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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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@Tripredacus

JFYI, here is the final statement:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2009/dec09/12-16statement.aspx

and this is the actual Commitment (.doc format - in the evident attempt to use NOT a proprietary format ;)):

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/eu-msft/docs/microsoft%20commitments.doc

Besides the "main" commitment related to browser ballot, this one §3, point (19) is IMHO worth a note:

(19) For Windows Vista and successors, Microsoft shall ensure that access and the full functioning of the Windows Update online service (currently available at www.update.microsoft.com) are not dependent on the use of the Internet Explorer user interface.

Of course, on my XP, if I connect to www.update.microsoft.com (with another browser) I get to:

http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/thanks.aspx?ln=en&&thankspage=5

What happens from a Vista and successors? :unsure:

jaclaz

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Of course it is still strangely restricted to an arbitrary "90 days".

I don't see the problem with infinite transfers. License transfers are a pain. Even if it takes only 30 seconds (which it never does), that's enough to make it a pain in the rear so this imaginary scenario of a person paying for one license and effectively using it on tons of devices doesn't exist. And, even if that were the case, per-user licenses make much more sense than per-device. Can you imagine the controversy if Apple tried to charge twice for every song because of them existing on the computer before being transferred to the portable device?

Let's not forget the plan they have, advance the precedents towards full lockdown. These little adjustments are just that, little, and, adjustments.

Even within this structure, people are going to get dialogs that say, in effect, "Sorry but this copy has been activated too many times. Call Microsoft to plead your case, which will result in just one more activation."

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@jaclaz predicted (way back when) that, thanks to the Surface, somebody would come out with something like this:

TouchScreen Cleaner

The secret to our TouchScreen Cleaner's effectiveness is the soft carbon cleaning pad, which works by harnessing the unique, oil-absorbing property of carbon to sponge clean your screen — without messy liquids or sprays! Easily removes fingerprints and smears by absorbing them into the carbon pad, leaving a pristine and crystal-clear surface, so you can watch movies or read articles with complete clarity.

What jaclaz could not have known, is that ALREADY this product is being offered at a 50% discount. :w00t:

--JorgeA

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Veteran Windows observer Woody Leonhard is underwhelmed by the newest version of Office:

Surviving your first hour with Office 2013

Summary:

If youve looked into Office 2013′s improvements, they might have struck you as they did me as largely gratuitous, cumbersome, and designed more to add to Microsofts coffers than to improve Office productivity.

Some lowlights:

Office is, of course, designed with New Windows (the Metro interface) in mind. Start Word or PowerPoint, for example, and youre immediately presented with a Metro-like Start screen containing a list of available templates. (In New Windows, everything seems to start with a Start screen.) Dont be put off just select a new blank document (or presentation or workbook) and carry on. The real surprise comes next: a truly jarring, spaced-out main screen.
Click File/Open and try to find a file located on your computer. Instead of going to the familiar file-open dialog box youve used for the past couple of decades? Office 2013 takes you to a touch-friendly window that reeks of SkyDrive...

Next, make a few changes to your document and try to save it; youll discover that Office 2013 makes it more difficult to save files to your computer. That simple process seems designed to drive you to SkyDrive. Whereas a typical file-save in Old Office (preOffice 2013) might take three or four clicks, a local save might take six or eight clicks in New Office.

(emphasis added)
Dropping Office 2013′s new SHOUTING CAPS look

It defies understanding, but Microsofts interface gurus decided that all Office 2013 menu (er, tab) names looked best in ALL CAPS! perhaps to make New Offices layout more touch-friendly. Or possibly they thought it would give Office a more modern look. If thats the case, why didnt Microsoft add all-cap menus to Windows 8′s File Explorer, or IE 10, or the new Paint?

There's more, and the whole review is worth a read.

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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Keeping in line with the idea that Microsoft knows nothing about marketing, moves like this are a plus if they're made before a negative but after they tend to not be enough. After you slight your audience, you need to give them $1.20 of value at a price of $1.00. Trying to charge people $1.20 for $1.00 of value then later correcting the equation doesn't work, and that's assuming what's been done here, which isn't necessarily the case.

Yup! Once you make the marketing mistake you have to bend over backwards to compensate, not simply correct the original error. Otherwise customers are left with the bitter taste in their mouth.

--JorgeA

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comScore: Microsoft's US smartphone OS share stagnant ( NeoWin 2013-03-06 )

HokVUz4.jpg

As has been said here over and over, how can they gain anything in mobile marketshare? Look at the chart. Microsoft lost marketshare since last October falling from 3.2% to 3.1%. Blackberry was just released and the next Galaxy and iPhone are in the on-deck circle. What was that Plan-A again Ballmer? Destroy Windows to obtain some increased mobile marketshare. Good work!

That's pretty remarkable, considering all the marketing and "buzz" buildup that's gone into pushing the new children's blocks interface.

--JorgeA

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Dropping Office 2013′s new SHOUTING CAPS look

It defies understanding, but Microsoft’s interface gurus decided that all Office 2013 menu (er, tab) names looked best in ALL CAPS! — perhaps to make New Office’s layout more touch-friendly. Or possibly they thought it would give Office a more modern look. If that’s the case, why didn’t Microsoft add all-cap menus to Windows 8′s File Explorer, or IE 10, or the new Paint?

Oww, come on :whistle: , everyone knows how 5/6 years old kids only can read CAPITAL LETTERS and only later learn to read small letters (and only much later longhand/cursive), nothing really difficult to understand.

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE EASIER and perfectly suited for the dumb (or dumbed down) intended audience :yes: .

Of course the third word a kid learns to read ( after MOM and DAD) is obviously HOME and the nice MS guys made a provision to avoid the kids to become lost (from the same cited article):

Fortunately, it’s easy to get rid of the all-caps labels. Right-click any tab name and choose Customize the Ribbon. On the right, select the name you want to change, and then click Rename. Note, however, that if you try to change “HOME” to “Home”, Office will revert back to all caps (HOME). To avoid getting recapped with the default tab names, type a space or an underline or some other character to just slightly change the name. You can, for example, use ” Home” or “Home ” or “-Home-” — or any other name that strikes your fancy.

Humanity is doomed... :(.

jaclaz

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...

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE EASIER and perfectly suited for the dumb (or dumbed down) intended audience :yes: .

...jaclaz

There is sooo much moronic stuff: http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewforum.php?f=1 that list is growing. :D

...I also found a real fitting picture for the shouting caps, http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46 ...that is how Office is yelling at you. *lol* WARNING: The picture can affect your mood.

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There is sooo much moronic stuff: http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewforum.php?f=1 that list is growing. :D

...I also found a real fitting picture for the shouting caps, http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46 ...that is how Office is yelling at you. *lol* WARNING: The picture can affect your mood.

Ugh, that picture WAS disturbing! :ph34r:

This is one of my favorite items: http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=43. It's as if somebody took the Office design templates and left them out in the sun for a month -- all washed out. Try looking at that on your screen for 8 hours a day. What were they thinking?? ...Oh yeah, they forgot the thinking part.

You are doing fantastic work over there, BTW -- very visual, gets the point across directly. :thumbup

--JorgeA

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Oww, come on :whistle: , everyone knows how 5/6 years old kids only can read CAPITAL LETTERS and only later learn to read small letters (and only much later longhand/cursive), nothing really difficult to understand.

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE EASIER and perfectly suited for the dumb (or dumbed down) intended audience :yes: .

LOL

WHAT I HAVE YET TO FIGURE OUT, IS WHETHER THEY'RE DOING THIS BECAUSE THEY THINK WE ARE CRETINS SIMPLETONS, OR BECAUSE THEY'RE TRYING TO HELP TURN US INTO SIMPLETONS. :unsure:

--JORGEA

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Nokia supports Apple in Samsung product sales ban effort ( TechSpot 2013-03-07 )

Nokia and Apple team up against Samsung ( NeoWin 2013-03-07 )

Keith Broyles, one of Nokia’s attorneys, believes U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh from San Jose, California, made an error when she ruled that Apple must show cause and effect with regards to alleged patent violations and demand for the iPhone.

He believes that such a ruling could cause widespread damage to the patent protection landscape. If left unchanged, Broyles believes the ruling could severely restrict or in some cases outright eliminate the ability of a patent holder to obtain injunction relief.

They're sure making it really easy now to pick favorites in this conflict now. Microsoft-Nokia-Apple vs Samsung-Google. Hmmm, let me think. Microsoft-Nokia-Apple want to make it easy for judges to completely ban products, and remove their competition! Yeah right.

It's really obvious that the long-running Microsoft and Apple duopoly is under serious attack now, especially their patented strategy of simply knocking all competition off the playing field and having the market all to themselves for a period of time, and then exploiting it like locusts until some competition manages to get some traction. That is Microsoft and Apple's only business model, add any deviation to the norm and all he!! breaks loose. That is why Apple is in court trying to ban Samsung phones from even appearing on the USA store shelves ( and thankfully losing almost everywhere ), and it is why Microsoft is operating so erratically. They have never had any real competition to deal with and it leads to crazy ideas like destroying Windows in order to gain some meaningless mobile marketshare.

So WTF is Nokia sticking their nose into this case for? Obviously they believe if the competition is removed from the game everyone will flock to their wonderful WP8 with its Playskool colorful blocks interface. Or maybe not ...

Nokia will end up owing $650 million to Microsoft ( NeoWin 2013-03-07 )

According to this deal, Nokia uses Windows Phone on their smartphones and receives money from Microsoft every quarter in the form of "platform support payments." At the same time, Nokia pays Microsoft some licensing fees for its mobile OS.

This is the deal that was set up between Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, and Microsoft back in 2011. But according to a financial report filed by Nokia, in the end, the Finnish company will end up paying an extra $650 million. That takes into consideration all the money the company receives from Microsoft which amounts to approximately $250 million every quarter.

This has to be one of the most entangled partnerships ever. And those numbers, if true, are frightening if you are the accountant. Remember what they did. They literally threw out their in-house phone operating systems and have almost now switched over entirely to Windows Phone ( it is also interesting to imagine if Nokia had simply gone Android. Who would even be selling WP today? ). So Nokia literally bet the company on Microsoft. It is unimaginable how Nokia can keep its books straight. It is hard to see them pulling through if you recall some of the recent stories in just the past six months ( Post #1870 ) ...

I made this graphic a while back and was saving it in case Nokia filed chapter 11, but this seems like a perfect chance to use it ...

VCDnUZU.jpg

EDIT: forgot to mention that this is what the original photo looked like ...

godfather-ring-kiss-570x353.jpg

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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I know someone who has one of those. He reckons it is remarkably good considering.

Not sure how many will pitch in that low, but I can't fathom why MS didn't try and get a decent presence in the $200--300 range.

Perhaps it wouldn't make much difference. The buyers don't seem to have an interest in win 8 - almost irrespective of price.

.

Independently of how one might feel about this particular device or about tablets in general, it's hard to imagine how the Surface (Pro or RT) could possibly hope to compete with a $65 tablet.

post-287775-0-62495700-1362765497_thumb.

--JorgeA

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