Apple and Microsoft’s dispute over Apple’s efforts to trademark the term app store continues to get more absurd. Microsoft is of course challenging the trademark on the grounds that the phrase app store is merely a generic designation. In one of its filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Apple argued that generic terms can [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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The most recent episode of Parks and Recreation: “Camping” included a not so subliminal Microsoft pitch. Just to make sure you get it, they included sticky notes almost exactly in the logo color pattern. If only it helped our Leslie Knope come up with a killer idea. In the real world you can’t buy a [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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It’s an interesting and counter-intuitive strategy. Reference a popular product that your company simply can’t compete with and question the staying power of said product. It’s an easy strategy, no doubt, and is a heck of a lot easier than actually delivering a compelling product yourself. And that’s apparently the mindset over in Redmond these [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, March 15, 2011
It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when Microsoft events were huge mainstream affairs. Nowhere was this more apparent than with the momentous launch of Windows 95 which featured the involvement of Jay Leno and the licensing of the famous Rolling Stones song Start Me Up. While Windows 95 was a yawner for [...]
Continue reading...Monday, March 14, 2011
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After years of trying to carve out a niche in the MP3 player market, Microsoft is killing its Zune media player after the device failed to gain any mainstream traction. Of course, it didn’t help that Microsoft came along years after the market was already monopolized by Apple.
Continue reading...Friday, March 11, 2011
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Microsoft recently struck a deal whereby travel results on Bing will be powered by KAYAK, a niche travel-centric search engine that helps users find attractive deals for flights, hotels, cruises, and rental cars by scouring the net and finding the best possible deals from an assortment of sites. It’s a useful travel booking search aggregate, [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, March 10, 2011
To date, Apple has sold over 14.8 million iPads, a staggering figure that makes Apple’s tablet device one of the fastest selling consumer electronic devices of all time. By way of comparison, the iPhone moved 6.1 million units in the first 12 months after its initial release while the Sony PSP moved 14.5 million units.
Continue reading...Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Yahoo reports that Microsoft is working hard on its efforts to port Windows to ARM chips so that it can deliver a tablet OS with decent battery life and a new UI, hopefully by June. But with developers still not in the mix with respect to app development, the report notes Microsoft most likely won’t [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, March 1, 2011
It’s no secret that Microsoft is desperately trying to become a third player in what has clearly become a two-man race between Apple and Google. With the release of Windows Phone 7 and a huge advertising campaign, coupled of course with Redmond’s recent deal with Nokia, Microsoft is pulling out all the stops. But it [...]
Continue reading...Monday, February 28, 2011
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Windows development manager Richard G Russel has an extremely interesting post up detailing what its like being a coder at Microsoft on a day to day basis. I quite often see assumptions on the inter-tubes that writing software at Microsoft is a mind-numbingly boring, tedious, manual, excruciating, soul-crushing bureaucratic exercise. This couldn’t be further from [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 22, 2011
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Here’s what Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra thinks about Nokia’s decision to hitch its wagon to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS. Two turkeys do not make an Eagle. Nice.
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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With former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop in place as Nokia CEO and former Microsoft veteran Chris Weber recently christened as the President of Nokia US, Matt Drance hits the nail on the head. I have absolutely no qualms about calling this new regime at Nokia a puppet government. This is far and away the most [...]
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
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