? Or produce some sort of MultiTouch netbook? What do you think?