you want to start something?

Todays announcement from Microsoft of “Surface” just smacks of the original Mac-Windows competition from more than 20 years ago.

Apple pre-announced the Mac and then there was a hoopla of bluster from Microsoft about their new Windows platform. Which of course didn’t ship for more than a year and was nowhere near as feature complete. But it got people thinking and waiting for the next big thing.

This time round we had some hubbub about Jeff Han’s multitouch user interface and then Apple pre-announces a product with it – the iPhone. To ship mid-June this year, it’s a great deployment of a fascinating technology (I always speculated that computers should have at least two mouse pointers for manipulation). It has similarities to Jeff Han’s interface for picture manipulation but the interaction with the iPod side of the interface and the way it uses gestures for safari is pure gold.

Microsoft, ever the innovator, has cloned Jeff’s interface. And that’s about it. But, aha, you say – they’ve made it horizontal.

MSNBC (a subsidary venture of Microsoft) says in a rather gushing interview:

When you place your wi-fi enabled digital camera on the table, for example, Surface ‘sees’ the camera and does something extraordinary: It pulls your digital pictures and videos out onto the table for you to look at, move, edit or send. Images literally spill out in a pool of color.

I ahve a funny feeling it won’t be as simple as that unless this is a new breed of Windows that doesn’t require drivers at all. And what if you didn’t want your photos to spill out onto the table. What if you just wanted to use it as a table. These demos are all very well but they’re not really related to reality. To my mind it’s a great toy but one that requires infrared sensors placed around the room to enable the table to see your interactions. It’s not just a table. And not really as interesting as the Reactable.

Microsoft did manage to get Popular Mechanics to gush about how revolutionary this coffee table would be.

Gates could hardly contain himself as he left his fingers play along a surface of smooth plastic which displayed rippling water.

It was just like a pool of water…but without the wet, cool effect.

This device will be shipping by 2008 and will cost $5000 – $10000. Or you can get the iPhone in about 14 days (if you’re in the US) or by 4Q07 in Europe.

My prediction: This will be a success of Mira-esque proportions. Simply relegated to replacing the touch screen kiosks we see everywhere….

Tags: Commentary by mj
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Wil Shipley writes a rumour-starter that the iMac is due to be EOL’ed this year. In the interests of getting this started, let’s examine it.

When the Apple Product Matrix was young, it made sense to have an iMac. It fit – showing the product as a friendly consumer-oriented device:
Powerbook
PowerMac
iMac
iBook

Everything else has gone through a rebranding exercise. The PowerMac has become the Mac Pro. The Powerbook, the awkward MacBook Pro. The iBook retired as well in favour of the MacBook. The Mac moniker comes first – it’s a deliberate reinforcement of the Mac brand certainly in areas where it was missing completely (Powerbook, iBook).

So what of the iMac

I think that in a world where Apple has rebranded again, it might be worthwhile wondering where the “Mac” went. We have the MacBook Pro and the MacBook. We have the Mac Pro and then we have the …. Mac mini and iMac.

What I’d like would be for Apple to keep the current lineup and complement the Mac mini with a MacBook mini (something analogous to Sony’s TX-series subnotes) or even the new Metro concept design from Intel.

What Apple will do?

Tags: Commentary, Mac by mj
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Microsoft announced late on Thursday May 24 that it has cancelled the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) that was slated for this October.

I’m having fun thinking this is because Leopard was delayed until October and Microsoft would need a few months to replicate some of the features.

As the last two PDC conferences (2003 and 2005) were all about Longhorn a client-side operating system that never shipped, it’s entirely possible that Microsoft has nothing to talk about.

As Scoble says: this means a couple of things: no new Windows and no major new Internet strategy this year.

Scoble also writes:There still is a ban on .NET code in core parts of Windows. They aren’t getting enough performance yet from .NET. … letting Microsoft’s developers write .NET code for Windows would unleash a bunch of innovation.

??? I don’t think the coding environment is the most important thing for innovation. Having a culture of innovation is much more important. And that’s not been at Microsoft for such a very long time.

He brings up another point: if Microsoft is unwilling to use it to develop Windows or Office, why should the rest of us base our life on it?

This reminds me of the Win32 API fiasco.

and lastly:

Some other things I’m hearing from the Windows team? That they are still planning out the next version of Windows. So, I don’t expect to see a beta until 2008 (probably second half of the year, if we see one at all) and I don’t expect to see a major new version of Windows to ship until 2009.

You’re kidding, right?

They haven’t finished mapping out what it does mid-2007. And you’re saying we won’t see a major new version until maybe 18 months later? I’m tempted to give this one a major DUH! (especially seeing my comments above on the content of the last two PDC shows). Even on the long finger, expecting a major new version of Windows before 2.5 years has passed seems a rather bewildering measure. It took them how long to get Windows Vista out? Considering it was ON TIME…

Still a grumpy bugger today. Orange still on my mind.

Tags: Commentary, infurious by mj
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In an earlier post I whined about Skype and Orange.

Without fanfare, SkypeIn now seems to be working. It’s still a little slow connecting first time and sometimes requires a second connection to get the link up but that’s progress at least.

Now. Orange.

They didn’t get back to me.
They sent me another bill for £174.
That means they lied twice. Firstly in saying they would get back to me, secondly in promising that everything would be fixed in the next bill. Their solution now is that their billing integrity team will work it out by the NEXT bill and I have to cancel my direct debit to them. So there’s a good chance (based on the fact that they’ve been unable to keep any promises so far) that I’ll be cut off when they try to get payment on the 2nd June despite their assurances to the contrary. And apparently giving them a month is not enough for them to have sorted out a problem.

Orange will tell you, when you call them, that they are dedicated to providing great customer service. Absolute rot.

I’ve spent countless minutes on the phone to them and right now I hate them. Passionately. It didn’t help that I had three call drops while on the phone to their customer services people. And I wasn’t moving. It meant explaining the issue in full FOUR TIMES. It brings into sharp relief the OTHER problems I’ve been having with:

• Dropped calls while moving. Every time. Seems the software used to handover calls from tower to tower is simply just shit.
• Poor connectivity in Lisburn. And Mallusk. And East Belfast. Which I presume is pandemic because they couldn’t just be picking on me, eh?
• Fast downloads are impossible as every time it fails over from GPRS to GSM and the data rate is pitiful. This happens everywhere. Centre of Belfast. On a hill with direct LOS to a tower. Everywhere. It’s pathetic.
• The general crappiness of the Sony Ericsson K800i. It’s refusing to charge from the wall charger this week and the joystick seems to take notions on when it’s going to work. And the keylock isn’t reliable enough for keeping the phone on your pocket. Muting the sound means you can’t get keyclick back. And the button for surfing the internet is too close to other important keys so I’m continually connecting to OrangeWorld when I just want to hit the “back” button. I won’t wax on about how clunky the email client is or how poor the battery life is. It’s just a crap phone. And I’m beginning to hate it.

So, what are my options. Looking at the other providers, there are very few compelling deals for the UK and the myth of 3G connectivity is proving to be just that.

I’m being enticed by the thought of the Nokia e65 or n95. A phone with decent WLAN would be nice. But is it worth waiting for the iPhone which will undoubtedly be crippled by our local providers insisting on branding it or will it even have a sniff of 3G coverage.

Until our mobile operators sort this out, we’re forever going to be in a technological backwater. It’s certainly not the kind of result you want if you’re a bedouin worker wanting a a good service from a respectable telecoms provider.

As for Orange. They’ve certainly made me passionate about them since they convinced me on bended knee not to leave them in January. Avoid them like the plague. I stayed on with them and talked about the great tariff I was promised. I was very passionate about it. Now – after months of bad billing and customer services representatives who freely admit they’re only there to TALK to you and not actually to SERVICE you, I’m at the end of my tether.

They’re going to have to pull something out of their ass to change my mind now. Starting with their finger.

Tags: Bedouin, Commentary by mj
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You can have my heart
Though it isn’t new
It’s been used and broken
And only comes in blue
It’s been down a long road
And it got dirty on the way
If I give it to you will you make it clean
And wash the shame away

You can have my heart
If you don’t mind broken things
You can have my life if you don’t mind these tears
Well I heard that you make old things new
So I give these pieces all to you
If you want it you can have my heart

So beyond repair
Nothing I could do
I tried to fix it myself
But it was only worse when I got through
Then you walked into my darkness
And you speak words so sweet
And you hold me like a child
Till my frozen tears fall at your feet

(Best performed by Juliet Turner IMO)

Tags: Commentary by mj
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